Souls

Souls are an major aspect of Kubera. Their mechanisms and power differ based on race. The reason for disparities in the power of souls is unclear, but it may have to do with the power of the individual's name.

The natural gods, or astikas, are defined as those who are weak, but can resurrect themselves an infinite number of times. According to Agni, the body and soul of the gods cannot be separated. Their name, memory, power, and others all form a single concept.

Humans carry their memories within their body. Therefore if the soul of a human should get swapped for another, there should be no perceivable changes and even the gods cannot reach an agreement as to whether they are the same person. It is unknown whether this is the case for suras.

The nuances of souls are explained below in greater detail.

Sins

Sins heavily affect the souls of humans, suras and gods alike. A sin is an evil deed that someone commits. What defines a sin is defined by the gods, and can include things ranging from blasphemy to murder. There are also sins of indifference given to people who had the power to stop evil but did not do so.

An individual inflicted with great sins can suffer many consequences. Sins can cause bad luck to follow a person and ruin their life. They may become sick or even die from the weight of their sins. However, there are loopholes to avoid carrying this responsibility. Sins can be transferred to others if they are willing to accept them. Certain items can also alleviate the burden of sins, such as the Sword of Return.

Afterlife

Humans are known to have an afterlife, and they are judged by the gods after death. There is both a normal afterlife and Hell, were sinners go. Time flows differently in each location; in the normal afterlife it flows slower, but in Hell it flows quickly. What would be only a moment for living humans can be a very long time for those who are suffering in Hell. It is unclear if half-bloods share the human afterlife, because Agwen Rajof makes a prayer to the gods to view a murdered half as a human and take him.

In the finite, it was stated that suras cease to exist after death along with the power of their names, thus preventing them from reincarnating. Most suras believe that this is the case. However, in the webtoon, Sagara claims that nastikas go to a special afterlife after death, where they are isolated from other beings, and that the 5th-zen gods have kept this information hidden. Agni, however, warns that it is not an afterlife but a separate dimension where a nastika's soul is ripped away from its name; any nastika that is reincarnated will have power, but no mind. Only the souls of young suras are not judged. However, they too have no afterlife. Instead, when they die, they are left to wander the universe until they eventually become one with nature.

For the purpose of punishment or communication during judgment, souls are given a temporary body that can perceive, sense, and feel. There are different types of preta to meet different different purposes.

A type of preta that feels its punishment

Souls leaving their pretas

A type of preta that is used while being judged

Reincarnation

Reincarnation refers to when an individual's soul returns in a new body.

The ancient human race was noted for their ability to consistently reincarnate as humans after death. The natural gods were responsible for the reincarnation process. They would hold rituals where they would remember their previous lives and learn from them. However, some ancient humans would remember their past lives before they came of age, and it would lead to corruption of the soul. Corrupted ancient humans were killed and reincarnated into plants and other life forms.

The souls of present humans also reincarnate after death, but they do not hold memories of their previous lives.The souls of suras are not known to reincarnate, though there are exceptions.

Resurrection

Resurrection refers to when a soul is used to revive a deceased individual who died before their set time.

Natural gods can resurrect themselves an infinite number of times after death. Following the Cataclysm, gods return back to the god realm after resurrection until they are summoned by a human.

Suras can be resurrected if given a powerful enough soul. However, in most cases, resurrection cannot be possible due to them having no set lifespan.

Humans can also be resurrected from the dead. The most common method of this is hoti asvins, a minor healing spell. However, hoti asvins has its limits, and cannot heal all wounds. A more sound method of resurrection is hoti visnu.

Hoti Visnu

Hoti visnu is a time turning spell that brings people back to life. In the past, the soul of a dead human would linger around in the human realm, waiting for their name to be crossed out by the gods of death in the Underworld. Due to this, it was possible to resurrect a person using hoti visnu magic while preserving the original soul. However, roughly 1000 years ago, the rules of the soul system got changed due to fear of a certain nastika destroying the bodiless souls lingering around. From then on, the soul of a dead person immediately departs to the Underworld and waits out the time until it gets processed in that realm.

When human gets resurrected using hoti visnu, they do not receive their original souls. They can either recieve the soul of a living human, or the soul of something dead that is not human. Thus, the resurrected humans usually have souls of dead suras. The idea of harboring a foreign soul is a topic of great concern among humans, as it can be debated that resurrected people are not the same as they were before. This led of many people becoming uneasy about the use of hoti visnu, and was a big reason behind the creation of the DNR list.

Hoti visnu magic became impossible to use after the disappearance of Visnu. Asha Rahiro is the only known user of this magic.

Do Not Resurrect list

The Do Not Resurrect (DNR) list is a tool offered by the priests of the Temple of Death. People who sign the DNR list agree to no longer be resurrected by hoti visnu. It is unknown whether the list itself is magical, or whether the restriction is enforced by some other means. When the person dies, their name disappears from the list after some time.

A person who had already been resurrected once can sign the DNR list again. Putting their name on the list signifies that they do not want to live the life of someone else and they want their previous life to take responsibility. This method makes it possible to gain back the original soul, although it means the loss of memories that were gained while the new soul was operating the body. Many see this method as blasphemy and rebellion against Visnu, though others believe that it is a way of restoring the natural order of things.

Since the disappearance of hoti visnu magic, and the amount of people placing their names on the DNR list have greatly decreased.Teo Rakan and Saha On are both known to have used the DNR list.

Notable Cases of Resurrection

• When Teo Rakan was killed and revived by hoti visnu, she recieved Menaka's soul. When Teo was killed again, she retrieved her original soul as a result of signing the DNR list after being revived.
• Airi Yui was also once resurrected using hoti visnu.
• When Maruna died in childhood, the goddess Ushas used her soul's power to revive him, taking on a weaker form for the rest of his lifespan. He had to use a different name than his original one, though he kept his original soul.
• Sagara is currently attempting to resurrect Ananta using a powerful soul. Candidates include Kubera, Leny, and Ran Sairofe's children. Menaka was originally considered a candidate for Ananta's resurrection due to her powerful soul, but it was too weighed down by sin in the end.

Notes

• Yama is not on good terms with Visnu and the controversion around hoti visnu has been said to be one of the reasons.
• Gandharva has successfully managed to avoid the weight of his sins as a result of Menaka's deal with Kali.
• Ananta's soul carried an immense amount of sins of indifference. It is argued that he was given such a powerful soul for that purpose.
• Maruna is the only known sura in the story to have been resurrected.