favored souls
Krogresli by Eron12 with Hero Forge
Divine spell-casters or theurgists are all either anointed or favored souls. Favored souls are born with divine magic powers and anointed gain their magic later in life.
Most favored souls are marked by their deity at the moment of conception or while in the womb. A small number of favored souls are infused with divine power as children. Some favored souls are the children of couplings between mortals and spirits or they are the legacies of such half-spirit/half mortals.
Favored Souls are slightly more likely to be born in their deity's Zodiac month than outside it. Favored souls are generally much more likely to be born inside their deity's Zodiac year than outside it.
Some parents will go through great efforts to have children born in certain Zodiac years or they will take efforts to avoid having their children born during certain Zodiac years. Zarthus is especially famous or infamous for "gifting" favored souls to parents who do not like him during his Zodiac years.
Brigid's second portrait by Eron12 with Hero Forge
Rebellious Favored Souls
Unlike anointed, favored souls may never become excommunicated. Most favored souls are paragons of their deity's values, so being excommunicated isn't really something that seems possible. Many Scarterrans, many favored souls even, believe that favored souls do not truly have free will and that a favored soul can never stray from their deity's path. Even if it doesn't look like a favored soul is following their deity's wishes, their actions will advance their patron's goals in the long run, at least that's what many storytellers and sages say. This is actually false. A favored soul can turn away from any or all of their divine patron's teachings for any or no reason at all and the Nine are unable to do anything about this other than to send a spirits to talk to the erring favored soul or even try to kill them, but the Nine cannot remove the powers from a favored soul that displeases them and very few of them want to go as far as to destroy their wayward children. This is not widely known because very few favored souls want to rebel against their patron.Symptoms
Favored souls cast their magic the exact same way that anointed, so in most cases you cannot tell a favored souls and anointed apart unless they tell you what they are.
If it were not for the fact that messenger spirits usually approach young favored souls and often mentor them, it is easily possible that favored souls wouldn't even know and understand what they are.
Many favored souls have unique apperances or special abilities, but it is also possible for anointed or non-theurgists to develop these traits as well. There are plenty of favored souls that look perfectly ordinary.
About half of all favored souls are so-called "living holy symbols" meaning they can cast their theurgy without using a physical holy symbol and fewer than ten percent of the anointed are living holy symbols because because both groups can have nor not have this trait, it's not a clear giveaway.
Prognosis
Anointed and favored souls are generally hard to distinguish from each other by their appearance or ther spell-casting.
They are often distinguishable by their actions. On average, favored souls wield more powerful theurgy than anointed are, but this is because almost every favored souls ends up walking the Dragons' Path to some degree whereas only some anointed choose this path. Arguably, favored souls do not have a choice and are forced to walk this path.
Affected Groups
In theory, any mortal Scarterran race can produce favored souls of any deity. In practice, favored souls are usually born into families or cultures with a clear connection to their patron deity or their deity's core values.
With a few noteable exceptions, most favored souls are born to families and cultures that strongly embody the values of their patron deity in a clear and obvious manner. That said, favored souls are disproportionately likely to be born into families and geographically locations that are outside the purview of their (often anointed-dominated) temples and priesthoods.
Some old wives' tales say that goddesses are more likely to have female favored souls and gods are more likely to have male favored souls, but this is not the case. Every deity has a 50/50 mix of male and female favored souls. Some believe that while the Nine decide who or who isn't a favored soul, they cannot decide if they are going to have a spiritual son or spiritual daughter.
by me with Midjourney
So one could say that statistically speaking, the most likely people to have favored souls children are couples that embody the values of a deity very strongly while having no or very low contact with their beloved deity's priesthood. This often means that favored souls are more commonly born to nomadic peoples than to civilized peoples.
Favored Souls by Deity
Maylar, Zarthus, and Greymoria tend to have lots of favored souls. Hallisan and Khemra have very few favored souls. Phidas has zero favored souls. Nami, Mera, and Korus tend to fall in between the two extremes with modest number of favored souls compared to the others.Cultural Reception
Sometimes favored souls are given special treatment relative to anointed and sometimes they are not.
On an individual level, Sometimes favored souls are honored because they are born with the favor of one of the Nine and other times they are derided because they didn't "earn" their powers like anointed presumably did.
Symbol of the Nine by Pendrake
Phidas is the only one of the Nine that does not have any favored souls at all. Officially, Phidas' Masks claim that Phidas does not need or want favored souls. Some of Phidas' detractors say that Phidas' can't make favored souls. There are legends and speculation that Phidas will create a favored soul some day in the future and this future person will have a very powerful destiny for well or ill. Among the Masks, they call this person "The Blessed One", which some consider a natural evolution of thier faith and others view as a heretical notion that needs to be squashed.
For his part, Phidas has not said anything to his followers via oracles or messenger spirits about his lack of favored souls.
Type
Divine
Parent
Origin
Divine
Cycle
Chronic, Congenital
Rarity
Rare
Affected Species
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