Jamminrabbit

I don't mean to put this here. It was meant for the glossary, but for some reason it just wouldn't work. I'd hit submit and it wouldn't show up. So I gave up and uploaded it as a chapter. This is me apologizing in case I got some of your hopes up of a double release.  Sorry! It's just suppose to be an informational lore piece. Thank you everyone!

If you find this interesting, let me know in the comments. If you were a witch in this world, what would you like your familiar imbued with? Are you a masochist who chooses Pride or chad witch like Mira who's got Envy?

Soul Stones

Soul stones are identified by their deep purple color and cloudy surface that appear to encapsulate a storm itself.

The quality of a stone is determined by how long it has been accumulating souls-turned pure mana. Research conducted by the Witch's Academy's Elder Board has found that they are similar to magic crystals in that both carry mana.

However, unlike magic crystals, soul stones cannot be extracted from and have no maximum capacity and are thus believed to continue accumulating indefinitely. 

*It is unknown where the mana goes. Scholars observed the mana capacity of a familiar first summoned does not equate to the mana capacity the soul stone had stored.

 

One of the earliest theories believed that greater accumulated mana leads to stronger familiars. This has since been rejected.

There is currently no way to determine exactly what cardinal sin lies in a given stone. Few promising theories have emerged in modern years, but little evidence renders them nothing more scholarly guesses.

Soul stones are vital to a witch's induction into the Academy's covenant, where they must summon and bind the soul into an animal's corpse. Doing so forges a bond between the witch and her familiar.

The Seven Deadly Sins

The Witch's Academy devised names and categorized the souls by order of their strength.

Greater Souls

Pride - The Prideful Soul.

The uncontested soul capable of bringing about the end of the world. A familiar possessing this soul can drain the life of anything it comes in contact with. 

Interactions between a witch and a familiar imbued with this soul is unknown. There are no documented witches with such familiars. 

Pride has since been outlawed by the Council of Kings following the end of the Crimson Wars that led to the persecution of witchcraft. Any familiar imbued with the prideful soul during the summoning is to be destroyed immediately.

Wrath - The Wrathful Soul

Torn between thousands of souls, wrath will always attempt to claw its way into existence. It's volatile summoning requires the presence of no less than three instructors to subdue the initial frenzy.

A familiar imbued with this soul can magnify the spells cast by their bonded witch by nearly five folds.

Envy - The Envious Soul

Perhaps the most unassuming soul, envy can mimic the spells of its bonded witch.

Familiars draw power from their bonded witch, yet the envious soul is an empty husk. It stands to reason that a being without a pool of mana cannot cast spells. Yet these familiars act as a mirror copy of a witch's spell casting, seemingly drawing mana from its surroundings.

While there is little concrete evidence, it is believed the magical potency of the envious soul is measured in reflection of its bonded witch's envy. If this is true, the envious soul may vie side by side with the wrathful soul in strength.

Lesser Souls

Lust - The Lustful Soul

None are as discerning as the lustful soul given its ability to identify any spells and sniff out magical signatures.

Witches with these familiars are often relegated to a kingdom's royal guard, protecting its monarch from detectable dangers.

Sloth - The Slothful Soul

No soul has received as much unneeded scholarly attention as the sloth. Whether or not these souls belong at the bottom of the hierarchy is met with great contention and has, to this day, split the witch's community down the middle.

Familiars imbued with this soul can store a single spell within its body to be cast with ten times the intensity.

Few witches regard the sloth as anything more than a duelist's familiar. Fewer still who have mastered the slothful soul need only a single spell anyway.

Greed - The Avaricious Soul

Witches in possession of these familiars often use them as a trump card to be played last and in a pinch. 

Though they cannot house magic within their bodies, the surface of their familiar's skin is laden with mana lines, reinforcing it in a defensive layer as dense as diamonds.

It draws its strength inversely proportional to the bonded witch's stamina. The weaker the witch becomes, the greater its physical capacity is.

Gluttony - The Gluttonous Soul

Gluttony is an infantile soul that grows by consuming unique mana signatures. Though the absorption rate is immeasurably low, successful consumption allows the familiar to adopt it's preys' characteristics.

While the weakest soul has the greatest potential to match the strength of a greater soul, it is often found destroyed by bonded witches' impatient attempts to induce rapid growth.