Tribuo Animus

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

The Tribuo Animus (Latin translation: Divided Soul), is an artifact of ancient Circle of Thorns history. Tied with dark powers, it has the potential to rip a soul from a body. Its long and tragic history is so perplex and full of holes that even Azuria of the Atlas MAGI office could not uncover all of its secrets, only that it was used in ritual sacrifices. The Thorns began using the Animus to split host bodies from their souls, giving them both a pristine soul and a body to use for sacrifices or possessions, whatever suited their needs.

After having been lost for decades, the half-demon Xaryah gave this gem to the villain Bludgeon in an attempt to bring ruin to Bludgeon's son Christian James, then known as Edenfire, thus in turn helping her own cause of eliminating her half-sister Xaeda. Edenfire and Blugeon engaged in a lengthy battle in Siren's Call, with the latter extending it as a gift to the former. Though initially rebuking it, the two resumed their battle, with Chris only barely surviving, Bludgeon seemingly killed after Chris expelled all the energy inside him into a single blast. Sensing its dark energies through the energies of the souls he had unwittingly allow posses him, Chris attempted to take it for safekeeping, but when he touched it his body was set aflame in dark fire and when it dissipated, he was left exhausted, barely managing to make it to the safeharbor of the nearby hospital, where he slept for days. In time, Xaryah would track down a hollow being she would come to know as Chris' soul, whom called himself Xeden (ex-Eden).

Fating the two of them to fight for supremacy, Chris and Xeden battled to a draw, neither yet strong enough to finish the other, as Xaryah watched and noted. They, despite being created from the same mold, were very different; Xeden was born of the pure anger and disdain Christian felt while fighting his father to the bitter end; Xeden battled with energy blades instead of energy blasts, being that when Chris touched the gem to create Xeden, he had used all his energy to finish the battle, leaving near none for Xeden's creation to syphon from him. Learnt from this was that the gem could replicate a person into a corporeal being, though it's abilities were highy dependant upon the state of the person it was created from at the time it was created.

The Lingering Sentiment

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