In the deepest pit he sits, and all the pits are his. He has no face, yet he sees. He has no hands, yet he holds. He has no heart, yet he hungers.
Book of Trials — The Yurie Scropa
Yu Zodo, the Soul of Zodo, is the dark being at the core of the once-complex god: Zodo himself, distilled. Of all the aspects, he is the most dangerous and the most evil. He was sealed in Xodod (xodian for "spiritual death"), a prison El Anon built to contain him with the aid of Zodo's own son, Xeno. The prison held, but it did not tame him. The Soul of Zodo conquered his prison from within, and now rules it.
Characteristics
The Soul carries everything that made Zodo malevolent: his greed, his pride, his envy, and his certainty that he alone deserves to be god. Stripped of the other aspects that once tempered him, these are all that remain. He has one ultimate desire: to be free of Xodod, to reunite with the rest of himself, and to destroy El Anon and all who follow him. Every soul he claims, every demon he empowers, and every door he watches serves that end.
Beneath that desire lies a hunger that has no end. The Soul wishes to see all, to know all, and to control all. What he cannot yet reach, he watches.
Whether the Soul drove the Life of Zodo out of the god long ago, as some theologians believe, is still debated. What is not debated is that the Soul was itself cast out and sealed away, and that he has never forgiven it.
Personification
Zodo's physical form was ripped from him long ago and cast into the pits of Xodod. What sits there now has no form at all. The few accounts that exist describe the Soul of Zodo as a formless darkness seated upon a throne built from tortured souls, crowned with a halo of souls that circles him endlessly. They are the claimed, who are never permitted to rest.
Above the realm drifts the Eye of Zodo: a vast, distended eye that wanders the skies of Xodod, and through which the Soul sees everything that happens in his domain. Nothing in Xodod escapes its gaze for long.1
Xodod
Xodod was made to be a prison, but under the Soul it has become a kingdom. It is a realm of countless pits, and each pit is a hell of its own. The Soul rules over all of it, and beneath him govern the three high demon princes of Xodod: Prince Ammon, Prince Belthazar, and Kamele, brother of Spector, who governs the Soul's own principality in his name. One son of Zodo helped seal the Soul away. The other betrayed that plan, and now rules at his side. For a fuller account of the realm, its principalities, and its hells, see Xodod. (Page to come.)
Powers
The Soul of Zodo's power lies in the souls he claims. He takes his fury out upon them, and he uses them as fuel. Claimed souls empower his demons and servants, build his throne, and form his crown. The more souls Xodod holds, the stronger he and his servants grow. This is why the ability to free souls from Xodod matters so much, and why so few have it. Kymara alone is known to release souls from the Soul's grasp. She is said to call them out through a door that only she can open. It is no surprise that the Soul of Zodo hates her above almost all others.
The Soul's hold on the dead raises troubling questions for the living. Yu'Mara can call back the long dead, but she cannot free souls from Xodod. Those she returns may come back without whatever the Soul has already taken.
Followers
The Soul of Zodo's truest servants are the demons of Xodod, who owe their power to the souls he feeds them. Among the living, few would admit to worshiping the Soul, and fewer still would survive the admission for long. Worship of the Soul of Zodo has never taken root, even among the followers of Zodo or the Church of the Holy Body. Fringe groups calling themselves the Temple of Yu Zodo2 are said to have existed, but they never truly worshiped any part of Zodo. They chose the name only for its power to unsettle.
- 1. Whether the Eye can see beyond Xodod is a question few scholars wish to consider. Some who have carried the pearl called "the Eye of Zodo," set in the pommel of Haen Ruithael, have claimed that on certain nights, something looked back.
- 2. Not to be confused with the Temple of Zodo, whose temples each worship a single aspect of Zodo, most often Yu Yuri. None are said to worship Yu Zodo.
