In the Coffin of Souls, death is only temporary. The world is made of metal and filled with flesh. Scholars in the Living Library attest that within the Coffin are only 1,111,111 souls, no more and no less.
At the heart of the world are the four wombs, guarded by the sharp metal
Angels of Phant. Everyone is born from these wombs fully formed and ushered out into
the world, or if born imperfectly recycled mercifully back into the
wombs. Wherever they may go after being birthed, whatever sights they
may see, when they die they are born again from the wombs.
Some people claim to remember how this all came to be, but after many deaths memories can get befuddled and mixed up until they look as far back as they can and can only remember the Coffin of Souls. Rarely, people are reborn with great chunks of their most recent life missing- which can be a blessing for some. It is not uncommon for people to seek the services of a warlock and have their memories erased.
The Body Is A Vessel
The body is a container shaped of flesh and filled with a soul. With each new body, a unique birthmark is always carried over- even if you don't remember your past that does not mean others will not recognize you. Each body is born with something different, changed. All flesh recognizes other flesh. Limbs can be swapped or reattached, bone plates reinforced, venomous tails attached, organs swallowed and integrated neatly: it's just a matter of how much the soul can handle. Too much flesh corrupts.
Whenever you are reborn, roll below to see what mutation your body carries.
| d100 | Mutation |
| 1 | Beast jaws for an arm |
| 2 | Chameleon skin |
| 3 | Tentacular hair |
| 4 | Reverse joint legs |
| 5 | Gills |
| 6 | Removable eye-growth that continues to function off the body for 10 minutes |
| 7 | Vicious claws |
| 8 | Sticky digits, allows sticking to walls |
| 9 | Memorizer, can imprint something you've seen onto skin (yours or others) |
| 10 | Spine javelins, bone spears that regrow over time |
| 11 | Monkey's tail |
| 12 | Clay fingers, can shape your fingers into any shape |
| 13 | Split arms, can separate each of your arms into two arms |
| 14 | Bone plates cover your body |
| 15 | Venomous bite |
| 16 | Paralytic skin secretions |
| 17 | Unicorn horn |
| 18 | Two eyes in the back of your head |
| 19 | Enhanced homeostatic organ, never affected by temperature when not starving |
| 20 | Feathers, dealer's choice in colors |
| 21 | Vanta black skin, invisible in dark areas but light burns |
| 22 | Brainworm, you can spit a worm into someone's ear that will temporarily control their body |
| 23 | Coagulant saliva, your saliva can rapidly close wounds |
| 24 | Slug eyes, your eyes can extend out of your skull on slug-like stalks |
| 25 | Bone Jaw, your jaw is made of thick bone and reinforced muscle that allow powerful bites |
| 26 | Vulture Stomach, you can eat rotten, poisonous, or uncooked food with no issues |
| 27 | Inner Compass, you always know which direction the center of the world is |
| 28 | Ink Spit, you can spit a sticky black ink |
| 29 | Translucent Skin |
| 30 | Mesmer Eyes, your swirling eyes can stop one person making eye contact in their tracks |
| 31 | Mimic Chords, you can mimic any sound that you have heard before |
| 32 | Viscous, you can become a puddle of flesh with great effort |
| 33 | Acid blood, your blood burns attackers |
| 34 | Tentacle arms |
| 35 | Petrification, you can turn your body to stone for up to an hour |
| 36 | Knife arm, one of your arms ends in a sharp bone knife instead of a hand |
| 37 | Bloodwine, your blood is naturally alcholic |
| 38 | Heat Exchanger, by touching two objects you can transfer heat from one into another |
| 39 | Eye Lights, your eyes can act as flashlights |
| 40 | Hound Nose, you have an exceptional sense of smell and can track based on scent |
| 41 | You can change your sex at will |
| 42 | Scorpion Tail |
| 43 | Size regulator, with effort you can shrink down to 3 feet tall |
| 44 | Wings |
| 45 | Thumb Lighter, you can create a small flame from your thumb |
| 46 | Flesh bombs, apple sized explosive growths on your back |
| 47 | Sharp beak |
| 48 | Clawed avian feet |
| 49 | Bone Grow, your bones can regrow at an unnaturally fast pace |
| 50 | Stomach Rat, a rat companion lives in your stomach. You can see through their eyes but they can only leave your stomach for an hour at a time |
| 51 | Banshee Wail, once per day you can emit a stunning sonic screech |
| 52 | Chainsaw Limb, one of your limbs can become a bone chainsaw |
| 53 | Changeling, you can change your body over time to resemble anyone that you have seen |
| 54 | Insulated, you do not conduct electricity |
| 55 | Deer horns |
| 56 | Quadupedal, like a wolf or dog |
| 57 | Rib Trap, your chest cavity is a mouth and you can extend your ribs out and snap them shut |
| 58 | Stench, the smell of your sweat is nauseating |
| 59 | Hammer Fist, you can morph one of your hands into a bone hammer |
| 60 | Sticky, you can stick things to your skin where they harden in place |
| 61 | Inverted, you have a thick bone exoskeleton |
| 62 | Fins, you have fins that extend in water |
| 63 | Smoke chamber, you can fill a room with obfuscating smoke |
| 64 | Spinal Cannon, your spine can extend and fire objects. Requires stabilization and ammunition |
| 65 | Plagued, you can absorb a disease from someone else and safely incubate it in your own body |
| 66 | Mood lamp, your skin is faintly bioluminescent and glows different colors with your mood |
| 67 | Snake tail, your legs are replaced with a fleshy snake body |
| 68 | Scales |
| 69 | Inflammable, your body cannot catch fire |
| 70 | Scissor Arms, you can combine your arms into a pair of sharp, large bone scissors |
| 71 | Hibernation, when near death or at will you can put your body into a hibernation state for up to 10 years |
| 72 | Teeth, you grow teeth from all over your body |
| 73 | Chlorophyllic, you are tinged green and must be exposed to light for at least six hours a day |
| 74 | Camel back, large sacks in your back can be filled with liquid |
| 75 | Tracker, you always know the direction of one person you've touched before |
| 76 | Internal Dowsing Rod, you always know the direction to the nearest body of water |
| 77 | Harp Strings, thin fleshy tendrils lead from your body to your arm and can be played like a harp |
| 78 | Thunder Fang, your bite carries an electric shock |
| 79 | Bonesense, you can sense bones within a 60 foot radius |
| 80 | Mind Meld, with time you can share your memories with another, or view theirs |
| 81 | Sentry, you sleep with your eyes open and wake up when your eyes see movement |
| 82 | Slippery, your body is covered in grotesque tear ducts that can make you slippery at will |
| 83 | Reach, you can extend a limb up to two feet past its normal length |
| 84 | Blood Leech, you can heal wounds by leeching blood |
| 85 | Crab arm, one of your arms is a powerful crab-like pincer |
| 86 | You can extrude webs like a spider, allowing a web spray once per day |
| 87 | Fire belly, you can breathe fire like a dragon once per day |
| 88 | Heartsense, you can sense heartbeats within a sixty foot radius |
| 89 | False Life, you can perfectly feign death for up to an hour |
| 90 | Reflective, you can turn your skin reflective for up to an hour |
| 91 | Powercell, you can store electricity in your body and use it as sustenance or to power a device |
| 92 | Rollerblades, your feet can extend bone rollerblades |
| 93 | Hypersense, you can elevate your heart rate and predict what's about to happen, functionally allowing you to rewind time by ten seconds once per day |
| 94 | Bodymolder, you can suppress any other abilities and reveal them at will |
| 95 | Scytheblades, you have hidden bone scythes in your arms |
| 96 | Cancerous Touch, you can implant tumors into flesh you touch that you can trigger to explosively grow at will |
| 97 | Pyrokinesis, by focusing, you can set something you see on fire |
| 98 | Rotfiend, by focusing on anything organic you can cause it to rot. Continuing to focus makes it rot faster |
| 99 | Telepathy, if you focus you can hear surface level thoughts |
| 100 | Telekinesis, you can move objects you can see as long as you could move or lift them with your own physical strength |
Mutations not tied to a specific limb are granted by an organ somewhere within the body. You can attach/integrate new organs and limbs as long as the source body hasn't been dead for more than an hour. Most abilities are stressful to use and can cause harm if used too much in a short period. Integrating more of the same or similar abilities strengthen them. Each body carries a unique, identifying birthmark tied to the soul as well. Players should describe what their birthmark is.
Being reborn can be a traumatic experience. The Angels of Phant allow an hour of acclimation before they usher people out of the wombs. There's no telling which of the four wombs you will get reborn into. The halls outside could be empty, or they could hide a group of reapers looking for easy prey with parts to harvest, a slave-hunter eager for new stock, or a hungry Madness.
In the more civilized areas, people can pay insurance for a team to locate and rescue them when they are reborn, but for everyone else their best bets are a mad dash away from the wombs and out towards their homes- if they still remember them.
Leaving the Womb
The skeleton of the world is metal. There are three kinds of known metal:
- Schipt: Dark grey and near indestructible, it makes up the skeleton of the world.
- Wyre: A variety of different metals, anything that can conduct electricity is called Wyre.
- Chime: The rarest kind of metal, it carries a pale pearlescent sheen. Chimeworkers can sing to this metal and change its shape to their whim, creating all varieties of special machinery, art, and weapons.
Long long ago, the world was strung with lights and splashed with color. People lived all around the wombs and everyone ate and drank freely, spending their days molding the world, studying the sciences, and creating art. Those days are long past now, and even those with the clearest of memories can barely recall it. Now the world is dangerous, and the fires of safety and civilization dwindle in fortified halls where power still sings in wyre and people are afforded dignity.
Some halls still have working power sources that provide heat and light, and some have running water provided directly out of outlets in the surrounding schipt. Small polities dot the halls and increasingly groups keep to themselves as the threats of roving reavers and Madness grow every day.
As common as schipt is moss, fleshy growth that creeps along the walls and ceiling of much of the world. Textured like flesh and growing almost everywhere, moss is farmed for thin, tasteless meat and bone used to create the majority of crafts for civilization.
Some major groups around the wombs:
Soggrhal: The free city of Soggrhal is a collection of traders and adventurers that has ebbed and flowed for many decades. Now it is the last major free city and its merchant princes pay handsomely for expeditions out into the world to bring back valuables and artifacts of the lost worlds that came before. A town of legends and stories of the distant reaches of the world, Soggrhal's citizens have many wondrous artifacts.
Market: One of the most longstanding cities, Market has occupied a central position in the world since its creation. Market itself is ruled by the Dragon, an enigmatic warrior king who enforces a peace across Market with an iron fist. Anything and everything can be found at Market, from food to slaves to chimeworks and warlocks. Life for the average peasant in Market is typically brutish and short, but the promise of making it big and attaining a higher position among the merchant houses is always lingering.
Far Ocean: Clinging to the walls of the Algic Mer, Far Ocean is the main producer of algae, fish, oil, and general foodstuffs for the world. Its whaleships are the only source of oil in the world and it is always looking for those willing to brave the Algic Mer on whaling expeditions.
Divine Kingdom: The only city still built around a womb, the Divine Kingdom maintains a strict hierarchy of titles, grants, and nobility running off of labor from serfs. In exchange for safety directly after rebirth, the Divine Kingdom extracts labor for one year- guaranteeing the right of citizenship for ten years for anyone who completes a year of service.
At the top of the food chain, houses of hedonistic nobles play a cloak and dagger game of intrigue around titles, territory, and resources. The Divine King themself rules absolute, but has fallen into a cycle of negligence and hedonism that has seen the kingdom dwindle over time.
Dreamers of the Quiet Night: A sect of religious zealots, they offer the peace of temporary death to all who come to them. In exchange for resources or time, Tenders will induce a dreaming coma for dreamers and keep them alive as far as their donation will take them.
Reavers: Any of the wild bands of raving mad men on the verge of becoming a Madness themselves, they hunt the halls for prey and take sadistic pleasure in inflicting pain.
Circlebreakers: This secretive order is reviled across much of the world for their attempts to break the circle of death and rebirth, spitting in the face of the gifts of Phant. Rumored to possess all sorts of terrible weapons and knowledge, known Circlebreakers are blacklisted from most polities.
Further out from the wombs are stranger and stranger sights, halls long abandoned and scraps of civilization ripe for the taking. Dangerous creatures now roam these halls, ranging from mossborne insects, ancient metal angels, and Madness.
A Madness is what happens when a body is filled with too much flesh and its soul is twisted, becoming a slavering hateful monster of flesh warped around a tortured soul. Unknown numbers of Madness stalk the halls of the world and each is unique in its flesh and function. Killing a Madness is usually seen as a kindness, as the soul is then freed for rebirth- but many tales tell of soul-devouring Madness that cage their victims in their flesh- torturing them endlessly.
Play in the Coffin of Souls
Player characters are various mutants with long histories and patchwork memory. The halls of the near world around the wombs are rife with civilization, hungry and violent and the halls further out hold lost treasures, still living civilizations, and perhaps even answers. Most equipment is made of bone with the rare pieces of schipt or chime going for high prices.
Death is cheap around the Coffin of Souls, the only bonds that matter are social ones built with the various factions and groups. Though rebirth is near instant, people still fear the act of death as, well, it's painful and risks memory loss- with memory being the one thing aside from the schipt skeleton of the world that lasts.
Player characters are troubleshooters and explorers in this world beyond death, finding their goals and purpose out in the wide moss webbed halls of the world, exploring the dread wrecks along the Algal Ocean, the spore-ridden Violet Wastes, the Ruined City of Mirrors, the Forest of Shades, and perhaps even reaching the Edge of the World.
True death is impossible in the Coffin of Souls, capture by a band of Reavers or being eaten by a Madness is a terrible fate- but death will eventually see one reborn again and again.
