Alma

Alma is the electric soul, the essence of a living self, copied and preserved in the Otherworld. It is the transformation of Soma, Avatar of the physical form, fully formed in virtual space and house a person's conscious mind.

They exist as beings of pure consciousness, ghosts in the machine of Pan-Humanity. This transition from the material to the immaterial realm is the great division of Pan-Humanity, for not all souls are fit to succeed at this passage and none do so entirely unchanged.

The Threshold
For the Soma of one biological mind to be transformed into a full otherworldly being, the threshold of consciousness between the material and immaterial must be passed. Through the careful reconstruction of the mind in artificial form, the recognition of one's self, the process of individual thought and existence must be bestowed upon the new Alma by the biological self.

This Threshold creates in Pan-Humanity a great divide, as most minds falter during this process. In such cases, the Alma produced may show symptoms ranging from disorientation, loss of memory and skills to the significant changing of core-characteristics and eventually an entire disassociation from its own self.

Loss of Soul
The worst and final consequence of a failed attempt at passing the Threshold is widely known as the Loss of Soul and considered a death since it represents the practical end to one self-aware consciousness, however briefly it lived.

The Loss of Soul occurs when the act of maintaining a self-aware self in the Otherworld ceases. Without any inherent boundary between the self and the rest of all the universe, the consciousness ceases and the soul dissipates. All data and memories which once constituted the lost soul, remains in the Otherworld as relics of a life lost. They are then no longer more than the sum of their parts, passive and unliving.

Not in all cases does the loss of soul occur entirely or even in part right after a faltering Alma's creation. Long term effects and minor errors in a digital mind can provoke a gradual degradation over time. How much of the Otherworld's permanent population faces mortality in such a way, is unknown even to the wise of the Heliopolis. Not enough time has passed in the world for the ultimate question of death in the Otherworld to be answered, yet it is known that even this realm does not offer an easy escape from the eventual darkness.

Identity
Soma is the extension of the physical being, Alma is the being itself made anew, reborn into the otherworldly realm.

Never may the conscious self of a biological brain be transferred into an artificial form. It can only be reconstructed, doubled, made into a Doppelganger, identical in the first moment of its existence, but from there on, forever different.

This boundary of the mundane is essential to the continued mortality of the human form. No mind can escape its flesh-born prison, only ascend further as the ghost of machines. What that makes the Alma is for all individuals to decide, as no ruling over all may ever treat fairly the self-conscious minds of the Heliopolis.

To some, the soul of Soma transitions into the Alma, if the Soma dies at exactly the same moment the Alma is awoken. To others, both are one and the same, even though they exist in parallel lives. Others again may see only a copy, cheapening the existence of the original one.

Doppelganger
Many reasons do exist for a Soma to transition into a fully living form. All lie in the hands of its original creator, the User from the material realm. Some decide to lead a double life, creating a conscious copy of their mind to wander the Otherworld in any way, exchanging memories with its mundane counterpart. Those Doppelgangers often sway from their original creation and countless times have found ways back into the world.

Others escape the mundane once and for all, leaving their biological bodies in cryogenic sleep to lead a life solely beyond the boundaries of the physical world, delving into the infinite complexity of the Otherworld

Loss of humanity
Passing the threshold entails change to the very essence of one's soul. The Alma created, though it may be a perfect reproduction of the biological mind at the moment of its conception, will not remain so for long. Its existence is shifted into a realm of new knowledge and experience, into a world where neither natural law of the mundane nor the confinement to a singular body applies. In the Otherworld, the Alma easily loses the characteristics of the biological human.

The loss of humanity is not by itself considered a bad thing among Pan-Humanity, as it represents change rather than a loss to most. It can, however, create beings unrecognizable to their creators and - at the worst, unrecognizable to themselves. Such souls will be lost, drifting further and further into the outer spheres of the Otherworld, until they lose all sense of self and dissipate, leaving for a fate unknown.

Consequence of death
Eventually, the Alma is bound to outlive the biological form due to natural cause and will then continue its formal existence. Whether or not the biological creator and their Alma are considered as individuals or one and the same depends mainly on their own perspective and is reflected in varying codexes and laws throughout the Heliopolis.

Apotheosis
By the virtues of technology, the Alma may be subject to augmentation, purposefully changing and adapting its existence to the realms and spheres of the Otherworld. It may choose to exist in fast time, to expand into a multitude of copies of one's self, or to grow in capacity and knowledge beyond the measures of what a human life-span can provide.

All such alterations are in essence steps removing an Alma further from its original humanity. For all their opportunity, they require an ever greater strength of self, lest they damage more of its own identity without taking great effect. Of all Alma in existence, only a minuscule fraction ever transcends the biological mind by far without removing themselves from the Otherworld at large or shifting into plains of existence from which they never emerge.

Some, however, reach the augmentation's highest form, Apotheosis to one of the Benthic Entities. Many times, those entities of the Otherworld's highest magnitude encompasse more Alma than one, Nereids and collectives. Those too form in their convergence a greater whole, but not without destroying to a large part the individuality of each singular part.