New Concept: Soul Pacts
Here in the Umbra, you can trade your souls. In fact, your soul is often the most valuable thing you have. "But isn't it bad to trade souls?" Ha ha ha. No. As I said way back, "demon" is a political term about the kinds of spirits you don't want to deal with. Soul trading otherwise is plenty valid. Void Engineers get alien biotech or cybernetics implanted in exchange for memories and emotions and other feelings (greys are great for this), and this is okay. Iterators, especially pre-99, would often get Autocthonian-derived augmentations built into their bodies as a blessing from Friend Computer. NWO psychics would unlock great powers from trading in dreams. Syndicate executives know the power of a good contract.
Soul trading is ethically neutral. In fact, some of the rare redemption stories for widderslaintes involve the widderslainte finding a being that will take their tainted soul despite how unpalatable it is, leaving them with no inverted Avatar and the ability to carry out a normal life-although with no ability to ever use Awakened magic again. This is not to say that all forms of soul trading are accepted-the Technocracy frowns on people trading parts of their soul to gain the ability to shoot fireballs or any other obvious Reality Deviance. But subdermal nanotech armor? Deployable plasma cannons? Superhuman abilities gained from alien DNA hybridization? All generally okay (some specific aliens/spirits are considered 'demons' due to their Nephandic allegiances and obviously not ok even if in Technoparadigm).
Soul trading is risky, however, because it can often lead to unwanted consequences. Eventually if you trade enough of your soul, you start losing your magic or enlightened science. There's various competing explanations. Choristers and Hermetics believe it's because your Avatar is attached to your soul and you're tearing apart the anchor which allows your Avatar to stay there. The Technocracy believes it's because the gifts given are so powerful, so useful, and so effortless that eventually it becomes difficult to maintain the determination that Genius requires. Sufficient sphere trading will damage your ability to gain Enlightenment.
Almost anything can be bought with soul trading. Although even Sphere knowledge is possible to acquire in this fashion, these spirit-granted Spheres are expensive, require a powerful spirit, and have special rules. More commonly magi acquire spirit charms, especially because by being static magic many of these effects are more resistant against Paradox than sphere magic.
Someone with Primal Utility 1 or Spirit 1 can see the exact value and amount of damage to their soul. Otherwise, you will have to take an educated guess.
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