No, these are not Faberge Eggs. This shining jewel with a vaguely egg-like shape is called a
Soul Gem. Created at the formation of the Wishmaker's contract, it serves as the heart of their magical abilities, a symbol representing the deal they have made with the Companions.
Soul Gems are flexible items that serve their users in a variety of ways:
First, they can be used to
perform magic. This mainly boils down to transforming into one's combat attire. When transformed, the Soul Gem takes the form of the symbol found on top of its ornate decoration, and is somehow integrated into the costume. When not transformed, it can also be kept in convenient storage as a ring to be worn. However, it can also perform secondary things, such as temporarily imbuing items with magic, presumably to make them more effective at fighting Hexes. For example, a baseball bat or fire extinguisher. It can also summon a simplified version of their primary weapon.
Whenever a Wishmaker uses their magic, experiences negative emotions, or sustains physical injury, the Soul Gem becomes
tainted with darkness. This can only be removed by transferring it to a
Seed, a kind of Hex's egg. More on that later.
Second, they can be used to
sense the presence of a Hex, releasing a bursting light when a labyrinth is near. This is one of the first things a senior Wishmaker will teach their juniors, assuming you're lucky enough to find a senior. As a newbie, you might not be so lucky.
Third, and most importantly, the Soul Gem is in fact the Wishmaker's
soul in crystalised form. Their thoughts, personality, identity, their very animating life force, have now been placed into this neat little package, allowing them to be better protected, and facilitating more efficient use of magic. This means that the body has become nothing more than a biologically functional meat puppet for the soul gem to control.
A Companion is being literal, rather than metaphorical, when it tells you that "The Soul Gem is the soul of the Wishmaker".
To render it useful for combating monsters like Hexes and protect the soul gem, the body has been magically rebuilt to be better than it was before: better, stronger, faster, and more durable. A Wishmaker could very easily break a normal's legs without even having to transform. The functionality of the body's pain receptors have also been rendered optional, as the soul is not present to directly experience them. This allows a Wishmaker to continue fighting despite grievous injury, due to the reduction, or outright elimination if they please, of the sensation of pain.
Severe dismemberment, or even fatal injuries, such as total blood loss or the destruction of the heart are minor inconveniences, so long as your Soul Gem remains intact and has enough magical energy to regenerate from these losses.
While this is all well and good, there are also issues that balance out the benefits of one's soul being made a conveniently small item good for safekeeping. For example, since it becomes a part of a Wishmaker's costume, it is now something of an Achilles' Heel that must be protected if one is to survive. Yes. If a Soul Gem is destroyed, the Wishmaker dies. Or, if someone who knows how to manipulate Soul Gems were able to get their hands on it, they could very much torture its owner in terrifying, creative ways.
Secondly, it must remain in close proximity of its owner, 100 metres, or else they will be disconnected and their body will immediately drop dead. Literally. All vital signs will cease and one is essentially left with a corpse, albeit one in pristine condition. Restoring the connection requires physical contact with the body, at which point it will reanimate.
If the body and Soul Gem remain disconnected for 48 hours, the body will begin to experience decay. So be sure to keep your friends close, and your Soul Gem closer!
Understandably, this fact can be very off-putting: to know that getting your wish granted requires you to become a zombie or lich, on top of having to risk your life everyday, for what could very well amount to the granting of a trivial desire.
As such, most Companions omit it from their explanations of the contract, and it is usually only discovered in rare accidents where a Wishmaker loses their Soul Gem. Alternatively, one can figure this out by themselves if they are meticulous enough to ask about the finer details of the contract and piece together the truth behind the Companions' doublespeak.
Maybe they've seen too many Faustian Contract movies to trust the word "contract", even when spoken by an adorable little fairy-like creature. Maybe they're just naturally paranoid. Either way, many of those who find out beforehand back out. And most of those who find out after the fact are devastated.
That said, there are a number of those who still choose to go through despite hearing of this news. Usually they do this by wishing for something they feel would be enough to compensate for such a high price, or becoming extra specific with their wishes so that they get their money's worth out of it. After all, even with below average karmic weight, you can still wish for something as impressive as bringing back the dead. Such is the wish granting power of the Companions.
"
I can clean up your Soul Gem, but it'll cost you."All is not lost, however. Over the centuries, with the many different sorts of wish, a certain minority of Wishmaker has arisen. Those who by themselves are useless in the fight against Hexes, at least directly. No, these individuals, who received rare powers that have the potential to affect the Soul directly, are far more valuable in the rear echelons, providing counsel and soothing the emotional pains their fellow Wishmakers inevitably accumulate.
Primarily, these
Adjusters serve as pseudo-Seeds and take away a Soul Gem's taint to personally bear them in your place. Others, however, are also capable of enhancing one's Soul Gem to render them more powerful. This is how the Wishmakers of Kamihama city are able to keep up with the abnormally more numerous Hexes plaguing the area. In return, all they ask for is a simple fee of Seeds in return for their services. They cannot entirely replace Seeds, as one might imagine any emotionally functional human only has so much tolerance for encroaching dark feelings. However, their other abilities make their services worth the price.
Both the Kamihama Magia Union and Wings of Magius employ a small number of Adjusters among their ranks. But the arrival of the famous Adjusters from Akihabara known as the
Bluse Sisters has now created a third option for independent Wishmakers who desire to remain independent. It helps that their nightclub, Jolly Joliet, also serves delicious food, fabulous drink, a relaxed atmosphere, and top notch music. Surely, such an environment could help one's ailing feelings, if even in a small way.
"To the friend I never met: Please remember for me. Remember what I've done here today." Being a Wishmaker is a life fraught with risks and ever-present danger. As seen in the mass appeal of the Wings of Magius' message of Salvation, a great many Wishmakers fear death, because many do die fighting Hexes. And yet, even within this tragic fact of life, a spark of hope appears. For while many Wishmakers do fall, they don't go down without a fight. Indeed, a number of their final acts are enough to destroy the Hex, and thus its Labyrinth. These incidents usually result from a Wishmaker overclocking their Soul Gem to perform one final act of defiance, reaching for a draw, if a win is impossible. When such an event occurs, it leaves behind not a Seed, but something to remember them by.
A
Memoria is the crystallised memory of a Wishmaker's final act of defiance. As they sacrifice their own Soul Gem for a burst of power to destroy a Hex, the conflicting energies coalesce into an artefact that can serve to aid other Wishmakers. In a sense, to use a Memoria is to carry on the torch passed by those who went before. Taking the form of a card bearing an image from the Wishmaker's memory, a Memoria is used by attaching it to one's Soul Gem in preparation for battle.
Once this is done, the user's mind is flooded with the Memoria's contents, reliving the fallen Wishmaker's final memories as if they were their own. They may be memories of their final experiences as they fight, but this is not necessarily the case. They might instead bring forth their happiest remembrances, or recollections of the most intense thing that has ever happened to them. They might even remember seeing another Wishmaker overclocking their Soul Gem, inspiring them to do the same thing. A Memoria's contents are as varied as the Wishmakers who leave them behind. This brings about an understanding of these memories, and gives them a piece of the same power their original owner wielded in their last moments without the risk of actually dying from it. This usually takes the form of a more passive enhancement, rendering Memoria something of a talisman or charm.
Originally, these incidents were an extremely rare occurrence. Some tales speak of a crimson Puella Magi who once did such a thing to defeat a certain Witch, either a Mermaid, Knight, or Musician, depending on who tells the story. And yet at least one living girl matching her description has been seen hearing about the story and laughing at how she would never do such a thing. Such a rare, strange tale indeed. But these days, due to the massive influx of Hexes and Wishmakers coming to Kamihama City for various reasons, incidents producing Memoria have become more common. And the number of Wishmakers arriving on the scene just in time to see another sacrifice themselves has increased.
As a result, Memoria are rising in popularity among various circles of Wishmaker, both as a power-up, and as a way to entertain themselves. The Kamihama Magia Union treats Memoria with great respect, being the remains of a fallen comrade in arms, even if they never really had the chance to meet them. Memoria from KMU members who have died are treated as doubly important, as they are essentially keepsakes of true friends who have passed on. Each KMU Haven has their own policies on what is to be done should a tenant die and leave a Memoria. Some entrust the Memoria to the owner's closest friend. Others share the memory equally within their Haven. While others still preserve them in little Altar rooms, to be remembered and respected, rather than employed in battle.
The Companions find the existence of Memoria to be a curious conundrum, and many theories abound as to why they exist. A consensus exists, however, that their existence is the result of a wish that might somehow have been forgotten... Whatever the case, their view on Memoria is a practical one: If it helps their purposes, allowing Wishmakers to employ Memoria for battle is acceptable.