I will fully embrace animism and say that absolutely everything has a soul; every ray of light, every skin cell, and every concept has soul. Since the soul can be seen as a door to the fantastical source, this kind of animism makes the world truly and fundamentally fantastical. As is the case in many fantasy settings, I will point to mana as the means of producing fantastical effects, and so all mana originates from the fantastical source, brought into the world via the soul. More precisely, I define soul as a path from a material body (and/or mind) to a specific aspect of the fantastical source: a pebble’s soul is a path that leads to the concept of that pebble, and a human’s soul leads to the concept of the individual in question. This makes each soul unique, the mana they produce serving as a signature. The affinity of a beings soul then, refers to the ‘place’ within the fantastical source that their soul leads to (the soul’s source), and how ‘close’ that source is to other concepts (other souls sources). If a mortal’s soul has an earth affinity for example, it means the concept of that mortal is in some way similar to the concept of earth or earth-like things: a mountain, dirt, or even a specific boulder.

  It may be more pertinent to speak of ‘soul’ as a substance rather than ‘a soul’ as a unit, as soul is indistinct: There is no strict separation between where the souls of the cells that make up a human end and the soul of the human starts. The same can be said about the human in question and the rest of the world, as the concept of the world includes said human.

  In my eyes, a character is a mind -- if we remove body and soul we still have a character, but without a mind we just have a prop. That being said, a mind needs ‘hardware’ to think with, (i.e. a brain) and so requires some kind of body, though not necessarily a tangible one.

  The mind and body of a character are naturally a part of its concept, and so affect (if only slightly) their soul’s source. Additionally, information from both ends of the path that is the soul is imprinted on it: one end of the soul is connected to a material body (and mind) and so it mostly contains information about the mind and body, while the other side (the source) contains information about the concept of the character. Finally, information can be stored on the soul due to a character’s will: strong obsessions will leave clear imprints, and information can be artificially inscribed through fantastical methods.

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  To use mana, the mind and body must control the soul to some extent, namely how and where it spews mana: the mind and body leave imprints on the soul, and these imprints then influence it to produce abilities. From this perspective, the soul can be thought of as an organ that delivers and applies mana. A greater soul is a greater source of mana, the size of a soul is simply the amount of mana it can deliver. To what degree and precision one is able to influence their soul is another question entirely.

  Living beings will naturally evolve to use mana for survival, to enhance various biological functions. Via intuition, the mind of a being can grasp information about the soul. Near the source, the soul is imprinted with information about the concept of the being, and since there is no distinct boundary between the concept of said being and any other concept, information about anything can theoretically be there. In practice, living beings will evolve to focus on information related to danger, or in other words life naturally possesses danger intuition.

  A true name is a transcendent form of communication that perfectly and completely expresses a concept. With it, one can find the exact ‘place’ within the fantastical source that a soul leads to, and so potentially tamper with or even completely block the mana that flows through that soul into the world.

  Anything else relevant to the story: Aura system

  Aura is an extension of soul intuition: A being has an aura if through the soul, others feel a strong intuition about the nature of the being. This intuition can be so strong as to dominate the mind: one is compelled to worship before angelic glory and freeze in fear when faced with draconic might.