Frenzael created the Librans out of air, and it was their intent for them to be as free as the wind. The purpose in their seemingly rigid and solid forms was to allow for experimentation of body and identity, able to meld into one another and leave renewed, ever-changing and connected to the world. This interplay of the ephemeral and concrete allows them to do all number of uncanny things, all centered around the anatomy of their souls and its freedom from their bodies.
The Libran soul is bound to the physical plane through their core: a gem-like object that animates whatever vessel it's placed into. Libran cores are surrounded by elaborate metallic structures called filigrees. This combination as a whole is often collectively referred to as the core, but make no mistake: each component serves a distinct purpose, and the separation of each is an essential part of what makes Librans bizarre.
The core, typically located hovering within a Libra's chest, is a vibrant and brilliant structure that often resembles polished stone or some type of gem. The Libra's soul is contained inside of the core, and should the core be significantly damaged it will cause the Libra's death. The filigree cradles the core and happens to be the prime focus of this post.
Filigrees are not present until shortly before birth, as they are created by a Libra's soul. As a Libra develops, their soul energy radiates out from their core and crystallizes around it in a pattern unique to each Libra, turning the entire structure into something resembling wire-wrapped jewelry. One's filigree continues to change throughout life, forming a record of their personality and perspective.
Animation of a vessel - the term for a Libra's body - requires the presence of a filigree, as the filigree serves as a sort of circuit to channel soul energy in the right way to passively infuse the vessel with the soul's consciousness. This makes it easy for Libras to change bodies, should they see fit, and allows them to turn tables in some really weird ways if someone snatches their core and puts it in a box to sell later.
However, if the core is removed from the filigree, the core will quickly become unconscious (though a Libra of powerful will can maintain consciousness indefinitely) and inert. This is where things get... interesting.
First and foremost, a soul will regrow its filigree over time from its collected memories and experiences, just like how it had to develop one when its body first formed, and a filigree only need exist (not be "complete") for animation to be possible. Thus, being separated from one's body isn't a death sentence - or lack thereof.
However, a core can also be placed into a different filigree. Let's make up two Libras as an example, with the creative names Libby and Brad. Libby and Brad decide to switch filigrees, as you do. Libby's existence is now filtered through Brad's filigree and vice versa. So, what exactly does this mean?
Let's say that IRL, everything that makes you you - personality, memories, opinions, so on and so forth - is stored in your soul. However, your brain also stores all of that. So if you were to swap brains with someone, but somehow still had your own soul, what would that make you? The answer isn't always clear-cut. Everything you are gets filtered through the neural pathways of a completely different person, and depending on the soul and filigree involved that could result in anything from a lil extra Brad flavoring in Libby's thoughts to Libby losing her identity and feeling like her life as Libby was nothing more than a vivid dream.
The circumstances also matter. If Libby and Brad have both planned on swapping filigrees for a bit as a bonding experience and know what they're getting into it's unlikely any issues will arrive. If, however, two complete strangers never saw one another and had their filigrees forcibly swapped as part of an evil scientist's experiments, their identities would be at considerably greater risk. Further complicating matters is that there's a sort of loop between the filigree and soul: if Subject A spends long enough living life filtered through Filigree B they'll get used to it and feel like that identity is their own. Such thoughts come from the soul, and thus a filigree can "stain" a soul and make swapping back not a foolproof solution.
Another factor is the strength of the soul and thus the strength of the filigrees involved. For instance, if Librae were to trade filigrees with your average Libra, said Libra would instantly have their identity overridden with Librae's own. Likewise, their own filigree would have little impact on Librae's soul and its "data" would instantly be overwritten with Librae's own. That's a pretty extreme example and Librae would surely never do such a thing, but you get the idea. If one Libra is more powerful and has a stronger will they're more likely to "corrupt" another's filigree and their filigree is more "secure" in turn.
Artificial Filigrees
Making things even sweatier is the fact that filigrees can be artificially constructed and accepted by Libran cores. Needless to say this is no easy task, but there are entire careers out there dedicated to the process. Existing filigrees can be modified by an expert hand as well, something akin to rewiring one's brain.
There are a number of purposes for creating filigrees. One is to "back up" information. Artificial filigrees are typically made of a weak material that bends easily to the soul, allowing a Libra to more or less make a copy of their current filigree. The copy can then be stored for any number of purposes. It might be an emergency backup in case they lose their filigree and need to be back in action ASAP, if they end up brainwashed or otherwise dramatically changed, in case they end up loathing who they become in the future, something to give them a brief shot of simpler times, a coping mechanism for intended immortals to stave away mental erosion, etc.
...Of course, making copies of one's filigrees means that, provided the filigrees were strong enough, a Libra could theoretically make an army of themselves by overwriting the souls of others with their own. While not quite at such a scale these things have certainly happened before, and unless there's clear record of consent it's extremely illegal to do shit like that. If you wanna get freaky you're gonna have to get bureaucratic first!!
Another purpose is to allow for compartmentalizing. Libras with particularly stressful jobs might, for instance, swap out their home filigree for a work filigree to get themselves in the proper headspace. Once they get home, swapping into a casual filigree helps them forget about their stress, dampen unwanted memories, and focus on enjoying their personal time. Libras of particular privilege might even have enough to change into filigrees like clothes, having different ones for a night on the town vs meeting with family vs visiting specific spots vs engaging in particular hobbies, so on and so forth.
Needless to say, there are many unsavory applications as well. Saint Cendrillon's story is well known on Siderea: she was a Libra forced into a powerful filigree that bound her to perpetual pleasantness and servitude, and only one of many enslaved by an underground organization. She and her fellow experiments were eventually liberated by Saint Astraea, and in that moment her filigree began to twist in new directions. Filigree artists are carefully monitored to ensure their filigrees aren't made with ill intent, but illicit filigrees are by far and away the most desired item on the black market.
Simple alterations have just as many purposes, and aren't even all that uncommon for therapeutic ones. A little bit of rewiring can help fix what normal therapy can't, though depending on the crowd such measures are considered controversial. "Edits" can also be done to add information to help them perform various tasks, or to help attune themselves to certain types of magic.
When a Libra dies, it's common for their loved ones to repurpose their filigree as jewelry; it's especially common for widows to wear their deceased partner's filigree on their person as a sign of continued loyalty and affection. Though filigrees don't do much unless surrounding a soul, such people often claim to be able to hear the Libra's voice in their head, that they dream of them often, that they have a sense of becoming one, so on and so forth. It's likely that this is just the placebo effect and a source of comfort, but who knows? Filigrees are made from one's soul energy, so some suggest that a Libra's identity could linger in their filigree.
Of course, the worse-adjusted might think they could slap someone else's core into their widower's filigree... and they're right! It's hardly a surefire way to get their partner back, though, considering the issues already mentioned. Even if their widower's filigree was strong enough to completely overpower the victim's core, they wouldn't be the same exact person: their soul is already gone, and the filigree merely provides a sort of AI backup for the soul to be plugged into. For some people, though, that's good enough for them.
Transmigration
Altogether, the Libran race has special traits that make them an effective balance between species. Any soul - provided you have the means to touch one - can in theory be placed into a core and filigree, which in turn can be put into any vessel. It's common for Libras to take advantage of this and have jobs in which they aid other species in transferring themselves into new bodies, a process which is called transmigration.
Let's say we have a Cetus who'd like to stop being a Cetus because Cetans still make some people nervous and having to use magic in order to interact with surface society gets exhausting and annoying. This Cetus, who we'll call... Cletus, has a few options. One is the simplest, which is just more or less becoming a Libra. Cletus goes to Libra Corp:tm: and asks to get plopped into a vessel and bam, new life!
The second is that Cletus might prefer to become a specific other species, like perhaps wishing to be a Pisces so that - size aside - it won't be too huge of a departure from his current body. His soul could be placed into a specifically-designed vessel that passes as a Pisces. The third is related, in that a Libra could place Cletus' soul into their own body and enter a chrysalis, their shared body allowing them communicate and form Cletus' ideal new body. This is more reliable for getting a convincing and ideal form, but obviously it's much riskier and time-consuming.
Outside of extremely talented and powerful individuals, there's the consequence of transmigrating into a new species not being a 1:1 thing. Should Cletus become a Pisces through this method, for instance, his cords will only be cosmetic as mimicking their actual function is borderline impossible. Likewise, someone transmigrating into a new Sagittarius body will struggle to shift between bipedal and quadrupedal form, though this at least can be learned.
One way around this is to engage in body trading. Instead of Cletus having their current body changed into something else, he might leave it up for grabs and shop around Piscean bodies that have been left behind. From there he can pick one out and from there it can be adjusted to his liking, and bam! That Piscean already had functioning cords, so now he's no different than a natural-born Pisces. Of course, this isn't incredibly common, as many people don't like the idea that someone might just take their old body and decide they don't want to make any changes and proceed to run around with their face. Still, it's possible!
Transmigration can, of course, also be temporary. As mentioned above with Libras keeping around specific filigrees and vessels for various functions, other zodiacs might want to hop into an exciting new form for any number of reasons. On the flip side, this also happens to mean that any given Siderean - and anything with a soul, for that matter - could theoretically have their soul stuffed into a hard-coded filigree and enslaved. It's just much more difficult, so it's unlikely that any wannabe villain would bother unless they had it out for you specifically.
Caging
Though uncommon, transmigration is occasionally used by the court to punish criminals. Siderean law is its own can of worms, but long story short is that sentences are often based off of the crime rather than prison being a catch-all due to recognition that it doesn't really. Help anything. Certain criminals might be deemed too dangerous to let run around, and thus are caged.
Caging refers to one's soul being outfitted with a very specific form of filigree that restricts their actions, sort of like how getting [god voiced] keeps you from doing something you'd been [told] not to do. Their thoughts and instincts aren't warped in any way, but they become incapable of harming others. Think of it like getting an alert that you can't enter a message because it's got a naughty word in it in a game or whatever. Their brain can think about throttling someone, but it just won't send out the message to their muscles to actually engage in throttling. It's sort of like putting a shock collar on someone, but overall nicer with the intent of allowing rehabilitation without putting the lives of their various handlers at risk in the meantime.
For certain crimes, the caged might even end up forced into a new vessel, typically reserved as an ironic punishment for those who have enslaved others or for particularly vicious Aquarians whose normal forms make them difficult to detain in any way. This is also an option provided for the absolute worst of criminals, who are given two options: death or complete transmigration. The case of the latter is a last chance for their soul to be redeemed in the eyes of the gods: their soul will be outfitted with a powerful filigree that will consume much of their identity, then will be placed into a new vessel and given a new life elsewhere in the world. The criminal will maintain awareness that this is a sort of "punishment" for past sins and will be closely monitored. The hope is that in this "new life" the criminal will live a virtuous life, redeeming their soul and making up for the pain they caused in their "past life", providing a net benefit to society and potentially sparing the criminal from theoretical damnation upon their death.
Various levels of transmigration might also be allowed for other criminals to pursue, should both they and the court believe fundamental parts of their mind must be forcibly changed for an earnest chance at redemption. Transmigration - partial or complete - is also offered to victims and witnesses of some crimes as a form of witness protection.
Eclipsing
ok it's late and i wanna finish this before i sleep so im gonna be a little lazier about this.
As mentioned earlier, a core with a filigree will animate whatever vessel it's placed into. Normally this refers to specifically-crafted Libra bodies, but it could be literally anything. If you put a Libran core into a box, in a matter of time the Libra will be able to control the box and make themselves a sick cardboard body. Forget it in your car's trunk and you've got a Transformer on your hand. But organic objects are no exception to this.
When a core is inserted into the body of a being that already has a soul, things get funky. Depending on the respective strength of the souls involved, the two souls may end up cohabitating the body or - more commonly - one consumes the other. In the case of two Libras, the result will be a straight-up merge, filigrees intertwining and cores fusing into one, the resultant identity dependent on the potency of each. In the case of a Libra vs literally anything else, the Libra will almost always be the one that comes out on top. This is because their filigree helps to secure their identity and soul, serving as a sort of armor that helps them easily run over any other soul.
With proper control a Libra can avoid consuming a soul, which is handy for those times when you drop your soul and the dog eats it again. If they don't, however, the Libra gains control over their host's body as if it were an inanimate vessel and absorbs their soul, subsuming their identity. The process of hijacking a body as such is known as eclipsing.
Eclipsing is, needless to say, extremely illegal. Unless, again, I guess you've filled out your weird paperwork or something. It is infamously linked to Graffias, a sort of bogeyman on Siderea. One of the original Libras, Graffias figured out the whole eclipsing thing and proceeded to claim whatever bodies she liked, most notably an OG Scorpio named Sariel. In eclipsing Sariel Graffias gained access to her knowledge and power, using her expertise in Disappearing to leave Siderea and be a nuisance to the rest of Entirety. Graffias is used as a cautionary tale for children: don't put random things in your mouth, don't accept items from strangers, don't run off on your own, so on and so forth. Fail to listen and your identity will be forfeit, body puppetted by an evil monster and soul perpetually screaming in helpless agony.
...Well, possibly. The level of integration a subsumed soul has can vary depending on the mercy and power of the subsumer, but Graffias seems to literally feed on being a problem.
Once eclipsed, the perpetrator can use and alter the host's body as if it were their own, though depending on experience and the specific body in question it may take some breaking in before it can be adjusted with much ease. Once attained it's easier for the Libra to change back into that body when changed via chrysalizing later.
One might think eclipsing is useful for usurping identities or fleeing from the law or whatever, but on Siderea this isn't actually the case. This was mentioned in an earlier post, but Sidereans have an innate sort of identity sensor. This is useful for more than just having a sense of people's preferred pronouns at a glance, but for being able to recognize your friends even after they've completely changed bodies after an exciting night in Dschubba. Given the sheer number of methods for one to radically change themselves in sometimes under a day, the creators saw fit to imbue Sidereans with some way of making recognizing one another not a lost cause for the sake of emphasizing freedom and creativity. Thus, anyone who knows the eclipsed will immediately be able to recognize something's horribly wrong. An example of this is in Game Night, where Scorpius instantly recognizes Sariel as Graffias despite not having seen her in who knows how long.
The main purpose of eclipsing - I mean, outside of fetish bureaucracy or whatever - is thus to obtain knowledge, power, extra bodies for clone filigrees, or even just beauty. Of course, should a Libra leave Siderea and end up on a planet without Identity Radar:tm:... well, surely that would never happen, so let's not worry about it.
Misc.
- In the case something bad happens and a Libra is separated from any vessel, the general advice is to aggressively pray in hopes that a god will save them. Librae and Scorpius are the most common gods to pray to in this scenario. Scorpius' designated angel, Jeremiel, is typically the one in charge of gathering up all the souls out there screaming for release and salvation, cleaning out black markets when Scorpius doesn't have the time to do so himself. Librae's angel, Jophiel, also often ends up seeking out these souls, though typically in lighter scenarios and places. From there either of them will return the souls to their respective god, the other's patron god, Geminorum, or Saint Karkinos on the moon, all of whom have some level of expertise in undoing such messes to at least some extent.
- Though damaging a filigree can have ill effects on one's identity, all things considered it tends not to be a huge concern. If someone's attacked you and struck your filigree, it's likely that they struck your core as well so you're dead anyhow. They aren't exactly easy to damage either, lending to the fact that altering them in any way requires very specific magic and expertise.
- Vibras and Librios follow these same rules no matter how hard they otherwise take from their non-Libra parent. More than anything, cores and filigrees are what define Libras and their hybrids.
- One could put an Aquarius' core into a filigree and all the same sorts of things would happen. It isn't extraordinarily uncommon to see such businesses run, where Aquarians sign up for a filigree, get popped into a vessel, and get to experience what it's like to have a more solid body for once.
- i feel like i had more things but its 1 am i need to go to bed bro listen i can just edit things in if i need to okay