Sorry if this has been addressed already but cannot find anything on it, so in the shadowlands we see souls of “mortals” go to the shadowlands but when it comes to gnomes humans and dwarfs we know that their ancestors were orginally earthen/titan creations this then begs the question those orginal earthen did the titans trap the souls in the bodies of the earthen or did someway the curse of flesh give the souls to the earten, either way it’s got some interesting implications.
Wanted to know what the community thinks/knows what the answer is.
Who’s to say the titan creations didn’t have a soul to begin with? The titans technically did give birth to the creations who were fully sentient and alive. I would assume they had a soul from the get-go, or at the very least when the first one was “biologically” born they were born with a soul.
The entire concept of souls and their origin hasn’t really been touched upon other than when universe was created there were souls.
could easily be that the ones affected buy curse of flesh didnt have souls, but when they started to repruduce, their offsprings got souls as they where the first to be born as mortals, and not converted to mortals.
considering it looks like souls are more or less, recycled so when one dies, ends up in shadowlands, it can after a while be let loose in to an other body.
Maybe this is the “gift” that was given the Old Gods keep harping on about with respect to Titan-forged creations.
Although, it wouldn’t be applicable to other more naturally occurring races like trolls and their descendants for instance with our current understanding of the lore.
Souls that go to the Shadowlands are the ones “influenced” by death magic. A few more details:
What makes a mortal “mortal” - not sure. I suppose, it’s some kind of Death and Order (time) influences.
The force of Order has influenced life on Azeroth, which is why living mortals perceive it the way they do. Without their tether to the mortal plane, the soul no longer has the same perception.
When it comes to the original titan-forged, they likely had souls influenced by Order magic.
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron
All places, all things have souls. All souls can be devoured.
So, curse of fresh somehow made their souls go under the influence of Death magic more so than Order kind. Something similar-ish happened with how titan creatures were transformed on Draenor, althouth the were no known old gods, and the source of such change is different.
The titans themselves have souls, however, we have never seen any indication that the constructs like the earthen or iron vrykul, etc have souls.
Just like the elemental spirits don’t have a soul like mortals so to say, they are their own being.
Most likely they got it when they turned into their fleshy forms.
Like how we know dragons have souls yet they used to be elementals. But after exposure to the spirit element they turned fleshy and became proto-drakes, so it must have been the spirit element that transformed them and gave them souls.
Same with the orcs/ogres and that whole lineage, they originally came from a huge stone construct, that broke into smaller shards and after influence by the spirit element turned fleshy.
Now, what is the spirit element? It’s described as the fifth element, called chi by monks, what brings balance and harmony to the other elements of earth, fire, water, and air. It can cause plants to grow at an accelerated rate and even make them into so-called alive races like the Botani.
And most importantly it exists in all mortals and is the spark in their hearts that connects them to the other elements, which is what allows mortals to commune with them and be shamans.
Now what’s interesting is that there is a sixth element not often spoken about, called Decay which is the opposite of Spirit, it allows you to dominate the other elements and force them to your will, and is what dark shamans use to make the elements do their bidding instead of using Spirit. It’s actually shown on the cosmology chart of the chronicle book on the side of death. The shadowlands have also been described as a place filled with decay.
But other than that not much is known by the element, and I suppose it’s not really related to the question.
EDIT: I suppose I should add that creatures like the Mantid and Nerubians also have mortal souls. A Mantid even appear in the shadowlands, which is interesting as they’re descendants from the Aqir which is literally made from the biomass of the old gods.