Kuttamuwa’s Stele

Origin
Kuttamuwa was a Hittite royal official who lived in the 8th century BC colony of Sam’al. In 2008, archaeologists working in southeast Turkey discovered his funerary stele. Weighing at an impressive 800 pounds, its 13 lines of script contained the earliest known mention of the soul being distinct from the physical body. Annual sacrifices would have been held in audience of this stele, as it was believed the soul of Kuttamuwa was passed into the stele.

Effects
Activates when a person leaves behind a token or good as sacrifice, and then performs an activity with another one of that object. That person’s soul, now called their consciousness, will be extracted from their body and usually stuffed into the most representative object of the person. A small portion will remain connected to the body, but the rest will be entombed within the icon.

Their body will still behave as if nothing happened, measuring life signs, reacting correctly to stimuli, even maintaining the person’s memories. However, nobody will ever really know they’re talking to almost nothing of the actual person. The link between the separated soul will gradually fray, making the body turn erratic until full imprinting occurs, causing the soul to quickly dissipate.

Can affect an unknown amount of people at once, the highest measured being 38. Noticeably damaging the stele in any way will destroy all affected people, terminating life signs.