A hopefully illuminating writeup on Glou and Nevelle's souls residing within the Crimson Scourge and Blades of Ryusen respectively (as well as the nature of death and souls in Star Ocean more generally!)
First! Establishing some basics about how souls work in the SO universe:
- Upon death, the soul physically separates from the body.
The first fundamental point is that death =/= a person's soul ceases to exist.
In SO3's Library of Theology, you can find a book called Tome of Restoration which gives us a very technical definition of death (to explain how runology/symbological spells like Restoration actually work):
"The definition of life is a state of being wherein the soul and body are in perfect harmony. Death refers to the instant the thread of runological force binding the soul to the body is severed, causing them to fully separate."
Folstar, Elicoor II's God of Death, is also described as cleaving "the silver thread that binds the soul to the body" with his sword.
So the body and soul are distinct things, which, in life, are held together by runological force, but then separated in death. The Tome of Blood Scylla explicitly defines this process as a runological one:
"The source of all action in our world is the motion of runological force, and the act of the soul bonding to the body is no exception."
So, runology isn't limited to only acting upon physical matter - runology is the entire mechanism through which souls attach themselves to matter. Of course, at a 4D level, we know that runology/symbology is essentially the Eternal Sphere’s “processing code,” and manipulating it gives characters the ability to rewrite the rules of the universe itself.
In way of more examples, if you take Ameena to Aquaria XXVII before delivering her to Dion’s bedside, Aquaria XXVII ‘diagnoses’ her as on the brink of death by assessing the very threadbare link between Ameena's soul and her body:
"The runological force protecting the soul is growing extremely weak. A strong willpower is all that binds the runological force to the body now."
- Where does this separated soul go?
SO3’s definition of the Daemonium states that souls reside in matter:
"This well-known parallel universe is the home of demons and other entities that are fundamentally different from the inhabitants of this universe. Unlike this universe, where souls reside in matter, in the Daemonium, spirits are able to act by taking physical form."
The Church of Apris’ mythology (influenced by direct engagement with 4D Beings) expresses this same concept through Apris himself. According to Book of Creation V, after creating life:
"Apris threw his own body into a blazing fire, transforming his very soul into a great mass of flames that rose into the heavens. Thus he became embodied in the Sun so he could watch over the world for all eternity."
- The Crimson Scourge literally assimilates souls
Another book in the Library of Theology called Treasures of the Gods leaves very little ambiguity about what the Crimson Scourge can do:
"The sacred treasures of great power that have been found are evidence of the existence of gods. They include the Sacred Orb, a crystal sphere of pure runological force; the Sword of the Crimson Scourge, which assimilates the souls of its victims [...]"
‘Assimilate’ involves a ‘taking in,’ a ‘housing,’ a consumption of some kind, not an annihilation. Airyglyph XIII also says that in the worst case, the Scourge “consumes both body and soul." This assimilation can be gradual or partial: for example, Vox likely had some (but not all) of his soul subsumed by the Scourge, seeing as he wasn’t reduced to a soulless husk (unlike the victims infected by the Vile Wind).
The Scourge, which was “gifted” to Aquaria I by the 4D Beings, is effectively a runological soul-vacuuming artifact. It resembles all other forms of extreme symbological contamination described elsewhere in Star Ocean series, implying that the Scourge is derived from a Quadratic Key (which itself is derived from an Energy Stone, which emits a symbological pollution capable of driving creatures mad). In Eternal Materials, the developers state that the Vile Wind is a “symbological energy system” that produces “malevolent pulsating waves” that “affect the psyches and bodies of living organisms" and that “this phenomenon appears to be related to the biological pollution caused by Quadratic Keys earlier in the history of the Pangalactic Federation.”
But how exactly are creatures driven mad by runological force? Are their souls corrupted, or just their minds/bodies? Aquaria XXVII independently observes that the Vile Wind resembles the enormous runological energy emanating from the Sacred Orb, another Treasure of the Gods. She also senses that the Vile Winds' waves destroy the runological force binding a person's soul to their body - basically, it turns people into soulless zombies:
"These fluctuations, which were named the Vile Wind, were capable of destroying the runological force that binds the soul of a living being to its body. Living organisms that have been ravaged by the Vile Wind gradually lose control, grow physically deformed, and are finally driven to a state of total insanity and corruption."
So an individual (lacking the genes capable of withstanding intense amounts of runological force) isn’t “corrupted” in the sense that their soul is permamurdered or twisted into depravity: the victim's soul merely departs from the physical container, leaving the husk-body to slowly rot with madness, physical deformation, etc.
The Scourge is unique owing to the fact that it is “sentient”; not only does does it sever the soul from the body, but it “assimilates”/houses the soul within itself (soul residing in matter). So, upon Glou’s death, Glou’s soul entered the Scourge, along with the countless of other souls the Scourge devoured (including the fragment of Vox’s soul).
SO3 never explains what exactly constitutes the Scourge's sentience - are the souls merged together in a giant collective soup, or do they retain their distinguishable identities? When the Scourge talks to Albel, it refers to Glou in the third person and also shares omnipotent insight (making reference to the arrogant Dragon Brigade Knight who talks down to Albel, as well as Fayt), so I’m inclined to think that the Scourge is mostly a collective soup, but where individual souls like Glou’s can contribute to the intelligence inhabiting it and influence decisions (e.g., even if Vox had the requisite Bloodline Limit for the Scourge, Glou exerted enough influence to reject Vox as a candidate).
- Nevelle Zelpher within the Blades of Ryusen
Like the Crimson Scourge, Nevelle's Blades of Ryusen are themselves objects of extraordinary runological power. The dictionary entry describes them as: "a pair of twin swords forged from concentrated runological essences during the reign of Aquaria XXIV, the Queen of Light."
The original Japanese description goes even further, describing them as having been created by gathering the “absolute finest essences of Aquaria's runological arts.”
The SOA event Sunlight of the Gods Brought by the Goddess of the Star Ocean (a collaboration between the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, both developed by tri-Ace) begins with Nel strangely feeling “compelled” by the Blades of Ryusen to travel to a particular location. The weapon vibrates and glows at her, drawing Adray’s suspicions. Later, Nel, Adray, and Claude encounter VP's Alicia/Silmeria (a girl who herself houses two souls). Alicia/Silmeria examines the Blades of Ryusen and says:
Alicia/Silmeria: "There are traces of materialization on Nel's dagger."
Nel: "What?"
Alicia/Silmeria: "The Kingdom of Aquaria... The sea of stars... space... G-F-S-S... I wonder if Nevelle is a person's name?"
[...]
Rufus: "Silmeria has a power called Object Reading. She can read the souls and thoughts dwelling within objects. Therefore..."
Adray: "Mute objects. Indeed, they cannot lie. Is that what you mean?"
Nel: "But there's no explaining how she guessed things about the Blades of Ryusen that she couldn't possibly have known."
Adray: "...Indeed. The name Nevelle is not something one can guess by mere coincidence."
In Valkyrie Profile, “materialization” is a metaphysical process through which a soul ‘materializes’ into a physical form: e.g., an Einherjar is fundamentally a dead person's soul, but a Valkyrie can materialize that soul so that it acquires a tangible body and can physically fight. In Valkyrie Profile 2, Silmeria's former Einherjar are encountered through physical relics associated with them (often old weapons or personal objects). If Alicia/Silmeria were to touch the artifact, she could then re-materialize the person associated with it.
Here, Alicia/Silmeria examines the Blades of Ryusen using a power capable of finding souls dwelling within matter, detects evidence of materialization, and immediately and spontaneously identifies Nevelle, explaining why and how the Blades were seemingly “communing with Nel” throughout the event.
To finish this off with a charming little aside, in the Arias inn where the player first encounters a portrait of Nevelle Zelpher (called "General of the Mist") another painting displayed in the same location is titled: "The Source of the Soul.”
