Forrest Cameranesi Geek of all Trades

(3x06) Meij Endaren: Part 2, Episode 3

Among the powerful new artifacts the Ancients have created is a pendant that can summon the very souls of the dead and imbue them with control of otherwise-inanimate artificial bodies, primarily to serve as soldiers on the battlefield to lessen their casualties in the face of the Nurbal's unending army of automatons. The body of the deceased must be largely intact, such as one in a coffin in a grave, for the dormant soul still bound to it to be recoverable. The artifacts can then summon the soul into themselves and then, at the soul's direction, magically animate a body molded from materials like clay: a golem.

If the soul was that of a mundane, a non-wizard who did not have direct magical control over their own soul in life, then the golems can be magically commanded by wizards through Geiana, and so make perfect soldiers for the battlefield. Endaren finds the entire process morally repulsive, but it is argued that these people were already dead before, and only mundanes whose souls do not live on through their descendents in Geiana like wizards, so no further harm can be done by having them die again to prevent the wizard deaths that would occur otherwise. Endaren is taught that wizards are not to be resurrected this way, for with their two-way communication with Geiana they would taint the spirit of the goddess herself, and through her all of wizardkind.

Like his short time in command of Nurbal armies, Endaren attempts to push through his objections, to what he is told to do, but in the end decides that neither the Ancients nor the Nurbal are the moral superiors in this war, and something must be done to end it for all without aiding either side to victory; something that will unify both sides together. In a moment of mad inspiration, he decides to steal one of the resurrection stones, and following memories inherited from Darak Meij, he tracks down the body of Mav the Witch-Queen, to resurrect her and set her up as a common enemy against whom both the Ancients and Nurbal must unite, a battle in which he intends to lead them.

Next: Meij Endaren: Part 3, Episode 1