Souls can evolve?

Delicious friends, I am rather involved now in the Trade of Souls and thought about the nature and brilliance of certain souls. Lore seems to suggest that one can have a &quotbetter&quot soul by being more, I guess, &quotnotable&quot. Priests and poets have brilliant ones while royalty has even better.

My question is, how does exactly one evolve their souls?

puts stylish tin fedora on
I think devils put at lot of effort on &quotbefriending&quot you so that your soul would grow and at least be more valuable to them. Maybe Persuasive actions buffs them somewhat.

Souls cannot evolve, as evolution involves weakest ones dying and souls are immortal.

Evolve in the sense of “changing gradually” rather than in the strictly Darwinian sense, though. (The sense of “spreading vapours” also seems appropriate… also, we have seen souls destroyed in both Fallen London and Silver Tree.) (Also also, I’d argue that Darwinian evolution doesn’t necessarily involve the weakest dying - even if we interpret “weakest” as “least environmentally advantageous”, a given gene pool can change over time even without selection taking the form of extermination.)

Anyway… yes, I daresay that’s exactly what the devils are trying to do. They cultivate us, that we might be harvested. We got some glimpse from last month’s Exceptional Story what effects our lives can have on our souls. It’s a shame we only have the devils’ expertise on the matter.

Apologies if my terms are a bit unclear. But yeah, evolve as in Pokemon evolution not evolve as in Galapagos finches.

EDIT:
Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook

If that’s the case, I guess my character not being trying to be intimate with these devils is quite reasonable.

I just wonder how strong a soul can grow. If the trend from Soul -> Brilliant Soul -> Coruscating Soul is correct then the most powerful souls would be really really bright.
edited by Pyrodinium on 11/12/2015

There is at least one higher level: Coruscating Soul -> Judgment Egg (although it’s interesting that while a Judgment Egg is a soul it’s not an Infernal item, suggesting that either Hell is uninterested in star-spore souls or, possibly, they are somehow forbidden to Hell?)

Anyway, as Discernment (last month’s Exceptional story) demonstrates, it seems possible (and even likely) that

only a discerning minority of devils seek to cultivate souls and that the majority of devils are only concerned with “movement and exchange” of souls

[quote=genesis]There is at least one higher level: Coruscating Soul -> Judgment Egg (although it’s interesting that while a Judgment Egg is a soul it’s not an Infernal item, suggesting that either Hell is uninterested in star-spore souls or, possibly, they are somehow forbidden to Hell?)

Anyway, as Discernment (last month’s Exceptional story) demonstrates, it seems possible (and even likely) that

only a discerning minority of devils seek to cultivate souls and that the majority of devils are only concerned with &quotmovement and exchange&quot of souls
[/quote]
Don’t forget the silent soul! Though I’m not sure that those are entirely distinct from the Judgments’s Eggs

[quote=NotaWalrus]
Don’t forget the silent soul! Though I’m not sure that those are entirely distinct from the Judgments’s Eggs[/quote]

Ah I remembered getting this one a few years back. the Echo Bazaar Wikia said that they make a glittering arc when thrown so I guess they follow the better soul gives off better light pattern.