Soulbound

A Paper plugin that gives every player a permanent soul with unique abilities, permanent consequences for dying, and a way to earn a second chance.

Instead of treating death like a small setback, your soul actually takes damage. The more you die, the weaker you become, and if you lose your soul completely, you'll have to earn it back.

How it works

The first time a player joins, they're randomly assigned 1 of 15 unique souls.

Your soul is a custom Echo Shard that belongs only to you. It can't be dropped, traded, put in chests, or lost on death.

Every death cracks your soul.

• Each crack removes 0.5 hearts from your maximum health.
• After 8 cracks, your soul breaks completely.
• Broken players become Lost Souls and lose their original power.

Healing your soul

Souls recover naturally.

• 1 crack heals every 20 minutes
• Doesn't work while you're a Lost Soul

You can also repair it instantly with Soul Fragments.

Soul Fragments

Fragments are the main progression item.

Players

- Kill another player with a soul → 1 Soul Fragment

Bosses

Boss	Drop Chance
Ender Dragon	100%
Wither	100%
Warden	50%
Elder Guardian	35%

Rebirth

When your soul is gone, you can try to create a new one.

Craft an Empty Soul using:

• 8 Soul Fragments
• 1 Diamond

Take it to a Soul Altar and begin a roughly 20-second ritual.

During the ritual:

• Soulfire circles tighten around the altar.
• Wisps rise into the air.
• The sound builds until a lightning strike finishes the ritual.

Results:

• 60% chance to receive a brand-new random soul.
• 40% chance to lose the Empty Soul.
• 5% of successful rituals become the rare Sovereign Soul.

If no altar has been created yet, the ritual works anywhere so new servers don't get stuck.

Lost Soul

Even without a real soul, you're not completely helpless.

Ghost Form

• 2 seconds of invisibility
• Completely untouchable
• Costs 2 hearts afterward
• Never kills you

Cooldown: 60 seconds

The Souls

Some souls are always active, while others have abilities with cooldowns.

Passive Souls

Soul	Passive
Blaze	Permanent Fire Resistance
Swift	Permanent Speed I
Ironclad	+2 Max Hearts
Venom	Melee attacks apply Poison
Frost	Melee attacks slow and freeze enemies

Active Souls

Hold your soul crystal and use Sneak + Right Click, or run /soul ability.

Soul	Ability	Cooldown
Spirit	Summon two spirit wolves	60s
Storm	Strike nearby enemies with lightning	90s
Shadow	Invisibility + Speed II	75s
Guardian	Absorption III + Resistance I	90s
Radiant	Heal and remove negative effects	120s
Inferno	Launch three meteors	45s
Quake	Ground slam that launches enemies	75s
Gale	Powerful wind blast	60s
Void	Blink through enemies	90s

Sovereign Soul

The rarest soul in the plugin.

Instead of one ability, it has four switchable powers.

Swap abilities with Sneak + Left Click or /soul next.

Ability	Cooldown
Soul Seekers	40s
Dominion	60s
Soul Nova	75s
Ascendance	120s

Effects

Every ability has custom particles and sounds.

Examples include:

• Lightning storms
• Portal trails
• Soulfire bursts
• Shockwave rings
• Ghostly wisp trails

Cooldown HUD

The plugin includes a built-in resource pack with an animated cooldown HUD.

The ability icon stays near your crosshair.

• Bright when ready
• Dark while on cooldown
• A 12-frame wipe animation fills back up until it's ready again

The HUD also updates automatically for Sovereign powers and Ghost Form.

Included Resource Pack

soulbound-pack.zip comes with the plugin.

It includes:

• 32×32 pixel-art soul crystals
• Colored rune designs for every soul
• Lost Soul crystal
• Empty Soul
• Soul Fragments
• HUD icons
• Pack icon

Players only need to accept the server resource pack. No client mods are required.

Older clients simply see vanilla items while the mechanics still work.

Commands

Command	Description
/soul	View your soul, integrity, cooldowns, and abilities
/souls	Alias for /soul
/soul ability	Use your active ability
/soul next	Cycle Sovereign abilities

Admin

Command	Description
`/souladmin give <soul\	random>`
/souladmin setintegrity <player> <0-8>	Set soul integrity
/souladmin unlost <player>	Restore a Lost Soul
/souladmin fragments <player> <amount>	Give fragments
/souladmin emptysoul <player> <amount>	Give Empty Souls
/souladmin altar build	Build an altar
/souladmin altar add/remove/list	Manage altar locations
/souladmin reload	Reload the config

Config

Almost everything can be changed in config.yml, including:

• Hearts lost per crack
• Natural regeneration time
• Ability cooldowns
• Ghost Form damage
• Fragment drop rates
• Rebirth success chance
• Sovereign chance
• Ritual length
• HUD settings
• Altar requirements

Changes can be reloaded without restarting the server.

Requirements

• Paper 1.21.x (tested on 1.21.11)
• Java 21
• Custom models require 1.21.4+ clients for the full visual experience