Guild Wars 2

So Exalted are said to be “souls bound to armor”. That was what I thought of the Mursaat at first. In order to prolong their life, they relinquished their flesh bodies and transferred their souls into magical-machina bodies. They used souls to bar the gate to the Titans after all, that’s further proof their magic is far more advanced than Asuran golemancy and they have mastery of soul magic. But now it’s been revealed that those we saw in the preview were Exalted and not Mursaat, and they are “souls bound to armor”. Asurans use elementals to power their golems, but what if they developed it further so souls of more sentient being became the power source of the golems. Would they retain their memories and consciousness, or will they be reduced to an unconscious “battery” for advanced golems?

Firstly, not all golems are powered by elementals – it’s really just a case of “magic empowers them, the source varies.” As such, technically speaking souls being used to empower golems has already existed for quite some time. There’s the Oola’s Lab event where Oola’s soul is used to empower her strongest golem there. The Inquest are well known for experimenting with soul-empowered golems as well.

As for retaining memories and consciousness – it varies from the examples we’re given but in large the answer is “yes”. But among those same examples, one (Oola) is capable of entering and leaving the golem at will – so it’s more of a “ghost in the machine” piloting than being a powersource. The souls used by the Inquest tend to be unable to control the golem’s actions most of the time.

Pretty much – the Inquest, for instance, can use the souls of sapient beings to power golems, and apparently have a particular liking for (ab)using sylvari this way.

We also have plenty of other examples of souls being bound to constructs. Shiro’ken are one definite example, as are the Jade constructs of the Mursaat. It’s likely that the Enchanted of Guild Wars 1 were as well, and you could also argue that the Kurzick juggernauts also counted, although they’re more… grown.

In some cases, the soul appears to retain control over the construct the soul is powering, while in others, it seems that the soul is simply a power source and the creator is in control. The case of the Exalted seems to definitely be in the first category.