Soulbound: A Ghost Story (WIP) [Updated April 15, 2025]

[grimbutnotalways]

I’m pretty sure Callum was always bad. He just wasn’t always bad to you.

[Empress_Nightmare]

Lol Callum was like a cunning fox imo…

[MangoLeche]

Aaah me too! It’s the bad boy appeal lol

jokes aside I’m curious about Callum view about him and mc relationship, specially with a past romance, he seems to have a very practical/rational view of relationships and seems pretty secure on his social standing and yet not only does he befriend them but weakens himself considerably so they can both escape, I wonder if his bad relationship with their parents and the fact that his family are “new rich” has anything to do with that .

I guess I just see his betrayal as less “I’m evil >:)” and more “you’re a fool guiding us to death and I just wanna live bro”

[Hostage]

obs: This is stuff that has been discussed on discord, so, yeah, no need to read it all again if you have already - there is nothing new =/

A Speculative Speculation on the Subject of Spellbound’s Secret RO - By someone who needs help in many senses in understanding the clues

First part of Part One - The Contextualization

In each update, Spellbound’s author releases a clue about the identity of the secret RO. Until now we have been speculating about their meaning exclusively on Discord. This is an attempt to categorize what we know (basically nothing) and have guessed so far because we are stuck and desperately need help as people that don’t know about this should deserve the chance to join the fun!

Following part of Part One - The Quotations

If you are wise and don’t believe in me without proofs, here’s what Spellbound’s author posted about it on the thread so far.

• March 13, 2020

@CorvusWitchcraft

Alright, I waffled a bit on whether or not to say this outright, but I figure I’d rather risk too many people figuring things out than nobody even realizing anything is going on.

So, here goes:

The most recent update contains the first of fifteen (15) clues that will, taken collectively, point toward the identity of the secret RO. Each new update for the foreseeable future will contain another such clue, and when it’s all done, anyone who’s figured it out will have a pretty good idea of who it is.

I know that some of you (you know who you are) are pretty smart cookies, so the whole puzzle will be rather on the vague side, and I anticipate either people figuring it out way too soon or nobody figuring it out at all. Consider this a challenge.

• June 20, 2020

@CorvusWitchcraft

Secondly, just a reminder that this update (finally) continues the ongoing event in which I hide a clue/puzzle in each update, and the answers, taken collectively, will hint toward the identity of the secret RO! So far, most of the discussion about this has taken place on the Discord server rather than the forums themselves—if you’re wondering, the Discord folks actually found the first clue, and then tragically dismissed it because they were wildly overthinking the entire exercise—but I figured I’d let people know, in case they’d forgotten or missed the original announcement, that this is still happening. And you could be participating!

Or you could just wait a few months/years for it to be revealed in the story, like a normal person. That’s probably the saner option.

Part Two - The Clues (shockingly, this section spoils the clues)

• First Clue An acrimonious afterlife

• Second Clue - At present, unfit

• Third Clue - 750 + 7! + 23^3 + SUM[n=1, 10]((32n^4 + 39n^3) / (5n)) = (cos^3(arctan(arcsec(2 - ln((sqrt(67957x / (10(0!))) - 50x) / (13x^5 - 257x) + e)) / (7x^2 - SUM[n=1, 4]((12n - 1) / log(nx)) + 3(pi)/2))) + 7)!

Theories (and spoilers about the clues and some paths)

Theory 1 - The Letters

Solving the equation we found x = e as the answer to the third clue.

Lo (the notorious role model member of Spellbound’s discord server) noticed that the first two clues have an letter that appears three times, they are respectively a and t. Plus, we gathered e as the third answer and e is another letter, according to some points of view, at least. So we would have { a ; t ; e }

This could indicate a pattern. Maybe each clue will lead us towards one letter, in this hypothesis, at the end we would have a sort of meta puzzle - which could be a sentence of 15 letters and them, after rearranged into a logical sentence, could point towards the secret RO - perhaps it would even end up forming their name?

Theory 2 - Forthright (and biased to prove Charlotte as the secret RO based on clue1)

(i) In a literal interpretation of the first two clues, we’d have that the secret RO had an acrimonious afterlife and is unfit at the present in some way.

(ii) If the secret RO is dead, they could have been disembodied by some sort of device related to Callum’s talisman.

Now the fun starts! Do you remember the TOWER?

@Excerpt from startup

You remember it like it was yesterday.

The prison. The tower.

The explosion.

Dyren mentions its explosion too! In the prologue, if you take the south path (in which MC finds the quartermaster - Alden/Gale) you can unlock the following excerpt:

@Excerpt from prologue-2

He is silent for a moment, his lip quivering. But when he meets your eyes again, he looks no less resolute.

“I-I’m sorry, Commander. I can’t just walk away. N-not again.”

Shit. He had to bring up the tower again. That gives you a moment of pause—”just enough for Dyren to press his advantage.

(iii) So, an explosion related somehow to a pendant that Callum gave to MC happened - and someone died there. Also, don’t forget that the pendants Callum made (both, in the prologue and in the tower’s explosion) seem to be related to that talisman of his.

The talisman has energy enough to disembody a spirit from its soul, as it was responsible for the current MC’s ghostly state of being. And having the energy necessary to create a spirit isn’t something common, mind you. Here, if you don’t trust me, please, consider what Anson says about it:

Of course, I would be remiss to neglect mentioning the other infamous ability associated with Animation—the power to alter a soul so significantly that it is no longer attuned to its body at all. In effect, a skilled Animator can rend a spirit from its earthly vessel entirely, leaving the body lifeless and the spirit unable to recover or move on—effectively becoming a disembodied specter, also known as a ghost.

Contrary to popular belief, this ability is quite rare and quite difficult to pull off—extraordinary amounts of power are required to accomplish such a feat. However, numerous stories, both historical and apocryphal, have been told of the phenomenon, effectively garnering Animation quite a morbid reputation. But as we have discussed, Animation is, like all schools of magic, quite diverse in its utilizations—conducive to applications both positive and negative.

Perhaps the same happened to the victim of the tower’s explosion - yes, the one that was abandoned by Dyren, Callum, and the MC. If that’s the case, maybe they - whoever they are - ended up as a disembodied spirit too… Now, who could that possibly be, I wonder?

(iv) On discord, CleverSpirit pointed out something intriguing - Charlotte does not appear in the prologue. So, where is she during those events?

To answer that, one thing that it is worth noticing is: during that fateful scene, in which Callum and MC are about to kill each other, Callum says at some point “Everyone you care about is dead!”.

Corvus mentioned that it’s possible to befriend Charlotte and to care about her. As MC/Charlotte relationship isn’t defined yet when Callum says that, for the sake of that making sense in all paths, it has to be consistent with MCs that care about Charlotte. Hence, she must be dead by then… Ugh… I know, I know, that’s hard… But we shall move the next relevant question - how and when did she die.

First, there is the possibility that she passed away during the events of the prologue, yes - however, I don’t think that that’s probable as she’s a relevant character (at least in my heart). But seriously now, if she was presented during the start of the prologue’s events, I’d expect her to be mentioned in a more direct way. She’d probably be a relevant figure to the army, as Callum were.

It’s also possible that she died in any other event in the past, yeah. However, there is a connection that is interesting noticing: Charlotte, Dyren, and the MC were mentioned as relevant characters during the Witch Hunts of Landry.

@From chapter_i-1

You see nothing on Dyren, not that you expected to; there’d be no reason for his name to come up. Nothing on you either, nor Charlotte— more surprising, perhaps, since you’re pretty sure you both played a big part in what happened in Landry back then. If your memory weren’t so fuzzy right now, you might even remember what you did.

Note that Callum isn’t. Why isn’t he not mentioned?

Now comes the theory - he’s not acting as an active figure by then for he’s being reclusive while learning how to control/use the Talisman (plus I don’t think he, as a mage, would have tried to drawn attention during With Hunts. My current guess is that they gained the Talisman in these events). In the end, after Dyren joins MC’s army, Callum loses the control of the talisman and the tower explosion happens, not just killing Charlotte but putting her in a state similar to the state of MC in chapter zero.

That would explain An acrimonious afterlife. Plus, the first sentence of chapter zero is:

The first thing you notice is the cold, bitter, and acrid, like you’ll never be warm again.

And the word acrid seems to be quite similar to acrimonious, doesn’t it? That’s one reason I linked Clue#1 to that particular state of being.

(v) Why are you saying Charlotte is the spirit and not Dyran nor Callum? Because I want to believe in that. Besides, we watched Dyren and Callum’s deaths. And both were already dead when the blast of animation magic came off from the talisman - and that was energy responsible for the detaching of MC’s body and spirit. So, by then, their souls basically were already not in this plane, but in limbo. So, sorry Callum-lovers, but for now I do believe Callum is gone for good! I will even quote the exact sentence that makes me think so.

Callum tries to speak, but the words turn to sick, wet gurgles as he chokes on his own blood. As you look into his eyes one final time, you see his rage and desperation disappear, replaced with shock, confusion, and fear. Slowly, the black pools in his eyes fade into grays, and for an instant, you almost think you see a flash of red, before the light fades away entirely.

He’s dead.

For a single moment, you simply stand there, a stationary silhouette against the hazy red backdrop of the setting sun. Then you hear the crackling buzz of Callum’s talisman, a familiar black energy swirling around it—a final, spiteful contingency in case of his defeat, perhaps, or possibly just a release of pent-up energy. You don’t have the time to find out, nor the energy.

See? He’s dead before the explosion. And you can’t detach a soul from a soulless body, right? Of course, maybe MC was wrong, perhaps Callum just appeared to be dead. If that’s the case, there’s the possibility he became a ghost as the MC, yes - however, in this scenario why the MC didn’t see his spirit? As a ghost, MC saw the other bodiless souls at the museum, after the explosion. And that happened before the MC was bonded to Valerie, so the MC should have been able to see Callum’s spirit in the battlefield if it existed, no?

note: I’m not explaining how Charlotte would fit into clues #2 and #3 as I believe we don’t have enough information to make that interesting. There are ways it could fit, however, it’s based purely on speculation so far.

Theory 3 - Forthright approach of clue 2 or.. something?

Clue#2 - “At present, unfit”

The clue suggests the unfitness is not any trait but one that distinguishes the present from the other periods. Therefore, the character probably was someone who was fitting in the past.

The most notable distinction the plot seems to mark regarding the present and the past is how magic became subdued. So, the theory here is that the secret RO was a powerful mage, but now, is someone oppressed exactly due to their arcane knowledge.

The interesting part is noticing the relation of this with the reason behind the attacks that MC, Valerie, and the Circle are trying to stop.

During Jacqueline’s interrogation, she reveals that Tackitt - the targeted energy company located in The Sky District - made a prototype some time ago that was harmful to mages (especially leyliners) - and now they seem to be doing this again, motivating the insurrectionists to act.

@chapter_ii-1

“You’re…you’re bluffin’. You know it’d fuck you up just as much as me. Don’t tell me you actually believe that horeshit about 'em being harmless.”

Cortez shrugs nonchalantly. “That was the Circle’s official ruling. No evidence of permanent damage to mages. No evidence that any effects on magical energy were even known or intentional. As for the other effects—””

“What, messin’ up leylines and shit?” Jacqueline practically spits her words. “Like it’s not hard enough keepin’ our heads down without the fucking mundies screwing with us at every turn! ‘Not intentional.’ Fuck that! This is the second time Tackitt’s come out with some shit that fucked with our magic, and you Circlejerks want us to believe it’s some kinda coincidence? Yeah fuckin’ right, someone up in that tower knows about mages and is fuckin’ targeting us, and you fucks are just sittin’ around letting it happen!”

Cortez raises an eyebrow, slowly. “Ah. So of course, you responded to the vague, unsubstantiated suspicion of somebody at Tackitt targeting mages by blowing up an entire floor of innocent workers. How very noble of you.”

So, following this point of view, I can see two possibilities that are worthy of notice: (i) the secret RO is the responsible for the Insurrectionists; (ii) the secret RO is unfitting at the present but isn’t involved in the conflict, preferring to keep themself reclusive.

The first option, if taken together to the first clue (which would eliminate Camilla as a potential answer she doesn’t appear to be dead =/) could lead to:

• The magical prodigy is the secret RO

@Chapter 0

[…] got their hands on the greatest weapon of all: a magical prodigy. A woman who sold her allegiance to the highest bidder, capable of raining meteors down from the sky and growing crops with a snap of her fingers. A great savior,
*if enemy = “Salgeyd”
Bannegral
*if enemy = “Regalda”
Salgeyd
calls her. A heinous villain, ${enemy} calls her. Many compare her exploits to yours—a legendary figure who rises from obscurity to change the fate of the world.
You wonder if she will meet a similar fate. Of course, when you look at her, you can’t help but think of Callum, all that power coursing through her, at the tip of her fingers, enough to raise up a kingdom or destroy it. This woman is many leagues more powerful than Callum was, even with the aid of his talisman, but you see the parallels nonetheless.

• The talisman is the secret RO

So, Lo made this another amazing super extraordinary theory, that the secret RO could be the talisman. I won’t dare try to explain this in all its greatness, but, basically, as the name of the theory (The Talisman is the Secret RO theory) suggests, the talisman is the secret RO.

The second option, on the other hand, would point towards a character that probably wasn’t introduced yet, and maybe the MC could try to request their help.

[LastLau]

Ye… I’ll just wait those years for the reveal.

[CynicalCream]

I don’t see the “You’re a fool guiding us to death.”, because it feels like if not for Callum’s interference in fucking you over colossally, you actually had a very fair chance of winning the final showdown.

Edit: And i normally gravitate towards the “Bad boy” archetype as well, but honestly Callum seems like he would sell your soul to Satan for one corn chip, or maybe if you were to bargain, 2 corn chips.

[Talkingtaco]

Add to that the fact that if that’s how he felt then he could’ve just, y’know, left the rebels.

Plus, he takes on a pretty gleeful enjoyment of torturing you physically and emotionally at the end. If “this whole thing is dumb and fruitless” was his major reason for the betrayal, then he wouldda just killed you at the end and be done with it.

@Hostage I don’t even care about the deets by now. I’ll literally just subscribe to any theory that has Charlotte as the secret RO

[BreBee]

I believe my response to the poll does deserve an explanation!
I don’t like to feel like my magic can physically hard, disturb, or reshape another person so my choice was divination. In some magic circles information that is divined by you can’t be shared with others, and is often on large and dangerous scales. — although I’d prefer not to experience either I also really like being able to help others. I thought divination would be one of the best ways to do this aside from magic that can heal. (It was a bit of a tough choice for me).

[CorvusWitchcraft]

Hey.

So, it's been a minute.

Several, actually. It might even be in the hundreds by now. I’d have to crunch the numbers to be sure. It’s been many minutes.

Suffice it to say, time has passed. It’s December now. The thread title helpfully informs me that the last update to the actual game was in August, and I suppose I believe that. Meanwhile, my last post here was…September? Of this year, I think. Again, it’s hard to be sure these days.

Either way, it’s been a while. I think, at the time, I explained in vague terms that things were happening that were preventing me from writing—so I will continue the proud tradition of explaining in vague terms, and note that things are still happening, but they’re not quite the same things that were happening before. Such is the nature of time, as we all know. Thus, circumstances are slightly different, and so, perhaps, might be the results. This, too, is the nature of time.

The takeaway is this: where writing did not happen, in the not-too-distant past, writing might happen, sometime in the not-too-distant future. If I can swing it, I would really love to squeeze one more update out before the end of the year. Don’t be shocked if that happens!

Don’t be shocked if it doesn’t, either. I am a firm believer in the notion that “maybe” does in fact mean “maybe”, rather than “yes” or “no” or “please decide for me, because I am terribly indecisive and cannot commit one way or the other”. Ignore the fact that I used the word “might” in my earlier paragraph, rather than “maybe”. They are, in this context, semantic equivalents.

This is perhaps not the good news I imagine people might have hoping for, nor is it the bad news people might have been dreading. It might not even qualify as news, given the lack of actual, newsworthy details. But, they say that no news is good news, and in this instance, that might just end up being the case.

Maybe.

Either way, I appreciate people sticking with me, and the day I post the next update, whenever that is, will hopefully be actual good news in the dressings of good news. More minutes will pass before then, of course.

But hopefully not too many.

TLDR: Things might happen this month, or they might not. Time will pass, either way.

[cornerstorecashier]

I am really, really excited about this game. I love the story so far, and the characters are great. Big fan of our dead MC, I love it when we get to play as non-human/supernatural beings. Cortez is everything I want in a RO, and my MC will try to seduce him at every opportunity. Looking forward to the next update, whenever it happens!

[Leonel]

Who is the secret RO? Is it Camilla or Alan Cortez?

[LastLau]

Whoever the secret RO is people still have to guess.

[Drakeye]

The secret RO is obviosly The MC…

[PrismaticSpace]

Oh, I like this. It’s fun dancing between present and past. Callum is the kind of character that has me wondering why in the heck MC ever loved him (as they were lovers in my playthrough), and then his betrayal, well, I smell a complicated relationship. I DID look at the coding and the choices you can make to earn his respect are just… like… Bruh, you good? Why are you like this???

I cannot believe I’m pinning for Cortez with his stupid goatee. Can MC force him to shave it? Anywho! I shall be waiting for update as I rather enjoyed this.

[CorvusWitchcraft]

@Leonel

Who is the secret RO? Is it Camilla or Alan Cortez?

The secret RO is actually Sybil Cortez, Alan and Rawlin’s oldest sister. You’ll meet her in Chapter IV!

@PrismaticSpace

I cannot believe I’m pinning for Cortez with his stupid goatee. Can MC force him to shave it?

The game won’t cover enough time for their relationship to reach a point where that would be appropriate (you’ll only actually experience the opening stages of romance, since this is not really a romance-focused game), but enough people have commented on this that I might someday include an option for the MC to express an opinion about the goatee. Not sure yet where that would feel natural to fit in there, but I’ll keep it in the back of my mind, at least.

Glad you’re liking the story so far and hopefully I’ll be able to update before 800 years have passed in real life!

[gomisegye]

I’m writing here as I play through.

I feel so bad for Dyren. I read the info on the characters before playing so I went with the nicest options for him even though I knew he’d die. Would he still stop looking up to me though? It’s kinda sad.

The first few achievements are so funny!

“Well…maybe it should be?” She grins, somewhat cheekily. “Have you considered a pay-per-exhibit sort of business model? I really feel like that would attract a lot more customers, you know? Maybe if you let me talk to the manager—”

I’m surprised the museum admission fee was so expensive! Maybe it’s different in other countries but in such a case then her idea is nice lmao

You see nothing on Dyren, not that you expected to; there’d be no reason for his name to come up. Nothing on you either, nor Charlotte—more surprising, perhaps, since you’re pretty sure you both played a big part in what happened in Landry back then. If your memory weren’t so fuzzy right now, you might even remember what you did.

That’s just sad.

The first time I see a game asking for the character’s zodiac sign! Does it have any effect on the story?

“Oh, right! That makes sense.”

She grins at you. A moment passes.

“…How do we do that?”

Honestly I am Valerie, Valerie is me.

This. Just this

“What the hell are you doing?!” you hear Marcus yell, as he pulls his partner to her feet.

“What am I doing?” the fire mage shouts back indignantly. “What the hell are you doing?! I thought you were disarming the fuckin’ bomb!”

" Yeah , I was , before I realized you were getting your ass kicked by a wisp !"

“Ah, fuck you, I had this shit completely under control!”

" Under control ?! You’re bleeding , for Christ’s sake!"

I love this LMAO. I also just learned how to do the hide details thingy.

Just went to the past and well… that was shocking.

I don’t hate Callum but I’m still not over how he killed Mr. Manning (I think that was his name).

I feel so bad but I’m just skimming over the book about magic.

“Perfect. Now, I’m going to need a bit of Dumbo’s time.” He glances at Valerie. " Just Dumbo."

I made my character’s last name ‘Dumbo’ 'cause I had no idea what else to use and I’m not sure if I regret it.

Wooo! I can’t wait for this to be updated!
It was really nice and I’ll probably play again to read everything carefully but the story is interesting and all the characters are cool. Except Callum. jk.

[Titanwithwings]

@CorvusWitchcraft

The secret RO is actually Sybil Cortez, Alan and Rawlin’s oldest sister. You’ll meet her in Chapter IV!

Really??? I thought the secret RO would be the ghost janitor we found in Ms. Horvat’s shop… I was looking forward to spending the rest of my eternal undead life with them

[Dragongodess]

@CorvusWitchcraft

The secret RO is actually Sybil Cortez, Alan and Rawlin’s oldest sister. You’ll meet her in Chapter IV!

Is that sarcasm, I sense. Because there’s no way you would reveal something like this.

[The_Eski]

AH HA! That’s just what they WANT you to think.

[Talkingtaco]

@CorvusWitchcraft

The secret RO is actually Sybil Cortez, Alan and Rawlin’s oldest sister. You’ll meet her in Chapter IV!