Soul Cube

The Soul Cube is a fictional artifact and weapon from the video game Doom 3.

History

After the Martian race first encountered the forces of Hell at some point in their past, they ended up in a hopeless struggle against its demons. With whatever conventional weapons they had proving ineffective at stemming the horde, they eventually devised a plan using their greatest technology, which bordered on functional magic. Most of the survivors were sacrificed, and their souls were used to create the weapon that would turn the tide: the Soul Cube. With it, their single greatest champion, named 'the Hero', took on the invading force and single-handedly managed to seal the portal.

The Cube was then buried along with other artifacts near the Hero's burial chamber, in case anyone ever had to deal with the forces of Hell yet again.

During the game
Soon before the Mars invasion began, Dr. Betruger took the Soul Cube and went through the teleporter without authorization to have it contained in Hell. Thus, having the key to their defeat now in their hands, the demons invaded the UAC Mars Base.

The marine receives the Soul Cube at the end of his trek in Hell, just after defeating the Guardian boss. After being freed, the Soul Cube gives the following speech:

"We are many. We are one. We are the Praelanthor. You know us as the Soul Cube. Free us from our eternal prison, and we will help you. Vanquish our enemies and we grow stronger. Listen for our call, and then free us, to strike down the evil."

"Destroying evil gives us life, and makes us stronger. Unleash us when you hear our call. We will pass the lifeforce of those we slay to you."

"We foresee a great battle. The outcome is not clear. We are the only way to destroy Hell's mightiest warrior."

The "mighty warrior" referred to is the Cyberdemon, Doom 3's final boss.

Operation
The Soul Cube is powered with the life force liberated following any death, including humans and allies, at the hands of its current user. Five kills will leave the Cube ready and fully-charged, and it will then say, "Use us." An indication will be when the Cube is lit up at its five orbs (four on the side and one in the center). The Cube then displays a large intersecting collection of whirling circular blades, before zooming off to the target and damaging it with the blade array in question. During its attack, the player's normal weapons replace its position at the helm. It also transfers the target's life force to the user, partially or completely healing any injuries the player may have, depending on the remaining hit points of the main target when the Cube strikes. The Soul Cube attacks intelligently; it always attacks the enemy with the largest amount of hit points within range, and homes in on the target. The damage per Soul Cube attack is 1000. The maximum health that the Cube can restore to the player is 100. The rate of restoration is 5 health points per interval, and two intervals per second.

Only the boss demons, like Sabaoth and Cyberdemon, can hope to survive even a single Soul Cube attack (4 attacks to be exact to kill the Cyberdemon), and even then, the Cube still performs a life force transfusion. The Cube then retracts the blade array and returns to the user's keeping, until its wielder inflicts enough deaths to re-energize it.

It should be noted that the life force absorption seems to be only needed to power the Soul Cube's movement and homing functions. When it is charged and idle, it occasionally displays its blades and spins for a brief period of time.

The Soul Cube does not attack monsters that are unaware of the user's presence, nor does it attack living humans, as seen in Nightmare mode where the player receives it at the beginning of the game.

Properties
* It is immune to radiological scans of any nature, including X-rays and gamma rays.
** Its atomic makeup cannot be analyzed for this reason.
* It maintains a constant temperature of 98.8 degrees Fahrenheit (37.1 degrees Celsius, fractionally warmer than normal body temperature), regardless of surroundings.
* It levitates.
* It is apparently completely immune to damage, at least from conventional sources.
* Attempts to open the Cube have yielded no results.
* It is not a perfect cube. Portions of it are ornamentally-decorated, and one entire corner of the Cube has been cut into with ornamental sculpting that seems almost organic, inset with a rendering of what must be a martian face (Perhaps the "hero"). A pair of sharpened blades extend from the bottom.
* It is sentient with the souls used to create it.
* It cannot be weighed

Other Mentions of 'Soul Cube'
* In the science fiction novel Dr. Futurity by Philip K. Dick, the 'Soul Cube' is where humans are created - an actualised 'gene pool' of zygotes fed into the cube from the strongest in society.

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See Also

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