It is the distant future, and the world is a desert wasteland. Humans, unable to live in the newly dry and inhospitable climate, flocked to Oasis settlements- strange, walled off cities with water and plants and everything the old world was, created by strange, unknown forces, only to find that to live there, they had to pay with their souls. Most- if not all- humans gladly payed the price for the guaranteed safety of themselves and their future kin.
Some didn't, and managed for live outside in a rough, harsh and unforgiving world. Knowing this, the forces that created the Oases made a force of patrolling "husks (humans without souls) to find the surviving humans, and reclaim or destroy them. They go on long journeys, sometimes not returning to the oases for weeks at a time. They're armed and trained for combat, and are quite a beast to take down. Often, reclaimed survivors are used.
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The humans with souls, however, are close-knit. They resent how the majority of humanity is without souls- each group and person with their own reasons. They intend to, once their numbers are built up- be it from straight up having kids, or stealing them from Oases before their souls are stolen- to free an oasis, and claim it for those with souls.
The more technologically inclined among the survivors developed a system for making, and introducing, man-made souls into husks instead of killing them, albeit untested due to a lack of husks nearby.
That's where we start. A group of survivors, each with their own reasons, create several experimental souls, and go out to hijack some husks. They then, upon success, infuse the husks with the souls. The new souls work in the husks, and though some have strange faults and are unstable, they have a soul (or two) each.
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and that's all I got. any takers? I'm hoping for 4 or more people.
Oh also, I'm not saying it's aliens who eat souls who made the oases, but it was aliens.