A military officer, from a dimension that gave rise to human mythologies, flees her home world after botching a mission and possibly giving her demonic enemy the keys to invasion.

SYNOPSIS:

The Shadow Soul centers around Captain Maiel, a soldier, wife, and mother from the alien race of duta, her best friend Gediel, a mysterious figure on the fringes of society who struggles with his own demons, and a literal demon (which are called danava in the series), the Baron Morgentus, a perverse and violent being that was once also from Zion.

In the pilot episode, we are introduced to the technologically advanced world of Zion and the dominant race of duta that live there. The young soldier heading the story, Maiel, is married off to a human introducing the idea of ketu (a sacred pairing like marriage). However, humans are considered a lower soul race in this world and must endure trials of incarnation (lives) to evolve into duta one day. This match is very unlikely, if not frowned upon. Her best friend, Gediel, witnesses the introduction as he attempts to deliver a special gift to make his own intentions of ketu known, a wolf pup named Argus. This event causes Gediel to abandon the pup and exile himself in fear of what he truly is…It will unfold later in the series that there was a war: the great conflict, in which thousands of his kind became danava (demons) including his grandfather. Time elapses and we find Maiel on Earth, now a captain assigned to guarding a human child passing from cancer, Argus tight at her side assisting. The hospital is loaded with both danava and duta struggling for control of the souls existing there. An unseen battlefront for the humans, though. While the child passes, Maiel nearly loses her to the enemy, calling her loyalty into question, and this echoes in the enemy’s accusation she is like him, something that has troubled her since her ketu. Maiel prevails, but upon returning the child to Zion, she gives the girl over to another captain to process, while she and Argus seek refuge at home to hideout as the event blows over. The suspicion she is danava haunts her, forming a crisis. Before the suspected darkness spreads to her family, she retreats to Earth alone. A panic runs through Zion’s administration. Maiel’s family and friends come together to figure out how to get her back, including the long absent Gediel. Zion is on the cusp of all-out war with the danava, risking every soul caught in the middle. The administration will sacrifice her to them in hopes of stopping it.

Subsequent episodes follow Maiel on Earth, where she struggles to fix the damage done by the botched mission, but she only makes matters worse. She is stalked by a danava previously hinted at in the pilot, the Baron of Acheron, who is set on defecting her. Maiel seeks refuge in the depths of Europe where she discovers another exile like her. Over the episodes, her presence attracts the attention of her enemies again. With nowhere left to turn, Maiel relies on help from her new friend to get her home again. Even if they succeed, Maiel knows things that now make her private world unsalvageable. At every turn she finds those whom she trusted working with the enemy. The baron’s unyielding pursuit wears her down. Earth is a new invasion point on the edge of falling, just as she is!

Contrasting this, the team from Zion has settled on Maiel’s husband as the one to go to Earth to bring her back. That’s a big risk that could see him surrendered to the enemy instead and expose the dark secret every member of the team has kept. Gediel aids his comrades in a tandem mission that makes good use of his well-honed special forces skills. While he works, Gediel uncovers not only the plot to crack Zion’s best, such as General Mikhael, the inspiration for the canonical archangel Michael, but finds himself at the center of their dark secret. Maiel was indeed supposed to be his ketu, but she was given to the human to stop his damaged soul from burning down. Serving in this capacity compromised Maiel’s ability to withstand the enemy, creating the perfect storm of events to open the doors for invasion—a long game plan by someone. Having believed his feelings for his old friend a sign of dangerous leanings, this causes Gediel to reevaluate everything, digging deep into the record. Maiel’s own family are deeply involved in this betrayal. However, by the end of the season, to honor the bond he once had with Maiel, he moves to get her back, but determines to never tell the truth to protect her and Zion. The commanders chose him to close this loop, but it will be a painful ending for all concerned. The enemy is only temporarily defeated, and the human is still burning down. Series 1 closes here.

All truth eventually does rise to the surface. It cannot be stopped. In series 2, Maiel will fight one last time to preserve her husband and their family only to become his greatest victim at her most vulnerable time: as a human incarnated on Earth, far from family and friends. He has completely given over to his dark proclivities, abusing her human form and completing his descent. Gediel will face off with his questionable past in the form of his demonic grandfather, while he comes to Earth as a human set to intercept Maiel if her mission goes awry—does it ever. Without her powers and knowledge, Maiel is a sitting duck for the nefarious plans of the danava. Despite this, she must hold the line for now.

The 3rd series of episodes will introduce the out-stationed troops of Earth, a supporting cast of characters who prepare Maiel and Zion for battle. Having matured from her twenties and into her thirties, Maiel has embraced her true self and power. It is at this time that she and Gediel resume their ketu through a difficult healing journey. Wrapped around these events, the secret propelling Maiel’s struggle echoes, culminating in the exposure of the multiverse to all of humanity. The out-stationed troops attempt to mitigate this sudden change for humanity, but nothing will be the same. Too much is now known to ever go back.

The overarching tone of the series is a mythic and dark multiverse in which exists our reality. Human mythology often intersects to help explain. The world of the story is divided into 7 planes of existence. From these, ideas like heaven and hell were developed. Earth is but one of many planets in another universe (Samsara) to which souls incarnate (live) in order to evolve. As I like to describe it: A wide-awake trip into a myth-soaked, upside down where monsters want to eat your soul. Their drive is to stop souls from evolving out of revenge for their being cast out of Zion. To them it is abhorrent to think of a soul equal to the higher beings of which they once ranked. Maiel and her kind exist to oversee all realms and the protection and cultivation of soul beings. It is not a religious story, although it draws from mythology. In fact, it challenges the dogma in a more rooted science fiction manner.

THE TRAILOKYA TRILOGY, THE SHADOW SOUL (BOOK 1) - ADAPTATION (EARLY DRAFT)