Lost Soul

"Dumb. Tough. Flies. On fire. 'Nuff said."

-Doom instruction manual

The Lost Soul is a demonic species of flying, lowly demons made from the souls of Humans and other mortals damned to Hell.

Biology
Lost Souls appear as a body-less flaming skull with horns, burning eyes, and broken teeth, capable of flight. They do not naturally reproduce or spawn, but rather, are made from mortal souls damned to Hell, forged into Lost Souls within the bodies of Pain Elementals, and possibly able to form outside Pain Elementals. Despite this, they strangely appear to have had some stages of evolution, possibly reciprocating the evolution of their "parent" Pain Elementals, originally appearing to be human-like skulls with horns, later evolving to become larger and more demonic in appearance, with armored ridges, longer, curved horns, blue flames, and what appears to be some flesh on certain parts of their "bodies," such as within their mouths and at the base of their horns. A certain "breed" of Lost Souls, or possibly another species entirely that is only similar to them in function, resemble organic Human heads with unhinged jaws, and a cybernetic thruster for flight. Lost Souls, or at least some of them, appear to be parasitic, possessing weak hosts and ejecting the souls of the host, which in turn become new Lost Souls. All Lost Souls attack by flying directly at a target and exploding in a blast of Hell Energy on contact, which the possession-type Lost Souls utilize to weaken a host enough to possess. The cybernetic Lost Souls presumably require a host in order to manifest, initially appearing as a spectral form of the original "breed," and violently bursting out of the head of the host, killing them in the process. Most Lost Souls do not appear to desire a host, instead seeking their own destruction, as their existence is torturous, with the minds of the souls they came from broken and driven mad with a sole desire to find a final death. Despite their overwhelming desire for suicide, they seem to only seek out non-demonic living beings to blow themselves up on, wandering aimlessly if no such being is in sight, possibly an instinct to destroy the living that supersedes their own self-destructive urges. Lost Souls appear to be able to be controlled to some degree by the Pain Elementals that spawned them, such as floating around the Pain Elemental and allowing it to throw them.

History
Lost Souls were once mortals who were damned to Hell, such as Humans, whose "bodies" in Hell are broken by slave labor, sent to have the remains of their souls extracted. Those who managed to escape the extraction were reduced to incorporeal essence, which know nothing but madness, their mortal identity left as nothing more than a distant memory. These essences are then brought into the bodies of Pain Elementals, who forge them into physical skull-shaped beings, and then expel them, while some appear to have formed "naturally." Lost Souls were considered lower than Imps, despised by other demons. While most Lost Souls seek out nothing more than living beings to destroy with themselves, some began seeking new hosts for their essence, possibly to alleviate the pain of their existence. When the Spider Mastermind launched an invasion of Mars in 2022, Lost Soul swarms were present in the invasion force, killing many members of the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) that were handling the teleportation project on the Martian moons, but were destroyed by a lone unnamed Human marine. After the Spider Mastermind was killed, more Lost Souls were summoned by the Icon of Sin, the strongest of the Titans, who used them as part of the invasion of Earth, only to have the same marine return to Earth and destroy them. All Lost Souls who survived the marine's rampage were sealed in Hell when the Icon of Sin was killed. Years later, the Mother of All Demons summoned more Lost Souls, appearing to modify them to become transparent and more aggressive, also having them get shot out of reconstructed Pain Elementals. However, even this new batch of Lost Souls were destroyed by the same marine. The marine then voluntarily remained in Hell, somehow going back in time and across dimensions, becoming the Doom Slayer, the champion of Argent D'Nur. Argent D'Nur, led by the Night Sentinels, guardians of the Elemental Wraiths, had been vassalized by an extradimensional alien race known as the Maykrs, who helped the Argenta fight against a demonic invasion in the wake of the marine's arrival. However, the Maykrs found that Argent Energy, made from the combination of Sentinel and Hell Energy, could grant them immortality, and struck a deal with Hell to allow them to conquer more worlds in exchange for Argent Energy. Through their manipulations, Argent D'Nur fell, the Wraiths were locked away in Hell to have their energy siphoned for Argent production, and the Doom Slayer was trapped in Hell, where he led an eons-long one-man rampage. Argenta slaves were used to construct the Argent factories, and their souls presumably created the original "breed" of Lost Souls. The Doom Slayer was eventually locked away in a sarcophagus, and Lost Souls aimlessly roamed the hellish landscape in search of something that could end their suffering. In the future, in what appears to be a different universe, a strikingly different breed of Lost Souls were seen in action, manifesting from Human bodies as Human-like heads with a cybernetic thruster, summoned by a UAC demonic cultist named Malcom Betruger. While also weak like their predecessors, they were smaller, and appeared to only seek hosts rather than their own self-destruction. While they killed many UAC personnel members, they were destroyed by another unnamed Human marine. Meanwhile, in Hell, the original breed of Lost Souls appeared to "evolve," possibly changed by the evolution of their Pain Elemental creators, becoming more inhuman in appearance, even regaining some flesh. These new Lost Souls continued to wander Hell, until the Spider Mastermind's essence, active long after its body was destroyed, launched an invasion of Mars in what appeared to be the future of the same universe, this time working with a demonic cultist named Olivia Pierce. Evolved Lost Souls swarmed Mars after the Lazarus Wave allowed the demons to enter. However, the Doom Slayer had been previously retrieved from Hell and brought to Mars by the Human cyborg Samuel Hayden, who in truth was an exiled Maykr named Samur. The Doom Slayer was awoken, and easily tore through Lost Souls and other demons present on Mars. While eradicated from the Martian surface after the resurrected Spider Mastermind was destroyed for good, Lost Souls, this time with evolved Pain Elementals, were used in the Maykr-led invasion of Earth. They fought against the Armored Response Coalition (ARC), which was led by Samur, and other Human resistance forces, pushing the ARC to the brink of collapse. The Doom Slayer, previously sent to unknown regions of space after killing the Mastermind, returned in a Sentinel space station, starting to eliminate the Hell Priests the Maykrs put in charge of the invasion, coming across Lost Souls again in Argent D'Nur, Hell, Earth, and Mars, destroying them wherever they were.

Combat Characteristics


A very frustrating enemy, the Lost Souls float around until spotting an enemy. They then quickly fly up close to attack, if they miss they will continue flying until striking an object. Lost Souls are mostly found in groups, it is uncommon to see one alone. When defeated, the Lost Souls explode, leaving no corpse behind. The Pain Elemental is the only other DOOM demon that emulates a similar death. Pain Elementals will release Lost Souls from their mouth when in combat with an enemy, which is their function in Doom II, Doom 64, and Doom Eternal.