Item from Cradle by Will Wight
The spiritual residue left behind when a sacred artist or sacred beast dies — a semi-conscious echo of their madra that can be harvested for bindings, bonded for Gold advancement, or left to wander as a dangerous hazard.
When a sacred artist dies, their madra doesn't dissipate — it coalesces into a remnant, a translucent echo of the dead that retains fragments of their Path, their techniques, and their spiritual shape. Remnants are one of Cradle's fundamental resources: soulsmiths harvest them for bindings (the power sources of sacred instruments), Gold-stage artists bond with them to fuel their advancement, and researchers study them to understand the mechanics of madra and the soul. Wild remnants are dangerous. They operate on instinct, drawn to aura sources that match their aspect, and they fight with imperfect copies of the techniques their originator practiced in life. A Jade remnant in a populated area is a civic emergency. An Underlord remnant is a natural disaster. The remnant economy — hunting, harvesting, trading, binding — is one of the primary drivers of low-to-mid-level sacred artist employment. If you're Copper to Gold and you need to earn, you hunt remnants.
Also known as: remnant, remnants, wild remnant