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Hey there!

I've been meditating about certain curious things about the Warp, and wanted to hear your opinions.

First, we know how daemons are created: they form up from raw warp energy, from similar feelings that flow and gain density until it's complex enough to gain conciousness. It can then gain intelligence from that point, as long as it feeds from those concrete feelings.

Second, we know that certain species -humans, eldar...- have warp presence, which means they have a soul. Fluff says only souls with psychic potential 'shine' enough in the Warp to be potential targets for daemons. Also, when someone dies, his/her soul is liberated in the Warp and drifts there until eaten (I guess is absorbed) by a daemon. And here comes my first question: in the case of non-psychic people, how present (in which way) are their souls in the Warp, since they're 'liberated' when they die? I mean: do those souls remain indetectable or are simply part of the Warp's landscape in the shape of their feelings? In that case, why most daemons need to kill someone to get their soul? As warp beings they are, most of them should be able to attack still-living souls... Or they simply prefer psychic ones, for being more tasty?

Third, when someone is born, they'd probably not have a soul until they get conciousness, which I'd say is the moment of breathing for first time (at this point I might get some critics about this statement, perhaps even regarding abort and such; let me mark this and the following ones are just quick hypotesis for a sci-fi universe and don't mean anything in the real world). In that case, here comes the second question: how is a new soul created? Since babies are probably instinctive until they learn to think, I'm guessing their souls form up in a similar way to daemons: they begin as instinctive thoughts -hunger, etc.- and get full soul state when they get enough experience and start to think. That exact moment would be very difficult to mark, since even in the real world we have problems when discussing 'soul' and 'conciousness'...

So what you guys think?

I believe the soul is intrinsic to life - but the psychic capabilities of that soul are determined separately. Ergo, when someone is born, the soul begins as a flicker, and will gradually blossom based on age / training / genetics.

Second, I imagine souls as part of the fabric of the warp. They can not be removed except through sorcerous means, being within the warp, or something occurring to the natural body. Even Slaanesh can only gradually try and pull Eldar souls free throughout their life - and even then, only if they make themselves vulnerable by indulgence.
So we at least know that manipulating a soul purely from within the warp is only capable, slowly, over centuries, for a God.

They're like plankton in an ocean filled with sharks. Some of these sharks are going to be small enough to feed on plankton, in the drive to become a bigger shark and then start eating other sharks. So, when you die, if your soul isn't taken in by the God-Emperor (something that is believed, but not proven, excepting in those 1000 people a day He devours), it drifts around in the Warp until a daemon of some kind or another collects it, eats it, whatever, or it is simply obliterated by being absorbed into the background soul-stuff of the Immaterium.

Souls of non-psykers are not indetectable, they simply aren't appetizing enough for most daemons to bother with. A daemon can still possess a non-psyker, it's just not as easy. Daemons kill people because it frees the soul from its fleshy anchor (or wrapping, if you prefer, to continue with the food analogy)... there's also the fact that the human body doesn't generally do well when invaded by a wholly unnatural entity that twists its form into things never intended, and often never seen, in nature.

Souls can be considered to be a projection, or an abstraction, of a sentient being's sense of self reflected in the Warp. What actually "makes" a soul is not revealed. It seems to simply be part and parcel of most sentient life in the galaxy of 40K. It is also known that certain individuals, and some species, have "weaker" souls than others (Blanks are soulless, Tau have "weak" souls). Babies have souls, probably, this is not something that's generally touched on in the fluff (probably for the very same reasons you touched on) but as they're humans, and all (save Blanks) possess the potential for psychic expression, their souls are probably already present at birth, if not before.

Personally from how I read it, your "soul" only end's up in the warp, if it gravitates towards there, in other words, only if you portray the features of khorne, slaanesh, tzeentch, or nurgle. (Or malice, or another much more insubstantial warp entity, there are more than 4 warp-god's after all)

Otherwise, you just die. The "soul" in 40k, imo, is just a person's reflection in the warp, and if that reflection isn't sustained in the warp on death by being claimed by a god, it vanishes just like the mortal shell of the person in the mortal realm does.

I believe (in the 40k universe, I don't believe in souls irl) that the soul develops over time as a person experiences emotion, with psykers having their souls grow brighter due to psychic influence feeding the light source too.
There's no moment when a soul forms, it grows as a person grows, it just makes sense to me, especially seeing as many pariah's are seen to be mostly emotionless beyond base pleasures and instincts processed through a human mind.

Well I know Eldar actually have a soul-form. When they die, if no soul stone is present, they actually exist as themselves in the warp after death.

Humans on the otherhand just become a small bunble of emotions and such that melts away into the immaterium.