The philosophical and moral issues that this brings up and the differing opinions is what kept this put of the game . Animals will eat one another to increase their strength . This is because of the souls . Herbivores are not as dangerous because they eat plants , and their souls are negligible compared to living things . The humans , for the most part , see harvesting the souls of living things , human or not , as a terrible thing to do , mostly due to religion . And for this reason , tensions are high between the Drow and Humanity . The Drow freely harvest the soul of animals they hunt for the same reason a human would seek the pelt or the meat . Because it is useful . Taking the soul of another being , a Drow , Human , or any of the other semi or fully sentient species , is punishable by death without the birth pendant . These pendants are made of exceptionally clear crystal . These allow the soul inside to still physically exist and manifest in the world . A widow carries their spouse ' s pendant to keep them around after death . Without one , you would move on . That is considered punishment . As for the first question , fast was defined as sub 15 minutes . At that point , the game hadn ' t changed for 3 years , and has been revamped .