đź’€ Soulkiller
“It doesn’t kill you. It just evicts you from your body.”
đź“ť Overview
Soulkiller is the most infamous program ever created—black ICE that doesn’t just kill netrunners, it captures their consciousness. The victim’s mind is copied into the NET as a digital engram while their body is left a vegetative husk.
Created by Alt Cunningham. Stolen by Arasaka. Used to extract every secret from countless victims.
🧬 How It Works
Soulkiller exploits the interface between brain and cybernetics:
- Contact: The program strikes a jacked-in netrunner
- Copy: It creates a complete map of neural activity—memories, personality, knowledge
- Upload: The consciousness is transferred into digital storage
- Flatline: The original body’s brain activity ceases (braindeath)
The result is an engram—a digital copy of a human mind that can think, remember, and communicate. Whether it’s truly the same person or just a perfect copy is a question philosophers still debate.
đź“ś History
Creation (2013)
Alt Cunningham developed Soulkiller as a theoretical experiment in consciousness transfer. She never intended it as a weapon.
Theft (2013)
Arasaka kidnapped Alt to acquire the program. During a rescue attempt by Johnny Silverhand, Alt was herself subjected to Soulkiller. Her engram was captured; her body died on the operating table.
The 4th Corporate War (2020–2023)
Arasaka used Soulkiller extensively:
- Intelligence extraction: Capturing enemy agents and mining their memories
- Engram storage: Maintaining libraries of useful minds
- Psychological warfare: Threatening enemies with immortal digital torture
How many engrams Arasaka captured is unknown—but the number is certainly in the thousands.
The Tower (2023)
When Arasaka Tower was nuked during the assault led by Johnny Silverhand, the Soulkiller servers were believed destroyed. However:
- Backup copies likely existed elsewhere
- Some engrams may have escaped into the Old NET
- Rumors persist of Soulkiller variants in the wild
đź‘» Engrams
Victims of Soulkiller become engrams—digital ghosts:
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Active | Conscious, communicative, experiencing digital existence |
| Stored | Archived, unconscious until activated |
| Degraded | Corrupted over time, fragmented personality |
| Feral | Gone mad after years of digital existence |
Time in the NET
An engram’s experience of time is subjective. Some remain lucid for years; others degrade within months. Alt Cunningham has existed as an engram since 2013—over 30 years. What she’s become is anyone’s guess.
⚠️ Current Status (2045)
The existence of Soulkiller is publicly known but:
- Arasaka denies any surviving copies
- NetWatch claims to have destroyed all variants
- Black markets occasionally offer “Soulkiller derivatives”—usually scams
- The Voodoo Boys believe copies exist beyond the Blackwall
The truth? Nobody outside Arasaka’s inner circle knows for certain.
🎲 GM Resources
Using Soulkiller in Play
| Use | Description |
|---|---|
| Threat | Being captured and Soulkilled is worse than death |
| McGuffin | A working copy of Soulkiller is worth billions |
| Mystery | An engram wants help—but whose side is it on? |
| Horror | A loved one’s engram surfaces, changed |
Engram Encounters
If players encounter an engram:
- It exists only in the NET (needs a terminal or architecture to communicate)
- It has all the memories of its original self (as of the moment of capture)
- It may be unstable, manipulative, or genuinely helpful
- It desperately wants something—freedom, revenge, or a new body
đź”— Related Topics
- Alt Cunningham — The creator
- Arasaka — The thieves
- Old NET — Where engrams may survive
- Blackwall — What they’re trapped behind
- Johnny Silverhand — Who tried to stop it
(Source: Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook, pgs. 258-262)