Story Bone

Okay, so the last couple (okay, most) of the story bones have been real short pieces. Here's a full story idea. I've worked through three stories (SF, Fantasy, or Horror, I glom more toward the horror idea) that I could write, but I just don't have the time. And the muse commands, so as she commands, so I do.

First off, for the story, reincarnation is a reality. And it's reincarnation as a mix of several Buddhist Traditions (and some New Age permutations). Reincarnated souls have memory, skills, and traits that transfer to the new body (this is how you find or prove the reincarnated lamas, they remember their friends and the favorite belongings, the also demonstrate knowledge and skills the previous lama had). These souls can "fragment" and inhabit several bodies in the same temporal space (Steven Seagal anybody). The new age part is that these fragments can be merged to create new "soul beings" (like soul sexual reproduction? - that's the New Age part). So, if you were a person of a minor soul (lesser flame), would you be jealous of a person of greater soul (brighter flame)? Say like Salieri was of Mozart in "Amadeus." Now, lets add in that, although not well known, there is a way to force mingling of souls during reincarnation. Would our character be willing to kidnap a greater soul they admire and go through a murder-suicide ritual to ensure their reincarnated souls would be greater? Would that ability be an example of of greater skill of soul (brighter flame), so some irony there. What would society be like if such could happen? Would there be an intense caste system, although one enforced by "ritual practitioners" would could weed out lesser from greater souls? Would there be forced adoptions? Would families hobble children of "greater flames" for whatever testing there might be to then be shown to have "prodigy" traits of their own? Would society have developed mechanisms to mingle souls to create a mediocrity of beings (in an extreme case of social engineering meant to "better the race" - like the Bene Gesserit breading programs of Dune or eugenics)? Would we have a defacto meritocracy in all levels of society (Gattica)?