In most cases, a homunculus doesn't survive the death of its master for long. Deprived of its creator, a homunculus loses focus and grows increasingly self-destructive, and some even end up battering themselves to destruction. Rarely, a homunculus with a slain master survives the trauma with its mind intact, often seeing itself as its deceased creator's child or successor and attempting to further its creator's legacy as best it can. In such cases, and if the homunculus was in close proximity to its master upon that creature's death, a portion of the dead master's soul "infects" the surviving homunculus as it passes on to the afterlife. This doesn't result in a truly soulbound homunculus (see sidebar), since only a fragment of the soul is left behind, but this is still enough to grant the homunculus a greater personality, free will of its own, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to speak. Over time, a few of these "awakened" homunculi even go so far as to become convinced that they are the reincarnation of their prior masters, although their actual personalities never quite reach the depth and complexity of a truly living creature. They are, at best, caricatures of the master