Rune of Life and Death

The Rune of Life and Death (生と死の紋章, Nama to Shi no Monshou), more commonly known as the Soul Eater (ソウルイーター Souru Ītā) is one of the 27 True Runes. It is the rune of Hero (Suikoden), the protagonist of Suikoden and is also usable in Suikoden II and Suikoden IV.

Suikoden
The Soul Eater, also referred to as the Cursed Rune, was inherited by Ted, survivor of an attack on his village, the Village of the Hidden Rune, some 300 years prior. The rune's power would be used by Ted on Mt. Seifu, which alerted Windy to his presence. Attacked and wounded, Ted managed to pass the rune onto Hero (Suikoden).

Windy wanted the rune so she could use it in conjunction with her own Gate Rune to take her revenge on the world. Said to be cursed, the rune is sometimes credited with causing wars and stealing the souls of those close to its bearer in order to increase it's power. In fact, Ted declared its very intentions to be malevolent.

The Soul Eater would continue to maintain some sort of connection with surviving past bearers. Ted was able to command the rune to take his soul even when the rune was borne by Tir McDohl. It also appeared to weaken the effects of other runes in some fashion.

Leknaat cautioned against the use of the Soul Eater even at the last battle when she was unable to remove all of Windy's 80,000 strong monster army by herself. Following the defeat of Barbarosa Rugner Windy made a final attempt to seize the Cursed Rune but was rebuffed by the Soul Eater itself. Tir continued to bear the rune when he left the Toran Republic following the end of the Gate Rune War.