[Norfleet]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
How near?

A small radius around the caster, usually one or two squares, although the squares at the periphery are somewhat random and inconsistent.

And am I correct in assuming it also affects friendly units?

Soul Vortex is indiscriminate. It can be thus useful to surround a mage intended to spam spells with "feeder" militia that you got from a free event, set on "Guard Commander", so that their life will be leeched and reinvigorate the mage.

And maybe they'll die, so you can finally be rid of them.

And also assuming it does not affect lifeless units?

Neither lifeless nor undead units are affected. This is slightly different from the "Drain Life" spell and lifedrain attacks, which affect all targets, and return life and fatigue to the attacker if the attackee is not lifeless: Being undead does not specifically help: Lifedrain WILL work on undead that are not lifeless.

Does one script a mage to cast it 5x and then hope the AI will continue to do so?

It's a buff and damage shield. It only needs to be cast once. If you script it more than once, subsequent attempts will be ignored.