incarnum basically works like you have different chakras around your body, such as crown, throat, etc. you start off by shaping a certain number of "soulmelds" that do basic things like boost skills, saves, etc. but when you bind them to one of your chakras they become more powerful, depending on which chakra they are bound to, they have different abilities. you can also increase their power further by investing "essentia" into them which is a sort of life force. you are only limited by how many soulmelds you can have shaped at one time. (i think) you can bind, unbind, transfer essentia, however many times during the day as you wish. one example of an ability is a soulmeld (threefold mask of the chimera) that just being shaped, makes it so you cant be flanked. if you bind it to your crown, you can also take one extra move action at the expense of penalties the next turn. if you bind it to your soul you can instead take one extra standard action. if you bind it to your totem, the chimera comes to life, so to speak and you gain a 1d8 bite with the dragon head, a 1d6 bite with the lion head, and a 1d6 gore with the goat head, and they all get strength bonuses, etc, and as a full attack action you can attack with all three heads. so its like that. it looks like crap if you just read the tables, but if you read the descriptions, they become more powerful the more you do with them.
