On Thu, 7 Nov 2002, Pyran Firebrand wrote: #If I remember correctly, Vlad mentions at some point that Great Weapons #are sentient enough to be able to *choose* whether or not to destroy a #soul. Also, while the wielder of the Great Weapon likely has some say #in the matter, that is not always the case. For example, in "Jhereg", #Aliera says "I think I have a good chance of surviving..." So she, as a #wielder, can't be certain how the sword would react. That's different. One is whether a GW destroys the soul of a person killed with it; Morrolan says of Blackwand "It does what I tell it to" (in the Paths of the Dead). The other is how a GW preserves the life or soul of its owner/wielder, acting in this case against an ordinary Morganti blade, and the question of retrieving that soul from the weapon and restoring it to the body. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website