On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Andrew Lias wrote: [Mark M] #>I'm not willing to accept Blackwand as a familiar in the witchcraft #>sense, though there may be some or many similarities. # #I'm not sure why it couldn't be. It is, after all, sapient and sentient. #Why couldn't it perform the same functions for Morrolan that Loiosh does for #Vlad? In general, I'm sure it could, but there are differences: - Whatever power is involved here, it's not Eastern witchcraft. - Blackwand is not a biologically living creature, and so the "long life" part of the bargain that V made with L's mother doesn't apply. - B presumably has powers of looking after M's life -- as Pathfinder did for Aliera -- that we have no evidence for ascribing to Loiosh in his care of and for Vlad. Our disagreement may be simply that I want to apply a stricter definition of "familiar" than you do, even if I don't know its exact limits. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website