Andrew Lias wrote: > >AFB, but Vlad said something similar to "my soul would have gone to feed a > >sentience in six inches of steel" in Jhereg (I think). It's the sort of > >line that sticks with you. Maybe "feed" is being used metaphorically > >there, but I got the impression from other bits in other books that > >they're actually eating the souls. > > I remember that -- I really got the impression that it was metaphorical, in > the sames sense that we talk about feeding wood to a fire. Of course, this > is blurred by the fact that MWs, unlike fire, actually do appear to have > some level of sentience, making them more akin to living beings, but I don't > get the impression that they have metabolisms. We don't see them, for > instance, excreting anything after they've consumed a soul, nor do they > appear to have anything like respiration, growth, or reproduction. > > As such, pending any evidence for a metabolism (which is the whole reason > that living organisms feed upon other things), I don't think that an MW > "eating" a soul is really like it *eating* a soul. maybe the MW's use the "consumed" soul to protect and nourish the person with whom they are linked ? just a thought