On Tue, 2003-03-11 at 22:31, Alexx S Kay wrote: > > I would assume some necromany was involved with all they deal with > > souls. Also, from Vlad's sensitivity to the blades, I figure some type > > of psionics/witchcraft[1] was also involved. Most likely the necromancy > > is involved in destroying the souls (as well as binding souls for the > > GWs), and the psionics to give it the sentience that the blades are > > sometimes said to possess. > > D'oh! In my long essay about the nature of the soul, I forgot one of > my prime supporting examples -- the appearance of the Necromancer in > tPotD. While normal (modern) english usage has necromancy being "the > branch of magic concerned with death" (or, sometimes in a more friendly > vein, "magic concerned with the life-force"), that doesn't at all seem > to be what Sethra talks to the Necromancer about while establishing her > bona-fides. What they are talking about, and the Necromancer's specialty, > seems to be a "magic concerned with location", or possibly "magic > concerned with dimensional travel". This seems like a case where the > english word is simply a poor approximation of a hard-to-translate > Dragaeran concept. > > I believe that, to Dragaeran "necromancers" (and to the Jenoine), > "aliveness" is in some way translatable into "location" -- perhaps > in a similar way to how Einsteinian physics sees space and time as > inextricably bound-up aspects of each other. I seem to recall at one point that someone claims that the Necromancer just considers being alive and dead a matter of energy levels. But it is a similar idea. When dealing with potential energy and with electrons on an atom, different energy levels can translate into different locations. When I talk about Dragaeran necromancy I consider it to be magic dealing with souls. Or more specicially, working with the energies that make up and effect souls, as opposed to working with psionic energy or chaos. With this, I consider it possible to use necromancy to be able to destroy a soul, although I do not consider it easy by any means. However, even if we were to say that necromancy is dimensional location, how about just moving a soul to the equivilant of an abyss or black hole, its pretty much the same effect as destroying it. When I think of earthly necromancy, I consider it more dealing with bringing back the dead. However, the interesting difference is that the Dragaeran undead still have their souls, whereas earthly concepts of necromancy tend to imply that the undead do not have their souls.[1] [1] If I'm way off on this, I'm just going to blame it on watching to much Buffy.