At 06:57 PM 6/9/2003 -0700, you wrote: > > We know spellbreaker is, technically, part of a greater whole. However, if > > we remove the rest of the universe in relation to it, it is a standalone > > item of great power, without an attached soul (like the orb.) > > > I aways thought that Spellbreaker was, in some fasion intelligent and >perhaps had some sort of soul in it. It certainly seems much more like an >intelligent being than say the orb. That's just because we've seen so much more of Spellbreaker than the Orb, what with the stories being told from Vlad's PoV. I've always thought that the Orb was at least as intelligent as Spellbreaker, if not more so. It can respond to situations and defend itself without direct orders, which implies some level of self-awareness and understanding of what's going on around it. On its own, Spellbreaker has just hung onto Vlad, changed size, and wiggled around a bit with Vlad reading things into it. So far, we've never had anything told from the PoV of the Emperor/ess so it's hard to judge how much interaction they have with the Orb. Hopefully, The Lord of Castle Black will have some details about the Empresses' relationship with the Orb is, which will answer more of this. Charley Sumner charles_sumner at harvard.edu "Let's not jump to any conclusions." "I didn't jump. I took a tiny step, and there conclusions were." Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "Phases"