On Feb 26, 2004, at 3:00 PM, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > Noam Izenberg <noam.izenberg at jhuapl.edu> writes: > >> The talk about what exactly does a Morganti weapon >> (whether or not Blackwand is typical) > > (cutting your off in the middle of a sentence) > > Stop right there! To suggest that a *great weapon* is typical of > Morganti weapons is *clearly wrong*. I fought my contrarian impulse, but lost; Y'all get to suffer. I have no argument that Blackwand is an ordinary Morganti blade. However, there must be aspects of similarity between even that Great Weapon and a 'normal' Morganti, or else, Blackwand would not be _called_ Morganti. I therefore suggest that while Blackwand may indeed be much more, it almost _must_ have some "typical" Morganti features. >> In the specific metaphysics of this world, _are_ souls >> destructible? Must there therefore also be a source of >> souls? What are the 'laws' of soul birth, migration, and >> (possible) death? > > Yes; ordinary morganti weapons destroy them. Says Vlad. Do we trust his perspective here? Morrolan's cut off description of Blackwand could be read to imply otherwise. Here is where the similarities and differeneces between Blackwand and a typical Morganti migh be very important indeed. > Given that time isn't the same thing to the gods as it is to us, these > questions may be meaningless in the frame in which souls are handled. If time is meaningless in that frame, then so is "destruction" of a soul (and creation of one, I might add). That's a deus ex copout, however, by which I mean "The Gods work in Mysterious Ways Period" can be used to avoid answering the question. Of course, an author's entitled to say that the metaphysics of his world is beyond our ken. It wouldn't bother me _too_ much for certain things, though it would for things upon which the plot or major story elements relied. NI ("We are the Knights who say...")