On 6/5/06, Jon_Lincicum at stream.com <Jon_Lincicum at stream.com> wrote: > > One thing I noticed when re-reading this passage, was that Vlad had nailed > Loraan with a thrown dagger moments before. > > Now, under the "It-can't-get-any-worse rule", a person who is already dead > is immune to the morganti soul-destroying effect... So, tenative theory: > > 1. Vlad nails Loraan with a dagger in an especially bad spot, killing him > instantly. For the sake of pedantic completeness, there's another possibility, and a new one that I just recently thought of: 1a. When Loraan realizes that there is a dagger in his stomach (and that he is therefore badly damaged), and Morollan is approaching rapidly with Blackwand, he decides that he's quite literally in danger of a fate worse than death, and uses his necromantic powers to force his soul to unbind from his body (that is, die), thus cheating Blackwand when she actually strikes his physical body. 1b. Another possibility is that Loraan doesn't quite realize just how powerful Blackwand is, and tries the same necromantic soul-expulsion spell that he uses later on Riens. Blackwand says the equivalent of "Not a bloody chance, sucker", and bounces the spell back at him (a slam return, with english) forcing his soul to unbind from his body, only with worse effects than if he'd done it intentionally, which explains the later undeadness. > 2. Blackwand swipes Loraan across the chest, but since he's dead, his soul > is safe. > 3. One of Loraan's guards comes around and revivifies him later. > > Of course, this is by no means conclusive, and depends on a rather abrupt > deminse on the part of Loraan to work. We may be dealing with the whole > "soul-in-a-box" (or equivilent) situation here instead. > > I've more or less suspended my judgement on this point, after debating > about it for the wiki article on Loraan. If Steve chooses to tell us what > happened, it'll answer it, if not, I don't think we have enough > information to say for sure one way or the other. Which is why it's Speculation:Loraan, of course.