At 11:44 AM 6/29/2006, Scott Schultz wrote: > >With > >the GW the gods might said hime back like Sethra but how does that work? > >Your soul goes to the _Halls of Judgement_ not your body? > >Taking these questions in reverse order - When a Dragaeran dies, his or her >soul (so we have been told by people who should be reliable) hangs around >for three days. After the third day, the soul departs and the body can no >longer be revivified. > >If a body is preserved properly, the soul can apparently remain connected to >it. I'm inferring this based on the description of what happens when a body >is carried to Deathsgate and the fact that the trip in the pre-teleport age >was a long one. Khaavren took an entire year off in order to do it the >"traditional" way. > >In any case, whether the soul remains or is somehow summoned back, when the >body arrives at the base of Deathsgate Falls and decomposes, the soul is >released. The soul of the deceased then takes whatever physical items it >requires from its body and faces the challenge of the Paths of the Dead. The >original body is left behind, though it seems clear that the souls in the >Paths and the Halls have a body of some sort that can be harmed and even >"killed". > >Now, as for the Gods sending Vlad back - It wouldn't happen, or at least not >like it would for a Dragaeran. Easterners don't go to the Halls of Judgement >when they die. We don't know what happens to them. Vlad was allowed to leave >the Halls in _Taltos_ because he didn't belong there. That is, his soul >didn't belong there. Morollan, who was also alive, was unable to leave >because his soul DID belong there. Aliera could leave because the Halls had >no hold over her. > >Does it matter that Vlad's soul was originally a Dragaeran soul? I'd say >"no", based on Morollan's example. If Vlad's soul was still Dragaeran >despite being born into an Easterner or if all souls are the same regardless >then Vlad could not have left the Halls of Judgement. It's always possible >that the Lords of Judgement allowed Vlad to leave on principle and prevented >Morollan from leaving on principle. My general impression based on all of >the books, though, leads me to conclude that the Lords of Judgement don't >actually interfere in individual affairs that much. What I mean is that Vlad >or Zerika or Aliera were all innately able to leave the Halls. It wasn't a >case of the Gods granting them some sort of protection from the >"soul-stealing" magic of the Halls. When they talked about preventing >someone from leaving, they meant literally binding someone physically to the >place until such time as they fell asleep and died there. Note, that this is >my personal view of matters; there's scant text evidence to directly support >it. > >If Vlad's soul is innately "immune" to the Halls because he's an Easterner >then it seems reasonable to presume that his soul will go to wherever >Eastern souls go, not to the Halls of Judgement. > > >Also is it > >because Vlad's soul trun traitor and establiah the Jar-head that his in > >a eastner's body and not in a "human" one. > >Aliera suggests as much and sort of treats it as a matter of Karma and >genetics doing weird things together. The truth may be more complicated. > >On a seperate note, I'd recommend sticking to the published names of the >stories. Steve's pet-names for the books are his personal thing. You won't >normally find anyone else referring to them that way, which can lead to some >confusion if you DO start referring to them that way. I am a bit confused. Wasn't there a point made (in _Jhereg_)that Vlad's soul is actually a brother to Keiron the Conqueror, the founder of the Jhereg? Maybe souls are sent back, but the individual who receives the recycled sould evidently doesn't have a memory. And I have no idea why Vlad received the soul of a Dragaeran--maybe the gods wanted a "quick fix" for something, and to beings that live 2 or 3 millenia, a human lifetime is almost like nothing at all? -- Regards, Pete pgranzeau at cox.net