ZCaslar wrote:
I'm prompted to wonder if that's related to this bizarre property of Wantir's servants being both undead and essentially incorporeal while also managing to use bystanders as vessels for their twisted rebirths.
val Holryn wrote:
Your second question on the nature of Wantir's servants is also very compelling.
To be very clear: Iahkovah and all of his undead servants appeared to be corporeal. There were sarcophagi brought up to the Collection and inside were mummified remains of Ssanu. Now that you mention it, it seems mind boggling that there was a "spirit" that could be transferred from a fallen undead body to an unwilling human host that then died to re-spawn the undead creature. The rule as we understand it is that the soul is usually destroyed in the process of becoming undead in the first place.
I do not know how to account for this. Perhaps the "spirit" I saw was a manifestation of the intellect being transferred and nothing more. Though having seen the transformation with my own eyes I resist this explanation. I, like most of you, previously encountered shades I believe some version of a soul was transferred even if that doesn't normally seem possible. My guess ... and its just a guess ... is that Wantir, or some proxy of his, restored the souls after death and "rebirth." I will certainly consider this topic in future detail at some point.
The Mother Church teaches that there are three components of a man: body, soul, and intellect. Corporeal undead have a body and sometimes an intellect, but their souls have been destroyed as fuel for the transformation to undeath. In contrast, incorporeal shades have a soul and intellect (with variable amount of sanity). It could hypothetically be possible that the division is different for other living beings. I agree with your theory, Tukufu, that it was the intellect rather than the soul that was being transferred in the situation observed of Iahkovah's servants.
Your brother,
Amadi D'Abura val'Abebi