[Dragaera] Ten New Questions after Dzur. [Dzur Spoilers]

[Michael Wojcik]

Ken Koester wrote:
 > Jon Lincicum wrote:
 >
 >> 5. Will Vlad's actions against the Left Hand lead to all out war?
 >>
 > Only if he hangs around & they find him again.  He does have one 
subtle
 > bargaining chip:  whats-her-name's soul is still in Lady Teldra.  He
 > could offer to restore it, if they work out a way to get a body.  It's
 > not like it hasn't been done before, after all (-;

Is it? We know Great Weapons can hold souls temporarily, and perhaps
permanently (if soul-holding is an accurate description for what
happened to Teldra herself, for example). But Daymar says that the
sorceress's soul was "destroyed", and he appears to have some idea of
the mechanism involved.

Also, part of the appeal of Great Weapons and other Morganti blades,
for the reader, is that they represent finality. A world with
resurrection and reincarnation needs some sort of real threat. If
it turned out that Great Weapons routinely hang onto the souls of
folks they kill, that would undermine their value as plot devices a
bit - and, for me, seem a bit of a cheat.

For example, it means Vlad needn't feel guilty about what happened to
the sorceress. Heck, he can just go around zapping the souls of anyone
he dislikes; he can always put 'em back later.

(Though the idea does remind me of an amusing scene in Vance's
_Cugel's Saga_...)

-- 
Michael Wojcik