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Souls and Spirits - are they necessary in order to exist?
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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson Longinus" data-source="post: 9256005" data-attributes="member: 7025508"><p>So I don't think there is "correct" answer, it is fiction, so it can work however you want it to work.</p><p></p><p>However, personally I feel that if we postulate metaphysics with soul, then I rather feel that whether or not you have one should be a big deal! I dislike when souls are just something vaguely defined that do not seem to do much.</p><p></p><p>In my setting soul is the essence of a creature. It is the core around which their mind is build and it is the source of their will and animating force. One cannot exist without a soul, except perhaps as some sort of an automaton. Soul is which moves on to the Shadowlands when you die, perhaps to hang around with your ancestors, or perhaps just to be purified of memories and all sort of other unnecessary baggage so that you can reincarnate as an owlbear for your next life or something. Or if something goes seriously wrong, your soul might get stuck on the material world, and has to form an ectoplasmic fake body to exist as a ghost. I think this is roughly compatible with Magic Jar where soul seems to be the source of the creature's identity and required for living.</p><p></p><p>I'd also like to point out that how mind works in the real life is poorly understood. We know pretty well what brain bits do what, but we really have no clue how unified experience or indeed the consciousness itself is produced. We tend to assume that brain does it "somehow", but at least in fiction we can postulate that this "somehow" entails something metaphysical, without directly contradicting the neuroscience. Not that I really care about this level of scientific detail in D&D. Physics, biology etc are similar than in real world to the extent these medieval people can observe, but beyond that all bets are off. They don't have electron microscopes or MRI machines, so how stuff on such level of detail works simply is not something we need to contemplate; no one in the setting would know anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crimson Longinus, post: 9256005, member: 7025508"] So I don't think there is "correct" answer, it is fiction, so it can work however you want it to work. However, personally I feel that if we postulate metaphysics with soul, then I rather feel that whether or not you have one should be a big deal! I dislike when souls are just something vaguely defined that do not seem to do much. In my setting soul is the essence of a creature. It is the core around which their mind is build and it is the source of their will and animating force. One cannot exist without a soul, except perhaps as some sort of an automaton. Soul is which moves on to the Shadowlands when you die, perhaps to hang around with your ancestors, or perhaps just to be purified of memories and all sort of other unnecessary baggage so that you can reincarnate as an owlbear for your next life or something. Or if something goes seriously wrong, your soul might get stuck on the material world, and has to form an ectoplasmic fake body to exist as a ghost. I think this is roughly compatible with Magic Jar where soul seems to be the source of the creature's identity and required for living. I'd also like to point out that how mind works in the real life is poorly understood. We know pretty well what brain bits do what, but we really have no clue how unified experience or indeed the consciousness itself is produced. We tend to assume that brain does it "somehow", but at least in fiction we can postulate that this "somehow" entails something metaphysical, without directly contradicting the neuroscience. Not that I really care about this level of scientific detail in D&D. Physics, biology etc are similar than in real world to the extent these medieval people can observe, but beyond that all bets are off. They don't have electron microscopes or MRI machines, so how stuff on such level of detail works simply is not something we need to contemplate; no one in the setting would know anyway. [/QUOTE]
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