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<blockquote data-quote="Zurai" data-source="post: 4000996" data-attributes="member: 52324">NMF:That view is actually not all that incompatible with the standard view. Everyone: Spirits aren't necessarily discrete entities. The spirit of the Noonshadow Forest is the spirits of everything inside the Noonshadow Forest. The downside to that, however, is that the nature of the spirit can change. An individual spirit - the spirit of a particular tree, for example - will remain pretty much constant over its lifetime unless something dramatic happens. A composite spirit like the spirit of the Noonshadow Forest, however, changes as all the spirits that make up its composite change. If a major part of the forest were on fire, for example, it's quite likely that the Noonshadow's spirit would alter to reflect that. That's one of the main reasons the group is being sent to appease such a far-away spirit: the elders are worried that an angry fire spirit on the mountain could spread fire into the forest, and the forest would become much less hospitable to the people of Cuirlen.A great example of a composite spirit changing because of a change in its composition comes from the movie <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_mononoke" target="_blank">Princess Mononoke</a>, where at the start of the movie a &quot;Boar God&quot; (giant, ancient boar who embodies the spirits of the entire boar population of his area) is shot with a crude iron bullet after many of his kind are hunted and killed for sport, and the wound becomes infected. The Boar God's spirit is driven mad with rage and pain and infection and becomes a dangerous monster.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Zurai, post: 4000996, member: 52324"] NMF:That view is actually not all that incompatible with the standard view. Everyone: Spirits aren't necessarily discrete entities. The spirit of the Noonshadow Forest [i]is[/i] the spirits of everything inside the Noonshadow Forest. The downside to that, however, is that the nature of the spirit can change. An individual spirit - the spirit of a particular tree, for example - will remain pretty much constant over its lifetime unless something dramatic happens. A composite spirit like the spirit of the Noonshadow Forest, however, changes as all the spirits that make up its composite change. If a major part of the forest were on fire, for example, it's quite likely that the Noonshadow's spirit would alter to reflect that. That's one of the main reasons the group is being sent to appease such a far-away spirit: the elders are worried that an angry fire spirit on the mountain could spread fire into the forest, and the forest would become much less hospitable to the people of Cuirlen. A great example of a composite spirit changing because of a change in its composition comes from the movie [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_mononoke]Princess Mononoke[/url], where at the start of the movie a "Boar God" (giant, ancient boar who embodies the spirits of the entire boar population of his area) is shot with a crude iron bullet after many of his kind are hunted and killed for sport, and the wound becomes infected. The Boar God's spirit is driven mad with rage and pain and infection and becomes a dangerous monster. [/QUOTE]

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