Ask the Loremaster: Bindstones & Death

[EdTheKet]

I've updated LORE: Bindstones

[EdTheKet]

Revamped LORE: Death and pulled together all pertinent information (as some was also on the LORE: Layonaran Cosmology page).

[Gulnyr]

There seem to be either some changes to the lore or some sections that are poorly worded.  Or that you lied in the past, hehe.

If you look back to an old thread about strand loss, you'll find [post=979842]this post[/post].  In that post, you (Ed) verify that:[LIST=1]

• soul strands are not part of souls, but hold souls and bodies together
• souls do not lose pieces or get weaker when soul strands break
• SMD does not make a soul stronger, it only provides more soul strands with which the soul holds itself to the body

On this Death page, though, are statements like:

• "The stronger the soul, the more Soul Strands it has," which seems to counter Point 3 and maybe Point 2
• "It is thought that Blood Pools/Wells somehow touch the Plane of the Lost and therefore when you die near one you will lose a part of your soul (i.e. you lose a Soul Strand)," which counters Point 1
  
• "It is said that if a character is ever permanently dead that brave adventurers could travel to the Plane of the Lost and deal with the Harvester in order to get a small part of their soul returned (i.e. one Soul Strand)," which is also opposed to Point 1.

Which is actually right?

[EdTheKet]

There seem to be either some changes to the lore or some sections that are poorly worded.  Or that you lied in the past, hehe.

If you look back to an old thread about strand loss, you'll find [post=979842]this post[/post].  In that post, you (Ed) verify that:[LIST=1]

• soul strands are not part of souls, but hold souls and bodies together
• souls do not lose pieces or get weaker when soul strands break
• SMD does not make a soul stronger, it only provides more soul strands with which the soul holds itself to the body

On this Death page, though, are statements like:

• "The stronger the soul, the more Soul Strands it has," which seems to counter Point 3 and maybe Point 2
• "It is thought that Blood Pools/Wells somehow touch the Plane of the Lost and therefore when you die near one you will lose a part of your soul (i.e. you lose a Soul Strand)," which counters Point 1
  
• "It is said that if a character is ever permanently dead that brave adventurers could travel to the Plane of the Lost and deal with the Harvester in order to get a small part of their soul returned (i.e. one Soul Strand)," which is also opposed to Point 1.

Which is actually right?

Hehe, the points you raise actually pertain to the only parts I kept from the previous version of that LORE page :) The old post you refer to is correct.

I updated the LORE page, your last two bullet points have been addressed. Regarding your first bullet point, that refers to the "strength" of souls of a particular species in general, e.g. dragons have more than 10 soul strands (think 20-ish).

Thanks for pointing this out.

[Gulnyr]

Cool.

I think the sentence about strength of soul could be clarified just by removing the "all."

This:

The stronger the soul, the more Soul Strands it has. In general, all sentient races, like humans, elves, halflings, orcs, brokanian and so on, have ten.

"Wow. All sentient races have ten soul strands."

vs. this:

The stronger the soul, the more Soul Strands it has. In general, sentient races, like humans, elves, halflings, orcs, brokanian and so on, have ten.

"So, things that are more or less humany have ten soul strands. Dragons and T'oleflor may have more since they could have stronger souls."

ALL sentient races is a lot, y'know?  You could even get rid of the "in general" and just have "Most sentient races like humans..." and get the same meaning with less wordiness.