Blood 'n' gods

The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 05 Oct 2007
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4918

Roy C. Lackey05 Oct 2007, 07:16
3 quoted lines
Recently I wrote: Disiri is the only Aelf to receive a soul (if she did) we are shown in the text. Able's blood seemed to be the medium. Baki got Toug's blood, but I don't see that she gained a soul by it. The only differences I can see are love and Able's status as a god.
I should amend that to say that Able's blood enabled Disiri to become human; a soul comes with the body. But the different results from the blood infusions remain. A number of people seem to think that love is what accounted for the difference. Maybe so, but I am not convinced. Baki was injured in consequence of service to Able. She came looking for Able to heal her, and she had earlier healed Able with her blood. Able was ethically if not morally obligated to return the favor. He could do it, and she knew he could do it, but he refused to do it personally, saying that he could not do it. He discharged his obligation by getting Toug to heal her. Able wasn't exactly lying, but he wasn't quite truthful, either. He could do it but elected not to. After a chapter and a half, he finally told Toug the why of it. He had sworn an oath to The Valfather not to use the god-like powers (the authority of Skai) of an Overcyn while in Mythgarthr. "I no longer have the authority of Mythgarthr. That can never be mine again. My authority's that of Skai." (W, 56) It was okay for Toug to heal Baki because he was a god to her. Able can get away with that on a technicality, the proper relation of god to supplicant in the Seven Worlds. But why make a big deal out of it? Any human could have healed her, so how would healing her himself have violated his oath, unless there was some property peculiar to Overcyn blood that would have yielded a result different from that of human blood? Able did not love Baki anymore than Toug did, so that is not the answer. At the end, after Able had broken his oath and healed some people, and just before The Valfather spoke to him, he was exhausted and said that he "could heal no more." He had exhausted his Overcyn magic, but he still had Overcyn blood. He gave it to an Aelf and the Aelf became a human woman. -Roy
Cliff Judge05 Oct 2007, 12:51

↳ in reply to Roy C. Lackey

3 quoted lines
On 10/5/07, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote: At the end, after Able had broken his oath and healed some people, and just before The Valfather spoke to him, he was exhausted and said that he "could heal no more." He had exhausted his Overcyn magic, but he still had Overcyn blood. He gave it to an Aelf and the Aelf became a human woman.
Okay, so if you are given the blood of someone from two steps higher than you in the hierarchy, you can move up a level! So if part of Dsiri's personal motivation in the story was to gain a soul, then she must have meant for Able to be elevated to Overcyn from the very beginning.
Matthew King05 Oct 2007, 15:15

↳ in reply to Cliff Judge

3 quoted lines
On Oct 5, 2007, at 7:51 AM, Cliff Judge wrote: Okay, so if you are given the blood of someone from two steps higher than you in the hierarchy, you can move up a level!
This raises the question of what happens when you are given the flesh and blood of the Most High God.

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