RE: Re: Fetishes

From: Richard Sands <richard.sands_at_...>
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 16:43:24 +0100


On Wednesday, June 28, 2000 4:30 PM, James Turner [SMTP:j.a.turner_at_...] wrote:

> I think it's the word spirit that's giving me problems.
> If you defeat a leopard spirit and stuff it in a fetish you should
have a
> leopard spirit in there since a leopard spirit is a singular thing.
>

I think you're right. This is the way I think of it: the shaman (or the person on whose behalf he is working) determines the skill or passion he wishes to receive. He then determines (within his tradition) the most applicable spirit type to receive such an ability from. Once his target has been selected, he enters the spirit world in an appropriate place with appropriate preparations, and seeks out a spirit of the appropriate type. Once he has bargained with or defeated the spirit, it is bound into a fetish (or integrated), and the process of binding causes the spirit to offer one of its abilities when called upon (but only that ability - it would need to be defeated again to give a different ability, which is not an option whilst it is bound). Thus a fetish may in fact contain a wildfire spirit which has been forced to grant flaming arrow to its victor, but the system simplifies this by calling it a flaming arrow spirit. When, after using the flaming arrow, the fetish is filled with a start fire spirit, it could be the same wildfire spirit, bound with a different constraint, or it could be a different spirit entirely. Gamewise, it's not really important, as only disembodied spirits can manifest more than one ability, and these can happily be referred to by type (eg wildfire spirit).

Richard
  richard.sands_at_...
  richard_at_...

Powered by hypermail