> IMO, heaps of spirits are NOT creatures which ever inhabited an
> earthly body. I don't think that the average Power spirit is the
> ghost of anything at all...
Agreed completely. I think two things are at work here. First might be "parallel evolution" as spirit entities are constrained by the forms and ecology of the mundane world. A wolf spirit ain't necessarily a dead wolf or an unborn wolf, but it's something that acts like a wolf on the Spirit Plane. Second is the normal Gloranthan practice of defining or redefining things encountered from your own subjective experience. So a nondescript Power spirit which shamans *think* acts wolfishly will begin to manifest itself as a wolf.
Perhaps the more "colourful" spirit descriptions are primarily useful to specialist shamans. An Aldryami shaman would know how to get the most use out of a Holly spirit, just as a carpenter knows how best to use a piece of wood [anguished wailing from the woodfolk at this simile]. Some other shaman who doesn't specialise in trees would find it only of basic use (say, as a Generic POW spirit, perhaps?). Knowing "species" would be like knowing a "true name" -- more bang for your buck.
There could easily be a connection between the manifest form of shamans' fetches and the types of spirits they know best.
> Maybe (most) Intellect spirits _can't_ memorize sorcery spells...
Happily seconded. After all, what good pious Malkioni wants to associate with a fragmentary, decomposing lump of God Learner? <g>
If anyone wants a more modern and familiar example of incest taboos being broken all over the place, read Georges Duby's "The Knight, The Lady and The Priest" on the origins of modern marriage. The Church didn't like any overly-close marriages within feudal dynasties, but they're the only way to keep inherited land from passing outside the family circle sometimes.
> Nick speaks as if there were great tracts of published knowledge of
> the Sartarite Storm Bull, overturned by this Evil Gregging, which is
> (sadly) far from true.
We know from WF and other accounts of Sartarite games that before KoS was published every Storm Bull cultist in Sartar thought he worshipped a god called the Storm Bull. It's not a whinge (and there's no such thing as an Evil Gregging); like my linguistic gymnastics over Sultan & Satrap, I'm trying to reconcile as many sources as possible.
If "Urox" is the name of the Storm Bull in Sartar, and I'm talking about the Storm Bull everywhere outside Prax, why should I use "Urox" to define this wider cult of the Storm Bull? At best he's one example.
If "the Storm Bull" is an acceptable name for Urox in Sartar, again, why change every appearance to Urox?
IMHO, the Sartarites worship "Urox the Storm Bull". And nobody needs to revise anything to fit this.
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