|
A bit of a strange thought experiment, this, relating to an adventure I'm writing so I'm not sure if it'll interest anyone else, but in case it does:
Imagine some buddhist-style philosopher sitting at the top of a mountain trying to figure out what are the irreducible qualities that make up existence in this Golarion / Pathfinder world, a bit like the mind/body philosophical debates that we have in our own world.
I've come up with 6:
1) Form - i.e. body but made a bit more generic. Given that things can be incorporeal I cannot use the term physicality, but where we are physical it includes not just our shape but also our physical qualities such as strength and fortitude.
2) Mind. The second one from our own world. Although I'm not hugely familiar with the new magic system I include psionics / mind-based magic in this.
3) Spirit. The bit that carries on existing even if we have no form (i.e. we've died and become some sort of petitioner) or mind.
4) Polarity. Could just be thought of as +1 (alive), -1 (undead) or 0 (dead), or we could extend this into Energy Level except that I've never heard people talk about undead having lots of negative energy levels (maybe they have).
5) Bloodline. Those features that we have by virtue of our ancestry. Our type mixed in with our bloodline. I believe that this is independent of form, but I mix in that essence which sorcerers tap into because I think type and bloodline are part of the same thing.
6) Alignment. An odd one this, because it is much debated whether or not this relates to Mind. There appears to be in this magical world of ours some sort of cosmic judge that decides where you sit on the alignment axis and therefore how certain spells and items are going to react to you, regardless of what your mind might have to say about the matter. Clearly there is some relationship between mind and alignment, however the relationship has enough wiggle room in it for me to postulate that alignment and mind are separate entities in our existence.
If anyone's interested, please comment :-)
All the best
Richard
|
|
I believe Polarity is an aspect of the Spirit. The reason for so few Negaitve-polarity Outsiders is a (relative) lack of new negative-polartiy souls (i.e. because zombies don't breed very often).
Negative polarity is also things like liches and vampires. Note that I can turn into one of these and then be turned back again (via Resurrection).
Does my spirit change if I become a vampire?
Richard