[Glorantha] Souls and suchlike.

[Malk Williams]

Jane:
> Well, the RW definition of "soul" is more or less irrelevant here
anyway

Ahem.  Except in the purely literal sense of course!  It is as relevant
as the RW uses of the words "Strength" and "Dexterity" are to the RPG
stats of the same name.  In the game, they are abstractions, represented
to one extent or another by a simple mechanical model to allow us to
quantify them, but essentially, the one is a direct derivation from the
other.

When Greg introduced the word "soul" in a Gloranthan context, I am quite
certain that it was intended in the context of the real world concept,
even given that the concept is somewhat ambiguous.

> only religions say it exists at all,

Not so in fact, though secular definitions do not view the soul as
immortal.

> About the one thing they have in common is using the word as a synonym
> for "spirit", which is one thing we know in Glorantha it isn't.

Whilst I agree that a direct correlation between soul and spirit is not
entirely correct, I think that as a simplistic illustration, it comes a
lot closer to the truth than the Microsoft Word analogy.  This is partly
because I mistrust reductionist analogies between computers and brains
or minds in general - I think they are far more misleading than they are
illuminating -  but mostly because I don't think that the soul (whether
in a mortal or immortal definition) is a subset of the brain.  Even in a
wholly mundane definition, I think that it has to encompass one's whole
self, including emotions and responses that are triggered by the
chemical and hormonal actions and reactions of the body, because
whatever else the soul may be, I don't think that it has much to do with
cognition, memory or intellect.

For what it's worth, my own view of the soul (and to be clear about my
own personal context here, I am a Christian, and do believe in immortal
souls), is that it is the essence of a being.  Whether that is taken to
mean the totality of the being, combining mind, body and spirit, or the
core of one's being, the source of one's nature, personality and so on.
Saying that it is the point at which body and spirit meet, or to use
your own word, the "interface" of the mundane with the divine, is not a
bad one in my opinion.

> Not a lot of point in looking further.

Only if we want to understand what each of us is talking about when we
use words like "soul", "soul damaged" and so on.

Anyway, I think I've gone about as far as I care to for the time being.

Bestest Regards -

Malk.