[QUOTE=Shienvien]Hmm... I believe it is Jack in Zerul and Jillian's party, and Nessa again with the collab? Or does Olan or Jaelnec have something to say?
Edit: And now that Jack's posted, it is Merc/Rhae and Ink/Ashgan respectively (and still Nessa with the collab). Also, Aemoten and Gerald (well, mostly Gerald) already concluded the Withering was demonic back at the gazzeral church' ruins? Guess confirmations can't hurt, though.[/QUOTE]
Olan won't want to interrupt what is going on or jostle Thaler, but Jaelnec might very briefly point out that yes, he is indeed okay, so there's nothing major for me to post in the collab about (though I really am wondering whether there is any real purpose to separating the collab from the rest of the RP since the lower post-quality and faster posting we anticipated isn't really showing that much). Gerald did have the thought before, although up until now it has only been a theory that he suspected might have some truth to it, but which now has much more credibility than before.

[QUOTE=Shienvien](I imagine the original - very first - mortals were a bit less diverse in their beliefs than nowadays' mortals, too, due to being formed directly by the spirits according to their respective perceptions? How diverse you imagine Reniam in general to be? You made a couple of fairly strong statements about how the 'civilized races' would perceive something where I would have imagined very mixed opinions at best...)[/QUOTE]
When I refer to the 'civilized races', I mostly mean the ones immediately relevant to the region the story takes place in; truth be told Reniam is far more diverse than that area gives the impression of. Not only is there also civilizations to the far south, many more to the west and southwest, and even a couple to the east and southeast, but there are also a plethora of more-or-less isolated islands around Kirirak and (thus far unconfirmed but insistently assured by the seafaring Melenians) at least one other continent in the world. Not all peoples are like Rodoria and its surrounding countries... and I can pretty much guarantee that these remote lands also have their own trouble to deal with in their own way, which Rodorians will likely not learn about for centuries.
And the 'very first' mortals... well, yes, they were a [I]lot[/I] less diverse than mortals are now, although their nature (and the circumstances under which they were created) caused them to attain diversity extremely fast, relatively speaking.

[QUOTE=Shienvien]And yeah ... according to the story of creation (now that I am actually trying to recall it), plants indeed do not have seeds of good and evil, as they were created by Gaia alone. (Horse chestnuts are evil. Not only dominant - as many plants are -, but downright evil. Rather decorative, though... And some other plants are nice and friendly.)
- It feels strange, though, plants sharing a soul, as in real life plants existing in any sort of harmony is an exception, not the rule. Mostly, they try to very decidedly eliminate other plants in their vicinity by launching a deprivation and chemical war on them, though some will try to "flee". (It can be interesting seeing the same plant pop up a handful of inches from where you last saw it each spring...) How can beings which typically spend their entire lives brutally and relentlessly (if somewhat slowly) murdering one another share a soul?[/QUOTE]
Although Reniam plants share a soul in the sense of the word, it should be stressed that the ambient energy that connects them isn't quite the same as what a soul is for mortals or even immortals. While plants may obtain remnants of memories and feelings from other plants through the flow of magical energy, they won't actually share a consciousness unless one particular plant has grown advanced enough to force its fledging mind on others, in which case we're dealing with a Living Wood, which is a separate matter altogether. Using the word "share" perhaps also paints their relationship with the soul and each other in a misleadingly idyllic light... It would perhaps be more accurate to say that they are mutually dependent on it. The ambient magical energy of Reniam is a somewhat continuously renewed yet limited resource that they require in order to live and stay healthy, much like sunlight, water and various types of nourishment from the soil, so rather than uniting them (excepting once again Living Woods and fledging Living Woods) it's really just one more thing for them to compete over.

[QUOTE=Shienvien]How come that mind control (and to an extent illusion magic?) and making one's body decay, both of which have been described to work with 'regular', non-favored magic, are not barred by the law of magic that states you cannot directly alter living beings? (As mind control should logically drastically alter the ongoing processes in the brain, and decay is the direct breaking down and altering the consistency of the body. Normal decay only happens due to various bacteria and other flesh-eaters - remove all bacteria, and it would simply stay completely fresh indefinitely ... or eventually simply dry up, if it is in a dry enough room. Time won't cut it.) Or is it just a matter of perception?[/QUOTE]
I don't remember having described it as being possible to cause a living body to decay through mortal magic (not saying that I haven't, though; my memory is far from perfect), but to the extent that such a thing was possible it would be a matter of using magic to affect the body indirectly, manipulating something external to cause the internal change. As for mind control and manipulation of individual perception (causing beings to hallucinate rather than actually manufacturing sensations), their fuctioning is indeed a matter of perception for most part. Mortals haven't even begun to understand how the brain actually works yet, but they consider the mind something mostly unrelated to the body (they only see the connection between mind and soul) and thus rather than changing processes in the brain, that kind of illusionary magic instead targets the relatively abstract and spiritual concept of the mind. This is also why even people who have no experience or skill in magic whatsoever can theoretically resist that kind of magic through sheer force of will, since it would just be a matter of the brain-mind forcefully exerting dominance over the manipulated soul-mind. Since the reverse can also be true, however, stronger illusions are more difficult to break; whenever the two minds desynchronize, the more confident/stubborn one forces the other to comply with it.
In a hypothetical future Reniam in which an understanding of the brain had been achieved, illusionists would be capable of directly controlling the soul-mind [I]and[/I] the brain-mind, though, making them virtually irresistible to anyone not well-versed in magic themselves. But for the moment all they can do is to affect the brain indirectly through the incorporeal mind.

And I guess the bit on Iridiel's Favored power is okay, as is the goddess of Sulis herself. I find the concept of Sulis' Favored Ones adhering to a different ranking-system than is the case with most other deities interesting, but I guess it could actually make sense, particularly if the ones Sulis marks are actually the ones with comparatively greater souls. It's fine by me, I think.