How powerful are creatures really ?

[Darkmoon]

The fae aren't alive by the standards of the other races because the Fae are immortal. Truly immortal. Hard to compare them to any other race, when all other races are quite mortal.

[katasev]

But  vampires  canonically  existed  in  Furrae . It  was  stated  that  the  Fae  are  not  alive  by  the  standards  of most other  races .
Also  Humans  existed  in  Furrae  as  well , if  they  are  anything  like  real  wold  humans  they  largely  rely  upon  chemistry  and  
natural  forces  to  continue  functioning  instead  of  a  mystical  energy.

And did vampires somehow not have a soul? It's already been shown that the initially created Undead had no souls and thus were little more than breathing furniture - ie, not sentient. When the Dark Pegasus event happened, the previous Undead acquired both sentience and souls, and the newly created ones simply rise with their original souls still anchored to the same body. This is why, along with being fairly useless for soul collection, children and babies cannot be made undead - not enough power, not enough ties to anchor it properly yet, I suppose. Being dead or undead or just-not-quite-alive doesn't mean there's no soul there, so I'm not sure where you're going with the vampire argument.

Fae are their own ball of wax - it's even been stated (somewhere, I can't remember, or I'd go dig it up) that what they call a "soul" is not actually anything like what beings/creatures call a "soul" - it's just the closest word that gives a vague idea of what they mean by it. Either way, you can't split it or share it or even make new ones - all attempts at hybridization result in non-sentient, soulless Hollows.

And did I miss the boat where here in IRL-land someone managed to prove or disprove the existence of souls? Because I'm still seeing an awful lot of churches for someone to have figured out that there isn't one. There's plenty of debate vs soul / mind / what makes us different from non-sentient animals still as far as I'm aware, which is why there're also still piles of debates as to whether or not it's ethical/humane to pull the plug on people who are brain-dead / vegetables.

[Jasae Bushae]

Regarding Vampires, from what little we know on the matter, can we be certain that they were a form of undead? While the popular version is a corpse that can infect others with a bite, there are plenty of variations on the Vampire myth, such as the one that they are a supernatural creature (more akin to a Mythos) who happens to have a collection of powers, weaknesses and needs to create new vampires the old fashioned way.

There are so many variations on what a Vampire is, not only in pop culture but in old myths as well, that we probably cannot assume that they have every ability under the sun.

[katasev]

True - I myself was more making the point that if someone's trying to say vampires are non-souled sentients based on the fact that they're undead or living dead or whatever that the Undead themselves do also canonically HAVE souls, so it doesn't make sense to assume that vampires wouldn't.

If "vampire" is just a term for a fully living, not-undead type of Creature, then there's no reason at all why they alone out of all living sentient races randomly wouldn't have a soul and thus saying "but vampires were real!" has no bearing on anything. XD

ps: Under the sun? I see what you did there... 

[meltingface101]

From  what  I'm  getting  so  far  is  that  the  soul  is  a  collection  of  metaphysical  organs  that  can  keep  a  body  functioning  even  when  most  of  the  physical  organs  are  non-functional . Even  when  it  isn't  all  there  a  body  can  still  function , all  sentient  life  in  Furrae depend  upon  these  components  to  function . What  I  want  to  know  is  if  there  are  races  that  don't
rely  on  these  components . Traditionally  Vampires  do  not  have  souls .  The criteria  for  what  qualifies  as  sentient  is  still  very  sketchy  despite  several  years  being  devoted  to  it . Heck  it's  even  been  confirmed  that  plants  are  capable  of  Arithmetic  . Sentience   does  not  seem  to  be  a  reliable  metric  for  whether  something  has  a  soul  or  not .

Also  considering  how  powerful  the  Fae  are  why  can't  they  just  stuff  a  soul  in  to  a  hollow .  It's  been  done  people  like  Jyrras before  with  lamps , urns, etc.  

[Amber Williams]

Truth be told the DMFA vampires had souls in my mindset.  I've never been very good at being traditional.   As far as I can tell, there are no sentient races that are soul-less.

The fact the Fae can't just stuff a soul into a hollow is sort of a sore spot for the Fae.   In a sense it serves as a taunting reminder that there are rules and limits that even they can't break and that drives them batty. 

[meltingface101]

Truth be told the DMFA vampires had souls in my mindset.  I've never been very good at being traditional.   As far as I can tell, there are no sentient races that are soul-less.

Are  there  any  races  that  do  not  rely  upon  a  magical  life  force  to  exist . If  I  understand  you  correctly most  races beings  included  rely  upon  magic  to  keep  there  bodies  functioning , even  if  they  have  no  means  of  consciously  controlling  it  . Would  an  entity  independent  of  magic  be  vulnerable  to  magical  disease , due  to  having  no  means  of  fending  off  viruses  and  bacteria  capable  of  channeling  more  energy  than  they  possess  in  there  entire  body .

Also  does  stuffing  a  soul  into  a  body  result  in  it  turning  into  what  the  soul  belonged to , is  that  why  the  Fae  don't  use  
it  at  all . Even  if  that  is  not  the  case  it  seems  like  they  could  circumvent  it  in  several  other  ways . Considering  they  don't  have  anything  resembling  our  sense  of  morality , what  prevents  them  from  abducting  someone  else's  child  and  tweaking  it  to  the  point  of  being  a  watered  down  Fairy  substitute . They  do  tend  to  be  known  for  such  behavior .

[Tapewolf]

Considering  they  don't  have  anything  resembling  our  sense  of  morality , what  prevents  them  from  abducting  someone  else's  child  and  tweaking  it  to  the  point  of  being  a  watered  down  Fairy  substitute . They  do  tend  to  be  known  for  such  behavior .

It might be worth keeping in mind the DMFA uses our mythologies as a template only, and the resemblances are often only superficial.  e.g. Demons are not related to hell and don't have to be evil.  Angels are not that different to Demons and are mostly just better at deflecting the blame or getting others to do their dirty work.  Unlike succubi in medieval folklore - vaporous entities who have no sex but seduce men and then impregnate women in a bizarre mammalian pollination exercise to produce witches for the Devil - DMFA 'Cubi are born with a gender and base form like most of the other races.  In fact they're lot like souped-up Beings with emotional problems and built-in camouflage.

In short, don't expect DMFA races to behave like their counterparts in our own mythologies because they are not the same.  The reason I say this is because a lot of the questions you've been asking over the last month or so read almost as if they were trying to shoehorn DMFA into some other universe...

[Amber Williams]

The Fae have a very different set of operating systems that run their existence.  It's certainly within a Fae's ability to swap mortal A's soul with mortal B's body, and they can certainly empower a non-Fae to be fairly powerful by non-Fae standards...but at the end of the day another Fae can just as easily take it away.  Where as a true Fae cannot affect another true Fae.  As you just described, they could tweak somebody...but at the end of the day it would really just be a watered down substitute and not the real deal.

But yes, as Tapewolf described, most of the creatures in DMFA are prolly best not to be too directly associated with the mythology of our universe.  Some take a cue from them, others are completely off.  It should be kept in mind many of these things were named when I was back in high school so naming creativity may not have been my strongest form. 

As for magical life force...there are a lot of races that can exist just fine without it.  For the sake of simplicity, I have't really delved into the aspect of magical disease so I'd say it isn't really a concern.

[meltingface101]

Would  such  races  be  incapable  of  using  magical  potions , healing  artifacts ,etc or  even  find  them  outright  toxic . Such  races  sound  like  they  could  have  been  unintentionally  wiped  out  by  the  mere  existence  of  magical  races . I  rarely
see  stories  in  which  the  theme  of  magic  interfering  with  natural  laws  technology  needs  to  operate  extrapolated  to  living  things . It  would  explain  why  Beings  are  so  dependent  upon  creatures  to  conjure  up  most  of  the  components  for
there  devices and  why  Humans  died off .


Are    there  any  limitations  on  this  ability  to  retcon  people  out  of  existence  the  Fae  possess . Or  are  they  just  walking  no  limits  fallacies  capable of  eliminating  all  traces  of  any  races  that  annoy  them  past  present  and  future along  with  the  universe  they  inhabited  completely  from  existence  while  making  2+2=5i , is  this  only  limited  to  Furrae . How  would  they  react  if  one  of  their  members  disappeared  without  a  new  one  taking  their  place .  

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

meltingface, is there a good reason why you're double-spacing your words. It's very jarring to read.

If someone asked you to double-space your sentences, that usually means after the full stop, not between every word...

[meltingface101]

It's  a  harmless  force  of  habit  .

Also  I  do  not  understand  why  people  find  it  so  hard  to  believe  that  a  creature  could  convince  people  to  willingly  offer up  the  best  of  there  own  community  for  such  sacrifices . There  are  many  historical  examples  of  civilizations  that  have done  so   even  without  such  entities  being  physically  present , though  most  of  such  cultures  were  completely  wiped  out .

 

[katasev]

completely  wiped  out .

Well there you have it.

[meltingface101]

Why  is  everyone  seems  so  eager  to  brush  such  structures  aside . There  are  many  cultures  in  which  pacts  with  gods , spirits , etc   that  revolve  around  the  sacrifice  of  livestock , crops , and  people . These  were  removed  from  the  world  due  to  the  fact  they  conflicted  with  larger  religons . Besides  this  seems  rather  tame  in  comparison  what  regularly  goes  on  in  the  background  of  DMFA .

[Amber Williams]

I guess in the case of DMFA....it's really not all that funny to think about and I do try to keep DMFA somewhat lighthearted for the most part.  Generally I try to play things by the rule of funny over realism so a lot of the more sinister or grim aspects get cast aside because of it.  Some will creep through the cracks from time to time...but for the most part much like how I made it so that children can't be Undead, some things that would technically make sense simply don't happen because I personally don't want it to.

I am a fickle god-artist like that.