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  • #1

    Soulhunter contraption

    Couldn't help myself and started all over again... and I know this is quite a daft question but...

    How did Soulhunters catch souls in normal conditions?

    Surely if they had to drag along that contraption it would be a miracle if they actually caught a soul?

    Nobody seems to have asked JMS this... at least I can't find it in any of the books (I checked the first one and the Q&A ones).
    Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side and the truth.
    John Sheridan
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  • #2
    The Soul Hunters were said to catch the souls at the moment of death. With Delenn, it was a special case of a rogue Soul Hunter trying to take one before she was even close to dead; not the normal procedure. He probably needed special equipment to do it because of that.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by JoeD80 View Post
      The Soul Hunters were said to catch the souls at the moment of death. With Delenn, it was a special case of a rogue Soul Hunter trying to take one before she was even close to dead; not the normal procedure. He probably needed special equipment to do it because of that.
      That's what I thought, too. He was forcibly trying to extract (?) the soul from a living body with that thing. The souls must just kind of get absorbed by those spheres like a sponge as their leaving.
      "And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know? I mean, I know what I know because I have to know it. And if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me either. " And I can give you reasonable assurances that the head of Security will not report you for doing so."
      "Because you won't tell yourself about it?"
      "I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble."

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      • #4
        Given what was said about the death of Dukhat, the Soul Hunters clearly needed to be in close proximity to the deceasing person to ply their trade. Hence, the wall of bodies Delenn organized to defend her master's soul's escape.

        River of Souls makes it clear that they can capture an entire race en masse as it's transitioning to a different plane of existence, so whatever the hell they do, it must be pretty impressive.

        Now I want to see Soul Hunters engaging in a routing soul "saving."

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        • #5
          Originally posted by JoeD80 View Post
          The Soul Hunters were said to catch the souls at the moment of death. With Delenn, it was a special case of a rogue Soul Hunter trying to take one before she was even close to dead; not the normal procedure. He probably needed special equipment to do it because of that.
          I'm not sure I agree.
          He only needed a "special" contraption to remove her blood.
          Death would then occur "naturally" and thus the soulcathing could go ahead as normal... I presume.
          Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side and the truth.
          John Sheridan

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          • #6
            Originally posted by DeMonk View Post
            I'm not sure I agree.
            He only needed a "special" contraption to remove her blood.
            Death would then occur "naturally" and thus the soulcathing could go ahead as normal... I presume.
            The contraption wasn't just for draining the blood. There was that energy beam that seemed to draw the soul into the waiting soul stone. Presumably, that beam mechanism was needed for the process, though I'm hard-pressed to imagine thousands of Soul Hunter invading Ralga and blasting all its inhabitants as they evolve.

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            • #7
              I read this in Wikipedia B5 Civilizations: Soul Hunters are a humanoid race. They are not really interested of the matters of other races until someone is going to die that they think is important. They can sense when a life form is going to die and if they choose to, can capture its soul at the moment of death in a transparent sphere using their equipment. This is only done to the most valuable souls such as leaders, thinkers, poets, dreamers, and blessed lunatics. They have also been revealed to be able to take several souls simultaneously, or even whole worlds. The spheres are then put in places where they are respected and worshiped. All Soul Hunters also carry with them at least some part of their own collection of souls. They usually travel alone and only gather into large groups when they anticipate large numbers of deaths. They see themselves as preservers, and believe that when a person dies his soul is lost and all the person's knowledge and greatness is lost along with it. Soul Hunters can extract souls from living people, but this goes against their own rules that state they may only take souls from those who are about to die. It is not known how other species interact with them, but the Minbari have stopped several of them from taking Minbari souls as it goes against their own beliefs.

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              • #8
                Thing is the only time we see a Soul Hunter with equipment outside of the spheres is when he's specifically targeting a non-dead person; he even says that he could just rip Delenn's soul from her body if he wanted to. He makes it sound like this is a special case since he's trying to make sure her soul is relaxed enough, and I assumed that was the whole purpose of using the equipment (and I'm referring to the beam, not the blood draining device.)
                Last edited by JoeD80; 05-17-2011, 04:06 PM.

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