: Yeah, that was actually the theory I came up with before
: Myth 2 came out and the Stygs appeared. But I just
: can't understand what pure "life" and
: "unlife" would be, so I feel bound to
: explain it pseudoscientifically. Maybe the root acts
: on the microorganisms inside the armor and on its
: surface, causing them to multiply at an incredible
: rate; maybe it attempts to transmute the metal itself
: into living cells. Maybe its influence travels through
: the Knight into its maker and heals him; since he
: animated the Knight with a piece of his soul (which
: could count as a sort of injury), when the healing
: process restores that piece to him the Knight is
: destroyed.
: --SiliconDream
Okay, I posted the above before reading your posts, but I think we're all on the same wavelength here. As to why it heals Stygians... man, that's a tough one, no matter how useful it is in the game. My guess would be that the root can heal soul as well as body--it seems to work on mental illness as well, since it can heal confusion and (I think) berserking--and the piece o' soul holding the armor together is incomplete, so when it's healed it becomes complete and it moves on to the afterlife (your way works too, I'm just suggesting an alternative). This has, well, roots in the old Shamanic traditions of a lot of cultures, where shamans can send ghosts off to the great beyond by going on a spiritual journey to find out why their souls aren't doing the right thing and help them fix it. Of course, this is supposed to involve hours of meditation and usually a kind of quest through the mind of the afflicted spirit, but it would be kind of tough (not to mention weird) to have a Jman go into a three hour trance every time he healed a Stygian Knight. For gameplay purposes I guess just having the root do its thing as per usual works better. Imagine if the Jmen had to actually do all that suturing and intubating and stuff--"Quickly now, Jvalin, your friend Thorgeis of the Rough Stubble is at death's door. Fetch for me the Theater of Microsurgery, the Silk of Three-Oh, and the Pump of Saline! And Stat, little brother, Stat like the wind!"
