If Barti found an afrit or marid knocked out, or snuck up on it, could he eat it?

He has a habit of eating people and lesser spirits, but what about, something bigger than him?

Hmm. Good one!

Doesn't Bartimaeus get swallowed by a foliot but he blows it up? It was close, though, so I'd say it's probably too dangerous, but technically possible.

I'd say that he'd probably be able to eat some of it, but would get "Full" and wouldn't be able to carry on.

Horakthy wrote:I'd say that he'd probably be able to eat some of it, but would get "Full" and wouldn't be able to carry on.

could he even get "full", and is it possible for him to be an afrit or marid by eating them. I mean both of them are from one big essence in Other Place and by eating one another it would just like adding one essence to another which makes the eater becomes greater spirit. and there are some possibilities that the stronger spirit may takeover the body of their eater just like when the magicians summon great spirits to get inside their body and the spirits takeover their bodies (or their mind? whatever).

spirits can't move up levels. Be interesting if they could, though

if spirits are all made of essence, then wouldn't it be canabalism if one eats another???

Garnet-Princess wrote:if spirits are all made of essence, then wouldn't it be canabalism if one eats another???

If animals are all made of meat, then wouldn't it be cannibalism if one eats another?

Good joke, sentynel. But animals are different than spirits. Spirit's intelligence are better than human, but most of the animals get worse itelligence than humans (except the dolphins maybe).

:huh: Yes, Aggron, you're obviously correct. Animals only eat other animals because they're stupid, and all things with intelligence are vegan... alrighty then

Didier wrote: :huh: Yes, Aggron, you're obviously correct. Animals only eat other animals because they're stupid, and all things with intelligence are vegan... alrighty then

I thought the point he was making was that humans tend not to eat other highly intelligent creatures (i.e., other humans), but frequently do eat less intelligent creatures.


At any rate, the objections to cannibalism in human society are a mixture of medical (you can catch some nasty prion diseases doing that) and cultural (for a variety of reasons). The medical issues certainly don't exist for spirits and obviously the cultural issues will be wildly different, so I don't think there's any particular reason they should have objections to eating each other.

Sentynel wrote:I thought the point he was making was that humans tend not to eat other highly intelligent creatures (i.e., other humans), but frequently do eat less intelligent creatures.

So what? Spirits have different levels of intelligence too. And having more intelligence doesn't automatically make you higher on the food chain. For instance, lots of things have eaten humans before now.

Didier wrote:So what? Spirits have different levels of intelligence too. And having more intelligence doesn't automatically make you higher on the food chain. For instance, lots of things have eaten humans before now.

So intelligent creatures, in our rather limited sample of one species, may have a moral objection to eating other intelligent creatures. As I said in the rest of that post, however, I don't think this should particularly apply to spirits.

Why? Don't spirits have any moral?

Aggron wrote:Why? Don't spirits have any moral?

They spend a lot of their time being ordered to kill each other. Any sentimental enough to fight the orders are tortured until they obey or killed. This has gone on for thousands of years. They've got no objections left to killing each other. Eating each other doesn't change the outcome for the one that's killed, and improves the strength (and thus likelihood of survival) of the one doing the eating, and as I mentioned in a previous post the objections many human cultures have to eating each other don't apply.

Cannabalism is probably less of an issue with them 'cos in the Other Place they aren't seperate entities.

Luciene wrote:Cannabalism is probably less of an issue with them 'cos in the Other Place they aren't seperate entities.

eww... wouldn't that make it self-cannibalism then?
lol, I'm hungry, I'm going to eat my start starting from the feet...

Not really if they''re seperate now. You were once part of your mother, but if you eat her it's not self-cannabalism...right?

That's right. But Luciene, can you give another example please. I mean it's not a good thing to eat your own mother

I suppose eating your fellow spirits is also frowned upon if you like them and your magician isn't forcing you to do so.

Reading all the arguments here made me laugh a lot. Especially Aggron's last statement. :D