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[sageprincess]

Can anyone tell me about "astral projection"?

[Short, sweet, to the point. Debates of morality aren't really of interest to her at the moment.]

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[friendlyfiend]

Given the nature of this place I can't say how well the metaphysics will generalize, but it's essentially a method for traveling between the Prime Material and the Outer Planes.

A mortal spellslinger who casts it sends out their mind and soul to form a simulacrum of themselves on the Astral, and then hops a color pool or conduit to their destination. The physical body stays behind on the Prime and as long as it remains intact and the cord connecting them doesn't get snapped, a cutter can planewalk in relative safety since they won't be hurt if their astral self runs afoul of something.

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[sageprincess]

[... Give her a minute, she needs to mentally translate some of those terms into things she understands.]

I believe I understand. So you say the physical body will not be affected if the astral body is hurt in some way?

[That's a bit different from the other things she's heard.]

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[friendlyfiend]

Barring soul-trapping and other specialized methods of attack, no. If the astral form is destroyed, the consciousness just recoils down the cord back to its original source, and the caster wakes up without a scratch.

...Not that it's a wise idea to use the astral spell to go carelessly charging into danger, mind you. The pain is still real, even if the body feeling it isn't.

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[sageprincess]

Oh, no, from what else I have heard, the exercise in and of itself seems very dangerous if done recklessly.

[And painful in more ways than one.]

Could you tell me a bit more about "soul-trapping," however?

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[friendlyfiend]

There are several methods, but they boil down to essentially the same thing at the core- magically binding a soul to a gem or other object so that it can't escape, either as a direct attack or laid as a trap for some particular target.

That being said, it's not strictly a hazard of projection. The lack of metaphysical duality doesn't help any, but it's also possible for a mage to nick a soul that's still in its body, and the astral spell's so tricky to pull off that most bloods capable of it can look after themselves well enough.

If it did happen to someone in astral form, though...

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[sageprincess]

What would happen?

[C'mon, man, you can't just trail off like that!]

And how difficult would it be for a mage to steal a soul within a body?

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[friendlyfiend]

Death.

[Sorry, he'd thought it was self-evident.]

As far as I'm aware, it's possible to pull a soul from its case and leave the body alive or even to trap the body in with it, but the astral body is the soul. Snatching it up would break the tether and kill the physical body; if the poor sod ever got free after that it'd be as a petitioner or undead.

As for the difficulty of such entrapment, it would be easier than astral projection in terms of skill, though not radically so. It does require more of an investment on the material side- a mage can't bind a soul without something to bind it to, and the more powerful the target was, the more potent the focus would have to be. Astral spell just requires a decent jacinth and some silver to cast, and some talented cutters don't even need that much.

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[sageprincess]

[Not assuming anything over here.]

I see. And I suppose if a mage is sufficiently powerful enough and has plentiful access to all the materials, there is little but their own morality to keep them from pulling as many souls ad they wish.

I have one last question, and forgive me if it seems a bit odd, but the phantoms that roam Floor Eleven at night. Do they resemble the petitioners or undead that you speak of at all?

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[friendlyfiend]

I'd say they're closer to undead in appearance and behavior, but without the ability to use magic to discern their nature they could be either- or neither.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help with that.

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[sageprincess]

I see. That is all right - I suppose if their nature were so easily discerned, someone would have made it known long ago.

Thank you very much for the help you were able to give, however. It has been very informative.