BoM/TWS Message Forum

> Why does removing anima cause catatonia in some cases?

I had to spend a couple of hours rereading dozens of chapters to figure it out, and it's never even explained.

If you remove anima, essentia, and imago, you get the equivalent of a free golem -- a golem that hasn't had essentia added to it. If you remove anima and imago, you get the equivalent of a bound golem, like the Libra shows how to make. Neither of these are animated, just like a golem wouldn't be. So if you remove only anima, you get a bound golem that looks like a person, but it isn't animated. This is what happens in "Treacherous Others."

You get the same kind of golem -- a bound golem with an unremoved face -- in "The Women of Kensington." But in that chapter (and similar chapters), Will or someone else has injected himself with some of the essentia that they removed from the original person. This means that they now possess (in a kind of parallel installation) the essentia that is inside the golem. Because Will (or whoever) is animated and in conscious control of the essentia, they are in control of the golem and it is animated by sharing the animated essentia of the magician.

Put it this way: Typically, you make and animate a golem by giving it some of your essentia, then putting a face on it. The reverse procedure is at work above: You take out the anima and some of the essentia of the victim, and put the essentia into yourself. For all practical purposes, the end result is the same as the normal way of doing it -- only you've put their essentia into yourself instead of yours into them, and you've removed the anima that would turn the golem into a real person.

BTW, that kind of mess above is one reason I dislike the whole section where Will gets deep enough into the book to tear people apart -- basically everything after "The New Black Magic"  It's just so bloody complicated that it's not fun.