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When does too many horcruxs kill you?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Download, Jun 18, 2016.

  1. Download

    Download Auror ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I'm not sure if it was discussed in canon but I know for sure many fanfics have discussed it: At what point does splitting your soul again kill or permanently incapacitate you? It seems clear that making more horcruxes makes you less human, but what point do people think (if it's possible at all) do you become so inhuman you can no longer think, perform magic or even exist?

    I'm toying with a plot point idea where after discovering some or all of his horcruxes are destroyed prompts Voldermort to make more. This leads to Voldemort making more which eventually kills him. I'm not sure it will make a good story as it's an unfulfilling ending but I find the concept interesting.

    Given the concept of magical numbers I'm wanting to guess thirteen parts to kill yourself or drive yourself so mad you become a shell.
     
  2. Legend3381

    Legend3381 Seventh Year

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    I am not sure it does. Tom has 1/7 of a soul toward the end. Splitting your soul makes you less human each time you do it and rejoining the soul will kill you. The real disadvantage is after you die. When Harry was in the train station after being hit with the killing curse in the forest. That grotesque little monster was 1/7 of Toms soul.
     
  3. Kogitsune

    Kogitsune Disappeared

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    Legend certainly has a part of what I would say, because each time you too your soul apart (8-9 for cold right? Because of the one in Harry and the one in his body?) You hurt yourself. I mean, I don't think at the end he realy was human. Able o preform magic, think and feel... but human, no.
     
  4. Zel

    Zel High Inquisitor

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    If my memory doesn't fail me, it was stated in DH that Voldemort had already pushed his soul to its limits, so seven is probably it. Anymore and the damage is irreparable.
     
  5. ScottPress

    ScottPress The Horny Sovereign –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    If you take the "soul split into pieces" approach, then Voldemort had 1/8 of his soul. Six horcruxes, himself and Harry.
     
  6. Download

    Download Auror ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    No, if you're halving your soul each time he had 1/(2^8) of a soul or 1/256 of a soul.
     
  7. Kogitsune

    Kogitsune Disappeared

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    Sounds about right
     
  8. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

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    No, sounds like nonsense. How is a soul quantifiable? And who says the parts are all equal and not random? Voldemort wanted 7 because of special magical properties that number had. My DH memory is hazy, but I would think that the 7 had nothing to do with it being a limit of sorts.
     
  9. Download

    Download Auror ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Wasn't it suggested that making more than one was unheard of though? if it was unheard of there must be a reason why no one else tried it.

    ---------- Post automerged at 13:38 ---------- Previous post was at 13:36 ----------

    Also, if the size of each part is random you'll most probably end up with less than 1/8th of a soul. Assuming the odds of each percentage are the same, you'd be looking at only 20% odds the first time that you would keep 7/8th or more of your soul. Each attempt would increase the odds but they're still not on your side.

    ---------- Post automerged at 13:40 ---------- Previous post was at 13:38 ----------

    Also again, the soul must be quantifiable in some way give that making horcruxes made Voldemort less human each time.
     
  10. Sauce Bauss

    Sauce Bauss Second Year ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    You're treating the soul as if it's Mana Points in an RPG. The argument against magical cores is applicable here.
     
  11. Red

    Red High Inquisitor DLP Supporter

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    "I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality...."

    It's implied that Voldemort is probably the only one to push the bounds of what is possibly with horcruxes. I think it can be inferred that there is some finite amount of horcruxes. We know that the process left Voldemort looking less and less human over the years, what more horcruxes would do can only be speculated. We also know that >6 left his soul "unstable" enough that he made an accidental horcrux out of Harry. Whatever the limit is, I think Voldemort was close to it.
     
  12. Zel

    Zel High Inquisitor

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    Yeah, took a look at DH and it's mentioned that Hermione, at some point, said that Voldemort had already pushed his soul to its limit. Since she is pretty much the author's SI, I think we can take her word for it.
     
  13. Download

    Download Auror ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Except for the fact it's clear in canon making many horcruxes changes you.

    And no you haven't done anything justify souls and magic being the same or of the same nature.
     
  14. crimson sun06

    crimson sun06 Order Member

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    The fact that Voldemort didn't try to make more after realizing that Harry had tracked his horcrux implies that he couldn't. Making horcrux requires splitting of the soul which means that the soul is a quantifiable entity in Potterverse. That being said I don't think anywhere in canon it is implicitly stated that the soul splits in half every time one makes a horcrux.
     
  15. Red Aviary

    Red Aviary Hogdorinclawpuff ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I don't know if making even more Horcruxes than Voldemort would kill you (I mean, the entire point of Horcruxes is to prevent you from dying in the first place...), but what you'd end up with would probably make death look like a vacation.
     
  16. ScottPress

    ScottPress The Horny Sovereign –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    Nowhere did I imply that subscribe to the mathematical interpretation of horcruxes and even if I did, I didn't say anything about halving the soul each time.

    My personal interpretation is that a horcrux is a sort of copy of the original soul at the moment of creation.
     
  17. Sesc

    Sesc Slytherin at Heart Moderator

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    That it needs to be quantifiable just because you can split it is not even true in a mathematical sense. Half of infinity is still infinity.

    In HP, your soul is real and you can tear it apart. It doesn't like to be torn and becomes unstable. Fine. That still doesn't imply it's a limited quantity of which you have exact portions stored in containers.

    The most simple (and obvious) explanation is just that the splits itself are what's damaging, because the important quality is being whole and not in parts, wherever they are. A whole soul is what makes humans human, so the more often you split it, the less human you become.

    This makes perfect sense to me, and in no way it means someone is "running out of soul".

    Most importantly, it was suggested that it's the most evil thing imaginable doing it once, so Voldemort doing it seven times breaks the moral even horizon. He's an unheard of quality of evil, yes.
     
  18. Download

    Download Auror ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    But you admit damage is done. The question is does that damage eventually reach a point where is does more than disfigure your or (potentially - I'm not sure if it was canon) drive you to be hyper-paranoid and insane? If that damage could do that then eventually you might react the point of being non-functional.

    ---------- Post automerged at 21:32 ---------- Previous post was at 21:31 ----------

    You said he had 1/8th of a soul, that's subscribing to a mathematical interpretation of it.
     
  19. Warlocke

    Warlocke Fourth Champion

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    When you make enough to piss off Harry Potter.
    That's when it kills you.

    It's funny, really, how having fewer mortal enemies makes it more likely you'll not be killed.
    Killed by those enemies.
     
  20. Andrela

    Andrela Plot Bunny DLP Supporter

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    Unless you kill them all, of course.
     
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