It's pretty clear that the rules say that what you have to do to create a demon is find a soul on the astral plane, sever the tethering cord, infuse the astral body with mana (e.g. through the binding spell) and do some sort of forming. In essence it seems possible to do this not only to inhabitants of other worlds but also to the inhabitants of Astlan. So. Has anyone in the world thought of trying that? Surely there has to be a wizard out there that's twisted enough to come up with an experiment of substituting an unbound demon with a human soul.

Something like this does actually happen once every few millennia when someone gets their cord cut, they need to find someone to either create a new body or reattach them to some other body.

The library article that discusses the astral plan does mention this as a risky possibility.

Further certain types of Resurrection spells, do exactly this. While the priests don't know the exact details of what's happening, an observing animage could probably observer and note that what a "resurrection" spell is doing is going out, finding the spirit of the dead person, presumably in the planes of the gods, bringing it back, relinking it to the dead body, infusing the body with the spirit's animus, plus lots of mana for healing and regeneration and presto new body.

And when an animage or hermetic druid does this, they have to go through this process. Think of other books that talk about Spirit Walkers, Shamans and Curandera's doing this.

There are also cases of rising from the ashes style Miracles/Resurrection where all that's left is dust or less, that requires recreating the entire body from scratch.

Now the question as to has any twisted wizard thought of this? That will have to wait for book II!!!

Would this be possible? I thought it was described in part as the lack of knowledge of the true 'soul' as being part of the reason why the demon is created in the first place. If a wizard tried summoning themselves they would know they are themselves and thus nothing would happen. I am sure Tizzy could speak more on this but that is how I figured. Another example of something similar is how they were able to bind Tom without even using his real name, not because it is his real name but because they completely believe it is his real name and (at the time) had more power than him. A large portion of the magic in the universe seems to be based on conviction rather than fact.

yes, they spoke his name correctly. Jehenna misspelled it on the ring. It's from a different language easy to do.

Of course, neither will ever believe this is the reason the ring didn't work. The thought that either of them could have made a mistake like a "spelling error" is just inconceivable to them.

You can't actually cast the spells on yourself. The "spirit" has to be dis-corporeal on the astral plane and the caster has to be in Astlan using/manipulating material components, vocalizations and somatic gestures (to borrow from AD&D terminology) so someone else would have to do it.

Next, there may be other factors. Astlanian's can see people from other planes of man that have relatively close sets of physical laws/mana levels. It's only certain "Earths" where the rules and mana levels are so far different that the wizards see "glowing balls of light" rather than people like themselves. It "may" also be related to the difference in the laws of nature on the different plane.

Not saying that this is the case; but something causes people from those planes to look different than people. That might play into it somehow.

Of course. I know the truth. The author doesn't. Yet. he hasn't arranged to pay me for the next couple books yet. However, he is, now, finally, making good on his payment promises to me for the first book.

Also, the wizards don't "now" know anything. The only two wizards that know about Tom/Edwyrd and Rupert are Damien and Gastrope' the general assumption they had when they found out (and that the Rod has), and what others will realize in book ii about the ArchDemons is that some demons can shape change into humans.

Occam's Razor...simplest answer. Clearly the demons can shape change. If a wizard can turn someone into a frog, then big, unfortunate, surprise that some demons can change into humans.

Later
Tizzy!

Well you would need to redesign the spell(s). A simple time trigger sounds workable.
1. spell: Bind the Soul into Demon body (activates in 5 minutes)
2. spell: Sever the silver cord (activates in 4 minutes)
3. spell: Go to the astral plane


Obviously you would want to test those spells before trying them on yourself...