So, the commentary in the thread about the new Academy mages coming out talks about the new Swarm creatures, and whether they can gain benefit from the Etherian Lifetree despite having Finite Life (which would normally prevent any gaining of Life, or healing, or regen).
(Etherian Lifetree, of course, states that "All other Living creatures and conjurations gain +2 Innate Life")
So, I wondered what made the Innate Life special.
The Codex doesn't have a definition for it, and the only reference to 'Innate Life' in that document is that Growth markers give +3 of it.
So my question is: "what makes 'Innate Life' different from just 'Life' (as represented by the little red heart picture) that would enable the Swarm to benefit from the Lifetree?
Now, my thinking is that 'Innate' clearly means 'inseperable from the rest of the being', rather than just being 'in addition to' or bolted on to something. For instance: Kralathor eats someone and it gets bigger and stronger. The additional size and strength becoming inherent to Kralathor (and in game terms cannot be lost, dispelled or destroyed).
This is different from the extra Life provided by, for instance, Bull's Endurance, where if you lose the BE, you lose the +4 life.
If this thinking is right, then it follows that the Etherian Lifetree, when cast, instantly and irrevocably grants +2 additional permanent life points to all other living things. Being now inherently a part of the creatures and conjurations affected, these +2 life points will remain even if the Lifetree is subsequently destroyed.
I confess that this is different to how my group has ever considered it. We have always just considered the Lifetree's +2 innate life to be the same as any other +2 life. If the tree dies, everyone loses the benefit.
If the Lifetree can affect Swarms (which have Finiate Life) then there must be something different going on with 'Innate Life', and I can think of nothing else that it could be than the above.
What is the view on this? Have I just caught up with something that everyone else has considered obvious since forever, or is there another idea out there? Or are Innate Life and Life really the same and Swarms don't benefit from the Lifetree?
(sorry for the ramble. I just wanted to make sure all my points were laid out)
