Death

Death is the greatest mystery to Mortal denizens of mundane worlds. Students of the subject in the World of Teréth End understand more about death, because magic makes the borders porous. Death’s finality is undermined by Channelers able to speak with the dead. Keeping this in mind, what follows is a student’s understanding of Mortal death, what it means, and what can be done to circumvent its laws.

Spirit

Mortal

What is a Mortal Spirit? A spirit is that part of a person that includes their living essence, personality, emotion, and memories. If any part of one’s spirit is damaged, one or more of these aspects will be irreparably altered. Damaged spirits do not mend over time. A spirit that is injured or separated becomes multiple lesser wholes. Damage to a person’s spirit will leave them sickly, numb, emotionless, amnesic, or insane.

“The Mortal Spirit is an immaterial, living liquid and the Mortal Body its corporeal vessel. The Spirit is bound by the Mortal Body’s vitality, not its flesh. While surrounded by Vorad, the liquid is content within the vessel environment and cannot hear the Call of the Veils. When the vessel is compromised and the health ebbs, the Spirit’s yearning returns. The gravity of the Veils attempts to pull the Mortal Spirit from its Twilight prison, but can only succeed once the vessel is broken and its Vorad diminished. This breaking of the vessel is Death. Liberated from the flesh, the Mortal Spirit begins its long-awaited search for the nearest Breach. Once freed, the Mortal Spirit can never again be content within the Twilight World. The Call of the Veils is all-consuming. The liquid flows inexorably across the Zarátam, searching for an exit from the Mortal World. If some of the Mortal Spirit is severed during this search, it can be captured and bound to lesser vessels. Some of these vessels are the Undying. Because the Undying contain orphaned or divided Spirits, they are forever restless. The less Mortal Spirit that remains, the more inhuman the creation will be.” – Ðarád Zor’s presentation to the House of Eldrā, Oð, 616 DR

Following the presentation, an Eldri magician reportedly asked “So is life just a confluence of Mortal Spirit and flesh?” To this, Ðarád Zor responded, “Life is irrelevant.”

There are reported to be some dark magics that cannibalize pieces of Mortal Spirit from living creatures. These pieces are used to create Undying subjects, while leaving the remaining Mortal Spirit intact but damaged. This damage cannot be reversed.

Immortal

Immortal Spirits are not bound for “places” outside the Twilight World. They tend to disassemble or merge with other spirits or forces after death. In some races, i.e., Eylfāe, the disassembling begins with the advance of senescence.

Steps of Passage

There are many ways to die. Whether the cause is natural or forced, mundane or magical, the result is generally the same. Death does not usually occur unless the Mortal vessel is reduced to a state where it can no longer sustain life. The obvious exception to this is life-draining magics that can draw the spirit from a healthy body. That condition aside, the steps of passage are fairly straight forward, despite the differing theories of Cults and Circles.

  • Residence. Following death, the spirit resides within the body for a number of minutes equal to the person’s age in years. The purpose for this is unclear, though it is thought that it takes time for the spirit to disentangle itself from the Mortal vessel and all the memories and ailments it has collected over its lifetime.
  • Departure. Once the spirit is ready to leave its vessel, it exits the body through the mouth and nose. If those orifices are not available, the spirit may require more time to find other exits. At no time can a spirit escape through the skin unless a grievous wound exists. In some cultures, spirit bags are created by serging the mouth, nose, ears, eyes, navel, genitalia, and anus closed; sometimes this is done before death, other times it done during Residence (see above). The utility of spirit bags has an Or Dnur appeal that will be covered elsewhere. Ghosts are Departed spirits that have not moved to the next stage.
  • Orientation. Following Departure, the spirit must realign itself with the world. The landmarks of life mean nothing to the spirit as it searches for a way to cross the veils (e.g., Kyuràda Vor, Vor Omtenéma). It is believed that orientation is a process wherein the spirit aligns itself with magical currents (i.e., Lehya) within the Skein, much like a living Ildràdel. Some spirits (depending on their faith) may align themselves with an element rather than magic.
  • Journey. A spirit that is directed along the Lehya can find its way to a nexus where the borders between the Worlds is weakest. This can be a long journey or a very short one depending on one’s proximity to the nearest nexus.
  • Crossing. Once the spirit has reached a nexus of magic (or pure elements) it must wait until entities associated with one World or the other are willing to draw it across the veils. A spirit is pulled one direction or another based upon a karmic signature developed over its Mortal lifetime. This is influenced by many things, not the least of which is the Cult that the person adhered to. Cult rituals performed upon the person (or during Residence, see above) can have a profound effect on which direction a spirit is drawn.

Bindings

At what point is a spirit free from the demands and perils of the Waking World? Once a spirit has crossed the Thinking or Withering Veils it is considered to be beyond Mortal concerns. At any stage prior to Crossing, the spirit is vulnerable to magics which would interrupt its journey. Interruption can take the many forms (e.g., requests, imprisonment, resurrection). Interruption is made easier if the spirit has physical bindings (i.e., the Mortal vessel) within the Waking World. Drawing a spirit back from the later stages of its journey can take a long time and is almost always against the spirit’s will.

A spirit that has Crossed is considerably “safer”, but still not immune to intrepid necromancers. Summoning a spiritual presence through the veils is not an easy nor inexpensive task. Such endeavors almost always require the commission of Inkàðura magics.

Punishment and Reward

The promise of afterlife is the reward that most Cults dangle before their flocks. All Mortals in the World of Teréth End eventually enter into an afterlife, provided that their spirit has not been destroyed beforehand. The question which the Cults capitalize on, is which afterlife awaits its adherents. Though many Cults would like to paint the afterworlds in terms of their individual ideal of paradise (i.e., Eternal Reward) or hell (i.e., Eternal Punishment), the truth may be that these final destinations are more similar than the Cults would have us accept. Many Cults (e.g., Dekàlan) do not subscribe to the idea of a bicameral afterlife at all.

The debate between the promise of the Ethereal rather than the Nether, is prejudiced by terminologies and images that have been adopted across the world’s cultures. The border between the Waking World and the Ethereal is known as the Thinking Veil. The border between the Waking World and the Nether is known as the Withering Veil. Images of the Neðérim inevitably portray slavering demons surrounded by the tortured spirits of the morally wayward, intent upon feeding on the flesh and souls of Mortal men. Images of the Eðérim are typically angelic with great winged creatures bathed in blinding light and the choruses of infinite spirits, content with their reward. Accounts of travelers that have moved between the Worlds tells a different tale, that the denizens of the Ethereal are just as unworldly and frightening as that of the Nether. Some have posited that the spirit worlds are both amoral and both intent upon feeding on the promise of the Waking World. For obvious reasons, this viewpoint is not supported by the Cults.