Our Dead

[Gentleboy]

Hello all, it's me, your favorite newbie ( to some)

I've asked this before in various discord channels, but now I bring this topic/discussion here!

A reminder to keep things civil and informative. My questions aren't meant to cause a disruption, but help me as a player flesh out the world and its customs.

So here we go.

What do we do with our dead? Obvious we gotta do something with them. There's the pile in Allanak, but that seems to read more as a punishment. We put heads on sticks or hang bodies from rafters which also reads as punishments which means to me:

Not being able to take our dead and bury them or burn them ourselves seems to be a big deal. Yet, I've never seen a burial, a burial site, or any trinkets used to memorize someone.

Is there an afterlife commonly believed in? If demons and angels are spoke about- doesn't that equal religion which doesn't exist? When we die- do people think the Highlord owns the dead? Alright, thank you everyone!

[LindseyBalboa]

Straight from the website:

Because there are no religions on Zalanthas: the sorcerer kings are swift to stamp out any attempt at such. This has evolved over the course of the game, with the sole remnant being the reference to elementalist "temples" in Allanak. This should be viewed as academies or centers of magickal learning - not religious institutions.

My understanding: There's no afterlife to be heard of in Allanak, or in areas under the direct rule of Sorcerer-Kings. Your body means nothing unless someone cares enough about you to let you decay in privacy, but even that is pure sentiment. Outside of the city-states other cultures may hold different ideas, but all that probably looks quite quaint and hopeful to worshippers of the Highlord.

That being said, it now seems like it'd be kinda cool to start up a cult. I feel like sorcerers do that from time to time in known histories, which would translate to Allanaki citizens as idols trying to aggrandize themselves.

[Shabago]

What do we do with our dead? Obvious we gotta do something with them. There's the pile in Allanak, but that seems to read more as a punishment. We put heads on sticks or hang bodies from rafters which also reads as punishments which means to me:

Technically that reflects criminals, left to rot, as a means of control. However, the poor masses in general would also heap their dead there because what else are you going to do?

Not being able to take our dead and bury them or burn them ourselves seems to be a big deal. Yet, I've never seen a burial, a burial site, or any trinkets used to memorize someone.

There aren't any "norms" when it comes to this, from area to area or PC to PC. Tuluk had/has an actual cemetery where people were buried. You may get some pretty odd looks from 'Nakki sorts. People with enough means, IE: GMH/Templars/Nobles have used pyres in Allanak before. Burn 'em as a send off. Tribals have ... various customs. You can find them in individual docs as you role in a PC.

Is there an afterlife commonly believed in? If demons and angels are spoke about- doesn't that equal religion which doesn't exist? When we die- do people think the Highlord owns the dead?

The only lore aspect of 'death' that has IC connections has been "Send them to Drov." This isn't so much a 'send them to hell' term as it is, 'send them into darkness'. If you're dead, you're dead. You're not seeing anything in the dark.

[Dar]

Templars Are usually ceremoniously burnt on the altars of the Dragon Temple. Commoners are usually disposed of adhoc. The meleths pile isn't a punishment per se. If a member nobody cares about dies, he is brought to the pile. If a member people care about die, he is buried, or covered by rocks to be difficult to reach by wildlife.

There is a semblance of "a place you go after you die" some call it Drove, some call it Void. But most people do not know and those that do, don't publicize that knowledge.

Every player is welcome to create a character who claims to be touched by deity. Just so they can swiftly experience why there is no organized religion in city states .

[Namino]

Some tribes have very well defined afterlife rituals and beliefs compared to the city states however. For example, the now closed Soh Lanah Kah elves believed that you were reborn as an Anakore, and if you killed an Anakore then a new elf would be born into the tribe as a cycle. When an elf died, they would take them out into the desert to dance around the body until the stomping attracted an anakore which would take the body to be reborn. We had several such scenes RP'd out during my time there.

Kah.

[Bogre]

Tuluk used to have a large crematorium where the majority of bodies were burnt ceremoniously.

I've seen a number of in game 'funerals' or last rites held at the different temples to the Dragon in Allanak, where unimportant folks just got tossed onto the pile. There's also at least one area in game where they have made death masks of the dead.

Different tribal sorts have different customs. There's a lot of freedom to perform your own remembrances or whatever, too. Memorial items and trinkets are often kept - but usually just jewelry or mementos from past PCs.


Something that I don't often see are peoples bones being kept in reliquaries or made into isilt tokens, urns for ashes, etc, but that kind of stuff is certainly imaginable. 

[Delirium]

In Allanak, citizens generally worship the Highlord. Imagine if your god's priests were warrior mages who could actually fireball disbelievers in the face. That's the Dragon Highlord Tektolnes and his Templars.

In Tuluk, it's worship of the Sun King.

Outside Allanak and Tuluk, it's whatever tribal belief or total lack of it you have.

The most popular means of funeral rites seem to be burning, burial, and cairns, in that order, if anyone cares enough.

Afterlife depends on the PC, but it is not generally a widely considered concept. The life you live is the one you have, outside some tribal beliefs, and that is probably why suicide is, by the documentation, exceptionally rare.

[triste]

Once helped bury a Byn Sergeant by putting his body in the Silt Sea, I do not recall if it was the Sergeant's wish to be buried, the idea of one of his subordinates, or some other tradition. Seems like it might be a good tradition for characters from Red Storm / Silt Pirates.

[Namino]

Once helped bury a Byn Sergeant by putting his body in the Silt Sea, I do not recall if it was the Sergeant's wish to be buried, the idea of one of his subordinates, or some other tradition. Seems like it might be a good tradition for characters from Red Storm / Silt Pirates.

Watching him sink away:

https://youtu.be/G44xTr8D_bw?t=18

[perfecto]

On this thought though.. where does the Pile go?

We only ever see ppl being tossed onto the pile.  As informative to the daily routine as it is to see "whos' on the pile" the bodies must go somewhere eventually right?  I can't imagine the white robes allowing the sun beaten, decaying and liquefied corpses to seep into the highlords water supply....     Or maybe that "is" the source of the wa- (instantly killed by a Half-Giant soldier)

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[AdamBlue]

I had a half-giant that died because of a bug issue, but he was buried where he died because they had no way of moving his corpse, due to how insanely heavy he was.

He woke up a few RL days later, having appeared dead due to the absolutely insane amount of sleeping poison in his veins. He was thirsty, sore, and hurt, but he managed to weakly way his Sergeant and go 'where is everyone?' and was suddenly flooded with ways from people screaming.
Some people thought it was a Nilazi, but I think that'll always be memorable to me as a shining moment of 'fucking awesome.' Always bury your dead if you're not sure.

[mirk_o_loio]

I remember that, AdamBlue.