From: lipscomb@vax.ox.ac.uk
Date: Mon 03 Oct 1994 - 18:15:47 EET
Gerak Kag (no real name given) asks about resurrection in cultures that do not
worship Chalana Arroy.
Firstly, CA appears in Orlanth and Yelm pantheons, so any culture worshipping these pantheons will have access to resurrect (Yelm also has the spell, I'm not sure what other gods do). This includes all Theyalans, Pent, Dara Happa and Kralorela. For the remaining cultures, I propose that they don't consider resurrection to be a Good Thing. I'll skim through the other cultures that Ican think of (Genertela only), starting with the Elder Races, seeing as GK singles out non-humans. This is all IMO, of course.
Elves consider death to be part of the natural cycle of life - to die and give your nutrients to the soil is just as important as to live.
Dwarves, of course, don't die. If they do, then they were obviously broken anyway.
Trolls: Its less obvious on the troll view of death. In GoG it says that death
is a way to reach the ancestral homeland (the Underworld) and so could be
considered a Good Thing. Trollish society also employs expendable members
(trollkin, males etc.) for the physically dangerous stuff and so important
members are less likely to be lost.
For dragonewts of course the question is meaningless. Other lesser races seem to follow human religions (such as ducks) or shamanic paths (baboons).
Western: I think the Malkioni would consider resurrection to be heretical as it prevents the soul from reaching Solace, and is against the will of the Invisible God.
Prax: The Praxian attitude to the souls of their animals indicates they have a strong reincarnation belief. They may have similar attitudes to the elves - death is as important as life and it is Wrong to interfere.
Lunars: The Lunar Empire covers a variety of beliefs. The Dara Happan heartland is Yelmic and so resurrection is available. I presume Deezola has resurrection capabilities, and Chalana Arroy has probably been imported from Theyalan regions too.
Shamanic: For cultures involving ancestor worship I feel the concept of resurrection doesn't make sense, as the dead are still around and can be consulted whenever necessary.
The attitude I have taken here is that resurrection is mainly used to bring
back someone who has met an untimely end and who is a valued member of society.
(Of course, pious Chalana Arroyans would say that _everyone_ is a valued member
of society). Where death is viewed as a final and ultimate end, where the
personality does not survive, resurrection would be more readily sought
(witness the Brithini attitude to death - one of fear and loathing). In
societies where the dead will be back, maybe in another form, but they will be
back, resurrection will be seen to interfere with this and thus be wrong.
The prime users of resurrection must be the Theyalans, and I see their attitude as a kind of "I'm not going to let a little thing like death stop me from giving the Lunars a good kicking", or of course "Your friend is only _mostly_ dead".
Simon Lipscomb
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