> As I understand it, Chalana Arroy knows how to heal mortal wounds.
> Within 7 days of death, the soul of the deceased stays connected to
> the body.
But please note that the 7 days thing is a Heortling cultural thing, not necessarily universal. In other cultures it could be 1 day, 3 days, 10 days, whatever. Also note that certain individuals may take a longer or shorter time to move beyond the pale. And in some other cultures (some Eastern frex), resurrection may be impossible as interfering with the cosmic flow of life, death, and rebirth.
> After 7 days the soul has been judged by Daka Fal
Havan Vor
> and goes to the
> place of it's doom. At that point, the healer can't help.
Helping beyond that point would require a full LBQ.
> The writeup of Chalana Arroy in Storm Tribe has only the sisters of
> Mercy subcult knowing the 'Secret: Resurrect Other ritual'. Also, it
> says the 'quest is part of the Lightbringers quest' which could imply
> either that resurrection is only possible during a light bringers
> quest, or that it uses the parts of the Lightbringers quest which are
> applicable to Chalana Arroy/resurrection. I prefer the latter better
> in that it applies to Chalana Arroys actions so that her followers -
> without recourse to others - can perform a resurrection quest.
Hmmm : but please note that Secret Healing Day as well as Initiation into Chalana Arroy both require participation in the LBQ, probably as support at that "low" level. I think that *from the CA POV* resurrection = LBQ. Note that this isn't necessarily true from any other POV. And remember that the LBQ isn't one HQ, but rather an entire myth-cycle of interrelated but separate ones. Harmast was exceptional in that he was the first person to piece all of the bits together. The Resurrection ritual is one of those bits.
I doubt that Chalana Arroy healers can resurrect anyone without help : in a game, the resurrection ritual would require that the player characters play the parts of Chalana's companions in the Quest ...
> But this led me to think, what would other healing deities do in
> respect of resurrection?.
Most living deities have some small ability to do this, because most of them died and returned to life themselves : emphasis on "small" : most healing deities have powers to heal the living, but no special powers to return people to life : in fact, it's possible they'd have less power to do so, if they survived the Chaos Age thanks to their healing powers : they would know nothing of death and how to return to life.
Powerful heroquesters can relive the myth of their own gods' death and attempt to return to life in that way.
The key is to look at the myths, to see if the deity appears to have any special power to resurrect others : not very many of them do.
> Chalana is also worshipped within the Sun
> pantheon...
Sort of. I think it's more a case that they know of CA, and accept her as a goddess, without admitting her as a member of the pantheon. References to Chalana being worshipped in Southern Peloria are to the Orlanthi or ex-Orlanthi peoples of that area. There are some exceptions to that last statement, because some transcultural worship of CA has existed around Dragon Pass since the Dawn Age. She's still a foreigner though, albeit a friendly and helpful one ...
> I also presume the 'breath of life' heroquest/ritual for the recently
> dead was available to Chalana Arroy before Harmasts LBQ. The LBQ
> seeking to achieve much more than _just_ bringing back to life of a
> recently dead individual.
Definitely.
> I would actually prefer a distinction made between those resurrecting
> the recently dead, and those cosmic shaking long dead resurrections
> from the LBQ/Seven mothers ritual etc, though some of Chalanas actions
> in the LBQ may be the same as some of those in the resurrection
> heroquest.
Sounds good. But Chalana's actions in that part of the LBQ are *exactly the same* IMO (notwithstanding local variations !!).
> My take on the 'breath of life' of Chalana Arroy is that it
> attempts to reintegrate and put the the spirit/breath back into
> the body, making whole again that what was broken (split).
>
> If a heroquest is required for this, I think it may consist of 1)
> healing the body (which is available), 2) seeking the spirit, 3)
> calming then convincing the spirit to return to its body, 4)
> reconciliation of body and spirit and 5) the return of the CA. The
> more Chalana Arroy healers the better. The stronger the essence of the
> goddess, the more likely the resurrection is to succeed.
Good basic pattern, but probably a bit too RuneQuesty for my taste.
The CA healer actually has to venture into the Hero Plane / God World / Underworld / wherever necessary with several Lightbringer companions. There, they must fight against whichever forces are linked with the characters death : forces that killed him (entities sent by that character's enemies), forces attempting to destroy the world (traditional Lightbringer foes), Humakt, and ancestors and other friendly beings defending the normal processes of death and passing beyond. They must become like dead people themselves.
The resurrection Quest would, IMO, have a few recurring elements (Lightbringer Foes, Humakt, and the Ancestors), but each Quest should be linked in flavour to the nature of the death, the reasons for attempting the resurrection (if a king is to be resurrected, the Quest could include elements from Orlanth Rex mythology for example), and the personal foes of the resurrectee.
And it should be *difficult*.
> If you want part of the LBQ parallel, the head CA (of one or more CA)
> searches along the path of the dead, then contests with the spirit. ie
> a good Orlanthi is now going to Orlanths hall. What reasons would the
> Chalana Arroy give to get him to come back. Certainly not that he can
> go and slaughter more Lunars, but perhaps more to look after his/.her
> family.
Why not to go and slaughter more Lunars ? Sounds like a perfectly good reason to me : although such a resurrectee would almost certainly get Relife sickness and join the Humakt cult : that's what he's wanted back for, anyway : to be a walking piece of "Death to Lunars" ...
> After the spirit returns, then it has to be re-integrated with
> the body. Then the CA has to fully return to Glorantha (having been
> somewhere inbetween the path of the dead and the living) and this
> return of the CA herself may not be straightforward (and best to have
> lots of other CAs nearby in case something does go wrong here).
You're being too abstract here, I think. Sorry.
An important thing is that there's always some ritual price to be paid, often to Humakt or Havan Vor, so they can let the person be not-dead again. Someone has to sacrifice something important so that the resurrectee can live again. If not, the quest is a failure.
YGMV
> I think any of the same actions would still be relevant if the spirit
> was still near the body and I would treat resuscitation (Eg CPR as a
> nice Arroin skill) being different and easier from resurrection
> (though in my concise Pocket Oxford dictionary their entries are one
> after the other) with a CA knowing the 'breath of life' being able
> to perform both. So with resuscitation being able to be performed
> within a certain time frame (perhaps 7 minutes - one minute for each
> of the light bringers) without needing a heroquest for a CA healer
> with knowledge of the 'breath of life'.
Well, YGMV. This Breath of Life power you suggest would be a diifferent Secret, possibly belonging to some obscure subcult centered on a child of Orlanth and CA ? Great Orlanth does have such a power of course, which is the source of his minor ability to provide resurrection by DI/Divine Aid.
In HW/HQ terms this should of course not be expressed as 7 minutes, but in terms of scenes or actions etc
> I include a couple of the possible resistance values for the attempt
> succeeding or failing. The amount of damage/mutilation taken to the
> body irrespective of the fact the body is fully healed at the start of
> the ritual.
Ah, you're obviously a simulationist ... in that case, YGWV ! ;-)
> Of course, if a character dies, and there isn't a CA around to
> resuscitate them or later resurrect them, the point is moot.
There is always another way ...
Julian Lord
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