> I wonder if the Death Rune gives a magician potential to raise undead?
>
> I know there's the hunger/undeath rune outside the core runes, but
> I've always been a bit unhappy with that.
>
> Basically, are undead a manifestation of chaos? Is the path for
> creating undead through Death and Chaos runes? Am I missing something
> (probably)?
Hi, sorry to raise up this thread again as it should probably lie still in it's grave unmolested. However I have a few comments, fair warning I'll go into a lot of technical metaphysics.
Garki like Vivamorti are terrified by the death and attempt to preserve some sort of continued survival. They just use a different power source to do that, compared to Vivamorti.
I think Vivamorti try to maintain their full living personality and sustain it through killing others (imposing Death on others) and fuelling their continued existence with drained life force. Garki can't do that because they don't have any death magic, so they maintain a continued existence but can't sustain a full personality. Their calmness is a result of using Harmony magic to suppress personality as though they were dead, while actually still maintaining a form of material survival. A real mystic attempts to achieve harmony through oneness with the universe, and accepts that personality will be dicarded at death, but that's ok because the Great Self is all that matters. Garki can't be bothered with all the hard work of becoming enlightened and they end up sacrificing their personal self up front, mistaking material survival of the body for personal survival.
This is probably also why the old cult writeup says they are found in the Lunar Empire, I'm sure that doesn't refer specifically to the Fonritan cult, but there are probably Lunar mystical heresies that have discovered similar ideas.
I think Zorak Zoran's approach to undeath is a bit different. As has been pointed out he's an underworld entity so has a different perspective on death anyway because he starts out from the point of view of being dead. In a way all trolls on the surface world are dead things that have come to life. Zorak Zorani probably have no greater regard for survival of their personality than Humakti do. They are not trying to bind their souls to the world for longer, they just want to leave a bit of rage and horror behind for us all to remember them by.
A last note about Humakti. They know that material personality is only temporary, this is why they tend to withdraw from normal temporal society. They are preparing themselves for death, when they will leave all this behind anyway. For them, trying to maintain any kind of continued presence in the material world after death is anathema, including even a sentimental survival. I wonder what their funeral rites are like, but I wouldn't be surprised if it involved destruction of the corpse (burning?) along with their personal possessions.
Best regards, and it's nice to be back after quite a long absence from the forum.
Simon Hibbs
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