> >Xiola Umbar; whose cult is quite shamanistic, as troll cults generally
> >are. I think Xiola Umbar priestesses are only capable of bringing back
> >trolls, using their _kinship_ties_. Of course they wouldn't even be
> >interested in resurrecting anything else.
> Actually, XU (as written) doesn't get the power of resurrection (maybe she
> traded it to the God of Trollball for free season tickets). But KL does,
> through ancestor worship.
>
> I think you're dead on, except that IMO trolls can and will only resurrect
> relatives (and the same with Aldryami and other ancestor worshippers). And
> since (I presume) it's still nonresuable, Mom's only going to use it on
> worthy uztagor -- probably her daughters or granddaughters, and maybe
> family/clan runelords. So a six-year-old female troll can have a better
> shot at resurrection than your male runelord...
The troll bit sounds good to me. Your comment on the elves got me thinking about them some more...
Elves are creatures strongly and naturally tied to the cycle of life and
death. Death is sorrowful, but natural. In usual circumstances the friends
and relatives gather to say good-bye and the spirit dancers (I _hate_ the
generalized word shaman) guide the soul to the other side.
On the other hand an elven forest has a _lot_ of power, and they are not
helpless in the face of Death. When the need is great and the course is
just, the body of the slain is brought to a sacred grove of power and is
sang whole. The spirit is called back to the body, and dryads and spirit
dancers teach the elf to remind him/her what it is to be alive.
I think an elven forest forms a living web of power. I call this the
"song of the forest" or "green silence" (both names nicked from
somewhere). It is ever present and allows the aldryami mystics do great
things. I never really liked using human like cults for the aldryami, and
was quite jubilant to read this months Myth of the Month, where is claimed
that elves don't have individual gods.
The Green Silence can even be felt by humans, and is the reason humans
feel uneasy deep in the forest.
This means that calling an elfs spirit back from death is comparatively
easy for them. The power comes from the forest, not a single individual,
and elves are strongly attached to life. It is still very rarely done...
not because the can't, but because they don't want to. The cycle of life,
death and rebirth is held to be the way to greater unification with, and
understanding of the Green Silence, and so bringing an Aldryami back to
the life he has just left is usually seen to be pointless, and possibly
harmful to the development of her/his spirit. Likely candidates to be
called back would be small children who died too young, and great leaders
/ powerful individuals who are greatly needed. Actually I think the
Aldryami might be capable of bringing back a human (or other) if they
really had to, but she/he would probably be changed more than just a
little...
so much for now, back to my seat on the galley.
-Adept
"thinker, dreamer and adventurer"
PS. I was going through my old gaming files, and look what I found. Here's a poem from the time when I ran a game inspired by "Gaumata's Vision", I wrote it to my players when we had to keep a three week pause in the middle of the "scenario"... just so that they remember the mood.
Where the mists of dream
flow on a wounded river,
and a raptors cry
cuts the night like a spear.
When evil dreams
chase the god of last light
and desperate heroes
must rise to the fight.
Amidst it all we find...
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