The Four Sorrows of Arkat

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 20:35:00 +0100


This is in response to someone being so foolish as to imply to me that the worst thing that can happen to you on the HeroPlane is Death.

Oh, dear me no...

<<FROM THE BOOK OF ARKAT>>

Four are the Sorrows that may befall the Quester, says Arkat.

Firstly there is Death. Although there are places on the Other Side where the writ of Death does not run, if you find yourself in the Storm Age or 'later' then you must be aware that whatever would seperate your spirit from your body in the Inner World will do the same in the Outer. But to die away from the Mundane Lands is far, far more serious. For it is but a step from the Temporal World to the Spirit World and you may always find the Path of the Dead that leads to Daka Fal's Hall and thence to the Halls of your god and eventual rebirth.

But outside of Time your body will be consumed and destroyed and your spirit will wander, trying to find its Path in the unknowable ways and mad geometries of the Other Side. It may find its Path or it may wander forever gradually loosing its wits and self until it becomes another lost spirit to be enslaved by shaman's and sorcerers. And that is not the worst thing that can happen.

Secondly, there is subsumption. If you walk another's Path, the Path of some God or Hero, you must always be careful how much of yourself, your Will you use on the Other Side. For if you run out then you will find yourself absorbed by the Other whose Path you follow. You will forget yourself and forever more become an Aspect of your God or Hero, a tiny part of Humakt or Ernalda, Yelm or Orlanth. Some might think this a glorious fate. But you will never be yourself, never remember yourself and repeat the same actions eternally, never knowing that you do so. And this is not the worst thing that can happen.

Thirdly, there is destruction. You can be consumed by the demons of the Pre-Dark or fall from the world into the Void and be dissolved in it. If the Chaos takes you, then you will not only be no more, but it will gradually become as if you had never been. Memories of you will fade and the deeds you did be unwoven. And this is not the worst thing that can happen.

Fourth and lastly, you can become a God. You can become the realisation of your followers' dreams and hopes, eternally embodying the principles which you have struggled to bring to Reality. And this, says Arkat, is the worst thing that can happen to you. And he should know, because it happened to him.

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