In relation to the recent discussion on Undead / Chaos I have begun to
rethink these issues.
The whole debate has surfaced a number of times I know, but with the
more recent gloranthan cosmology it has begun to take shape for me.
I submit for debate that "Undead" is the animist equivalent of Chaos.
Now I know that we shoud be wary of broad generalisations, and as Gloarntha now has a literally "mixed-up" cosmology, so most examples found in the world will not be clearly catagorised as animistic, but one of the primary planks of animist thinking in Glorantha is the distinction between life and death.
As such Undead is a world breaking concept for animists and a major threat to their whole mythology. I would suggest that it is more fundamentaly alien to them than chaos, and the main nightmares and horror stories in the few remaining pure animist societies surround this concept as opposed to chaos.
What do you think?
Jamie Mac
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