Re: Re: How do the Orlanthi feel about suicide?

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:33:16 -0700

John Hughes <john.hughes_at_...> wrote:

>

> I also believe that suicide may be a way of launching a heroquest,
> sacrificing yourself and utilising your bodily POWer/strength of
> Breath to propel your soul onto the hero plane, where you may have
> some hope of resolution for your surviving clansfolk if not for
> yourself.

If memory serves, the cult write-up of Odayla in ST *specifically* says this--that Odaylans often begin heroquests by dying, and end the quest with their "sleep back to life" secret.

Of course, Odayla is a special case, since he has an explicit self-resurrection secret. But since so many of the Great Darkness myths seem to be, one way or another, about death and resurrection (the Lightbringers' Quest, Elmal Guards the Stead...), I wouldn't be surprised if there are similar techniques used by the other cults, too. (At least for those really extreme Great Darkness quests.)

In fact, I'd bet that the *full* Light-Bringer's Quest requires the quester to die, as Orlanth, in fact, died. In that sense, "suicide" (willfully choosing a path that results in one's own death) is central to Orlanthi faith.