Cultural Views of the Afterlife

Killian typically fear ghosts, but not their own deaths. The culture is one where you are reminded of your own mortality often, but not in a morbid fashion. Killian get an early brush with death, in that most of the eggs laid do not successfully hatch. Bushi-Killian in particular have a phrase that they often think or say upon rising each day, "Today I may die." Killian think of death as a total end; anything that cheats that inevitable conclusion is unwelcome. Killian view the afterlife as something akin to a deep sleep or coma, when they think of it at all. Even followers of the Red God feel this way. They do not share in the vision of an eternal tavern—that philosophy is only common to the religion's Human and Dwarven adherents. Killian rarely pursue careers involving death, other than warriors. Morticians and butchers are subtly, and unconsciously, avoided. In this warrior culture where death is a constant factor, few are willing to deal with it other than at the point of a blade. Rarely does one encounter a Killian necropolitan, or other expert worker with death.
Ghosts are considered abhorrent by the Killian for one simple reason: you cannot kill them. If one is able to return in such a fashion, they are a power to be reckoned with. If a warrior strikes with his sword immediately upon being awakened, how much more wrathful would one be if aroused from eternal rest?
Many Heldans, and most Dwarves throughout Midian, are not strongly religious and do not believe in an afterlife. For them, dead is dead. Followers of the Red God however, have large numbers in those cold lands. They envision that one who is worthy joins a great feast of heroes after they die. Those who died gloriously in battle are the most honoured, followed by those who lived exemplary lives. Those who died cowardly are doomed to spend eternity as servers of the fallen warriors. A common insult of someone's bravery is to tell them that you are going to make them your eternal serving wench in the afterlife.
Humans, Dwarves, and Trolls of the Heldanic confederation feel that one's deeds will reflect directly upon future generations. This is certainly true in many respects, such as: social status, reputation, or finances. Moreover, to these proud folk, one's worth is measured in large part by one's parents and grandparents. Few are willing to disrespect their legacy, and fewer still are willing to leave their children and grandchildren a legacy of ill repute.
In the Kingdom of Formour, the afterlife is viewed as something rather pleasant, at least this is the official story you will hear if you ask the average citizen his or her opinions. Of course, everyone is creeped out by the thought of death, and afraid of the deaths of themselves or their loved ones—certain necropolitans being a notable exception. The main religion in that land—the Temple of Light—views death as a merging with The Light for the faithful. Of course, death is a painful time of loss for those still living. The Book of the Cannon says, "Shed tears for your loss, but not for your loved one, for they have joined with The Light in eternal oneness and bliss" (Sermon of Mammon the Prophet after the Battle of Jerich, Chapter 7, verses 13 & 14). Even those Formourians who are not baptised LightWalkers are still affected—inversely—by the culture of this powerfully influential church. Many of them feel that there isn't some indefinable 'better place' that they will travel to when dead. This counterview of the church's stand on the afterlife is one of the chief tools of converting the unbelievers. Then again, a loss of identity and sense of self after death is one of the main arguments used against the Mammonites.
Ogres and Firps have a similar 'return to the source' theme for their afterlife beliefs. For them, death is simply another state of being—one to be postponed as long as possible of course—but an essential part of the life-cycle nonetheless. While the concept of blissful eternity in spirit form in another plane of existence is foreign to their native religions, their shamans and witch-doctors teach about the decaying body returning its life to the world.
At least one small vile cult amongst the Orcks have taken this one step further and more directly, by eating the flesh of their fallen foes as part of their religious observance. They feel that they are consuming the life and the strength of a worthy enemy. The typical Orck view on death is much simpler: dead is dead. The Orcks don't have any views on the afterlife. These pragmatic folk don't see a corpse as anything other than an object… or possibly dinner. While one's deeds may live on in stories, their corpse is just more junk to throw into the river. Orcks do not have the same care for how they are perceived after death that the Heldans do—after all, you're dead, what would you care? How would you care? They generally find the thought of transcendence to another level after death just as distasteful as would a Formourian atheist. It's not a form of selfishness, but rather one of practical apathy: death is the end of worries (and everything else). More specifically from an Orckish perspective, the death of an enemy means that you no longer have to worry about him. It is worth noting that necropolitans are extraordinarily rare among Orcks. It is even more interesting that reports of spectral activity are also rather rare from them—Orck children don't tell ghost stories around the campfire. They have much more immediate concerns with problems from the living.
Hobgoblins do not have the richness of cultural elements regarding the afterlife that others do, even Humans have greater diversity and depth to their beliefs. This stems in part from their immortal Fae heritage. To their Goblinfolk ancestors, death was something that occurred because you did something terribly wrong, like pissing off the wrong person. In their early development as a people they were surrounded by immortal semi-spirit beings: Elves, Fairies, Pixies, and of course Goblins. As they distanced themselves and generations passed, this early involvement began to shape an informal type of spiritualism. Elves watching carefully from the trees and handed-down memories of their odd ways resulted in a general paranoia with things unseen in the spirit world. With knowledge gained from stories of Elementals, they learned that even the rocks and streams could house unseen presences. Hobgoblins generally have neither the aptitude nor desire for things mystical, so there was no curiosity or attempts to control these unseen forces. These were things best left alone. When the Hobgoblins first forged the Olde Empire, they had not encountered other beings like them—Humans had not yet arrived on the scene, Trolls were viewed only as monsters, Dwarves were not discovered until the fifth century of the Empire (and enslaved by the end of the sixth), and all other races the Hobgoblins knew about were immortal—with the decided lack of views on the afterlife that condition brings. As such, the Hobgoblins did not have any other cultures with which to share or borrow belief structures. The resulting Hobgoblin belief system is difficult to codify with regards to their views on the afterlife, or death in general—other than that they got very good at causing it.
Category:Death
Category:Tractate