voice; un: mogget

[themogget]

Name: Mogget
Date: May 8th
Format: Voice

---

How is death viewed in the world you come from?

[Now there's a question. Mogget pauses a moment before he continues, just to let it sink in.]

In the Old Kingdom, when one dies, their soul moves over into a different realm. There they traverse nine gates along a river until finally passing on. I understand that this isn't the norm outside of my home world.

[Not close to it, in fact.]

So, indulge me, if you would.

Comments

[sneakofhand]

Wouldn't say I put any real effort into not thinking about it maybe a year ago, as a rule. Since then it's gotten well complicated and frankly I don't know what to think anymore. I guess going for a bit as one of the undead will do that.

voice;

[unsundered]

A rather lengthy journey for a tired soul to go on, don't you think? Nine whole gates to pass through before passing on. Don't tell me there's some ordeal or judgement attached to each one, or some nonsense complication like that.

But what happens at the end, after they've traversed all of this? That last step sounds the most crucial, and yet it's the one missing.

[Completely ignoring that he hasn't answered the question himself, his tone is low and idle.]

Voice

[lotus_of_rage]

A morbid topic.

However, we believe there is an afterlife. When a person dies, family will burn money for them to accompany them in the afterlife. Eventually, an account of their life will be taken. Based on the deeds that they have performed in their life, they will reborn. Doing good deeds and having luck on your side will give you a better life the next time. Performing bad deeds, you may be reborn as a toad.

[ranyaulf]

Better than nothing. I expect nothing if and when I die, other than going honorably.

[futhark]

It's not a question of belief— One of them is my reality.

[worldcleansing]

That might be true in your world, but it's not as definitive in mine. The dead remain dead, and we haven't figured out a way to track what happens after.

[lightblooming]

I didn't know it was possible for someone to know what happened after death, but... each world can be so unique from one another.

At the same time -- the fact that so many people don't know only shows how world can be similar to others, too.

[themogget]

Interesting. That sounds like something that could become very complicated very quickly.

[themogget]

Understandable. On all counts.

Would it be a comfort to believe there was something more to come?

[themogget]

I would have stated it if there was.

[So, no. No tasks, no trials. Unless you really don't want to be there, in which case the trial might be getting back out.]

And the end is peace. Nothing more or less than that.

[themogget]

[This one amuses him, if only for the idea of someone being reborn as a toad.]

And when someone has lived the best life possible, what then? Is this a process of infinite reincarnation?

[themogget]

A goal shared by many, no doubt. And expecting nothing assures that one is not disappointed.

[themogget]

And which one is that?

[themogget]

That the dead remain dead is a boon you shouldn't take for granted.

[But then;]

I assume there are theories.

[futhark]

Not what the stories prepared me for— that one. I was pulled out of the cycle of reincarnation, so no rest at Tír na nÓg for me. Means I get to still be around, when needed and summoned— means not all family reunions are possible.

I got really lucky, some of them ended with the same deal as me.

[deadtective]

Not as much as you'd think. Just builds a society that is super interested in what you are and where you came from.

[lotus_of_rage]

It's possible. Depending on how one's lives go. Supposedly you can eventually escape the cycle and become immortal, god-like. More often than not, your luck will bring you greater reward in the next life. A man who gets to marry the woman he has loved all of his life might say that he must have saved up all the luck from three lifetimes in order to be able to spend one with her.

Something like that.

[ranyaulf]

So I guess I should ask you: do you live knowing that you'll have a chance to pass through those gates and get to continue on in some way?

[themogget]

No. I have no spirit for the river to carry.

[themogget]

True enough. [Mogget is finding that more worlds don't know what comes after death than do... at least as a matter of certainty.]

Would you want to know?

[unsundered]

I hardly know you from the next lost soul who makes up the population of this star. Perhaps you're the sort to exclude vital information, [Like himself. (Not that he's projecting.) (Really he's not, he's entirely aware of it when he does.)] perhaps you're not. Well, not that it matters one way or another. No one here would be able to tell the difference.

But what happens to those who decide to linger between gates, reluctant to find this supposed and determinedly vague 'peace'?

[themogget]

It is possible for souls to attempt to linger, but more often than not they all get pushed on by the river. Each gate has its own particular way of encouraging forward motion.

[He pauses here, very deliberately.]

Those who have the strength to pull themselves out again are dealt with by other means. The dead do not belong outside of Death, and to Death they must be returned.

[unsundered]

Ah, how tidy... every last one pushed onward to their eventual 'reward'.

[That did make a bit more sense, he supposed. And he had to admit being curious as to how other worlds handled their version of the Underworld, considering his own connection to it.]

You sound as though you have some personal experience in it, then. Returning the feistiest of dead to their unwanted rest... how commendable, how tiresome, if so. These people who successfully fight against the current- what sort of life do they manage to return to? There's any number of degrees of undeath.

[worldcleansing]

There are. I've mentioned the major theories, but they depend on the culture and more specifically the religion. A cycle of rebirth, a better or worse place depending on your behavior, and nothingness are the most believed.

Even people with the same religion might have different feelings about it. The people who think better things happen after we die might still be sad or afraid to leave what they have now behind.

[ranyaulf]

No spirit?

Then what'll happen to you?