Afterlife for the uninitiated (children)?

[Joerg]

With 50% of the population dying before their 15th birthday (i.e. quite likely uninitiated), what is the thought of the cultures in and around Dragon Pass about their afterlife?

Do they go directly into the rebirth queue at Ty Kora Tek, or do they enter the realm of deities which blessed them at or after birth?

[jajagappa]

15 hours ago, Joerg said:

Do they go directly into the rebirth queue at Ty Kora Tek, or do they enter the realm of deities which blessed them at or after birth?

Assuming we're talking Orlanthi culture, I'd have Voria and Voriof find and gather these innocent souls and lead them to the Crossroads where Issaries waits.  Issaries then brings them to the Underworld and Havan Vor.  There Voria and Voriof appear to speak for the children, and any other guardians from their birth, and unless something evil speaks against them, they are given into the care of Ty Kora Tek and brought to the Caves of Silence.

[Brootse]

20 hours ago, Joerg said:

With 50% of the population dying before their 15th birthday (i.e. quite likely uninitiated), what is the thought of the cultures in and around Dragon Pass about their afterlife?

Do they go directly into the rebirth queue at Ty Kora Tek, or do they enter the realm of deities which blessed them at or after birth?

Is that 50% from the math thread?

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, Brootse said:

Is that 50% from the math thread?

Yes, and confirmed by Jeff, too. Give or take 10 or even 20% of child mortality, but a significant number of children perishes before initiation, so this is a regular concern for all Theyalans.

(The looser initiation customs of Peloria are another can of worms - here such intercessors are likely to act for adults without specific cultic initiation, too.)

One reason I asked is because there is a strong incentive in the afterlife to spend it with (an idealized verson of) your kin, although that basically can be reduced to a sense of home in timelessness. (Cabell had Jürgen meet his grandmother in her afterlife doting on a younger version of himself, introducing another level of relativism into this afterlife experience.)

Retention of individuality in your afterlife is another debatable boon or curse. As a rule, people receiving a punshment can expect to retain a lot of their individuality that is slowly tortured away, while people's souls entering the afterlife of their deity are fairly non-individual. (A similar effect used to be ascribed to the theist version of ancestor interaction, based on King of Dragon Pass, with "the ancestors" being a collective entity rather than select individuals.)

Voria and Voriof (quite likely even the Pelaskites keep sheep) as intercessors for the children make sense, but giving them a separate Godworld afterlife doesn't seem quite right, except for those Jürgen moments.

[Akhôrahil]

11 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Assuming we're talking Orlanthi culture, I'd have Voria and Voriof find and gather these innocent souls and lead them to the Crossroads where Issaries waits.  Issaries then brings them to the Underworld and Havan Vor.  There Voria and Voriof appear to speak for the children, and any other guardians from their birth, and unless something evil speaks against them, they are given into the care of Ty Kora Tek and brought to the Caves of Silence.

I agree with this. Ty Kora Tek seems just right. And rebirth seems like something that would fit for children who didn't get a chance at a full life.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Akhôrahil

[Akhôrahil]

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

Retention of individuality in your afterlife is another debatable boon or curse. As a rule, people receiving a punshment can expect to retain a lot of their individuality that is slowly tortured away, while people's souls entering the afterlife of their deity are fairly non-individual. (A similar effect used to be ascribed to the theist version of ancestor interaction, based on King of Dragon Pass, with "the ancestors" being a collective entity rather than select individuals.)

With one of my PCs being a Daka Fal apprentice shaman in an Orlanthi context, I'm really struggling with making sense of how the ancestors are simultaneously a faceless conservative collective and something you can summon individual ancestors from for direct services.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Akhôrahil

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, Joerg said:

Voria and Voriof (quite likely even the Pelaskites keep sheep) as intercessors for the children make sense, but giving them a separate Godworld afterlife doesn't seem quite right

Giving which a separate Godworld afterlife? The children? They are just part of the collective in the Caves of Silence. (Or did you mean Voria and Voriof? )

[Joerg]

30 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Giving which a separate Godworld afterlife? The children? They are just part of the collective in the Caves of Silence. (Or did you mean Voria and Voriof? )

Any Orlanthi clansperson imagines one afterlife in the Storm Village of God World, as a follower of the appropriate deities. In this case Voria and Voriof. An Orlanthi mother expects to share her afterlife with her offspring, even if that offspring is distributed over several clans in real life (whether through marrying away or through temporary marriages of the mother). Thus, it feels right to have an expectation of some form of permanence of deceased children in the Storm Village.