who handels death?

[marcum uth mather]

i was just wondering who handeles death in Birthright? i am a newbie D.M. and am wondering, as there is no outright death god

[A_dark]

You are right there is not.

You have three options, as far as I can tell

1) Nesirie (a death god does not need to be evil)
2) Azrai from beyond the grave
3) The Cold Rider (assuming that he is not Azrai)

[marcum uth mather]

The problem with Nesirie is as goddess of the sea, and morner of a entire lost people she has too much on her plate as is. Not all cultures venarate her in a way a god of death sould be. I do like the Azrie kick but it only hints in the books he is still around. And the dark Rider is only a demigod, I'm not sure if thats a hight enought status for what im looking for.

[Lord Eldred]

Why not have each god in charge of its peoples death? Or create a god of death?

In my campaign, the cold rider tries to prevent souls from reaching their final resting place. All souls must pass through the shadow world to reach their final destination.

[A_dark]

In my campaign, the Khinasi priests in the Temple of the Ancients managed to gather all the artifacts of masetian descent and with a special ceremony, they made Nesirie a greater godess responsible for death as well

[geeman]

At 06:53 PM 6/28/2002 +0200, marcum uth mather wrote:

> i was just wondering who handeles death in Birthright? i am a newbie
> D.M. and am wondering, as there is no outright death god

We don`t really know the cosmology of Aebrynis, so it`s pretty wide open
territory. My personal inclination is to tie views of the afterlife to
that of the real life cultures upon which the Cerilian ethnicities are
based. That is, have Anuireans believe that their soul goes through a
similar process that 12th-13th century Western Europeans did; some sort of
testing period, a purgatorial stay, followed by damnation or eternal
bliss. Rjurik don`t necessarily have a the fatalistic Viking Valhalla
thing going on, but a "Happy Hunting Ground" kind of thing might make sense
for them. The Vos might go for more of the Valhalla thing. Stuff like that.

As for the specific agency that handles death.... I`d again go with
something in line with a real life culture. There needn`t be a god of
death, but there can be angels/Valkyrie who transport the soul.

There could also be factors involving the Shadow World. Souls might have
to negotiate that "barrier" in order to reach their reward.

Gary

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[A_dark]

yes actually now that Gary mentions it

IN the Rjurik book, there are some things on the soul and the afterlife. The Rjuriks believe that after they die, they become a part of nature, one with Erik. They do not believe they have a soul.

[Ariadne]

Yes you can say that Nesirie is the one, who handels the dead (she is godess if grief). But I think there should be some kind of special god (like Anubis of the Pharaonic Pantheon)...

[Lee]

I do not think any one god does. Death just happens, and those who
believe in souls or spirits have their own beliefs about the afterlife. I
wonder if in BR, there are as many resurrected/raised/reincarnated characters
as there seem to be in other game worlds. Given the relatively low levels of
regents, I do not think so, so a priesthood that can raise dead would be
unusual.
IMC, the players have only met one reincarnated NPC (result of dying
within a specific magical place, a source with ancient spells already laid
upon it) and that was certainly a shock to them.

Lee.

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