A Variant For The Sidhe

[Justinius_ExMortis]

I can honestly say that I was present for the brainstorming of Ospreys that came up with this particular brainchild. I like the way the concept was illustrated by RaspK_FOG, how an elven companion would have to be rushed to glade or other high source natural environment in order to heal and rejoin the group. The reincarnation aspect is very interesting and could make for very epic love/hate relationships in an Elven Birthright game, a love or hate relationship that just doesnt' stretch across centuries but across multiple lives creates incredible story telling possibilities. Though considering the way Elves deal with time Reincarnation would never nor could never be a hurried process, a minimum of years if not decades would be appropriate and only then if an acceptable Elven child is born at, on, or around the right time. A connection with some kind of Divination and fortune telling is easily created with this as well. Imagine the joy of Elven parents when the great Diviner so and so informs them that their daughter will be the reincarnation of great historical Elven Hero A. An elf passing away in an low to even no source location could also mean the total loss of that Elves soul, yet another reason for the Elvish dislike for taking the battle to the humans so to speak. The possibilities even exist for the Elven communion issue, wherein Elven souls are so closely linked as to be part of this great entity (i.e. the world, the environment, the world soul, etc.). This could allow for there only being a limited number of Elven souls; thus each life is so very precious to the Elven people as a whole.

One of the more interesting ideas that has been lightly touched on in the previous posts and when Osprey was bouncing this around was the thought of one: that Source levels vary on the individual scale throughout the Province and that the number used on the Province scale is simply the average; and two: That man-made and source draining objects and places are anathema to elves, for instance the elven land with a road running through it for trade. You could very easily imagine Elves avoiding, running across, charging across, or simply not dealing with this strip of anathema destruction of the natural world running through their territory.

Hopefully I've brought up some interesting ideas. Yours Truly;


Justinius_ExMortis
Entropy is my Master

[Justinius_ExMortis]

I think no resurrection is appropriate as resurrection is an unnatural procedure, but a flow of energies into the next acceptable receptacle? I think that's very acceptable. The loss of identity is also a given, but Elves are a part of the natural world and the energies that create that. I could very easily see the same "flavor" energies manifesting in an Elven child and ever so slightly influencing the paths that child will follow both through psychology and choices of profession, spouse, style of home, etc.

As for balance, I think loss of identity and such is very balancing, the energy is the same but the mind is different. Also the loss of an Elven soul outside of Source rich lands makes for a deadly balance, not only has this soul been lost but the maximum possible Elven numbers is forever reduced by one. The decline of the race as a whole is one of the most dramatic and saddening elements of the Elven psychology. I luv it.


Justinius_ExMortis
Entropy is my Master

[Athos69]

I have played some Arcanis, and a concept that they use could be modified for this aspect. In their world, the Elves are a race created from elemental essences for use as a servitor race. We can throw that right out the window -- but one of the side effects from that we could play with.

There are a finite number of elven souls -- if no elf died, none would be born. If we tweak this a bit, the rare death of an elf would allow a child to be born to elven parents -- there would be no connection between the deceased elf's personality or intellect and the newborn, and the idea of bringing back an elf from the dead would be anathemia to the Sidhe.

just a possible idea...

[destowe]

I like the ideas, but I wonder about taking this to the next level.


What is the healing rate for elven units?

Would they regenerate W hit(s) per war move in a source (X)? Or (1+Y) per amount over source (Z)

And as a weird side note, with the way that elven healing is tied to the source, and the low province levels.

How about allowing elves to muster up to the source level instead of law? That will allow veteran and all the other needed training to get established from unit muster.

[geeman]

At 04:47 AM 9/17/2003 +0200, Osprey wrote:



>The Sidhe are immortal. I think the tradeoff for them is that they don`t

>have souls that can be called back. Instead of being like a human, who is

>somewhat seperate from his or her immortal soul, I imagine the elf as a

>soul embodied in flesh.

>

>So what does happen when the flesh is destroyed? Is the elf`s spirit also

>destroyed?

>

>I tend to think of it as disrupted, and the energies dispersed back into

>the surrounding mebhaighal. Thus, that spirit`s individual identity is

>lost. So no reincarnation or resurrection.



I`m working on a piece that addresses this kind of thing. (I know, I`ve

mentioned it before, but I really am! It`s coming soon, I swear!) The

basic idea of the "Death: The Final Adventure" stuff will be that the

"energy" of souls must be balanced between the world of light (or the

"world of life") and its mirror image, the Shadow World (symbolically the

"world of death" for BR.) Mortal souls provide the balancing energies as

they traverse the SW on their way to planes beyond. During this process

the souls are "tested" by various ordeals that not only strip them of their

mortal selves and concerns, a process that also releases "life energies"

that balance the equation between the two realities. Whether this release

of energies is the point of the ordeals or whether it is a byproduct of the

process that prepares soul for the afterlife is a matter of conjecture.



After discussing the issue with various folks in the BR community, I

decided that elves do not have "immortal souls" in the sense that mortals

do--borrowing fairly liberally from JRRT. In the context of the D:tFA

stuff, elves` souls will remain in the world of light. The souls of dark

elves (those Sidhe who reside in the SW) will remain there. Whether they

are reabsorbed back into the energies of the plane or if they come back

spontaneously in elven form, or whether they become part of the energies

that fuel mebhaighal I haven`t really addressed yet, and I don`t think I`ll

need to for the scope of the actual piece, but it`s an interesting point

and one that might fit in somewhere.



Whether a soul remains in the material world or passes on to realms beyond

doesn`t necessarily mean it cannot be raised, resurrected or reincarnated,

but it could be used as a justification for allowing or disallowing one or

the other for each race.



I have two character write ups I want to finish and then the D:tFA stuff....



Gary

[Raesene Andu]

Very interesting Gary, I had similar thoughts a while back.

I had the idea that the dead souls passed through the Shadow World on their way to the afterlife and that those who still held to their mortal lives were trapped and became undead, while the rest passed on to a hall of judgement. Here the worthiness of their lives were judged, and those found worthy were allowed to enter the realms of their chosen god. Those found unworthy were returned to Cerilia to be reincarnated in a new life, and those found to have betrayed their gods were cast into a great ocean and left there for enterinty.

Some of my ideas can be found in the BRCS (page 86-87), but that section does need some work IMO.

[Osprey]

Those found unworthy were returned to Cerilia to be reincarnated in a new life, and those found to have betrayed their gods were cast into a great ocean and left there for enterinty.

I think the judgement on the betrayers shouldn't be stated, but left to the imagination. I imagine far more individualized punishments for betrayers, should they ever face their former gods. You see, most who would betray their god switch allegiance to another power, and thus no longer fall under their former god's jurisdiction. The Vos after Deismaar, for example, would fall under the judgement of Kreisha and Belinik; Vorynn (and Ruornil subsequently) lost their power of judgement when the people turned to another master. Sad, but it rings true.

Osprey

[Osprey]

After discussing the issue with various folks in the BR community, I
decided that elves do not have "immortal souls" in the sense that mortals
do--borrowing fairly liberally from JRRT. In the context of the D:tFA
stuff, elves` souls will remain in the world of light. The souls of dark
elves (those Sidhe who reside in the SW) will remain there. Whether they
are reabsorbed back into the energies of the plane or if they come back
spontaneously in elven form, or whether they become part of the energies
that fuel mebhaighal I haven`t really addressed yet, and I don`t think I`ll
need to for the scope of the actual piece, but it`s an interesting point
and one that might fit in somewhere.

[Geeman]

If elves don't have immortal souls, then why do then discuss them as if they did? If they don't have souls, then there is no life after death, right? Life after death is a concept directly contingent upon having a soul. If there's a different metaphysical reason behind the elves' spirits sticking around, I'd like to hear it.

[Osprey]

I like the ideas, but I wonder about taking this to the next level.


What is the healing rate for elven units?

Would they regenerate W hit(s) per war move in a source (X)? Or (1+Y) per amount over source (Z)

And as a weird side note, with the way that elven healing is tied to the source, and the low province levels.

How about allowing elves to muster up to the source level instead of law? That will allow veteran and all the other needed training to get established from unit muster.

First of all, rapid healing doesn't equal training facilities and experience. I think it's fine that law remains the standard for elven mustering, considering that elves can raise their provincial and holding levels without damaging the source potential. That's already powerful enough, and if they still need to train beyond that, well...what have leves got but time to train?

As for healing units...that's a tricky one, for sure. Because damage to units equals casualties, not just wounds. Perhaps this could work:

Elven units in a source 5+ province (the rapid healing minimum) can heal 1 hit of damage after spending a week (one War Move) there. However, if the unit has sustained more than 1 hit in a single battle, any additional damage must be healed normally (long rest in a garrison, where permanent losses can be replaced).

That's my best answer in terms of realism.

Osprey

[Osprey]

What if clerical healing magic on only works on beings with a mortal soul? That would make for a neat explanation of why clerics can't heal elves.