Life and Death - the role of the Mage
A question was asked about the means whereby a person who has, in the normally understood sense, died, may return to life.
This question requires a preamble. First, it is not permitted to speak in detail of some of the matters on which this impinges. Such a proscription is to prevent misunderstanding, unwise experimentation or attracting the morbid curiosity of the frivolous. Second, it is not always possible to be unambiguous. This is partly a result of the first point above, but also because the subject itself, being partially spiritual in nature, does not translate easily into everyday terms.
These factors combine to generate a risk, and that risk is that some of what is written may appear unorthodox, or even heretical. Let me, therefore, make this perfectly clear: if there should be any perceived variance between my writings and the received wisdom in the teachings of the Church of Soldeus, the latter shall reign sovereign, and this unworthy author shall humbly acknowledge the truth thereof.
A Discourse on Life and Death
For favoured individuals, death on Nave need not be the end. And since my audience is amongst the privileged, you will no doubt have personal experience of the return from the Twilight Lands. For the individual to function, it is necessary that the spirit should be at one with a functioning physical body. Where the body is damaged beyond a certain point it becomes inanimate, and this causes a separation of the spirit. The disembodied spirit may travel - either rapidly across great distances, or in a semblance of the travelling that was a habit of life - to arrive at a suitable trained and appointed Priest. The distinction between White Priests, who succour the pure of spirit, and those Black Priests who commune with impure spirits, need not concern us here.
Once the spirit has beseeched the priest for a doorway back from the Twilight Lands, the priest must obtain a functioning body. The Transportationists claim that the existing body is brought from where it lies and is healed. The Transpositionists hold that the existing body is dissolved and a new body formed by the priest. In either case, the functional physical body can now act as vessel for the spirit, and reunion takes place.
So, what of the practices concerning the dead that fall outside this familiar system?
First we must turn to necromancy. Is this the means by which certain thaumaturges may restore their companions to life? I refute this. Necromancy is primarily a means of communication with the deceased, and takes two forms. In the first, the spirit is commanded to appear. In the second, it is the physical body which is summoned. The purpose of necromancy is almost always to obtain hidden knowledge, future knowledge, arcane knowledge. But it is almost always the case that the summoning is coercive. The deceased is brought into the light of day not to give them back the life they have lost, but simply to extract information from them, often with great distress. I eschew this art.
Now we may consider resurrection. The term resurrection is used widely by the Tindremic School of Thaumaturgy, but I prefer to avoid it because of possible confusion with Holy Works. I prefer the term revivify. My studies of the subject during my stay in Tindrem revealed an elaborate process. However, much of my research involved stripping away the unnecessary trappings to reveal the core of the process. It is, in fact, once the required knowledge is absorbed, a simple procedure that may be performed as readily on the battlefield as in more hallowed surroundings. The only limitation is the severe drain on the practitioner's magical reserves. It consists of two parts. First, an incantation is used to make the spirit or "python" visible Under the Sun, although at this stage it still resides in the Twilight Lands. Next, the physical body is prepared: this may simply be seen as an advanced healing spell. Finally (and my researches indicate, without the further intervention of the mage) the spirit is drawn to reunion with the body (now made whole) that it once occupied.
This takes place with the blessing of Soldeus for his good purposes.
Tindrem, Bakti
