In my previous thread about the lifespans of the mortal races on Terminus (https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2436/races-lifespans/view/post_id/33294), this lead me to think about the various afterlives. In most cultures the patron deity of a given race generally perpares a sort of afterlife for the faithful souls and sometimes a place or torment (hell/underworld) for evil souls but how will this factor into the daily lives of the citizens on Terminus? Do their respective deities have places of final rest prepared for the races and if so are they seperate and distinct?
With the Dragon Accord, there seems to be a barrier between the mortal and the immortal. How will this effect the souls of the departed? Will their deities be able to retrieve their souls and bring them to their final resting place or are the souls forever in limbo?
Aggelos said:With the Dragon Accord, there seems to be a barrier between the mortal and the immortal. How will this effect the souls of the departed? Will their deities be able to retrieve their souls and bring them to their final resting place or are the souls forever in limbo?
This seems as good a place as any, and I wont really be derailing the thread to provide some insight on the Dragon Accord(as far as I understand it).
The Dragon Accord isn't really a specific barrior between the mortal and immortal. Its more of a peace treaty between the Celestials and the Dragons. The accord specifically gives dragons dominion and governance over the landmasses and shards, While the Celestials maintain dominion and governance over the races. Neither is allowed to mettle in eachothers affairs. (Remember the age of Chaos? The Ravage Lord ( a descended god) Killed Rhy’Kafiros at Mount Ka’Druhorr. Immediately angering the Dragon King, Rok’Nhilthamos who took immediate retribution on the God. As he was about to take his wrath out upon the races, the gods intervened and declared "Blood for blood, King. There is no breach". Halting the almost certain war between the celestials and the dragons. As well as sparing the races, for now.)
Due to the Absence of the gods tho, As far as afterlives are concerned, The frail age seems to be an age that is frail in faith as much as uneasy peace. Do the celestials even have dominion over the souls of the dead, at this point, or are they left to rot upon terminus for now?
I took the Celestial Barrier to be more than just an "honor system" separation but a truly imposed barrier of sorts. It was said that The Ravage Lord was brought down through descension which took him from a celestial down to a high mortal. I think descension is what allowed him to cross the Celestial Barrier. Later, they (?) realized the barrier was not strong enough and strengthened it even further which resulted in more alienation of the mortals from their gods.
I believe what happened was that something compelled the separate gods and pantheons to take a piece of their world and graft it onto Terminus. I think their worlds were in danger of annihilation/extinction and this was an act to plant a seed in a new safe place. This world was chosen by all and it has to be left to grow and blossom without meddling. The Celestials needed a "safe" world on which to plant their future people. This world, however, was the dragons' domain. So an accord was made whereby the dragons would "lease" their world to the celestials so they could grow their future populations safely again. Sort of like putting an endangered species into captivity until they can safely be put back out in the world in self-sustaining numbers.
So, the dragonkind retreated and let the Celestials use their world as a safe "zoo" on which to grow their peoples. No one knows what was in this Accord to benefit the dragons and rumors have stated they were in danger and forced to agree or they were promised a huge reward after the accord ends.
The Celestials wanted their people there but perhaps the dragons did not want the powerful Celestials on their world. So the barrier was imposed.
Descension, however, was a loophole that led to the Deicide War. I suspect the Suns of Terminus saw this violation by Itirri (actually by Givani) and they descended as WarWizards to exterminate Itirri. They could not do that with the goal of helping their races (that would be meddling) but they COULD do so to make sure Itirri's presence did not violate the Accord. So, in order to stop one of their own from breaking the DA, they came down to kill him.
That was why The Emissary stopped Rok'Nhilthamos.
Afterward everyeone retreated and the barrier was strengthened even further and I suspect Descension no longer crosses it.
Interestingly, that may mean that, while the Accord stands, the dead cannot leave Terminus but can be resurrected to continue repopulating their race. Perhaps in time, we too shall meet those who can resurrect the fallen from battle.