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[✗] A Cycle of Rebirth


Gladuos
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A Cycle of Rebirth

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[Ritual by AgentWills]

-An artist’s painted depiction of the relative center, a place wherein all souls pass to their eternal afterlives.

~~~

Aeriel in her domain looks down on the many souls left lingering, over-populating and discontent. They are left in complete stagnancy, forever trapped beyond the Veil. To them Aeriel is a kind mistress, but a solemn one. Little do they know a mercy she can afford them, however. A Secret held deep within her golden city.

~~~

Reincarnation:

    Reincarnation is the process by which dead souls can find their way back into the material realm as new beings entirely. This includes the souls which are left stuck in the soul stream gathered up by the Caretaker of Souls Aeriel in her golden city or even the souls which refuse their earned afterlife in favor of returning, albeit changed. Aeriel in her mercy or honor, sometimes offers these souls a method to re-enter the system as a whole, healthy soul. Why Aeriel does this is not entirely known, though it is likely she chooses to do this over letting souls remain separated from the natural cycle. For the honored dead, likely out of respect in letting them return to the beginning of the soul’s journey instead of staying complacent beyond the Veil.

    When a soul is made reincarnated by Aeriel’s choosings, it is effectively stripped entirely bare save for some of its core essence. This essence is rearranged and invisibly sent to the mortal realm to be fused with the fledgling essence of an infant at conception. In this way the soul is reforged into something entirely new, yet with pieces of its previous existence deep and dormant within itself. The being is then left behind to be reborn, allowed to grow up and experience life again as they wish: as a different, complete spirit and person.

    Put shortly, it is effectively Aeriel soul-recycling people to be born again instead of letting them sit around in the soul stream. Given as a gift to the worthy dead (neutrals or holies) upon request so they may be born again to live another life. This wouldn’t affect all souls in the soul stream as Aeriel treats it as a rarer mercy or gift, and even the Caretaker, as powerful as she may be, couldn’t round up all the souls of the dead there. This doesn’t mean all new souls entering the world are recycled ones either, it’s meant to be a more uncommon occurrence.

~~~

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[Reincarnation by Jort Braam]

-A wandering soul being restructured and stripped by the powers of the Arch-Aengul herself.

~~~

Effects on Roleplay:

    Anyone brought back in this way would experience nothing of their former self. All the reincarnated are made into entirely new people, ones with their own feelings, thoughts, emotions, and memories. There is almost no trace of what was the prior soul, broken down and intermingled with the energies of the parents which bore them. To them, it is as though they are no different from the myriad spirits inhabiting Aos or Eos.

    This is how it would seem, however there are a few minor and nigh-unnoticable effects reincarnation can have on a new descendant. They may have a tendency towards the same mannerisms or ideals as the essence which helped make them. Small things such as a positive outlook on life or a fascination with blacksmithing to a former metallurgist. Even a particular twitch they had in their past life. This can be physical too such as the same birthmark, though nothing big.

    This can go even further with the retention of one or a few very vague recollections which they cannot place happening anywhere in their life. These will always be few in number and extremely ambiguous. It’s as though a memory exists but they can’t place its details. Things such as faces or the words being spoken are always lost; the only remnants being the base feelings and imagery of the memory. Sometimes these memories don’t even consciously exist, laid dormant only to suddenly come rushing back from specific stimuli.

    The person themselves will not have anything else from their previous lives; no alterations to the soul which were previously there. Any semblance of deific power or otherwise are lost in favor of being a mundane, natural soul once more. In the end there isn’t really any advantage to being reincarnated except the chance to come back to the mortal realm. The previous soul is even entirely destroyed in the process, never able to move on to the afterlife as they were before - though they can as this new person.

    The interactions from reincarnation go even further when Ascended or Aeriel are entered into the mix. Any reincarnated person if examined by an Ascended via their magic would seem a bit different than the common descendant - if at least only in their soul. The reincarnated soul is only minorly different, like a blemish which is felt subtly deep within. An Ascended could recognize this small blemish, but wouldn’t necessarily know how to place it. It’s not felt as an unnatural alteration of the soul, it might even be very easily unnoticed. Yet if somehow brought to the attention of Aeriel, she may choose to reveal the truth of this blemish (being that they are a reincarnation and of who). If she so chooses, or deems it necessary. She can decide not to explain any of it, and merely confirm it’s a natural thing.

~~~

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[Grave Eater by ChrisCold]

-A titanic apparition in its visible form stalks through Ebriaetes, seeking more power, seeking an escape.

~~~

The Mongoose once attempted this mercy on the black beings lingering deep in Ebriaetes. At first it had seemed to work, and the mistress smiled. She was happy for another chance to these damned souls. Unfortunately, when they had grown, terrible fates befell those around them. A mistake Aeriel made, and one she will never make again.
~~~

Dark Spirits:

    Any stuck within Ebriaetes as black corrupted versions of their former selves cannot be reincarnated. Or perhaps more accurately, never chosen to be reincarnated by Aeriel again. This includes any type of dark practitioner in life which acted to the point where it made an impression on their soul. Necromancers, Mystics, Shades, Frost Witches, Drakaar-Oriented, Dark Shamans, Dark Deific Users such as the old Undead. Mortal individuals who became a Dark creature such as liches, darkstalkers, paleknights, dreadknights, frost witch-oriented types, Strigae, Wraiths, Wights, Daeva, and other related creatures are also included as dark spirits.

    Soul-Shadow beings such as ghosts, gravens, and morghuul remain anchored to the material realm and never pass to the soul stream. Their original souls might have passed on, uncorrupted, to the afterlife and thus are eligible for reincarnation.

 

Purpose:

    The point of this isn’t necessarily to bring back old characters. I’ve written this explicitly to help dissuade that aspect of reincarnation as it would ruin the weight of permanently killing your character. Anyone who comes back in this way would become an entirely new character with varying thoughts, feelings, emotions, etcetera with barely a trace if any of their other life.

    The main point was to give a fun flavorful option to players to tie in old PKed characters with their new ones, things that could potentially spark RP down the line for them if they so pleased. It doesn’t give any inherent advantage over a regularly born character either. In fact, it’s moreso a lore post which could cohesively validate the various religions on LotC that have belief in reincarnation - mainly farfolk ones which parallel Hinduism or Buddhism. Finally, it puts Aeriel into more of a neutral light instead of as the cold warden of Ebriaetes.

 

Redlines:

-To create a reincarnated character, it must be from the soul of a PKed character. This obviously requires OOC consent.

-PKed souls made into reincarnations are erased from existence, never to return again as they once were - only as the new person they’ve become. This means the former soul can’t move on to the afterlife, though they can move on as their newer selves.

-May inherit similar traits, mannerisms, or ideals as their past lives but memories will always be vague. No recollection of faces, words, important details, etcetera may be recovered even with the aid of magic. Cannot have a large amount of memories either, only a select few (meaning around 3 maximum).

-Reincarnations are entirely new people from what they were except those small exceptions. I.E. This is not a method to bring back PKed characters. Any magics, soul alterations, majority of previous personality, bodily appearance, etc. are lost by being reborn. Effectively a new, raw, and vanilla soul/person from top to bottom.

-Ascended can’t confirm whether a person is or is not reincarnated, only that there’s something very subtly strange about the person’s soul.

-A PKed character eligible for being a black spirit in Ebriaetes cannot be reincarnated this way, their soul far too gone to ever be effectively salvaged. Look to the section 'Dark Spirits' above for more clarification.

 

This is free to be RPed without the need of being tracked as it has no significant impact on roleplay; only in the form of potentially interesting story developments and aesthetics. Thank you!

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Was told sometime during the Vailor map that reincarnation wasn't actually disallowed or forbidden so long as you don't abuse it, nice to finally see some writing to make it more legit. Big support from me. 

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I like.

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As someone with some obvious interest in lore pertaining to souls, Aeriel and Ascended, this is something I can really get behind. It really does fit with Aeriel's theme as the Caretaker of Souls - I've always thought the Archaengul to be at least partially benevolent to those souls who aren't completely beyond help. This makes a lot of sense with both the established lore of Aeriel and the role-play surrounding it. Full support from me.

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Has my total approval. This lore brings the Ascended, Aeriel, and Abrieiates lore a little closer and on the same page.

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Can clerics finally be able to bring people back?
:^ )

 

Nice writing.

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This lore is very well written. +1 proud of you gladdy.

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4 hours ago, Gladuos said:

In fact, it’s moreso a lore post which could cohesively validate the various religions on LotC that have belief in reincarnation - mainly farfolk ones which parallel Hinduism or Buddhism.

Farfolk pride world wide.

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Excellent work gladuos. I was thoroughly blown away by this piece and I will most certainly look forward to it's acceptance.

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This has the potential to be abused and I cannot trust people on lotc not doing so to get back at people who 'PK'd' them.

Like it's definitely neat but it just has the potential to spill **** all over the floor

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8 minutes ago, GrimReaper98 said:

This has the potential to be abused and I cannot trust people on lotc not doing so to get back at people who 'PK'd' them.

Like it's definitely neat but it just has the potential to spill **** all over the floor

 

I can't help but disagree, personally. There's a clear redline that states that the reincarnated soul retains no concrete memories of its former life. Maybe it would remember a vague feeling of being harmed or something similar, but the faces, names, and details of any memories it retains are erased. Anyone using this lore to try and get revenge would definitely be metagaming, no question about it, and should face the possibility of punishment for such.

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