On Crypts: A Novice's Thesis

[rukio 8924]

 

Crypts: A Discussion

 

 

In the beginning, when the Father came to be, so did the Long Dark which he has warred against many times over the centuries. The mages and the undead who swear their allegiance to this Darkness are forever an enemy to those of the Faith and other lesser beings within the mortal realm. In history, it seems almost every time we flee a land, evil unlife is the cause. If not the cause, the undead play a hand in our fates, dooming us as they have doomed their own damned souls. Even when we do not flee en mass with other descendants, undead seem to find us to haunt and torment. With each iteration of Norland, and, with the dissolution of Norland, each iteration of civilization that the Nordish people form, we have had to battle the undead. We have had to incur the Long Dark’s evil and have lost countless men and women to the undead army. So why do we choose, actively, to suffer this slight?

 

Where do these undead come from? Many may ask this question, having read my previous words. If the undead are such a threat to our civilization then why have we not built up defenses to protect our cities and fortresses? The answer lies in the crypts. Our enemy does not draw from those outside, but rather from the dead, damned by the priests who deem them unfit to join the All-Father within his halls in the afterlife. Our culture and how we treat the deceased has led to this absurd counter culture where undead, in irony, thrive within our own walls after the completion of crypts.

 

Within the Nordish culture, especially within the Faith, death is accepted. A just and honorable death before you grow old and frail is the best end a Nordish man or woman can hope to achieve. An honorable Nordish man or woman can expect, should they be an avid Red Faith follower, to have their body turned to ash and their ashes to be placed within the crypts alongside their fellow deceased. You may not join the All-Father in his halls if your body has not been burned. I believe within the scripture, Thoromir I, himself, states that he cannot imagine a fate worse than growing old and unable to serve the Father’s true purpose. Within the Faith there are many rituals and ceremonies tied in with death. Such as with Edvard’s passing, there was a feast and his body was burned by a priest using the hearth’s fire, while his killer’s body was left to rot. This is how the Long Dark’s servants grow their army.  The undead cannot, to the knowledge I’ve ascertained from my readings, revive from ash, as the Father has laid claim to their soul once they have burned. Those cast out by the Priests, however, with their intact bodies (as was the case with Vladmyr Rosik), are perfect for the Long Dark’s agents to grasp and revive into an unholy half life. This is why I believe crypts are a damned, cursed slight against the Nordish people and our religion. 

 

While the crypts are part of our history, so too is the Long Dark. We do not encourage other aspects that seem to be inspired by the darkness, so why do we continue to use crypts? Throughout the history of our people we have seen countless accords of dead rising in the crypts and Purifiers, as well as the normal warriors, having to fight them back, to various degrees of success. I am unsure of how those who control the undead had come to inhabit the crypts. Perhaps the Long Dark’s power is further reaching than we had previously believed. Yet it is undeniable that the crypts are a promise of undead attacks and many battles for our people. With all of this said and all of this done...

 

Priests of the Faith, perhaps you can guide me to further insight on this matter. I, however, cannot gleam an understanding into why they are necessary, given the guarantee of evil that comes alongside them.

 

-Rosalia

 

 

[drfate786 1690]

Alifer Amice begins writing a response to the Novice.