Temple Monks and Resurrection

[argonian 12845]

Temple Monks and Resurrection

 

“Could YOUR husband be undead?!”

 

Dear Faithful, there are some among you who would have us believe that the undead outnumber the living a thousandfold, walk among the living looking and behaving totally like the rest of us, and plotting our demise through… totally regular and benign behaviour. I, of course, speak of the irregular and often politically-charged application of the term ‘undead’ to those resurrected by the Cloud Temple monks. 

 

The most common and famous examples are, as I said, those with political ramifications. When Peter III’s brains graced Godric’s boot, and the Emperor returned to Helena as normal shortly thereafter, the Nordish declared Peter III an undead demon raised by foul necromancy. The Orenian camp simply pretended nothing had ever happened at all. More recently, when rangers cut down Owyn III outside the Basilica in Providence, the very men who attempted his murder proclaimed him undead. Myself and my colleagues in the Church? We declined to comment. 

 

But those are only the most famous and controversial examples. Every day a soldier awkwardly lines up in training formation, after appearing to have been cut down in a prior skirmish, with not a word spoken as to how he lived or why he arrived from the Cloud Temple’s direction. Every day another person who clearly walks, talks, and quacks like a living person is declared undead, because someone is certain they saw them die.

 

But why this charade? Why this farce? Why do we pretend that the Cloud Temple Monks don’t exist and anyone who appeared to have died must be undead, when it is convenient, and similarly just ignore that appearance of death when such an implication would be inconvenient? Why not just acknowledge the truth in both cases? The person was clearly resurrected by the Temple Monks.

 

“But!”, I hear you say, “They’re still undead if the Monks resurrected them!”. The fact that you almost certainly, hypocritically, don’t apply this to certain individuals you know aside--this is simply not the case. Undead are easy to recognise. They’re invariably either spectral, skeletal, rotting, or in some otherwise unnatural body. Their personalities are completely different to how they were while they were living, generally much more malicious. They were raised by a necromancer for the purpose of doing that dark mage’s iniquitous work. When your local guardsman, or indeed Emperor or Pontiff, waltz along back from the Cloud Temple, do they fit any of these criteria? No. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Similarly, if it looks like a living man, swims like a living man, and quacks like a living man, … it’s a living man. 

 

Well then, what’s the fundamental difference, between necromancy and Cloud Temple resurrection? I believe, as evidenced by the fact that the monks can restore someone’s body and personality as it was, that the monks revive a soul before it has been judged, whereas necromancers raise damned souls from the Void. Of course, there’s still the objection that resurrection by the monks is immoral, as it delays or stops one’s rightful judgement, which is why Canon Law “forbids” priests from “taking advantage” of it(as if they have a choice; personally, I doubt this). However, I don’t believe anyone or anything can prevent God casting judgement on a soul. God judges infallibly, and with perfect justice. To think that His decision could be altered by delaying His judgement until that soul has been revived and had a chance to repent or sin some more, is to say that God’s judgement could be changed, and that therefore it would have been wrong if not for that magical intervention. However God’s judgement cannot be wrong, and so no soul can be revived pre-judgement unless He wills it so. 

 

So then, I say something controversial. Something perhaps I’ll be condemned for. But I believe the Cloud Temple monks are performing God’s will. Think about it. Only they, and they alone, can perform this magic. A magic they have been performing since time immemorial. When the Aengul Availer told Aegis the story of Creation and of the Four Brothers in the Year 84 Anno Orenii, he told it at the Cloud Temple. Therefore, I do not believe the Temple Monks are malicious necromancers. Rather they are humble monks performing a necessary role in the natural order. Sometimes when someone dies, the Lord God decrees it is not yet their time, and He sends them back to the world, where the monks revive them. So I believe, at least. Should the Church condemn this work, so be it. I'll retract my words if so ordered.

 

Now, as a final thought and disclaimer, this does NOT mean you should be confident that the monks will save you from your fate. To think that when you die that it is not your time, and that God will send you back, is arrogant and means you care more for the world than for God’s justice. Any good Canonist should long for the Skies, and if you long for the world instead, God will punish you for this. Indeed, some theologians have mused that, if one holds the belief they will be revived after death, God will punish them by decreeing their death be a “permanent-kill”, as Akritian scholars have put it. Therefore, take these words not for the sake of confidence that you shall live nine lives like a cat, but as reason to hold your tongue before you accuse your kinsmen of being “undead risen from the bowels of the Void”, or what have you.

 

- Ailred Barclay.

 

Spoiler

((if you people are gonna go around screeching other people are undead cuz u saw them get ganked once, at least be consistent and IRPly realistic and do it when it happens to your friends too. otherwise acknowledge that da monks r a thing

 

cheers))

 

[Valannor 6349]

Tarathiel Elreden would sign the lorraine, nodding in agreement with such a missive! 

 

"GOD bless Ailred Barclay, who is so wise in the ways of this world. Truly one of the best men of the cloth that I've ever known, for he does not accuse me of vile wytchcraft for making his drinks taste good!"

 

Spoiler

Very based post, James. +1 

 

If I get accused of witchcraft for housemagery again I'm becoming an old crone in the woods who curses people with tea.

 

[Roguechaotic 263]

Aeonn would take a deep breath from his cigar before blowing the ploom of smoke as he read the page over "Undead er not, dont matter much to me as long as they dont go killin people"