What do Gods get out of providing a afterlife?
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I know, but I just felt like stretching things a bit. The demons seem to be devoid of most of these sins, and wrath is typically acquired from being ripped from their body and forced to submit to the will of a wizard that uses them as a tool and punishes them if they resist.
They indulge so rarely in the activities needed for the other sins that in comparison to humans they might be on the less sinful side. The lack of sleep and dreams does lead them to try to do something as seen by their ever shifting city.
The demons do posses some similarities to humans, but their like humans that were distorted. I am curious as to how the humans can compare to the demons. The demons have eternity to polish their skill, and yet are still not capable of standing up to humans in some instances despite the fact that they should grow over time, while humans will die at the age of 200 if they are really good tops.
I will point you to Tom’s adaptations so far
Envy: Seems to envy those who aren’t in mortal peril.
Greed: He doesn’t have much…yet
Gluttony: Hasn’t messed with this much as he doesn’t need to eat, but appreciates that he now eating most things without dying.
Lust: Still a virgin and not looking yet, but he has displayed pride in his new manhood or his third leg as he first called it.
Pride: He’s young and this will grow with time and experience.
Sloth: He got bored of his cave within a week and seems to enjoy practice, as it gives him something to do, increases his odds of survival, and he only sleeps when he has to.
Wrath: Fits of rage/anger/destruction, he has adapted to his new found lack of conscience with surprising gusto and seems to enjoy his power. He dwells on it from time to time,but has viewed it as a non-issue.
It seems we aren’t capable of balance and satisfaction. We don’t seem to get content. Sad thing really. I had read a lot of stuff about this but the ideal just seems imposible to achieve.
I get why gods want worshipers, that’s a lot of power send there way. I get why they say that they provide the various heavens – to attract the worshipers and cement their devotion.
Why actually do it though? Why not simply discard, eat, or use the souls to power some kind of monstrous furnace to expand their power? What do they get out of it?
If you think about it, there seems to only be downsides to it. First IIRC it was implied in another thread that the souls are provided mana bodies in a vaguely similar process to demon making. While I’m sure each one is no problem for any deity worth the name, that would start to add up to a lot of power quite quick, especially for the more popular deities. Next you would have to provide living space – that means a expanding plane of existence, which I imagine isn’t cheap to maintain much less expand even by divine standards. Then you have to keep a eye on your worshipers provide them with some purpose or activity or your going to end up with a awful lot of bored immortals, if that isn’t a recipe for a knife in the back I don’t know what is. While no one being would be a problem, even a god would have to worry that one of the multitudes would somehow figure out a way to overthrow him.
With all the downsides why wouldn’t a god just say that he was going to take care of your afterlife and quietly chuck all the souls into the divine garbage disposal?
It seems they must get some advantage by keeping all them around, but what?
Heh heh…
You are, of course, exploring a big chunk of what’s happening in Book II!!!!! :-$
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The headaches you describe are a big problem for some down on their luck gods, and we’ll see how and why they deal with these issues as they prepare to enter the battle….(actually they are already in the battle, having suffered huge casualties in Book I–consequently expending lots of mana on their followers)
Suffice to say, there are multiple factions/groups of mortals, demons and pantheons as the curtain continues to rise….
[quote=Anskier;289]
It seems they must get some advantage by keeping all them around, but what?[/quote]My first guess would be, they get an Army.
Total Bingo on the army…but not usually a first priority…
Yes, reprocessed souls are much more likely to continue in the faith than “new souls” thus you send them back, when they are ready and they are more reliable and more useful worshippers. ‘Old Souls’ tend to advance more quickly than ‘new souls’ and thus start raking in more mana sooner.
However, there are also a couple other reasons that tie out to another discussion in these forums….but I’m not at liberty to disclose that yet.
You know, I’ve got this contract with the author and if I “leak” information I have to pay a penalty.
In regards to the whole army thing, what does the current population of astlan look like on a global scale, about how many demons are their, and what happens to other races when they die?
The Sidhe are returned to nature, and what happens to beings like what are summoned by necromancers? What happens to demons is vague and i have no idea how having one’s soul tampered with fits in with the world.
Also since Tom can follow a chain could he view a person’s afterlife based upon their belief? Could he become a god among demons by allowing them to reverse summon themselves to their masters while they are asleep, vulnerable and without protection?
Well, I think one big thing to keep in mind, the demons in the Abyss tend to pay more attention to Astlan because it’s about the biggest pain in their butts…however, it’s not the only mortal plane they have to deal with.
Not all demons in the abyss were summoned by Astlanian wizards, some (many) were summoned by and enslaved to masters in other worlds beside Astlan.
So for example, one might ask, why aren’t more higher ups involved with this deal? Simple answer, because there are a very finite number demon princes, but quite a few ArchDemons and most are busy with stuff on other planes.
There is basically only one Abyss for a huge number of “planes of men” same with the realms of gods.
yes, every mortal on every plane thinks they and their world is the center of the universe…but really…they aren’t.
The other races have their gods and they all have contracts to deal with them. The Sidhe are a bit more of an exception than most, as you point out. However there are Sidhe gods and some, presumably, do after life contracts or other deals. I personally don’t know.
As to the last…well…not in book 2…. 🙂
Whaaa! The books story world is way way big. The author could get easily lost with everything demanding attention. Hope the story don’t become so boringly and confusingly complex that my mind go numb and exhausted with all like many books that I have read. Please don’t make that happen!
By the way how many planes are there, especially the ones that have enslaved and use demons?
Yes…it’s huge and complex.
The story I am telling him is pretty straightforward though. I’m trying to keep him from getting distracted. He’s like a kid in a candy story sometimes.
One goal is that he’ll do some additional stories, or short stories, and that eventually others will want to write in the world as well.
A big reason for the encyclopedias (which are also time consuming) is so that others have the information necessary to tell their own tales.
Assuming they can get their hands on a crystal ball or a demon who’s been there to dictate to them.
I can guarantee you that anyone who manages to summon Antfalken will get enough tales to write for a hundred plus years.
As to how many planes…well I don’t know, but let me remind you that every plane actually has multiple worlds/planets stars.
That’s why it’s hard for demons to count. Sometimes you might get summoned to the same plane, but a completely different world, say on the other side of the galaxy, or the other side of the universe in a galaxy far far away…I remember when I was a youth, a long long time ago, working with this really great animage named Yoda…
But that’s another story…
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