The veils albicant and mortiferrous
Sep. 19th, 2007 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackThe Veil Albicant
When you die, you are but a hair's breadth from this world. All about you is a drifting white mist, constantly suggesting the shapes of this world, and if your body is resuscitated you may yet return.
This is the veil albicant. This world is like a single point in the vast scapes of death, and the veil albicant the border. Whichever way you go from there will take you deeper into death.
Thoughts
If I did use this as the background to the game plot, it'd still be set in the world and the veil albicant, but I feel it's important to know this sort of thing.
I really enjoy making this sort of thing up.
I made no deliberate homages, but I can see references to Garth Nix's Abhorsen, Grim Fandango, and Earthsea. Is there anything else?
Notice that if someone's dying/recently dead, you can't save them by bringing them back, you need to do that as well if they're physically recovered but their soul is trapped or lost.
Are there any sorts of undead I missed? Did I pick the best names? For that matter, do you think the pseudo-heraldic names of the veils was the right way to go
When you die, you are but a hair's breadth from this world. All about you is a drifting white mist, constantly suggesting the shapes of this world, and if your body is resuscitated you may yet return.
This is the veil albicant. This world is like a single point in the vast scapes of death, and the veil albicant the border. Whichever way you go from there will take you deeper into death.
The veil albicant is called the first veil, but the other veils are names magicians have applied to areas of death, and come in no order, and aren't clearly defined or understood. There is only one constant: you cannot come back.
Efforts of will can hold you in a veil, or bring you a little closer to life, but in all, everyone drifts further out. You drift into veils which suit your nature, and you likewise shape death as you drift through it.
If a departed soul is close enough to life or you can reach far enough into death, it is still possible to commune with it. A great enough magician or great enough soul passing through death can leave an enduring mark on a vast swathe of death -- these are called veils.
The Veil Écolumbine and Veil Celeste
The largest coherent veil known is the veil écolumbine, a continuation of the veil albicant, but growing cleaner, more beautiful, more radiant, and more peaceful. The veil celeste describes the further reaches beyond the veil écolumbine with which no magician has ever had direct contact.
The veil écolumbine is shaped by the wake of the passage into death ten thousand years ago of the magician Gabriel. The veil celeste is supposedly the wake of an even more ancient and greater magician, Yahweh, though it is unclear if Yahweh existed and was a human magician, or the spirit of something greater, or if the veil celeste really is formed from the influence of one great soul.
The church regards the veil celeste as heaven. Church magicians have long-standing alliances with notable souls in the near veil écolumbine, and second-hand reports from some souls deeper. Souls from the veil celeste or veil écolumbine who return from deeper into death to the veils écolumbine or albicant (or even to the world) manifest like the shining substance of the veil écolumbine, and are called angels.
The Veils Glaucous
This is a collective term used to describe areas of death which have a defined character, but are remote from christian magicians' experiences.
Some recede so quickly into death they are almost completely inimical to exploration, and little is known. Others are deep and wide, with a semi-regular measure of communication between souls and between souls and the world. Some of these are considered Gods in polytheistic religions.
The Veil Ruginius
Similar to the accessible veils glaucous, but a more common refuge for christian souls. Characterised by emotion, and rust-red scenery acquiring its own solidity independent from that of the world. Knowledge terminates at the veil aqueous, a vast dark ocean over which souls cross but don't return.
The veil beyond the ocean is normally called only that, it inspires tales of hell. Most christians and christian magicians reject the idea of a place of torment, though church policy still officially endorses it. They say it's little influenced by any ancient magicians, but rather formed by the souls passing through it now -- though some see this optimistically, and some as an inevitable disaster, tantamount to hell as described.
The veil morteferrous
The veil morteferrous is not a part of death, it describes souls who have found a way back into the world from the veil albicant. In christian areas, these are generally souls on the edge of the veil ruginius, and unfortunate in one way or another, either distraught and unable to let go of life, or scared of going on into the veil ruginius, or preying on others. They fade over time unless they have the support of other souls.
A phantom or ghost is a sous recently passed into the veil albicant, still able to make itself felt in the world. They normally stay near the place of death, often trying to communicate or protect their old family, but fade away deeper into death quickly. If they manifest they appear like segments of the veil albicant, transparent white mist.
If they don't move on deeper into death, they eventually fade away, losing personality and becoming a poltergeist, wight, or "guardian angel".
A goule or ghoul is a soul which animates a body to provide itself with a body in the world. The soul is always in conflict with the body, and rarely able to express any volition. When it decays entirely, it forms a mindless zombie. The zombie should be destroyed (with fire) to free the soul.
A wampyre is like a goule, a soul who dies but is able to animate their own body from beyond death, generally taught by an older wampyre. They need the support of other souls to remain in life, and as they have little presence in the veil albicant, generally acquire them by force by killing living souls to free them from their bodies and feast on them.
A liche is a great magician who binds his soul to an object to retain it in the world, or one of the near veils. A liche can retain more of the aspects of life than the lesser undead, and their dependence on other souls is more subtle, often as much social and political as physical.
Becoming a liche is always a conscious choice, and isn't always as futile as other aspects of the veil morteferrous -- Solomon was reputed to have bound his soul into a ring, and ruled long after his natural death, before choosing to throw it into the ocean and move on into the veil écolumbine. But many liches are or become corrupt, and with relatively free access to the world and several veils, are very dangerous to both living and dead souls.
Some morteferrous souls fall somewhere between poltergeists and weights, as they animate dead matter as a body. There are no fixed rules to describe them and any number of different names might apply without great theological accuracy. Examples which have been known include:
* Animating a preprepared artificial body, with the connivance from this side of the veil. Either as an ill-conceived attempt to bypass death, or a temporary measure to get information or use from a recently departed soul.
* Animating a chance formation bearing some resemblance to the individual body, often a phantom perceived as manifesting through a picture, bust, animal, voice on the wind, etc.
* Attached to an object beloved in life, often carried with a relative or friend, and apparently bestowing minor luck and blessings.
* Bound into a bottle, ring, or object by a living magician to make a talisman with a particular use, as long as the soul can be induced to remain.
* Forming a body from particles, dust, dirt, leaves, insects, etc. Generally an unpleasant experience for all concerned, and limited in scope, but can be one of the most flexible and dangerous sorts of undead to encounter in that time. Sometimes called a wraith or mordicant, but has universal name.
Avatars is a general way to describe other souls in the veil morteferrous, often some sort of collaboration between a passed on soul and a still living one. Some thinkers and philosopher-magicians say most of these sorts of undead represent a more healthy relationship than most of the christian undead, as christian souls tend to move on if possible, but it's not known to be generally true.
Precise mechanisms and classifications of any sort of avatar are not known. They can reincarnate in some sense, but it's not known if this is common. Some powerful souls in the veils glaucous can manifest corporeally in the world without any of the sorts of anchor known. Sometimes a grown living soul can become a representative of a passed soul it has a close relationship with, but the details aren't known, nor if this may describe the relationship rare in christian souls held between Yahweh and Gabriel and Gabriel and Jesu.
There is no known way for a dead soul to acquire an adult, living body.
Efforts of will can hold you in a veil, or bring you a little closer to life, but in all, everyone drifts further out. You drift into veils which suit your nature, and you likewise shape death as you drift through it.
If a departed soul is close enough to life or you can reach far enough into death, it is still possible to commune with it. A great enough magician or great enough soul passing through death can leave an enduring mark on a vast swathe of death -- these are called veils.
The Veil Écolumbine and Veil Celeste
The largest coherent veil known is the veil écolumbine, a continuation of the veil albicant, but growing cleaner, more beautiful, more radiant, and more peaceful. The veil celeste describes the further reaches beyond the veil écolumbine with which no magician has ever had direct contact.
The veil écolumbine is shaped by the wake of the passage into death ten thousand years ago of the magician Gabriel. The veil celeste is supposedly the wake of an even more ancient and greater magician, Yahweh, though it is unclear if Yahweh existed and was a human magician, or the spirit of something greater, or if the veil celeste really is formed from the influence of one great soul.
The church regards the veil celeste as heaven. Church magicians have long-standing alliances with notable souls in the near veil écolumbine, and second-hand reports from some souls deeper. Souls from the veil celeste or veil écolumbine who return from deeper into death to the veils écolumbine or albicant (or even to the world) manifest like the shining substance of the veil écolumbine, and are called angels.
The Veils Glaucous
This is a collective term used to describe areas of death which have a defined character, but are remote from christian magicians' experiences.
Some recede so quickly into death they are almost completely inimical to exploration, and little is known. Others are deep and wide, with a semi-regular measure of communication between souls and between souls and the world. Some of these are considered Gods in polytheistic religions.
The Veil Ruginius
Similar to the accessible veils glaucous, but a more common refuge for christian souls. Characterised by emotion, and rust-red scenery acquiring its own solidity independent from that of the world. Knowledge terminates at the veil aqueous, a vast dark ocean over which souls cross but don't return.
The veil beyond the ocean is normally called only that, it inspires tales of hell. Most christians and christian magicians reject the idea of a place of torment, though church policy still officially endorses it. They say it's little influenced by any ancient magicians, but rather formed by the souls passing through it now -- though some see this optimistically, and some as an inevitable disaster, tantamount to hell as described.
The veil morteferrous
The veil morteferrous is not a part of death, it describes souls who have found a way back into the world from the veil albicant. In christian areas, these are generally souls on the edge of the veil ruginius, and unfortunate in one way or another, either distraught and unable to let go of life, or scared of going on into the veil ruginius, or preying on others. They fade over time unless they have the support of other souls.
A phantom or ghost is a sous recently passed into the veil albicant, still able to make itself felt in the world. They normally stay near the place of death, often trying to communicate or protect their old family, but fade away deeper into death quickly. If they manifest they appear like segments of the veil albicant, transparent white mist.
If they don't move on deeper into death, they eventually fade away, losing personality and becoming a poltergeist, wight, or "guardian angel".
A goule or ghoul is a soul which animates a body to provide itself with a body in the world. The soul is always in conflict with the body, and rarely able to express any volition. When it decays entirely, it forms a mindless zombie. The zombie should be destroyed (with fire) to free the soul.
A wampyre is like a goule, a soul who dies but is able to animate their own body from beyond death, generally taught by an older wampyre. They need the support of other souls to remain in life, and as they have little presence in the veil albicant, generally acquire them by force by killing living souls to free them from their bodies and feast on them.
A liche is a great magician who binds his soul to an object to retain it in the world, or one of the near veils. A liche can retain more of the aspects of life than the lesser undead, and their dependence on other souls is more subtle, often as much social and political as physical.
Becoming a liche is always a conscious choice, and isn't always as futile as other aspects of the veil morteferrous -- Solomon was reputed to have bound his soul into a ring, and ruled long after his natural death, before choosing to throw it into the ocean and move on into the veil écolumbine. But many liches are or become corrupt, and with relatively free access to the world and several veils, are very dangerous to both living and dead souls.
Some morteferrous souls fall somewhere between poltergeists and weights, as they animate dead matter as a body. There are no fixed rules to describe them and any number of different names might apply without great theological accuracy. Examples which have been known include:
* Animating a preprepared artificial body, with the connivance from this side of the veil. Either as an ill-conceived attempt to bypass death, or a temporary measure to get information or use from a recently departed soul.
* Animating a chance formation bearing some resemblance to the individual body, often a phantom perceived as manifesting through a picture, bust, animal, voice on the wind, etc.
* Attached to an object beloved in life, often carried with a relative or friend, and apparently bestowing minor luck and blessings.
* Bound into a bottle, ring, or object by a living magician to make a talisman with a particular use, as long as the soul can be induced to remain.
* Forming a body from particles, dust, dirt, leaves, insects, etc. Generally an unpleasant experience for all concerned, and limited in scope, but can be one of the most flexible and dangerous sorts of undead to encounter in that time. Sometimes called a wraith or mordicant, but has universal name.
Avatars is a general way to describe other souls in the veil morteferrous, often some sort of collaboration between a passed on soul and a still living one. Some thinkers and philosopher-magicians say most of these sorts of undead represent a more healthy relationship than most of the christian undead, as christian souls tend to move on if possible, but it's not known to be generally true.
Precise mechanisms and classifications of any sort of avatar are not known. They can reincarnate in some sense, but it's not known if this is common. Some powerful souls in the veils glaucous can manifest corporeally in the world without any of the sorts of anchor known. Sometimes a grown living soul can become a representative of a passed soul it has a close relationship with, but the details aren't known, nor if this may describe the relationship rare in christian souls held between Yahweh and Gabriel and Gabriel and Jesu.
There is no known way for a dead soul to acquire an adult, living body.
Thoughts
If I did use this as the background to the game plot, it'd still be set in the world and the veil albicant, but I feel it's important to know this sort of thing.
I really enjoy making this sort of thing up.
I made no deliberate homages, but I can see references to Garth Nix's Abhorsen, Grim Fandango, and Earthsea. Is there anything else?
Notice that if someone's dying/recently dead, you can't save them by bringing them back, you need to do that as well if they're physically recovered but their soul is trapped or lost.
Are there any sorts of undead I missed? Did I pick the best names? For that matter, do you think the pseudo-heraldic names of the veils was the right way to go
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 02:52 pm (UTC)(S)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 05:01 pm (UTC)Though saying that makes me realise they must be imperfect because I don't have a clear idea of the history, so can't have a clear idea of the etymology. So they're probably ok for my purposes, but can't be really great (and I feel obliged to make an effort, if I expect people in films putting big maths equations on blackboards to get the details right).
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 05:55 pm (UTC)P.P.S. I don't suppose I ever complained about not having a zombie/vampire icon? Oh wait. Now I have a plan that involves icons and slash. If only there were some famous *sexy* zombies!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 09:58 pm (UTC)PPS. LOL. Aren't zombies kind of decaying? I don't know if they do sexy...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 09:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 09:34 am (UTC)I have to say, that doesn't sound like a great recommendation for a rich text editing feature!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 09:50 am (UTC)* It eats right-click for an copy/paste context menu, so you can't eliminate Firefox spelling red lines
* When you switch back, it's eaten all your white space
* Apparently, I didn't know this one before, it does something weird with formatting.
Maybe those are fixable, I normally don't bother. (Hmmm, is there an html rich text editing plugin for firefox?)