septem

[nos_servabit]

In Egyptian times, they used to believe that when a person died, it was not considered the end. Instead, it was the beginning of an everlasting afterlife.

[The camera shows Jacob sitting in his cabin, his unfinished blue and white tapestry hanging in front of him on a loom as he works on it deftly, not even stopping while he speaks. It's hard to see, but it's clear that the tapestry so far has some Egyptian influences as well- black figures can be seen along with several hieroglyphs on it.]

[Jacob himself isn't smiling, though. In fact, he looks incredibly serious- the murder that happened a few days ago was not something he was taking very lightly. So he continues working on his tapestry, a very focused look in his gaze.]

It was a rebirth, really. But even then, when someone died, their soul, or their ka, didn't just immediately get the lush afterlife that they wanted. They had to go through many perilous obstacles, such as creatures that would devour them or kill them if they didn't recite the proper words. Because the fact was that even in the afterlife, you could die. And death was permanent if that ever occurred. There would be no afterlife from the afterlife.

[A pause as he starts on the next row of the tapestry, his mouth still set in a slight frown.]

But the hardest part of the road to the afterlife was the Weighing of the Heart. For after you defeated all the creatures, your soul would be brought before the goddess of justice, Ma'at, and you would tell her that you had not committed any sins. Then your heart would be taken and weighed against a feather. If the scales balanced, you would be brought to the lush lands of the afterlife and live there happily for the rest of your life.

If it didn't balance...then a terrible creature known as Ammit, the Destroyer, would eat your heart whole, and your journey would come to a quick end.

[There's a moment of silence, and he finally turns to the camera, bright blue eyes forever ancient and piercing.]

Even if death here isn't permanent...it does make you think about where the people from other worlds go when they die. Do they go to a sort of afterlife before being revived? Or is there something more to it? Does the place itself keep us alive and resurrects us because it needs us? And...why does it only apply to the ones that have been brought here against their will?

So far, when the natives die...they stay dead. There is no rebirth for them.

[A slight sigh.]

What, exactly, has death become here?


[ooc: Don't forget to fill out Jacob's permission post if you haven't done so already! Thank you. :)]

Comments

[messianic]

..Death is still death, I think.

Even if they do come back here.

[......afterlife, huh?

It's a bittersweet thought.]

But that's a very interesting belief the ancient Egyptians had.

[nos_servabit]

Death is always going to be death. The question is, why isn't it permanent?

[A small nod.]

Their view of death was very unique. They saw it in a very positive light- there's a reason why they spent so much time on the rituals surrounding a person's death, after all.

[420]

... Huh.

[Don't mind him, just give him a moment. He's trying to parse all that information, and the thing is, he's heard it before. In some ways. Like an odd echo of the stuff he believes.]

[nos_servabit]

Yes, Gamzee?

[He smiles slightly, waiting patiently for the troll to finally sort it all out.]

[macabre]

In Egyptian mythology, the star representing the afterlife his five points.

[ a pause ] When someone faces death in this city, they disappear for five days. Their body rots until the fourth when they disappear completely and revive on the fifth day. A countdown, really. One... two... three... four... five.

Perhaps totally unrelated but it came to mind as I watched your post, Jacob.

[nos_servabit]

Hmmm. That's an interesting point you make. Yes, I've read about that star, and the number of days is certainly the same...

[A slight smile.] You know Egyptian mythology, do you, Pharos?

[limitless_land]

[Well, that's certainly comforting for someone like him. Regardless...]

...Death is still death. Even back in my world, it's the same- some even try to cheat it. Though, our returning when they can't... It's been bothering me, too.

[nos_servabit]

Cheating death is not such a wise decision. You often have to pay a price for it.

[Believe him, he knows.]

But yes...what sort of forces are in place to keep us resurrecting like this, over and over? Is there even a limit, perhaps?

Video

[not_heavens_adam]

For some...this is the afterlife. [Not him, but he had some friends...]

And...death...death is still as it was. I think the real question I have is what is life? Sometimes, the only reason people live the way they do is because they know they only have one shot at it.

Here...well...life feels like a skipping record to me. Are any of you even aging? And if you are...is it possible you would grow old here and then die and then come back old no matter what?

Video

[nos_servabit]

So I've heard.

You raise a good point, Johnny. It might be different for people like you or me in terms of dying of old age, but nobody has been here long enough to see if they come back after such a death like that.

Perhaps it keeps us all immortal. Or maybe it will give us the death we need when the time comes. Who knows?

[angelphones]

I think it might have to do with how we were brought here. We're not from this world, so maybe we don't fit with all of its rules.

[nos_servabit]

Perhaps. That's a good point. Maybe things have been changed to suit us and our presence here.

[bakegarasu]

Death here is cheap. That's what it's become. But some people are still scared of it.

[nos_servabit]

Why shouldn't they? Death is still death, no matter how quick it is.

video

[f8tal]

Humans had a lot of weird beliefs.

video

[nos_servabit]

I guess you could say that. But during the time, they saw that as the absolute truth. They didn't see it as weird- it was their life.

[thewilltolive]

Do you...think something like that is what really happens? That no matter what--or how you died, you have to go through trials like that? [ It doesn't really seem fair, in his mind. ]

But...I think that no matter how often you come back, death is still death. It hurts whoever dies, and those who care about them. We come back, sure, but that death will stay with us forever.

[nos_servabit]

Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn't know what happens in the afterlife, considering I've never died, but...it seems that in most cultures, your sins and such are judged after you die. You don't always have to fight literal monsters, in some religions, but you have to fight your own monsters no matter what.

[A nod.] Yes, and that's another point that I am curious about. Remembering your own death. It seems odd that we would, considering we should be forgetting the instances of our death, but here, it's merely as if we've taken off the needle from the record and set it down again in the same place. Nothing really changes.

[closedcircuit]

Death is what it always been.

It could be that we cannot die permanently here because our fates are bound to whatever worlds we come from, and what happens here doesn't affect that.

Therefore the afterlife hasn't changed at all, although I would imagine that our actions here can still affect the balance of our sins.

[nos_servabit]

That's an interesting point of view. Maybe we are tied so intricately with fates of the world we came from that it would be impossible to kill us except killing the world itself. Like exterminating the root to get rid of the plant, not cutting off its leaves.

But, bearing in mind that people do not remember this place when they return, maybe whatever we do here will not count? If here is an afterlife that judges us on our sins, I mean.

[fighting4afuture]

...that doesn't sound pleasant.

[Egyptian history, what's that?]

I don't know exactly what the afterlife is like, in my world...but it's not like that.

[nos_servabit]

It isn't, but as long as you had the right spells to ward off the monsters and a clean heart, then you could progress safely into the afterlife.

[A slight smile.]

Does anyone know what the afterlife is like, truly? It's not like anyone has come back from the dead to tell us.

[twiceinhabited]

I believe it's because we're still connected to our world's rules of life. We're not meant to die here.

[Despite the revivals for the non-natives, Amane still think death is still serious.

The city's not truly safe, despite their best efforts.]

[nos_servabit]

That is a good point. If you place people in an environment that abides by different rules, then things might change completely with what they perceive to be normal.

[kissedgoldfrog]

I'm not sure how the rules apply here. I know of other realms that don't have the same logic.

[nos_servabit]

Really? What sort of realms are those?

voice

[bufudine]

[What the heck is Egyptian? However, Serph knows the natives don't stay dead; they return like foreigners do, after five days. He's killed enough of them to know, after all. People don't keep track of natives the same way they monitor foreigners...

But nevermind that.]

We rise to the clouds when we die, and fall with the rain when we are reborn.

[A pause.]

How can a heart balance a feather? They are far heavier.

voice

[nos_servabit]

That's very poetic. Do you sincerely believe that, or is it something you're repeating?

[He smiles.]

First, it's a special feather that is worn by the goddess of truth and justice, Ma'at. And second, it's not a literal heart it's being weighed against. So, in that realm, a feather and a heart can balance one another.

[ninthserenade]

...Back home in Atlantica if someone died they supposedly turned into seafoam. It'd kinda explain why no one really found my body back home. I don't really know what happens there though. It's just something my parents--the ones who took me in after my real dad sent me to live in Atlantica to keep me safe told me. Now that I know what went on with the Egyptian dudes, I kinda like the whole seafoam thing more.

_{[Then he frowns slightly.]}

I think death is still kind of a huge kick to the face here. I'll never really get used to it even when people come back, but I'm really scared that someday, someone's gonna die and just... Y'know. Never come back at all.

[nos_servabit]

There was a very famous story about a little mermaid who turned into seafoam at the end when she died. In a way, it's a very beautiful picture- she was returning to the very sea she was born and grew up in.

[He nods.] That's understandable. We don't know if there is a limit, after all, and it's not like the fear of death is gone completely. It's still quite shocking when it occurs.

video;

[life_binder]

[ Despite having flipped on the video feed, she's silent for a moment in quiet contemplation. ]

What, indeed. Death with no meaning... I cannot say that it does not unsettle me deeply. To change the meaning of death is to change the meaning of life, as well.

video;

[nos_servabit]

[A nod.]

That is certainly true. Once you upset the balance of something like death, you in turn affect life, since life and death are but two sides of a coin.

[crackpotcrocker]

Death isn't permanent here?!

...Well, I've always found myself a dust to dust person, yes.

Besides the fact this place is toying with people it brought here?

[nos_servabit]

No, it isn't.

And the dust to dust idea is very common- there's something very poetic, I think, about returning to the origin we came from in the end.

Yes, it is. You know of the curses, don't you?

[VIDEO]

[bethehugejerk]

I don't give a shit about your earth mythology or any other religious crap about whatever supposedly happens when you die the regular way. Spirits exist because Aradia heard the voices of the dead, but that's something I have evidence for. I don't know what happens otherwise, and here there isn't anything if we die.

But death here...

[He takes on a complicated expression, eyebrows drawing together as he looks down, not really at the screen.]

It's frustrating and pointless.

[VIDEO]

[nos_servabit]

I know spirits exist. But no one knows what happens to those who do not remain here as ghosts and move on.

[He watches Karkat's face, narrowing his eyes in slight concern when he sees that expression.]

So, you'd think it'd be better if you just didn't die at all, don't you?