[Dragaera] Denied Deathgate

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 8/7/06, Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote:
> Davdi Silverrock wrote:
>
> >On 8/6/06, rone <rone at ennui.org> wrote:
> >
> >[regarding Vlad being given to Deathgate]
> >
> >>
> >> Who would take him?
> >>
> >
> >Yet if someone did take him, who would stop them?  There don't appear
> >to be any guards at Deathgate to prevent such occurences.
> >
> >I was trying to remember where I had read the phrase "denied
> >Deathgate"; fortunately, books.google.com found it in Phoenix Guards,
> >when Aerich threatens Shaltre with that fate.  Thinking about it
> >carefully, one possible implication is that in order to enforce that
> >denial, the body would be cremated.
> >
> >
> I wonder how many people get lost without knowing the secret paths?
> Including infants.

This prompted another thought:  Perhaps the death rituals prior to
giving someone to Deathgate involve the Book of the House being read
to the corpse by a priest of the House, in the hope that the soul of
the person will somehow hear the words and learn how to navigate the
Paths of the Dead for that House.

Infants below a certain age may simply be buried rather than
delivering their souls into a perlious situation.  As with all
Dragaerans who die without being given to Deathgate, presumably they
would pass on to the Plane of Waiting Souls.