[Dragaera] Vlad and the Undead

[Scott Schultz]

>  It's hard to imagine that Kieron and Co. managed to get themselves dumped 
> off from all the way across the Empire - how did their souls survive? 
> What's the fate
> of drowned sailors?  Teckla?

About this particular point - There are sorcerous spells that preserve the 
body and soul together for the trip to Deathsgate. Paarfi mentions this 
specifically in regards to Khaavren and Pel's trip with Aerich and Tazendra 
to Deathsgate. Pel (I think it was Pel) insisted that despite the 
new-fangled teleportation technology,  Aerich would have wanted it done the 
traditional way. They prepared Aerich and Tazendra and spent a year 
traveling to Deathsgate, where they performed the rites, said their goodbyes 
to their friends, and teleported home.

Assuming that Kieron needed to be taken to Deathsgate in order to make it 
to, and then through, The Paths of the Dead (I guess he must have been the 
beta tester!) it's no great stretch that the Gods communicated the process 
to the early shamen the same way that they communicated with Zerika the 
First about the method to create the Orb.

Drowned sailors and Teckla would just go to the Plane of Waiting Souls, 
barring divine intervention or some sort of extraordinary preparations. 
Teckla, in particular, don't have any kind of actual House organization. 
That's why they abdicate most of their House duties to one of the other 
Houses to act as their proxy during most administrations. It might be that 
some prominent Teckla family has acquired the knowledge of how to navigate 
the Paths and preserved it in a fashion similar to Morrolan's family, but it 
must be a rare thing.

One of the interesting side effects of plentiful and cheap teleportation is 
that the trip to Deathsgate is now within the financial reach of ambitious 
Teckla families that might otherwise have been unable to afford the 
preparations and the time to make the trip the old way. The last couple of 
centuries might have resulted in something of an influx of peasantry into 
the Halls of Judgement (whether as guests or servants/purple robes).