Uses and Costumes of Fantastic Lands: Part 1

 Uses and Costumes of Fantastic Lands

From Sarnakand The Magnificent’s Travel Book

In the realm of Vex, the dead have no right upon their corpses. Well, this should be obvious -you can no more use your body after death, after all- but what I mean is that you don’t get to decide what will become of your mortal shell when you die. Neither get your relatives. This is because Vexan priests and governors believe that you are not your body’s owner. You didn’t choose it or make it for yourself, did you? The gods gave you that body, or better they lent it to you. When you die, it returns to the real owners.

So members of the clergy enter the house merely hours after the event, without even giving spouses and children the time to finish mourning. The body is confiscated and animated as a servant to help constructing pyramids for the Ever Benevolent Consuls, or reduced to ash in order to fertilize a public park, or thrown to animals in the zoo- scavengers need eating too, and would you rather give them poor helpless rabbits instead? Haven’t you got a heart?

Nobody can refuse to lend this service to their country. It would be an act of egotism. Worse, it would be immoral. The gods loved you so much as to give you a place in their beautiful world, how can you not return at least part of this immense favor? Why wouldn’t you be of help to your living fellows? A buried body isn’t useful to anyone, while a zombie body can lift the burden off a living worker. And why a splendid creation of the gods should be sacrilegiously left to worms and flies to eat?

Of course, someone protests every now and then. They are caught while trying to perform funerals, or escape out of the country with their beloved extincts in lands with different beliefs. They are judged leniently. After all, this is a civilized kingdom and they acted out of misplaced love. They’re just put to service, as corpses, next to the corpse they tried to steal. Law is law. And what’s right is right. In effect, many useless vagrants are thoughtfully transformed into useful workers by officers of the law on occasion- after all, a living creature is just a dead creature in potentia, isn’t it? So what does it matter if they decide to unlock its potential in advance?

I was just a little time in Vex- too little to fructfully exchange my religious views with its ruling class. I am planning to return there soon with a party of friends, though. We will bring good examples of swords, clubs and holy water bottles with us to trade- in great numbers, since there are many poor people who need charity there. I am sure that their priests will find our arguments of faith very convincing.