eastbound | audio; un: long rope

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audio; un: long rope

My fellow travelers. Before our guide asks us to move on from this...ah, relatively peaceful place, I have been wondering about your experiences with undead. What we saw in Serthica was not like the undead that I know of from my home world. Mayhap this is to be expected, when we are so far from the familiar...but I am curious if such an observation holds true for you as well.

So...do you have undead where you are from? What are they like? How did they come to be?

On Etheirys, most undead are classified as “ashkin”. There are some created by necromancers – that is, illegally created, of course – but others occur naturally. Festering humours, or lingering memories and unresolved feelings...anything that prevents the creature from returning to the Lifestream upon death.

...so - that is my understanding of undead. Will you tell me yours?

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Kahl... know things like undead. Different things. [Kahl had to think for a while before he could answer the question on the network. His voice is rough and slow, and he doesn't speak good. Lining up this many words in his head takes work. But stories are important to share.]

Tenno take ghosts from dead sometimes. Make them fight. [Kahl hadn't personally seen it, but he'd heard enough to believe it. Other things, though. He's seen others.]

Infested. Like... worse black mold in Serthica. Get gray stuff in wounds, breathe spores, get infected. Brain goes bad. Body twist like rot. Can live, if infection cut out. If not, no cure. Kill with fire and thrax toxin. [The stink was awful. There were always rumors of a cure somewhere, but nothing that common Grineer like him ever saw.]

And Corrupted. Old Orokin bases, have bad machines in them. Attack everyone, drill into head. Put bad things in. Fight for machine. Steal own brothers for it. [There were... a lot of bad things that could happen to somebody, back at home.

And that wasn't all of them. He'd heard rumors about other stuff. That thing with glass in the skin. Bad stories came out of Jupiter before the war, too. But there were bad stories everywhere. He didn't know if they were true or not.]

Undead, different here. Kahl not understand much. Kahl only know--dead should rest. Die clean. Not be slave. That what matter.

[He can tell that this is a lot of talking for this gentleman, and he appreciates the effort. For a few moments he ponders the information.]

So some of them are infected with a sort of disease, and some of them are created with machines...hmm. I wonder if the infection is related in some way to the black mold. I - assume that different worlds may have similar molds, anyway...[that makes sense. Right? Sort...of? Uhh anyway. He'll brighten his tone a little.]

Ah, but you are right, Kahl. The dead of all worlds deserve peace. The more we can help here, the better.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. [...] The machines you mentioned, do you think they are like the mannequins we saw?

Kahl glad to help. Kahl stay on planet. Stop undead. Keep brothers safe. [If he left, there would be no way to come back and help more. And no way to rescue family, if they got stolen too.

He stops to think about the question. He has a quick response, but... the answer's more complicated. He has to think through things he's learned here, about alternate universes and these undead things. Ultimately, he shakes his head.] Orokin machines. No Orokin here. Alternate universe have different name, maybe, but Kahl not see Orokin things here. Mannequins not like Orokin warframes. Tech not good enough.

Infestation... Kahl think that Orokin thing to. Old Orokin Empire did lots. [He could have asked Blue Girl about it, but she'd gotten... defensive about the Infestation. And that's enough of an answer for him. He might not speak well, but he listens better.]

Long Rope not know Orokin? [Nobody from alternate universes have, so far. Probably a good thing.]

[Oh no, what a good egg. Varshahn loves him. ;u; He's been on-edge about leaving himself - he was in the middle of some Pretty Important Stuff back home - but Kahl's nobility feels infectious. He does want to help, too, really...]

I see....no, I have never heard of Orokin before. Though I have seen civilizations that employ dangerous machinery, both past and present...[Garleans, Allagans...the things mortals can create have never ceased to amaze - and disturb - him.]

Ah - and please call me Varshahn. I don't know why it says "long rope" when I say things...[he's had nicknames before, but "long rope" feels like an embarrassing one for some reason....HE IS NOT A ROPE...:( ]

Varshahn. Good name. [Sounds close enough to Grineer that he can pronounce it without much trouble.] Comms give weird callsigns. Kahl not sure why 'tagged' either. Will try and fix later. [It's not familiar tech, but he learns how to modify things, once he's used them enough.

More importantly--] Varshahn have brothers here? [Kahl hasn't heard anybody else talk about that 'lifestream' stuff, and he wants to make sure nobody feels alone here.]

Thank you! [Kahl doesn't know it, but it's a name he chose himself. He's glad when people like it! He tries to be likeable.]

Brothers? I...[the question surprises him. He assumes that Kahl is talking about actual family, and his family is...complicated.]

...no. I have not found any of my family here. Though there have been some that may be distant kin to me, I think.

[More family than most, but that still doesn't mean much. Everybody here was much more alone than they should be.]

All who undead lords steal, brothers now. Kahl fight for brothers. [Grineer live fast. No being a child, just come out of the lab, all thrown together with other Grineer. It meant you decided who your brothers were, and you didn't have to know them long to say so. You just needed to know the important things, whatever those were to you. Everything else came after.]

Where Varshahn from?

The undead in Erdrea sound similar to yours. Restless souls who were not at peace with their deaths. Sometimes, those cursed before their deaths, or else raised by dark forces after. They're most always aggressive, and often weak to fire magic.

Dead souls are meant to be drawn into the Void, where they find their way back to Yggdrasil to start the cycle again.

[He makes a thoughtful noise.]

The Void...? We have a place called the Void, but it is...not related to death and rebirth. At least, not...directly. [This is a somewhat sensitive subject for him, actually, but he's interested in learning more.] What is this Void like? Ah - not that you have been there, I assume, but....

[There's a touch of a nervous laugh]

I have, though there isn't too much to say; it's a dark and seeming endless dimension, from what I've seen. There was a shrine the first time, where a former spiritual master greeted lost souls and told me about the cycle, but I didn't stay long. Crossing over before one's time is difficult and rarely sensible.

Oh. [Wait, didn't you just say you had to...uhhh...okay. He's dealing with an Adventurer, isn't he.]

Were all of the buildings floating?

Well, ghosts and demons and yao and all of these things are normal where I come from. It's all about the flow of energy. As lon as the energy is balanced, it's normal to have things on both sides, so to speak.

There's different kind of ghosts, from those who don't bother humans at all to those who are capable of great destruction, and those ones of course you need to take care of. But they're not... unnatural? They're just a part of the world, it's just most of the times humans don't get impacted with them.

In Serthica is was... weird. normally when so many people died, here should have bene human souls and ghosts around and a lot of them and there just... weren't. It's not normal for there to be no ghosts in a lace with so much death.

[Varshahn makes a thoughtful noise. It's an interesting viewpoint, and it does make some sense.]

The flow of energy...yes, I see. I suppose that is how we view undead as well, in a way...

[...] It is strange that Serthica was...devoid of such flow. Are you able to - sense souls? Perhaps there is a stagnation of energy on this world...?

I can feel souls, yes. This place is... every place we've visited is sort of wrong in some way. This place is one of the few that feels normal. There's a bit of a high ghost concentration, but that happens sometimes.

Where I am from, there are folk takes about ghosts and the spirits of the dead, but as far as I can tell that's all they are, stories that people make up to comfort themselves and find solace.

I'd never seen anything of the kind that we have here until I arrived here.

Mere stories...that is interesting. Perhaps your world is...farther away from the Lifestream? If that is even possible. I have not really studied such things...

[A little rueful.] But it sounds like a more peaceful world, at least in that sense. Most ashkin are both unhappy and unpleasant.

... What is the 'Lifestream'?

[Sorry, he's never heard of that.]

Well, we have our own problems, they just happen to concern mostly living people. Besides, some things from my world appear fantastical to others when they are just normal for me.

Where I'm from the undead are just things that existed in movies and stories.

But...things like lingering thoughts or memories did exist, but it didn't really make people come back from the dead. It's actually pretty rare for it to affect the living world...I guess except when an esper made sure it did, I guess.

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audio; un: long rope

video |⍓| un: tagged

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[un: steward] voice;

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un : deft hand of little deaths (voice)

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un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

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video; un: cat's cradle