Human souls being linked to decomposition

[Sharad9]

When a person dies, their soul doesn't ascend to the afterlife automatically. The soul build's a connection with its body while alive, and remains attached to that body in death. Through natural decomposition, the soul gradually loses its connection to the mortal realm. At some point, when the body decays enough,the soul ascends to the next life where it will be judged by god. It will either be allowed into heaven or join the reincarnation cycle to be reborn and given another chance.

The ascension of the soul however, is not always guaranteed. While it is trapped in the body after death, the soul is protected from supernatural forces. However, There are invisible predators that prey on and consume vulnerable souls. These are called wraiths, which are angry spirits that have been unable to ascend properly and remain trapped on the mortal realm. These spirits are in constant pain, and seek to take out their agony and misery on the living by killing them. They are also given to consume other lost souls and grow in power. This has been common enough throughout history to be a real concern.

This is why funwral rites and proper burials are held as sacred, because they guaranty passage into the next life. Priests are used to expedite the process of ascension. Through performing the necessary funeral rites and given a proper burial, they release the soul immediately and send it to be judged accordingly. These are rites only chosen priests can perform, which involve complex magical rituals that are learned through years of study. This has given the church a strong presence, and has made them a powerful force in humanity. Religion and faith play an important role in daily life of people, and priests are held in high regard in their community.

Otherwise interferening with a body (cremation, dismemberment, etc) is considered a great crime. If a body doesn't decay naturally, the soul may become more vulnerable to malignant forces. Necromancy is akin to heresy, because it enslaves a soul to a former body long after its time in this world has passed. The soul is in constant pain, unable to control its actions. Necromancy is punishable by an excruciating and humiliating death, as an act that involves enslaving the loved ones of people is met with hatred from society.

Individuals who go off to war are given a special place in society. Warriors are given markings called runes by priests that are akin to magic tatoos. If they die in war, their souls ascend automatically without delay, so they can go into battle without fear. Being a soldier is a high honor, as is dying in war for your nation. These runes are limited to soldiers only, and are unable to be used by regular folk due to the divine edict.

This is what i have so far. I'd like to know what people think. Your comments would be appreciated

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Sounds good as background to start from. What's the story that this background serves? As others may point out, without the story, having background info like this is a fun exercise, but little more.

 

[elemtilas]

Interesting! Is there a special precinct where dead bodies are kept until they decompose properly? How do people protect against these malevolent wraiths?

And of course: do tell us more about these folks and any stories you may have concerning them!

 

[Chekaman]

Wouldn't the souls go a bit insane trapped in their dead bodies for months or years with nothing to do?

 

[Vaporo]

Really interesting idea. Can regular burial provide any protection whatsoever from wraiths, or just the services of a priest?

What is the reasoning behind the divine edict that runes cannot be used for regular people? It seems like becoming a soldier would be extremely desirable in this world.

How does a new soul come to be? Just random chance?

This sounds a bit like the reverse off what one of my characters does. If his body is destroyed he can attach himself to another one, often a recently-deceased corpse. At first his is just a puppet master moving limbs by inducing electrical impulses and such, but his magic slowly repairs the new body and it comes closer and closer to his native form he bonds with it, until the new body is effectively the same as his old.

 

[Chekaman]

I imagine the priests are immensely powerful in this world, as only through a decent priest controlled funeral and burial can free the soul from either being devoured by a wraith or spending days, week, months, maybe years trapped helplessly in the dead body unable to move or speak with nothing to do but think. The country or countries will be partly or wholly theocratic, ruled by the clergy. Those who either commit a serious crime or just disobey the priests are executed and denied the proper rites, either buried without them or left to decompose in the open, or even mummified so their spirts will be trapped in their dry dead bodies for thousands of years.

For conflict, what if cremation also released the dead souls to the afterlife without harming them in the process? Suddenly a new religion or a new variant of the old religion can appear. The old religion strictly bans cremation and punishes those caught doing it with execution and mummification, just as in real life the Catholic Church once burned heretics at the stake. But despite this several countries break away and your world now has violent religious wars like Europe did in real life at one time between Catholics and Protestants. The new religion/new branch of the old religion becomes as intolerant partly to survive, banning the burial of the dead and burning rival priests at the stake. Rulers have to take a side-do they support the religion of the grave or the religion of the pyre?

In real life in our timeline, the constant fighting between Protestants and Catholics weakened Christianity so much that it lost it's hold on temporal power entirely except for the Vatican City and science took over. Perhaps the same thing could happen in this world?