Letter 11: Life, Death, Rebirth and After World
A fragment of a letter from the collection of Learned Scholar Tong Shatterbone, believed to have been written in the year 1578. Tundraslug was a village in Craftlin. It was destroyed in the Apocalypse that ended the Span of Might.
…to remember if you are scared.
We are born into the Living World, not knowing what lives we lived in the past. Eventually, we will die again. Ghosts are free to wander the world, to visit the loved ones that they left behind, or to visit places that they never got to see. Once the ghosts have tired of wandering the world, they are drawn to the Gate of Twilight. They pass through this gate, which breaches the Confines and leads to the After World. We are judged by the Knot Father, the Spinner. He examines our Threads of Life to see how snarled they have become. If he deems us worthy, the Needle Mother weaves our Threads into the Tapestry of Heaven. I believe that the afterlife within the tapestry is your ideal life. Whatever you consider to be paradise will be your reward. Whoever you loved will be there and you will live on in blissful contentedness. But if your Thread is snarled and knotted with misdeeds, you will be born again to the Living World. A new Fate will be assigned to you by the Spinner and the Weaver. You will quest for the Tapestry of Heaven once more.
Regardless of what happens in the Living World or the After World, death is only ever a new beginning. Let these simple beliefs reassure you in these difficult times. Though the world may be ending, we shall live on in the After World.
Don’t try to come home. Tundraslug is gone. I don’t know if there is any safe place left in Craftlin. I will try to find you if I can, but if not, I will see you again once death has taken us all.
I love you,
Clay Boarroot