Death

Death for magical creatures in Altairus is not unlike our own, save for a few small but important details.

The Act of Dying

When a faery or elemental dies, their Daemon, the manifestation of Anima inside of them, fizzles and dies out. It is at this moment that they are considered truly dead.

Once this happens, the body will collapse into the base element that the faery or elemental was associated with. These elements are recycled back into the world around them, and reviving them is impossible. Necromantic spells cannot revive an extinguished daemon, and while time-travel spells exist, it is a bad idea to interfere with the space-time continuum (see Time Paradox for further explanation).

Interestingly, there are many creatures throughout Altairus that are "semi-magical," meaning that they possess magical abilities but do not collapse into their base element after they die. Usually, these creatures are at the lower levels of the food chain in Altairian ecosystems, and their meat is often used in local cuisine. Typically, magical beings are sentient while semi-magical beings are not, but this is not a hard and fast rule.

Magical and semi-magical creatures are more likely to die on Earth than in Altairus, since Earth has less Anima.

Rituals Surrounding Death

Considering that magical creatures are not guaranteed to die like humans are, Altairian death rituals are not as sophisticated as Earthen ones. Usually, if the base element of the deceased is something that can be contained, whatever is left of their bodies is scooped up and sprinkled on top of something they loved in life, much like the tradition of scattering ashes.

There are some Altairians who believe that the deceased are reincarnated as some other being, though this is far from a universal belief. It has more to do with the people of Altairus's familiarity with seasonal cycles than anything else. See Children of Anima for more information.

Type

Natural

See Also