Michael Morris
First Post
"Each life is a circle. Each existence is a chain." – Druidic Teaching.
Life expectation in Telzoa is exceedingly low by our standards, with most folk dead before the age of thirty. Part of this is due to the alarming infant mortality rates of the island - only half of all children born see their first birthday. Half this surviving number die before the age of five. The average woman in Telzoa will give birth twenty times, but only three of her children will see adulthood.
Not surprisingly, this mortality rate has an effect on the attitudes of the people concerning infants. Telzoans regard their very young children much as we would a family pet – with caring and affection, but the expectation that death may take them at any moment. Grieving is usually short for those taken at this precarious time. As children age and approach adulthood though, the attachment afforded them increases and at the age of fifteen the child is assumed to have reached majority.
Several factors conspire to maintain a life expectancy this low - plague and war chief among them. In the last century alone Telzoan scholars have estimated that the sporadic warring between the baronies has killed as many as 100,000. Smallpox and bubonic plagues have also swept the island several times along with a unique magical disease called Crimson Death. While priests magically abate the worst of smallpox and bubonic plague, the last outbreak of Crimson killed as many as 270,000 people. Predatory and poisonous creatures, most famously dragons, but also ranging from dragons to humble mountain lions and snakes account for as many as 7,000 deaths over the last hundred years. And the effects of 4 major earthquakes and one volcanic eruption in the last century cannot be overlooked in terms of their death toll, which may be as high as 90,000.
If death is a far more familiar sight in Telzoa, its counterpart - birth - is as well. With no birth control available beyond the most primitive of forms, many sexual interludes will lead to pregnancies. Some Telzoan women bear children quite literally whenever they can. While this has lead to families numbering with as many as 27 children, it would also explain why so many women die at a young age of apparently natural causes. Marriage too often occurs very early -- noble children have been betrothed at as young as five, but actual marriage doesn't occur until 9 at the very earliest (Even this is very rare - 12 is the usual age). Most women don't bear children until 15 - those that do are often killed by the pregnancy, or the fetus is aborted.
Despite all of this, faith remains strong upon the islands in the gods. Priests remain somewhat detached from the situation, and even if they can help they often won't, as disease is viewed as a manifestation of the will of the gods - a punishment for transgressions either in this life or in another. Another reason for this aloofness may be the sheer logistics involved in a concerted effort to alleviate the suffering of major plagues - that and the fact that much of the work is for naught since the Telzoan people still do not understand the basics of sanitation. Human wastes are cast out directly into the streets and occasionally it taints the water supply - leading to cholera and similar nastiness.
The general attitude towards life and death in Telzoa is that it is part of a never-ending cycle. Telzoans believe in reincarnation after a time - and that the acts in life are either rewarded in the paradises of Aborea or Valrea, or punished in the hells of Shuun and Sodrea. This afterlife lasts, according to most beliefs, for a century or so, and then most must return to life and begin a new test. Once all the tests are complete then the soul will reach its perfection and be allowed to rest for eternity. This belief, which pervades much of the priestly rhetoric given in the temples, helps to soothe the heartache of the populace.
Life expectation in Telzoa is exceedingly low by our standards, with most folk dead before the age of thirty. Part of this is due to the alarming infant mortality rates of the island - only half of all children born see their first birthday. Half this surviving number die before the age of five. The average woman in Telzoa will give birth twenty times, but only three of her children will see adulthood.
Not surprisingly, this mortality rate has an effect on the attitudes of the people concerning infants. Telzoans regard their very young children much as we would a family pet – with caring and affection, but the expectation that death may take them at any moment. Grieving is usually short for those taken at this precarious time. As children age and approach adulthood though, the attachment afforded them increases and at the age of fifteen the child is assumed to have reached majority.
Several factors conspire to maintain a life expectancy this low - plague and war chief among them. In the last century alone Telzoan scholars have estimated that the sporadic warring between the baronies has killed as many as 100,000. Smallpox and bubonic plagues have also swept the island several times along with a unique magical disease called Crimson Death. While priests magically abate the worst of smallpox and bubonic plague, the last outbreak of Crimson killed as many as 270,000 people. Predatory and poisonous creatures, most famously dragons, but also ranging from dragons to humble mountain lions and snakes account for as many as 7,000 deaths over the last hundred years. And the effects of 4 major earthquakes and one volcanic eruption in the last century cannot be overlooked in terms of their death toll, which may be as high as 90,000.
If death is a far more familiar sight in Telzoa, its counterpart - birth - is as well. With no birth control available beyond the most primitive of forms, many sexual interludes will lead to pregnancies. Some Telzoan women bear children quite literally whenever they can. While this has lead to families numbering with as many as 27 children, it would also explain why so many women die at a young age of apparently natural causes. Marriage too often occurs very early -- noble children have been betrothed at as young as five, but actual marriage doesn't occur until 9 at the very earliest (Even this is very rare - 12 is the usual age). Most women don't bear children until 15 - those that do are often killed by the pregnancy, or the fetus is aborted.
Despite all of this, faith remains strong upon the islands in the gods. Priests remain somewhat detached from the situation, and even if they can help they often won't, as disease is viewed as a manifestation of the will of the gods - a punishment for transgressions either in this life or in another. Another reason for this aloofness may be the sheer logistics involved in a concerted effort to alleviate the suffering of major plagues - that and the fact that much of the work is for naught since the Telzoan people still do not understand the basics of sanitation. Human wastes are cast out directly into the streets and occasionally it taints the water supply - leading to cholera and similar nastiness.
The general attitude towards life and death in Telzoa is that it is part of a never-ending cycle. Telzoans believe in reincarnation after a time - and that the acts in life are either rewarded in the paradises of Aborea or Valrea, or punished in the hells of Shuun and Sodrea. This afterlife lasts, according to most beliefs, for a century or so, and then most must return to life and begin a new test. Once all the tests are complete then the soul will reach its perfection and be allowed to rest for eternity. This belief, which pervades much of the priestly rhetoric given in the temples, helps to soothe the heartache of the populace.
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