Growing Up
Life on Wyrlde is broken into stages.
The first is as an Infant. Infants are up through the age of 4. Infants have Tier 1 ability scores.
The second stage is when they are a Child, from 5 to 9. It is childhood that the ability to use magic becomes more apparent. Children have Tier 1 ability scores.
The third stage Wyrlde calls Youths. Youths are 10 to 14 years of age, and experiencing a hard time of things as their body changes and grows. Youth have Tier 2 ability scores.
Coming of Age usually happens towards the end of Youth, as for some reason it has shifted over time to where development is uniform among the sexes. As a result, women and men mature physically at the same rate, and around the same time, instead of distinctly in different times. Coming-of-age rites around 14 or 15 for most, but connection to the broader community and responsibility are delayed. It is during this period that some of the most famous adventurers learned many of the unique qualities about themselves.
Starting at 15 is the Juvenal age, when they are typically called Apprentices, only in part because it is the age most folks are apprenticed out. All young adults who appear to be this age are generally called ‘prentices, as the guild system in place reinforces it, and the long-held traditions of preparation and defense that have been baked into the culture over the centuries make it a necessity. It is also the age at which responsibility for one’s actions kick in, regardless of other factors – many a ‘prentice has been enslaved or imprisoned or branded for some damn fool thing they did. Fortunately, the young are more likely to claim Ordeal.
One complaint from many youth is that they are not permitted to have ceremonies of betrothal or marriage until they reach the age of Majority, which is 20 years.
Adulthood comes following that at the age of 20 or 21, and most apprenticeships are given over to Novice status or the individual heads into the world proper. This is the age at which it becomes described as Age of Majority and Age of Consent, and there are elaborate rites of passage for this. On Wyrlde, a Typical Human is in the Prime of their life from 20 to 100 years of age, with little change save perhaps for a widening around the middle.
Senior is when they generally become what folks think of as “old”. It is when infirmity and depredations of time have take hold of the body, and it begins to become more and more difficult to remain hale and whole for nearly all the peoples. This happens starting around 20% of their lifespan, or around 20 to 50 years before the end.
Lifespan is a general end point for most people, assuming illness and disease or violence do not claim them. This figure can vary 3 to 10 years in either direction for all but the Goblins and Merow. They seem to be almost programmed, having a variance of only about a year to either side.
It is said that each person is allotted five Spans of time. That is the whole of a single lifetime, and it is what we are all promised at our quickening. The length of a span may vary, for some are blessed with greatly extended lifespans, but for most folks it is 20 or 25 years.
Upon our deaths, our Bodies wither and rot, our Minds fade, but our Soul, Heart, and Anima live on. This is why we never can remember the lives of our past without the magic of memory to restore them, and why Reincarnation is possible – but only if you have Spans of time remaining.
When we pass, we move to the next Mortal Realm to be born again, and we start a new cycle with a new set of Spans, and so it goes in a grand circle, without end.
It takes seven days from Death for the Quintelan to break up and the Cycle to start, and that is the window for the great and glorious magics.
At each Rebirth we are given a new True Name, but the deeper secret is that this True Name is but a portion of the whole, and the part that is in play, and it is said that we all have seven parts to our True Name, and that to know all seven parts is to know the darkest and brightest of powers we can learn.
This may be of import should you ever encounter a Lich or a Vampire.
Aging & Lifespan
Most of Wyrlde grows up at around the same rate of speed and in the same number of years. When you start out, you will be anywhere between 18 and 28 years old, depending on your personal preferences and background.
Lifespan is a general end point for most people, assuming illness and disease or violence do not claim them. This figure can vary as much as ten years in any direction for all but the Goblin. They seem to be almost programmed, having a variance of only about a year to either side. The rest can vary 3 to 10 years in either direction.
Death is not the end upon Wyrlde. When one dies the spirit is reborn within one of the seven Mortal Realms, and there is always a chance that they will recall some or much of their past life. The Realm you are born into is determined by your actions in this life, but eventually you will return here, for we all go through all the Realms at least seven times.
The majority of folks on Wyrlde live about 125 years, and only the last fifth or so are old age, equal to my world’s old Senior status, with reductions in physical ability and overall health striking in the last 20 years. As far as general aging goes, most peoples do not seem to age spectacularly – the general differences between an 80 year old and a 30 year old are minor and mostly cosmetic and superficial. However, it is generally acknowledged that between 25 and 30, people’s appearances will begin to stabilize, and endure until they reach the age of 105, where they begin to show significant signs of aging.
It is commonly said by folks of Wyrlde that we are all promised five sets of 20 years, and after that, resurrection and reincarnation will not work. That period of 125 years is of import in many places, and is considered all that one is allotted – it is a lifespan, and while there are those who do live longer, they tend to follow the same overall gaining pattern of the last fifth of their life showing the marked decline.
One exception to this is the Meka. Meka do not appear to age, but as their parts wear out, they are known to become slower, stiffer, and, ultimately, to stop altogether. Also of peculiar observation is that Meka are thought to be able to be reincarnated after their 125-year existence. Unproven, though some hints suggest it is possible.
While it does not seem to apply to others, Semihumans who are older than 125 years do not seem to be able to be resurrected or reincarnated. It is thought that because they have lived beyond the allotment that they are “living on borrowed time”, and the longer duration of aging for them (40 or 50 years long) is part of their mortality being lost.
What does remain known is that they are not aways part of the Cycle, and that while some cases do exist of them entering it, they are very few in terms of those who have reached across the Pale and looked beyond the Veil in search of lost loved ones.
Those whose lifespans are shorter tend to have shorter aging periods – always about 20% of the total span – and the numbers given can vary as much as 20% of the total (some therians have lived as long as 118 years, for example).
Afterlives
When one dies, their Quintelan is divided into the Spirit, the Soul, the Heart, and the Mind. The Body has passed, the Spirit and the Soul are immortal, though the Mind and the Heart can fade without something to anchor them.
These aspects of each person are sometimes broken up a bit and then given new form – in one person or in several – on a new Plane of reality, where they now live an entirely new life. Sometimes the Heart and the Soul will be together while the Mind and the Spirit are elsewhere, but other times the order will be different and in some cases the whole will travel – but there is always the Spirit and the Soul, for those are the core of a person.
Those who pass are born again on the other planes, in a constant cycle of rebirth that moves one throughout the many reflections until the ideal place is found for them. It is said that the order is based on the actions and behaviors of the person in the immediately previous life, but the Planes remain the same and a person will be born again and again on the Seven Mortal Realms – Wyrlde, Yrthe, The Bleak, The Unknown, Perdition, Kismet, and Shades. The denizens of those realms do not normally see folks from other Worlds – and each of those seven worlds is still a reflection, or a shadow, of Wyrlde.
Resurrection gathers the Quintelan and binds it back into a body, so long as that body has the time allotted for it. Each person is allotted five Spans, and resurrection has the price of one span. Reincarnation binds it to an existing body different from the original, not a new one. As animals do not have a Mind, or a Heart, they are often used as vessels since a vessel cannot have an existing heart or mind.
Every seven lives, a person will be reborn on Wyrlde. Where the Fairywilde is a close reflection of Wyrlde with many openings and passages, so too do these other Planes have their own version of it – and so too do they have their own version of the Astral and the Ethereal, though not always in a manner that is a direct link. That is, the Planes are not, themselves, inherently tied to the afterlife of someone. That cycle will ultimately bring them through The Mortal Plane once again.
The Cycle
From the end of the God’s War, everyone born on Wyrlde grows old and dies, and is reborn in another of the seven mortal worlds based on what they did while they were here, starting The Cycle. Every person on Wyrlde is given to them by the Sisters five Spans of years, and while tide and time may conspire to take from one those years, that is the allotment they are given. Their alignment determines that order, that sequence, and they will live and die on each of those worlds before returning to Wyrlde, born again.
Each passing divides the Five Selves anew and recycles the parts unused. The five Selves are Body, Heart, Mind, Soul, and Spirit. This is called the Quintelan.
In this, these core parts of each person’s Self, we know the body is the flesh, the mind is thought, the heart is emotion, the soul is essence, and the spirit is purpose. For each of the Mortal Realms beyond the Ephemeral, only two parts are saved, until they come back to Wyrlde, and their parts are reunited for another start to the cycle.
In rare or unusual circumstances, someone may be summoned or reincarnated from outside the Cycle, outside the Cosmos. They are Incarnates, and are considered uniformly weird, but they, too, are subject to the Cycle thereafter. Antelle calls it the “hotel kalifornya complex”.
Raising the Dead
Raising the dead must be done within 7 sunrises of the death. On the 8th Sunrise following death, the spell will fail, regardless of level or skill of the caster, as the Quintelan has moved on.
Resurrection
Resurrections on Wyrlde require the original host body. The spell will restore the body to a whole state but will not reduce or alter age. It will continue the Cycles for that person, and they can live out their life to the end of their normal cycle assuming something doesn’t kill them. Resurrection will not give someone more years than they are allotted, however – resurrecting a 118-year-old person will still leave you with a 118-year-old person who is going to die in a few years anyway.
If a person has exhausted their full gift of years, they cannot be resurrected.
Resurrections, of any sort, must be done within 48 sunrises of the death. On the 49th Sunrise following death, the spell will fail, regardless of level or skill of the caster.
Resurrections which happen after the first 7 days have a chance of failing. The caster must succeed on a Mana Check with a DC of 20 minus the Caster’s level plus 1 for each day after the 7th.
Reincarnation
Reincarnation spells must be done within 15 years of the death of the individual.
It is important to note that after 7 days, a dead person is reborn into a new life on a different dimension within a different plane as an infant, and casting this spell will cause them to experience death in that new life, with full recollection.
Reincarnation restores a body to a state of 15 years of age. They are not reborn, and the spell will reach out and draw back together the Selves into a new whole, leaving them with full memory of their life, but also any memories of the life they are drawn from if they were reincarnated 3 or more years after death.
This experience can drive someone mad if they fail a sanity check against a DC 12.
