Death and the Veil

 

A family gathers to bid farewell to a loved one in a peaceful Garden of Remembrance during the Golden Age. Guided by the teachings of Morrigan, funerals were not only occasions of grief, but also of hope. Surrounded by white and yellow flowers, neighbours, and candlelight, the dead were honoured with dignity, whilst those left behind found comfort in the belief that no journey beyond the Veil began without love.

Few subjects reveal the differences between the Age of Gods and the modern world more clearly than death.

To many living today, death is regarded as a final farewell, accompanied by grief, uncertainty, and the fear of what may lie beyond. Yet the surviving records suggest that those who lived during the Golden Age approached mortality with a perspective unlike any that has existed since.

This difference was shaped above all by the teachings of Morrigan, Keeper of the Veil.

Whilst she never claimed to know what lay beyond the boundary between the World and whatever followed, she taught that death should neither be feared nor denied. Grief was not a weakness to be hidden, but the natural expression of love. To mourn was to honour those who had crossed the Veil, and to remember them was itself an act of devotion.

As a result, funerals during the Golden Age became occasions of both sorrow and quiet hope.

Families wept for those they had lost, yet many also believed that the deceased had continued a journey that would one day lead to reunion with those who had gone before. Death marked a parting for the living, but not necessarily for the one who had passed beyond the Veil.

Much of what we know of these customs comes from the journals of Elion, early inscriptions preserved within the Citadel, and fragments of funeral rites that survived the centuries following the Wrath. Although later ages would alter many of these traditions, the philosophy that lay at their heart continues to echo through Eldoria even today.

To understand how the people of the Golden Age lived, we must also understand how they faced death.

The Veil

Central to the teachings of Morrigan was the concept of the Veil, a subject that has occupied theologians, philosophers, and historians for thousands of years.

Contrary to popular belief, the Veil was never described as the afterlife itself. Rather, it was understood to be the boundary between the World and whatever lay beyond. It marked the point at which mortal life ended and another journey, one unknown even to the Divine Family, began.

It is this final distinction that perhaps surprises modern readers most.

Despite later traditions that attributed near limitless knowledge to the Divine Family, no surviving source suggests that Morrigan, or indeed any of her family, claimed to know what awaited beyond the Veil. Even Thalor's journals remain silent on the matter. The greatest mystery of existence remained a mystery to gods and mortals alike.

Morrigan's role was therefore not to rule over the dead, but to keep watch over the Veil itself.

According to the earliest traditions, she guided each soul to its threshold, offering comfort as they prepared to continue a journey she herself could not make. Beyond that point, her task was complete. Whatever awaited beyond the Veil belonged to another mystery entirely.

This uncertainty did not weaken the faith of the people of the Golden Age.

Rather, it strengthened it.

Morrigan did not ask humanity to believe because she possessed every answer. Instead, she taught them to accept that some mysteries were not meant to be solved. Death was neither an ending to be feared nor a puzzle to be conquered, but a natural part of life's journey.

Perhaps this is why inscriptions from the Golden Age seldom state simply that a person "died." Instead, many speak of individuals who had crossed the Veil or journeyed beyond the Veil, expressions that reflected a belief that death was not merely an end, but the beginning of something unknowable.

For the people of the Golden Age, the mystery beyond the Veil was not a source of despair.

It was a reason for hope.

Morrigan's Teaching

If the Veil formed the foundation of the Golden Age's understanding of death, then Morrigan's teachings gave that understanding its heart.

Unlike many later traditions, which often sought to explain every mystery surrounding death, Morrigan's philosophy was marked by remarkable humility. She neither claimed certainty nor encouraged speculation about what lay beyond the Veil. Instead, she taught that some mysteries deserved reverence rather than answers.

At the centre of her teaching was a simple truth: death was a natural part of life.

Just as every flower eventually returned to the earth and every season gave way to another, so too would every life one day reach its natural conclusion. To deny death was therefore to deny the very order of the world that Thalor had created.

This did not mean that grief was to be suppressed.

On the contrary, Morrigan taught that grief was the natural companion of love. Those who mourned did so because they had first loved, and no person should feel shame for the sorrow they carried. Tears were not regarded as weakness, but as a final expression of affection for one who had crossed the Veil.

Yet sorrow was never intended to become despair.

Throughout the surviving accounts of the Golden Age there exists a quiet confidence that death was not the end of a person's story. Whilst none could claim knowledge of what awaited beyond the Veil, many believed that those who had crossed it would one day be reunited with the loved ones who had gone before them. Funerals therefore became occasions of both mourning and hope: a painful farewell for those left behind, and the hopeful beginning of a journey for the one who had departed.

Perhaps the most enduring lesson Morrigan left to humanity was that remembrance itself was an act of love.

To speak the names of those who had passed, to share their stories, and to preserve their memory within family and community was considered one of the greatest honours the living could offer the dead. In this way, death did not sever the bonds of love, but transformed them into memory.

It is little wonder, therefore, that even after the Wrath and the passing of the Divine Family, many of Morrigan's teachings endured. Though later generations often came to fear death more deeply than their ancestors had, they never entirely abandoned the belief that those who had crossed the Veil deserved to be remembered with dignity, gratitude, and love.

Farewell to the Dead

The funeral customs of the Golden Age reflected the teachings of Morrigan in every respect. They were neither celebrations that ignored sorrow nor ceremonies consumed entirely by grief. Rather, they sought to honour both the life that had been lived and the love that remained.

When a person crossed the Veil, family and neighbours gathered without delay. During the days that followed, friends, relatives, and members of the wider community came to pay their respects, offering comfort, sharing memories, and ensuring that no family carried its loss alone. It was customary for neighbours to prepare meals, tend fields, or assume other daily responsibilities whilst the bereaved devoted themselves to remembrance.

The funeral itself was typically held several days after death, allowing those from neighbouring settlements time to arrive and join the community in mourning. Candles were lit throughout the ceremony, not as symbols of mourning alone, but as reminders that even in humanity's darkest moments, hope continued to endure. Music likewise formed an important part of the occasion, though little is known of the melodies performed during the earliest centuries of the Golden Age.

Burial was the most common practice throughout Eldoria, although local customs varied from one region to another. Most communities laid their dead to rest in peaceful grounds beyond the settlement, where family tombs stood amongst flowers, trees, and quiet pathways. White and yellow flowers were particularly associated with remembrance, symbolising both peace and the enduring hope that had long accompanied Morrigan's teachings.

Many families marked the resting place of their loved ones with carved memorial stones, whilst others planted trees that would continue to grow long after those they commemorated had crossed the Veil. Warriors were sometimes buried with the sword they had carried throughout life, scholars with treasured journals, and craftsmen with the tools that had defined their calling. Such objects were not believed to be required beyond the Veil, but were instead left as symbols of the life that had been lived.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these traditions was the role of the community.

Those without surviving family were mourned no less than those surrounded by generations of descendants. The community itself accepted responsibility for ensuring that every person received a dignified farewell, believing that no one should begin their final journey alone. Likewise, the names of the departed were carefully preserved within families and communities, for to remember someone was regarded as one of the greatest acts of love the living could offer.

The customs themselves differed from place to place.

The compassion that inspired them did not.

Morrigan's Song

Amongst the many traditions associated with death in Eldoria, few possess a history as long—or as mysterious—as Morrigan's Song.

Its precise origins have been lost to time. Whilst tradition consistently associates the composition with Morrigan and her teachings, no surviving source identifies its original composer. Nor can historians say with certainty when it first entered the funeral customs of the Golden Age. By the time of the earliest surviving records, however, it was already regarded as an ancient and familiar part of mourning.

The oldest form of the song has not survived intact.

Several early texts make passing reference to an older version that was known during the Age of Gods, yet only scattered fragments remain. The complete melody and words, if they were ever recorded, have long since been lost. Modern performances therefore descend from later arrangements that preserve the spirit of the original whilst reflecting the language and traditions of subsequent generations.

Despite these changes, Morrigan's Song continues to occupy a unique place within Eldorian culture.

For countless families, it accompanies the final farewell to those who have crossed the Veil, offering comfort not through certainty, but through remembrance and hope. Its enduring popularity speaks less to the survival of any particular melody than to the timelessness of the beliefs that inspired it.

Whether the versions sung today bear more than a passing resemblance to those once heard beneath the gaze of the Divine Family is a question that can no longer be answered.

Perhaps, however, that is of little importance.

Songs, like the people who sing them, change with the passing of generations. What has endured is not merely the music itself, but the compassion it continues to express for those who mourn and the quiet hope that has accompanied it for thousands of years.

After the Wrath

The Wrath of Arathor marked a turning point not only in the political history of Eldoria, but also in humanity's understanding of death.

For countless generations, people had lived knowing that Morrigan walked amongst them. Her teachings were not distant scripture, but living guidance, offered by one whom many had met, heard, or witnessed with their own eyes. When the Divine Family departed the World, that certainty came to an end.

The funeral customs of the Golden Age did not disappear.

Flowers continued to adorn tombs. Candles were lit in remembrance. Communities still gathered to comfort the bereaved, and many of the oldest prayers and songs remained in use. Yet over the centuries, the meaning behind these traditions gradually began to change as memory gave way to interpretation.

Perhaps the greatest transformation concerned the Veil itself.

Where the people of the Golden Age had viewed it with quiet hope, later generations increasingly regarded it with uncertainty. The assurance that death formed part of a greater journey slowly faded, replaced in many places by fear of the unknown. Though the Faith continued to teach that the dead should be honoured and remembered, its understanding of the Veil became less certain as the centuries passed.

This change was not immediate, nor was it universal.

Across Eldoria, different communities preserved different aspects of the older traditions. In some regions, ancient tombs continued to receive flowers as they had for generations. Elsewhere, forgotten burial grounds fell into ruin as war, migration, and the passing of time erased the memory of those who rested there. Countless others were simply lost, their existence surviving only in scattered references within the oldest surviving texts.

Even so, the influence of Morrigan endured.

The belief that grief should be shared rather than hidden, that the dead deserved dignity, and that remembrance was among the greatest gifts the living could offer never entirely vanished. Though the Faith evolved in ways the people of the Golden Age might scarcely have recognised, these principles survived the centuries and remain visible in many of Eldoria's funeral customs today.

History cannot tell us whether the people of the Golden Age understood death more clearly than we do.

It can, however, tell us that they faced it with a hope that later generations often struggled to preserve.

Conclusion

Few mysteries have occupied the minds of Eldoria's scholars more completely than the Veil.

Kings have sought to understand it. Philosophers have debated it. Theologians have written countless volumes concerning its nature, whilst historians have searched the oldest surviving records for clues left behind by those who lived during the Age of Gods. Yet after thousands of years, the Veil remains as mysterious today as it was when Morrigan first spoke of it.

Perhaps this should not surprise us.

The Divine Family never claimed to possess every answer. Even Morrigan, whose teachings shaped humanity's understanding of death for generations, spoke only of guiding souls to the Veil, never beyond it. Whatever lies on the far side remains a mystery shared equally by kings and commoners, scholars and shepherds, mortals and the Divine Family alike.

Yet perhaps the true legacy of Morrigan was never to answer that mystery.

Instead, she taught humanity how to live with it.

She taught that grief was not a failing, but the price of love. That remembrance was among the greatest gifts the living could offer the dead. That no person should face loss alone, and that hope could endure even when certainty could not.

Much has changed since the Golden Age.

Kingdoms have risen and fallen. The Divine Family departed the World. The Faith transformed, and many ancient customs faded into history. Yet whenever flowers are laid upon a grave, candles are lit in quiet remembrance, or the names of those who have crossed the Veil are spoken with love, a small part of Morrigan's teaching continues to endure.

The mystery of the Veil remains unsolved.

Perhaps it always will.

But for the people of the Golden Age, that mystery was never the source of their greatest comfort.

The greatest comfort was knowing that, whatever awaited beyond the Veil, no journey began without love, remembrance, and hope following close behind.