IW and Reincarnation

Ed the Coastie · 08-14-2008, 12:45 PM

Sitting on my bookshelf is a paperback copy of H. Beam Piper's Paratime, which contains a series of stories about alternate Earths.

The story Last Enemy is set on the "Akor-Neb Sector", a timeline in which reincarnation is an accepted scientific fact. Not just accepted, but proven...at the beginning of the story, communication between unreincarnated dead and the still-incarnate living is demonstrated. It is this communication that provides the conflict within the story.

My question is...if Infinity were to discover such a world (one in which reincarnation is an accepted, proven scientific fact), how would they deal with it? My knee-jerk response is that it would almost immediately be restricted to almost everyone...

And yes, I am just perverse enough to have already developed such a world for a potential IW campaign...and I even found a GURPS precedent that I was able to tweak a bit in order to make it work. *grin*

aesir23 · 08-14-2008, 01:32 PM

Would you have to be native to this world to be reincarnated?

If not, there would probably be BIG money in smuggling the terminally ill onto this world so that they can return from death!!

That would certainly be my first thought if I knew about a world with proof of life after death, especially an afterlife with so few drawbacks. I would do everything in my power to die there, instead of some world were there is no evidence that I will do anything but rot.

Definitely a very intriguing possibility.

William · 08-14-2008, 01:50 PM

There are a few worlds where Infinity has verified the existence of local afterlives and even, cautiously, visited them. Authorial comment has mentioned that the "Pocket Multiverses" paragraphs on p. 529 of Basic Campaigns, which describes worlds with local afterlives, was strongly meant to allow for the possibility of the In Nomine universe (in which reincarnation is a known fact, at least to those in the know).

There is no word on Infinity's reaction to such timelines; generally, worlds with legitimate afterlives have interventionist gods, which Infinity avoids strenuously, or active magic, which they don't much like either. Roma Arcana has a dinosaur afterlife and possibly a human one as well; Greco-Roman myth did include reincarnation for most souls, after drinking from the Lethe. Infinity has an observer there but no other significant presence.

transmetahuman · 08-14-2008, 02:36 PM

Yeah, a lot depends on whether the afterlife is "pan-metaversal", or only applies to people/beings that die there, or only applies to natives. It looks like IW's metaverse is officially one of the latter two - which makes sense; too many magic systems and metaphysical setups would be excluded as possible parallels if one afterlife fit all possible worlds.

Just stuff like the mind/brain dichotomy implied by psionic mindswap (or strong vs. weak AI questions brought up by high tech worlds with uploads, for that matter) bring up issues about what a conveyor actually does...

Are the five components of your soul combined into one when you jump from Anubis-3 to Jesus-5? Then disappear altogether on a completely materialistic world? Is it held in storage somewhere until your body is in a physical universe which allows souls? Are your carbon molecules replaced by atoms of elemental earth if you jump to a world where Alchemy works? Does a Discworld wizard still see Octarine if he jumps to the Cabal's homeworld?

LoneWolf23k · 08-14-2008, 02:50 PM

Pyramid Magazine has an exemple of a world where reincarnation works:
Lama-7: Past Future

08-14-2008, 12:45 PM	#1
Ed the Coastie Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Sierra Vista, Arizona	IW and Reincarnation Sitting on my bookshelf is a paperback copy of H. Beam Piper's Paratime, which contains a series of stories about alternate Earths. The story *Last Enemy* is set on the "Akor-Neb Sector", a timeline in which reincarnation is an accepted scientific fact. Not just accepted, but proven...at the beginning of the story, communication between unreincarnated dead and the still-incarnate living is demonstrated. It is this communication that provides the conflict within the story. My question is...if Infinity were to discover such a world (one in which reincarnation is an accepted, proven scientific fact), how would they deal with it? My knee-jerk response is that it would almost immediately be restricted to almost everyone... And yes, I am just perverse enough to have already developed such a world for a potential IW campaign...and I even found a GURPS precedent that I was able to tweak a bit in order to make it work. grin __________________ "It's never to early to start beefing up your obituary." -- The Most Interesting Man in the World

08-14-2008, 01:32 PM	#2
aesir23 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Vermont	Re: IW and Reincarnation Would you have to be native to this world to be reincarnated? If not, there would probably be BIG money in smuggling the terminally ill onto this world so that they can return from death!! That would certainly be my first thought if I knew about a world with proof of life after death, especially an afterlife with so few drawbacks. I would do everything in my power to die there, instead of some world were there is no evidence that I will do anything but rot. Definitely a very intriguing possibility. __________________ My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters.

08-14-2008, 01:50 PM	#3
William Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan	Re: IW and Reincarnation There are a few worlds where Infinity has verified the existence of local afterlives and even, cautiously, visited them. Authorial comment has mentioned that the "Pocket Multiverses" paragraphs on p. 529 of Basic Campaigns, which describes worlds with local afterlives, was strongly meant to allow for the possibility of the In Nomine universe (in which reincarnation is a known fact, at least to those in the know). There is no word on Infinity's reaction to such timelines; generally, worlds with legitimate afterlives have interventionist gods, which Infinity avoids strenuously, or active magic, which they don't much like either. Roma Arcana has a dinosaur afterlife and possibly a human one as well; Greco-Roman myth did include reincarnation for most souls, after drinking from the Lethe. Infinity has an observer there but no other significant presence.

08-14-2008, 02:36 PM	#4
transmetahuman Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: San Francisco, CA, USA	Re: IW and Reincarnation Yeah, a lot depends on whether the afterlife is "pan-metaversal", or only applies to people/beings that die there, or only applies to natives. It looks like IW's metaverse is officially one of the latter two - which makes sense; too many magic systems and metaphysical setups would be excluded as possible parallels if one afterlife fit all possible worlds. Just stuff like the mind/brain dichotomy implied by psionic mindswap (or strong vs. weak AI questions brought up by high tech worlds with uploads, for that matter) bring up issues about what a conveyor actually does... Are the five components of your soul combined into one when you jump from Anubis-3 to Jesus-5? Then disappear altogether on a completely materialistic world? Is it held in storage somewhere until your body is in a physical universe which allows souls? Are your carbon molecules replaced by atoms of elemental earth if you jump to a world where Alchemy works? Does a Discworld wizard still see Octarine if he jumps to the Cabal's homeworld? Last edited by transmetahuman; 08-14-2008 at 02:42 PM.

08-14-2008, 02:50 PM	#5
LoneWolf23k Join Date: Sep 2004	Re: IW and Reincarnation Pyramid Magazine has an exemple of a world where reincarnation works: Lama-7: Past Future