Taravangian and Death

[ParaTulip fae/faer (declines as she/her)]

Building off some ideas I had here and thinking of the scene where Taravangian suffers the minor loss of not being able to capture the real Dalinar as his commander, I am wondering if we might see him try to craft an afterlife that all of his subjects will be let into as a way to circulate souls. So far, I think we have only seen the Beyond and Braize as potential destinations for souls after death, the former being seemingly the natural order of things and Braize being a kind of hellworld for the Heralds where the Fused play the role of demons. I assume he is going to need to create some kind of hell for the simple reason that he must carry out the Intent to bring down Retribution upon those he rules, but at the same time it is not as if he cannot dispense blessings.

So, this is what came to me as a thought for how this might go, but I would love to hear other ideas from people if some variation or alternative makes more sense.

The first part of this would be introducing something like Amitābha tradition in Buddhism. Those who worship Retribution would try to, as often as they can, and especially when they feel they are near death, recite a prayer to invite the power of Retribution to guide them to their souls to whatever destination his judgement deems fit. I thought something like this would be a fitting idea of what that prayer might sound like:

Spoiler

God of all worlds, master of my soul, whose names are Honor, Odium, and Retribution:  Please hear my plea.

Though I am imperfect, as all things save you are, I throw myself upon your judgement. Please visit it upon me.

Let my soul not be lost as an instrument of your will, of your perfect desires. Please empower me to aid thee.

Give me that which I am owed: all punishments that I have failed to receive. Please make me a better servant.

When I am shaped to your will, when I am as you wish me, when all is right, please let me sing glory to your first name.

I think this hits on key themes of pleading and begging humbly before a god and praises Taravangian's drive to remake the world as he wills it. I imagine this prayer invests the person with Investiture that carries the objective of ensuring their mind and soul are delivered as Taravangian wants, but it needs to be repeated regularly since the Light form Investiture will leak out of people over time. Each phrase also has two parts, reflecting Taravangian's nature as the one god who is two, except the final line which unites both phrases into a single sentence.

The highest reward Taravangian can possibly give someone is to become a child of Kharbranth, as such a person is exempted from all of Odium's wrath by the oath between Taravangian and Odium. In order to ensure Kharbranth does not simply become a city of the mad, I would imagine that he could separate those given this form of reincarnation from their memories while they are children, having them relearn them by being read books which contain the stories of their past life. Combining this with sufficient therapy and time, this sort of gentle life could restore the integrity of souls without making them lose their valuable memories forever. Now, obviously being read a story about a thing and living through it are different, but I am assuming the magic that would be involved in this would allow the forfeited memories to return as experiences instead of just a telling. The end of this existence is something people would have to opt into, and that elective action would take the form of a prayer:

Spoiler

King of this holy city, Taravangian, I ask for your leave.

Thou hast made a perfect realm, all but one subject here is perfect.

I alone am at fault; I am restless in your city of paradise.

By Honor's name, grant me the pain of leaving this most holy land.

Until that life is spent, until your will is done, I wish to leave this place.

This one extends the form of the prior prayer by also having 5 elements. Again the structure of a line with two parts is here, except in the ending where the praying subject's will is the third party to the prayer. The prayer is to Taravangian and Honor because Odium cannot be brought to do any form of harm, which might include the harm of sending into danger, to a child of Kharbranth.

Now, there is the matter of the punitive outcomes.

The first of these would be the punishment for those who have said the first prayer, seeking to escape death, but have failed to do acts of service. Those who say they wish to be servants of their god but fail to serve have minds which are impure and would be subject to divine punishment. Taravangian does not need to invent the form of this punishment from nothing: It would be a state or akin to slaveform. I imagine that the end of this form of life is given one of the souls departing Kharbranth is reincarnated using the body as a vessel. Assuming Taravangian is still the kind of person who turned the poor of his kingdom into a resource for extracting prophecy, I imagine him implementing something like stack-cullling (I think that is the name of the business practice), where he simply inflicts this on some proportion of the least productive members of society who are of adult age.

Since he doesn't want to lose souls forever, I imagine there would be a prayer that parents would say either as their child is gestating or as a kind of baptism, where they ask to be allowed to be part of the perfecting of the world by having the chance to raise a soul which failed to be worthy of paradise up to be more able. I could imagine that most of their memories are wiped on each go around, to prevent souls being broken down by the pains of death or retaining bad habits, but some useful memories are kept in hazy ways to try to build something useful.

Below that outcome would be turning people into shades which hunger for the investiture of other Shards. This is for those who are not just slothful, but either false in their faith or glutinous in their resource consumption. These spirits would be either let to die forever after they are dispersed or it's the same as the other modes of reincarnation where they are given to be raised by faithful parents.

I admit, I have no idea where an actual hell besides Shadedom would be useful or meaningful, but it does feel a bit wrong that there is not such a place. I do feel like the Odium part of Taravangian would demand such a thing, but maybe the shade and slave punishments are enough for it.

Thanks to anyone who read all of this, and additional thanks in advance to anyone who has comments on these ideas. Do you think you could come up with ways to make the prayers have good scantion or a more poetic form?