The god you are suggesting is more a god of undeath, then a god of
death. IMO Nasri would be the closest thing to a god of death. I see her
as the one who releases the mortals from the pains of this world and the
helping hand to those who stay behind to cope with it. She is not the
judge of the dead though, nor the guardian of the traveling souls. That
task is for whatever deity the person was worshipping. And that task is
very important, because the Shadow World has become a barrier between
the realms of the gods and Cerillia. Without propper guidance, prayers
and the love of at least one god or godess the soul of the died person
would not be able to get through. The soul will lose it way and wander
around as one of the many undead in the Shadow World. Meaning that if a
person was not worshipping any god or behaving to differently from the
god he was worshipping in life, the soul would get lost in the Shadow
World. Of coarse, the exact view would differ between cultures. For a
Khinasi it might be Halaia who guards the soul on their travel on the
orders of Avani, who had judged the soul. Then again, it might be the
affair of only Avani. Her radiance might the guide through the dark
mists of the Shadow World. To the Anuireans it might be Healyn's eternal
vigilance against evil, that will protect the dead souls. Who knows what
the Brecht and the Vos believe...

Anyway, I could philosophying on this subject some longer, but I lack
the time :-)

Pieter Sleijpen

JNeighb934@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 04/01/99 18:29:03 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> GeeMan@linkline.com writes:
>
> Shadow World seems to have a lot to do with death. The Shadow World was once
> a place of great beauty, a magical world of fairie that paralleled the mortal
> world. But this power has gradually turned it into an underword of undead
> and decay. It is now Cerilia's world of the dead, a place of unending shadow
> and darkness, and it seems that at least many of Cerilia's evil souls end up
> haunting the Shadow World after departing their mortal frame. But probally a
> lot of other souls get sucked into that dark place as well, and corpes that
> lay peacefully buried in the mortal world exist simultaneously in the Shadow
> World, carrying out the wishes of their new master. Perhaps even all souls
> that are not favored by the new gods to pass on to their various domains are
> sent to the Shadow World, maybe escorted there by grim reapers? This evil
> power, with such strong ties to death and undead and the power to corrupt an
> entire demiplane of existence, is most likely at least some dark lesser or
> demi-deity or perhaps even a powerful tanar'ii lord. These are just rambling
> thoughts, but it seems to me that the Shadow World and the "Cold Rider" can
> certainly qualify as Cerilia's World of the Dead and god of death. How about
> Orcus as the Cold Rider? Maybe the Wand of Orcus had been hidden from him in
> that world and he slowly turned the place into a death zone so now his undead
> minions can freely roam to look for it?
> And is Azrai really dead? Is it possible that he survived Deismaar? Perhaps
> he retained some small part of his essence, although his power was greatly
> reduced and he is now just a shadow of his former self (no pun intended)?
> Ever since he has been plotting a return to glory and divine supremacy. I
> wonder if he is still alive because the priests of the Adurian Empire are
> getting their powers from somewhere, right? And they still worship Azrai.
> Same goes for the Hand of Azrai of the Gorgon's Crown.