Suffering and Death

Where it surfaces

• The Sayings of Slid

  Slid speaks of Death and Pain as creations of the small gods, and offers death as a gift when most needed, framing suffering as inherent to existence.

• The Deeds of Mung

  The chapter is entirely about Mung's role in death, the sorrow of leaving family, and the inevitability of the end.

• The Sayings of Limpang-Tung

  Limpang-Tung acknowledges the inevitability of death and sorrow, and his own inability to understand or prevent them.

• Of the Calamity That Befell Yūn-Ilāra by the Sea, and of the Building of the Tower of the Ending of Days

  Yūn-Ilāra's longing for death as a release from the toil of life and the cruelty of the gods.

• Of How the Gods Whelmed Sidith

  The chapter is steeped in the suffering of Sidith's people from pestilence, famine, and war, culminating in the destruction of the entire valley.

• Of How Imbaun Became High Prophet in Aradec of All the Gods Save One

  The vision is filled with men slaying men, pestilence, and the destruction of civilizations, culminating in a peace brought by the slayer.

• Of How Imbaun Met Zodrak

  Zodrak's gifts of gold, love, and wisdom bring poverty, grief, and despair, highlighting sorrow in the Worlds.

• Pegāna

  The entire chapter revolves around the question of what happens after death, and Imbaun's vision of Pegāna offers a comforting but fabricated answer to human suffering.

• Of How Imbaun Spake of Death to the King

  The chapter centers on the King's confrontation with mortality as pestilence sweeps Aradec, and the prophet's blunt affirmation of death's inevitability.

• The Bird of Doom and the End

  The final battle between Mung and Time, the rusting of the Sword of Severing, and the silence that drowns all worlds highlight the centrality of death and suffering in the end.