Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Dying Ezar took comfort in atheism. In Wot5G someone like Ezar could choose sundering for fear of the unknown or judgement. How judgmental are the gods? The Bastard’s Hell is mentioned, is that where souls taken in the death miracle go? Anyone else? The Bastard takes those the other gods won’t, thieves, prostitutes, etc, but Des said there are those too vile like the psychopathic bandit chief. How many are too vile?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Bastard's Hell is simply insta-sundering, a soul boiled down to chaos, all information lost. Humans for whom this does not seem revenge enough make up more artistic interpretations to tell each other, for consolation or threat, but that's not from the gods.
The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into themselves to become part of themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)
Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.
No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. It follows that most souls taken in the death miracle are such toxic persons. (It's technically possible for both souls to be insta-sundered, or rendered, and also for both to be sorted to gods who want them, but far more often the supplicant-soul just goes on to unite with the Bastard like any other of His portion, and the target-soul is boiled down.) Note that this is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into.
As for "how many", you are asking me to decide how many people there are or ever have been in this world, and make a god's eye taste-test of each, which seems too large as task before my second cup of tea.
(If you are asking "what proportion", the taste-test problem still applies. But the gods do try not to waste their food.)
Ta, L.
The Bastard's Hell is simply insta-sundering, a soul boiled down to chaos, all information lost. Humans for whom this does not seem revenge enough make up more artistic interpretations to tell each other, for consolation or threat, but that's not from the gods.
The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into themselves to become part of themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)
Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.
No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. It follows that most souls taken in the death miracle are such toxic persons. (It's technically possible for both souls to be insta-sundered, or rendered, and also for both to be sorted to gods who want them, but far more often the supplicant-soul just goes on to unite with the Bastard like any other of His portion, and the target-soul is boiled down.) Note that this is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into.
As for "how many", you are asking me to decide how many people there are or ever have been in this world, and make a god's eye taste-test of each, which seems too large as task before my second cup of tea.
(If you are asking "what proportion", the taste-test problem still applies. But the gods do try not to waste their food.)
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
leona
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi, do you write in chronological order or just write which ever idea speaks out to you the most?
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