Friday 8 February 2002

Pic of the day: Porcupet Hammerfriend, resurrection man. Not exactly Jesus, though.

Rez plz

In Dark Age of Camelot, I have this character named Porcupet Hammerfriend. He is a cleric by class and an armorsmith by trade. For the last couple weeks (or is it more?) of real time, he has spent his time in the city of Camelot, making armor for the citizens. As an apprentice he started with lowly bronze armor and rawhide leather, and slowly worked his way upward.

This week, he was finally able to make the almost perfect armor for a level 10 cleric. (In DAoC, there are limits to what each class can wear at different levels. But even then, few can afford to wear the best all the time.) He had also earned enough money for the raw materials, and then some. Now he set out for the Tomb of Mithra, a place where he knew there is great need of clerics.

In the Tomb (a dungeon with level 10++ undead) he soon became known as a "rezzer", someone who can resurrect the slain. (While death is not final in DAoC, it is certainly inconvenient.) While he was still fighting small undead near the opening, people he didn't know started to send him private tells asking him for a resurrect. (Rez plz = resurrect please.) Of course, few of them had the good grace to die near the entrance. Instead they had gone down in the deeper areas, infested with more dangerous critters. Fighting his way there was hard enough, and sometimes he had to give up. Other times he arrived and resurrected the hapless people. They thanked him, and moved on.

Nobody offered the rezzer any kind of reward, which is OK because he did not need it anyway, having prepared himself as he did. Nor did he ask for anything. But more irritating, nobody offered to escort him back up to the safer levels. Even in those cases where he politely asked, they just ignored him and hurried on with their own things, to advance their own person. Leaving him to struggle and quite possibly die for his good works.

***

In the religion I subscribe to (which is by no means considered an universal truth among my readers, I am well aware) the main story is about this guy, Jesus Christ. Evidently he spent like his first 30 years on Earth as a mostly normal guy, working presumably as a carpenter (this was the family business). All the while he was silently preparing for his life's real work: To bring resurrection to humanity.

According to Christian lore, Jesus fought temptations, demons, even Satan himself. He descended to the kingdom of the dead in order to free those who were in need of release. He died so we could be resurrected. Or so the story says. (I bet my Jewish reader would disagree. You atheist probably could not care less. But use your imagination for a moment.)

You'd think we'd react with a little more overwhelming gratitude than just a simple "rez plz". But I must admit that human nature is not a whole lot different from that. It tends to not be long before thoughts return to personal gain.

There is of course the significant little detail that in a physical sense at least, resurrection for us is still a thing of the future. It may be that we secretly think "he who dies, will see" - perhaps it won't work after all. Officially we don't think so, of course. But what says Shaw? "What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts." That is a disturbing thought. Now, the guy who said it was a goddamning heathen, if memory serves. But even so, it is self-evidently true.

***

There are good news, though. Despite all, Porcupet contimued to resurrect the slain, when they were in such a position that this was possible. Because he is an avatar of me, and that's just the kind of guy I am. Somehow I don't think my God is morally inferior to me. Yes, I used to think so, back when I believed that He enjoyed barbequeing people in Hell. But not any longer. Besides, I don't think it is just a game to Him.

But just to be sure, I don't think I will go too far away in my search for experience.