Alright, some more dragon priest speculations after a convo with @a-tired-elf / @mamma-dragon (Because they are a bad/great influence)
We know that the dragur and dragon priest are not ‘cursed’ with undeath for worshipping the dragons. Presumably, it’s some sort of necromancy placed on them or their catacombs after death - which comes with a priest’s death, apparently. When a dragon priest dies, according to canon, all their followers are killed too.
So it would seem also that each new rising priest, to some degree, has to conscript their own followers. Deceased priests are buried with all their followers, who become draugr, and who give them fragments of a renewable shred of life force every day to sustain the priest’s lichdom.
So, it would seem, that dragon priests are the only ones who really get anything out of ultimately worshipping the dragons. Everyone else is just an accessory to their own immortality.
Maybe priests made new temples after the death of a previous priest, closing the old one and leaving their previous priest to their promised immortality before making a new temple for the new priest (assuming they are, in fact, segmenting regions into territories and assigning priests to them as a higher network of rule). I would also then assume that only the highest priests became truly immortal / liches, though maybe even the weaker ones would be buried with their closer batch of followers and still gain weak power from doing so.
Additionally then, maybe dragon cultists don’t go to Sovngarde. They all seem to be undead, which while that doesn’t usually seem to mean that they have souls, the fact that draugr still seem to be fairly intelligent and, according to the book Amongst the Draugr in game, “If we had visited a barrow directly after its construction, we might not have even known any of its inhabitants were dead!” (In regards to the condition of the bodies and their behavior).
So maybe all of the cultists, and priests especially, do not have an afterlife. Their afterlife is just an extended version of their normal life, which for the priests is probably great once they’ve finally awaken, and the cultists don’t really have much of a say in what happens. Additionally, maybe this plays into Alduin’s ability to go to Sovngarde? By worshipping the dragons, your soul doesn’t go on to Sovngarde - and, thus, Alduin won’t consume it. Maybe a facet of serving the dragons religiously had to do with the promise of eternal life and the promise of not having your soul consumed by your ur-god. Maybe Sovngarde wasn’t seen as the hall of heroes many nords and atmorans see it as, and was instead a sort of purgatory where you waited to get consumed by the World-Eater.
[Mahrzeleel and Soleryn discuss lichdom during a early visit in their relationship]
It was hard not for Mahrzeleel just to sit and stare. What else was he supposed to do while she was eating? Dinner was much more complicated and awkward than he last remembered, though he supposed the last time he’d had dinner he was both alive and alone. Now he found himself toeing some sort of line between talking too much and preventing Soleryn from eating, and not talking at all, leaving a awkward silence to fall between the two. If their whole situation wasn’t strange enough to begin with, this wasn’t helping.
Mahrzeleel jerked himself back stiffly, finally throwing his gaze to somewhere else in the room as he moved to rest his chin against his hand, trying his absolute hardest to be relaxed and natural. He could see Soleryn pause in her eating, glancing up from the spoonful of stew at the lich’s sudden movement. He didn’t have to look at her to tell she was feeling just as uncomfortable as he was, which only made him want to fidget more.
“So...” Soleryn began, trying to break the silence.
Mahrzeleel’s eyes flicked back to the paladin, the glowing energy leaving a trail in the dim light of the candles. Now he felt foolish for not being the one to break the silence, but at least one of them did it. He tilted his head slightly to the side, showing that he was listening.
“You don’t eat?”
What little remained of Mahrzeleel’s thin lips drew out into a line in the sunken hollows of his cheeks. “No,” he said simply, turning to face her fully as he arched a brow. “I am undead. I have no need to eat.”
“Could you eat if you wanted to? I’ve... heard some undead partake in meals even if it doesn’t do them any good,” Soleryn questioned, clearing her throat awkwardly with a dip of her head.
She was still trying to piece together what was myth and what was true about undead. He supposed it was admirable if she was truly interested in trying to pursue a relationship with him, all things aside. Or, she was looking for more information so that when she inevitably back stabbed him, she could at least return to the church with more accurate information about their foes. He brushed that thought aside with a dry chuckle, shaking his head.
“No. Vampires might, I suppose, but liches do not. I can’t exactly taste like I used to, and anything I did try to consume would just sit to rot in my stomach,” he corrected.
Soleryn made a face of disgust. “Well, I see why you wouldn’t then. Even drinks? Like a glass of wine?”
“Unless you want the holes in my face to become a fountain, than no.”
The mental image was both awful and humorous at the same time. “Do you miss it?”
Mahrzeleel tilted his chin up a bit in thought, stroking his thin fingers through his white beard in thought. “Yes, and no. I do not miss having to eat. I don’t miss the feeling of hunger, of having to remember that I need food to survive, of being cranky when I haven’t had enough to eat or having my hands shake because I missed another meal,” Mahrzeleel scoffed after a moment. “I don’t miss thirst. I don’t miss that awful dry feeling in your mouth on a hot day. I don’t miss feeling dizzy when you haven’t had enough to drink, or when your head pounds either. But I do suppose I miss the tastes sometimes, and perhaps the social event of eating, if that makes sense.” He trailed off for a moment, looking to the side into the darkness. “My colleagues and I would make a point of sitting down to have dinner together, and to discuss our findings and work. The familiarity of that has been... difficult... to replace.”
Soleryn frowned, setting her spoon aside. “We usually eat together as a group as well,” Soleryn muttered, moving to fold her hands in her lap as she looked down at the now mostly empty plate and bowl in front of her. “And it’s... been one of the things I like about being a part of the Brightscars. We would eat as a group most of the time when I was growing up as well, in the church. Honestly, this is one of the first times I’ve only eaten with one other person,” she admitted, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear.
Mahrzeleel’s sharp teeth clicked against each other. “I apologize that I am doing a poor job at contributing to that atmosphere, then. It’s quite different when you are eating with your companions, I must imagine.”
Soleryn looked up at him in surprise. “Oh, no, it’s not...” She cut herself off, pouting a bit as she tried to find the words. “I’m not doing any better. I’m... honestly used to letting other people lead the conversations. And the fact that you aren’t eating isn’t a problem. I hope that didn’t come across poorly...”
The lich shook his head. “I should be doing a better job at conversing with you, since I am the one who requested to court you in the first place. I can’t imagine anything more uncomfortable than eating in silence while your enemy stares at you from across the table under the pretense that this is supposed to be a... what do you call it these days...?” He tilted his head for a moment, scratching at a droplet of wax on the table with a finger. “A ‘date’, is it?”
Soleryn couldn’t help but snort, looking aside. “Well, I can’t deny that having dinner with my former enemy is... strange... but I believe you made it clear that I can leave whenever I want. And if I didn’t want to try to be here, I wouldn’t have come.” She looked back at him, taking a deep breath as a rosy hue crept into her cheeks. “Besides. I’m... interested in this relationship as well. I don’t know how you used to do it, but these days it’s as much your responsibility to reach out as it is mine. And I don’t think i’m doing a spectacular job myself.”
Mahrzeleel paused, looking up from the droplet. “Then we’re both on the same page then,” he chuckled. “At least there’s that.”
Soleryn smiled a bit, shifting before she nervously reached out to rest her hand on top of Mahrzeleel’s much colder one. “We can both work on it. Over more dinners.”
Those stories that we tell that keep us going… Man, sometimes they blind us. They take us to dark places – the kind of place where I might beat the crap out of a good man, just for the fun of it. The people who love me, they pulled me back from that edge. Once you touch that darkness … it never goes away. Now the truth is… I’M PAST SAVING. I know how my story ends. It’s at the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun. ( independent rp blog for dean winchester ; as told by livi. ) -- PERSONALS DO NOT REBLOG
Looking at the implied Hakuba/Akako in the recent MK chapter, I'm realizing Gosho's probably going to find a way to pair off the remaining teen characters. So for unpaired teen characters we have...Momiji, Masumi, Eisuke, Shiho, and Okita. We know that they aren't going to interfere with the existing pairings (Shinran, Kazuhei, etc.), so the most likely outcomes are...Momiji/Okita and Masumi/Eisuke. As for Shiho...I don't know, just give her happiness? Is she even going to take the antidote in the end?
I don’t... actually know D”: Originally, before the 2.0 rewrite, it was gonna end with Miraak and Casil turning into real dragons with Akatosh’s help and basically being sent to lead the dragons off to another land for... reasons (?). But that was like the ending i’d come up with like 3 years ago, and that was before Krosis was involved.
Now i’m thinking... it might end with Casil, Miraak and Krosis’s death. But i’m not 100% sure yet hhhhhHHhhhHHhh
