we just continue to live on this planet as if this is fine. fucking psychopaths.
It’s easy to call people in the past foolishly superstitious but if I didn’t know what physics were??? Like if I had no concept of atoms or magnetism or gravity or electricity? And sometimes the sky just did this? I, too, would be like “Well that’s not just happening by itself. Clearly something is mad at us.”
For those who align themselves with the element of Lightning in life, they can look forward to the adventure and excitement of forever journeying on The Surprising Path when their mortal life comes to an end.
The first time I ever described The Surprising Path to Parrish (@professortallguy) here’s how I explained it to him:
“Think of a mix of all the fun parts from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and the Yellow Brick Road of Oz. It’s a never-ending journey along a path where the beings you meet and the situations you encounter are generated by the collective imaginations of all living beings in Alterra. Things get wacky, rules of reality are constantly broken, and no experience is ever the same twice. Those who journey on the Surprising Path need to think fast and be flexible, but they’ll never ever be bored!”
Basically, the idea is that for those who embrace the philosophy of Lightning, they desire constant stimulation and fun. They thrive on improvisation and novelty, and their biggest fear is boredom.
Now, a fear of boredom is a rather daunting challenge when designing an afterlife because how do you have any kind of experience that never gets boring after an ETERNITY?
One of the things I like best about The Surprising Path is the way that it interacts with those who are still alive. The fact that creatures and encounters there draw directly from the dreams of the living means that not only does it have a constant stream of new content, but that for those looking forward to this afterlife when they die, it puts a rather positive spin on nightmares.
Here’s another excerpt from my initial concept shared with Parrish:
“While still alive, one of the motivations some Lightning mages may have to seek out novelty is because the more new experiences they give themselves to fuel their imaginations, the more their imaginations fuel the fun for those currently traveling the Surprising Path.”
“It’s so sad that your friend died doing something so reckless and foolhardy."
"Are you kidding? Did you see that explosion?! What he did will inspire the imagination of thousands for generations to come. He’s going to have SO MUCH FUN on the Surprising Path!!"
One of the things that I enjoy the most about the concepts for the Elemental Heavens is that they are all most definitely specialized experiences. While The Surprising Path is heaven for those aligned with Lightning, it would probably seem like some kind of hell to someone aligned with an element like Ice or Earth. And that’s just fine, you know? After all, they’ve got their own heavens too.
1. His Motorbike, Her Island (Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, 1986) 2. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) 3. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980) 4. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992) 5. Inazuma (Mikio Naruse, 1952) 6. Ulysse (Agnès Varda, 1983) 7. Les paumées du petit matin (Jean Rollin, 1981) 8. The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1957) 9. Espíritu sagrado (Chema García Ibarra, 2021) 10. Sad Gadolf (Isao Yamada & Yumekichi Minatoya, 1984)
