~Vaezei~ - Thoughts on Lashunta Afterlife

Lashunta have one word ~vae~ that means both life and soul. There is no difference. Since ~vae~ is energy, it does not end, but merely transitions via ~karae~ - death - to a new state.
The earliest Lashunta belief in an afterlife, as reflected in the most ancient legends from the Age of the Warrior-Queens, held that souls of the dead dwell within the sacred ~Eazue~ milk-trees, which stems from these psychoactive megadendra giant trees copying people’s memories, which are then accessible to a an attuned tree-singer priest. This ancient belief is reflected in the phrase ~hisianassi eazurru~ - to rise back to the trees, alluding to the Lashunta creation myth that they were first born from trees. Many rituals in Lashunta society still revolve around this assumption. Infants are presented to either the hometree or a city’s soultree shortly after birth, to be recognized as part of the community. Settlements and households regularly seek communion with their focal milk-trees as part of ~Ialeazi~ - Treesong, typically held on the first day of each 18-day month, whereby their recent memories may be uploaded.
During the Age of the Sage-Queens, philosophers expanded the concept of the Tree-Communion afterlife, to that of ~Vatheia~ - the World-Soul, the psychic animus of Mahaere / Green-Mother, which is the deified personification of Castrovel. While life’s energy cycles through the planet, the World-Soul retains a copy of a person’s memories merged within the communal consciousness, which the most advanced psychics are able to reach, commune, and access. Thus the World-Soul has become the most commonly held (but not only) belief in a Lashunta Afterlife.
Also during the Age of the Sage-Queens, Lashunta first came into contact with Elven Reincarnation. On this topic philosophers became sharply divided. Many ancient sages, although they had less trouble accepting life as a tree, deemed the thought of coming back as an animal or another person as an abomination, effectively a curse of separation from the World-Soul. Others argued that, while one’s memories may or may not reside within the World-Soul, one’s life as energy nevertheless may recirculate as animals or other people, and thus the end is effectively the same. Some even accept the possibility a god may instill a past life’s memories into a new body, for a specific purpose. If a Lashunta believes they have memories of another life outside of their ancestral motherline (Lashunta babies can inherit their mother’s memories due to psychic imprinting before birth), this may be taken as a ~Thaul~ - omen/doom/portent that requires special examination. Depending on interpretation, it may result in an individual’s special ritual status, or may result in their banishment.
While examples of Lashunta being reincarnated as animals are a common theme in fables and literature, there is little more than fantastical precedent on how to treat such souls, most likely because, if it ever occurs, the difficulty in recognizing them. Examples include a normally untamable type of animal or monster being adopted by a community or becoming the totem of a beast cult. Beast cults, many of which exist in the hinterlands beyond the cities, may find it desirable or a mark of special fate to be reincarnated as their totem animal, and may practice rituals to attain that goal. Most cityborn Lashunta look disfavorably on beast cults as savage practices, although some have gained notoriety among wealthy, libertine circles, in places like Qabarat.
A very few Lashunta hold a nihilistic belief that their souls after death: ~Thosi lavyaea,~ - feed the darkness. What this may mean causes some debate. While many believe its merely refers to the utter end of one’s existence, others warn that the energy of one’s death rises to feed the darkness lying beyond Burning-Mother’s light, beyond Father-Night’s protective cloak, to the shadows lurking between the stars, who, a few whisper, will eventually grow to consume the Sun, the World, and all who dwell upon it.

Lashunta hold a varied and even conflicting beliefs about death and the afterlife, although they differ markedly from Golarion Human beliefs. While the River of Souls makes sense, they do not believe in Pharasma’s Boneyard or an ultimate eternity in their patron god’s realm. Souls are not motes of positive energy. Instead, Lashunta believe their lives and souls, like their bodies, are outgrowth cells of the World itself.