Editing Sigil:Korda (section)

== Death Is Not Korda's ==

Grey Priests are careful to distinguish Korda from death itself because the difference has consequences for how people understand tragedy. A healer cannot bargain with Korda for another year of life, because the year is not his to give. A murderer cannot excuse a killing by saying Korda desired the victim, because the killing was the act of a mortal hand. A child who dies of fever has not been “called by Korda.” Disease killed the child; Korda's part begins only when medicine, prayer, and every human effort have failed.

This gives the Grey Temple a theology of grief that can be unusually plainspoken. Priests do not comfort mourners by insisting that every death was somehow intended. Some deaths are natural, some preventable, some cruel, and some criminal. The world contains disease, accident, violence, and age because mortality was built into creation by the Makers, not because Korda chooses individual endings according to some hidden plan.

His mercy is different.

No matter how the death came, the traveler should not make the next part of the journey alone.