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Quirze remembers the preparations for Aroden's return. Places set aside for distinguished family members to return. Excitement tempered by uncertainty at exactly what form it would take. Corrections sent out as often and fast as mail travels by Aroden's church about rumors and misunderstandings of what Aroden's return will involve. The energy of the people was palpable. Even out in the countryside there was frequent spontaneous celebration, ecstatic fits, and spontaneous displays of fervor. His parents would gently remind him to stay attentive to his lessons in statecraft and sums and and sorcery but he could tell they share his distraction.
It all goes wrong and he dies several months after Aroden's intended return. He dies not in some battle, like many after him, but of dysentery, simultaneously throwing up and shitting out his guts. With the priest disempowered and the well running dry somehow he didn't see what else to do about it, but still it feels pathetic and vulgar as a way to die.
Axis is... pleasant. He would had hoped to see family, but many of his deceased relatives are in Heaven, a few are in Nirvana, and those actually in Axis are distracted by Aroden's district rapidly becoming defunct. With no material needs, he isn't in any danger, but the shortages in housing and comforts are upsetting. He awaits nervously as his family trickles in. His younger sister survives the dysentery that takes him, but dies a few years later of disease that would have been survivable with channels to get her through the worst of it. His brother dies nearly a decade later in some battle of the civil wars that follow Aroden's death. His father dies another decade after that, apparently personally dealing with bandits even in his old age. His father makes Heaven, so Quirze only gets this news second hand. His mother and aunt survive for some time, but both are sent to Nirvana, so again Quirze only learns of this indirectly.
As the years roll by, he finds himself drifting apart from what family did end up in Axis. He older brother wants to forget the material entirely and his sister is happy to cooperate with that. Despite all of Axis's wealth and comfort, or perhaps because of it, Quirze finds himself dissatisfied and aimless. He considers appealing to Milani for Elysium, but by some divine treaty or limitation there are only a limited number of slots, and he decides to leave it to the genuinely unhappy. He wants to do something important, but by divine treaty, even tiny influences and actions on the material are immensely expensive to purchase.
