It is one thing to know thyself. It is another to know thy enemy.
To each of you I ask, what is death?
Personally I don't think Life and Death are that different (which you basically stated a few posts above willng3).
Death makes way for Life and they are very interconnected. Even though they are referred to as "opposing" elements in the game, I think the fact is that they are more like corresponding elements than opposites. They rely on one another and I think Thorn Carapace shows how that might be. After all, Life creatures do damage in order to defeat their opponent, so it is not as though Life knows no Death.
The difference really in the manifestation of their essence, rather than the essence itself. Life tends to be robust and healthy while Death is poisonous and unhealthy. Death in fact has elements of Life (though not as obvious as say scorpions). For example when creatures die with a Boneyard in play, new creatures (skeletons) are spawned. Although they are the dead remnants of previous creatures, their existence is a sort of second life. Vultures feed on death, but they are also growing, much like a Forest Spirit that gets watered.
And another way to think about it is that Death cannot exist without life. An inanimate object can never die. Only something that is alive can die. Therefore Death depends on Life. Similarly, Life has evolved to depend on Death for nutrients, to stop over population and to allow evolution.
Death is not Life's Enemy per say but its logical conclusion. The two play well together and though they struggle for superiority, the fact that they struggle keeps them in balance.
In fact the only thing you
have to do in life is die. So in that sense, Death is Life.
