The Culture of Death

"But the fear of death grew ever darker upon them and they delayed it by all means that they could; and they began to build great houses for their dead, while their wise men laboured unceasingly to discover if they might the secret of recalling life, or at least of the prolonging of Men's days. Yet they achieved only the art of preserving incorrupt the dead flesh of Men, and they filled all the land with silent tombs in which the thought of death was enshrined in the darkness. But those that lived turned the more eagerly to pleasure and revelry, desiring ever more goods and more riches..."

"Death was ever present... Kings made tombs more splendid than the houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king...had no heir."


And so, a once great kingdom fell to ruin, because its monarchs and its people spent so much energy avoiding death and pestilence, that they no longer lived their lives. The great cultural achievements of their forefathers were neglected fell into decay, and every new endeavor was corrupted by hedonism and fear of death. Lives became, if not shorter, more filled with fear. Lives were offered on an altar to Morgoth, king of Darkness, in exchange for an escape from death; an escape that was never granted. And when the people of Númenor became so enraptured by their own works, and forgot utterly from whom their gift of life came, their fall was complete, and their civilization destroyed.

Only four days left till the 34th Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
That's at least 1 in 4 people conceived since 1973 who never made it.
Tens of millions offered in darkness and in secret to Morgoth,
That others may live as they choose.