Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  10525
Title: a book entitled, 'To Turn Away the Unliving'

This slim book is only a few pages.  It appears to be a primer for clerics
and reads as follows:

To Turn Away the Unliving

written by Falsta, priest-mage of Shadowfax

translated by Gawain, royal alchemist of Trinsic

All living creatures have the spark of deity within them and have the
potential to become gods.  Of course, the vast majority of creatures never
live up to that potential, but what it means is that living creatures
unconsciously project what little divine power that they generate.  Living
creatures constantly project this divine energy outward, and this is the
power that is harnassed and accumulated by deities to perform miracles and
improve themselves.  The divine power of non-sentient creatures and
sentient beings who do not worship any particular god can be collected by
any deity.  Sentient beings who worship a particular deity project their
divine power directly to that deity while they think about that deity. 
This is why churches of the various gods teach ritualistic behaviour such
prayer and ceremonies that encourage followers to think about their god and
therefore further empower him.

What the skill of turn undead boils down to is a cleric's process of
manipulating his personal projection of divine energy by first invoking
strong thoughts about his god and then directing his willpower toward an
undead target.

The undead do not produce divine energy, which is also called positive
energy.  Instead, they constantly consume negative energy.  (Note:
"positive" and "negative" serve to distinguish one kind of energy from the
other and reinforce the fact that they are antipodes.  Their usage is
purely relative.)  A cleric who turns against an undead attempts to
interrupt or negate its ability to consume negative energy.   Primarily,
the skill turns undead away (hence the name "turn undead") and holds them
at bay, but it can damage and even destroy them if the turn is performed
well enough.  Undead so damaged stop whatever they are doing and
instinctively retaliate against the source of their discomfort, if
possible.

Intelligent undead might be pious, cast cleric spells or fancy themselves
priests and even endeavour to further their deity's goals, but their chosen
god does not receive any divine power from undead worshippers.  Instead,
knowledge of cleric lore helps an undead bolster itself against attempts to
turn it.  Artifacts which improve the casting power of clerics can also
improve a cleric's ability to overcome an undead's resistance to turning,
however, they are no substitute for the cleric's faith.  The strength of a
turn undead is completely dependent on a cleric's personal relationship
with his deity.  The stronger that tie, the stronger the cleric's turning
will be.

Turning undead does not require the active intervention of a deity,
although it is believed that a god might notice the momentary lack of
reception of god power from a cleric follower.  The interaction of positive
energy against undead is simply the nature of divine energy.  Clerics
without a patron god can turn undead.  Also, this is why even priests who
worship gods that encourage the creation of and co-mingling with undead can
turn them.  Undead, of course, cannot turn one another.  Their very nature
denies them this ability.

Positive and negative energies are constantly moving about all of creation.
Occasionally, a cleric may get lucky when performing a turn and chance upon
a large pocket of positive energy that intersects with his own beam of
divine energy, which can cause a surge in that cleric's turn attempt. 
There is no way to detect or predict these surges, but they usually result
in the utter annihilation of the undead target.