A basic and ancient belief of the Capthraw, and the foundation of our dominant religion, was the concept of "Proximity Reincarnation." In other words, a Capthraw soul wanders the after-life in search of the next physical incarnation, within a relatively small area of space and time where their physical body died. It was believed that death was a passage through a door to the after-life. This after-life, it was said, was a period of "recharging" in preparation to re-entry to the material plane. So that life and after-life were inextricably connected. The physical body dies, and the soul recharges for a while on the spiritual plane. But few can remain here, since the soul is also recharged spiritually by life on the physical plane. Hence the countless reincarnations of countless souls over the eons of time. To re-enter the life plane intact from a previous incarnation, the soul must do so through the breach created at death. This breach dissipates with time until the soul is no longer capable of easily returning. If the soul has adapted sufficiently to survive, it will do so. Very few do. Most are returned to the cosmic whole, like a drop of fresh water being deposited into the ocean. To retain any semblance of individuality, the soul must return to the physical plane or face eternal annihilation as a discrete entity. The hope is to find a sentient physical host that will have the facilities to learn and remember the reality of life. Otherwise the soul comes back to a physical life as some non-sentient being, such as lower forms of animal or even plant life. Lessons learned over thousands of incarnations can easily be lost in a single lifetime. The Capthraw as a whole believe this, and have traditionally striven to conceive new life within the physical area that an honored ancestor had passed on, in hopes that they will re-enter to reincarnate as their own descendants. Entire cults and whole societies evolved around this belief, in that their members and citizens believed that they would be virtually immortal, as long as the entrance and exit of both the physical and spiritual planes remained in close proximity to one another. The actual physical distance was never fully established, and was thought to vary in size depending upon certain local conditions such as planetary mass, solar radiation and magnetic fields. This belief was very relevant in the pre-technological world of Thrawn. The ruling class of ancient Thrawn was a society of mystics who strove to procreate in the death chambers of antiquity. As Capthraw society evolved, a complex system of public "hospice" centers was established, where the dying would go to spend their final hours. These were located in conjunction with the human equivalent of "honeymoon" resorts. Here newly wed Capthrawnian couples would congregate in hopes of conceiving wise children. The ruling classes had their own such places, where their own unique spiritual and(or) aristocratic line would carry on for ages to come. Once the Capthraw culture spread throughout the world, and then off-planet, the old beliefs went with them. The various colonies looking to fortify their new worlds with like-minded inhabitants, encouraged the visitation of dying kin. Especially if those Capthraw were of a similar spiritual, economic or social status as the whole. The resulting colonies on Seerae and elsewhere did in fact become little microcosms in this manner. Conversely Thrawn remained until the Great Shower, a bastion of diversity that was matched nowhere in the Capthraw Empire. After the Great Shower removed that diversity, the isolated colonies continued on within a closed spiritual loop, which in many case spiraled in on itself. Once the Dravpheim Geneticists re-established sentient life back on the damaged home world, the process again continued. The great cosmic wheel of life and spirit, like a celestial shape-shifter, undulated through millions of years to end up here and now. And it is still spinning. What was once Capthraw has now become Human. Lessons once forgotten are being re-learned.
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