ComingBack

When Dead Don't Last

Temporary Deadness and You

(Yes, I know it has him adventuring as a twelve-year-old. I'm too lazy to edit the graphic again)

In general, spells to bring people back from the dead are few and far between. Very few, and very far between. Coming back from the dead is a momentous, powerful, once-in-a-lifetime event. As noted in the AfterLife page, reincarnation does exist, so coming back from the dead is actually throwing a small wrench in the gears of the gods.

To a normal peasant, hearing that someone came back from the dead would inspire thoughts of vampires and zombies, not miracles. Only a few stories involve the hero coming back from the dead the actual-living sense of the term, and they are generally not happy stories. There's the story of the mad priest of Continuance who so hated death that he raised the villagers around him as they died of old age and sickness. Over the years the village became a dark, cursed place, full of hatred and emptiness. Only when a paladin of the OlderSister came and showed the mad priest the error of his ways, were the villagers able to live out the rest of their lives and die in peace.

Along with that, consider the fact that the OlderSister is not evil. Death is considered the beginning of a journey, and while missing someone is completely understandable, and mourning them is obviously going to happen, trying to bring them back is generally considered unhealthy for both you and them.

Of course, in the adventuring life, exceptions are made. Adventurers are playing with the threads of fate and all that, and it's only natural that they get a few extra chances, that they can slip between the cracks of prophecy. Nevertheless...

Being known as a Raised Individual has social consequences

• You are generally considered as having passed out of any inheritance you may have had coming. A noble who dies and is given the miracle of renewed life is required to pass his title on, just as if his death had not been undone. Such nobles usually either go the route of paladin, cleric, or monk, trying to find a new purpose through meditation and faith in the deity who brought them back.

• Average peasants are going to be scared of you.

• Certain religious fanatics will consider you an abomination of similar status with undead. Extreme sects of the OlderSister, for example, are known to hunt down those who were raised by priests of some other deity, intruding upon the OlderSister's domain.

Being raised has personal consequences

• Level loss. Duh.

• As far as is generally known by sages and those with knowledge in religion, those who have been raised from the dead cannot have children.

• Finally, being raised multiple times carries a risk of madness. It's a journey that few people should make more than once.

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