D&D General A weird idea for a setting where raise dead/resurrection is used for finite death sentance punishment

[Henadic Theologian]

okay say you have civilization that can cast raise dead, but they also have the death penalty for all kinds of crimes, you could have people sentenced to death for finite periods of time, at the end of which they get resurrected.

Do say a simply thief is killed and left deaf for two years before being raised from the dead, a rapist is left dead after execution for 10 years then raised from the dead, and murderer is raised from the dead 100 years after their execution, and a serial killer is raised after 1000 years, and someone guilty of genocide they just leave dead.

This replaces prisons in sentencing, so anything beyond what would net you a fine, is an execution and a sentence for how long you stay dead before the state brings you back to life.

Thoughts?

 

[Scribe]

Where do you store the bodies.
Why do they not ascend/descend to whatever afterlife awaits them.
What is gained by killing them, instead of forced labour or something.

 

[jgsugden]

This is essenially banishment. Why not just baish people? What is achieved here that is not achieved by banishment?

 

[Ixal]

When there is a famine or war you will see a huge spike in easily solvable thefts...

 

[Umbran]

What is gained by killing them, instead of forced labour or something.

That depends on what happens to them in the afterlife, and what they remember of it.

Like, if they go to The Bad Place, and get brought back, and remember, they have a serious idea of what's waiting for them if they don't mend their ways.

Of course, if you leave them there too long, they get a serious hate on for you for leaving them in The Bad Place, where they've been tortured for however long. They may decide to take it out on you. Or they may be suborned by demons under that torture.

So... maybe don't leave them dead all that long...

 

[Maxperson]

okay say you have civilization that can cast raise dead, but they also have the death penalty for all kinds of crimes, you could have people sentenced to death for finite periods of time, at the end of which they get resurrected.

Do say a simply thief is killed and left deaf for two years before being raised from the dead, a rapist is left dead after execution for 10 years then raised from the dead, and murderer is raised from the dead 100 years after their execution, and a serial killer is raised after 1000 years, and someone guilty of genocide they just leave dead.

This replaces prisons in sentencing, so anything beyond what would net you a fine, is an execution and a sentence for how long you stay dead before the state brings you back to life.

Thoughts?

You'd have to fundamentally change the way raises and the afterlife works. First, people can and often do opt to just stay in whatever afterlife that they are in, so it can become permanent for a simple theft. Second, people don't remember their lives while they are in the afterlife, so from the perspective of the dead serial killer, he's basically blacked out for a moment and is then being set free 1000 years later. That's a pretty good deal. You'd need to make it so that people remain themselves in the afterlife, which would make 1000 years as a Lemure or whatever pretty unappealing. And then what happens if the soul becomes a Lemure and is then killed before the raise happens?

 

[Umbran]

When there is a famine or war you will see a huge spike in easily solvable thefts...

Unreliable. If they don't survive the famine or win the war, you aren't coming back. The survivors are going to raise their own long before they'll raise some petty thief.

 

[Umbran]

Do say a simply thief is killed and left deaf for two years before being raised from the dead, a rapist is left dead after execution for 10 years then raised from the dead, and murderer is raised from the dead 100 years after their execution, and a serial killer is raised after 1000 years, and someone guilty of genocide they just leave dead.

Note how few documents, or even cultures, survive a thousand years. We'd have to question whether anyone is going to remember, or care, to raise you after a millennium. Or even a century.

 

[jdrakeh]

There's a story by S.P. Somtow called "Hunting the Lion" set in ancient Rome where a necromancer is using raised bodies of the recently deceased as gladiatorial combatants. I don't recall them being resurrected, though. In fact, IIRC, it's a detective story and the body trade is the crime. Still might be an interesting place to draw some ideas from.

 

[Umbran]

Still might be an interesting place to draw some ideas from.

So might the movie Demolition Man.