D&D 5E How do royalty die in D&D?

[DammitVictor]

I assume with the 10-day deadline on raise dead that this represents some celestial bureaucracy, and a character's soul is always going to be "free to return" within that window unless someone or something had a claim on the soul. Gods are almost always willing to turn the souls of their servants loose, because a living servant is more useful than a dead one; it's only creatures that trade in souls, use them as currency, that get greedy.

Of course, this royally sucks for Warlocks, at least those with Fiend patrons.

 

[Quartz]

How about this:

After death, assuming the monarch isn't Raised immediately, they lie in state for a while, to give priests the opportunity to raise them. It could - maybe should - be part of the ritual that an attempt at Raising the monarch be made. Of course, a competitor to the throne could arrange to prevent entry by the clerics... If the monarch is Raised, then things carry on as normal; if not, the heir succeeds.

If you want to twist it, how about using Henry Kuttner's story The Secret of of Kralitz. The whole line is cursed to become undead on death! So the old monarch cannot be raised, and the new monarch has a terrifying curse!

For a specific tragedy, how about using the 3.5E Epic monster, the Blackball? The court wizard is showing off her new Sphere of Annihilation, when the SoA reveals it's really a Blackball - an annoyed Blackball - and sucks everyone and everything in.

 

[Ragmon]

Usually with some or complete help from the PCs.

 

[MechaPilot]

You seem to have pretty much all of them. There are really only so many ways people die when look at the broad strokes. The only one I can think of that you don't have is Natural Disaster (death as a result of fire, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, sinkhole, lightning strike, etc).

 

[Hussar]

Fire solves a lot of this. Think accident at the summer retreat. Something as simple as smoking in bed. Fire rages, building collapses and they never find a body. Accident? Assassins? Wandering dragon? No one knows.

 

[BigVanVader]

You seem to have pretty much all of them. There are really only so many ways people die when look at the broad strokes. The only one I can think of that you don't have is Natural Disaster (death as a result of fire, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, sinkhole, lightning strike, etc).

There's always Godzilla. Hard to get rezzed when you're kaiju droppings.

 

[MechaPilot]

There's always Godzilla. Hard to get rezzed when you're kaiju droppings.

Isn't there at least one spell that doesn't require the body? I might be thinking of a use of Wish, but I think there's at least one that can raise the dead without a body.

Also, the OP did clarify that he (presumably) was talking about ways that royalty could die and not ways in which to keep them from being raised.

 

[BigVanVader]

Isn't there at least one spell that doesn't require the body? I might be thinking of a use of Wish, but I think there's at least one that can raise the dead without a body.

Also, the OP did clarify that he (presumably) was talking about ways that royalty could die and not ways in which to keep them from being raised.

If somebody brought me back to life after Godzilla digested me and plopped me out on a field somewhere, and I was a king, I would crucify that person's babies.

 

[MechaPilot]

If somebody brought me back to life after Godzilla digested me and plopped me out on a field somewhere, and I was a king, I would crucify that person's babies.

In the game world I run, you probably would do that.

Explanation: Raising the dead in my game world isn't all clean and pretty. You have to trade a soul for a soul, so someone would have be killed for you to come back. Also, you remember. . . and it scars you. You'd probably have terrifying nightmares about the way you died for months or years. You might develop a fear of mouths, never being able to look at people when they eat or speak because otherwise you'd focus on those horrific, white, flesh-ripping (insert scream here).

 

[radja]

Don't rule out old age. The next person in line for the throne could be an incompetent nincompoop (you could name him Charles...), which would not be good for the kingdom. King kills his own son(or queen does, or he gets himself killed at sea, or eaten by a grue) after he had a child, child is now next in line for the throne.