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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agemegos" data-source="post: 1505256" data-attributes="member: 18377">Perhaps the family want to know whether the deceased died of old age. If he or she died of another cause they will shell out for a Resurrection. But they don't want to blow the considerable cost of that spell only to have it fail because their granny died of superannuation.Or maybe the life insurance payout depends on whether the deceased died of natural causes/violence or through some cause to which his or her own behaviour was contributory. Eg if the fatal cough was brought on by smoking, the deceased's ex-employer owes nothing, but if it was brought on by miner's lung he or she owes a weregild to the deceased's family.The cause of death may give you time of death, and that could give you sequence of death, and that can determine several important points of law. For example, if the eldest son burned to death before the landowner died of smoke inhalation, then the second son has inherited from his father and the estate only owes one merchet. But if the landowner died of a heart attack in his bed before the fire started, then the eldest son inherited before he died, the second son inherited from his brother, and the estate owes two merchets.Under some circumstances and laws the sequence of death can even determine who inherits. If the eldest son was already dead before his father died then the provisions for a predecease in the father's will may come into effect. But if the father died first then the property may go to the estate of the son and then be distributed according to his will. Under some laws and conditions, even the succession to a title and public office may hinge on the sequence of deaths (not if the law provides for representative inheritance, of course, but that is a fairly modern arrangement).Another possibility is that religious law and custom might dictate that the funeral arrangements depend on the cause of death. For example, if a person has died as a result of the action of undead, it might be compulsory to bury the corpse in specially Hallowed ground. And the family might prefer that young Sir Michael be buried in the vault of their family chapel rather than jammed into the 'Vampire's Corner' of the graveyard at the Archtemple of Pelor. Hence they wish to estalished that he was killed by the Dark Priest's Cause Fatal Wounds spell and not by the archivambrite's soul-sucking slam attack.</blockquote>

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