Need some ideas or advice on the roleplay direction of my cleric

[somecallmetim]

I am (or was) playing a cleric in an Eberron game. During the last session he was killed by a cloaker (or actually killed by the party trying to kill the cloaker). I am debating about bringing this character back. I love the character. I enjoy his personality, the way he interacts with the rest of the party, and his ultimate role in the world, but am having trouble justifying it in character

Perhaps I should give some background.

Ashen Lightbourne was the son of a paladin and a commoner mother. He witnessed the death of his entire family (mother, father, and young sister) when his mother inadvertently invited a vampire into their home on a dark and stormy night. Ashen was saved by a dwarven priest that had been tracking the vampire. The dwarf took the young boy as his ward and taught him the priestly ways of the Church of the Sovereign Host. Ashen, of course, grew up with a hatred of undead.

Several years later Ashen had a vision. He had a vision of himself and 5 others leading army against Asmodios (sp) (think LotR and the battle against Sauron). Shortly after the vision and a brazen assassination attempt on his life he left the church as the prophesized one.

Like I said before, Ashen hates undead. I don’t think he’d want to be Raised as it bring on too many questions for him (the dead coming back to life and all). The Halfling monk in the party is going to take him to the Undying Court (I think) to attempt to have him raised anyway. Because I like the character and because of the prophecy, I was thinking of the character coming back, but being forced to by a higher power. He will have been ripped away from his family once again.

I need help figuring out how this character would react. How would he feel about himself (living again after being dead)? How would he feel about undead now? Being torn away from his family again (leaving the happiest place he has known)? How would he feel about the prophecy? How would he feel about the gods? How about anything else I may have forgotten?

Or would there be a good reason this character would have wanted to come back? I’ve been trying to think of one, but I can’t seem to come up with a good one. He wasn’t ever overly happy having the “chosen one” status being thrust upon him, so I’m not sure he’d want to come back just for the prophecy. This is really sounding a little like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, isn’t it? But it didn’t intentionally become that

I know ultimately it’s all up to me and the DM (he does have other contingencies in case I don’t bring the character back), but I’d like some advice or ideas. Thanks.

Tim

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Quick note:

The plane of the dead in the Eberron campaign setting is NOT a Judeo-Christian, hang out with your family, bask in the love of your deity kind of place.

It's a grey wasteland, where souls shuffle around largely aimlessly.

 

[LeifVignirsson]

Hmmm... I think we are getting into a gray area here that is going to be debated on for a while...

Personally, I think that if the "prophecy" is true and Ashen is at the head of the attack, then the god should raise him with no questions asked. The god has a plan for him and a measly thing like having your party members kill you off is not going to matter. DM should do something like, "He isn't dead, he just slipped into a coma" or something...

The other angle is that you could come back as an undead character, go with the self loathing angle. Of course, you would lose your "paladin" status but at least it would have some flavor to compensate.

Really, I don't think resurrection (IMHO) is going to count against hating undead. It is if you were raised to be undead where you would have the problem.

But then, what do I know? I played with a guy who was a wizard and a cleric of life... He was obessed with not dying and hating the undead and took every avenue that he could to cheat death... That was also very interesting.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well for me, undead and raise dead are two different animals entirely.

Having been dead himself, the character should know what it entails and perhaps respect those that choose to go undead, or, having been dead himself, develop an even greater hatred towards them as they are cheating the natural way of life as being raised as a living being, as evidenced by the cleric's return, is possible.

Could lead to some interesting role playing if the cleric finds out that not everyone has a choice in the matter...

 

[Umbran]

The character is a cleric. Unless he has an odd lack of knowledge of clerical magic, he should be aware that raising the dead and making undead are two entirely different things. One brings those who were dead back among the lving, the other makes a mockery of life out of the dead.

On top of that, you've got a prophecied job to do, man! Who are you to question prophecy?!?

 

[somecallmetim]

Patryn – That’s interesting. I was unaware of that. This may change whether the character would want to come back or not. I don’t own any of the Eberron material myself. Where is that referenced? I’ll stop by the FLGS to read about that.

Leif – How exactly would you go about the self-loathing angle? How exactly would he act? Trying to get himself killed? He wouldn’t like who he is or his life, but how would that affect his actions and his interaction with others?

JoeG & Umbran – I agree undead and raise dead are two different animals, but the character may not be so sure. As far as the character is concerned, dead is dead, unless it’s undead Wouldn’t the cleric have cheated the natural way of life too? He should be dead after all.

While the character is a cleric, he is also young (19) and has never had experience with a person that is able to bring people back from the dead. Additionally, from my understanding, high level divine magic is fairly rare in Eberron. In fact, the DM has stated that if he is to be brought back the party will be forced to adventure to the Undying Court. From my understanding the Undying Court is basically a group of undead elves, possibly liches. How do you think the character would respond to being brought back to life by undead? Not to mention is he able to come to terms that there might actually be GOOD undead? Plus, if he’s never heard of people being brought back to life, wouldn’t there be a question about whether he is really alive and not really undead? And how does all these feelings affect his actions and interactions?

Sorry if I’m rambling. Thanks.

Tim

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Tim:

You can read a bit of it in the Eberron campaign notes that have been popping up on the Wizards site. To put it succinctly, one of the design goals of Eberron is that "Death sucks, and the PCs should want to actively work to avoid it."

The other place you can find it is in the discussion of ... Dol Urrh? ... the plane of the dead, in the magic section of the ECS.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

While the character is a cleric, he is also young (19) and has never had experience with a person that is able to bring people back from the dead. Additionally, from my understanding, high level divine magic is fairly rare in Eberron. In fact, the DM has stated that if he is to be brought back the party will be forced to adventure to the Undying Court. From my understanding the Undying Court is basically a group of undead elves, possibly liches. How do you think the character would respond to being brought back to life by undead? Not to mention is he able to come to terms that there might actually be GOOD undead? Plus, if he’s never heard of people being brought back to life, wouldn’t there be a question about whether he is really alive and not really undead? And how does all these feelings affect his actions and interactions?

Sorry if I’m rambling. Thanks.

Tim

Actually, the elves of the "Undying Court" are "deathless," which is the positive energy equivalent to undeath. Since they are fueled by positive energy, they are supposed to be good aligned. Essentially, they are good aligned liches.

 

[Spatula]

Eberron's plane where dead souls go is called Dolurrh? It's more of a greek Hades than a Christian Heaven/Hell setup.

The Undying Court is made up of deathless, which are elven positive-energy undead. Not that your character, who isn't even aware of raise dead (does he have no ranks in knowledge arcana? spellcraft?), would know much about that. Is your character an elf? The Court is supposed to be off-limits to all but a few select elves.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Also, the Undying Court isn't populated with Undead.

It's populated with Deathless - creatures preserved and animated through Positive energy, rather than Negative.