D&D General No Resurrections in the Bronze Age

[nevin]

Platinum is an industrial material that's only valuable cause it is very rare. Unlike silver and gold which are more desirable and would be more valuable if they were less rare. (Not enough of them to run an economy of the current size) It lacks a lot of properties that make it desirable, it won't tarnish, but it isn't as shiny and it is harder to work with for jewerly than gold silver and even copper.

I tend to prefer to run worlds on the silver standard, with electrum in platinum's slot and gold in the next tier (astral diamonds)

We didn't figure out how to smelt platinum till nearly the 1800's. Melting point is too high very rarely is it found close to surface and over 90 percent of it is in South Africa and another big chunk is in north america.

 

[nevin]

There are plenty of stones prettier than plain diamonds. Fancy coloured diamonds, for a start. Emeralds I can take or leave, for a green gemstone I prefer a nice tsavorite. Blue sapphires can be nice, but my favourite kind of corundum is padparasha sapphire.

in some cultures like the Danes and Swedes Clear diamonds are considered cursed stones. You won't see many diamond rings in those cultures.

Also pre 1600's colored stones like Citrines and golden pearls were far more in demand than diamonds. in fact diaomonds weren't even popular in Europe till the 15th century. Prior to that a very few localized area's valued them but they weren't popular or sought after world wide till they became valuable in Europe in the 15th century.
Prior to the 15th century you'd have had a hard time selling a diamond.

 

[nevin]

Well surely so! Prettier, too.

But do they ward off evil spirits? I think not!

according to scandanavian myths clear diamonds are cursed and attract evil spirits.......;-)

 

[nevin]

If there are deities then these should teach mortals the core of civiliation. Prehistoric "deities" would be kami or nature spirits who would rather the Nature and wild life more the arts by advanced civilitations.

Instead metal it could be ivory, shells, scales and leather by the most dangerous monsters to be hunted.

Other option could be reincarnation into an animal, and later this polymorphed into a humanoid shape.

nature spirits wouldn't teach you shells and stuff were valuable. They'd teach you how to forage, farm an maintain the environment. Money comes with the modern greedy gods. prehistoric civilizations would trade for rare pretty things they hadn't seen before or items they thought could be useful. Like flint, or copper for weapons, knives and tools.

 

[nevin]

Diamonds are fragile. You can break them to reveal facets. It's not as nice as cutting it like we do these days, but...

In 400 BCE they weren't digging up diamonds in a specific diamond mine for the purpose of having very hard, very brittle, very ugly rocks that they couldn't shape for their uses. So they had to know, even then, you could strike it to reveal the crystalline structure. Which is all that's needed to make it look pretty.

That said, I was also -wrong-. When I looked up "Earliest diamond jewelry" google secretly gave me earliest diamond wedding ring. In fact, diamonds had been used in talismans for over a millennia by that point to ward away dark spirits. These diamonds were broken apart into fairly decent approximations of d8s of crystal.

... which is so much cooler.

but they didn't dig up those diamonds. The places that had that jewelry had diamonds at the surface. They just found them already put there by mother nature.

 

[nevin]

Honestly I hate the way ressurection and Reincarnation are done in the books. Do what I do. Ressurections have to come directly from your god or a direct servant of the god in the appropriate outer plain ( unless some cleric already negotiated it for an item). Anytime one is requested cleric has to negotiate directly with the god or power who is granting it. let the cost come from the negotiation. If it's a True Ressurection then it's a direct negotiation with the GOD. Now in my world each True god (greater) has thier own area of total control. So if someone needs to be ressurected, unless you worship the god of death, then your god is going to have to negotiate the ressurection with that god so you can imagine how rare they are. There is a loophole in the laws of death and a god can "swap" souls from the realm of the dead with a living one but that means someone has to willingly pass on at the same time you are ressurecting your PC. If it's a heroic save the world thing some cleric might willingly negotiate or make that sacrifice. They can probably find a true believer that is ready to go to heaven. But if a rich king or party of adventurer's want such a thing then it get's harder.

Reincarnation on the other hand can be done by spell or ritual. It was made for those who have spirits who are connected to the natural world. Elves, fey, nature spirits, gnomes etc. If you are Reincarnated your soul is merged with the natural world and you can't be ressurected ever again. In fact in my world you won't come back as a human, orc, dwarf, halfling or any other creature tied to the river of souls that takes you to the afterlife. You'll become part of the Natural world and never go on to the halls of your ancestors. Reincarnating someone without thier permission could piss off any God that character was or is tied to or the god of death and create a personal crisis for those involved.

That's the way I deal with powerful magic. Go ahead change the world with a wish a minor change that doesn't affect anyone but you no problem. Some change that interferes with some power's portfolio they are responsible for? get ready for the consequences.

 

[Umbran]

I guess someone might have randomly dug up a diamond, and some 9th level cleric randomly paid them 10 pounds of gold for it, and then randomly tried waving it over a corpse while praying for them to come back. Seems unlikely though.

You are going with a model that says divine spellcasting magics are discovered by trial and error?

 

[RangerWickett]

You are going with a model that says divine spellcasting magics are discovered by trial and error?

Well, imagine you're the first ever god with a cleric. How are you supposed to know what to reveal to them about the ways of magic?

 

[MarkB]

Well, imagine you're the first ever god with a cleric. How are you supposed to know what to reveal to them about the ways of magic?

Omniscience?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

If we're following logic.... Magic, in general, is like futuristic technology. If you have the magic to raise the dead, you have magic available that will bust open the technological restrictions of whatever game age you're playing.

As a 9th level cleric you have access to the Divination and Commune Spells. If you want to Raise the Dead and the spell is available, but you're not sure how to get the components, these spells should allow you to figure out how and where to get the stones.

You also are likely to have either a druid or wizard in your party that can pull forth a burrowing elemental to fetch precious rocks beneath the soil. Low level spellcasters can shape water and move earth to mine relatively quickly, especially when walls of stone are then used to support tunnels.

A wizard's fabricate spell, in conjunction with proficiency in Jewellers tools could let you take raw diamonds and make them pretty or turn it to dust etc...