Raise Dead and its Social Implications

In regards to royalty and assasination, some kingdoms in my world have ancient edicts that prevent kings from being raised. Anyone who has ever been raised is also ineligible to rule these lands; the reason behind this being that some very few people come back from the dead slightly different or changed and no one wants the risk of such a person as a ruler. Legends tell of a ruler who once was raised, but was actually an extraplanar creature that inhabited the king's body and wreaked all sorts of havoc. So this makes the threat of assasination still there without resorting to ultra rare epic means. Of course, some rulers may try to spurn the old laws and make plans to be raised before anyone finds out they were ever dead. This means many assasinations take place in very public places, and more paranoid rulers are loathe to leave the safety of their castles. Just some ideas that keep such things interesting.
 

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Altamont Ravenard said:
What I'd like to do with the Raise Dead mechanic is make people fear it, because it has a chance of "changing" the character that's brought back (think Pet Cemetary).

This is a cool idea, too. I might pass this one on to my friend who runs Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I don't *think* this system allows you to raise dead (well, my GM's never used it) but it does have Fate Points. Fate Points basically allow a character to avoid death. Now I've had 2 different WFRP GMs and both have treated this differently. For one, if you use a Fate Point, then -- wham! bham! -- there is devine intervention and you're back to full health and teleported to a safe location. To the other, the use of a fate point merely means you've only got just enough health back to survive.

But anyway, I think the Pet Cemetary idea might be good for their WFRP games because characters can come back with Chaos mutations, maybe.

Arcana Unearthed has a spell called Raise the Dead. Can anyone tell me how this differs from the raising spells in the PHB?
 

In my worlds the impact of raise dead and such is not that great as onlly a ver very few special souls choose to return from the afterlife. The only people who choose to return to life are the very important people who are driven beyond what most mortals can comprehend.
 

Deadguy said:
I've always liked playing with the consequences of raise dead type magic in D&D campaigns I have run.[/i]

You've got some great ideas there. I might steal some for my own game.

Thanks, my fellow lich. :D
 

And let us not forget that Sci-Fi is not immune either.

In games like Paranoia and Judge Dredd *I think* PCs can be brought back using cloning tanks. ;)
 
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My answer has been to remove the spells raise dead, resurrection, and true resurrection from the Cleric spell list and put them into a new Domain called Life. That helps keep them from being too accessible.

Something else I have used in the past (1st & 2nd Edition games) is the "a life for a life" approach: the caster must be willing to trade his/her life for that of the one to be returned.

Currently, I think I would make that a "total life energy" trade. In other words, to bring back a 5th level character, 5 levels of life energy must be sacrificed to appease the god of death and "pay for " the return.
 

dead said:
You've got some great ideas there. I might steal some for my own game.

Thanks, my fellow lich. :D

You are most welcome; use away (that's always gratifying to me). I like considering the applications of D&D magic on the social fabric of a game world. And raise dead always feels the most world-changing, since we really have no comparison in this world.
 

Silveras said:
My answer has been to remove the spells raise dead, resurrection, and true resurrection from the Cleric spell list and put them into a new Domain called Life. That helps keep them from being too accessible.
My own take was to give them only to specific (and usually non-combative) Prestige Classes.
 
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Last time I was fooling around with this stuff I provided that the druid spell Reincarnate reincarnated the dead person's soul, clean of memories, in a new conceptus. That made it a very valuable adjunct to assassinations.

In my campaign there had previously been a High-Elvish empire, which had provided an established church in which every proper church had a wondrous item providing several Raise Deads per day, and others providing Cure Diseases, Heroes' Feast (1/day); each diocese had a wondrous item (stole, usually) that provided several Resurrections per day and another providing five Remove Curses, and each archdiocese a catafalque that provided five True Resurrections per day. The Church had therefore been able to provide an impressive level of pastoral care very cheaply.

But the Empire and its collectivist/manorial economy had collapsed and been overrun mostly by Druidic tribal people who disapproved of preventing the dead from moving on. The magical treasures of the churches had, many of them, been stolen, destroyed, or desecrated. As elves had left their positions in the Church hierarchy various mortal religious reformers had taken over, and the new priests and bishops who actually still had these wonder-working vestments and vessels were rather inclined to use them only for the benefit of faithful and obedient parishioners. Some people thought it scandalous that the gifts of God were thus being used as tools of tyranny, and there was an underground resistance movement against the Lawful takover of the Church.

The party in this campaign were Chaotic resistance figures. Fairly early they tried to hold up an archdeacon who had been collecting tithes (so that they could return the tithes to the poor): the robbery went wrong, and they killed a paladin who had been escorting the caravan. He pursued them for the rest of the campaign (and they killed him twice more--always without effect because Church functionaries killed in the the line of duty were at the to of the list for True Ressurrection).

The party were lucky enough to be able to buy death insurance from a shady figure who had control of a mitre of True Resurrection, and they tried to extract themselves (without complete success) from the middle of a struggle between one religion that monopolised returning from the dead and a rival that monopolised Plant Growth.
 
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The two DMs I play under have either banished revivification or intend to in the future because of the social headaches involved. They don't want to deal with it. I took a different approach. I put hours of thought and consideration into how the issue would be dealt with in a "realistic" way ( I hate to use that word in a fantasy context, but you know what I mean). Here's what I came up with:

BARTERING FOR THE DEAD

It is customary in Dathmyrr, Ithmyrr, and among the aristocracy of Aeradriis to collect the corpses of fallen enemy aristocrats and hold them for ransom against revivification. Commonly, if the ransom demand is agreed to, the captors perform the revivification, and then a prisoner transfer takes place. The newly revived prisoner is usually treated with the respect due an aristocrat of his station, while being held for ransom. This custom is considered honorable, and is known as Quolonarq, a High Ar’dathii word that roughly translates as “honoring the dead.”

In less civilized regions, and among bitter enemies, it is common to steal the corpse or head of a hated enemy to prevent revivification altogether. Sometimes the parts are separated and burned to ash. Sometimes the heads are taken, then held for ransom in a gruesome parody of quolonarq. Treating fallen foes in this manner is considered dishonorable among the chivalry of Dathmyrr and Aeradriis, though it has proven an effective deterrent from invasion for some indigenous people, such as the Thamuli.

THE SOCIETY OF REVIVIFICATION

In Ithmyrr, acceptance of revivification assumes renunciation of all inheritable land and title. A revived person is not permitted to breed, by penalty of death, and is known as a Revenant. Among the Sheptii, revivification is not allowed, and is considered blasphemous.

In Dathmyrr, there is a one-month moratorium on an heir’s inheritance, during which time, if the dead benefactor is resurrected, he retains all inheritable wealth. After the one-month limit has passed, the benefactor, if revived, is ever after reduced in status to family advisor by law. For instance, a Baron revived after the one-month limit passes all land and title to his heir and becomes a Baron-Emeritus, often his heir’s advisor, councilor, or confidant. For the purposes of lineage, any future scions of the Baron-Emeritus are not considered heirs, nor do they carry the family name. Although these children are accorded the respect due their lineage, they are in all legal ways treated as bastards.

In Aeradriis, there are two customs. Under the Gomi tradition, when a person with inheritable wealth and opportunity for revivification is slain, a tribal council is called, of no less than three members, wherein a decision is made whether to allow revivification, based on the individual’s merits. The Gomi proclivity is to deny revivification, which they generally view as unwholesome. Exceptional individuals, however, are sometimes allowed to be revived for specific purposes. The Aeradriin aristocracy follows the Dathmyrrian tradition, although the moratorium period is only a fortnight (two weeks).

In Thamul, there exists perhaps the most accommodating laws on the matter. If a sire is slain and then revived, he and his heirs are to work out amongst themselves how the inheritable wealth is divided, if at all. Thus, sometimes the sire retains everything, sometimes he splits it with his heirs, and sometimes the heirs get everything. Priests of Brand and Shai-Narm enforce this policy among the secluded clansfolk. In the case that the participants can’t come to an agreement, the priests decide who is entitled to what.

In the cities of the Jade Crescent, the priests of the goddess Yorvandul adjudicate the matter of who gets what after a revivification.

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And that's what I do. It was rewarding work that has lent great verisimilitude to my campaign world.
 

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