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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 3191416" data-attributes="member: 29398">Li Shenron's ideas are not all that far from my own, in general...but there's a few differences:The soul-lifeforce-whatever (i.e. all the non-material parts of a lifeform) I just call "spirit", and each sentient living being has one.When someone dies, the spirit spends some time getting to its final afterlife destination...it is during this time that Raise Dead will (usually) work, after which you need Resurrection to haul the spirit out of its afterlife realm.  It is also during this time that a spirit may be snatched by a greedy deity (these spirit-collecting types do exist); this the most common reason for raise-type effects to fail.A spirit retains memories of its most recent physical life.  Memories of its afterlife are retained only until the spirit is revived from the dead. (with an exception; see below)  A spirit placed in a new life loses all memories of everything and has to start over.A spirit in an afterlife realm retains its most recent physical form and appearance.  Thus, if Jarl and Jorge were companions while alive and meet in the afterlife, they would recognize each other.Rarely, it is possible for mortals to walk in to a land of the dead* and for spirits to walk out.  In this case, memory of events in the afterlife is retained.  A mortal who dies in an afterlife realm simply becomes dead (and their spirit is almost certainly now resident in that realm regardless of previous beliefs etc.).  A spirit that "dies" in an afterlife realm awakens the next "morning" with a really bad hangover but otherwise remains the same.  A spirit that somehow escapes the afterlife (e.g. walks out to the prime material) resumes its physical form as if resurrected - the 3e True Resurrection mechanic works well for this, although in this case no actual spell is cast - and also retains memories of the afterlife; this makes it possible in highly unusual circumstances to in fact gain levels etc. while dead!* - I've both used and played this on several occasions as an adventure backdrop; mortals walking in to a land of the dead to do something, or to find a spirit and bring it out.There are a few rare effects that can completely destroy a spirit.  A properly-worded wish might do so.  In my game, the most powerful psyonic attack can do so.  A badly-handled bargain with an underworld power can do so.  And so on.  A destroyed spirit cannot be revived except by direct divine intervention; even more rare. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Raising the corpse of someone whose spirit has been destroyed produces a living body with no intelligence, wisdom, memories, or training; i.e. an automaton.  (and it'll die again pretty soon thereafter unless it can somehow be taught to breathe...)Lane-"death's a bitch, and then you live"-fan</blockquote>

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