Would somebody explain the Deathless to me?

[Bran Blackbyrd]

But, as everyone else has said, the deathless of the Elven courts aren't evil, they're just a little icky.

Like the Addams family, deathless aren't evil, but they are altogether ooky.

Because animating the dead torments their souls and brings negative energy to the world.

Says who?
Never mind that. A better question would be; if people create their own classes, items, worlds, gods, cosmologies, etc. then why can't undead be animated in a way that doesn't even remotely jeopardize the soul of the body's former inhabitant?

There are even T-shirts that espouse the idea that, "We are not these bodies.", but most D&D players don't seem to get that; possibly because they are too attached to pre-3E ideas. Geeks of all people should remember what Yoda said, "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."
Not this crude matter indeed.
Anakin Skywalker's corpse was still ablaze when his spirit visited Luke, but you didn't hear him screaming, "It burns! It burns!".
If you kick a corpse, does some innocent schmuck on Mount Celestia feel it? If he was buried at sea, does his soul drown for eternity? If not, then why should animating his corpse with energy from the negative energy plane affect his soul?
Because I said so? Because it's magic?
If that's all, then make it whatever you want, there's no good reason not to.

I know creatures that feed on the flesh of the dead, sounds evil right? They're called plants. It's called fertilizer. Any druid will tell you that it's all natural.
Maybe when an evil necromancer/cleric animates a body, he binds the tormented soul of the body's former inhabitant because it's quicker and dirtier than animating it in a more humane way, or because torturing souls is the way he gets his jollies. But that doesn't mean there isn't another way to do things.

It's perfectly reasonable to believe that once a character's soul is free of his earthly body that he is no longer bound to it in any way.

Just some thoughts...

Call me crazy, but I find it hard to fathom that people can accept that in one campaign world there's an afterlife split up among all the outer planes (but you aren't obligated to believe in a darn thing) and in another you're forced to worship at least one deity or be tormented for eternity, but they can't imagine a world where souls aren't eternally bound to their spent carcasses.
When a child asks you whether or not an amputee gets their limb back in heaven, what do you tell them?

 

[Mac Callum]

Deathless = Ben Kenobi in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; slightly more substantial. They are benevolent counselors who tell Luke to run when he needs to be told.

Humans and Gnomes are limited to Speak with Dead to chat with the grandparents, but given the effects of Dolurh that might be a chancy prosposition after enough time. The Elves don't have this problem.

Creepy? Sure; but not evil. The analogy to the Knight in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade guarding the resting place of the grail is a great example. No one doubts that his purpose was Good and Holy. He wasn't there to feed on the living (like a Vampire) or torment them (like a Ghost). His only purpose was to guard what needed guarding until a new guardian could be found. He guarded the grail. The elves guard the history and collective wisdom of the Aeranal people. They also stay out of the way of the living most of the time, spending their time wandering the planes of existence. Personally, I'd much rather Astrally Project myself to (the Heaven Plane, don't have my book) than spend my millenia slowly being washed away in Dolurh.

Too bad Indy guarded it for all of 10 minutes before dropping it into a bottomless pit... but that's another gripe.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Never mind that. A better question would be; if people create their own classes, items, worlds, gods, cosmologies, etc. then why can't undead be animated in a way that doesn't even remotely jeopardize the soul of the body's former inhabitant?

I think this topic has been done to death, but let's just say that D&D has ties to a lot of classic fantasy stories and literature, and mythology.

The ones D&D is based on are the "I'm evil and am summoning people's souls from their afterlives to animate their former shells and torment the living" variety rather than the "I need to lift some things, let me use that corpse over there" type.

Yes, it is POSSIBLE to turn magic into just a mundane force that can do whatever you want. But, it loses some of the FEEL of the D&D setting.

Given, in Eberron, that is a bit different, you can cast evil spells, even if you are a good cleric. People look at morality a lot differently. It isn't the "standard" D&D system, which is that everything is really evil or really good.

Majoru Oakheart

 

[reanjr]

I really like that the elves are so different in Eberron, but there's one thing I just don't understand. What's the deal with the Deathless? They're undead animated with positive energy, but what does that really mean?
I still can't see them in my mind's eye as anything but an abomination. If they're infused with the power of life, why do their bodies still decompose?

Since D&D has spent 30 years indoctrinating us with the idea that undead are evil, they had to come up with a new name for good undead.