Ghosts...

[Olivia_Gales]

A newer player was turned into a ghost and bothering people, and we came across a problem. Can you see ghosts? Most of us had not heard of the fact that you cannot see them but Ziel went very strongly by this. I'm curious to know the right answer If no one knows, maybe we should try a pole and whichever wins is the rule.....it might just work

[Shilnaakh]

That was definetly an interesting sight, but the whole killing at the cross made me wince a bit..

[Bran Cathal]

Does your character have a talent or ability to see ghosts?
Does your character believe in ghosts?
Is there any plausable reason your character may have the ability to see a spirit?

What is not allowed is following other players as ghost,
Causeing an annoyance as a ghost.
Reporting a crime is frowned upon to

Basically one should not rp as a ghost, and when seeing a ghost something along the lines of.
#me stiffens slightly eyes fixed on something apparently unseen.
#me watches something pass by "hmh may be trouble in town"
#me walks towards the cross "mhm my healing skills may be called for"

Ziel should not be so zealous in being adimant and people should employ some common sence in the matter.

[Olivia_Gales]

I have reason to believe that my character would be able to "sense" ghosts if not see them, although I was more aiming this towards everyone else and my other characters

[Bran Cathal]

I was aiming the idea towards all characters and players judgeing from how i have constantly seen ghosts rped in game .
Basically the above questions and reactions are how i work in numerous characters.

[Gro'bul]

!gm command is in existence. I know the spirits of fire/water/ect were as ghost graphics and apparently people could see them.

[Kamik Windslasher ~]

I will quote what a GM told me about clouds: "People don't see ghosts. RPing clouds already proved to end in trouble. If someone comes to you rping a cloud and if it's not gm-allowed or a gm, just ignore it".

[Cain Freemont]

In the world of Illarion, as I recall, it has always been roleplayed that ghosts could be seen as apparitions. Not roleplaying a ghost just seems to narrow down some of the possibilities for great roleplay to me. Too often do people compare the game to real life. Illarion isn't real life. Magic doesn't exist in real life. Elves don't. Fantasy dwarves don't. Halflings don't. Why can't ghosts be seen in a world that is incredibly unlike the real world that we are already defying in so many ways?

[Kamik Windslasher ~]

I don't see a problem either IF the player doesn't act like Cirindil.

[Cain Freemont]

I don't see a problem either IF the player doesn't act like Cirindil.

Touché.

[Quinasa]

Personally I don't see "ghosts" in Illarion. The only time a character is "killed" is when the player decides it is time. If, by chance, a character has been relieved of all his health then I consider him knocked out. And then I don't go saying "Oh look! A ghost!" or "A spirit!" or "Look, a little puff going down the road!" I usually just treat them like an injured person that needs help getting to the cross where there's like a magical aura that eminates and heals faster. Just my view of course, because when someone "dies" and I mean really dies, its a bit more tragic. Not, "Oh ho! Lookit me I was just a puff of stuff and now I'm BACK like new!" at least once a day.

[Moirear Sian]

Personally I don't see "ghosts" in Illarion. The only time a character is "killed" is when the player decides it is time. If, by chance, a character has been relieved of all his health then I consider him knocked out. And then I don't go saying "Oh look! A ghost!" or "A spirit!" or "Look, a little puff going down the road!" I usually just treat them like an injured person that needs help getting to the cross where there's like a magical aura that eminates and heals faster. Just my view of course, because when someone "dies" and I mean really dies, its a bit more tragic. Not, "Oh ho! Lookit me I was just a puff of stuff and now I'm BACK like new!" at least once a day.

Same here.

You see, some of us have been long awaiting for the Illarion-feature to be implemented which would enable that people are knocked out instead of "clouded". This would end alot of confusion orbiting around this subject.

Personally, I treat "the clouded state" as a state in which a character has been rendered inable to combat until a healer of sorts has mended serious wounds and a very good deal of time has passed. If people could just "die and resurrect" 20 times a day, the roleplayed (and final) deaths of characters would lose all importance and meaning.

But maybe that's just me.

[Quinasa]

It obviously isn't just you, but I think there are only a select few of us that thing that way. Pity.

[Delakaniam]

Personally I don't see "ghosts" in Illarion. The only time a character is "killed" is when the player decides it is time. If, by chance, a character has been relieved of all his health then I consider him knocked out. And then I don't go saying "Oh look! A ghost!" or "A spirit!" or "Look, a little puff going down the road!" I usually just treat them like an injured person that needs help getting to the cross where there's like a magical aura that eminates and heals faster. Just my view of course, because when someone "dies" and I mean really dies, its a bit more tragic. Not, "Oh ho! Lookit me I was just a puff of stuff and now I'm BACK like new!" at least once a day.

Hear, hear.

I always thought it was annoyingly odd that getting pwnz0rd technically and actually dying through RP had a very weird existence of balance.

For example: Hm. Alright. This poor elf girl has been brutally mutilated beyond recognition. Oh right, I think I've got it...... *Ahem*. Hey, little elf girl!! *point*. Walk to the yellow cross to get resurrected!!! lolz!!

See?

It makes true death and resurrection RP almost dubious, as if we like to think, "If there's an Almighty Revival Cross of Super Spiffyness, why are we doing this indeed high-quality but ultimately useless RP?"

Erm, in a nutshell... *cough* Just wanted to say that I RP clouds the same way as Quin and Sian. That is, he's not dead, he's just very close (and also doesn't feel like straining through his pain to say much to you.)

[Pendar]

You know it actually varies case to case as we are all bound at some level to work with in the ethos of illarion.
Which i believe from something i read in official documents implys the gods may send you back via the cross.

I fully support Quins way if i may call it such for ease, it makes more than good sence.
How ever i am also torn...
Pendar: if you spit in my towns well one more time i will kill you, your unborn children and that gerbil in your pocket.
XXXX: Spits in the well...
Pendar gracefully whips out something with a suspicious resembelance to a salami and swipes the mans head off disembowling and cutting off an arm as a double axe er cheap meat product. Is prone to do.
Pendar: last time he spits in a well, yes?

Okay i joke but often characters set out to kill each other. I suppose this will remain a grey area until we have knocked out and dead sprites. As such making it a graphical fact which has occured.
Brian

[Moirear Sian]

You know it actually varies case to case as we are all bound at some level to work with in the ethos of illarion.
Which i believe from something i read in official documents implys the gods may send you back via the cross.

Although, we've all been agreeing for ever since I've started playing Illarion, that the crosses are something from real world Christianity and hold no relation to Illarion's world as so far.

I think resurrection per se would be something like a miracle, and in my background of RP, a feat only manageable by a powerful priest who is in favor of her deity or whatnot thingamabob. Every creature has a will to survive, and many a character roleplayed to die in the past in Illarion had some sort of significance; some of them even "died before their time", in the sense that they had more plans they had wanted to follow; thus giving other players a well-composed impression of an untimely death.

Following these thoughts, I hope that future iterations of Illarion reflect more on the subject this way than they are thus far.

Okay i joke but often characters set out to kill each other. I suppose this will remain a grey area until we have knocked out and dead sprites. As such making it a graphical fact which has occured.
Brian

Some phrases for food for thought:
1. "He hit the ground, then lying there for the longest time, immobile."
2. "They left him for dead."
Neither 1 nor 2 means absolutely that "he" is dead.
Chances are that someone can fake death or be beaten so badly to a pulp that they merely appear to be dead and are left behind as such (how many stop to bury their enemies? lol). So even someone with intent to kill another and effectively "clouding them", would basically be surprised to see them again. Those with intent to "just" beat them up in order to teach them a lesson, on the other hand, wouldn't be surprised to see them traipsing around at a later time.

Let's just assume that if a character doesn't have 25+ Intelligence, that they have the "Hollywood bad guy"-syndrome, and never double-check if they actually killed someone.

On a further note, taking the point that the cross is a Christian symbol, I automatically associated it with the concept of "faith and determination" when I played Illarion. I see it this way that a character in Illarion will not die until their spirit to live has faded and they let go of the living world completely. From a metaphysical point of view, I consider the "being clouded" to be synonymous to the state of "hanging onto life by a thin silver chord." Will you struggle and return fully to the physical plane? Or will you let go and slip into the depths of the spirit world for good?

My 2 cents.

[Devrah Liioness]

I too eagerly await the knockout feature. I get really frustrated when long RP-fights end in ctrl+click, and after all that, they float over to the cross and are revived. It's like an insult to all the effort involved.

Slightly offtopic I must express my frustration, as I have done once before, at permanantly-killed characters that come back from the dead. Ladt time I complained about it I was reassured that it was *not* allowed without GM approval and a whole lot of good roleplay (Misjbar's resurrection, for example, did not bother me), but since then I've seen it happen at least 4 more times.

Seriously, dead is dead. I miss Aldriaa and Arynne Halfmoon, but.. they're DEAD. Deleted. And they won't be coming back, because they are dead. I understand you love your characters, but it fthey mean that much to you don't perm-kill them in the first place.

End rant

[Ziel Oden]

Devrah has some good points. But without the random attacks on the town the game would be quite boering during quest. If they where to take out the ye' ol' ctrl+click they should atleast make it so there is no PVP, just PVmonster.

[Tonkin]

Something else to consider is instead of a knock out or cloud system, have a persons spirit be teleported to an "underworld" where they must complete a mini quest to return from the dead. Their body could stay in the "physical" world so others can rp around their body until they fight their way back from the dead. This would eliminate the questions of ghosts and are they dead or just knocked out. If you want your character dead, dont bring them back from the river styx. A short quest would give people things to do while not allowing them to spring back from the dead moments after death. The quest would have to be short enough to allow a fairly quick return in case of a quest someone must be involved in, but the map large enough to allow someone to be dead for as long as they like and still have things to do. To be truly fun, portals and oracles could be included in the land of the dead to allow interaction and watching from the dead. You could haunt someone, but the time can be limited in oracle so you could not annoy the person who killed you for too long. Just a thought, but it could eliminate cloud problems and allow for some interesting rp if someone was haunting others or describing the afterlife.

[Ziel Oden]

If he is still in the physical world, how will people RP with him if he has to manover his soul?

[Moirear Sian]

And why would this spirit world thing have to be instead of the knocking out thing?

Something else to consider is instead of a knock out or cloud system, have a persons spirit be teleported to an "underworld" where they must complete a mini quest to return from the dead. Their body could stay in the "physical" world so others can rp around their body until they fight their way back from the dead. This would eliminate the questions of ghosts and are they dead or just knocked out. If you want your character dead, dont bring them back from the river styx. A short quest would give people things to do while not allowing them to spring back from the dead moments after death. The quest would have to be short enough to allow a fairly quick return in case of a quest someone must be involved in, but the map large enough to allow someone to be dead for as long as they like and still have things to do. To be truly fun, portals and oracles could be included in the land of the dead to allow interaction and watching from the dead. You could haunt someone, but the time can be limited in oracle so you could not annoy the person who killed you for too long. Just a thought, but it could eliminate cloud problems and allow for some interesting rp if someone was haunting others or describing the afterlife.

Although this is an interesting idea; know that I say it in all due respect that I wouldn't like seeing it in Illarion. Please hear me out on this.

First off, I've seen similar scenarios in other games, and while they give the games an additional shot of mysticism and fantasy, they also take away a bit of the exact same elements:

To me - in general, not only in relation to Illarion - the metaphysical is something rather... abstract, to put it mildly. So quite in the contrary, sometimes leaving things to the imagination of people creates much more compelling fantasy, if you like to look at it that way. Y'know - like the gods in Illarion. Everybody in the world of Illarion says the deities manifest in person in the realms, but do people see those gods every day? Truly, the absence of physical and the free-roaming imagination play a powerful part here.

Which brings me to looking at the suggestion from the point of view of roleplaying. The spirit world escapades would in turn imply that characters have full awareness and consciousness over their presence in a spirit realm. This would stand in conflict to all times prior to it within the same scenario, in which player characters had originally had no conscious knowledge about the spirit world, and "the beyond" was something indefinite and abstract to all of them. Perhaps you could define it as an "awakening" of sorts, so nevermind this objection (although the solution sounds cheesy to me).

Besides the points above though, compared to a KO system it sounds like a horrible lot of work done by alot of people in accord. X_x

[Pendar]

Work wise its not to intensive at least it would take a huge amount of scripting NPCS and map work assuredly.
What I personally would like to see from death in Illarion is simple I would like to see it move away skill lose and indeed a death pulls you from the rp for a time.
.skill lose is not drastic enough to discourage risk taking or pvp, so death really holds little fear. “If it was that was also be horrible”
.Generally lower level characters are more prone to deaths and really are the characters who suffer as result. If my high level character loses a bit of skill I might not be able to beat X high level in a duel but I can still cut through skeletons like butter.
.I kill a character and have them return to demand there items a long standing trend among other wise good players.
.Quests are made nearly non issue by once again if I die I go to cross return #me bleeds finish quest. By the same token wars cannot be waged with out massive (()) drama’s between the living and “fallen”.

No one likes dieing but currently is punitive purely adding nothing to rp for me or others. Who ever dies mostly we all lose. An element of choose your own adventure or path upon being made a cloud may appeal to some players others not.
in general the result of death being characters removed for a time probably has more pro’s than con’s.
This would have to be coupled with a workable KO system so that death would most often come from a choice to run X through not a dueling mishap. This in its self would limit the amount of times X becomes a cloud.

I have also thought those of us who do PVP should perhaps look at starting a trend of not going for the cloud kill. Instead working out PVP fights like duels not drinking potions and allowing one person to back off making as if they are knocked out when they do and players giving up there loot if looted.
Of course this would never work for skirmishes and probably wouldn’t work full stop as we all tend to jump in, run left and swig a brew or generally behave badly:P
It has long been a source of amusement to me that in rp community as soon as combat comes into play we would rather PWN than show any consideration to each other.
Oh that’s me to by way, funny little side of the human nature that one eh?

[Moirear Sian]

Work wise its not to intensive at least it would take a huge amount of scripting NPCS and map work assuredly.

Is it only me who reads a contradiction in terms here?
Not to mention, I think such a "spirit world" would deserve a graphic set of its own just so players can distinguish it from the physical world in case they get killed while *afk*.

What I personally would like to see from death in Illarion is simple I would like to see it move away skill lose and indeed a death pulls you from the rp for a time.

Although I don't like the idea of the skill loss by dying (I thought this was a game without levels and exp - such a trait is typical for those games), I don't like the idea of being pulled from RP for a time, either. You know, some of the best RP I've seen was from people who actually played seriously wounded, near-death characters in their agonies of the living. Dramatic last words before a character dies for good. And much more. Truly, I think a spirit world of sorts, that draws people away from the RP the moment they would have instead been "clouded", is actually magnifying a problem and making it worse.

However, what would be more effective, is if you are unable to combat and/or cast magic for a certain amount of time, immediately upon "regaining conscience" after having been "downed." This would, for example, put people in an obvious loss situation, if say, the initial situation was actually something like a larger-scale conflict with several combattants. I.e.: A medico has to mend wounds and then you can pick up those activities again after 15 minutes, or you have to sit and wait for 60 minutes till your character becomes fully active again.
However, if you'd go by me, I don't see why players are supposed to actually fear their characters' deaths. We shouldn't be that attached to our characters anyway.

I think something like an knockout-system would be lengths better than all this mumbo jumbo. Say for example someone wants to RP their character's final, irrevocable death. If they're lying on the ground in front of the people who "downed" them, they can actually RP "the famous last words", or such. Being teleported instantaneously to another dimension however completely nerfs this niche for roleplaying.

.skill lose is not drastic enough to discourage risk taking or pvp, so death really holds little fear. “If it was that was also be horrible”

There are other, more effective ways to induce fear to players of their character dying, but to be honest?
a) You don't need to induce fear to players about their characters dying
b) There are players (like me) who don't give a flying rat's tail if their character drops dead.

.Generally lower level characters are more prone to deaths and really are the characters who suffer as result. If my high level character loses a bit of skill I might not be able to beat X high level in a duel but I can still cut through skeletons like butter.

This is partial to why I say that I dislike the current system of skill loss to punish character death. This - as so many things - only punishes people who don't PG or haven't played their characters for long.
Alternatives would be preferable in my taste.

.I kill a character and have them return to demand there items a long standing trend among other wise good players.

What else should they do? Play another 2-72 real hours to accumulate the same gear again? Come on, it's just a game.
Look at the bright side. They're interacting without CTRL-click at this point, right?

.Quests are made nearly non issue by once again if I die I go to cross return #me bleeds finish quest. By the same token wars cannot be waged with out massive (()) drama’s between the living and “fallen”.

As for this, I have suggested, a certain "down-time" of the wounded could be made to compensate for it than silly things like skill loss or spirit world. To me they all seem like artificial half-assed attempts to discourage players from going back into fighting more.
We've all seen that the skill loss has no effect and that the generic mentality of running back to action is still rampant.

No one likes dieing but currently is punitive purely adding nothing to rp for me or others. Who ever dies mostly we all lose. An element of choose your own adventure or path upon being made a cloud may appeal to some players others not.
in general the result of death being characters removed for a time probably has more pro’s than con’s.

I see absolutely no pros in this spirit world suggestion, when viewed under the light of the aspects I've mentioned above. In the contrary, I just see more and more cons by the minute.

Because honestly, you know what I'd do if my character ended up in this kinda spirit world thingy?

I'd log out and go do something else... wtf do I want to RP with ghost npcs and oracles in a spirit world? I'd have to wait for other people to die for interaction, or follow stupid NPC quests. And as I've played many MMORPGs, I'd rather have NPC quests remain something 100% OPTIONAL, because 99% of all NPC quests in other games are systematically annoying, bugged (and thus not to be solved without GM help), or both.

"I have to play a solo game while other people are having fun together elsewhere, in the same game."

No thanks.

If I'd go look at the online player list and see 1000+ players online right now, I might think differently. But right now I don't see that.

This would have to be coupled with a workable KO system so that death would most often come from a choice to run X through not a dueling mishap. This in its self would limit the amount of times X becomes a cloud.

No doubt a KO system must make an appearance sooner or later.

I have also thought those of us who do PVP should perhaps look at starting a trend of not going for the cloud kill. Instead working out PVP fights like duels not drinking potions and allowing one person to back off making as if they are knocked out when they do and players giving up there loot if looted.
Of course this would never work for skirmishes and probably wouldn’t work full stop as we all tend to jump in, run left and swig a brew or generally behave badly:P
It has long been a source of amusement to me that in rp community as soon as combat comes into play we would rather PWN than show any consideration to each other.
Oh that’s me to by way, funny little side of the human nature that one eh?

I have nothing to add to this.

[Gro'bul]

Ahah, this brings me to my, idea. You die, if you choose to be ressurected by the cross, your teleported to a "Limbo" area. Basically a meadow with some water something nice to look at, you are alive as in not clouded, theres some food or something to eat. You'll get a message when your teleported "wait till your health has returned to full the use the cross to leave". I also proposed that the foodlevel was increased to maximum apon being teleported to this place. There is no potion drinking, fighting, or even talking here. #me, !gm, and gm commands only work here. When your health is full you can use the cross there to be teleported out.
This solves:
Player Reskilling
Npc Reskilling
Rejoining fights
Re-attacking someone or pestering them because you don't care if you die
A very minor punishment for dieing, imo.
It makes a bit more sense that you are truly dead and are revived by the gods grace.
Not overly complicated.
Fairly simple to create compared to a maze&quest.

[Ziel Oden]

#me says: "howdy!"

[Moirear Sian]

Ahah, this brings me to my, idea. You die, if you choose to be ressurected by the cross, your teleported to a "Limbo" area. Basically a meadow with some water something nice to look at, you are alive as in not clouded, theres some food or something to eat. You'll get a message when your teleported "wait till your health has returned to full the use the cross to leave". I also proposed that the foodlevel was increased to maximum apon being teleported to this place. There is no potion drinking, fighting, or even talking here. #me, !gm, and gm commands only work here. When your health is full you can use the cross there to be teleported out.
This solves:
Player Reskilling
Npc Reskilling
Rejoining fights
Re-attacking someone or pestering them because you don't care if you die
A very minor punishment for dieing, imo.
It makes a bit more sense that you are truly dead and are revived by the gods grace.
Not overly complicated.
Fairly simple to create compared to a maze&quest.

While true and also a good idea I might add, I again object on behalf of imagination and fantasy.
Imagine this scenario: You lose all hp, your character is "knocked down," and rendered inable to attack, cast magic, use/consume items, etc. In this phase, you can't be healed by any means, not even magic, and the health bar refills at regular (or reduced) rate. During this time, you can only use #me, and !gm to interact at all. Once the health bar is full again, your character loses the "knocked down" status and can once again move, attack, cast magic, etc., like normal.

There. Essentially the same thing as you suggest, but leaving an afterlife or spirit world up to the imagination of each and every player.

[Gro'bul]

Many people have come back from the afterlife, and the afterlife is already defined per god. It has been for quite some time. It doesn't make any sense that you can't kill anyone, how would an assasin get payed for a job: "You only knocked him out, why didn't you kill him!?" "uhm I uh.....couldn't." "and WHY not?" "((you can't kill people technically))" "((wtf you kidding?))" "((not at all))" "((rofl))".

[Moirear Sian]

Many people have come back from the afterlife, and the afterlife is already defined per god.

True, so? How would an otherworldly meadow or spirit world reflect this? Would we have to select Gods for our characters to land in seperate halls when the characters die? Also sounds like a neat idea, but what purpose does it serve other than even MORE people telling silly stories about afterlives and what not? Don't you think it would be wiser, style-wise, as well as in the sense of efficiency, to leave it one big mystery? Sure, some characters will speak of an afterlife, but does your character believe them? Sure, most characters are reverent in the mythology and Gods, and they are an existential part of the setting, but are they all that is there to them? You see, by giving these things clearly-defined faces, you're limiting things already; otherwise, only your imagination is the limit.

It doesn't make any sense that you can't kill anyone, how would an assasin get payed for a job: "You only knocked him out, why didn't you kill him!?" "uhm I uh.....couldn't." "and WHY not?" "((you can't kill people technically))" "((wtf you kidding?))" "((not at all))" "((rofl))".

As it is right now, you can't kill anyone for good. You can't kill anyone for good unless that person is willing to let the character stay dead for good. Bringing the assassin profession into this context is a rather weak argument anyway; it's absolutely pointless to assassinate in a game like Illarion because you can't pick up any "absolute proof items" like a head or an ear labelled with their character's name after killing them, as it's common in other games. Furthermore, as I suggested on this same thread, you could assume that without 25+ Intelligence, your character will never know for sure if they really killed someone for good; in other words, the Gods know it better if someone's candle of life has really truly stopped burning. One serious question, have you ever played an assassin in Illarion for an extended amount of time? The example you bring is showing people mixing OOC and IC... if you'd go strictly IC, yes, the assassin failed. Why? He failed to communicate OOC in a different instance and convince the other player that the character would be assassinated. No other way to permanantly dispatch a player character unless played by a very flexible and generous player; let's face it.

I'd like to agree on something about how dying is handled in correlation with the game setting as well as with the gameplay itself, but I've yet seen no suggestions that have made me feel so inclined. I'd rather just see something which veils dying and leaves it as an option to the player.

[Gro'bul]

The only reason I prefer my idea to yours is it doesn't solve reskilling. They would have to kill themselves to bug you in the afterlife place and you could then because of your headstart, escape them before they could get out. Essentially the death place is just a place where your body is healed and its not your time and your sent back. Body camping is common in WoW, and from experience annoying as all getout. Not to mention if its a monster, what happens when you come to and the monster is still near you? Otherwise, I like your idea, but the thing that spurred me to think of what I did in the first place was reskilling.

[Talaena Landessi]

Death in the Ultima Online shard (enforced rp shard)i play on:

-Death, Dying, and its Effects-
In most respects and situations, dying on DA is the same as dying on other UO shards. You become a ghost, will be resurrected by healers and will revive where the healer resurrected you. (Note that you may need to approach a healer twice: once to "wake up" his AI, and once for him to resurrect you).

However, when you are killed by another PC or occasionally when killed in role-play situations (such as the execution of a criminal), the death matters more. In this case, your character receives a Death Count (DC). Your character's current number of DCs is stored, and whenever he receives a DC that increases the total to 3 or more, the character has a chance to suffer Final Death (FD). As seems obvious, a character who has suffered Final Death cannot be resurrected by any means. Periodically, your character will have his DC total lowered by one, down to a minimum of 2 (which means that once you've suffered 2 deaths to other PCs, the next death always has a small chance to be your last).

In-game rationale: see the Demonstruck explanation below:

Design rationale: we have found that the threat of FD, rare though it is, compels characters to treat danger and death as real, rather than the minor "I go to rez now" incoveniences that it is usually treated as on most MMORPGs.



-On the Demonstruck-
In the Age of Demons, there are those who bound the service and souls of demons to themselves and to others to increase their powers and attempt to become as the Gods. Said demons have since been exiled from this plane, but the taint upon the souls of those who were bound to them-- "The Demonstruck" remain.

These people and their ancestors have paid a price for their dabbling in the Demon Arts, it is said. While not every descendant is cursed, it is known to skip generations and pick individual offspring seemingly at a whim, those who are learn it upon their first death to any cause. They find, simply, that instead of reaching the promised land of their God, they continue to exist. Their soul wanders, and soon it finds means to regenerate it's body, despite the fate of it's previous one. And, even within an hour of even the most gruesome death, a person may once again live and be well.

Such might not set well with a superstitious and God-fearing populace, and one might suspect such people would be hunted and called foul for their traits. Had such a tradition ever existed, it would of been quickly dismissed for two reasons. The first being that such a number of people display these traits, and that it can exist so randomly in any number of people, that to kill all who had it would be nothing short of a massacre. Added to that, the only common way to determine whether the trait exists with a soul is to have the person killed -- such a test could reveal a "grave" mistake. The final reason is, there are few who would want to make enemies with a people who, upon death, simply returned. And so, these people as they have appeared have been accepted begrudgingly, some with a hint of jealousy, some spoken of with foul whispers behind their back, but most, simply, noted as one who has yet to fulfill their destiny. There are some who shun the entire superstition of demons being involved in the equation as being just that -- superstition.

Superstition or no, Destiny completed or not, these people are not Immortal nor Gods. They are limited, for those who are similarly 'Demonstruck' can taketh what has been given. That is to say, the Demonstruck are vulnerable to that which is also Demonstruck. Their souls are mutually strong, and no one death from even their equal will bring about their end. But with each passing death, the taint of their soul weakens, and they grow closer to leaving this realm, and being sent to whichever realm the demon of their past now resides.

The fate they have waiting for them there is not likely a pleasant one.

There are those who have sought comfort in this religion, and in the belief that escaping their fate to the realm of banishment is possible if a God is sufficiently pleased with their life.

There are those of the struck who have noted, upon dying a death unlike the others, they have felt their soul slip from their bodies, and their hold on this realm being incomplete. Yet, something prevented their loss, and gave them one more chance. Be it fate or Godly favor, such instances are accepted as fact and known to occur at least once before the Final Death of one who has been Struck.



Note: Demonstruck people can recognize other demonstruck people. This means you will be able to RP the knowledge that killing a player won't kill him permamently usually. This means that you will be able to issue bounties for the 'final death' of players if you so desire, and that you do not have to be suprised when a player you have killed returns from the dead. I urge everyone to be very selective on who you decide to kill repeatedly though.. Having an enemy FD is rarely as good RP as having to deal with an enemy repeatedly, particularly with our lower playerbase which must be recycled.

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I really really like this system but ya know, Darkage isnt illarion and vice versa