The Soul, Resurrection, & Necromancy
The Divine Spark: The Essence of Mortality
In this shadowed realm, the only true divinity lies within the fragile yet potent spark of the mortal soul. Every living being birthed into existence by natural means carries this essence. By the law of nature, these souls are destined for the Great Fade—a place of quiet dissolution. Yet the planar realms crave these sparks for their own insidious purposes. For example, in the Cinder Wastes, souls are twisted and reshaped into fiends, their essence reforged into agents of malevolence. Beyond such ends, the soul is a reservoir of power. It can be burned, destroyed utterly, to serve as Anima, the raw fuel for magic.
The Natural Order and the Veil
The death of a being marks the beginning of the soul’s inevitable journey. Ordinarily, it would flow to the Great Fade, where time slowly erodes it into nothingness. But on Tariel, the Empyreals wove the The Leys and The Wells of Souls, a vast and arcane construct, to capture these wandering souls. Within the Veil, a soul is represented as a shadow, and upon death, this shadow detaches from the mortal shell to roam freely.
The Empyreals, in their foresight, created the Leys—a vast, vein-like network of channels through which shadows flow. These Leys direct souls to Celunar or Lucine, sorting them by their adherence to the Starfall Pact. Those who upheld the ideals are drawn to Celunar, awaiting a summons to serve the Netherime in the High Halls. Those who failed are cast into Lucine, their souls destined to be burned as Anima, their essence fueling the protective magics that shield Tariel.
Lost Shadows: The Wretched Wanderers
Not all shadows find their way to the Leys. Some are burdened with corruption, tethered by violent deaths, or trapped by unfulfilled destinies. These Lost Shadows, unmoored and untamed, become threats to the living. They can slip through the Veil into the Prime Material Plane, where they may sow havoc or possess corpses, birthing the undead.
In ages past, the Empyreal known as the Veiled One tirelessly gathered these wayward souls, guiding them to the Leys. But since his passing, they have been left to fester. Worse still, without the Empyreals' intervention, Lucine overflows with unclaimed souls, spilling shadows into the world and birthing chaos.
The Resurrection Challenge: Bargaining with the Beyond
When death claims a mortal, the soul begins its journey through the Leys almost immediately. To wrench it back is no small feat, requiring a desperate act known as the Resurrection Challenge.
Up to three individuals can assist in the ritual, each contributing with a specific skill. The Dungeon Master assigns a skill check for each contribution, the difficulty shaped by the nature and significance of their actions. Examples include a Persuasion check to implore the soul to return or an Arcana check to trace the flow of the local Leys.
After these contributions, the deceased character attempts a final Resurrection Check with no modifiers. The base DC is 10, reduced by 3 for each successful contribution and increased by 1 for each failure. Success restores the soul to the body—if it is willing. Failure leaves the soul beyond reach, either unwilling to return, lost to the Leys, or consumed as Anima. A soul, once retrieved, can never be summoned again.
Pinning the Soul: Binding Life to Flesh
The final stage of resurrection involves pinning the soul to its corporeal vessel. The caster must tether the soul to their own, dragging it through the Veil and anchoring it within the body. This bond is not without peril. Should the caster die, the tethered shadow has already been drawn to this side of the Veil and cannot cross back. Without an anchor, it simply unravels and ceases to be.
The same can be said of a revived creature who dies again - to accept a resurrection is to accept that either your next death or your healers death means the eternal destruction of your soul. While this is the ultimate fate of many souls, it does preclude one from ever serving in The High Halls.
Ressurection is thus a fragile reprieve—a loan from death rather than a true escape.
The Necromancer’s Bind: Souls for the Taking
Necromancers approach the process of soul-binding with grim pragmatism. Instead of tethering the soul to themselves, they burn fragments of it to force reanimation. This destruction leaves the soul irreparably scarred. As with those resurrected, such undead creatures cannot be resurrected or raised again; upon their second death, their essence unravels entirely, vanishing into the Leys.
The toll is not merely metaphysical. The more of the soul destroyed in this process, the less remains for higher thought. Lesser necromancers raise mindless husks—zombies and skeletons devoid of will. Masters, however, preserve enough of the soul to create intelligent undead capable of thought and speech. Yet even these retain fragments of their torment. The act of reanimation inflicts agonizing psychic pain, driving many undead to madness. Some find brief solace in consuming living flesh or blood, their fleeting connection to life a balm for their suffering.
The Necromantic Resurrection Challenge
While necromancers rarely concern themselves with restoring specific souls, those who desire to rebind the original essence must endure the same Resurrection Challenge as a healer. Yet their methods are darker, their successes fraught with dire consequences.
Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul
No soul returns unscathed. Those revived before reaching the Leys lose their natural eye color, their irises becoming a pale, milky white. Souls pulled from the Veil bear the yellowed taint of mingling with the shadows of beasts. Those drawn from Celunar or Lucine are marked by a swirling green hue, the residue of arcane protections of the Well. Necromantic resurrections, however, darken the eyes to black, bottomless pits—a reflection of the soul’s torment.
These changes are irreversible, a haunting reminder of the cost of defying death. While illusions or mundane coverings can conceal the eyes, the truth of their plight lingers, an eternal shadow over the lives they now lead.
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