A question about ressurection in game

Argent Dawn
1

Heya folks, I’m currently setting up my paladin for RP and was wondering about the opinions on ressurection in Roleplay.

What I’m aware of:

1.)
Ressurection is very, very, very rare with only a handful of cases of it being successful.
2.)
Ressurection is possible only (i believe so) within minutes, perhaps even seconds after death. (Even if it wasn’t a canon requirement I would roll with it, simply to not end up as a ressurection slotmachine when Criminalman5000 gets gunshot in the street and dragged across the entire continent to have a shot at ressurection.
3.)
Ressurection requires “consent” of some sort, willingness to return to life from the recipience (or I would assume so, even if it wasn’t a requirement I would include it to not force-ress someone who wants their character to die).

What I’m not aware of:
1.)
How in tune with, lets say the Light, does a character need to be to pull off such a feat? Could it occur randomly to a novice who tries in desperation and succeeds against all odds? What about random Human Paladin John Justiceson?

2.)
What is the general opinion of something like a Ressurection occuring in Roleplay?

Why I am asking this:

I would like to include a /roll for Resurection on my Character, with an absurdly high /roll , preferably the highest the game will allow. I tried and /roll 1000.000 seems to be the highest that yields a result, but I’m wondering if that’s too low. I’m against using means to roll outside of the game because I want the result to be observable by everyone present/involved.

Other limitations of it would be to have it occur immedietly after death (I’m thinking 5 to 10 minutes being the maximum threshold), requiring absolute concentration during the cast/prayer, willingness of the individual to even return to life.

Why do I want to include something like this into my character?

A very small potential for an awesome moment that will probably never happen anyways, and perhaps an arc of loss of faith, disillusion with the light when after countless tries (ofcourse on different individuals) the efforts remain fruitless, especially if friends and comerades are involved.

Why don’t you give me back my homie, man? :fire:
I just wanted the homie back… :cry:

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The most important thing for me, more than anything else involved, is how well resurrection fits into the narrative. If it cheapens some sacrifice or tragedy then I’m inclined to simply not feature it - or to have it fail. But if it can be used to accentuate a story, then it’s cool.

If you want to leave it to chance and roll for it, that’s also valid, though I don’t have much notion of the best criteria for that.

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First it requires a really powerful Light wielder, secondly it requires those moments of “favor” the Light sometimes gives to those in need, and thirdly it seems to then be sheer luck beyond that.

Alonsus Faol seems to be the only guy currently active in lore who “consistently” pulled off this feat (As in he did it once, but was somewhat confident he could do it again.)

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The whole reason it has to be done within minutes is because the soul is typically within the Veil at that time - that limbo between the Shadowlands and the mortal realm. If you did the Kyrian campaign questline, there’s a quest that shows the Veil-stage pretty aptly.

The person being revived also has to be whole. You can’t resurrect a severed head or someone severed in half.

It’s a difficult thing to quanitfy. I don’t think a random farmer sad at the loss of his wife or child would be able to go “Light pls” hard enough for the Light to give him the power to resurrect them. Though I think if the resurrector is devout enough and emotionally involved enough, they don’t necessarily need to be a veteran paladin or priest - but I’d say those instances are the exception that prove there’s a rule of power-levels needed to resurrect.

I agree with what Loras said - if it’s a way-out for an IC sacrifice it negates the point. But if it furthers a particular storyline i.e a rival is brought back for a second face-off or w/e it can be cool.

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Thank you very much for the responses (formulating this as a response to Loras because first come first serve).

I certainly don’t intend to make it a common occurence, as in zapping people back to life left and right. I also want to avoid being treated as a ressurection slotmachine, having to kneel down after every death (if those even occur) to try and wrangle someone back to life.

I don’t intend to play a Lightwielder that powerful, merely someone who is very devout in the Light and most likely average in terms of being a paladin, that’s why I asked just how “strong” in the Light someone would need to be (and how to even measure that) in order to achieve that feat more or less randomly :game_die: .

Thank you for the input, I haven’t considered that.

What you just said there are, in my eyes, the best pro and contra arguments.

I don’t want to cheapen someone sacrifice by having the roll succeed and someone unwilling OOC, but willing IC.

Otherwise it would be awesome to have the 1:1000.000 roll go off and have that moment.

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By the sounds of it, you have a sensible/measured approach to resurrection in roleplay narratives, so chances are you’ll be able to be depict it in a way that’s fun for those involved however you decide to handle it. :pray:

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Thanks!

Something else that came to mind:

In this case, and with agreement of the OOC unwilling (to be ressurected) but IC willing person, we could simply agree upon “powergaming” the death and have the attempt fail regardless of (or even without) the roll, to respect everyones character identity and OOC wishes.

8

Alternatively, you could ask if they wanted to make the roll on it. That’s a good way to handle things, bringing the subject of the attempted resurrection on-board OOC.

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That’s even better, thanks. If I end up including the VERY LOW CHANCE ressurection, thats a 100% how I will go about it.

Another worry that comes to mind though, if on the off-chance it succeeds and perhaps the word spreads IC and OOC in fragments as it is with recounts of actions:

I don’t want to be branded as “The Ressguy Powergamer”. I’d consider taking a screenshot of both the emote and the roll, linking to it on my TRP under feats as “proof”, or would that be overkill?

10

I wouldn’t worry too much about hearsay. If the people you’re playing with and the people involved know that everything was handled well and respectfully, who cares about what randomers might think?

If you do feel the need to protect yourself by keeping screenshots of the roleplay, I’d recommend just keeping them in a folder rather than linking to them in your TRP. That way you can show them if you ever feel you need to, without coming across a bit overkill by having them in your profile.

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There’s an NPC on the beachfront in Krasarang chain-resurrecting NPCs from a corpse-hole.

Sally Whitemane seemed to have some special gift for it, since she was constantly likewise resurrecting the dead Crusaders (and, apparently, herself - which is why Lilian needed special runeblades to stop that).

Again, not always. The Thunder King was resurrected despite having been entombed for thousands of years.

There’s also the case of Crusader Olakin (https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Crusader_Olakin_Sainrith) who was quartered by the Scourge, but we then put his pieces back together and bring him back; given the quests between death and fixing him this was more than ‘a few minutes’.

There’s enough weird exceptions to the “rules” of resurrection that the others are correct: do it when it’s narratively cool, don’t do it otherwise.

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Resurrection is a story device, its as rare or hard as the story demands it to be
consider it a sour spice, use it with care and the dish (story) you are making will be divine.

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It used to feel like a sum up of various factors.

Power of the one you wanted to revive + Time between death and your attempt to ressurect = amount of power needed.

Example A: Novice Priests could ressurect a freshly fallen peasants/footman and knights.

Example B: A fallen powerful mage that died a week ago would require a ritual with multiple priests.

14

String hit the nail on the head about the soul being easily (I use the term loosely here) resurrectable while it’s still in the Veil. Once it passes to the beyond, it becomes more difficult to resurrect someone, often requiring elaborate rituals like in the case of Calia and Lei Shen. Soul stones seem to operate on this same logic by intercepting the soul.

Moreover they confirm this in Before the Storm as it’s pointed out resurrection is considered possible within moments after death – and Anduin being unable to resurrect Calia in the moment after Sylvanas’s Death™ arrow was considered Very Weird. She was too recently slain for her soul to have passed that fast, later necessitating the weird Light Undead ritual with the Naaru.

As for “who” can resurrect with the Light? In the old Blood elf Paladin class quests, it’s pointed out that every member of the Blood Knight Order must master the art of resurrection before they’re elevated to a fully fledged member of the order. It’s their final trial to show their mastery of the Light, but also their devotion to the order, as the person they’re resurrecting is always another Blood Knight. Failure means the death of a brother.

That being said, Blood Knights (at least fully fledged Knights) aren’t a regular footsoldier unit either, but the elite in their own right. But the same goes for Paladins with a capital P as I’ve laid out in the Clerics & Paladins guide I wrote last year two years ago detailing the differences between Paladins and Clerics in lore with citations:

In short, a Paladin with a capital P is more than just a priest in plate; they undergo a ritual of empowerment with their clergy becoming reborn in the Light as their champion. Someone who has earned that (and indeed, RPs being a Paladin ‘properly’) is someone I could see being able to pull it off.

But most importantly, as many have pointed out: resurrection is a plot device first and foremost, and it needs to fit the narrative. Character death can be an impactful moment, and undoing it can actively ruin the moment. To bring them back to life ought to fit the narrative you’ve set up.

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As the “PC”, we can’t die. It can never end. We simply get our spirits back into our corpse, and try again. The PC has an immortal soul for whatever reason. (Or DH’s incase anyone actually translates the events of Mardum into IC. "You have an immortal demon soul. You can never die. Blablabla) ((I don’t. It’s dumb. Only he is special. I am not.))

It can both cheapen plots, but also make them more engaging.

More than anything, I personally tend to consider them “very strong healing spells” that just resuscitates a guy from unconciousness due to wounds and whatever.

There is no right or wrong way to go about it, but just be VERY careful about doing it, or even having that power in general. It is done very few times in the actual story, presumably for very good reason.

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Pretty sure I once resurrected a Demon Hunter by just stitching him back together and smacking him onto an Altar of Storms

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Because there is no real lore regarding the Soultsones - but they are indeed cannon, not something rare, in the Legion Hall 'lock story, wich is arguably as canon as it gets, soulstone is a major part for example - I treat them as a very infernal little trinkets
Basically after you dies, it stores your soul, saves it from a spirit healer/Kyrian (Eh…) and “grows” you a body from demonic energies, Fel energies, a bit lich-like, or how a Demon regenerate its body in the Nether
You have now a “Demon” body so to speak (a bit like Spawn’s necroplasm body) with all of its drawbacks (can’t enter sacred spaces, you register as a demon, etc etc etc) and none of the benefits
Using it on others is a formal pack, selling your soul to the Warlock or a Demon
But to be honest, while death is always lingers as an option in RP, death is very rare, usually happnes when the players wants/allows it and it is a major part of an RP and resurrection not really a problem, because either it won’t happen (the player “wanted” his character to die) or a they already planned the resurection/return

18

I’ve never seen someone Holy Light ressurected. I’ve seen soulstone once. I’ve seen necromancy quite a lot, creating new DKs or bringing back/creating new Forsaken.

Yeah as others have noted, ressurection doesn’t happen because death is usually the character being retired by the player. Necromancy tends to be the reverse, creating a new character.

19

And then there’s this joker.

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Not going to lie, that sounds pretty rad.