Author Topic: Death and Rebirth (Read 788 times)

ViresUltio · « **on:** October 28, 2004, 12:09:03 AM »

Okay *deep breath* Here's my idea, lacking in goodness as it is. A character who has recently died and been ressurected finds him/herself developing chronic migraines which soon give way to him/her seeing things, sometimes disturbing, that the rest of his/her party cannot. I had originally thought that it could be something like being out of phase with the world and half caught in the world of the dead because he/she should rightfully BE dead, but I then I thought that sounded a little campy and overused. So... any ideas?

Scrasamax · « **Reply #1 on:** October 28, 2004, 03:06:14 AM »

The soul passes through a realm, Limbo, Purgatory, Yomi before it passes on to its final destination, be it rebirth, elysium, or whatever hells fill out your cosmology. The resurrection spell has snatched the soul in mid stride from that inbetween place, and drawn it back into the living world. Installed in a new body, or its old, healed body, the fact remains that the soul had begun its progression of the soul cycle, and was interrupted.

The soul returned with fragments of visions and memories of that inbetween place. Now, the sheet that seperates the living world from that of the dead, and the other realms is not a constant wall, not of uniform thickness or strength. When the ressurected soul passes near a place that is a repository of other realm essence, it is able to more clearly remember what has occured to it. This creates a sensitivity to such essence, allowing the ressurected to 'see' manifestations of it, and spirits native to such realms. The migraines could be a biological reaction to overstimulation as the brain tries to comprehend that which cannot be comprehended.

This ties back into the shamantic tradition that before a shaman can become a worker of medicine aka Magic, he must cross deaths door, and return. Thus, to gain access to magic, the supplicant must ritually 'kill' themselves ala Flatliners, or Strangeland, and be brought back from the other side.

Tariel · « **Reply #2 on:** October 28, 2004, 12:23:13 PM »

Or maybe when he/she died, he/she was instaniously reborn in another place, and is now seeing flashes of his other life? Ok he/she's probably a baby there but babies can also see things.

MoonHunter · « **Reply #3 on:** October 28, 2004, 12:33:34 PM »

Maybe he is not in the body alone. Perhaps the momentary "lack of tennant" was too enticing to some other spirit. It attempted to take on the body. Then the resurrection spell was cast, slamming the original tennant back into the body. Now the body struggles with the two spirits that are there. The images might be the other alien spirit attemping to communicate. Perhaps the migraines are a bi-product of that, or even the attempts by the alien spirit to "take over".

EchoMirage · « **Reply #4 on:** October 28, 2004, 02:23:59 PM »

The soul may be worn out by it leaving the body and re-entering it again, and not fitting in so well ... like when you unwrap a present, and then pack it back into the same packing... through the tears and cracks, something may be seeping through.

Kinslayer · « **Reply #5 on:** December 06, 2004, 01:46:08 AM »

If the setting has an equivalent of a Celestial Bureaucracy, then functionaries can hound the character. They can either show up, realise the clerical error, and complain, or some will try and "fix" the problem (and make less paperwork for themselves) by slaying the pc.

Alternately, you can go the "Jacob's Ladder" route, where the pc sees things. Are these signs that the character can now sometimes peer across the veil of reality? Is the character going mad and hallucinating? Or is this the character's own Hell?