“ Often valuables is counted in coins, jewelry and magic items. Surprise your players by offering them cheese, wine, cloth and art as rewards and payment.”
“ When you sleep, your soul briefly returns to the place where it was created/goes to when it dies, and seeks nourishment. Everybody's soul is created with a little link (or you could say a greater entity calls it back) to that place so that it can return easily, but upon death, the soul returns via that and annihilates the link as if returns.
Also, as an added thingy, you could say the entity supplying the link, or residue of the links themselves, (whichever) is the source of all arcane power.”
“ Leader carries gold into battle with him. When he sees a great feet of bravery or valor he rewards them with the gold, or maybe a token worth some prize if they survive.”