Death

Art ©Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, and not exclusive to TSS.
http://www.shadowscapes.com

When you die, you become a ghost. You're aware of what's going on, but your body is unable to move and you will be unable to communicate with anyone who does not have the ability to communicate with the dead. What do you lose when you die?

Well, dying is not supposed to be fun. It's no exception in The Seventh Sun. When you die, the following things happen:

1. You lose experience. You will lose OVERALL EXPERIENCE (which is applied toward your next level). How much you lose is based on your level, how long you remain dead, and how many devotional points you have. Devotional points can be used to buy back lost experience. If you have enough devotional points, the loss will be minimal.
2. You will lose SKILL EXPERIENCE. Skills will be randomly selected and small portions will be lost. For example: you have EVASION at 42.13 ranks. You die. You now have EVASION at 42.00 ranks. How much skill experience you lose will be based upon your attributes. Religious classes will have spells that can help minimize these losses for you.
3. You will lose your devotional points. You will lose the devotional points needed get your OVERALL EXPERIENCE back. These points can be regained by doing devotional actions. The actions vary from god to god. NOTE: You only lose devotion points from death if you have the help of a Parson or Dark Priest. (See below)
4. Any money you have on you will fall to the ground and anyone will be able to pick it up without penalty. There are spells that can prevent this from happening. While there are a number of things that can happen to you, as long as you prepare, there are plenty of ways to minimize the penalties. Let's suggest a scenario. You die and are now a ghost. You are floating around near your body, your items are safe on your body, and no one can do anything tothem. All your money will fall to the ground unless you have some kind of spell that keeps that from happening. (See Parson or Dark Priest.) You can not leave your body without typing RELEASE.

So you have a couple options now that you're a ghost.

1. You can hang around your body till someone comes along, realizes that you probably need help and gives you a hand. The only problem with this approach is that the longer you are dead, the greater the difficulty and cost of resurrection. (Explained further down.)
2. You type RELEASE. This allows you to wander around as a ghost to try to find someone to help you. You can not communicate with people unless they have the ability to speak to the dead. Some people might not even be able to see you unless they are Parsons, Dark Priests, or Holy Knights. You have a limited amount of time (based on level) before your items become vulnerable. So RELEASING is not really a good idea unless you're sure about finding help.
3. You type RIP. Rest In Peace. This causes you to basically DIE both in body and spirit. Your spirit will teleport to the nearest shrine of the god you worship, and they will provide you with a new body. Your items will remain in a grave that is under the protection of your god for a period of time (Based on your devotion to your god.) You must then travel back from the shrine to the site of your death before your time runs out or your items will be vulnerable. Again, you can have a spell placed on your things that will keep any player other than yourself from picking them up.

OPTION 1

The kind of help you'd be hoping for would be that of a Parson, Dark Priest, or possibly a Holy Knight or Necromancer if they were at a high enough level. If one of these classes came along, they would be able to cast spells to bring back overall experience, skill experience, and heal your broken body. If they are willing to help you, there is no reason for you to need to RELEASE. If they are high enough level, they can probably resurrect you and would not need to RIP in that case. While you're dead, overall experience and skill experience continue to be lost. But while you are a ghost WITH your body, the loss is at its lowest level.

OPTION 2

If you release, as stated above, you can leave your body to find help and bring them back to your body to reunite your soul and body. Remember though, you only have a limited time to get back to your grave and get your items. Also, while your soul is released from your body, your earthly experience fades away at the fastest rate.

OPTION 3

RIP. If you RIP without help, your lost experience can not be regained. If a Parson or a Dark Priest help you out, but don't resurrect you, they can translate your devotional points into your lost experience. If you do not have enough devotional points to cover your lost experience, they can translate as much as possible and you can either take the loss, or the person tending you can choose to sacrifice their devotional points to help you. You would then RIP and not lose anything but the minimum. If the Parson or Dark Priest is of a high enough level, and has the proper components on them, they can resurrect you after fixing your experience and body. If they do this, your soul reattaches to your body.

Either way, you will have Resurrection Sickness which means that for a time after you're resurrected, your attributes, health, stamina and mana, will all be very low. These affects can be shortened by a Bard and or good food from a Baker, potions from an Alchemist, and various spells.