XIII. Death:

Well, we'd stood in battle for about seventeen hours, our goal nothing more than holding the small patch against a batch of about 20 or so reavers. They did all of the usual things, caught us with some shapeshifters - we lost about 3 or 4 hundred souls to them. Me and ten others were on this thing that moved so fast I could barely track it at all. It threw Kaevane 50 meters without even slowing down. The damn thing scratched me, and I felt the toxin almost instantly. It turned its attention to me suddenly, and blinded me. I could smell death's breath upon me then, for a moment, and out of sheer desperation I broke a transport amulet. I awoke blind, poisoned, and half dead in a very cold place smelling horribly of lizard offal. It was clear that death had followed me in my desperate attempt to escape, and found the form of whatever reptilian horror it was that made a meal of me. It took me about three months to recover, but the healers in the Place of Awakening were a welcome sight when I finally awoke, having passed the veil, not to mention the lips of that thing I never saw.

Death in Hrielith has consequences for your character. Commonly it is arrived at through one of a few ways: Misadventure in combat. Poisoning. Disease. Misadventure in activity.

As your character spends time in Hrielith - they grow and gain experience and skills. Some of these are lost in death. Your tier - which is a measure of your skillfulness, may be lost in death as well, requiring you to re-learn things you had previously mastered. This is because the process of death and resurrection is traumatic, and damages the soul somewhat.

Some of your gear may remain where you perished, for a time. Death may eject you into a dreamworld - and you may summon others there to aid you.

Eventually, your tier will be retained, but the distance to your next tier will enlarge dramatically.

After many resurrections, a resurrection may fail, resulting in a final death. Often, aspects of the spirit may be commuted to a new being, if a willing one may be found.

In general, death isn't fun, and should be judiciously avoided.