“Reanimation of the dead is a heinous crime that runs counter to the world mana flow and all practitioners were hunted till neither bone nor ash remained. Resurrection meanwhile was seen as a holy gift.” – Excerpt from The Annals of the Magistocracy, Volume II
Resurrection and Loss of Experience
Resurrection is a branch of magic that deals with bringing the dead back to life. Strictly speaking it is a different branch of magic than necromancy, which includes reanimating corpses without imbuing life back into the body. Necromancy is the art of creating undead like liches or zombies while resurrection magic focuses on imbuing life back into a freshly dead corpse to return them to the person they were. Many fantasy worlds will have at least a single resurrection spell and as one might assume when trying to overcome the barrier of death, it is not guaranteed to succeed.
Besides the difficulty of the magic itself, there are other considerations that might make access to a resurrection spell difficult for an ordinary person. The political and or religious environment may not allow for the acknowledgement of resurrection magic as a valid branch of magic research. This means that despite having a magic system that allows for resurrection magic, it may be unknown wholly or in part due to doctrine set by influential organizations like a church or royal state. Wholesale rejection is common in worlds where no distinction is made between resurrection and necromancy. In other cases, the requirements for resurrection magic may be well known, but the demands on a compatible magic caster may be so restrictive that a person capable of successfully invoking the magic is born only once in a hundred years.
A fresh corpse is usually required for successful resurrection. Someone who died within the last 24 hours will have the highest rate of success at coming back to life. It is possible to bring someone back even up to three or four days after death provided their corpse has been kept in good condition, but the success rate will drop dramatically. Successful casting of resurrection will imbue the same life that was lost into the corpse, however lost limbs and other detached parts of the body cannot be regenerated. This is why the condition of the corpse is so important when it comes to evaluating the chances of success.
Upon being resurrected, an individual will notice that their level has dropped or that they have lost some experience points. This is a phenomenon that was explained in detail in Log Horizon. The body is the anima and is represented by HP or hit points. The mind is the psyche and is represented by MP or magic points. When a person dies, their psyche is disconnected from the body and begins to disperse. Following the law of entropy the mana contained within the human body seeks to return to a state of lower potential by dispersing into the environment. This process takes time, and until it completes resurrection is possible. This is why resurrection has a time limit and also why your level drops or experience is lost while undergoing the process.
Resurrection at its core is a spell that uses the information still stored in the corpse to back calculate the initial state of the anima and psyche. This process can restore much of the information, but some will be lost. Neither the body nor the mind will be returned to their exact states prior to death. The body and the mind will have tiny defects. For the body, that means slight physical deterioration and for the mind, that means slight memory loss. These adverse effects may not be noticeable at first, but repeated use of resurrection will accumulate errors in both the body and the mind.
Death is usually something to avoid, but a world with resurrection magic means death does not have to be the end. That said, it can still be a costly proposition. So try not to die, okay?
