| Dave Meyer |
Doing some world building for my homebrew and have realized that resurrection and the like could potentially be a serious problem. Not so much the spell, but the ramifications of using the spell to return life to someone after death.
Let me explain; Say Duke so-and-so's beloved son is killed in battle, the Duke of course has him resurrected. Fine. What if he's been dead for a few years and for reasons he is not able to be resurrected, a new heir to the Duchy has been named, or even becomes the Duke and then poof, the son miraculously does get resurrected. Uhmm... He's still the heir apparent... right?
Or the Queen dies, her family is squabbling over who gets to sit their royal backside on the throne next, and then someone resurrects the old Queen's sister, and she's got more of a legitimate claim to the throne than the Queen's kids.
And I'm not even going to get into the can of worms that is inheritance of wealth, cause that just gives me a headache. "Well yes, you are named in your father's will, but someone resurrected your great uncle Harry, who should have inherited your father's wealth anyway, but was killed before he could. But he's back now and it all goes to him."
The nobility is famously insane about tracking lineages, and resurrection has the possibility of throwing a huge wrench into the orderly passage of titles and such. And what is to stop someone from plundering the Family crypt for a suitable candidate to bring back and take over? The Lost Prince Returns thing is almost a staple of fantasy, but with the resurrection spell, it could well become the DEAD Prince Returns.
On the one hand, it is a huge plot-hook just waiting to be exploited for my fun. But on the other, this is something that, in world, has to have been encountered before, and dealt with one way or the other by the population in the game world.
Any ideas on how this should be handled, or how a DM has done it in their game?