Gentle Repose in Middle- and High-Magic Worlds

Previously: The World Behind the Spell: Gentle Repose

Gentle Repose in a Middle-Magic World

Ordinary people understand magic in broad strokes, even if they have seen little of it firsthand. Forestalling and eventually defying death is one of the most potent and tantalizing effects they can imagine. Access to this magic is the true dividing line between haves and have-nots, and among the powerful, negotiations over who may be granted Gentle Repose; for how long; and in preparation for what kind of resurrection, is at the heart of many complex political and religious divisions.

Cremation riots have erupted throughout the outlying settlements; commoners are refusing to burn their dead, as required by church law. The riots arose in the wake of rumors that the church used several rare diamonds to resurrect the heir of a neighboring kingdom after they died in a tragic fire. This diplomatic gesture went a long way toward relieving long-simmering tensions between the two nations, but that is little comfort to the average churchgoer, with no hope of such salvation. Most worrying for the church leadership, there are credible reports of an itinerant preacher in the outlying villages, casting Gentle Repose in St. Anca's name, dozens of times per day, promising to keep their loved ones suspended, and demanding the church assign future resurrections by lottery. It won't be long before the masses gather and march on the capital...

Gentle Repose in a High-Magic World

The effects of Gentle Repose are common knowledge, and available for a fee from clerics for loyal worshipers of their deity, or at a higher fee from wizards who also practice the spell. Both clerics and wizards maintain "houses of repose" for this purpose, where bodies lay dead but not dying. Depending on the clerical deity in question, or the ethics of the wizards involved, these houses can rapidly become exploitative for the loved ones of the deceased, who may be able to keep up on payments for Gentle Repose, but not ever afford the more powerful resurrection spell that Gentle Repose is ostensibly facilitating.

The plaza outside the Maestri House of Repose is among the busiest in the city. By the plaza fountain, a desperate woman begs for the last few silvers she needs to afford another casting of Gentle Repose; if she can find it, she will have another 10 days to repeat the process again, forever barely staving off a final goodbye to her husband. Two men descend the steps from the House of Response, the younger with a stunned expression on his face; when they married, they were only six months apart in age, but it took the survivor nearly 30 years to save for the resurrection spell that finally brought his husband back after an untimely accident. A famous performance artist strides across the plaza with their entourage and sponsors; they plan to kill themselves and lie in wait through thousands of castings of Gentle Repose, then serve as a living time capsule for people of an unknown future, relating stories of a bygone age.