> This has got me thinking. My first response was 'maybe he
> died twice?', which given the existence of resurrection seems
> reasonable.
> Then it occurred to me that I can't, off hand, think of an
> example of resurrection being mentioned in canon. The return of the
> Red Emperor, sure, but thats a very different and unique process, as
> are a few other reincarnating heroes. But killed and quickly brought
> back by magic? Not many.
There are some. I can think of a couple off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are more. There is a story in the Entekosiad where someone is sentenced to "Killed Once" (or something like that, since the book is at home), which meant they'd be executed, but a resurrection attempt would be allowed. When the Red Emperor reappears the first time, everyone is amazed because people dead that long don't come back. This suggests that people dead shorter times do. Kallyr is another one who returns from the dead under slightly peculiar circumstances, suggesting that there are non-peculiar circumstances for returning from the dead. There's also Asborn Thrice-Born (or Four-Born), who is remarkable because he returned from the dead several times and without the usual "shadow of death" blighting his personality.
All of this points to the idea that resurrection, while not common at all, is not unheard of. There's a plot in KoDP, if your clan has learned the spell from Chalana Arroy, where another clan will beg you to use the spell for them. They pay through the nose and it takes a whacking great amount of clan magic (7 points? That's a year's clan magic at the start). I guess everyone has heard of the spell, but it is very costly (both to the requester and the caster) and somewhat dangerous and it might not have the result you wanted (the subject returns in a gloomy frame of mind and runs off to join the Humakti or Ty Kora Tek or the Black Path of Shargash or the Children or Biijif or Gerra or something) or something ghastly might happen (a bad carryover at the end of the ritual could leave you with your chief's body and some other spirit (ghost, chaos fiend, darkness spirit, some ancestor or hero, Sheng Seleris, the Other Other Red Emperor, Godunya's Lost Ignorance, the Irritation of Pamalt, heavens knows what else). Anyway, I doubt it gets used all that often, even for the middling-powerful (Clan Chiefs and the like). Besides, even if you come back from death, you might lose the throne (if there's a "perfection" requirement -- no gold noses here!) or get whacked by a really deadicated Humakti ("Stay dead, damn you!") or any one of a number of things. Besides, as you point out, if you're a hero, your enemies still want you dead, and if you're a political figure, your replacements have a vested interest in discouraging the attempt, right? So those Relationship scores come in really handy....
Peter Larsen
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