(and nice to see you again)
Thanks
Niavard's example is another consequence indeed.
It isn't impossible IMO to integrate the DR into RP without making death unimportant and lacking consequences.
My way to view the DR tries to incorporate every part the settings gives on it, and that is that the DR is a huge place, similar to Yliakum in size, possibly larger. It has it's own unique creatures for which Carkarass is an example.
The DR does have a select few interconnections with the WOTL, but they are in hard to reach places in both the DR and the WOTL. That would be places not inside big cities, but in the stone labyrinths, for example.
Those gateways may or may not be unstable, and cease to exist / lead to different places at possibly more or less random times.
This means that it is highly unlikely that someone who dies will get out of there anytime soon, even less back to where they were.
The DR also houses a civilization, it is possible to "live" there. Hence, many will, one way or another, decide to stay there, be it for force or free will. Some may also find powerful dark way mages who can actually travel between the realms (or only one way), and take others / send others there. A few at a time, at a huge cost, involving a lot of preparation and surely a ritual. If you manage to gather the loads of circles or other favors, then you can maybe some day afford such a trip. Seldomly, if ever, and things may very well go wrong.
We also have the ominous notion of some diety in the DR. It isn't really clear if that will stay in the settings, but this would be the easiest way: you hand over a substantial part of your property, and get resurrected. If you manage to get an audience with that diety, that is. And the fees will be steep.
One thing, though: the dead can in no way return to their bodies. The setting forbids that, because it states that
Larger rubbish and bodies are simply thrown into almost vertical and apparently endless wells. Nobody seems to care about where all of this junk finally ends up, since the stalactite theory is only devised by some Xacha scientists and has not been proven yet. Dead bodies are eliminated the same way. Though discarding dead in such a callous fashion would seem rather shocking, neither of the two main faiths at Yliakum requires particular care nor reverence to dead bodies. To the people here, a body is simply a non-functional apparatus or an empty shell with no soul.
This clearly means that the body is neither taken to the DR, nor is it reentered by the soul upon departure from the DR. It cannot, anyway, since one might not manage to return from the DR before the body rots, and what would happen if you die falling off a mountain or burn to ashes, anyway?
Therefore it makes sense that whatever takes you to the DR creates a copy of your body for you in the DR, which is no more unrealistic to assume as having a DR in the first place.
So the rightful question is why your inventory travels with you. There was a sentence on the site that says that it doesn't, and instead gets stored somewhere for you to get it back when you exit the DR. Whatever it is, it is fairly certain that items aren't lost by default, which is, as is the fact that every
player gets into the DR, and can get out without no limit (i.e., there is no "you have 5 lives left" thing,
not the "just walk the stairs and you're out"!) and, in fact, the entire DR, a conveneince measure for players. You can't let the system decide who does and who does not go to the DR, just as you can't have final death w/o the player's consent in a game. To remain fair and playable w/o too much frustration, you must have every player go there, with the possibility of coming back.
This, however, does not mean that it is common, expected or even generally accepted in the entire population, just as the entire population is
not composed of sparkling heroes and powerful baddies (the common PCs) with a very few merchants with infinite supply and money and not a single farmer but food prices at the bottom end of things, even by RL standards. Our chars are just as everyone else in Yliakum, and a
minority by several scales. Thus, even if all of them get back from death 10 times or more in their entire life (which should be near the upper limit for almost all reasonable RP), it will
still not mean that the chance for anyone is higher than at best a few percent, averaged over the entire population. Also, as has been said, every PC
eventually vanishes, since the player leaves. So it also is quite obvious that not everyone gets back, or every time, and thus the PC can never know when it's time for that, and thus can never say "Oh, death isn't that bad, I know my way out.".
Another thing that is usually brought up is "I never see the NPCs" in the DR. Well, it is quite obvious why, in fact. They'd just keep falling off the ways as the AI barely manages to move them arount the easily navigable Hydlaa. So they in fact some
do, though way fewer than PCs, and it simply is not implemented (yet?). But even with that, the DR is so very huge that it is highly improbable to ever meet one of them, even if you get killed at the same time in the same spot.
So by far not everyone actually goes to the DR at all, and instead the vast majority just ceases to exist as IRL, and of the few who do go to the DR, only few manage to get back. So death is, to the Yliaki, more or less as final as IRL, with the very rare exception of a few. This is therefore similar to Syilph's interpretation, with the difference that the DR's "catching" effect is the exception, not the rule here, and also a bit like Astraea's version, in that you are more or less given a slim chance, though by whom or why remains unknown. Most similarity lies with Under the moon, though. So far I have managed to RP without dying, but given that I tend to search the wilderness for people IC-ly, while OOC-ly knowing they are in the tavern already, I'm likely to handle IC death similar to Under the moon.
All of this has no explanation for
why the DR exists, and
who goes there. The first doesn't necessarily need an answer in order to RP it properly. After all, it is highly unlikely that an Yliaki knows it, anyway. However, the question remains whether one also goes to the DR if one dies on the surface, or beyond one of the portals some races initially came through. This is important to know in order to RP
in the DR, as you might travel to places there. Maybe it's a sort of mirror image of the WOTL, and therefore the DR's of the different places are interconnected just as loosely as the WOTL places are. However, still, I think that since so few actually go to the DR, and even fewer manage to come back, that it doesn't really matter in terms of travelling between places via the DR (Yliakum <--> surface, not anywhere <--> Hydlaa / Ojaveda as the abusers do). In fact, it seems very likely to be that way, because it would make for a common interpretation accross all realms PS may ever add, while still allowing for the strong separation of the realms that the settings speaks of.
So I RP the DR as something that can,
in theory and legend, be gotten out of, but clearly something no farmer, no soldier, not even an Octarch can be sure of entering and coming back from. This is supported by the settings, again, as it says that one very corrupt Octarch has been sent into the crystal on a hypnotised Megaras. No use doing that if he'd just come back and slay everyone who opposed him. They would've just banned him from the level in that case.
One of the most famous cases is the one of Fertedian Dalko, Octarch of the 4th level, that was tied to a hypnotized Megaras and sent straight towards the Crystal.
Also, the DR Citadel's ruler states that
(02:18:02) Londris Kolaim tells you: I'm Londris Kolaim, great master of the dark ways, owner of this cidatel and of the souls it contains... including yours!
Would the DR be just a simple passageway, he'd surely have phrased that way differently.
It is also supported by the guide (section 3.2.4. Death Realm).
The Death Realm is a mystery as few have returned from it.
Why do I advocate this option out of all those mentioned? Because it provides for a well-RP'd resurrection without making death unimportant. It keeps things as realistic as possible while still not creating much frustration.
Yes, I am very well aware that this gives almost no, if any at all, emphasis to the implementation. Why? Because it is a fact that the implementation is extremely limited and in almost all parts does, at best, hint at a glimpse of the vision of the designers of PS. It therefore is important to not RP the implementation, but that vision, at least in those parts that are accessible to players. The implementation changes every day, bugs can literally turn things upside-down ("tipsy" bug, anyone?) and substantially change the implementation. Thusly, it is obvious that not the vision, the settings, is something in transit, but the implementation is. Sure this is more abstract, but it is not any more abstract as the inspiration of MMORPGs, the P&P RPGs, so it's certainly quite feasible.
