Rite of Stolen Life

The Rite of Stolen Life was a rare ritual known by select worshipers of Myrkul that could transform a dead creature into a zombie-like undead version of itself that possessed the memories it had when it was alive.
==Effects==
The Rite involved evil magic that brought a subject back to "life" as a rotting, walking corpse. The risen individual lacked their own, original soul, and instead was animated with a substitute soul from a live sacrifice. This new soul was made to imitate the original soul by the grace of Myrkul, who imbued it with the knowledge, personality, and skills that the subject had in life. Because of this use of an alternative soul, the ritual did not require that the subject's actual soul be free or even willing for them to be reanimated, which was normally a limitation of spells like resurrection or raise dead.
Upon completion of the ritual, the dead subject awoke as if from a long slumber. As an undead creature, they had no need to breathe, eat, drink, or sleep. Their body also continued to decay as a normal corpse, and this could not be slowed or stopped. If returned to life using a conventional revival spell, the subject lost all memories of the time when they were undead.
==Components==
The ritual required the mostly intact corpse of the subject to be revived, a live humanoid to be sacrificed, and a large gemstone worth at least 100 gold pieces. Over the course of the one-hour ritual, the sacrifice was slain and its soul captured within the gemstone, which was then magically embedded into the forehead of the subject's corpse and imbued with the subject's memories with a prayer to Myrkul. As long as the subject's body was physically intact enough to move, the soul within the gemstone would continue to animate it. If not, the gemstone would shatter and the subject was dead once more.
==History==
When resurrection magic ceased to function during the effects of the death curse in the late 15 century DR, the Rite of Stolen Life was one of the only means of bringing a dead person "back". At this time, the only individual in Chult who knew the ritual was the green hag Nanny Pu'pu, and she was only willing to perform the ritual for those who did her certain favors or brought her sinister trophies. During this time, the lich Makos encountered her, and had her use the Rite to revive his comrade, Celeste, who had been captured and killed by Batiri goblins. Makos subsequently had the idea to weaponize the death curse against the liches of Thay—who were starved for souls by its effects—while using the Rite of Stolen Life to preserve important living individuals who would otherwise also succumb to the curse's effects.
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Category:Rituals
Category:Rituals (5e)
Category:Myrkulyte spells
Category:Hag spells