Character Death

Whether by injury or illness, even Mirrorbound can die in Aefenglom’s setting. The expectation is that their body is recovered and delivered to the Coven for resurrection—but there are long-term consequences for dying, including memory loss or corruption.

When one of the Mirrorbound dies, their mirror in the Looking-Glass House begins to crack. The more a character dies in this world, the more their connection to their original world weakens, demonstrated by more and more cracks that decorate the edges of their mirror. However, their mirror will never crack completely in the way it does for dropped characters.

Characters who die need their bodies to be recovered quickly and returned to the Coven, where Witches licensed in resurrection magic will begin the ritual to call the dead character’s spirit back to their body. Upon revival, characters will discover that the cost of their resurrection is a missing memory, replaced by another memory from this or another world. Should the recovery of the body take too long, the risk of their soul being corrupted increases.

Should your character die, please PM the mods to discuss the exchange of memories, the possibility of corruption, or any other ideas on the matter.

## Resurrection

For natives and Mirrorbound alike, resurrection is an option in the event of the suddenly deceased. Resurrection is employed when a character dies suddenly of illness, injury, or otherwise.

Within the Coven reside hundreds of Witches present to assist in the matters of recovery. All Witches licensed in resurrection magic carry with them the necessary tools to perform the spell to resurrect a character, but this spell **must** be cast within a day of the death. This is because the longer one waits, the higher the risk becomes of the soul corrupting into something unrecognizable.

The ritual for resurrection takes a full day. Upon success, characters will find themselves weakened for up to two weeks, with five days being the minimum. The more medical attention the character receives, the shorter their recovery, and the Coven’s infirmary is the avenue to the shortest recovery period.

**The Coven cannot resurrect cremated remains, or other similar levels of destruction**. To be resurrected, characters require a recognizable body for their soul to return to. Even Witches who have “exploded” from a buildup of magic are usually described as having an intact body that has been charred on the level of a nasty fire. Any character who has been killed in a way that would destroy their body must be re-applied for.

Characters who pass away from old age are treated differently, with respect, and death is regarded as a fact of life in these cases. They are not resurrected.

As a note, Vampires do not need to be resurrected to become undead. They rise as undead on their own.

## Consequences

There are two primary consequences of death and resurrection.

1. **The loss of a memory of your choosing**. This can be a memory of the character’s time in Aefenglom, or it can be a memory from their canon.
2. In losing a memory, **characters will gain a memory in return**. This memory will be of another character’s world that they lost upon death, or it will be a scene from Aefenglom’s world itself. This will be up for discussion with the mods.

Another optional consequence is the corruption of the character’s soul. The Coven warns that corruption is likelier the longer it takes to recover the body of the dead, and it can range between twisting into something unrecognizable to exacerbating certain traits. This is to give players an option to corrupt their character or exaggerate negative traits if they’d like. For players not interested in that, the risk isn’t a guarantee, so it’s possible for characters to remain unchanged personality-wise despite the wait. This is a risk for all types of death and their resurrections.

## Effect on Bonds

In the event of a sudden death that requires resurrection, Bonds will settle upon something that feels between an annulment and abolishment, and lean more toward one or the other depending on the outcome after death.

A Bond between a living and dead character does not fully break. Bonded connected to someone who dies will feel something similar to an abolishment at first: it’ll start as a heart-wrenching feeling that twists in their chest as the connection between them and their Bondmate is suddenly all but broken. Emptiness sets in and nerves will fray as an echo of their Bonded’s last emotion prior to their death will reverberate in the hollow space behind their sternum.

This isn’t like a typical abolishment, as the feeling will slowly abate as the dead is resurrected and the Bond is actively repaired. To achieve this, characters will have to nurture their Bond, reconnecting the frayed ends of their connection and strengthening it back to full health.

Should the resurrection fail—that is, should the character remain permanently deceased—the Bond will break. This will feel the same as an abolishment, and have all of the same symptoms.

### Specific Scenarios

* When a Vampire goes through their undeath, this feels like a mere hiccup in the Bond—like the snap of a rubber band that instantaneously rights itself as the Vampire dies, then becomes undead. Because their death is gradual, it does not impact the Bond further than this.
* If two Bonded characters both die simultaneously, the most likely outcome is that the Bond with break. The Bond will need to be remade if they wish to preserve it. This will feel a bit more like an abolishment. However, this isn’t always the case: some Bonds can survive the death of a Bonded pair, though this is entirely up to chance. Should the Bond survive, the Coven will attribute the success to the Witches performing the resurrection.