The Deadless

## WHAT IS THE DEADLESS?

The deadless is a curse or blessing (depending on who you ask) that causes a sort of immortality. All who live on the plane of Deadrealm have it and cannot be cured while one is there. The curse is lifted when one leaves the plane.

## HOW IMMORTAL IS "IMMORTAL"?

If a creature is killed (3 death saving rolls are failed) then they fall into a state identical to unconsciousness. After 1D4 hours, the creature with revive with 1HP. Any severe damage to the body (for example, lost limbs) is not regenerated.
A creature CAN be permanently killed in the Deadrealm if their body is completely destroyed. Dismembering a body or removing the head does not count, but may disable a creature for some time. Some ways of achieving complete destruction are:

* Burned to ashes. This typically takes 1D3+1 hours.
* Consumed by lava.
* Dissolved or disintegrated.
* Consumed by a swarm. For example, insects or rodents.

## WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE?

Provided they have no contingencies, a destroyed creature will cease to exist or depart for their faith's afterlife. However, the Deadrealm has potent magic that can be harnessed prevent this. Examples of magical items include:

* Teleporting to a sanctuary or unreachable place, for example another plane.
* Protecting the body from harm, for example by erecting a magical field or changing the physical composition of the body.
* Hiding the body by invisibility or mimicry. Works best when combined with a distraction to hide the trick.
* Calling or creating minions to protect or escape with the body.

## HOW TO STOP AN IMMORTAL

Being destroyed is a final death for an immortal, but what if you can't or don't want to destroy someone? With a bit of creativity, one can stop an immortal in many ways. Here are a few ideas:

* Confinement. Examples include being buried, locked in a dungeon, chained up or confined by magic.
* Dismemberment. A beheaded immortal is not destroyed, but being seperated from one's body is still a big inconvenience.
* Remove oneself from the deadless' prescence. Sometimes avoiding an immortal creature is better than defeating it.

## RULES FOR DISMEMBERMENT

Despite what may be commonly expected, the soul does not reside in the heart, but instead the head. Even for deadless, a body without a soul is well and truly dead. This means that anything not attached to the head or attached by proxy (arm to shoulder to neck to head, for instance) is inanimate.

To put it simply: chop a man in twain from the waist and everything from below the cut is dead. Everything above that lives because it is still attached to the head.

## DECAYING

A new phenomenon has occoured in Deadrealm for the past hundred years. Deadless have been spontaneously drying up and becoming mindless husks. They aren't violent, but are just shells of their former selves. Research in the City of Light suggests that a weakness of the spirit is the cause. The body and mind simply give up. Age and race seem unrelated, but multi-centennial aged kin are primarily affected. These decaying deadless are a blight on the City of Light and several asylums have been built to house them. These asylums are rudimentary prisons, merely keeping the decaying out of the public eye. However, as the numbers of decayed has risen, the asylums have overflowed back onto the City's streets. Some families either can't afford the asylum fee or choose to care for their decayed relatives, while other decayed are less fortunate and idle in the streets.

A cure for decaying is desperately sought after by many, but some see it as a natural end to immortality.