Death

*You've got it backwards. It's violence, or old age, or whatever, then the eviction of the soul, then lifelessness. That's death.*

Death is the (usually permanent) disfiguring of the mortal vessel that leads to the soul no longer being able to inhabit it.

* Life
* Death
* Exceptions
	1. Resuscitation
	2. Homesteading
	3. Comas
	4. Resurrections
* Voluntary Evacuations

### Life

The immortal soul inhabits the mortal body, or "vessel." This union begins sometime between conception and birth, and is an otherwise permanent binding, with no allowance for two souls within one vessel, and little allowance for venturing outside one's vessel (see Exceptions below). The soul provides the animus that exhibits control over the vessel, and will remain in place for the entirety of the lifespan of the being.

### Death

The soul may be evicted through disfiguring of the vessel. Whether it be through the gradual degradation of age or a more rapid end through violence, the soul is made unable to continue to inhabit the vessel. Generally speaking, and especially true in the cases of wildlife, souls are not "picky" in their vessels such that they "leave" when a certain standard of quality is no longer met, rather, the body is unable to contain the essence. This means that no soul would be able to "homestead" in a recently vacated vessel (see Exceptions below). As the soul dissipates, it "ascends" to Olympus-- in actuality, the plane is parallel to and overlapping with our own Earth.

### Exceptions

##### Resuscitation

At times, the corruption of the vessel that forces the soul to leave can be fixed soon after death, such as restarting one's heart. In cases like these, it's important to note that the soul may or may not have dissolved in Olympus before the body became reinhabitable. Assuming that the soul remains intact, it may draw on the tether of it's vessel to re-inhabit its body. The degree and clarity of its remembrance of Olympus, however, is famously incoherent. This is further convoluted by the fact that the soul may have ascended to Olympus in any number of locations, including a god's realm, leading to evident conflicting testimonies of what the "afterlife" may be.

##### Resurrections

A longer-term act of resuscitation followed by the original souls reinhabitation of their original vessel. The distinction between resuscitation and resurrection is not well defined, with "resurrection" generally meaning "a greater degree of time has passed, to the point decay has set in." This demands that the body be recomposed to its pre-decay state, a near impossibility without intervention from the gods.

##### Homesteading

A theoretical possibility where a vessel is disfigured and resuscitated though the original soul has dissolved already. In this case, a nearby soul with a tether to that body, such as a brother or parent, might be able to inhabit the body in the owner's stead. However, this hasn't been observed, as it would require far too many variables hard to account for.

##### Reanimation

Another highly theoretical possibility not yet seen nor understood fully, existing as an offshoot of Homesteading where a lesser soul inhabits the corpse of a greater being. In some cases, a soul may be evicted from its vessel, generally through death, then repaired such that it is capable of hosting a soul, but yet not repaired so entirely that the original soul may reinhabit its own body. In this case, a lesser spirit, such as that of a dog, cow, or rodent, may be coerced or coaxed into inhabiting the vessel. The presence of a capable, able-bodied human but with the domestic malleability of a pet, is a tempting concept for those interested in the field of necromancy. Let it be known, however, that this body is indeed living (at least in terms of its flesh), and the ability for the homesteading soul to remain tethered to it unnaturally is untenable over a long duration. Furthermore, there exists no known way to bind a lesser soul to a vacant vessel with any reliable means without a substantial tether.

##### Comas

In certain unfortunate cases, the vessel remains viable, though vacant. There are a number of reasons for this, such as a soul's unwillingness to re-inhabit its vessel, perhaps displaying a preference for "life" in Olympus. Alternatively, certain vindictive gods have been known to restrain souls while in Olympus. Finally, it's possible that the act of re-inhabiting one's vessel isn't an effortless task, or that the owner didn't establish a tether to their body to begin with. There is, of course, the possibility that the soul may dissolve in this time-frame between death and re-inhabitation, meaning no awakening will ever occur (except in the case of Homesteading).

### Voluntary Evacuations

In certain cases, the soul may choose to leave its vessel. This, understandably, comes with the risk that the soul may never survive long enough to make the return trip, let alone have the knowledge or awareness to execute a reinhabitation of the vessel. Nevertheless, the act of 'astral projecting', or inducing an out-of-body experience, is possible, brief though it may be, lest the body wither without the soul. The most common and noteworthy voluntary evacuation of the vessel is the act of visiting Olympus via entanglement.