I couldn't find any other topics that really answered my question, so I figured I'd post it.

How do people roleplay the death of denizens or other people? In what cases do people die permanently (in theory, anyways; since I'm not sure if anything dies permanently in game)?

I'm asking because I'm new to Achaea, and a lot of people seemed to RP killing denizens as no big deal (in respect to morality, anyways), because they'll just come back in a bit. Is that a common attitude?

I think it's almost universally accepted that denizens pray for salvation the same way adventurers do. So they'll usually come back to life soon, but Maya can choose to say no at any time, and let them die permanently. There have been permanent deaths, the most famous example I can remember in modern times is the destruction of Thera.

It's a tough one, and I suppose as in most things context is king. You can't level up without killing on a level that OOCly would be genocide. Also, it is clear that the denizens you kill will return and other than not liking you much seem none the worse for wear. Similarly you know that your own character can die with no ill effect. Tenebrus reflected this in his motto: "Death is fleeting, riches are eternal." which I always liked as a very Achaean motto (and reversing the usual "real world" perception of those things).

I think the best RP course of action is not to obsess about your hunting too much and from a roleplay perspective, I always thought it worked best when people cared about dying but not about death, if that makes sense. In other words, the act of dying is unpleasant, painful, agony, you really do sacrifice a part of your soul as Maya says in the Halls sequence to return. But it doesn't make sense to treat death itself as the end of the world - because it isn't. You could roleplay a fear of it or bravado in relation to it, as long as it fundamentally relates to Achaean death, not RL death.

However, there are times when death can be permanent and these usually revolve around setpiece roleplay events and really it's a question of feel when that's the case. Sometimes, if it's player-related, people will flag it ("This will be my final trip to the Halls of Maya..."), sometimes it's just apparent. For example, during the Vertani event, the Vertani destroyed Thera with a lot of permanent denizen deaths and that was roleplayed as a very serious thing, which had meaningful consequences.

Likewise, the Church in a nod towards the awkwardness of genocide for "the good guys" prohibits the killing/hunting of any "innocent" denizens, which vastly reduces the areas you can bash as a Churchie. I always thought that was really awkward and a lot of me can't believe it's still in operation given what an enormous burden it is on one side, as opposed to the other, but I can't think of a better way to handle it either.

Also, going along with the oversoul idea, it could be that if the area the denizen is tied to is destroyed, they'll no longer be able to come back to life. It seems like a more interesting explanation for the Therans staying dead than Maya deciding it was their time.

I reckon this one is entirely situational.
Some people are a little more creative than others and I think it depends on what denizen it is. I'm not going to jump up and down if someone kills a rat, but, for example, recently the EA's house tutor died and we all rushed over and sooked about her death and then inquired after her health when (lo and behold) she reappeared.

I think it's still a healthy dose or RP to acknowledge the death of a significant denizen though.

That would make sense. Something like it happened to the old Ty Beirdd tutor when the househall was wrecked. She was injured in the attack and apparently died permanently.

What about the candy merchant who was pulled into that portal by some clawed hand? I know he died permanently but I don't know the rest of the story. Think there was an events post on it...

EDIT: I know when people sneak into Eleusis/Sentinel HH and kill Aine/Vixen/Cwincan/Mehrien/Antion/Onakk or any of the others we tend to freak out a bit, we RP those characters being very beloved to us. When Vixen gets killed (rarely but it happens) we flip out and then get berated by a rather irate denizen tutor when she comes back.

The witchdoctor in Fores-ch was more recent, although, now that I come to think of it, I don't think he actually died, I think he was just "removed" from our plane


This sounds like a very Ferengi saying

Edit: lol the autocensor censored Forest-watch

The filter is getting a bit ridiculous.

...wow.

Oh wow.

Oh, wow.

Words are inadequate.

I bet it even censors ridickulous.

*gasp* It doesn't! I'mma get warned

A thread full of face palms on my part. Ask a Thothian.

Sure you can! I bashed almost exclusively scorpions/Mhojave and quested to level 55 or so, then almost exclusively Dun Swamp and quests until I was able to do UW. No genocide in Griffel's past!

You genocide the poor Unsidhe.

Just because they're ugly doesn't mean you have to hate them. >:(

I did some fairly weak "bard to the Sidhe Court" roleplay for a while to justify that, actually. I could never get Oberion to respond to me though.

Why are you oppressing the Unsidhe?

It's not their fault Oberion is a fascist, vain, shallow -.

I always thought they were clones made by Teneb.

I've always assumed that denizens pray as well, otherwise Achaea would be a lot more devoid of any kind of life

As for the killing of things, peoples approach to this is different, personally I tend to just kill denizens I have a IC reason to dislike for various reasons. Albeit I suspect most peoples approach is to kill whatever gets them to dragon in the fastest way possible with little or no reasoning behind it.