Who is the Resurrection?

Dated: 07 Feb, 2026

Our latest publication SM22 Musings and Navel Gazing (available for FREE here) includes a section on how the various spells that return characters from the dead work in the world of Barnaynia (Raise Dead, Reincarnation, Resurrection and Wish spells). This coincidentally became significant in a recent event in one of my regular games.

One of the characters, Tommy, died by a Fireball from a Drow. One of the other characters, Gary, wanted to cast Raise Dead on the dead character. Two members of the party, Nancy and Clive, objected to this as it went against their beliefs. The names have been changed (slightly) to protect the furious.

Some background – Gary is a Priest of Hecate, Queen of Magic and the Moon, from the Olympian Temple. Tommy is also a follower of the Olympian Temple but isn’t particularly aligned with any specific deity within it. The Olympian belief system holds that when a character dies, their Spirit goes to the Land of the Dead (we can’t call it the Underworld as this is the common Barnaynian phrase of the other side of the world, which is shaped like a flattened Banana and so has a lower side, logically called the Underworld by those on the top). There are tales of people using magic to bring back the dead and even travelling to the Land of the Dead and physically bringing the Spirits back to the living world (one such hero was called Orpheus. They made a whole song and dance about that…). As a result, the use of magic to bring the dead to life is not a big deal for the Olympians. Not easy, but quite acceptable.

Clive, however, is a Priest of the Warrior God Anark of the Temple of the Life Travellers (significant in the city of Karan but not so much elsewhere). It is thought that Anark might be an incarnation of Odin but you wouldn’t want to suggest that to Clive. Anark’s opinion of being killed in battle is that this is the best deal a person can get and is a Golden Ticket to the wonders of the Afterlife in the halls of Anark himself. No one would want to come back from that!

Nancy is also a member of the Temple of Life Travellers, but her patron deity is Gaa, the Goddess of the Earth, Mothers and Childbirth. It is her belief that once dead, someone should stay dead, allowing their Soul (or Spirit, they don’t care about names) to be reborn. Anyone brought back to life by Magic will be severed from their eternal Soul and it will end up in Limbo, lost forever, cold and alone. While the body is alive once more it is devoid of a Soul and is animated by magical forces unrelated to the original individual. Such a character is one of the Walking Dead, somehow even more sinister and frightening than Undead.

There are three other members in the party: Lee, who is an Elf and doesn’t have a strong opinion either way; Alfie, who is a Halfling Barbarian  of a Pig-herding tribe and thinks the opportunity to be brought back from the dead sounds like a grand idea; and Meme, pronounced Me-Me, who is a Fey NPC and knows that there is no such thing as the afterlife, that death is total destruction and that the debate is pointless as the spell can’t possibly work…

As you can see, this led to quite an intense argument involving querying what is Belief and what is Fact, how someone’s beliefs affect their personal journey beyond death and what Tommy would have preferred should he have been able to speak for himself.

After much heated debate, a Speak with Dead spell was cast after some unexplained complications around the casting and vociferous complaints from Nancy. Tommy said, or at least the apparition Clive called forth said, that yes, he would quite like to come back, please. He mentioned things were a bit blurry where he was and, while he felt quite good about things and thought something nice was about to happen, did want to be Raised.

Clive and Nancy declared they would stop Gary if he tried to cast Raise Dead on Tommy and in response, Gary cast Hold Person on the two of them, and they failed their Saving Throws. Gary then apologised profusely to their frozen forms for having to do that and then cast the necessary spell and Tommy succeeded on his Resurrection Survival roll.

So, Tommy is back and happy. Clive is very not pleased about the whole thing and nursing a deep grudge against Gary. Nancy is violently hostile to Gary, although hasn’t come to blows yet, and is avoiding Tommy like he has the Plague. Which, in her eyes, he probably has. Tommy is pretty upset by this as Nancy and Tommy where almost kind of getting on together really well before he was killed. Nancy is very conflicted as she is convinced that the real Tommy is trapped in Limbo and this effigy is some kind of monster, but New-Tommy is being very nice to her and his pleading does seem very real. He also has a really cute ass.

Gary believes he did the right thing while Lee and Alfie are highly amused by the whole thing, as well as being pleased to have Tommy back, of course. Especially Alfie who gets on with Tommy very well.

Meme is very confused by the whole thing and is not sure if she has been lied to about the finality of death or not (she hasn’t, it works differently for Fey – when they die, they are utterly destroyed and can’t be brought back or even communicated with).

The party is continuing on their adventure together, although this is due to circumstance as they are deep underground. While there is simmering rage everywhere, they do understand that they would almost certainly all die if they split the party up.

Why am I sharing this with you? No reason really. I just thought it would be fun to share it. I think it was a really good example of the kind of situation some players might not anticipate during their adventures but could easily happen at any time.

The depth of World Building that has been presented in Barnaynia is designed to allow normal, free play including Dungeon Delving and Monster Bashing but also laying the table for bigger opportunities for proper role-playing, like this. The City of Dunromin and the World of Barnaynia offer myriad opportunities for adventure, hilarities, confusion and frustration for all.

For reference, the event happened during pay-testing of the new Dunromin University Press publication SM21 A Journey through the Darkworld, which will be out, well, hopefully in a month or two but you know how real life keeps getting in the way?