It happens to the best of us, we all eventually die. In the world of Solaris, this isn’t always the worst case scenario. This “Death Guide” is to help players understand what exactly happens when their character dies.

I died, now what?
First things first, where do the dead go? Well, before we get to that let me explain something first. After the final blow is dealt during combat, and a character falls, one of four things can occur.

The first possibility…
Characters could be restored immediately upon death by an temporary item (a Rebirth Stone or a Lifestone) or another character with the ability of Resurrect. This is the best possible scenario, but sometimes we aren’t this lucky. Rebirth Stones, as well as Lifestones, are both onetime deals. Upon death a character is quickly restored to an incredibly weakened state and the stone disappears. If they are slain again they’re in real trouble, especially if they don’t have the next best thing, a healer-type character nearby that can resurrect them. The resurrection ability has its own pitfalls however, permanently consuming a full 5% of the victims experience level and leaving the caster incredibly weakened for an entire week, not to mention the resurrection must take place within the same RP session as the death. So if there are no healer's around, someone's going to have a very bad day.

The second possibly…
Still not as bad as completely dying, the next choice is simply having a Dawnstone or Duskstone on your character at the time of death. Did we mention it's also easy to get, and it's a permanent item? It is available in the form of a quest called "Of Vice or Virtue" located in the Quest Guide for Underlings or higher.) In the world of Solaris a corpse only remains in the living realm for a short period of time. After this occurs, it fades away. If this happens and a character has a Dawnstone (if they’re a “good guy” type), or Duskstone (if they’re a “bad guy” type), they will be resurrected across the planet at one of two locations.

A Dawnstone restores a character to the land of the living at The Divine Spire, while a Duskstone restores a character at The Infernal Chasm. There are really no significant differences in which you choose because both do the exact same thing. The differences are more for a characters development than anything at all. People who play their characters as though they were evil would typically choose the Duskstone quest, and be revived at The Infernal Chasm. The same goes for the good guys at The Divine Spire. Either way, it’s the same deal either way.

Upon restoration through the use of Dusk or Dawnstone however, a character will permanently lose 10% of his total experience points each time he dies. He could also lose ONE of his items after dying if his attacker had looted his corpse. (Attackers get their choice of ONE item from their victims inventory after a successful kill.) Either way, it’s better than the third option… which is completely dead.

The third possibility…
This one’s for keeps! When a character isn’t resurrected immediately after death by an item or later by a Dusk or Dawnstone and dies completely. When a character dies completely in the world of Solaris their essence, or spirit, travels through the Afterplane (the plane of existence opposite the living plane in Solaris) to Perma Tarn. Perma Tarn literally translates to "Perfect Land" in Ancient Solarian tongue. Once a character goes here, he’s gone for good. No matter what a warrior did throughout his days, his “soul” is reunited with the Absolute Essence in eternal bliss, or so Solarian history would have us believe, and bound for eternity. This can be avoided however, as long as a character has earned a Dusk or Dawnstone, as mentioned above.

The fourth possibility…
The fourth possible outcome is incredibly rare. This occurs when a character’s soul lingers on planet Solaris by staying in the Afterplane. This may happen when a character chooses to end his life by Self Destructing during a battle. A being can become stuck in the Afterplane for eons if he is not careful, and the reason this occurs isn’t exactly known.