The nature of Gifted re-animation

I have been looking through the lore, and can find only fragmented and conflicting views on how exactly the Gifted are returned to life. Clearly the porcess by which it is done is significantly different from the process used by the Withered Aegis the reanimate corpses, but no one seems to be able to agree on what precisely happens. There seem to be two main theories:

1)The Gifted's soul returns to where it was bound and then somehow reconstitutes exactly the body that it had inhabited before its demise. The former body (presumably exsanguinated, dismembered or otherwise removed from the world of the living) remains in place to be resurrected by the Aegis, or becomes food for whichever creature was victorious. Understandably, it would be a disturbing experience to encounter your own body reanimated and turned against you by the Withered Aegis, though might create some interesting RP scenarios ;). This theory seems to be backed up by a story told by a mage near the tower North-West of Dralk (he stated that the soul returned, but mentioned that the body remained).

2)The Gifted's entire body is removed from where it fell and returned to the place where the soul was bound, somehow repaired and made functional again. This seems backed up by gameplay as the chrachter's body disappears when the player recalls.

Clearly the method of re-animation is significantly different from the method the Aegis use; the minions of the aegis seem to lack sentience or at least any concept of individualisim. The Aegis' minions also lack at least some of the main bodily functions, resulting in a gradual breakdown of body tissues and giving the Aegis their decomposing appearance.
The general impression is that the Aegis control the corpses of their minions like puppeteers working a marrionett, whereas the Gifted return as fully realised and intact individuals. However, there is little information availiable on the nature of the Gifted, their biology or the Ritual of Everlasting Life. Can anyone add more information?

Very interesting topic. :) Unfortunately I don't have anything to add, but will be watching this and keeping an eye out in-game for info.

Hey! Find your own camp spot, Vhaz! :p

There used to be a saris in the Kirasanct Tundra who study death in the Gifted by getting herself killed as often as possible. I remember also that she was disoned by her family for it.

I remember readin somewhere IG too that when the Gifted die, they almost reach (insert-here-where-ever-the-non-gifted-go) but they're yanked backed as soon as it comes into sight.

You bring up an excellent point - the exact nature of what happens when the Gifted returns to their bind point isn't clear. I believe the idea was that the body was not totally recreated (physics suggests that conservation of energy prevents this possibility, but physics may not necessarily apply) but rather the energy of the soul's transmigration provides both egress and restoration.

We do know for certain that the soul of the Gifted is yoinked back before reaching the Realm of Spirit. We also know that, when Gifted die, they leave behind 'soul splinters,' which the Aegis have been able to adapt to their blight spells that allows the creation and maintenance of the undead. This isn't as good as pure souls of those non-Gifted, but they make due with what they've got. I believe the soul splinters are also the lore reason behind death points, and so the soul heals naturally over time.

Gifted souls are also supposed to be protected from the Aegis control; I've heard that the Aegis animate corpses through blight energy, and not necessarily actual souls. This of course doesn't explain ghosts, but there could always be exceptions. In this respect, Gifted rebirth is much more akin to resurrection (returning the soul) as opposed to the puppeteering of corpses as you mentioned.

I'm hesitant to offer more on the Ritual of Life Everlasting, as I'm not sure how that lore may have been retconed. Under the original model, it was the brainchild of a necromancer, the leader of the art and one of the eight Archmages, Zaill Dervishon. It was intended merely to speed the the soul's transmigration to the Realm of Spirit in an attempt to starve the Aegis of their power source. As it came from a necromancer, it probably would have never happened, if not for his half-sister, Karissa Lucan, who was leader of the study of Life magic. She essentially presented his case, they went through with it and, uh. Screwed up. We're not entirely certain what happened, but some suggest it might be eternal life. I prefer to think of it as immunity from unnatural death, but that has never been stated clearly either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaerisk

....when Gifted die, they leave behind 'soul splinters,' which the Aegis have been able to adapt to their blight spells that allows the creation and maintenance of the undead. ....

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So.... if there were no soul splinters, no new undead would appear?

The secret of (Istarian) life just keeps getting more bitter and I can't seem to find what's more ironic:

-the fact that if there were no gifted there would be no blight creatures
or
-the fact that leaving around blight anchors long enough to blight resources will spit out EOBs, thus by leaving alone that-which-needs to-be-destroyed we can sustain our soul, life better.

Arrrrggggg! *throws herself off a cliff*

( :p )

"-the fact that if there were no gifted there would be no blight creatures"

Eh? I thought the blight was doing just fine before the gifted ever showed up. As far as I can tell from the timeline, the Gift only came during the year 0 A.R. where as Torrin Macalir brought forth the withered Aegis in 254 B.R. There've only been gifted around for about 23 Istarian years.

Quite right. The Gift indeed did limit the power of the Aegis, which before was a completely unstoppable war machine. The Aegis is just adapting what they have to work, but it's not really as powerful as it might be. During the original wars, people would fight against endless armies of undead, where the newly slain would pop right back up and start mindlessly killing their comrades while great machines would hide far from the battlefield and suck all the souls of the dying into vast collection bins for use in necromantic rituals.

Without the Gift, the Living Races would be... well, dead. Or undead. Instead of the unstoppable Aegis coming against the unkillable (permanently) Gifted and crashing into a stalemate, the Aegis would have scoured all life from Istaria completely and most likely turned the Prime into a permanent outpost of Blight.

Soul splinters? Where does the Lore mention that?