Death's Sting
Death's Sting is the current system in place to penalize a character for dying in the world of Elanthia.
Effects of Death
Death and decay have many short- and long-term effects on a character. They consist of a temporary reduction in all stats, a reduction in experience absorption rate, a reduction in health, stamina, mana, or spirit recovery rate, and a reduction in a character's Constitution stat that lasts longer than the other stat reductions. Of these, only the reduction in all stats simply takes time to recover from. All the rest require either a special potion or absorbing experience. Fortunately, the only permanent effect that death has on a character is the loss of a deed. Characters under level 10 will not lose Constitution for recent deaths. Additionally, they recuperate from all other penalties at twice the normal rate.
Decay Timer
Each race has a decay timer measured in minutes. A dead body only has a number of minutes equal to the decay time to have Preservation (305), Symbol of Preservation, or Raise Dead (318) cast on it before it decays. (Prior to 2019/02/26, deaths that occurred in the Rift doubled the decay timer, but this has been updated and the timer is no longer extended.)
| Race | Decay Timer |
|---|---|
| Aelotoi | 10 minutes |
| Dwarf | 16 minutes |
| Elf | 10 minutes |
| Elf, Dark | 10 minutes |
| Elf, Half | 10 minutes |
| Elf, Sylvan | 10 minutes |
| Erithian | 13 minutes |
| Gnome, Burghal | 14 minutes |
| Gnome, Forest | 16 minutes |
| Giantmen | 13 minutes |
| Halfling | 16 minutes |
| Krolvin, Half | 13 minutes |
| Human | 14 minutes |
Short Term Effects of Death
| Method of Resurrection | Recovery Rate |
|---|---|
| Resurrection with deeds | 4% per minute |
| Resurrection without deeds | 2% per minute |
| Decay with deeds | 2% per minute |
| Decay without deeds | 1% per minute |
Immediately after being brought back to life, from either being resurrected or decaying, all stats are reduced by 40%. If a chrism gem is used prior to a character being resurrected, stats are instead reduced by 0-30% depending on the strength (value) of the chrism. The rate of statistic recovery depends on how the character was raised (decaying or resurrection) and if the character has deeds or not (see table on right). Without a chrism, being resurrected with deeds takes 10 minutes to recover, being resurrected without deeds or decaying with deeds takes 20 minutes to recover, and decaying without deeds takes 40 minutes to recover. The use of a chrism reduces recovery time by mitigating the initial stat loss.
A character's constitution stat will recover fully if the character was resurrected, had a deed, and had 0 recent deaths at the time of the death. If all of the above is not true, the character will suffer some lingering long-term effects from the death.
Long Term Effects of Death
Dying in Gemstone has numerous long term effects which only apply in certain cases. Generally, a character that possesses deeds and is resurrected after dying will see one long term effect -- constitution loss. However, a character that does not have deeds, decays, or departs will see more and harsher long term effects, such as reduced spirit, stamina, health, and mana recovery; reduced experience absorption; and increased constitution loss. Constitution loss can be regained with experience. See note below.
| Conditions of Death | Constitution loss | Reduced Recovery Rate |
Experience Absorption (25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resurrected with Deeds | 1 per recent death | None | None |
| Resurrected without Deeds | 3, +1 per recent death Slightly faster recovery rate than below |
2000 | 500 |
| Decay with Deeds | 3, +1 per recent death | 2000 | 1000 |
| Decay without Deeds or Departure/Spirit Death with deeds |
3, +1 per recent death | 5000 | 2000 |
| Departure/Spirit Death without Deeds | 3, +1 per recent death | 10000 | 4000 |
- Note: it takes 2000 experience points to recover 1 point of constitution lost due to death. The total amount of constitution that can be lost due to repeated deaths is 25 points.
- Also note: Recent Deaths are defined as the number of deaths that occurred within the last month or 50,000 experience, whichever comes first. This number caps at 5, so the most constitution that a character can lose from a single death is 8 points, which would take 16,000 experience to recover.
Death Sting Amount
When typing EXP, a character can view how much Death Sting they have, which is shown by an adjective describing how severe the sting is. The amounts determining the adjective are displayed below.
| Adjective | Amount |
|---|---|
| None | 0 |
| Light | 1-500 |
| Moderate | 501-1000 |
| Sharp | 1001-2000 |
| Harsh | 2001-4000 |
| Piercing | 4001-Unknown (More than 4750) |
| Crushing | Unknown |
Recovery Potions and Salve
Note that you can purchase flasks at any time; however, they will work only for characters of the same (or possibly lower) level.
Messaging:
As you sip from the liquid, your mouth begins to tingle. Soon, the feeling spreads throughout the rest of your body. Your tongue feels numb and the base of your skull is getting warm. An inky blackness creeps in along the edge of your vision and for a few panicked moments you can't see a thing. Suddenly your senses return to normal, but you feel somehow changed. --CON penalty mitigation effect. You take a sip of the liquid. The taste is sweet, like an orange. You feel a momentary tingle sweep through your chest. --EXP absorption penalty mitigation. You take a sip of the liquid. The taste is sweet, like an orange. --No effect.Death sting salve, which normally appears as "a squat jar of pallid grey salve", may also be purchased from the Simucoin Store for 100 Simucoins. The salve is more potent than the potions purchased from the priestess. Players should RUB (verb) the salve to use. Death's sting salves may be bundled to save space and measured to determine how many rubs are left. Besides the Simucoin Store, death's sting salves may often be found sold in Playershops or as prizes in Giftboxes or at Pay events.
Resources
- Saved posts - this post explains Death's Sting in superb detail.
- Death messaging
- Spirit death
- Ebon Gate (gate)