Verb:DEPART

DEPART is a verb used to force your character to decay prematurely when dead. It cannot be used on other characters to force them to decay.

• DEPART can only be used while dead.
• DEPART can be used to check your unpreserved character's decay timer.
• DEPART cannot be used when your character's corpse is preserved by life keep/[Preservation (305)] or by animation crystals for use with [Animate Dead (730)].
• DEPART CONFIRM will force your dead and unpreserved character to decay prematurely and be revived with full health, full mana, one spirit point, and with injuries (not scars) fully healed at the nearest location dedicated to Lorminstra (if one exists) or otherwise denoted as the decay drop point.

Death's Sting will be in effect after the character is revived through use of DEPART.

Decay Timer

The duration for how long a corpse can remain unpreserved is determined by race.

Apart from that, it is possible to estimate how long an unpreserved character has before automatically decaying through use of DEPART. By typing DEPART alone (and not DEPART CONFIRM), a series of message will be displayed noting time remaining until forced decay.

Dead, unpreserved, and with more than 5 minutes remaining until forced decay:

Being dead is truly boring...but things could be worse. You could be bored AND in pain.

Dead, unpreserved, between 5 and 4 minutes remaining until forced decay:

Waves of coldness wash over you, leaving you with a growing numbness in your limbs. Your hands and feet might as well not even be there, and your arms and legs aren't really much more sensitive.

Dead, unpreserved, between 4 and 3 minutes remaining until forced decay:

It's cold! So cold! You've long since lost any sense of feeling in your extremities, but now even your torso is going numb. You feel as if you're only going to be able to hang on for a few minutes at most.

Dead, unpreserved, between 3 and 2 minutes remaining until forced decay:

You feel yourself growing lighter and lighter, rising off the ground, seemingly floating in the air. Looking down, you have the oddest experience...you can see your body lying there, and at the same time, you can still see everything from that perspective as well. How strange!

Dead, unpreserved, between 2 and 1 minute remaining until forced decay:

Everything around you is beginning to fade into a velvety darkness. Sounds seem distant and hard to make out. Your grasp on your body is rapidly slipping away.

Dead, unpreserved, between 1 minute and 30 seconds remaining until forced decay:

You seem to be moving down a dark tunnel. Ahead of you is a bright light, maybe the end is near. In the distance you can hear many voices, some strangely familiar. You can't quite make out what they're saying yet.

Dead, unpreserved, less than 30 seconds remaining until forced decay:

All you can see is a blindingly bright light! The urge to go towards it is fast becoming overwhelming. Perhaps you can still resist for a few more seconds, but not much longer!

Preservation

It is possible to check if your character is under the effects of some form of preservation without the presence of a Cleric through use of DEPART. If the following message is displayed when typing DEPART (and not DEPART CONFIRM) while dead, the character's corpse is preserved through use of Preservation (305):

Your soul has been magically bound to your corpse.  You cannot yet leave.

Any character can force the effects of Preservation (305) to cease through use of the UNLINK verb while dead in order to use DEPART normally.