Ress please!

I decided not to reincarnate in the fire.

In a recent short story about my paladin, I described what a holy resurrection felt like.

"-- a flash of light cut through the darkness. Soft whispers of an unidentified language echoed in the numb mind, coursing through the veins and filling the body with life energy."

So I came to think about resurrections. What do the others feel like? I find them a wonderful opportunity for some hardcore imagination usage. Here are my thoughts about various kisses of life, feel free to tell me what you think! Perhaps this will have an effect on who you choose as your raiding buddies in the future... Also, to make it a bit more fun, I won't tell which resurrection it is right away, but you can think what it sounds like.
Most of them were performed by/to my own characters in my mind, so they brought their own twist to them.

1. Roots sprang from the ground to wrap around her body, still warm. Various sproutlings appeared to stroke her skin with their leaves and petals, breathing life into the body. As more and more sproutlings gathered to dance around her, she opened her eyes slowly and stared at the sky, seeming peaceful and rested.

2. He felt incredible pressure around his chest, as if his heart was squeezed really tight and then released. Squeezed and released, squeezed and released again, like it was blackmailed to start beating. He rapidly woke up as if from a nightmare, out of breath and coughing.

3. "Is this a lucid dream?" she wondered, feeling sleepy. She saw everything hazy and blue, nothing stayed still but constantly moved in a wavy motion, a place with no time and space. A wolf's nose suddenly poked her hand. The wolf said nothing, only gave her a deep look in the eyes before turning around and walking away. She instinctively followed the wolf; she felt there was no other option.

The spirit animal lead her to a well - a well which held a reflection of her lifeless body lying on a rock, her back twisted like a wire. She understood it was her, but had no thoughts in her mind. She stepped into the well.

As her body touched the water, the feeling of sensation slowly began to return to her skin, the deeper she let her body sink. She let go of the well's edge. Her body disappeared into the dark well, as did the reflection.

4. A sharp-edged sword pierced his lungs, cutting through his body as effortlessly as it would through water. He fell down to his knees and held his chest for a moment before collapsing forward. As everything was fading to black, a green fog appeared to fight the darkness, pushing it away.

He felt two treants by his side. Their branches grabbed him by the arms before he hit the ground, and lifted him back up to his feet. The green vision faded as quickly as it had appeared, slowly turning into one of the physical world. He was still holding his chest as he looked down to it, standing feebly. The fresh wound looked nasty, but it did not bleed.

5. She heard the ancestors call her name. The flames burnt her skin, but at the same time the water was about to fill her lungs. She was done for. She knew she was.

The draenei shifted into her ghost wolf form, making a last, desperate attempt to escape the pressure and torment. She jumped. Jumped as far as she could. The wind under her paws lifted and carried her over the flames; the water being heavier than the wind, it didn't follow.

Though falling from high, the ghost wolf landed softly, as if she was weightless. She ran into the blue fog, humid and soothing.

6. A foul stench invaded a dark figure's nose, as it walked into the humid cave. The figure stopped walking and looked down to something, pulling his hood off. The man was dressed in a simple black robe. He carried a black staff with an orb in its tip, glowing purple. He kneeled down and peered at the rotting body in front of him. The elf had been dead for days.

The man crouched before the body, moving his hand over it, an inch or two remaining between his palm and the elf carcass. In his hand he held a tiny sphere. It's surface was amazingly smooth. As he performed the ritual, focused, necromantic energy began to slowly flow between the body and the small object in the man's hand. His face was neutral, almost empty of any feelings, but a hint of pride could be detected from it as the rotten elf turned his head towards the man in black.

1. Druid resurrection. 2. Death knight combat resurrection. 3. Shaman resurrection. 4. Druid combat resurrection. 5. Shaman reincarnation. 6. Warlock soulstone resurrection.

Hmm yeah, what can I say? I am highly disappointed with myself regarding reincarnation. My main character is a shaman, I should know better, but truthfully speaking, I had no idea where to start. Then again I can understand that going from others resurrecting target to target resurrecting themselves is a bit difficult.

The outcome of a resurrection doesn't always take the resurrected one back to what he/she was before the death, but thankfully it gives you your life back! My personal opinion is that character deaths (non-permanent ones) and resurrections can be great in RP, as long as they aren't used excessively. I imagine that would leave a pretty bad trauma, make the body unable to function normally or cause disability. Perhaps even a single resurrection could cause something like that to a very sensitive individual. It's probably likely that the resurrected one would feel rather weak and/or disoriented after the ress, particularly a combat one.

I find it fun to bind RP-like emotes and lines into my abilities (as long as it doesn't cause spam. So no binding things to frequently used spells, attacks and whatever) and I'm thinking of doing it with resurrections as soon as I come up with something that is clear and interesting, but not too long.

As my last words for this post I am going to say that I found it quite a touching piece to write. I admit using WoW as a method of dealing with certain things. It's easier to think of some more difficult matters in that concept. I was fairly careful with my words here, because I felt quite sensitive writing about life and death this way, being in control of it. Anyhoo, I was absolutely excited about this post when I first got the idea for it, and still am.

Thanks to Mr X for coming up with helpful words regarding soulstone resurrection. I have very little RP experience of warlocks (more of felhound minions!), so I was out of inspiration for that one. Thank you! <3

Here's some atmospheric music from an amazing band to go with the post: