Hail, Sapience.

As most of you know, our ability to protect our bodies from destruction
with the power of Necromantic essence has recently been drastically
hindered. I have wondered over the reasoning behind this sudden lax of
power since its its degradation, and no matter which way I look at it, I
am displeased.

My first thought was that soulcage has become weaker because we have
been using it in conjunction with extermination, in order to survive
long enough to get rid of the plants before they kill us. My immediate
reaction was indignation at how in using our skills, that have been in
existence since the beginning, we get them downgraded.

I paused, however, when I re-read the announce post (announce 1408, for
those who haven't read it). Transmogrify had been downgraded, too?
Originally, Occultists had Necromancy, like us, and had the soulcage,
but when they re-discovered Occultism, they found this more powerful
version. I wondered if perhaps, soulcage was downgraded simply because
transmogrify was too overpowered, and the skills were very similar, so
some would view it as "unfair" to downgrade one but not the other.

This would be unfair to us, because users of Karma do not regenerate
normally; rather, they have access to a very great, yet limited, source
of karma, from which they can drain karma into themselves. They have
rules among their guild that this source be replenished, but I have
known of many Occultists, through my citizenship in Ashtan, who have
continuously killed themselves and re-transmogrified in hopes of getting
a better metamorphosis.

Perhaps transmogrify got soulcage downgraded, perhaps it was the
reverse. Instead of focussing on the reason, however, let us look at the
other resurrection skills, since that is what they are to us: our way of
resurrecting ourselves upon death.

Groves and Devotion are the other two skill groups that are capable of
restoring life to the slain. Both of them get their resurrection skills
in the end of Fabled or the beginning of Mythical. Both of them have two
classes each that can use them, Druids and Sylvans with groves, Paladins
and Priests with Devotion.

Necromancy and Occultism have soulcage and transmogrify, respectively.
Members of the Infernal class, Apostate class, and a select few
Occultists have Necromancy (unless they've all given it up, finally),
and only Occultists have Occultism. Users of these skill groups do not
get their resurrection skills until Transcendence, require 30% of our
essence/karma to activate them, must be alive to activate them, and can
only use them on ourselves. Grove Resurrection can be used on oneself or
one's friends, uses 350 of 12,000 grove energy, 16,000 max energy with a
Gaian Plinth, and does not require a corpse. Devotion's Resurrection can
be performed on any corpse, has a chance of failing on people with lower
alignment, and can be performed up to sixty times, if the user has
maximum Devotion points, and does not regenerate any Devotion in
between.

So, really, who had the more powerful resurrection, before ours was
downgraded? Being able to put up soulcage every time you die doesn't
come at no cost -- 30% essence takes a long time to regenerate, even
with hearts (on average, 8% essence per heart), and carries a long
equilibrium. On top of that, it's at Transcendent, as mentioned earlier.
If we can only put it up once every twelve days, why is it Transcendent?
That makes it worthless. We have been cheated; cheated out of our
God-given rights.

I will not stand for this outrage. I do not use soulcage much, nor do I
exterminate, but being restricted from using my skills that I have
studied long and hard to learn is uncomfortable, even if they are skills
I rarely use. Why Soulcage and Transmogrify, but not Grove and Devotion
Resurrection? By the Great Lord Sartan, I will not simply stand for
having my rights taken away from me.


Ranzou Weltsdown, indignant Preacher of Lord Sartan's Truths

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Lupar, in the year 349 AF.