Why couldn't they just raise Gorion from the dead?
thesoloer
Member Posts: 77
Why does everyone in the game act like someone dying is a serious matter, when there are clearly people capable of reviving them? Why did they just leave Gorion to decompose when there's a Priest of Oghma in Candlekeep who could have brought him back?
2
Comments
1. Deity/Clergy is not keen to raise the dead (e.g. Lathander's clergy are not raised from the dead unless required to complete a task)
2. Deity/Clergy thrives on the death as a direct or indirect consequence (e.g. Talona, goddess of disease and poison, plagued an entire city so that she could gain power from the worship of the survivors)
3. Deity's dogma does not allow (e.g. Silvanus advocates the natural cycle of life and death and raising the dead is anathema to this cycle)
4. Ao the Overpower forbidding interference (e.g. Cyric claimed Ao wanted to let the Bhaalspawn saga play out on its own without interference by the deities)
5. For Gorion's case, if he did not worship Oghma, there is no reason why a priest of Oghma would raise him from the dead... deities and clergies watch out for their own interests and raising Gorion would not have been something of benefit.
1. In the Realms, the more powerful you are, the more it costs to raise you. Seeing how powerful Gorion was, the sum for raising him had to be quite high. Far more so than newbie adventurers like ourselves could afford.
2. Also, if I remember correctly, in order to raise someone, the dead one's body must be more or less intact. For all we know, big bad Sarevok might have ensured that Gorion's body was... anything but after his death. *shudder* We can't tell, due to limitations of the game engine, but this could still be the case.
This is also the reason I believe that a certain someone from the second game can't be raised - according to Imoen, Irenicus was anything but gentle with "his" body.
3. Balance reasons. Gorion was, as I mentioned earlier, quite dang powerful. If he could be raised, what then? He wouldn't be able to join your party, that's for sure. Perhaps he could had been given some other role but I have no clue as to what.
4. Motivation. Gorion's death gives you a reason to go after Sarevok. Not a strong point, I admit, as they could have given us any number of reasons to go after him.
Just my two cents on the matter.
It would make for an awful story.
To recover from a death like that, you'd need a True Resurrection spell, or the aforementioned Wish and Miracle spells. Only high- and epic-level spellcasters know those spells, and there aren't many of those on the Sword Coast.
"Oh hey, child. Thank you for raising me, now let's continue from where we left off"
And because Deathbringer Assault. In game, that attack would chunk you.
Maybe he could only appear to good and neutral charnames.
Perhaps Sarevok more or less clove him in two with that great sword. Too much damage to resurrect him.
Despite said arguements, i really liked the return of Sarevok, though. Very much.
I also always say that every character gets one chance to be raised from the dead and one chance to be resurrected. After that, they're either screwed or living on goodberries xD
He got chunked!
In 2nd edition AD&D there's a table for survival during the attempt at resurrection by magic. If the die roll comes up short that's it. Character is permanently deceased. I think it's probably the same in 3.5. but I don't have a DMG handy.
But as others have pointed out, Raise Dead requires the body be mostly intact. It's not hard to imagine Sarevok disfigured him in such a way to make Raise Dead impossible. In fact, many DMs I've gamed with will simply assume "bad guys" routinely do such things to fallen enemies.
Resurrection is harder to foil like that. But it is 7th level and requires a permanent sacrifice from the caster. So it is reasonable to say Gorion's young ward simply had no way, no knowledge even, of how to get a Resurrection.
In Gorion's case his corpse stayed there for the night and was possibly ravaged by the bears, dire wolves and gibberlings around the area. Also, maybe Sarevok's death bringer assault snuffs out the life force so utterly that raise dead won't work.
It would be cool if the area of the slaughter lacked Gorion's body when the charname gets there next morning. Instead there would be pool of blood, ripped clothing and animal tracks. When you click the '?' Hovering on the pool of blood, There would be a message saying 'from the blood and animal footprints, you understand that large wolves and other predators seem to have ripped Gorion's corpse apart. There is no part of him left around.' Gorion's belt, dagger, and his note could be found scattered around the carnage, lying undamaged. That would have been grisly but cool.
Really, resurrection isn't something you should acknowledge storywise even if its there gameplay wise.
edit: i remember being really disappointed on one of my first playthroughs- i tried to find a way to bring gorion to a temple and at every temple i visited tried all the dialog strings to see if noone would fancy coming with me to raise him. charname missed his daddy.
But, well, I guess Elminster was too busy being cryptic to save a spell for your old mentor. It's not like there are many people with the level to cast Wish in BG1.
Now, why your Bhaalspawn wizard/sorcerer doesn't cast a Wish and wish for Gorion to live again in BGII (or, for that matter, for Yoshimo to live again- though Yoshimo may not wish to be raised, considering his last words)... well, maybe they forgot about Gorion after all the torture. Silly Bhaalspawn.