Rangers and the Dead

[Lerytha]

Greetings. I have recently created an alt, and had her accepted as a ranger. Now... I was wondering. What is the attitude of rangers towards the dead? Do they leave them to feed the creatures, bury them to nourish the earth, or what?

Does it matter, or are there rules?

[Ursan]

In this, as with most other classes, it will depend on a number of different factors. It will also be coloured a great deal by the circumstances, both ICly and OOCly. Disposing of the dead, moving them, leaving them... may all depend on things which are outside the scope of just roleplay - particularly if you are dealing with the corpse of a player rather than a mob.

Death
=====
When your character dies, you are transported to the Realm of the Dead.
Your corpse is left behind where you were killed, together with
all of your equipment and gold that is not in the bank. Any spells which
were affecting you are canceled by death. Following/groups are not
affected by death.

Corpses decay after time. When this happens the objects inside a corpse
will decay with it. Player corpses last roughly 30 minutes of real time.
Characters can loot each other's corpses at will.


The above helpfile gives guidance on the aftermath of death and may influence your actions when you come upon the corpse of a player.

In roleplay terms, the character's deity, if they have one, will play a large part in this. The profession will likely also have a bearing, so a ranger will likely act differently to a priest or wizard, but the religious beliefs will be the key to your decision.

For example, a ranger of Chauntea would see death as merely the next stage in the cycle of Nature. The natural order of things means that the fallen form should be left to nature's embrace. Whether that means left upon the forest floor to feed the creatures about the place, or buried deep to nurture the soil, will depend often on where you find the corpse.

A Kelemvorite, probably even one who was a ranger, would see the untended dead as being an afront to their God and to the soul of the departed.

Race may also have an impact on this with an elven ranger taking a more solemn course of action. Humans and half-elves are accustomed to death and decay, elves may not be inclined to approach it in the same manner given their great longevity.

This is all open to interpretation, but as with most roleplay... go with what you feel is right and if you're not sure, post here for guidance or reference sources.

Look forward to encountering your ranger around the place

[Zilvryn]

I have been wondering about this myself, I have a ranger of Mielikki and my interpretation of this would be just to leave the body where it lays (Esp if it is a bandit or some hostile mob...)

Anyone got any advice/comments on whether this is correct RP for a follower of Mielikki?

Cheers,

Ed

[Elwin]

Once again, a lot of it depends on the character. My ranger, unless it is something that does intentional damage to naure, would not like to see anyone die or be left for dead. But, others have a different approach to it. Some believe that it is a natural course and they should be left for judgement by the gods. Just all up to the character.

[Kregor]

Posting to revive this topic because I've been witnessing many cases of late where my ranger brethren are plowing through levelling areas in the game, and leaving hordes of dead bodies in their wake. If you're killing an enemy in surprize combat, to leave a body or two to the elements in the process is one thing, but to leave piles of four or five bodies deep every tile for several tiles is not only very disturbing to the nature cycle IC, it is also very OOC in my opinion for a "good" character. Regardless of what type of humanoid creature it is, if we can't defile it by butchering it, we shouldn't be wanting to defile the bodies by letting them rot in piles.

OOC, to not dispose of them by burying, creamating, etc. just gives the appearance a char is too busy power levelling to clean up their mess. Don't forget that even when we are fighting solo, we are still in a roleplaying MUD. If nothing else do it for the favor that almost every good diety offers for properly treating the fallen (There is a resason that good dieties favor this, *including* the nature dieties, because they obviously deem it proper.), or do it for the consideration of the next player or party to come onto the scene and not having to behold a river of dead laid before them.

[Nysan]

Junk option in config menu automatically removes unwanted bodies from the realms. If you do not wish to bury them yourself, using this config option serves the pupose well enough,

N.R.

[Argentia]

I find junking to be terribly, terribly OOC. Imagine that you're standing over a corpse and POOF! it's gone because you don't want it to be there. The best use of junk I have seen was to fix a bug where just a flat out ridiculious number of items was on a mob and something had to be done, as it was obviously a bug. Junk was used to remove what should not be there in the first place, and to me that seems like its purpose...

Nevertheless, burying or cremating the body is the best way to go, in my opinion, and I encourage it wholeheartedly. Take the time to buy a shovel and expend a bit of energy burying it, you can always rest. =) Or if not, take just a few minutes to wander the forests to collect fire wood. It'll leave a pine-freshy scent in your pack to cover the smell of those bandit scalps.

[Lathander]

"Junk" is intended to be primarily an OOC command. It would be best not to junk in front of others. Think IC, junk OOC when appropriate.

[Tempus]

I agree with Lathander. If working solo, junk would be appropriate for 'neatness'. In a group, you would either have to deal with the bodies IC, or leave them be.

I do not agree with the statement that leaving fallen bodies is bad RP for a ranger. You may have a ranger, but your RP is your own. My ranger, or anyone else ranger for that matter, also has their own RP and their own reasons for what they are doing. Just because they do something you wouldn't personally do does not mean it is wrong.

For example, if my ranger character has a hatred of ogres, he is not going to waste time and energy burying these evil creatures when they can serve a greater purpose by rotting on the soil, feeding the many foxes that inhabit the wastes of hartsvale, and thereafter nourishing the poor ground. The fact that the putrifying corpses may cause the other ogres to fear this character is an added bonus.

(Edited: Thanks.)

[Kregor]

I think if the corpse was an animal that other animals could feed on, and thereby promote balance in nature, a ranger might leave it there for that purpose.

But if the corpse was a humanoid, and not really a source of nutrition, the disposing of it by burial or fire would likely be the way to go.

Sharni

I was just going by this guideline that Mystra posted a good while back. With a good argument.... a pille of rotting humanoids does *not* promote an ecological balance (if we're gonna go on an ecological argument here), and that is, after all what a ranger's duty is, to defend the balance of nature. If a ranger does something that disturbs the cycle, and does it on a regular basis, then maybe a fighter is a better guild for said ranger.

Whether you hate ogres or not, they are humanoid. If a ranger is willing to let them rot in piles by the scores, then why would a ranger see a problem in skinning them and butchering them? Why would a ranger face ejection for doing one such an act, when either one is basically defiling a sentient humanoid's remains?

And again, leaving the bodies of your enemies displayed as a "warning" for others is not very "good", regardless of whether you are lawful or chaotic. Tyrants display the heads of their enemies on their castle gates, not champions of the right. If we had neutral or evil rangers in FK, then I could see the RP otherwise, but we don't.

Sorry you were offended by my comparison. I'll edit it to out.... wasn't my intention to offend anyone, if we agree to edit it out of both our posts, then noone need be further offended.

[Balek]

If a good person were to kill 100 evil people in battle, would the good man then stop and take the next week or so to bury them all? Putting aside thoughs on whether or not war is acceptable, how many armies do you think bury all of the enemies they kill? Are these armies made up of evil people if they do not bury all of their fallen enemies?

Furthermore, I disagree with the concept that a dead humanoid does not further ecology. Scavengers eat humanoids just like they eat foxes and rabbits. It may be distasteful for most people to think of a humanoid being eaten, but that doesn't mean it's anti-nature in any way.

Also, the notion that a person who doesn't have a problem with leaving a score of enemies to rot is a person who will skin them just as easily is simply wrong. The two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other. There might be dozens of murders in a city in a year, most of which do not involve any sort of burial. Most of these also do not involve any sort of skinning or mutilation. Why? Because even someone who is sick or angry enough to kill another person is not usually sick enough to mutilate them too.

[Lerytha]

Having played my ranger for a fairly long time since posting this, I have my own ideas about burial, and such things. I would agree with Kregor, that a -ranger- leaving -scores- of corpses unburied would not promote the best for the health of the land around it. While no expert, I think that one corpse left in the wilderness might feed wolves, foxes and such like, I would say that scores of corpses would create disease, stench, and an unhealthy area that would not be in keeping with the duty of a ranger to protect and nurture... nature.

While you make several good points, Balek (and this is in no means a way to disregard those points, so pwease don't take offence), I would say that someone who claims to be liberating evil would take the time to bury corpses. Some evils would do this, as well, as an interesting quirk in their character (a way to show respect to the fallen). An army serving good would most probably bury their fallen. Maybe not burying, but assembling a pyre would be a respectful way to dispose of the hundreds of fallen resulting from a battle... I digress though, from the original point.

So: what I think people are trying to say is this - (or at least, I am trying to say) Whether a person buries a corpse or not has no impact on an evil or good nature. Some would RP that they hate ogres, others that all living things require respect. Many would bury large numbers of corpses, but not take the trouble to bury one. All this depends on, is individual RP.

However, I would say that personally, as a -ranger- it would be (in my very humble opinion) more in keeping with his/her role to bury such a large amount of corpses, with flexibility allowed for single corpses.

Also, a humanoid corpse might promote different feelings/values than the corpse of, say, a snow hare. Such an animal corpse might definately be left to nurture nature.

I suppose my rambles are just to say that burial (or lack of it) is up to personal RP, but that rangers might be required to show a bit more care of how they leave the corpse mounting up in an area.

My ranger would find it difficult to justify leaving twenty orcs unburied in a place that she finds beautiful, holy and natural...

So, yep. Just my ideas...