LARP Question Tuesday: Permanent Death

Gunnar

Squire
It happens to the best of us, and often leads to significant changes in our stories.

What is your best permanent death story at AllianceLARP? Did it happen to you? Someone you know? A complete stranger? How did it affect you IG/OOG?
 
My first character ever perm'd out as a member of the 10% club.

OOG, I went through every single stage of grief over the course of a few weeks dealing with Cael's death emotionally, the experience was very intense. A bunch of friends showed up on Monday night after the event with drinks and we all sat around and reminisced. Attending my spirit farewell was one of the hardest things I have ever done as a LARPer; at the end I crawled into the woods and dry heaved.

IG, the little group I had created ended up falling apart and while I still play with some of the players from that group, a lot of them have retired the characters the played alongside Cael, or have moved to Plot or NPC Guild. My first game as my new character, Durnic, had me sitting at a table talking to some other adventurers were they started telling stories about Cael. That experience was really very surreal.

He is brought up occasionally, and people seem to remember him fondly. That's pretty cool.

Doesn't hurt that he died effectively giving the finger to a phoenix.

Edit: If anyone is super curious, I was asked a similar question on Facebook once and my posted turned into an expose that I saved on Google Docs, which you can read here.
 
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A series of permanent deaths occurred within...a year, between Oregon and Seattle.

Each death gave Zeth perspective on various things. For Maxvell, it was on those you leave behind. For Yames, it was that you really didn't know when your time would be up, and sometimes things went terribly, terribly wrong. For Cael, it was that "heroism" was utterly, utterly stupid. For Vishkin, it gave perspective on consequences for actions, as a rash decision could sound excellent at first...and get your race decimated after you've been obliterated and can no longer protect the ones you put in danger. With Darien, sometimes paths break apart. Some things you cannot fix. And sometimes, you don't get a peaceful goodbye. Sometimes, you shut the chapter on a book, you lock it, then you chain it, and you dump it in the deepest lake you can find.

Zeth had nearly no experience with permanent death outside of his backstory, and death where he came from would have been rare, except for old age, or the occasional hunting death. So permanent violent death was...new. And then it just kept happening.

Zeth ended up with some personality flaws as a result of this.
 
None of my characters have permanently died (and now I've just jinxed myself), but I have seen three of my favorite friends' characters perm and my character was friends with those characters that died. They were all part of the 10% club. I got to watch Sir Wynn's epic death and that was amazing. I didn't get to watch Paladar's death, but I know I felt like poo because I wan't sure who was going to tell her knight that she was dead. Marcus's death happened while I was NPCing and I kept thinking "I'm so glad it wasn't my NPC that killed him (or at least I hope not)." But one of the most insane emotionally involved deaths I ever witnessed was during a paani family gathering in Calaria. A paani man was being haunted by a revenant? of his sister because he had killed her while he was under the control of something horrible. We're all protecting him from her for a while until we realize what the story is. Rupert says "we all know what has to happen". And Tzydl (my character) and myself are inwardly freaking out like "WHAT? WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?" But I didn't say anything I just waited to see what everyone knew was so apparent. We had to let her kill him. Then we had to watch until he dissipated. I was in tears. It was beautiful to watch.
 
On a personal note:

Permanent Deaths in our area actually helped me the player learn how to appropriately support others with grief of RL death. I have virtually no experience with it personally, and I was grateful to the players who talked to me about it, because I was doing all the wrong things.
 
In my tenure of this game, I have seen many people's characters, as well as NPCs come and go; and I've gotten to be a part of some seriously amazing stories because of it. My PC has been tied to Death for many years; admittedly it was an IG thing that just kept popping up over and over, until I accepted that it was a staple of the character and embraced it. One of the most life-changing, at least for me, was going back to NJ one more time to finish a plotline where the Saber Tooth had overtaken Zehnyu's homeland. In the prophecy written for that event, it came with the final sacrifice of the Queen Seroba, played by Erica Stephenson.

Queen Seroba and Zehnyu had a lasting relationship for many, many years. It isn't very well known in game, but I was the Queen's Royal Tracker (equivalent to the Queen's Knight), so the interactions of being her subordinate were always awesome.

Toward the final battle, Seroba was speaking to all of us in a circle, essentially blessing each one of us with a gift. I was the last to receive her personal blessing, and I can remember asking Erica if she accepted physical roleplay. She accepted. In turn, her and I wrestled to the ground; it was a way for my character to say goodbye. At the time, I had not been aware someone was taking pictures of us: and the moment was caught on film, and are some of the best pictures I have of Alliance.

For a character who often times has to bury the corpse of someone and agonize over being a failed guardian, having a place where she could say goodbye has really come full circle in playing an older sarr now. The significance of the character growth will not be forgotten, and Zehnyu will always have respect for that Lioness, who she considers one of the greatest nobles of her time. Thank you Erica, for a fantastic ride :).

-Ali
 
Well, since the person who I pulled off to his permanent death posted, and he pulled me off to my permanent death and we both 10%... *offers fist bump to Rick* ... and I promised another story about the time I permed to Ali...

So no **** there I was...

It was a somewhat surreal experience. I had been having barbarian superstition premonitions the whole weekend, like I somehow knew I was going to die. I made sure that my good friend Lithae had a Sacrifice cast on her so that my not-wife Demona, should she die, be saved. Rabbits kept running from me into the underbrush as if to disappear into another world, and I continued to stay within a ward. My oath forced me to, though I had been warned it would weaken my spirit. I stayed with the gypsies, and loved them dearly, my not-family and not-wife. Our fallen comrade Virid was sung for by Ghost in the tavern. Then Tiberious and the Harkonians attacked. I was lumped together with the strongest of the town, but was not strong at all. Gaps needed to be plugged though, and I was there. Looking to my not-wife I kissed her and said "Just in case I don't come back. I want my last words to you to be 'I love you'". Then off to the battle.

I took a fallen Harkonian's pole-arm, needing the reach to keep myself alive. Then I saw it. Not-family Prashka's mate had fallen behind the lines. So I did what any brave person would do, I sought to rescue him. Out into enemy territory I went, and being a fighter with no magic defenses, I was dropped like a rock. Rick, double hooking for this, picks me up and hands me off to another double hooking player, Bryan Gregory, who whispers to me "Sorry... the put ensure rez on the card." I whisper back, "It's fine, I'm okay rezzing." Six minutes later I take off my stuff and go to plot. I pull the black bead and I begin to laugh hysterically, jumping around and grinning like I just won a prize. Everything... EVERYTHING just seemed to lead up to that moment, and it was perfect.

So Plot takes me back to field, my dead body held by a Hark, who said something snotty and then rolled me into the fray where I did my best "dead man's flop". Later people told me they knew I was dead upon hitting the ground because of that flop. From way back in the back a Life packet comes sailing and hits me in the back, to which I call "No Effect". People start trying to keep my OOG wife, IG: Not-wife , from seeing my dead body, but they do eventually move me out of the fight. She comes up to me "Healing Arts". "No effect". She then does some of the best grief roleplay I've seen. Later she told me she just drew on how she'd feel if I had really died. Found out that day that the eyes of the dead do sometimes leak tears. She goes running off into combat to die and take down as many Harks as she can with them so that she could go with me on my new journey.

Lithae used that Sacrifice on her.

Then Ghost comes up to me, the battle over, and she begins to sing. That same song. Many of you have heard it. I hope some day to hear about it in game as my new character, because if there is a funeral song in Alliance... it's that song. She sang it and I leaked tears. Lithae brought Demona back, and performed a Sarr ritual of rememberance. They laid my body to rest among the gypsies, and my not-wife, tore into them, about how I had loved them, even the ones that hated me, and in death... in Death Maxvell was what he wanted. He was named Rai of the Band of the Fabulous Pants. He finally found acceptance.

It was weird mourning "my own" death, and weirder still to watch as my friends made a small plaque for him that I keep on my desk to this day. Maxvell d'Irons "Lovable but Frustrating". I watch as my wife continues her story, with his child, and wonder if some day someone will play my in game kid. It's an odd thing to say that the best, most immersive, and most intense role play I've ever had was lying there doing absolutely nothing. Of being acted upon and not being able to act in turn. That game... well... that game showed me what Alliance can be at its best, not just combat, not just role play, but truly deeply emotional and life changing in all the good ways.

Edit: Too many deaths, had the wrong person Ghost sang for. Corrected.
 
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Rick, double hooking for this...
Full circle, yo! You pulled me to the phoenix and I handed you off to certain doom!

So Plot takes me back to field, my dead body held by a Hark, who said something snotty and then rolled me into the fray...
That was also me, and I said something akin to, "you guys might want this back! Hahahahaha!"

I would like to note that I felt terrible. :(
 
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