top of page
Search

Death Isn’t the End

The Razor’s Edge Between Life, Dying, and What Comes After

“Your soul is code. Death is just the next patch.”—Disavowed Saying, overheard at a battlefield wake

Death in Einsol’s Razor isn’t just a fail state. It’s a narrative vector, a tactical gamble, and a metaphysical riddle. Whether your character dies screaming in a hail of gunfire, transcends into pure data, or burns bright in a Final Stand, every brush with death reshapes the universe around them.

Let’s break down how death works mechanically, narratively, and cosmologically—because in this world, what happens after you die might still be your story.

💉 Bleeding to Death: When HP Hits 0

When a character hits 0 HP, they don’t just drop—they bleed out in slow, painful detail:

  • You fall Prone, but stay Conscious (barely).

  • You’re limited to 2 Action Points, can speak, crawl, and use specific Feats/items—but no Magic.

  • At the end of each turn, roll a d20 vs your Endurance score to stay awake. Fail that roll? You fall Unconscious.

This isn’t cinematic slow-mo. This is the ugly, bleeding edge of mortality—where every breath is a contested action.

💤 Falling Unconscious: The Point of No Return

Unconsciousness kicks in if:

  • You take further damage at 0 HP.

  • The hit that brought you to 0 HP was over half your max HP.

  • You fail your Fortitude Defense at 0 HP.

Once you're out cold:

  • You stay Unconscious for 1 Round.

  • If you’re still at 0 HP after that, you start rolling on Death’s Door.

Damage taken while unconscious? That’s an automatic Death Roll failure.

🕳 Death’s Door: One Foot Out

Now you’re dying—officially.

  • At the start of each turn, you may spend 2 AP to make a Death Roll (d20).

    • Success: Roll above 10, you buy yourself another round.

    • Failure: Roll 10 or below, and death creeps closer.

  • 3 Successes = Stabilized at 0 HP.

  • 3 Failures = Permanent Death.

These rolls don’t have to be consecutive. This isn’t a timer—it’s a pressure chamber.

⚔️ Final Stand: Go Out Swinging

In rare moments, a dying character can refuse death outright.

Trigger Final Stand by taking 2 automatic Death Failures—then:

  • Gain +2 AP, double all damage.

  • Use any and all abilities, even Magic.

  • But you cannot be healed.

  • At the end of the turn, you fall Unconscious and Death Rolls begin next round.

Use once per encounter. Burn bright, burn fast.

💀 Instant Death

Simple rule:

  • If damage reducing you to 0 HP also exceeds your max HP, you die instantly.

  • No rolls. No prayers. Gone.

👻 What Happens After Death?

Welcome to the cosmic afterparty.

Your character’s Elohim—the soul—detaches from the body. What happens next depends on belief, anomaly, or fate:

🔮 Theories of the Afterlife

  • Essence CurrentsYour soul dissolves into the Ethereal Plane, becoming ambient energy woven into dreams, emotion, and natural cycles.

  • Einsol’s ForgeSome claim the Forge pulls you back—to be remade, reforged into new life, or sent across planes with new purpose.

  • The Orishan CycleFollowers believe in Reincarnation. Your Elohim might return to Adamah—new face, same echo.

  • The Unknown RealmsBeyond mapped cosmology. No one's come back from there. Maybe it’s peace. Maybe it’s a loop. Maybe it’s worse.

👁️ Lingering Elohim: When You Don’t Let Go

Sometimes a soul can’t—or won’t—move on.

Lingering Elohim are rare but potent anomalies. Causes include:

  • Unfinished business.

  • Emotional trauma.

  • Magical corruption.

If unresolved, they transform—into ghosts, malevolent spirits, or possessive forces.

Forms of Possession:

  • Of the LivingThe host retains their own Elohim—but loses control. An exorcism can sever the link.

  • Of the DeadNot zombies. Animated by intelligent, conscious Elohim. They remember. They feel.

  • Of ObjectsHaunted relics. Dreambound swords. Radios that whisper back. These are real—and dangerous.

👻 Exorcism Protocols

Only the Disavowed—rogue soul-tech specialists—can reliably sever an Elohim from its host. Arcane, surgical, risky.

🎭 Death Is the Next Scene, Not the Last

Whether your players rage against it, embrace it, or rewrite it with Ethertech resurrection, death in Einsol’s Razor is always consequential.

Some games treat death like a footnote. Ours treats it like a fork in the narrative root—and asks the table what they want to do with it.

Next on the Dev Blog:“Designing the Disavowed: What It Means to Work for the Dead”

Until then:Cut deep. Die well. Echo louder.—The Crew of Einsol’s Razor

Comments

bottom of page