What if: Raise Dead spell (or equivalent) made it in to real life?

[SangoProduction]

Being the immortal wizard of ultimate power is nice to fantasize about. But, what if we were just bystanders to some D&D style magic event? How would it actually affect the world?

Let's say: each person that died between one month and a year ago were suddenly brought back to life, in full health, and some of them can cast Raise Dead.

Just how much of a mess would it cause in the world as we know it? What do you believe the overwhelming opinion(s) would be? How long do you predict until someone would go in to a frenzy claiming the zombie apoc. is upon them? And more importantly, what would be your reaction?

[Falontani]

This topic is one you would have to tiptoe around; however I think the broad consensus is a miracle has occurred. Most would flock to whatever religions or deities they believe to have caused it, overt scientists would attempt to study it. I doubt much would happen from a standpoint of these resurrected people resurrecting others as that much worth of diamonds wouldn't be easy to get a hold of. As for repercussions it would be far reaching and hard to predict. There would be many questions that need to be answered however.

[legomaster00156]

The first thing to remember is that nobody who died of old age (or, presumably, heavily related health issues such as heart attacks) will be brought back. That means approximately 2/3 of the deaths will not be reversed worldwide. However, assuming average deaths of 55.3 million a year, that is still increasing the global population by over 18,000,000 people instantaneously. That is an increase of about 0.25%, which will not be felt by larger countries but could strain resources in poor or small countries.

[Coidzor]

The diamond cartel would cream their collective underpants at the new opportunity to jack up prices.

People going on about some malarkey about zombies would be fairly silly given the lack of shambling, people being fully articulate, and so on and so forth. So naturally I expect certain internet personalities to flip their lids.

As for the initial resurrection event, a lot of people would very quickly die once again due to the way we bury bodies, because they would be trapped in a low oxygen or no oxygen environment. Cultures that practice cremation or sky burials and people who died at sea would not have bodies eligible to be brought back to life, so they're all out.

There would very quickly be peak saturation of autobiographical accounts of the afterlife from the minority that are able to be brought back and then not immediately die again.

[Buufreak]

It would be commercialize and monotized immediately, and regardless of how it is actually happening, you can bet your ass that televangelists will have their filthy way with it.

[Karl Aegis]

The dead stayed buried. Ashes remain ashes. Tradition prevents much of an immediate change if this happens.

[Braininthejar2]

The 1 percenters start participating in wars in 3rd world countries, eager to make sure they have a level to spare. The diamond market explodes.

[ericgrau]

I've heard estimates that 5,000 gp is equal to about $100,000-$500,000. While not a small amount of money it's pretty cheap for an option that both brings the person back to life and cures whatever disease he had with the small side effect of -2 con. Also how do you think commoners & experts got their 5,000 gp houses? Not in a year for sure, but eventually.

It would make most terminal disease medical treatment obsolete for sure. Even if the patient doesn't have that much money, his insurance is paying that much and often doesn't cure it. Simply letting serious cancer patients die to save medical costs and raising them would be a thing. Unless the cancer counts as "old age". Funny how D&D has age limits to force you to die of old age when in real life this is actually cancer or heart disease. It would seem like magic should easily cure these yet the average D&D human dies at 80 and no magic can save him then. Without cancer and etc., we'd probably live to 120... or who knows if there's any limit at all. But at minimum raise dead could cure rarer diseases that kill earlier in life.

More people might take up motorcycle riding I guess, albeit with a nice insurance policy. Though insurance rates would also go up as people became a little less careful. "Wanna go riding in devil's canyon?" "Nah, I can't afford the hike in my premium if I crash."


It would be commercialize and monotized immediately, and regardless of how it is actually happening, you can bet your ass that televangelists will have their filthy way with it.
Oh yeah, putting aside the practical, the talk over it would be crazy. It would create all kinds of heated passionate debates, exploitation, looney bin life philosophies, a few mass "zombie" killers and so on.

[Doctor Awkward]

Well for one thing you'd never get rid of some of the *******s in the world...

[ericgrau]

Well for one thing you'd never get rid of some of the *******s in the world...
2 con at a time man, 2 con at a time (pictures feeble coughing thrice raised rich dudes).

[thethird]

It would be a legal mess do you have rights to your properties when coming back for the first time?