Your character’s life is generally in your hands—death does not occur without your agreement except in clearly signposted, high-stakes scenarios (e.g., CQ+, MQ+, some divine encounters) where staff will telegraph danger. In these encounters, consequences short of death (injury, scars, setbacks) are always on the table and engaging in them implies consent to such.
Risks Per Thread Type
Standard Threads
In standard threads, death isn’t a factor unless you explicitly allow it (per-scene or via a blanket note in your signature). If unscripted actions (eg., theft, restraint, combat) are taken against other PCs, PvP will be initiated, in which case staff will roll outcomes for you. Characters reduced below ~10% HP typically fall unconscious unless you’ve opted in to lethal stakes.
Events
Events aim to be engaging without being lethal. Injury or K.O. may occur based on choices.
Random Encounters
Random Encounters carry some danger, but death is unlikely unless OOC-signposted in advance so you can opt in (or out).
Divine Threads
Divine threads function like CQ+/MQ+: powerful entities, meaningful stakes, and potential lasting changes. The Loom won’t try to kill you outright—but reckless choices can carry irreversible outcomes, including death if danger is clearly telegraphed.
Core Quests & Main Quests
Core Quests (CQ+) and Main Quests (MQ+) are where the biggest risks live. Severe injury, permanent alteration, or death may occur depending on choices, rolls, and how far you push your luck. Staff will signpost danger tiers as well as communicate critical health thresholds. Preparation, teamwork, and retreat are valid strategies, though incomplete or failed quests often have narrative consequences.
Combat Choices & Outcomes
Initiations & Resolutions
Unconsciousness / Knockouts
At 1 health a character is knocked out. At 0 health a character dies unless the attack is specified to be non-lethal. If revived, a character starts unconscious and at 1 health. If a character sustains further damage that surpasses their HP value while unconscious, they will die.
Yielding Or Surrendering
If your character yields, they are protected from death in typical conflicts (duels, skirmishes, invasions). This safeguard does not apply in admin-run CQ+/MQ+ threads where danger is pre-declared.
Aggressors Accept Risk
Characters who initiate violence accept elevated risk. In invasion-style or similarly escalated threads (often CQ+), aggressors may face lethal consequences even if others surrender.
Consequences
Injuries
While some injuries can be narratively gained by choice as the natural result of attacks made against your character, after the conclusion of a quest or event, staff may state that your character suffered a “Lingering Injury." Lingering injuries are different from flavor injuries and have dedicated methods of healing them that you can read about on the Training & Exploration page.
Scars And Lasting Changes
Scars, both mental and physical, are deeply personal things for people. Staff will communicate if an attack successfully hit your character, but largely you have control over how/where the hit lands, how the wound heals after the fact, and whether or not it leaves a scar or the scenario negatively affects your character's psyche outside of mechanics-based changes.
Permanent Alteration
Some changes can't be healed by normal methods (ex., a missing eye) or don't play by normal rules (ex., cursed objects or unique flora/fauna interactions) and may leave lasting changes. While missing body parts/senses can not be regenerated naturally, there are magical prosthetics that you can read about in the Prostheses & Augmentation section of the Daily Life page.
Character Death
The most severe consequence is death. But even death might be a pit stop on a character's journey. PCs can be resurrected, and you can read about resurrection mechanics below. What happens when a character dies?
When a character dies, you will get to post their last few moments. No new threads can be started for that character, but threads already backdated to before the character's death may be finished out within a 2-3 post (per character involved) grace period. Or, especially if you plan to resurrect the character later, you may archive them and resume them in the consciousness board once a resurrection pass has been acquired for that character.
Special Cases
Companions
Companions can be harmed or killed outside standard low-risk threads. But if you don’t explicitly include them in high-risk scenes, they’re assumed to be elsewhere and safe.
Detox
Detoxing from the potion regimen is in-character dangerous and can be fatal. Out-of-character, this lethal danger is opt-in.
Requesting Suspense Rolls
Want suspense for your detox or training thread sparing? Request a roll in #ask-staff or with Dice Maiden (e.g., /roll 2d6+2) and we’ll adjudicate.
Resurrection
The Divine And The Soul
The Loom holds every soul within their weave, called The Web and sometimes chooses to (or can be convinced to) release one back into the world.
Those resurrected appear at the same age they died, but awaken disoriented—carrying false memories the Loom provides to ease their return with their fresh Thread of the Soul. To regain the memories of their past life, see the full memory restoration steps below.
Full Memory Restoration Steps
Step 1
Recover your original Thread of the Soul
A character must first recover their original Thread of the Soul. This means tracking down those who might have been willed or have chosen themselves to safeguard such a precious memory of life. If it has been cut into multiple pieces, you must collect all said pieces—pieces of Thread of the Soul that belong to the same original strand will fuse together into one piece again if the ends are held close.
Step 2
Find Buimaju Webbing
Whether that means seeking a nest yourself to harvest from or bartering with those intrepid enough to have done so before already, the Thread of the Soul must be wrapped in the Buimaju's near-indestructible webbing.
Step 3
Blood at the Nape
The thread must then be touched with blood at the back of the neck via a small cut or prick. Only then will it fuse with the Loom’s new strand and restore every memory of their previous life while retaining those gained in the current.