Resurrection

The soul, upon death, is pulled by its own natural desires to walk through the Open Door and into the Black Sands, leaving the material plane behind.

The Black Sands are a midway point between the planes, like the spoke of a wheel, where most souls either find their way to the elysia of the god or gods they worshipped in the celestial plane, or are forcibly found and dragged to the nine hells by whichever demon they made a promise with.

Those who die godless usually wander the black sands until they forget their purpose and dissipate, joining the energy of the universe.

On Ghosts and Spirits
When someone dies and is gripped by such powerful grief or rage that they are unable to leave the material realm, their spirit will persist in the material plane.

''Sadly, a soul that is not cased within the body suited to it will gradually decay and become consumed by those same emotions, giving rise to ghosts, spectres, wraiths, and worse as time goes on. The older the spirit, the more negative energy it gathers, and the worse it becomes. Over time, such beings can coalesce together to give rise to the most dangerous undead in Altheim, things like Nightwalkers and Bodaks.''

Necromancy and Undeath
''Necromancy takes two forms. The legal, respected way to reanimate the dead; via magical means, without touching the soul. And the illegal, taboo way; by forcing a soul into a vessel of some kind. The latter usually results in a tortured soul which will eventually lose its mind and fall into the same horror as ghosts/spectres.''

The Spells
The following spells, which deal with death and resurrection, are changed as such:

Gentle Repose
2nd level

Works as intended, interacts with other spells as it says.

Animate Dead
3rd level

Works as written; this is normal necromancy, using magic to animate corpses, and is therefore not taboo or illegal – though may be distasteful or rude.

Speak with Dead
3rd level

''Works as written, with the adage that the soul must still be able to be called back to the body. This is the first type of necromancy considered foul and is illegal, but you probably won't be attacked on sight if you do it with good reason.''

Danse Macabre
5th level

Works as written, not illegal as you are using magic to raise a buncha corpses.

Raise Dead
5th level

Considered a heinous act by most, this spell forces a soul (provided it has not yet moved on) to return to the body it once inhabited.

''Doing so will return the creature to life as per the spell's description, with the caveat that it is now undead. Every day that the creature spends as a soul trapped within a dying body will result in more and more horrified reactions from ordinary people, and an enroaching madness that the DM will create a table to track, similar to how exhaustion works, until eventually the soul is lost to anger and becomes a powerful undead creature.''

This will also draw the ire of the Open Door, should she find out what has been done.

Those returned to life in this way have a short period of time in which to find the means of true resurrection, before undeath takes them forever.

Reincarnation
5th level

''Works as written, with a caveat: The creature does not recall its past life. The only way in which this can occur, is if the person who cast the spell meets them and calls them by their old name, triggering a wave of memories. However, since the person who cast the spell does not know where or as what the target is reincarnated, the chance of them meeting is highly unlikely.''

Create Undead
6th level

Works as written.

Resurrection
7th level

''This spell carries several caveats. Due to the time frame allowed, this spell almost certainly means that the soul has long since moved on, and as such, will require the help of the Open Door herself to contact, followed by dealings with whichever God/Demon has the soul of the target. Furthermore, if the target died godless and dissipated into the fabric of existence, it cannot be contacted.''

''Firstly, the Open Door must allow it (and there is always a price). Secondly, the God/Demon of that soul must allow it. Finally, the soul itself must want to return. Considering these three caveats, one will realise how difficult Resurrection remains. There is always a catch.''

True Resurrection
9th level

This works the same as resurrection, except a body is not required, and there is no timeframe.