Witness for the Dead

A Witness for the Dead investigates deaths and can give legal testimony on behalf of the deceased.

Details
As with all Witnesses, there are two types: judicial and clerical. Clerical Witnesses for the dead are priests or prelates of Ulis. Any priest of Ulis may be called on to serve as Witness for the Dead. Not all clerical Witnesses for the Dead are already priests or prelates, and a clerical Witness for the Dead may discover their calling before joining the prelacy, or even feeling any particular connection to Ulis (e.g., Velhiro Tomasaran).

A clerical Witness for the Dead can find their calling suddenly (e.g., touching a corpse) or over time, even without noticing immediately, depending on the circumstances.

Clerical Witnesses for the Dead can, given physical contact with a corpse, cremated remains, or even important objects to the deceased (e.g., a signet ring), see what a dead person saw or knew of their killer or the circumstances of their death, and even ask the dead questions, sometimes unrelated to their death (e.g., asking for the identity of a child's parent, asking about inheritance, asking about the location of a scone recipe). The more time there is between the death and the Witnessing, the less chance there is of a successful Witnessing. Dead with powerful personalities are easier to read. If Witnesses for the Dead numb themselves to the horror of death, they cannot speak to the dead at all.

Clerical Witnesses for the Dead can also quiet ghouls and revethavarsin by communicating with them and finding their names. Clerical Witnesses for the Dead can also sense revetheralin, and their duties involve helping the victims of revetheralin escape, and avoid falling victim to revetheralin again. Clerical Witnesses for the Dead can see ghosts and walking spirits.

Witnesses for the Dead are taught to listen.

A clerical Witness for the Dead's calling forbids deception. Part of their duty is “to see that the dead both give and receive restitution.” The former can involve a dead murderer's estate paying the victim and/or their family restitution (or Ulis in lieu of living victims and/or their relations), or a thief returning the stolen articles, and the latter can involve uncovering the dead person's murderer.

Clerical Witnesses for the Dead burn out eventually, wherein they lose their ability to commune with the dead. There is seemingly no known cure. It can be brought on when they use their abilities intensely, or seemingly over the course of time. A Witness' 30s are seemingly a bit young to burn out, or it possibly just depends on the amount of time in which one has been a Witness for the Dead.

Characteristics (culture, habits)
“Ordinarily, clerical Witnesses for the Dead have a benefice and speak to the dead as their services are called for.” In Amalo it is customary for a family to petition a Witness for the Dead to investigate a death, but there is no rule that says it must be so, which allows any interested person to petition a Witness for the Dead. Clerical Witnesses for the Dead can ask questions of interested persons in their cases, with immunity from interference by the Vigilant Brotherhood.

“No one wanted to be too friendly with a Witness for the Dead.” They were typically unpopular, as they "rarely visited for congenial reasons". Witnesses for the Dead used to be "honored among the prelates of Ulis." Currently, at least in Amalo, there is debate, particularly among the higher-ups, about the existence of the abilities of clerical Witnesses for the Dead. “Vikhelneisei were uniformly hostile to Witnesses for the Dead, believing that [their] work was nothing but profanation.”

There are in-universe novels written about Witnesses for the Dead.

Witnesses for the Dead

 * Othala Pelovar (possibly)
 * Thara Celehar (potentially former)
 * Velhiro Tomasaran