Since skill ramps are tied to the soul it wouldn't matter if the next character was your heir or not I believe.
If I remember correctly heirs only get your physical possessions when you die which is usually why the heir would be your child but you could make your heir an NTC and just play that NTC as your next character I would assume.
But yeah your skill ramps are tied to the soul not the bloodline.
Every character is made up of three pieces.
1. A soul: in Chronicles of Elyria, the soul can live multiple lifetimes. Skills you have invested in in previous lives will manifest in the soul as skill ramps. Skill ramps determine how quickly you level your skills. Achievements performed in previous lives also manifest in the soul. If your previous character performed some impressive feat, they would have received an Achievement that gave them a passive buff. Your new character will start with a questline that will allow them to reactivate that Achievement.
A Spark of Life: This is what you buy in the store to unite your soul with a body. It gives you 12 months of "spirit." The amount of spirit you have determines how long your character lives. Note that you lose spirit when you die in game, though most combat will end in unconsciousness which does not result in spirit loss, and even the most reckless or unlucky players should be able to play for at least 3 months, unless they are also very famous (fame increases the amount of spirit you lose with each death).
A body: Most players will awaken in the body of a previously existing NPC. Wards are a little different. An orphanage will be able to support a specific number of wards. Players will choose an unfilled slot and create their character's body with much fewer restrictions. Both wards and NPC heirs are assumed to have had some skill training during their childhood, and will determine the starting level of your various skills.
In summary: you will be building your new character from the ground up, but you will advance much more quickly in any skills you invested in during your previous life or lives
Posted By Swept Hilt at
Hi i got a question. For example i picked to play as a ward and lived 12 months without a family or heir. After buying a spark of life, how do i respawn again as a new character and does that new character have my ward's whole skills or just some portion of my old skills ?
First off welcome!
To expand on what CommonlyQuixotic said.
Your soul is your character from other MMOs. It is what gains experience points toward skills, and what is well you from life to life.
You life, or the form you take is just a shell. It however has attribute points, strength and the like as well as an appearance derived from your parents. Even a ward has parents and during creation, you can only modify the looks of your body so far.
A spark of life, is like a coin used to play coin of video games back in the days of an arcade. It has no baring on anything in game except allowing you access to play a single soul.
STUFF
Now all that said when you start as a ward you have no family initially. There is nothing stopping you from getting married and starting your own, or marrying into an existing one. In the event you perma-die without an heir you will lose some of your possessions. Sort of like RL, without an heir you lose the rights to any homes, or lands you may own. In addition if you happen to hold a title Mayor+ the title enters what is called a power vacuum and depending on the tribe various mechanics come into play to allow someone else to claim your vacated title.
As for your personal effects, technically you lose them as well. HOWEVER since they are real objects that exist in the world, there is no reason you cannot create a "stash" somewhere hidden prior to your final death, and reclaim them when you reincarnate in your next life.
SKILLS
Each body has base starting skills and stats based on their origin, family, and living condition. Start out the son of a lumberjack, expect to have skills in logging, and likely axe wielding.
As for your previous life's skills, exact numbers aren't known yet and will likely be tweaked several times in testing, but whatever skills you had in your previous life will have what are called ramps. This means if you were a master swordsman, you will learn sword XP faster than a normal person up till you reach your previous skill level. You do not START with this skill, but can learn it faster. The more lives you use the same skill the better the ramp the next time you have to learn.
