Reincarnation

People are most likely to be reborn along the same bloodline – about half of people reincarnate as a descendant of their previous incarnation's grandparents. This means they usually end up within the same culture/nationality as well, but not always.

While it's common to be born the same sex and gender as previous incarnations, that too is flexible. (Left: Violet Dupont and a previous incarnation, who was a neurodivergent male United Islander.)

The only hard limit is that reincarnation is always along the same species. No humans coming back as Tamaputians, or vice versa.

Time between incarnations can vary a lot. President Romarin was born 32 years after her previous death, which is considered on the fast side.

Core character traits – notably, the ones indicated by heartswords – remain the same across incarnations. However, unless you're a long-runner, those traits can be shaped in radically different ways by each new set of life experiences.

It's believed every soul reincarnates with the same magic, as magical long-runners keep the same powers as their past lives.

Characters: Olive Romarin, Cymbeline Dupont, Blush Noisette Duval, Jonquil Sel, Acai

A long-runner is someone who remembers at least one former incarnation. The memories aren't present from birth, but will resurface when the brain has matured enough to process them, usually between the ages of one and five.

It's possible to be a long-runner for multiple reincarnations. For example, Cymbeline is currently on the fourth life she remembers.

Most long-runners don't reincarnate fast enough to reunite with anyone who knew their previous incarnation – although they can see effects their work had, or what legacy they left.

It's possible to get in touch with descendants of previous incarnations, although that choice varies from person to person, and across cultures. Getsun encourages finding the family of previous incarnations, while in the United Islands that is seen as an unhealthy fixation on the past.

Because married couples are unlikely to have identifiable reincarnations at the same time, “until death do us part” is a very literal part of most countries' vows. An exception is Getsun, which has plural marriage, so even a formerly-married long-runner can marry someone else with no stigma or complications.

The convention in Ceannis is to count a long-runner's age based on how many years they've lived, while the Getsunese count the number of years since their original birth. Either way, they're legally classified as adults.

Various groups and programs have been created to help people integrate into the world while they're mentally adults and physically children. The biggest is the Second Life Resource Center in the capitol of Ceannis.

In Sønheim, there aren't many specific long-runner laws, just “vampire laws that also apply.” The only thing that definitely stays with you across incarnations is prison time. A ruling like “twelve consecutive life sentences” is very literal.