Undeath after death

Undeath after death was a divine magic spell available to priests of Bane, the Black Lord. It brought back a dying or recently dead creature as an intelligent undead with memories and personality intact. This spell was a jealously guarded secret in the upper echelons of the church of Bane and was only used on Banite faithful. After Bane's supposed death in the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, Cyric granted spells to Banite priests for a decade, so it was possible this spell could be found within the church of Cyric.

Effects
This spell took a full ten minutes to cast and the cleric had to touch the body of the recipient in order to cast the spell. Undeath after death had to be cast as the recipient was dying or within minutes of death. If too much time passed before casting this spell, it created a mindless zombie in the same manner as animate dead.

The form of the undead created depended on the level of achievement of the recipient. Low level faithful were brought back as ghouls while higher ranking worshipers came back as ghasts, juju zombies, wights, mummies, or vampires. Only vampires and possibly mummies were able to use skills, abilities, and spells from their former life.

Undeath after death was dangerous for the caster if the target was of higher rank. In this case, the caster had to resist death itself or die at the end of the casting. This sacrifice did not affect the outcome of the spell.

Components
In addition to verbal and somatic components, this spell required as material components heart made out of obsidian which bore an engraving of the recipient's name and the black hand symbol of Bane. This object was smashed to pieces as part of the ritual.