concept: world of the dead, working name Ocistec

'Life is wasted on the living!'

'Brave new World' style setting for young adults, all teenagers are executed at age 16-18 and immediately come back to life as undead: zombies, ghosts, wights, revenants etc. This is done as a 'free trial' of life to give themselves a reason to work.

From hereon they are forced to 'buy back' their lives by engaging in business and the pursuit of physical wealth. Upon accumulating 'enough' a salinian working immediately brings them back to life as a living person, but since the amount is very high they would immediately be left with nothing so the entire planet's population knows they must make 'more than enough' so they can live comfortably after their revival.

Coming back to life is necessary to have children and continue the population, and the dead have a considerably decreased range of senses and things they can do compared to the living, so there is a constant need to toil and earn in order to put themselves in the much more desirable position of being alive.

Nevertheless the dead considerably outnumber the living. There is definitely some sort of 'if you can't succeed in business you have to do manual labour' thing happening which makes business success even more important. There are some who have found ways to stave off their inevitable revival because they can essentially exist forever, a group called the 'Higher Dead', and the lack of senses do not bother them because they have just dedicated themselves to profit and capitalism at the expense of anything else. However, over considerable periods of time the senses and morals of these undead decay more and more, as do their bodies, leaving many as skeletons or just ghosts.

The humans who have managed to obtain both life and wealth and the 'Higher Dead'- collectively known as the Orthodoxy- constantly butt heads over the highest level of business; franchising, contracts, tariffs, public works- it's a case of the very old with their experience vs the very young with their new ideas and cultural progression. Founded on the conviction that wealth serves as power, the orthodoxy was built upon guilt-created structures that propagate wealth. The higher forces of the world are an amalgam of religion, banking, and organized crime. Leadership includes an extravagant hierarchy of priests, enforcers, and councillors who rule over a congregation of the guilt-bound faithful, indebted, and servants. All people must repay their debts.

The lower ends of the living are lower than the higher dead, but the higher living can almost live in a world of their own where they don't need to acknowledge the lower dead in society. If someone dies of old age they die for real and don't come back, so the living are hiding away from that truth by trying to block out their traumatic memories of the toil they endured.

The orthodoxy has a strong sense of tradition and community, reflected by the fact that they still partake in all of their ancient rituals and customs despite not worshiping any gods. Their public image is still important to them, despite how the citizenry is aware of their corrupt practices, leading to some superficially good deeds. It is also symbolized in how they hoard their wealth but are shown to share it with family members or close friends. However, they continually violate the spirit of the law merely to meet their ends.

The way this is done is by focusing on the needs of a small insular group. The orthodoxy thinks of the group as its community. However, they also use its selfish means to advance the group as an extension of itself. This allows them to treat the group with foremost importance. They need to trust and believe in the group, but many of them are paranoid and sceptical. What results is an orthodoxy that bands together out of mutual necessity, but never completely bonds.

In truth, everyone wants a world without pain and suffering. Although the orthodoxy understands it might need to use pain and suffering to achieve this goal. It believes in tough love. It keeps you safe at the cost of all your liberties. After all, what do you need liberties for if the orthodoxy is taking care of everything for you?

The key to making this work is making sure everyone has a clear understanding of their place and order. Hierarchies. Unhappiness comes from wanting to achieve something you cannot. If you know your exact place, then you will not deceive yourself into believing that you will ever get any more, and you can be satisfied in knowing you will never get anything less. You trade potential for security.

The orthodoxy uses structure as a means of gaining power. He (or she) who makes the rules can make them in their own best interest.

For the children of those who are particularly wealthy, money bequeathed to them shortens the amount those children of the wealthy need to work. There is a delicate balance between the living with capitalistic power and the Higher Dead between who is on top in the world. There are also always those who do not choose to accumulate huge amounts of money and return to the living world with only a moderate amount- there are always people who do not feel as if money is the route to /all/ happiness, just different /kinds/ of happiness, and many who pursue romance or freedom are happy if they can come back to life with enough to live modest lives as well.

Money that is taken when 'enough' is earned physically disappears, but another working recycles it into the ore deposits of the underworld, meaning it may be mined and pressed again.

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Business ventures primarily include things that make the lives of the dead more comfortable because there are more of them.

A vast subterranean underworld exists containing things like bloodstone, blood sapphires, luminous amber, pyreflame torches, oilrock, pale wood, bone smoking wood, corpse aspected jade, soulfire crystals, stygian steel, nightmare ores- equally dangerous for both the living and the dead who adventure there.



questions:
What's stopping the world from changing into something better? revive everyone/all dead pass on permanently are the choices
How would some sort of anti-magic item or power affect (more likely destroy) the setting?