Soulrunes are the coin of the gods. YOUR deity will trade you your life back in exchange for one Soul Rune. When you have no more Soul Runes to offer your god in trade, death is permenant.
Soul Rune System
In many online RPGs, death is almost meaningless. Push a button and your character lives again, wheee-immortality! It just does not FEEL right to GM_ODA, who likes to have death mean something, as in, it exists as a reason why your character might NOT charge headlong to near-certain-death. With a limit on the number of lives/respawnings that a PC may engage, the Player is thereby cautioned to ROLE PLAY the character with a bit of that realistic caution exibited as a desire to live on the part of the character.
All PCs will start with a number of Soul Runes (lives). Any PC can earn additional Soul Runes by serving their diety (perform quests for your temple/church/deity and you may be awarded the gods favor in the form of additional lives).
When your character dies your character will first go through a Bleeding-Out-Stage. The more Constitution your character has the better your character's chance of recovery (bloodflow stops and consciousness may return). When your character has Bled-Out to -11 Hitpoints your character will go through the Death Cycle.
CHARACTER DEATH
When your character dies, he/she will be instantly transported to the Otherworld. There are several phases to the Otherworld. There are areas in the Otherworld where all Good characters go, another where all Evil characters go, another where all neutral characters go, and another still where all characters go when they have no more Soul Runes to offer their god in trade. There are rumors of cunning PCs escaping this fate, but details are not forthcoming.
If your character dies, you will need to seek out one of your gods (examine all nearby grottos). When you find one of your deities (no others will recognize you and protracted interaction may be hazardous to your character in the exreme). Death while in the Otherworld is just like death anywhere else (it brings you back to the Otherworld). Once you've made contact with one of your deities, you may transact with that god to return you to life (you lose a Soul Rune each time) whereupon the god will send you back to your Last Bound Location.
BIND POINTS / BIND LOCATIONS
You may bind your soul to a Binding Point (they take many forms in the game) and return to it after you have died or you may make a quick travel to your Binding Stone at the cost of 1 Soul Rune (if you have a Scroll of Transit).
With the use of Binding Points, your soul is attached to one these magical locations. This allows you travel back to any place you have attached your soul to from any Binding Point you use, and even with the use of a Scroll of Transit. The use of a Binding Point for travelling will remove one of your Soul Runes from you. Such is the cost for using a portion of your soul to cheat time and distance.
A Neverwinter Nights Campaign