Bindstones

Created in Layonara's distant past by unknown forces, stones called bindstones are scattered across the lands. Long dormant, these bindstones have, for some obscure reason, come alive again since the 1300s.

Bindstones are a form of resurrection magic, though they are a very crude form and not of the same type as resurrection magic coming from the deities.

Creatures can forge a link with a bindstone, which will ensure that when a creature is killed both the body and the soul will be pulled back towards the bindstone, which will join them once again. This does not protect against the snapping of a Soul Strand.

The transporting and rejoining of body and soul facilitated by the bindstones' magic comes at a cost. The creature that undergoes this comes back in a weakened state; some of its life force had to be paid to the bindstone for the returning. After a period of rest, the creature will be back to full strength and health.

Any creature can try to link to a bindstone, but when one attempts to create the link, the bindstone somehow evaluates if the creature is worthy or worthwhile to link with, and whether it is likely that there will be some gain from the link or not.
If the creature is deemed unworthy, the bindstone pulls the creature's life force from it and creatures have been known to die of this.
This is why not everybody dares run the risk of forging a link with a bindstone. The benefits are great, yet so are the risks.

Boulders and rocks with bindstone properties are found throughout Layonara. They are often chiseled into religious icons and placed in temples and shrines. However, they are always heavy and hard to move so in many cases the temple or shrine was built around the bindstone. Several cities own one as well.