While strictly a regent of IHH may not have to be a priest of Haelyn its a fairly safe bet, so Haelynites should be able to bring people back if need be.
I'd say that resurrection is rare because:
1. Leaving heaven - if gods invites someone in, it is very rude to drag them back out again
2. Who says you forget heaven anyway? Frankly leaving people dead lets the priests perpetuate all the cherished rubbish about heaven that they think is important, why contaminate faith with reason and risk schism?
3. Inheritance, rival claims to old property/spouses, etc, etc as Matt said, being dead is serious business - and coming back causes all sorts of family rows.
4. The impact on life being sacred - if dying is temporary why is murder worse than assault?
5. Tearing holes in the veil to bring a spirit back from the dead can have unfortunate side effects in BR, similarly doing so casually invites demons to encourage those unprepared to attempt the feat risking unleashing demons into the world.
6. Losing the bloodline - I see the bloodline as being a fragment of the soul, the source of creativity, inspiration, etc, etc - if that spark is lost what has truly returned? Have you brought back a man or merely the ghost of one gone?
7. Dying is partly the DMs way of saying that you've been dim, why encourage Bjorn to drop a thousand tons of masonry on people to get the point across that minion X is gone? It will only increase the casualty rate!
Etc, etc.
Lots of good points here.
Couple of
additional issues:
0. Priests don't use magic, not really, they perform miracles from the gods. That's the perception anyway. In more practical terms a priest can cast any spell he's been granted and the god can't really stop him from doing it. The miracle has already been granted once the priest has memorized the spell.
1. When raising the dead, however, you must take into account the will of the gods; are they willing to let the character be returned to life? Mostly they will not. Once you're dead, you're dead.
2. The deceased also gets a say. Mostly they won't want to return - they just went to Heaven! Sinners might WANT to return since they get to face torment, but then no. 1 kicks in.
3. It's not generally possible for a priest of another faith to return someone to life - both 1 AND 2 kicks in here.
4. Then number of spellcasters of high enough level to do these things are very very limited. Just look at GH and his trouble getting his hand regenerated (he went to Maire because she's widely known to be the best healer in ALL OF ANUIRE).
5. There is a difference between Raise Dead and Resurrection (from the Magic part of the FAQ). Raise Dead must be used rather quickly after death - during the time when the soul is messing around a bit before leaving on its final journey. Resurrection is more powerful - it could theoretically return someone who has been dead for several years (but given the level requirement...)
