The Uses of Reincarnation

In all my years as a DM I have only seen the spell reincarnation in action twice. The first time it was a sort of punishment (after all, how easy is it to be resurrected? Let's make sure you can come back as something stupid!) but the second time it was... much more.

The second use of reincarnation was much more thought out, and actually integrated with the setting design. Returning to life has always been a troubling question to me purely based on demographic problems. After all, if you can be brought back from the dead at any time, what's to stop powerful magnates from just reversing their own murders? Why doesn't every god ensure that their favorite kings and heroes live until a ripe old age and die of natural causes? For that matter, at that point why don't they just renew their aging bodies and make sure they live forever?

The solution I came up with for the 10th Age is probably not the solution that everyone else would stumble upon because it makes the game much harder and more restrictive for the players. The god of death, Akem, is a jealous god who guards the natural order fiercely. Those who die are simply not released from his realm. Resurrection magic is highly restricted since it must defy him and he has been known to go into open holy war in the past against faiths that break his restriction and snatch back the dead from his realm.