Some of these are Ed questions. I'm not even sure they're even fully defined in a quantitative sense.One thing I do want to clarify though, is that while mechanically all PCs are stonebound, RP-wise, you can chose not to bind. However, if you do so, then your first death, without someone to raise you, would also be your last, RP-wise. There is one character that I know of who has chosen this path.
Moving further through the list, bindstones have nothing to do with deities. Because they are in a temple or a shrine or something does not mean that they are somehow controlled or influenced by said deity. There may be a ritual that some churches have for such, but it is one of those "for show" and not anything necessary. It's not a test of faith or piety or anything else. A Pyrtechonite could bind to a stone in one of Aeridin's temples, but then that would either be fabulously horrid RP or a similarly poor way of trying to stick it to Aeridin.
Adventurers as a whole tend to possess a degree of bravado (and perhaps foolishness) that the bulk of the population lack. It's entirely possible for one's motivation to be "Well....I might as well try, because I'm going somewhere dangerous regardless, and I could be dead either way."
Yeah, I understand they have nothing to do with deities. I read the LORE entry. However, the fact is that they are put into a temple, used as a focus point, carved into relevant shapes. They have significance. Surely there are common-to-all-temple rumours and myths about the processes? Surely the temples have a duty of care to their followers to have some explanation about the stones and the maybe-effect on their everlasting souls?
I'd venture there is a fair difference between an armour-clad & confidence-clad warrior venturing into a dark cave with his glowing sword swinging versus subjecting oneself to a mysterious process over which there is little control, little known and an empirical xx% chance of survival. That 'xx%' is something that is significant. I don't normally get to hung up on having to define and delineate every last detail in my gaming ... this however is relevant to my character in-game (and interesting to me OOC too now I have devoted some thought to it all!)
As ever, thanks for taking time to answer these questions. I'll point Ed to this thread when he returns - he'd probably be disappointed to return from a trip away and not have some question/issue or ten awaiting him.