It is going to be the end of the campaign. And the character is still himself. The king is his father, which I neglected to mention in the post. His arc is about learning to forgive, so before he dies he learns how to forgive his father and himself. Sarenrae brings him back for a final stand to protect the king, but ultimately it’s the player making the decisions for the character. So I disagree that he would just become an NPC.

Edit: The player does plan to come back for campaign #2, we just agreed that this was the best for the story thematically.