[PF] Destruction of the afterlife

[Zejety]

As far as I know, none of my players are giantitp regulars but just in case that they are: You know who this pen-name belongs to - get out!

I'm going to DM a Pathfinder campaign for some local friends. Apart from a single one-shot session, this will be the first experience with a D&Dish system for all players (I have played in a few short-lived PbP games) although some of us are experienced with other systems.

Anyway, we are planning to base the campaign on Golarion, Pathfinder's default setting. Since no one of us is very experienced, there is a lot of room for leeway, though.

To get to the point: We will start with some generic dungeon crawling, both to get a feeling for the system and set it apart from a roleplaying-heavy game most of us participate in. But nevertheless I want to slowly introduce a greater conflict that may offer plot hooks in the beginning and be tackled directly later in the campaign.

When listening to a song I got the idea to confront Golarion with getting cut off from the afterlife in some way. I figured that suddenly losing contact to the afterlife (and therefore definite proof of its existence) will cause some interesting reactions. Just look at how the uncertainty of its existence can cause angst in our world and imagine how people would react if they had 100% certain proof that after their death they will cease to exist, especially after they used to be 100% sure that there is a life after death.


My problems stem from my inexperience with the setting and system:

Setting:
1 - Who/Why? - Who would have an interest in doing something like this? Apparently, all big players profit from the stream of souls in some way.
Skimming through the Pathfinder Campaign Setting book, I figure the Daemons are a good candidate since they want to destroy all creation and actually are waging war against the Boneyard...

2 - How? - If I understand it correctly, the Pathfinder afterlife works like this: Souls travel through the astral plane to the Boneyard where they are to be judged and then assigned to various planes for their afterlives.

So in order to "erase" the afterlife (Lord English style) one would have to destroy all of these planes. Merely making it unaccessible for the newly departed would require to either to block their souls from entering the astral plane or to intercept them somewhere on the way.

My goal is to have the deceased stop to exist as quickly after their death as possible.
Can souls even destructible?

3 - What? - What would be the effects on the inhabitants of the material plane? The first ones to notice will most likely be clerics and other divine casters. I can imagine them trying to keep this new situation a secret, out of fear of a panic and degeneration of morals (due to lack of consequences). If I want to keep the situation mysterious, how can I avoid beings from other planes to inform the mortals?

We wanted to start the campaign in Ustalav. The pharasma worship prevails there and people believe that their suffering during life will get rewarded in the afterlife. I imagine that region would be affected quite a lot.


System:
What implications does this have on balance? None of my players is planning on playing a divine caster.
Is the unavailability of resurrection spells a big problem for balance?


This turned into quite a wall of text and I think it is apparent that I do not have much more than a rough idea to work with. That's why I want to get some input to flesh it out and first and foremost learn if it actually feasible.


I am looking forward to your answers and feedback!

Oh and please do not stray into real world religions discussion - keep the forum rules in mind.

[Marnath]

Who: I know in Dragonlance, the evil goddess of the dragons pulled this off because then she could have all the souls to herself and the other gods couldn't stop her.

How: You don't need to destroy the other planes, just set up blockades at every portal and use some sort of epic version of dimensional lock to seal the entire material plane.

What: Sadly, I don't think souls just disappear. They're a lot more likely to just wander the prime material. Expect ghosts to quickly become a huge problem as souls pile up in this world with nowhere to go. Also look to necromancers and evil people who will be using the souls to create undead and power spells via the vile feats.

[NichG]

Maybe you get some sort of animistic result? Since the souls of the dead can't go elsewhere, they take up residence in objects, places, etc. So suddenly that old stone statue is inhabited by the spirit of your father who just died, and so on.

An interesting twist would be if, gradually, people realize that the lack of an afterlife isn't necessarily a bad thing and then resist attempts to 'fix' the problem. It could be an interesting choice for the PCs caught in the middle - do we choose to resolve this, have afterlives as before, etc, or do we fight to make the new way work, so that the living can still be with and spend time with the souls of the dead. Even better if there are long term consequences of either choice, which you can then use for a timeskip (10 years later, you find that ...)

[zalmatra]

what about inner planes versus outer planes

without the positive and negative energy planes anything that relies on positive energy or negative energy might not function as it did before

in order to use a healing spell one might need to drain the energy from another source

souls are manifestations of pure positive energy and of course self generate there own energy so clerics might be able to still heal just in a more limited capacity as to much draining could kill themselves

without a connection to the positive energy plane there are no new souls so the old souls staying around would probably need to reincarnate to keep creatures from being born souless

there is alot to consider here..without those normal disposal methods. hell even necromancy wouldnt work right without a negative energy domain undead would no longer be possible as necromantic energy is not natural to the mortal world it flows through from the negative energy domain. negative energy is part of the world but its death its the end of all things and without that death itself may no longer exist.

scary world

[Unusual Muse]

Not quite the same, but related: There was a cool adventure hook I ran across somewhere (can't recall where at the moment) wherein there was an extraplanar "crime ring" set up to steal afterlives from good souls and sell them to evil people, who take the good soul's place as a petitioner in the upper planes. Obviously, this could include the PCs if they are good-aligned, so there's a little extra motivation. Sounded like a fun premise.