Afterlife in OOTS?

[Lordfiscus]

What is the afterlife like in OOTS? We've seen the Lawful Good afterlife, a giant mountain, and presumably Hell for all evil alignments, but about the rest of the alignments?

Also, what about planes that fall under a specific race?
What is the plane of Hel like? Where does the Dark One take his goblins when they die, considering the entire goblin race is Chaotic Evil? Is the Dark One's plane Goblin Valhalla?

[Grey Watcher]

What is the afterlife like in OOTS? We've seen the Lawful Good afterlife, a giant mountain, and presumably Hell for all evil alignments, but about the rest of the alignments?

Also, what about planes that fall under a specific race?
What is the plane of Hel like? Where does the Dark One take his goblins when they die, considering the entire goblin race is Chaotic Evil? Is the Dark One's plane Goblin Valhalla?

He appears to be using the Great Wheel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Plane#Standard_D.26D_cosmology) cosmology.

[Lordfiscus]

So, the Chaotic Good go to Valhalla/Ysgard? Huh. That, or a massive hunting ground, the Beastlands.

Doesn't answer my question about Hel, or the Dark One though.

[ti'esar]

The Dark One's realm is pretty clearly in Acheron: a "majestic iron plateau" with goblin souls fighting in an eternal war.

[hamishspence]

Where does the Dark One take his goblins when they die, considering the entire goblin race is Chaotic Evil?

Actually, only Bugbears tend toward CE. Goblins tend toward NE, hobgoblins toward LE.

[Keltest]

The voiced in my head are telling me that this is one of those questions the Giant hasn't thought much about outside of what was necessary for the plot.

[hamishspence]

The voiced in my head are telling me that this is one of those questions the Giant hasn't thought much about outside of what was necessary for the plot.

The Giant, on D&D cosmology:


D&D cosmology is utterly incoherent, being a pastiche on several real world religions that's then strained through a fundamentally incompatible alignment system where Good and Evil are both valid life choices with equally powerful patrons. D&D writers have been trying to make it make sense for 40 years; it still doesn't. My version doesn't either. It's good enough for the story to get where it's going.

[Keltest]

The Giant, on D&D cosmology:

oh yeah, I was part of that thread. Don't listen to the voices in your head, they don't have your best interests at heart.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I think it would help us to learn where Hel rules if we knew what alignment she was. All we know is that she is Evil.

That "giant mountain", by the way, is called Celestia, and The Nine Hells are were Lawful Evil people go (and devils live), not all Evil people.

[Grey Watcher]

Also, "Always Chaotic Evil" is a convention that Burlew specifically dislikes and is trying to combat. In his own words:


The SRD is a bunch of words written by a bunch of people living in Renton, WA. It has no more authority to determine what is true in my work of fiction than the phone book does.

And my contention, with much of OOTS, is that it is specifically wrong on this issue. Not that it is inaccurate; that it is not as it should be. That the game is teaching the wrong lessons, especially since we place it in the hands of those who are "12 & Up." There is no actual truth about what alignment goblins are, because goblins are made-up. Monsters are made-up. What there is, is a bunch of game designers writing a document that says that some types of people are inherently morally inferior to other types of people. And I find that regrettable.

Arguing, "This is the way it is, so therefore it's this way," isn't much of refutation to my argument that it shouldn't be that way. I'm not interested in supporting the way D&D is, I'm interested in changing it, by changing the minds of the people who play it. ...

[Eldan]

Well, going by the standard great wheel, Niflheim is Hel's realm on the layer of the same name in the Grey Wastes.

[SavageWombat]

Second the Grey Waste. It's a plane of despairing nothingness, that sucks away your identity and self-will leaving a drifting husk. Similar to Hades in the Greek myths. It's a place for gods that rule over the dead, but don't care about them or punish them in any particular way.

[illyahr]

Biggest torture in Grey Wastes, Niflheim, etc: boredom. The complete lack of anything to do slowly destroys your soul.

[Necris Omega]

I have to admit, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this come into play. Roy's Afterlife arc ranks as one of my absolute favorites.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I have to admit, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this come into play. Roy's Afterlife arc ranks as one of my absolute favorites.

Agreed. I'm so glad they were included.