Quick question about Ravenloft... where do the dead go?

[inuyasha]

So, due to events involving my own creative juices, and Halloween rapidly approaching, my existing campaign (that weird post-apocalyptic one that's partially in the stone-age and overall controlled by druids) has been thrown into the demiplane of Ravenloft, with the area the players were in becoming a new domain (with one of the big druids as its darklord).

But anyway, something I can't remember about Ravenloft is where do the dead go? This is assuming they don't become undead, aren't killed by a death effect, trapped in a soul gem and consumed, etc.

Do the souls of the dead become part of the mists? Do they fade from reality entirely? Do they actually get their normal afterlife? Or is this one of those fun Ravenloft things intentionally left unexplained?

Also, my players love Ravenloft so far, and the guy who made the Pathfinder update to it did a really good job.

[Nifft]

Nobody knows.

Death is scary.

Resurrection might bring back something that only thinks it's your friend.

[Zaydos]

Or is this one of those fun Ravenloft things intentionally left unexplained?

I think it's this, though my recollections would indicate that the answer is 'it depends'. Are they natives (which may or may not have souls and free will and may just be puppets of the demiplane, though that got downplayed when they added rules for playing them)? If they're outsiders (indication in your example) my guess would be pass on normally unless they were in the region when the domain got made (as they were). At that point my guess would be that they become the stuff that new natives are made out of (which could be synonymous with 'become part of the mists'). Got to keep the domain populated somehow :xykon:

[inuyasha]

Cool cool cool! I'll take that as a pretty good answer.

I'm really happy my group loves the whole Ravenloft thing, I wanted to check over a few things with them before I tossed them in, without giving away too many spoilers.

I'm using the Pathfinder update written by Ryan Naylor, and it's insanely good. The monster templates make me very happy, and to top it all off they're free PDFs.

[Corsair14]

Its not like the Midnight campaign(which was brilliant) where souls are trapped and everyone that dies turns into a zombie and the bad guys are winning the war. RL certainly has more than its share of undead and ghosts, but the average shmoe probably has their soul head off to whatever alignment plane of existence that a similar relatively unimportant person's would go. There is some question like someone else said if other people are indeed real with souls since everything was created by whoever runs the prison.

[soldersbushwack]

In many settings it is almost impossible to prevent souls from moving on to the afterlife. Even better is destroying the soul and using a Wish spell to reform it elsewhere. This leads to my favourite hypothetical trick for escaping from demiplanes. You can do it without custom spells or magic items if you have a friend to help you but if those are allowed a custom spell might look something like:

Solder's Miraculous Escape
9th-level necromancy

Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (diamonds worth 75,000 gp
Duration: Instantaneous

A strange hybrid of a Disintegrate spell, a True Resurrection spell and a Wish spell, the caster is instantly destroyed body and soul completely and totally beyond the capability of even a Resurrection spell to bring back to life. 10 minutes later a spell effect similar to Wish comes into effect and the caster's spirit and body are recreated perfectly in a location of the caster's choosing. This allows theoretical escape from almost any possible prison that allows for the casting of magic. However, if the spell is ever interrupted or goes wrong the caster will be destroyed completely and totally forever. Moreover, some shun the spell as they are not so sure the caster is actually the same being at the end of the process as they were at the beginning.

[Bohandas]

At that point my guess would be that they become the stuff that new natives are made out of (which could be synonymous with 'become part of the mists'). Got to keep the domain populated somehow :xykon:

Ooh! That's a good one! Nice and spooky!

[inuyasha]

I've often heard of the Midnight setting, I just haven't gotten around to buying it yet. It sounds really cool though.

As for that spell, it's awesome, but what I find hilarious is it falls under Black Magic for being necromantic and manipulating the soul, and probably under blasphemy for trying to go against the wills of the dark powers, which, hilariously enough, would cause you to make a powers check with a minimum of 17% failure, or a 100% chance of failure if you were researching this spell (which would make sense, as it seems like a really obscure one)

[Dragonexx]

I believe it's stated that most of the people and creatures in a domain aren't truly "real". They behave like living creatures, but are all puppets created from the mist by the Dark Powers to play out scenarios. Often, the only real person in a domain is it's Dark Lord.

[Nifft]

I believe it's stated that most of the people and creatures in a domain aren't truly "real". They behave like living creatures, but are all puppets created from the mist by the Dark Powers to play out scenarios. Often, the only real person in a domain is it's Dark Lord. NPC = P-Zombie?

Dark Powers are playing board games with themselves?

Wow, that's more depressing than I had previously imagined Ravenloft could be.

Hell is playing an RPG about playing an RPG by yourself.

[Zaydos]

NPC = P-Zombie?

Dark Powers are playing board games with themselves?

Wow, that's more depressing than I had previously imagined Ravenloft could be.

Hell is playing an RPG about playing an RPG by yourself.

Pretty much. They back pedaled a bit from it in the Domains of Dread book in 2e where they gave rules for playing native PCs but even it made a mention of it to half dismiss it iirc.