So whats on the higher level(s)?Of Heaven?

[TreesOfDeath]

Today's comic made me curious

[monty]

More sex and food?

[Setra]

A spa sounds nice.

[hamishspence]

If you're using standard Great Wheel Version it runs:

Silver Heaven
Gold Heaven
Pearly Heaven
Crystal Heaven
Platinum Heaven
Diamond Heaven
Illuminated Heaven

Rumours suggest those who reach last layer merge with it.

[Lord]

Why do almost all of D&D afterlives involve you losing your sentience and becomeing part of the collective/currency for demons its all just a matter of time before you disappear forever. Don't believe me.

Machanus: You immidiatly become part of the collective.

Celestia: Guess what you go up the levels getting increaseingly happier until, poof,your part of the collective.

Nine hells: Guess what! Your the equivilent of a copper piece for demon lords now.

...and the rest are not much better from what I hear. Honestly why couldn't they just say Celestia is eternally a happy place and the Nine hells and Abyss are realms of eternally unhappy and leave the details up to the DM or just leave it blank but I suppose they would make less money that way.

[Eldan]

Because it was an integral part of planescape. And as far as I know never really specified out of that setting.

[Tirian]

We'll probably never get the opportunity to see the rest of Rich's Celestia. But we might expand this framework to come up with a full coherent heaven.

Level 1, as we saw, would be a place that would reward people who lived a pretty good life with the ability to engage in any sensual pleasure without guilt, or at least with divine sanction. Sort of like the Inner Narnia at the end of that series.

Level 2, needless to say, is filled with people who are looking for rewards for leaving level 1. I think it would be a pretty self-congratulatory "lawful stupid" place that would contain attractions like the Village of People Who Can Learn From Your Example, or the Heathen Conspiracy That You Must Smite. (As you might suspect, I think that Miko will spend the next few centuries here.)

Level 3 is for people who are "above" level 2 -- folks who pursue LG not out of smugness or self-aggrandizement, but because they feel in their gut that it's an important thing to be. Maybe some LG gods live on level 3 of the mountain and its "mortal" residents spend their days in service to them.

At that level and above, the view starts to get a bit hazy for us down here, so I'm hesitant to enumerate just how many more levels there are before the summit. I think that there are higher levels and that at each one you have to give up something that many would see as critical, and thus each one has a respectable population of very very good people indeed. Perhaps devas and archons are people who have given up their humanity and physical form respectively in exchange for further travel up the mountain. Like someone above suggested, perhaps the requirement for the summit is surrendering your entire self and becoming a part of Celestia itself.

[Alex Warlorn]

Personally. I've had this theory for a while.
Just as people only THINK there are only 666 levels to the abyss, I think people only THINK there are only seven layers to the LG afterlife, people just THINK there are only seven. I think it goes on for a lot longer, they say seven just cause it's a number the mortal mind can deal with. You reach the top depending on how far you yourself spiritually evolve.

EDIT: Losing your sense of self seems a little too impersonal for a good alinged afterlife.

[Nasrudith]

Perhaps there's a level that when reached essentially turns them into an angel. Or Rich made the angels just be deity created servants of good.

[Kurald Galain]

EDIT: Losing your sense of self seems a little too impersonal for a good alinged afterlife.

Not really, imho. Buddhists have no problem with it, either. That's what "Nirvana" is said to mean.

[sun_tzu]

EDIT: Losing your sense of self seems a little too impersonal for a good alinged afterlife.

It just seems plain bad to me, period. Without our individuality, there's not really much meaning to our existence.
There's always The Pathology Guy's interpretation... (http://www.pathguy.com/mtcelest.htm)

[T.Titan]

Funny thing about individuality... from my observation for a race that claims it likes it so much alot of us try very hard to fit in...

And i was under the impression that Nirvana as described in Buddhism is the ultimate state of individuality, free from everything that traps you in the real world...

[Damocles]

"For numerological reasons, many scholars believe the number pf "infinite" Abyssal layers euqal 666, but at the current rare of discovery it seem slikely that there are many more." -Fiendish Codex I-

[SmartAlec]

When you reach perfection, you literally are too good for this universe. You've done it; you've achieved the highest spiritual peak anyone can. There's no reason to hang around any more; you've achieved the big goal, and you can blissfully move to... oblivion? A higher level of existence? But you'll do so in a state of absolute grace. The point is, when you finally reach the top, It's Time To Move On.

[Tirian]

It just seems plain bad to me, period. Without our individuality, there's not really much meaning to our existence.

I'm not going to say that that is an irrational idea, but it is one that is not so obvious to acolyte of Ultimate lawfulness. If a community of people all seek an identical end, what could be more Lawful than their fusing into a single embodiment of their goal? And what could be more Good than joining the source of power for paladins and LG clerics throughout the cosmos?

But the brilliance of an n-stage Heaven is that it is very respectable for its denizens to say "I want to give up _this_ much but not _that_ much in service of my ideals." If you say to Celestia, "I can't surrender my individuality because then it's not _me_ that is working for Lawful Good," Celestia will say "As you wish. Let me know if you change you mind in a thousand years. In the mean time, would you like to become an archon and guide newbies from the gate to the First Plateau?"

[Issabella]

Why do almost all of D&D afterlives involve you losing your sentience and becomeing part of the collective/currency for demons its all just a matter of time before you disappear forever. Don't believe me.

Machanus: You immidiatly become part of the collective.

Celestia: Guess what you go up the levels getting increaseingly happier until, poof,your part of the collective.

Nine hells: Guess what! Your the equivilent of a copper piece for demon lords now.

...and the rest are not much better from what I hear. Honestly why couldn't they just say Celestia is eternally a happy place and the Nine hells and Abyss are realms of eternally unhappy and leave the details up to the DM or just leave it blank but I suppose they would make less money that way.


Because those are the lawful places Law espouses community and collection. You want to retain indivdidualisms stay Neutral to Chaotic. I for one would be happy rolling with the Scions of Anarchy in Limbo.

Ohh minor quibble, Devils rule in Hell (Perdition) not Demons, Demons are the Princes/lords/atrocities of the Abyss.