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Lord Tataraus
2008-03-30, 01:02 AM
I've been thinking about death recently -death in a fantasy world like D&D that is- and I've come up with my take on the afterlife in such a world.

The Basics
So, some guy has just died, his soul now drifts naturally to his appointed afterlife plane. There will always be an afterlife for you no matter your alignment and it will seem like a paradise to you. You will be accepted in as long as no exceptions apply and become an entry level soul or higher level if you were a devout worshiper of a god. Here you spend your eternity in bliss, pleasure, excitement, or whatever your version of paradise is.

Exceptions
Of course, not every death is perfect and these "imperfections" can cause your soul to become lost, stolen, or bound to another afterlife and usually not in a good way. The most common exceptions are sacrifices. The soul of an entity sacrificed to a god or other outsider is bound to them, this can mean many different things depending who you are bound to, though normally souls are sacrificed to evil entities meaning they become slaves or currency.

The second exception is soul theft. This is practiced by all alignments in equal amounts even though it is most commonly attributed to evil entities. Soul theft is not usually committed knowingly, in fact only a very small percentage of soul "thieves" realize what they are doing. A soul is stolen when it has been struck down in the name of an entity or idea. This happens most commonly in wars when a paladin or fervent believer slays an opponent, the soul has a chance of becoming stolen; the more fanatical the slayer, the more likely the soul is stolen. Most souls released this way are stolen as if sacrificed, but they are most commonly not directed to one entity, resulting in the soul becoming up for grabs by anyone. In good planes this means they are instituted into rehabilitation programs while in evil planes it means any devil or demon can nab it like a $20 bill found on the sidewalk.

The third exception is that of lost souls. This is the rarest of exceptions, but it does happen. Lost souls are much like stolen souls, except a stolen soul requires action from a believe while a lost soul does not. Normally a lost soul can find its way from anywhere onto the plane of its afterlife, however in certain circumstances the soul becomes confused and lost, ending up on the wrong plane. This is due to ambient alignments; a place where there is a strong ambiance towards one alignments such as a temple to an evil god, a shrine to the fey (chaos) or a court room in a very lawful city. This ambient alignment confuses the soul, causing the soul to wind up in a plane one step towards the ambient alignment from his correct alignment. Thus, a lawful good creature who died in an evil temple would get lost and find his soul in the lawful neutral afterlife. Even more rarely is when the soul gets extremely lost and ends up with one alignment opposite, this only occurs in extremely aligned places. For example, the same lawful good creature who died in the middle of a powerful fey circle could get lost and find his soul in the chaotic good afterlife.

The Afterlife Planes
There are exactly 9 afterlife planes, one per alignment, and each has connections to at least three others. The planes are: The Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia, The Blessed Fields of Elysium, The Olympian Glades of Arborea, The Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, The Infinite Layers of the Abyss, The Grey Waste of Hades, The Nine Hells of Baator, The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, and The Wondrous Forest of Serenity (in order of alignments: LG, NG, CG, CN, CE, NE, LE, LN, TN).

Afterlife Plane entry format:
Name

Alignment: -

Deities:
[Major]
A
B
C
[Lesser]
X
Y
Z


Society/Political Type: democratic, anarchy, tyranny, etc.

Non-Deity Residents: demons, devils, angels, etc.

Special Traits: traits

Locations: specific locations of note

Further fluff description.


The Nine Hells of Baator
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Deities:
[Major]
Asmodeus
Hextor
[Lesser]
Baalzebul
Bel
Belial
Fierna
Glasya
Levistus
Malcanthet
Mephistopheles


Society/Political Type: Rigid semi-feudal system sustained by a constant political game of "Favor Trade", the practice of trading promises for other promises held in a tight and complex honor structure that is both self destructive and self maintaining.

Non-Deity Residents: Devils are the primary resident beyond the souls. Devils all participate in the political game of Favor Trade, constantly gaining and losing power, only those who have achieved deity status manage to maintain a fairly stable amount of power. Rarely calmer demons will reside in the Nine Hells, though most do not stay long. Others who live in the Nine Hells are slaves to the demons, though some manage to escape the slavery by entering the Favor Trade, but only three have been successful.

Special Traits: There are nine definitive layers of the Nine Hells (hence the name), though each layers has infinite space. Additionally, each deity ca manipulate his or her layer of Hell as he/she sees fit, though the other deities and devils cannot alter the landscape more so than the material plane.

Locations: <to be added later>

<to be added later>

That's all of come up with so far, at least to put into exact words. I'd like to see what people think of it, especially what the psychological effects would be on those living in such a world/universe where such laws of the afterlife were well known.

I hope to add more later.

Edit: I just added the beginning to the Nine Hells of Baator write up, you will notice that it is slightly different from normal D&D fluff, but this is my project so I'll do what I want :smalltongue:

Copacetic
2008-03-30, 01:08 AM
Pretty good so far. I really like the part about lost souls.

Prometheus
2008-03-30, 07:34 PM
Sounds very interesting, I like it a lot.

If I may offer my comments, there seems like there should be a fourth option. If God's give all their followers (a version of) paradise, they don't seem to be optimizing their divine objectives. Granted, they collect souls and accomplish things by giving their earthly followers powers, but short of clerics, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to do a gods bidding if you get paradise anyway.

A God should not permit such hubris and irreverence, and therefore have a lesser form of paradise (or alternatively, torture) for those who are not compelled enough. Of course, that would give them every incentive to switch alignments, but if every other deity is doing the same, they are out of viable options. The deities would agree to such standards because for every atheist or maltheist, they are all disrespected and no one wins. Of course, one might expect lawful deities to have higher standards, if only because they can expect a higher standard of service from their adherents.

Finally, you describe the interaction of the deities/alignments as a predominately material one. Is there any clash between these opposite forces in the divine planes? What purpose do deities use souls for?

Lord Tataraus
2008-03-30, 07:55 PM
Sounds very interesting, I like it a lot.

If I may offer my comments, there seems like there should be a fourth option. If God's give all their followers (a version of) paradise, they don't seem to be optimizing their divine objectives. Granted, they collect souls and accomplish things by giving their earthly followers powers, but short of clerics, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to do a gods bidding if you get paradise anyway.

A God should not permit such hubris and irreverence, and therefore have a lesser form of paradise (or alternatively, torture) for those who are not compelled enough. Of course, that would give them every incentive to switch alignments, but if every other deity is doing the same, they are out of viable options. The deities would agree to such standards because for every atheist or maltheist, they are all disrespected and no one wins. Of course, one might expect lawful deities to have higher standards, if only because they can expect a higher standard of service from their adherents.
I did touch very briefly on this, you might have missed it: "You will be accepted in as long as no exceptions apply and become an entry level soul or higher level if you were a devout worshiper of a god." I hope to expand that later. Basically, this "higher level" is the true paradise, the entry level stuff is just pleasant...mostly. No god would accept just anyone, but they can't really force a soul to stay out of a plane because other gods might challenge that, just limit their access.


Finally, you describe the interaction of the deities/alignments as a predominately material one. Is there any clash between these opposite forces in the divine planes? What purpose do deities use souls for?
There are always clashes within the planes, though they differ from plane to plane. In the nine Hells and the Abyss you have constant infighting for power and territory, even in Celestia and Elysium there is conflict and power struggles. I hope to outline that when I go in depth with each afterlife plane, a word of warning, I have reworked it a bit from the original D&D setup.

As for the use of souls, its very simple, they are power generators. Souls are rare divine energy, it is the sustenance of any divine being. Souls generate divine power, thus the more souls you own/control the more power you have. This is reflected even in worship, a worshiper has leased his soul to his respective deity, granting a portion of its divine power to the deity and the rest to the alignment as a whole, a devout fanatic has completely sold his soul, allowing all his divine energy to be absorbed directly by his deity. This basically explains why a cleric can follow an ideal, not just a deity, he draws from the communal pool of divine energy generated by not-so-fanatical worshipers. Another use of souls is as currency, the only staple a divine or semi-divine being requires is power, so just as foods are traded in a barter system, souls are traded as currency in general throughout the planes, though some planes can have a more complex system of this currency, each is common enough that inter-planar trade with souls as currency is possible especially since each soul is obliviously worth the same amount.