Death and the Afterlife
What is the Soul?
The soul is the lifeforce of a mortal being, seperate from the body. In certain religions, the term "spirit" was used to describe this lifeforce, and the two words were used interchangeably. Upon the death of a mortal, the soul and body parted ways, with the soul instinctively embarking on a voyage to the afterlife. Conversely, certain other entities didn't possess this dualistic nature. Some beings, often originating from alternate planes of existence and occasionally termed "outsiders", lacked this two-fold existence. For an outsider, the soul and body were a unified spiritual entity, deeply connected to the core of its originating plane. When an outsider perished, the soul didn't detach from the body; instead, the outsider's essence merged with its plane. Most animals, plants, oozes, and vermin were not sufficiently sentient and thus did not have souls. Undead and constructs did not usually have souls either, though the creatures from which they were constructed might have.The Voyage from Existence to Eternity.
As previously mentioned, when mortals with souls on the Prime Material Plane passed away under typical conditions, their spirits left their physical forms. They then entered The Empty. The transition wasn't immediate, though to the soul it might have felt so. Some contended that this voyage could span from three days to a month in Prime Material time. According to certain draconic religious doctrines of Aralla, the dragon's soul, known as the anima, did not directly set out for the afterlife. Instead, it remained tethered to the dragon's remains until the mortal frame had fully decomposed, liberating the anima for its onward voyage. (In these sacred tales, while the anima could still witness the mortal realm, it couldn't influence it in any manner.)Lost Souls and Spirits
For various reasons, certain souls never reached the Empty. Some found themselves ensnared in the Border Ethereal Plane or The Nightmare, taking forms such as ghosts or other non-corporeal undead. These entities could choose to be seen by beings on the Material Plane. Various intense circumstances could also hinder a soul's smooth passage to the Empty, leading to different undead manifestations. For instance, an extremely violent demise experienced by a tiny fraction of individuals might give rise to a Revenant. It was also possible to trap a soul in various magical items. For example, a ghost lantern utilized an entrapped spirit to generate light and grant the bearer a limited number of supernatural powers.The Empty
Upon reaching the Empty, a soul would linger, meandering without purpose, oblivious to its own death, until a representative from one of the powers came to collect it. After a duration that, in Arallan terms, typically spanned from a day to just beyond a tenday, a representative would approach. The soul would invariably recognize this entity and proceed with them to face the Judgement by Cehbris. Once evaluated, the outsider would guide the being to its next plane of existence, where it would spend the remainder of the beings existence as petitioner guiding them. However, sometimes, if a soul had not been very faithful at all, it might take centuries for the representative to come, and some souls were said to fade out of existence if a representative never arrived. Souls of the False and the Faithless were judged seperately (see the section about the kinds of souls below). Souls who have devoted themselves to deities typically pass through the court of judgment swiftly. If a soul is a true devotee, agents of the deity direct it to its patron’s realm. The plane in question typically matches the deity’s alignment, though there are exceptions. The more virtuous souls often find their ways to the good-aligned planes, while wicked souls are sent to evil planes. This isn’t a reward or punishment, but rather an organizing of like souls. Wherever they’re sent, these souls become petitioners and are left to experience existence among those who share similar beliefs. A soul’s judgment is not always so obvious, though. In some cases a soul’s alignment radically differs from that of the deity it worships. In such cases, Jergal employs visions from the soul’s mortal life to determine the greatest influences on the individual’s life. Cehbris also may employ diverse agents to investigate a soul whose fate has come into question, and agents of the opposing deities or planes also make arguments and present evidence. The gods or greater agents then rule on the soul’s proper destination, after which the soul is typically directed to either a deity’s realm or a plane of like-minded individuals.After Judgement
A judged soul emerges onto its new home plane, its memories and personality from its days as a mortal remaining On the lawful planes of Axis, The Silver Mountainside, and The Black Fortress, these souls tend most often to appear at particular entry points, whereupon they undergo additional sorting. Those sent to the neutral-aligned planes of The Silent Lands or The Summer Fields appear at the fringes and are allowed to find their own paths toward the plane’s more populous lands. Souls bound for the chaotic planes of The Maw, The Great Glades, or Bedlam can appear in or near any of those lands’ disparate realms, and are left to contend with the plane’s inhabitants as they will. If the soul is a worshiper of a particular deity, it might arrive in the deity’s realm, or that deity might have servants assigned to shepherd newly arrived souls to her realm from other parts of the plane. Regardless of a soul’s final destination, upon receiving judgment, it finds itself changed. No longer a mortal being, the soul has become a petitioner, a true native of the plane it now inhabits. Petitioners are a specific kind of outsider native to the plane they exist on, and can not be returned to life except by incredible magic. What happened to a petitioner upon arriving at its final destination varied wildly by which deity that petitioner served. A good number of petitioners appeared much as they did in life, but by no means all. Petitioners had a wide variety of forms depending on where they were placed. Evil souls in the Maw became Abyssal Larvae that would eventually grow and transform into the many types of demons, or souls serving the Deities of Fury took on elemental forms or the forms of animals.The Faithless
The Faithless were those souls who had never chosen to follow a patron deity or never believed in the gods at all. As such, they would never have a representative sent to retrieve them. Instead, it was mandated that they should enter the City of Judgment to be judged by the god of the dead. They are judged in the same way faithful petitioners are, but are disallowed from any afterlife. The souls of the faithless stay in the Empty and the City of Judgement, living their lives based on how they were judged, ranging from quiet and peaceful rest, service to Cehbris, the ability to become a psychopomp under Phlegyas, or being cast out into the Empty to wander as punishment. The more punished souls who didn't wish to wander were sometimes approached by devils to recieve benefits in exchange for service to The Black Fortress. If such a deal was not fitting, or the being wasn't lawful enough for service, they could slip into the darkness below the Empty and fall into the Silent Lands, or be stolen by periodic raids by Demons from the Maw.The False
The False were the souls of those individuals who intentionally betrayed their deities after making a commitment to them during their lifetimes. If judged and found guilty by Cehbris, they were punished for all eternity. The punishment varied depending on the severity of the crime. The punishment could be anything from escorting visitors to the City of Judgment, to unspeakable tortures for true betrayal.
Type
Metaphysical, Divine
