Death

All creatures big and small eventually die. For most creatures this process is simple, their body decays and all that they are returns back to nature, ready to make something new, continuing the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. 

Table of Contents

Afterlife

But when a Mortal dies, their spirit travels into the Veil, before it is ferried, by one of the Psychopomps, to the Underworld. Once there, the spirit awaits the judgement of The Judges of the Dead. The three judges are responsible for deciding the fate of the Souls of the dead. They are tasked with analysing the deeds of the dead and sending them to either the Asphodel Meadows, the Dungeons of the Damned or Elysium.

• Asphodel Meadows. Souls who did not commit any significant crimes, but who also did not achieve any greatness or recognition, are sent to the Asphodel Meadows.
• Dungeons of the Damned. Souls that have created havoc in the universe and committed crimes against the Gods, are sent to the Dungeons of the Damned to be tortured for eternity.
• Elysium. Souls that accomplished great deeds in life, or were especially distinguished, are sent to Elysium to live out their existence in luxury and splendour.

The judged Souls then "live" out their sentence within the Underworld, persisting as a Shade, a manifestation of a Mortal’s moral nature and identity. The Shades persist until there is no Mortal left living that remembers them. Once a Soul is forgotten, they fade, vanishing from the Universe, their essence returning to Creation. Souls sent to the Dungeons of the Damned or Elysium usually persist for a very long time due to their historic actions. 

Other Afterlives

Some Mortal Souls bypass the sentencing of the Judges of the Dead by being a devotee to a powerful God in life. Instead of being sent to the Underworld, the most pious and devoted Souls are sent to the Heavens where they are usually transformed into a new shape so that they may further serve their Deity in death, losing their Mortality to become something new, usually a Celestial, but Souls bound to Dark Gods may find their Souls twisted into a more vile and monstrous form.

Mortal Souls can similarly bypass the Underworld by not having ownership of their Soul, where in Death, the Soul's owner claims it. Mortals who have sold their Soul to a Devil, for example, will be sent to the Hells, where they are likely to become transformed into Devil themselves.

Souls that are in tune with nature, either by being devotees of Nature Deities, by having a strong connection to the Land of Faerie, or by being well versed in powerful Druidic Magic, may chose to undergo Reincarnation, where in Death their souls are transformed into nature spirits, Fae beings that resemble plants or animals, with no memory of their past lives, and which commonly reside within Faerie.

The Veil & Ghosts

Sometimes Souls can get lost on their way to the Underworld, or they can refuse to be ferried by one of the Psychopomps and escape, often by Souls who refuse to acknowledge their death. In these rare circumstances, the Soul will often find themselves lost, trapped in the Veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead, or end up drifting within the Land of Shadow. A majority of these Souls end up transformed into malevolent Ghosts, Wraiths and Spectres, clinging to the memory and trauma of their former lives. These Spirits will often cross over, through the Veil, into the Material Plane at night, to haunt the spaces they frequented in life.

Lost Spirits will persist in this form indefinitely, slowly losing themselves and their memories, until they are but a husk of their former selves. While these Spirits can be fought, when they are defeated they merely reconstitute within the Land of Shadow, returning to their haunt once they regain their strength. A lost Spirit can be released from their torment in two major ways. They can either be soothed, allowing them to pass on peacefully. Or they can be magically banished to the Underworld. These processes are usually undertaken by Spirit specialist called Phantomancers, Exorcists, or Spirit Mediums.

Certain Spellcasters, like Phantomancers can also call forth these lost Spirits from the Veil, or even the Land of Shadow, to do communicate with them or even to their bidding. 

Psychopomps

Psychopomps are the beings whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased Souls to their destined afterlife. The Psychopomps are either Gods or Daimones, they include:

• Charon - Ferryman of the Dead
• Hermes - God of Travel
• Thanatos - The Angel of Death
• The Keres - Winged Deaths

Charon is said to accept payment in order to ferry Souls across the River Acheron, from the Veil, into the Underworld, with those without payment having to wait for passage, which can sometimes take years. Because of this, it is customary to place a gold coin, called an Obol, within the mouths of a deceased Mortal during their funeral to pay the ferryman.