Souls
Souls are the remains of the dead and are treated as both a form of currency and a source of power in Heaven and Hell. Upon death, most souls are no longer aware; they do not remember their identities nor their desires, and often are hardly aware of their surroundings. The few souls that retain their awareness and are not claimed by Heaven or Hell roam Rubicon as ghosts. When gathered for processing, souls are stripped from any remaining consciousness and their power is repurposed. This form of a soul is reffered to as
soul matter.
Living beings often have an idea of where they will go when they die. Those that don't still usually have subconscious desires for what lies beyond, and this will sway the soul in the same way. This location is where souls end up when that living being dies. In rare cases where an individual really has no expectation for the afterlife, their souls remain where the creature died. This is the primary reason why Heaven and Hell fight to sway rubiconians; Heaven attempts to coax souls to Heaven with promises of eternal paradise after death, and Hell tends to form magical contracts that force the soul to Hell regardless of it's notion of the afterlife.
Soul matter can be used to create new beings (such as
warforged), fuel powerful spells, or create powerful magic items. Hell is known for condensing
soul matter into Soul Coins for preservation and easy use. The processes by which individuals can use
soul matter is a guarded art known as soul shaping, and most practicers have slightly different methods compared to others, making it a difficult art to teach. Rubiconians themselves tend to be the best at this art; despite the lack of plane-wide use of soul power, they are closest to the abundance of souls that the plane provides. Sages and witches tend to have the highest number of soul shapers within their ranks compared to other groups for this reason.
Mortality
The reason Rubicon is so abundant in souls is it's corrosive nature. It has an unusual corrupting nature that affects any living thing that touches the plane, causing it to slowly die. Different living things resist this affect more or less, granting them longer or shorter lifespans. Everything, down to each blade of grass, is affected by this corrosion. This is known as mortality, and being affected by the plane renders you mortal.
Those that are not born in Rubicon are considered immortal. They have a maturity, the age that they are fully developed, but remain at that point for the rest of their existence. They can still be killed: wounds, sickness, poison, etc can still kill immortal creatures, they just do not die of old age.
Creatures that are said to be unable to die even of wounds and such are considered True Immortals; only deities like Elohim and Lucifer are thought to be True Immortals. True Immortals are also said to be able to enter Rubicon without harm, but this is uncertain; it's hard to know whether or not Rubicon has ever seen direct interference from either Elohim or Lucifer, as they can change aspects and/or how they are percieved, but the relative peace of Rubicon makes it seem unlikely.
Any being born in Rubicon is mortal. Creatures born from mortal beings have a chance of being mortal even if they are not born in Rubicon. Those who do not begin their lives mortal have two ages, their true age (how long they have actually been alive) and their rubiconian age (the number of years it took to develop to adulthood plus the number of years they have been mortal). Some beings can strengthen their resistance to mortality (such as
hags) and others have natural means by which they live longer than others (such as
dryads or creatures like
unicorns and
dragons) but no beings have been able to completely evade Rubicon's mortality.
The spell
Detect Poison and Disease is able to tell whether or not an individual is mortal.
Within the last several decades, a rumor has spread revolving around a powerful and ancient rubiconian artifact that may be able to truly cleanse someone of mortality. Most people reffer to this artifact as The Athaneos, The Mortal Cure, or The Rubiconian Artifact. While there is little concrete evidence of this artifact's existence, the higher authorities in Heaven and Hell seem convinced that it is not only real, but that they have narrowed down where it may exist within Rubicon. This area, a slice of the infinite bounds of Rubicon, will be where the Rubicon part of the campaign takes place (keep in mind I have no clue how much of the campaign will be spent in Rubicon compared to the other planes without knowing character details, I assume Rubicon will take up the majority but I don't know for certain). Both of the outer planes have shifted war efforts to claiming this territory and finding the artifact, or at the very least proove that the artifact does or does not exist.
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