Death and What Lies Beyond
The Lost One raised his lantern. “It is time to go.” It was not a veiled request, nor even a command; it was simply a statement of fact.
All things die. Even the gods and demons who seem untouched by the ravages of time are not immune to death entirely. For more actively mortal beings, the end always seems to be looming on the horizon. Some choose to ignore it. Others obsess over it. Still others do everything in their power to ward it off at every step. Whatever they might do, death will eventually come for them, and it's at this point where we'll begin.
The Mortal Soul
The soul, housed within its corporeal shell, quickly breaks free after death. Though a great deal of effort generally goes into keeping said shell intact, everything about a person that truly matters - the things that makes them who they were inside and out - is all contained in the spiritual energies left behind. These loose spirits are invisible to the naked eye, but for those capable of perceiving the spiritual plane, they often appear as a lightly idealized version of themselves, marred in some way by their cause of death.
Upon being freed from their mortal coil, there is very little holding them in place. Their ability to influence the mortal world is minimal at best, but by the same token the rules of the mortal world also have a far weaker hold on them. The laws of physics become a loose suggestion, allowing those who wish it to fly through the air or delve deep into the earth with only the most rare and arcane of effects stopping them. However, such wandering is seldom encouraged. While it may be fun for a time, moving too far from one's point of death lowers the likelihood of being found by the divine beings who can shepherd the dead to their final destination. These beings are often feared, as the afterlife is still largely a mystery to most and few are willing to truly accept that their life is over, but the unfortunate soon discover that a trip across the Veil is far better than the alternative.
The Veil and Beyond
It is the responsibility of one of the gods of Death, or else their appointed stand-ins (referred to by specialists as 'psychopomps'), to collect the souls of the dead and guide them through the barrier between the portion of the spiritual plane that borders the mortal world into the potion that lies beyond. This barrier is known as the Veil, though the realm beyond it is known by many names. Totenheim, Réimsí Cuimhne, Nyumba ya Waliopotea; whatever it's called, people understand what it is well enough. The realm of the dead and unforgotten, housing souls away from the corrupting influence of the mortal world's ambient magic. Descriptions of the place vary, with most older accounts of the place being mired in heresay and superstition. The most common (and most accurate) modern depiction has only been cemented in the last century or so, fueled by first-hand accounts of scientists' and archivists' brushes with death and talks with both the departed themselves and the gods who gather them.
The world beyond the vale is a sort of pale reflection of the mortal world. Molded by some of the gods of death, the lands are imperfect, softened, and often reflects how the particular god involved views the world more than the reality of it. It is also fails to reach reality's heights and depths, with mountains and oceans being reduced to mere fractions of their real-world counterparts. It still provides more than enough room for the souls that reside in such places - after all, a fraction of the deepest ocean in the world is still unfathomably deep to most minds - but many who have seen the vistas of the world beyond and passed word back to the living describe a distinct feeling of dysphoria when looking out across a world that is not quite the right scale.
Demesnes of the Gods
In and amongst the recreations of the mortal realm, various gods - of Death or not - have carved out realms for themselves over time, forming structures or art or scenery as pleases them and best represents their service to the world. From the darkened clouds of Vossos' Reckoning Isle to Quietu's ancient College of Whispers to the raucous halls of the Valorous Sanctuary shared between several gods of war and battle, these locales take many forms and have borders and facilities specifically designed to be fluid. As the dead arrive, depart, or are forgotten, the exact dimensions of a deity's demesne fluctuate to take up only the space required. Souls who reach the afterlife can be sorted into these regions based on a variety of metrics. Some gods of death operate exclusively in specific geographic regions of Teicna, such as in dangerous seas or wastelands prone to claiming lives. Others take only their devout worshipers. Still others seek out those who died by specific means - murder, falling in battle, being eaten by wild beasts, and so on.
Within a god's claimed territory, their word is law. Even moreso than in the mortal realm, where there are politics and overlapping boundaries and more stringent adherence to ethics, a god's demesne is theirs to control. If a spirit challenges them, breaks a stated rule, wishes to be reincarnated, is fleeing from the wrath of another god, etc., if it is within their borders, all beings - spirit and fellow gods alike - acknowledge that it is within the resident deity's rights to do whatever is within their power.
Keeper of the Damned
Unique amidst the gods' demesnes, the 'place' that people know as Nul is not a place at all, but rather a god. In ancient times, the goddess Nul was a being of sadism and cruelty, fostering it in others as often as she dealt it out herself. In order to protect mortal-kind, she was chained within the afterlife and separated from those she had tortured. Unwilling to kill her, but fearful she might one day break her bonds, the gods have kept her appeased ever since by granting her the souls of the most abhorrent beings on the face of the planet. Unrepentant murderers, leaders of genocidal nations, all who the gods can look upon and declare unanimously to be scum upon the name of mortalkind are gifted to the fettered goddess of suffering.
Over the ages, Nul has grown, quietly feeding upon fragments of the souls of her victims as they are slowly forgotten and fade away. Now, entrances to her wretched belly - all flesh and eyes and gnashing mouths - can be found throughout the afterlife, sometimes appearing and disappearing at her whims. Pustules of her influence have been known to encroach on settlements of mortal souls in the lands between the demesnes, or even within those of gods she believes may be unobservant enough to overlook her presence. Her motives in these expansions are unknown, and as yet she has made no aggressive moves against the other gods, receding when found and confronted without putting up any sort of fuss. She has seemingly grown comfortable with her new position as punisher of the forsaken and relishes of the pain of anyone she can take into herself. For the time being, at least, the gods' plan of appeasement seems to be working.
Being Remembered
Unlike the mortal realm, there is no ambient magic in the afterlife, and so the mortal soul - composed entirely of magic - eventually begins to dissolve in its absence. The energy leeched from them steadily finds its way back to the Veil, and from there filters back into the mortal realm. However, as a variety of mortal sayings go, no man is truly dead while they are still remembered by the living. This is generally only repeated as an adage to make the living better accept their losses, but it actually holds quite true beyond the Veil. There is a certain amount of time during which a soul can hold themselves together through sheer force of will, and even before that, new souls arriving in the afterlife appear to have a grace period before they begin to fade away. The time they get before dissipating seems to vary wildly from soul to soul, but that time can be greatly extended through the efforts of the living. Memories and detailed records of individuals can 'cement' them in reality, allaying the need for them to expend their precious will for as long as those memories and records exist within the minds of mortals.
It's not enough to simply recall that a person existed at one point; major portions of their essence, even if not recalled with perfect accuracy, must remain in the conscious thoughts of those left behind. Because of this limitation, most souls can persist in the afterlife for a generation or so, but as true memories of a person fade into stories about a relative long past, those who left a lesser impact upon the world will inevitably fade away. Of course, there are ways around this...
The Unforgotten
In the land of the dead, there are those who are merely remembered, and then... there are the Unforgotten. Be it through fame or infamy, words or deeds, some people have left enough of an impact on history to ripple through time for centuries. The stories still told about them may have become inflated and nonsensical, or else been twisted here and there to fit the agendas of folks still living, but the important part is that their stories are still told at all. Beyond the veil, heroes and villains still live - in a manner of speaking - amidst the spirits of those who likely knew them only as ancient legends. More often than not, their old ideals have ceased to function, as there's little to strive for in a world that serves largely as a holding pen for those who have yet to finish dying, so even the greatest of enemies can sometimes be found fraternizing about old times and mingling with the new souls.
The greatest concentration of old heroes is said to be found in the Valorous Sanctuary. Here, under the eyes of various gods of war, strife, and combat, they can often be found engaging in one of three professions: Feasting, fighting, or teaching. The first is likely understandable enough. Souls have no need for sustenance, but the gods can allow them to simulate it easily enough, providing massive spreads of food and drink for folk to gather together and revel like they once did in the mortal plane. Fighting is similarly simple. Souls are not able to die again, nor do they feel fatigue. For those who found purpose or joy in combat, this is the perfect combination of traits for the ultimate test of their abilities. They can clash with masters from across history and across the globe, testing themselves against fighting styles they could not have dreamed of otherwise. Gods and spectators look on, keeping score in their own various ways as combatants take strikes or give them. It's an ample source of entertainment that's constantly refreshed as new warriors meet their match back in the land of the living.
Teachers are a more pragmatic - or perhaps paranoid - sort of person. They spread stories and learning, whether their own or picked up in kind from souls gone by, to all who are willing to listen. They seek to spread their knowledge to as many souls as possible, and through them spread it across the land of the dead. From time to time, mortals are allowed an audience with the soul of the deceased for one reason or another, and during these times, valuable, otherwise-unknown information can sometimes escape oblivion in death. More than a few acts or discoveries have been revealed to mortal-kind through methods like this, where they might otherwise have been left as mysteries for the ages.
Magic Corruption
For a time, the people of Teicna believed that souls were sent to the afterlife as a reward - or punishment - for the lives they led. That after they were ferried away by the Death gods' loyal psychopomps, that they were to be graced by the presence of the gods themselves for all eternity, or else face an eternity of torment. As you've likely noticed, this is untrue. In reality, souls must make the journey into the afterlife for their own protection, as well as that of the mortals who might have otherwise encountered them.
Magic permeates all of Teicna, from the upper reaches of its atmosphere to the very core of the planet, and mortal souls are essentially made of magic. This is perfectly fine while the soul is safely locked away within its corporeal, mortal shell, but once freed by death, souls steadily begin to accumulate more and more of this energy. It clings to them like iron filings to a magnet, weighing them down and putting strain on their sense of self. They grow in power, certainly, but as they lose their grasp on who they were and why it mattered, their behavior rapidly grows more erratic. Strong-willed spirits might be able to weather these effects for a time, sometimes even for a great many years, but it always catches up to them eventually. Ghosts, spectres, wraiths, and wights are often considered to be monsters by mortals, but only because it's easy to forget that at one point, they were simply mortal souls.
Exceptions to the Rule
For the vast majority of beings, the land beyond the Veil is the final stop in the journey of life. For some, however, it's not even that, and for an incredibly lucky few, it's merely a brief pause between one life and the next.
It's fairly common knowledge that most animals lack souls, and so have no afterlife to look forward to. Less known is the fact that demons, spirits like elementals, the undead, and even gods are also robbed of this privilege. Because so much of who these beings are is wrapped up in the magic of their souls - and in some cases because the magic of their souls is the only thing keeping them together in the first place - when they die, the shock involved in the end of their life shatters the soul along with the body. In a few rare cases, fragments of the being remain partially cohesive, holding together as their magic is used as the basis for some new soul. When this happens, the new being is sometimes referred to as being Twice Souled. They will have a mind and person-hood of their own, but memories, traits, and sometimes even entire personalities will come along for the ride. This can end up being a blessing or a curse, and sometimes manifests as a Mark if enough power is involved, but whatever the specifics are, a Twice Souled being is doomed to a particularly interesting life.
True reincarnation is significantly rarer. It's rare for more than a few people in a generation to attain it, even with a number of gods actively providing means of earning it. For those who do, they're often shocked to find that gaining a second chance at life does not necessarily mean a second chance in the same sort of life they knew. Some have come back as children of their original species, of course, and some have jumped to new species, offering interesting insights when growing up between cultures, but far more commonly, reincarnated souls become beasts of some sort. Creatures without souls of their own, and thus nothing needing to be displaced or changed to fit the returning spirit, serve as convenient vessels. In most cases the creatures chosen have fairly long lifespans - which are generally lengthened further by the infusion of a soul - so that the spirit isn't being brought back to life for only a few years, but rather something comparable to their old one. In modern times, there have also been reports of golems being the targets of reincarnated souls, which has caused quite a stir in their immediate surroundings. To be brought back to life into something without physical needs or senses, but functional immortality? For some it would be a dream, and for others a nightmare, but it's certainly given a significant number of ethics professors the world over a fun new thought experiment.
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