Afterlife

Where did a mortal go upon death? This article describes the beliefs about the afterlife held by the inhabitants of the Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms as a whole.    

What is a Soul?

  The Soul is the lifeforce of a mortal, the part that gives essence and a separate existence to a creature. In some religions, this lifeforce was variably termed a "Spirit", and the two terms were synonymous. Dragons however called their soul, their spirt, an Anima.   When a mortal died, its soul and body were separated, and the soul automatically began a journey to the afterlife. In contrast, the case was different for some other kinds of creatures that did not have such a dual nature. For example, some creatures, usually from other planes of existence and sometimes referred to as outsiders, did not have a dual nature. An outsider's soul and body formed a single spiritual existence, tied fundamentally to the essence of its plane. If an outsider died, no soul left the body. Instead, its essence merged with the plane or the entirety of the form, both soul and body, vanished and returned to its origin plane to be reformed as is often the case with demons and devils. Sometimes this still resulted in the full death of the creature while other instances, all dependent on the type of creature, simply meant the being had to go through a certain amount of time to reform itself on its natural plane before it could be whole again.   Most plants, oozes, beasts, and other simple creatures 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. Most undead are driven by necromantic magic instead of lifeforce such as a soul, though the most powerful forms such as a Lich still retained who and what it was in life, therefore retaining its soul. Most constructs were nothing more than just complex tools to assist those with souls. However there are the unique case of the beings known as Warforged and other fully sentient constructs that posses a sufficient lifeforce to form a spirit of sorts.  

The Journey

As earlier stated, when en-souled mortals on the Prime Material Plane died under normal circumstances, their souls departed their bodies. They were then pulled to the Fugue Plane. The journey was not instantaneous, although it would seem that way to the soul itself. Some argued that the journey could take as long as three days to even a month of time on the Prime Material Plane.   In the teachings of the draconic religions of Faerûn, the dragon soul, the anima did not immediately depart for the afterlife; instead, it was bound to the corpse of the dragon until the mortal body of that dragon had completely decayed, freeing the anima for its journey. The anima could continue to observe the mortal world but could not interact with it in any other way.   In some cosmologies, departed souls have to first progress through the Astral Plane while in others, the souls were believed to first pass through the Shadowfell on the way to the Fugue Plane.  

The Lost Souls

Some souls, for a variety of reasons, never make it to the Fugue Plane. Some become trapped in the Ethereal Plane or the Shadowfell as ghosts or other incorporeal undead, while others drift aimlessly as echoes of their former selves in the Astral Sea, forever lost.   A number of other extreme factors could also prevent a soul from traveling safely to the Fugue Plane, resulting in other forms of undead. For example, a very small percentage of individuals suffering an exceptionally violent murder might result in the creation of a Revenant. A revenant's soul was unable to reach the Fugue Plane until it had obtained revenge for its death or until a certain time limit had passed.   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. Many of the legendary sentient weapons scattered throughout history were in fact souls trapped within the martial item, though whether the individual was willing or not depends on the weapon and historical context surrounding it.  

The Fugue Plane

The Fugue Plane was the typical landing place for most humans and the followers of the Faerûnian Pantheon, the exceptions being those of non-human origin and those who do not follow the common Faerûnian Pantheon. Those who did not observe that line of deities but instead worshipped their own such as the Elves and their pantheon, named the Seldarine, are usually whisked away by their chosen pantheon and their god(s) of death for their own unique judgment and afterlife.   Once arriving on the Fugue Plane, a soul resides in waiting, wandering about aimlessly, unaware that it had even died, until retrieved by a representative of one of the powers. When—after a time on Toril—such a representative arrives, the soul will always recognize this outsider and would then accompany the being to its final plane of existence to live out the rest of eternity. It was impossible to trick or convince a soul into following a divine messenger to the wrong god or goddess' realm.   However, sometimes, if a soul had not been very faithful, it might take centuries for the representative to come. Some souls were said to fade out of existence if a representative never arrived. Others were eventually judged by the Lord of the Dead. Those judged badly might placed within the City of the Dead in Hades to live out a bad imitation of their previous life, using whatever skills that they had before in this newer, drearier place. Those judged to have good lives and useful skills would be placed within the City of Judgement of the Fugue Plane, aiding the Petitioners in escorting souls. However there were those who were judged to become a brick upon the Wall of the Faithless that surrounds the City of the Dead.

Humans and Followers of the Faerûnian Pantheon

Most of humanity, those of other races that either do not recognize their birth race pantheon or do not particularly follow one of their own deities, or those individuals who do not recognize any deity will almost always find themselves on the Fugue Plane. Here they will either wait until the final judgment of Kelemvor, the Lord of the Dead and Judge of the Damned or be recognized and taken away by their followed deity, becoming a Petitioner of their faith. However those who did not believe or chose to act out against their deity fell into the last two categories: The Faithless or the False.  

Petitioners

The majority of souls who died from the lands of Faerûn had dedicated their lives to particular power, their patron deity. When these souls were taken by the representative to their deity's divine realm, they were transformed into Petitioners. 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 of some divine realms took on traits of that realm, such as those of the House of Nature and the Plane of Shadow gaining animalistic or shadowy features, respectively. While those who worshipped the deities that were apart of the Gods of Fury might take on elemental forms or the forms of wild animals for example. Then there were those who might be simply absorbed into the plane that their deity resides upon, like the souls that are sent into Limbo.   Some of these Petitioners stay on in the City of Judgement to serve their patron's wishes, whether that is to tend their temple their or help those of their faith.   Petitioners were not static. In some cases, overtime, they changed into new forms. On other planes, they eventually merged with their patron deity or into the essence of the plane itself. For example, especially good and noble petitioners were sometimes transformed by the will of their deities into Agathinon, the lowest type of angel, forming new bodies for them. Other spiritual entities, such as Couatl and Ki-Rin, where also supposed to have started their existences as mortal souls.  

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. This affected all life on Faerûn, nationality and race had no effect. If one did not believe then to the Fugue Plane they were sent upon death. It was mandated that they should enter the City of Judgment to be judged by the god of the dead. Some believed that the judgment was the same for all Faithless; they became a part of the wall that surrounded the city of the dead that lay far below the Fugue Plane in Hades. As bricks guarding the City of Dead and the Crystal Spire, the soul would begin to fade away and drift in & out of a series of dreamless sleeps, something similar to a coma. These Souls would fade in and out of consciousness, each time losing a bit more of who they where until finally nothing remained but a brick.  

The False

The False were those who failed to serve their chosen patrons or who had betrayed the commitments to their prior faith. Such souls were also judged by Kelemvor, who assigned them a task in the City of Judgment for the rest of their existence, such as the guiding of lost souls. The most wicked and unfaithful among the false were actively punished either by being cast down into the City of the Dead or another, crueler level of Hades or another Plane entirely. The majority of the citizens of both the City of Judgement and the City of the Dead were in fact among the False. The most evil of souls were sometimes transformed into Larva and cast out of the city entirely.   The False within the City of Judgement were doomed to repeat a life not unfamiliar to their own or helping lost souls. They attended the Petitioners of Kelemvor, Jergal, or any other traveling Petitioner while they lived a echo of their former life. These souls were aware that they failed to live a better life but knew that they could have been judged worse for it. While those in the City of the Dead toiled about and acted in the city's best interest. Whether that be a cook for the endless hordes of their fellow False or a guard atop the Wall they worked tough and ultimately meaningless jobs. At a brief glance the City looks like any other but upon further examination there is a lifeless, dull motion to it. The False move and act with a disconnect about them, almost like a person in a trance. The people deemed False will act like a normal citizen of any normal city, carrying about normal city duties, for untold decades until their soul eventually fades away, taken, or slain by demons or other cruel creatures.  

Bargains and Raids

There was one exception to the rule that it was impossible to convince a soul into following the wrong divine messenger. The Baatezu had an agreement that allowed them one final chance to bargain with souls. The Baatezu were forbidden to injure or deceive the waiting souls in any way; however, they were permitted to offer them bargains to reject the patron that they worshiped in life in exchange for special benefits in the Nine Hells. What the Baatezu really wanted was more souls with which to create Lemures, a form of devil from which more powerful kinds developed, thus building the power of their devilish armies. Most souls would refuse such an offer, of course, but if a soul had lived an evil life, sometimes the chance to avoid torment in the afterlife or to skip a step or two in the hierarchy of the Hells was appealing. Or perhaps the idea of service to the Lords of the Nine seemed better than obeying one's original chosen deity. The most powerful of mortals were sometimes even offered a chance for early promotions to higher forms of Baatezu or the promise of some task or gift to be performed or given on the Material Plane in their behalf—for example, money to surviving relatives or a fiendish act of revenge on enemies.   Souls were a valuable commodity to demons as well, who used them to create the lowest forms of their own kind, the manes. The Tanar'ri of the Abyss used a different method to acquire them—they stole them in periodic raids upon the Fugue Plane. These raids were what the Wall of the Faithless defended the city against along with the False who guarded it. The demons would look not to enter the city but to steal the freshly laid bricks upon the wall that still had souls infused within them. After which they would either consume for energy, trade and barter with, or turn them into more demons such as themselves.   No matter the case most of these Souls that were either stolen or left voluntarily were stripped of their memories and who they were upon being transformed into their new fiendish body.  

The Afterlife of Others of Faerûn

Below are the some of the major races that are found within Toril and the continent Faerûn. Many of these unique races have their own pantheon and ideas on what occurs after death, some based on myth and legend while others are more concrete and fact. While many of these sentient beings have their own unique place within the Great Wheel Cosmology some do not. Those that don't are sent and judge by Kelemvor on the Fugue Plane, following similar rules to that of the bulk of humanity and the followers of the Faerûnian Pantheon.  

Dragons & Dragonborn

As stated earlier, when dragons die their Anima or Soul, would linger still near their body until it fully decayed. These souls could watch life carry on on the Material Plane but could rarely interact with it. Once their body finally and fully decomposed the anima would be shepherded by the dragon god Null to Dragon Eyrie. Once there Null would judge the dragon soul before him and assign him a place within the Eyrie. Those that showed a particular affinity toward the three major Dragon Gods; Tiamat, Bahamut, or the deceased Sardior, might become special Petitioners of those dragons, often in the form of spiritual messengers. While others might become special representatives or personal guardians for these powerful entities within the Planes.   All dragons believed in reincarnation. Their traditions of the afterlife taught that the anima of a dragon remained on the plane of its deity for a time equal to its mortal life. During that time, its memories and personality slowly faded, one day's worth of memories per day lived in the afterlife, in the opposite order in which the living dragon had gained them. When completely stripped bare of the memories of its worldly experiences, the dragon's anima would be reincarnated on the mortal plane as soon as a new mortal body became available. These "pure" anima resembled perfectly formed dragons of their species, except that they were trapped in the current moment, unable to form new memories or recall old ones.   Dragonborn on the other hand do not have an anima so when they died their spirit immediately was sent to the Dragon Eyrie. Null would judge these lesser dragon souls and if he found them worthy he would place them accordingly within the Eyrie to serve a respective dragon's Anima there and/or their dragon god patron. Those who did not live an honorable life befit a dragon or its kin would either be cast out into the void or lower planes, or be devoured by Null himself.  

Elves

When elves who follow the great elven deity Corellon Larethian and the others elven gods within the Seldarine die and leave the Material Plane they will find themselves escorted after death by the elven goddess Sehanine Moonbow. She will take them to a place within Arborea named Arvander. There for a time the elven spirit will live on in a perfected elven society, embracing emotions and desires, practicing the arts, and the skills of the forest and the hunt. Once a certain time has been passed Corellon will speak with the spirit and usher them back into the world, back toward the Material Plane, born anew in a new elven body. This new form will not have any memories or recollection of their past life or lives. This process is said to take as long as is needed for the elven spirit to become "perfect".   Arvander was said to incorporate all the diverse lifestyles, shapes, and genetic diversities that the elves themselves have evolved over the millennia. So a Wood Elf and a Sea Elf would feel equally at home within the plane of their gods, no matter their origin and bloodline. However that did not stop certain elven souls from passing into an elemental plane or the Feywild upon death, some souls were simply more connected to such places than to Arvander and the Seldarine. These elves would be absorbed into the plane itself, bolstering its power and charm while in other cases they might transform into fey spirits or elementals.   The Drow on the other hand usually worshipped darker and crueler gods than those elves on the surface. This Dark Seldarine hosted for more sinister gods that promoted darkness, deception, power and cruelty from their followers. Those elves dying following these darker powers were taken to their respective realms on the lower planes, becoming tortured spirts that endlessly serve their patron. Followers of the drow goddess Lolth for example would be sent to her domain, the DemonWeb Pitts. The most powerful of these fallen drow would be granted positions of honor and power within in ranks of servants and priest, forever serving their dark mistress. However those they did not offer skills for the Spider Queen would be stripped of thought and soul, becoming another web strand within the Demonweb.  

Dwarves

The dwarven people are a unique group for when one dies there is little mystery on where there spirit finds rest. Those that adamantly follow their pantheon, the Morndinsamman, will often find rest within the Dwarfhome on the plane of Mount Celestia in the Upper Planes. It is the ultimate reward for those faithful dwarfs who valued dwarven tradition, clan, and family. Once here the dwarf would spend eternity honoring their godly patrons and doing what dwarfs do best, feasting and drinking, mining and smithing, crafting and fighting until time and reality ends.   Those dwarfs who may not have been very religious but still honored their ancestors and clan may instead find themselves in the grand underground dwarven kingdoms within the plane of Arcadia. Here they live a life not unlike they did before until there soul becomes one with the mountain they call home. The dwarven pantheon visits these kingdoms from time to time along with honoring those who erect and pray tribute at temples and holy sights. Dwarfs within this realm who strive to appease the Morndinsamman and honor them may eventually find their soul taken to the dwarven paradise of the Dwarfhome.   The dwarves who do not honor themselves and clan, and bring shame upon their race are sentenced by Moradin, Dwarf-Father and god of the dwarfs, to work and mine for the rest of the soul's existence in Abbathor's mines. Abbathor is the evil dwarf good of greed and his mining pits are said to be the stuff of nightmares. However those who honor and bring wealth to Abbathor in life are rewarded in death by serving as a powerful petitioner within his fortress on the Lower Plane of Gehenna.   The dwarven people known as the Duergar follow a smaller sect of gods that better represent them and their beliefs within Morndinsamman . Upon their death they typically go to the realm of these beings such as the Father of the Duergar, Laduguer's Iron City, a massive fortress-city located on the plane of Gehenna. Those who honored these strange gods typically were rewarded within their twisted and dark realms however those who did not were severely punished similar to those who were sent to Abbathor's mines.  

Halflings

Halflings are a simple and happy people, with their Pantheon, Yondalla's Children, reflecting much of their personalities. When a halfling dies a large wake and funeral is held, with the body being entombed in either a stone or wooden casket and buried in the earth or placed within special burial hill tombs. These individuals are remembered and loved during this process and are often buried with several of their most treasured keep sakes. Upon the conclusion of these rites the soul is taken by the halfling god Urogalan, deity of earth and death. Once the soul is acquired it is taken to a realm within Elysium in the Upper Planes called the Soulearth where Urogalan reads out the individuals life and sends them where they are destined to go. For most good natured and faithful halflings this means the heavenly place named the Green Fields. Within this realm halflings are able to live their best and most happy lives, where the times were always good and the fields always provided a fresh harvest.   Little is known to what happens to those halflings that do evil, for they are so few and far between. Clerics of Urogalan suggest that perhaps they are banished from the Upper Planes and cast out into the Lower Planes toward a fitting punishment while others think they are sent to the Faerûnian Kelemvor to be judged and placed within his city. Then there are those who think that the soul is simply given back to the earth so as to allow new and fruitful life to blossom and redeem such a vile one.  

Gnomes

The gnomish pantheon proclaimed themselves the Lords of the Golden Hills, a beautiful and paradise like landscape in the Upper Planes. It is here that the most faithful gnomes went after death, but only after their soul made one final adventure. Most gnomes are cremated upon death as to avoid desecration of the body and to ensure the spirit is "released from this mortal realm so that it may find its way", according to old gnomish traditions. This final path the spirit takes can be a long journey will no clear destination. Some are said to drift toward the Fugue Plane to be judge by Kelemvor while others drift back into the earth and stone to be birthed again as the precocious jewels that gnomes are rumored to have originated from. Some spirits take long journeys into the Ethereal and continue to watch over there family and friends, helping and guiding to the best of their ability while others may walk the in-betweens of the multiverse with the gnomish god Baervan Wildwanderer. It is understood however that once this final adventure comes to past that the souls travels to the Golden Hills to rest and be with their divine patrons and long lost family and friends. Though there are those who's version of a heavenly afterlife does not include idyllic fields and golden hills, many gnomes follow the teachings and practices of Primus and may find their souls instead within his domain in Mechanus, forever tinkering and building in perfect unison and order.   However on these final journeys, gnomes are often hunted after by dark entities wishing to lure or steal their precocious soul, non more than the dark gnome god known as Urdlen. Those who he snags in his nets and traps or those few gnomes who give into darker tendencies such as bloodlust and greed will find their soul dragged down into the endless Abyss to suffer at the hands of Urdlen for as long as their soul can remain tangible.    

Player Death

The death of a Player Character (PC) is more of an eventually than chance, its something that comes along with the job of being an adventurer. Though most would prefer it to happen once they are retired, wealthy, and of old age. This sometimes is not the case and PC will end up 6 feet under or lost in a forgotten dungeon long before they wanted to.   There are a number of spells and magical abilities that can prevent a character from dying in another's arms. Dozens of herbs, medical practices, and healing spells can bring a person back from the very edge of death to either enjoin the fight or to simply let them carry on another day. Spells such as: Spare the Dying, Raise Dead, Revivify, Resurrection, True Resurrection can aid those who have already perished within certain time frames and material costs, however such magic could not be used on those who died of natural causes.   This is where the following Roll Tables and options come into play to keep things exciting and to give some finality to the PC.   These tables can still be used if the PC were to die of natural causes as well.    

Table 1: Death Transitional Time

For a soul it happens in the blink of an eye, one moment they are staring down the wrong end of a charging monster or bleeding out on the edge of a blade, then the next there are somewhere else completely. Unaware of what has happened with only a sinking feeling that grows with time. However on the Material Plane this jump between the planes of the living and the dead takes time, sometimes a lot. The table below shows us how long it might take a PC's character to reach their first, and perhaps final, destination.      

Table 2: The Arrival Plane

The journey through death is not an easy one and souls could get lost along the way. After a certain amount of time had passed on the Material (using the table above to find out how much) a PC could end up in several different locations. However it was more common than not that a being would end up in its preferred/destined destination than some other location.      

Table 3: Judgement

For those of specific race pantheons or those who follow unique entities, when the soul dies it often finds itself on the Fugue Plane to be judged by Kelemvor, Lord of the Dead. However this act is not immediate. There is always an influx of dead in this plane and Kelemvor and his scribe, the deity Jergal, must review the dead's past life and deeds before rendering judgment. This can take days, weeks, months, years, decades and even over a century. Sometimes the soul can wither out before Kelemvor gets to them for if the soul should any affinity toward a deity on the Faerûnian Pantheon, then he will allow that god to render their own judgement before his.