What to do with the souls?

[Particle_Man]

I am designing a "sorta greyhawkish" campaign, with only 9 gods, one for each alignment. So far, I have figured that the souls of those of each of the 9 alignments would be disposed of by the relevant god of that alignment, after a 250 year waiting period (to allow for ressurection, etc.). So far, I have LE and CE souls being tormented for 250 yrs before becoming devils/demons, NE souls getting snuffed out (although they believe that they too will "become" undead of great power -- sorry guys!) and their personality traits being grafted onto various undead (all NE in this world -- no ghosts, though, and liches a special exception where the evil soul can continue to exist (aside from that, the undead are not "once alive souls gone bad" but "negative energy creations" -- new creatures, in effect). The good souls become various good outsiders after a 250 year training/waiting period. The good and evil outsiders become soldiers in the proxy war between the gods.

I am stuck on the non-good, non-evil souls though. The LN god is Wee Jas as a god of knowledge, the CN god is Olidammera, the N god is Obad-hai.

I have restricted the sentience on the world to 9 ecl +0 races, so the only other sentient (int 3+) beings will be outsiders or elementals of one sort or another.

I was thinking of some kind of reincarnation or something, but am not sure.

So I guess I am looking for ideas. Is there something that these 3 gods can do with "their" souls that would make sense for the god and also give hope to the souls of "that" god. I just am not sure that "inevitables/elementals/slaads" fit the bill (well, maybe elementals), but maybe there is a more creative solution.

Oh, the 9 races are orc, goblin, kobold, gnome (created by the Cn god but now predominantly Ng), halfling, "Grey elf" (a ln version -- I need a better name), sylvan one (the wood elf), human (once ng, now predominantly n), and dwarf. And the other gods are a modified moradin, pelor, a modified correllan larethian, a modified hextor, nerull, and erythnul.

 

[Estlor]

I'm not too familiar with Greyhawk per se, but something you could do is set aside someplace as a "Spirit Wood." A particular wood where the souls of the neutral go to be a peace with the rest of the world. Thereafter, the souls bound to the trees do have the ability to exert some control over the trees, passing messages between each other and subtly making the forest shift and turn to help those friendly to it and harm those against it. Each soul still has the same moral outlook on life, however, and some will be more good-natured while others will act on their impulses or what serves their part of the wood the best.

And, yes, for those keeping score, this is a melding of the Whispering Wood in Midnight with the Spirit Trees of Ghostwalk.

 

[iwatt]

N.... I'd go with the spirits merging into the God, becoming one with nature..all that claptrap.

CN..... don't know. Pure chaos

LN..... don't know. Pure order

You could go into another proxy-war, but I don't think you´re looking for that. Maybe tiee in the elemnts as: Fire, Air= chaos Water, Earth= Order?

Maybe I'll come up with something better than this.

 

[Umbran]

Do the neutral gods have no need for outsiders of their own? Do they never meddle in the proxy war for any reason?

Heck, even if the neutral gods don't meddle in the proxy war doesn't mean there aren't neutral outsiders or spiritual entities. Not everything in the universe needs to have a single purpose easily recognizable by mortal eyes.


Hm. Perhaps Neutral souls become nature spirits or elementals, CN souls become arbiters of luck or trickster spirits. LN spirits may become spirits of fate or destiny...

 

[Malicene]

Neutral soul : merge into the Outland and becoming the substance of the Outland itself but also the base on which the great ring try to find Equilibrium.

Chaotic soul : Pure chaos is an easy answer, slaad isn't a solution they completely don't care about EVERYTHING except food and hatching !
anyway I don't know where Oli* is to "live" but certainly not in Limbo, so better focus on God Domain

Law soul : can become Gear Spirit of mechanus, but as Wee Jas is god of Knowledge, you can go on an eternal war between Wee Jas and Oli*, Oli* servant trying to steal Wee Jas Knowledge .


Hope this helps Mal.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I use a 'gray land' that is a waiting area for the dead. The gods protect the soul for the most part then they are lead to the proper after life. The devote, get faster threatment, this is why it is important to visit shrines and follow your god, this is also where you can pay forward to come back. Without protection of a god, the soul can be ate by any number of life drinkers.

 

[Umbran]

I've sometimes used the simple expedient of saying that mortals simply don't know what happens to souls in the afterlife. Mortals have no way to determine it, and outsiders who might know have enough axes to grind that you cannot trust even the LG ones to tell the truth.

Follows the basic rule of "don't specify that which you don't need to, lest you plot yourself into a corner". Unless you are going to use the whole soul-business as something that drives a plot, what does it matter?

 

[Particle_Man]

I've sometimes used the simple expedient of saying that mortals simply don't know what happens to souls in the afterlife. Mortals have no way to determine it, and outsiders who might know have enough axes to grind that you cannot trust even the LG ones to tell the truth.

Follows the basic rule of "don't specify that which you don't need to, lest you plot yourself into a corner". Unless you are going to use the whole soul-business as something that drives a plot, what does it matter?

I see your point about the plot. I guess it is the philosopher in me that drives me to "map out" the metaphysics of the world first, as it helps me to design the rest of it "from the ground up".

I do appreciate all your ideas. Please keep them coming!

I guess an extra consideration is to give the various people reasons to want to "serve" various god-alignment-philosophies. The evil ones go for power in the afterlife (they don't know about the torment part, or about the NE god hosing them). The good ones go to become useful in the war against evil (with becoming a powerful outsider a nice fringe benefit). The LN ones probably should get some reward for seeking knowledge -- become one with wee jas? Become magic items (maybe the only intelligent items are LN ones?). The N ones and CN ones...I am still stuck on that, although maybe elementals for the N ones...and here I go in circles again...a sign that I need a bolt from the blue to jolt me out of this cycle.