Afterlife in 4th edition

[Elsenrail]

I don't have "Worlds and Monsters". Is it true that the new approach is "nobody knows where the souls go"? I've always thought that Valhalla-style afterlife was the best solution. You worship your deity and after your death you bask in his glory (gore ) in his divine realm. So, I'm a little worried, confused. Could anyone clear it out for me?

 

[Revinor]

Is it true that the new approach is "nobody knows where the souls go"?

They got to Shadowfell (new version of Plane of Shadow joined with Negative Energy Plane) for short period of time. Ressurecting such people are still relatively easy. Afterwards, there are basically 3 options:

1) Most souls go 'further', nobody knows where
2) Some souls are snatched by gods to serve as slaves, sorry, share their glory in heavenly planes (or hellish)
3) Few souls stay in Shadowfell and become ghosts/whatever

So yes, if you forget about waiting bench in Shadowfell, nobody knows where the souls really go.

 

[DreamChaser]

Of course this is as a default cosmology. In Eberron, there will still be Dolurrh where everyone goes and pretty much dissolves. In Greyhawk, people will still hobnob with the angels, devils, and modrons.

If you want Valhalla, have Vahalla.

DC

 

[Elsenrail]

Thanks for the info. But what will those people who are atheists? Like in FR, where they become the part of a nasty wall.

Have they stated anything WHY they chose this approach?

 

[DreamChaser]

I believe it was for an increased sense of mystery. In Games of the Past (tm), I think there was a sense that people knew more about what happened after death than they knew about what was going on in the world.

Past:
Bill: Johnny's dead but he always worshiped Mystra so lets take a trip to Dweomerhome and ask him about where he grew up...since we never thought to ask before."
Sally: Heck, Raise dead is lower level lets just bring the boy back.

Present:
Bill: I hope we haven't waited to long for the Speak with Dead ritual to work. How long do we have?
Sally: I just don't know. The anima lingers for a different time for different people. If it doesn't work our last hope will be to search for him in the Shadowfell and hope his soul hasn't passed on yet...

DC

 

[marune]

Bill: Johnny's dead but he always worshiped Mystra so lets take a trip to Dweomerhome and ask him about where he grew up...since we never thought to ask before."
Sally: Heck, Raise dead is lower level lets just bring the boy back.

It's worse than that because petitionners don't have a really good memory of their mortal lives

 

[Mirtek]

I really hope that FR does not adopt the default afterlive scheme

 

[DreamChaser]

It's worse than that because petitionners don't have a really good memory of their mortal lives

Which is actually even weirder...you survive death to join your god...but you don't really remember who you were or what you did to get there. You may have worshiped the god of friends and family but you don't really remember yours anymore. Hoping to see Aunt Suzie? Well there she is but she doesn't much remember you.

DC

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I like the more loose Afterlife too, since it allows more freedom with creating your own.

For example with mine, I have turned the Shadowfell completely on its head.

The Shadowfell of each World (which are artificially created and governed by a god-machine) was used as a means of registering and administrating the various energies of a dead Sentient.

Most of these administrative responsibilities were governed by various minions (my own Shadar-Kai pre-craziness) and Qashmallim (the servants of the god-machine). These involved reporting the number of souls passing through the Shadowfell to the god-machine to see about maintaing healthy-population numbers and letting the souls carry on.

However a unforeseen difficulty arose as one of the ancient Origins (the first Gods) came back into exsistence and found within the Shadowfell a home, this was the Raven Queen. As the Raven Queen began to spread her influence over each Shadowfell on every World the Shadowfell changed.

The minions turned into cultist of the Raven Queen and grew to obsess over her and death. The Qashmallin turned corrupted and became some of the most feared representations of death. The once-smooth operation of soul-management began to breakdown causing a backlog. This backlog has caused souls to stay within the Shadowfell and turn into most of the undead creatures that inhabit it.

Ocassionally a god-machine will send Qashmallim into the Shadowfell to strike back against the Raven Queen. Many souls not yet turned cling to these Qashmallim and are spirited away.

With the old very specific Afterlife this kind of Afterlife be much harder to pull off.

 

[Mirtek]

With the old very specific Afterlife this kind of Afterlife be much harder to pull off.

Don't see any reason why it would be harder to pull off for a given pantheon. Even with the old afterlife the different pantheons had different ways to handle their dead mortals.

So your Raven Queen vs. god-machine would work, it would just be restricted toward worlds under the domain of the pantheon the Raven Queen and the god-machine belong to.