-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D Basic Rules Souls & Spirits
- Thread starter The_Duke
- Start date
Mystaros
First Post
It all depends on the nature of your campaign.
The original difference between "spirits" and "souls" in AD&D derived from a combination between the mythology of Tolkien's Middle Earth and elements of historical myths about faeries and elves.
In Middle Earth, the "life essence" of elves and men were very different. The spirits of the elves, when they died (by willing themselves to death or by violence) ended up in Valinor, in the Halls of Mandos. There they could wait out the rest of the existence of the world and join the heavenly choir (really!) after The End with the Valar, Maiar, and Men, who would sing the song of creation to Eru, the One... or, they could reincarnate to Middle Earth.
The mystery of the death of Men is that no one, not even the Valar, knew what happened to the souls of men when they died. It was believed that Eru has a special place prepared for them, elsewhere, outside the World but not in the Outer Darkness (where Morgoth was cast), but it was known that the souls of Men, too, would join the heavenly choir after The End. Note that there was no resurrection or raise dead in Middle Earth; the only way for men to continue on past their Eru-granted lifespan was through sorcery, or as wraiths...
Hobbits were considered as Men, so they had souls.
Dwarves were an odd case, as they were a creation of Aule, not Eru. However, Eru gave them true souls, and so apparently the souls of the dwarves went on to wherever the souls of men and hobbits went.
Orcs are another matter entirely, again, as Tolkien never stated specifically where they came from; I don't think he was rightly sure, as in, he had not fixed the nature of their creation in his mythos. The common belief now, with orcs believed to be twisted elves (and thus having spirits) is that whatever spirits orcs have remaining to them are either reincarnated directly into newborn orcs or become shadowy spirits of least sort, like wraiths or shadows.
Anyhoo, that's Tolkien.
The spirit vs. soul element from historical mythology deals with elves, fairies, and such being non-Christian beings, not quite demons and devils, but not humans, either. As only humans have souls, so then the animating essence of the faeries was something else altogether, a spirit, which could not countenance prayer or hymns or such sung by a true Christian. Thus, the historical element of the difference between human and elven souls and spirits.
In your campaign, you can do whatever you want, of course. The Dragon article mentioned above is just one solution, and that might be specific to Mystara. I use that whenever I'm running Mystara.
You could use the system of Petitioners used in Planescape.
Or, of course, you could create your own system...
The original difference between "spirits" and "souls" in AD&D derived from a combination between the mythology of Tolkien's Middle Earth and elements of historical myths about faeries and elves.
In Middle Earth, the "life essence" of elves and men were very different. The spirits of the elves, when they died (by willing themselves to death or by violence) ended up in Valinor, in the Halls of Mandos. There they could wait out the rest of the existence of the world and join the heavenly choir (really!) after The End with the Valar, Maiar, and Men, who would sing the song of creation to Eru, the One... or, they could reincarnate to Middle Earth.
The mystery of the death of Men is that no one, not even the Valar, knew what happened to the souls of men when they died. It was believed that Eru has a special place prepared for them, elsewhere, outside the World but not in the Outer Darkness (where Morgoth was cast), but it was known that the souls of Men, too, would join the heavenly choir after The End. Note that there was no resurrection or raise dead in Middle Earth; the only way for men to continue on past their Eru-granted lifespan was through sorcery, or as wraiths...
Hobbits were considered as Men, so they had souls.
Dwarves were an odd case, as they were a creation of Aule, not Eru. However, Eru gave them true souls, and so apparently the souls of the dwarves went on to wherever the souls of men and hobbits went.
Orcs are another matter entirely, again, as Tolkien never stated specifically where they came from; I don't think he was rightly sure, as in, he had not fixed the nature of their creation in his mythos. The common belief now, with orcs believed to be twisted elves (and thus having spirits) is that whatever spirits orcs have remaining to them are either reincarnated directly into newborn orcs or become shadowy spirits of least sort, like wraiths or shadows.
Anyhoo, that's Tolkien.
The spirit vs. soul element from historical mythology deals with elves, fairies, and such being non-Christian beings, not quite demons and devils, but not humans, either. As only humans have souls, so then the animating essence of the faeries was something else altogether, a spirit, which could not countenance prayer or hymns or such sung by a true Christian. Thus, the historical element of the difference between human and elven souls and spirits.
In your campaign, you can do whatever you want, of course. The Dragon article mentioned above is just one solution, and that might be specific to Mystara. I use that whenever I'm running Mystara.
You could use the system of Petitioners used in Planescape.
Or, of course, you could create your own system...
Similar Threads
