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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wlmartin" data-source="post: 6346916" data-attributes="member: 6679380">I have started fleshing things out, top down, starting with the planes and a little about life and deathI have tried to keep some of it core to the greek mythology but have started to mix things up a bit to fit a more D&D/PF feelPlease let me know your thoughts(NOTE: I have not figured out how I am to deal with the elemental/shadow/ethereal planes yet)// PLANES-Olympia (highest plane, plane of the good gods)-Elysium (connection to the Olympia, is the afterlife for those that achieved great good in life)-Earth (where the mortals live out their lives)-Judica (a temporary place where the recently dead go to be judged)-The Underworld (where indifferent souls go, they live the rest of eternity out as placid, neutral souls floating in the afterlife)-Tartarus (where the pure evil go and are imprisoned and tortured)-Malinfinitum (the low plane, where the evil gods reign)There are no lawful/chaotic neutral gods (except Gaia) and they all live in one of the two planesThis means that the typical Olympian structure may not work (Zeus and the olympians etc) since some gods that fit with the evil camp. I havent yet fleshed out specific gods and their alignment yet but the basics mean that none of them can be LN/N/CNSo in my campaign although LN and CN will exist, they aren't celebrated alignments since the social dynamic enforced by the gods encourage more of a Good vs Evil balance and you have to pick a side, either conciously or subsconciously // LIFE & DEATHAll life is considered important whilst you are alive and once you are dead, you are seen as just an echo or memory. No progression happens once you die, you are frozen in the life you had at death and either spend eternity in The underworld, Tartarus or Elysium. This creates focus on living your life to the fullest but also gives a sense of remembrance and continuity after death, even if that continuity has no intelligent form.When you die, you immediately enter the minor plane of Judica and are greeted by an agent of Elysium and Tartarus.The first step is to see if you are sponsored by a chosen deity. If you are and they acknowledge this, you will be accepted into Elysium or Tartarus right there. For the pure evil that are sponsored by their evil deity, eternal life in Tartarus is one equivalent to the good have in Elysium and you aren't tortured like many others may be, more you are celebrated.Once this has passed, you have to justify your achievement in life weighed in good or bad acts. This is in the form of a pair of scales where your good and bad acts are weighed up. You live through your entire life in real time (although it only lasts a fraction of a second) going through each action you take.It is not just the intention of the act that is important but the weight of the act, how important the act was to the rest of the world.Killing someone can be seen as an evil act but if you kill someone and the benefit of their death is less evil or even improved good, this can be seen in a different light.Also killing a drifter and killing a king have different weights since one impacts no-one, one impacts an entire kingdom!It is very possible to live a super good or super evil life but those actions have no impact on the world and don't count.That being said, its often the case that good acts go unnoticed and bad acts are very much noticed. So you can be very good for your whole life and it still not count to getting you into Elysium but commit a single evil act and that be enough to send you to Tartarus. Evil acts typically weigh more than good acts, the difference being if the good acts have a stronger impact (and weight) to tip the scales.A great deal of people just balance out, they may commit some small evil acts but in the grand scheme of things, their good acts balance out through a full life and they end up even. A smaller amount end up being punished in tartarus and a much much smaller amount end up in Elysium.This mimicks the "path to the light side is hard, path to the dark side is easy" mantra from Star Wars, good acts have little impact and require more work to build up but a single bad act can get you!If you come out even, you spend your life in The Underworld and are just an echo of yourself, you have no desires or wants and ego, you are simply a shadow of your former self.If you come out strongly in evil or good then you are sent to Elysium or Tartarus.You will then live your life in relative piece and harmony or pain and torment.It is then encouraged for you to live a good life and be nice to people. The more good acts you make over evil ones, the greater chance you have of being sent to either of Elysium. Of course if you are good but do so in the name of a deity, it can get you instant admission into your chosen deities afterlife plane. So you can be super evil and kill, mame and hurt everyone but if they vouch for you then you can get in. This creates a sort of goal for evil characters to aim for but the evil gods can be tricky, they can promise eternal life to their followers but may not give it to themSimilar for good deities, they may promise entry into Elysium and whilst not wanting to trick you (like the evil gods) they may simply believe you just didn't do enough or didn't quite meet the standard they set, and you can fall into a similar scenario however you could still justify your acts as worthwhile of admission during your trial.Also, the judgement of the trial in Judica is not black or white, an action can seem pure evil but if you can build an argument strong enough to justify it as good (or just not as massivly evil) then you can limit the weight of that act. In reverse you can also big-up any good act to give that more weight if your argument appeals to the judges.Some deities can often offer an Arbiter at Judica to those that follow them. They arent offering immediate entry into elysium this way but they can provide free legal for them during the trial and someone that can argue for them. This is typically arranged before you die and is usually recognition of your devotion to your god. It is basically the payback for your commitment to them, the most some people can hope for is to live their life and make prayer to their gods so they are awarded an Arbiter at their trial. Whilst many would desire immediate entry into heaven, they recognize that this is very difficult to achieve and the least that can hope for is the free legal assistance as return for their lifelong devotion.Those who don't have an Arbiter must argue their own case and this is often seen as fools errand and just like the real life justice system, without approriate representation, you can end up missing out on heaven or end up in hell.</blockquote>

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