D&D General [+] Racially-Discriminating Afterlife Systems

[Steampunkette]

Or keep the different Pantheons of Gods and just create a single Afterlife, Greco-Roman style. You die? You go down the River Styx to Hades and live in the Underworld.

No need to have 2 dozen different heavenly demiplanes, after all.

 

[Rabulias]

Perhaps it is a reward to elves. Maybe elves like they idea of experiencing existence (and differing existences) more than hanging out in Arvandor for eternity. Maybe Arvandor is a boring place and they get tired of it quickly. Maybe the elves pity the other races, wondering why their gods punish them with only a single mortal lifetime?

 

[Seramus]

I remember reading somewhere that some racial gods accept outsiders, but you are 'reborn' as the race in question upon death. Might have been Dragon, or just my imagination. Either way, that's a weird bucket of worms. Great for the folks who want to be another race. Bad for folks who want to worship you while staying their own race.

 

[Zardnaar]

Generally way I do it is soul goes to alignment plane.

Unless you have a patron deity/pantheon.

If you've signed your soul over to the 9 hells or worship a demon lord guess where you're going.

The racial deities aren't generally super strict on other races worshipping them although some gos may refuse clerics of other races if they're xenophobic/isolationist or just to alien.

 

[Coroc]

So, FR gives us a direction to go, because it strongly expects individuals to venerate a god. So, you make the afterlife you go to associated with the god you venerate, not your race. Then, make sure there's at least one god in each racial pantheon that doesn't send people to a crappy place.

Well that is discriminating, i am sure a "classic" gnoll wold feel perfectly fine in abyss, but won't do well in, let's say elysium.

To cite OP (Disclaimer: This thread isn't for debate, it's for positive, constructive discussion. My opinion on not liking racially-discriminating afterlife systems will remain the same whether or not you argue. If you do argue, you will be reported for trying to derail the thread.)

Since you are a mod i hereby report myself for arguing and possibly derailing the thread, but also i tend to report OP for cancel culture, nah i am just joking, luckily i do not think and act like that.

If someone could convince me in debate and discussion (also called arguing, and that is what a thread is for, and you cannot convince me that this is not so, no matter what you argue, but still i will not report you for trying to do) that OPs view is better than my own than i happily adopt it.

There is the rule and the exception that confirms it as we say, since divine beings are quite omnipotent in D&D it is not exclded that a gnoll does go to elysium if he is somehow different to the classic stereotype, i do not see anywhere in the rules that this may not happen, so i do not see the problem OP has.

 

[cbwjm]

I like to think that the reincarnation aspect of the elves is due to the nature of their spirits rather than some sort of discriminatory nature and the elven afterlife. I actually like the way the afterlife works in FR. Generally though, in my homebrew world, I haven't even defined the afterlife. There are gods but they weren't around for a large portion of the history of the world, what happened to the souls of the dead at that time, I don't certainly don't know and I'm not sure what would happen now. Would each god bring their chosen followers to them? Have I actually thought of what happens but I can't recall what I did due to a drunken haze? Do souls reincarnate? Who can say, I could, but will I? Not right now, because I need to check my notes. I will say that I don't use the pantheons in generic DnD, it's all homebrew and, much like Dragonlance, there is one pantheon for all races.

Wall of the Faithless was Errata dropped from Sword Coast book. I dont think its even a thing anymore.

If that's true then Dndbeyond needs to know because it still shows up in their version. Even then, the wall of the faithless is probably a "Check with your DM" kind if thing, even if it normally doesn't matter.

 

[Zardnaar]

I like to think that the reincarnation aspect of the elves is due to the nature of their spirits rather than some sort of discriminatory nature and the elven afterlife. I actually like the way the afterlife works in FR. Generally though, in my homebrew world, I haven't even defined the afterlife. There are gods but they weren't around for a large portion of the history of the world, what happened to the souls of the dead at that time, I don't certainly don't know and I'm not sure what would happen now. Would each god bring their chosen followers to them? Have I actually thought of what happens but I can't recall what I did due to a drunken haze? Do souls reincarnate? Who can say, I could, but will I? Not right now, because I need to check my notes. I will say that I don't use the pantheons in generic DnD, it's all homebrew and, much like Dragonlance, there is one pantheon for all races.


If that's true then Dndbeyond needs to know because it still shows up in their version. Even then, the wall of the faithless is probably a "Check with your DM" kind if thing, even if it normally doesn't matter.

Wall doesn't matter except for 3E and raise dead.

If a race reincarnates eg elve and that deity takes non elves as followers in the afterlife I suppose they become elves and can then reincarnate after that as an Elf.

I don't use reincarnation personally but you could change race in the afterlife I suppose.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

All souls are destined for Dolurrh, to lose their identity. If there is any spark that continues beyond to join the Sovereigns, it knows nothing of race.

There may be ways to try to stave off the inevitable used by different people and races, but the mechanism is eternal.

 

[Steampunkette]

Best Afterlife.

 

[jgsugden]

Birth, life, death, afterlife, resurrection, reincarnation - the D&D representations of these things are (generally) not intended to reflect the real world. They are part of the journey of a soul, and that journey is part of a fictional story. In many games, these things are ambiguous (either for story purposes or for lack of a need of specifying how they work - or to avoid offense to the religions of players).

In my primary homebrew setting, I took a practical, but problematic, approach. The Heavens are a series of 9 finite Realms. Each is controlled by a Greater God. The Hells consist of countless realms, with the 9 Realms of Asmodeus at the center, and a countless number of Abyssal Realms surrounding the 9 Hells (and waging the Blood War upon the 9 Hells to get to the center of the Hells where Asmodeus rules).

When a creature with a soul dies, their soul is taken by the Raven Queen and offered to the Gods of the Heavens. The Gods in the Heavens, which are not all goodly beings (There are 9 Realms, and my equivalents of Gruumsh and Bane control one realm each), have to contend with a finite Heavenly realm with space for only so many souls. Some of those Gods strive to cram as many souls in as possible to keep them from the hells, while others provide space to only a select few souls.

The Gods can either 1.) accept the soul into the Heavens, 2.) claim it and then immediately send it for reincarnation, or 3.) (if all reject it) send it to the Hells where most will either become a Lemure, or a Manes (Demon Lords or Archfiends may intervene). When a Lemure is killed in the Hells, it rises as a Manes in the Abyssal portion of my Hells. When a Manes is killed in the Hells, the soul essence is returned to the Negative Energy Plane (and nobody but the Raven Queen knows what happens there).

The Gods can also elect to send a soul that has been in the Heavens (potentially for a long time) back to the mortal world via reincarnation, sometimes at the request of the soul, other times at the whim of the God.

It is almost entirely an unfair system, but it is useful in storytelling.