Search results
Sep 1, 2020 · Where did a mortal go upon death? This article describes the beliefs about the afterlife held by the inhabitants of the Forgotten Realms.
- What Is A Soul?
- The Journey from Life to Death
- Lost Souls
- The Fugue Plane
- Bargains & Raids
- The Role of The Gods
- Three Kinds of Mortal Souls
- Life After Death
- Advancement
- Reincarnation
The soul was the lifeforce of a mortal, the part that gave essence and a separate existence to a creature. In some religions, this lifeforce was variably termed a "spirit", and the two terms were synonymous.[note 1] In the Mulhorandi faith, this lifeforce was termed two separate spirits, ba and ka. The people of Sokkar referred to this lifeforce as...
As earlier stated, when en-souled mortals on the Prime Material Plane died under normal circumstances, their souls departed their bodies. They were then pulled to the Fugue Plane. The journey was not instantaneous, although it would seem that way to the soul itself.Some argued that the journey could take as long as three days to even a month of tim...
Some souls, for a variety of reasons, never made it to the Fugue Plane. Some became trapped in the Border Ethereal or the Shadowfell as ghosts or other incorporeal undead,visible by other creatures on the Material Plane if the spirit so chose. A number of other extreme factors could also prevent a soul from traveling safely to the Fugue Plane, resu...
Once arriving on the Fugue Plane, a soul resided in waiting, wandering about aimlessly, unaware that it had even died, until retrieved by a representative of one of the powers. When—after a time that on Toril would usually correspond to between a day and over a tenday—such a representative arrived, the soul would always recognize this outsider and ...
There was one exception to the rule that it was impossible to convince a soul into following the wrong divine messenger. The baatezu had an agreement that allowed them one final chance to bargain with souls. The baatezu were forbidden to injure or deceive the waiting souls in any way; however, they were permitted to offer them bargains to reject th...
There had been several gods of the dead, including Jergal, Myrkul, Cyric, and then Kelemvor, who held sway over this primarily transitory plane. Among the Mulan, Osiris was held to be the god of the dead, the one responsible for dealing out their judgment in the afterlife.How he worked with Kelemvor in this is unclear, but the two were said to be a...
Petitioners
The majority of souls who died from the lands of Faerûn had dedicated their lives to particular power, their patron deity. When these souls were taken by the representative to their deity's divine realm, they were transformed into petitioners. What happened to a petitioner upon arriving at its final destination varied wildly by which deity that petitioner served. A good number of petitioners appeared much as they did in life, but by no means all. Petitioners of some divine realms took on trai...
The Faithless
The Faithless were those souls who had never chosen to follow a patron deity or never believed in the gods at all. As such, they would never have a representative sent to retrieve them. Instead, it was mandated that they should enter the City of Judgment to be judged by the god of the dead. Some believed that the judgment was the same for all Faithless; they became a part of the wall that surrounded the city. Sometimes, the souls were stolen from the wall in tanar'ri raids,but given enough ti...
The False
The False were those who failed to serve their chosen patrons or who had betrayed the commitments to their prior faith. Such souls were also judged by Kelemvor, who assigned them a task in the City of Judgment for the rest of their existence, such as the guiding of lost souls. The most wicked and unfaithful among the false were actively punished. The majority of the citizens of the City were in fact among the False. The most evil of souls were sometimes transformed into larvaand cast out.
What a soul did after death also varied based on destination. For example, some souls might live in pure, unadulterated bliss, with all of their needs ever met. Others might suffer in anguish, slaving away in perpetual punishment for the sins of their mortals lives.Still others might engage in epic, never-ending warfare, in a cycle of death in comb...
Petitioners were not static. In some cases, overtime, they changed into new forms. On other planes, they eventually merged with their patron deity or into the essence of the plane itself. For example, especially good and noble petitioners were sometimes transformed by the will of their deities into agathinon, the lowest type of angel, forming new b...
Not all souls remained in the afterlife forever. Some elves believed that Sehanine Moonbow worked with Corellonto guide elven souls back to the Material Plane to be reincarnated in a cycle that eventually led to perfection. All dragons also believed in reincarnation. Their traditions of the afterlife taught that the anima of a dragon remained on th...
In some cases I imagine death for many to be the end so unless it was a freak accident or murder, their souls would be shuffled on. Also, it could be that the components for such spells are considered critical to war efforts by governments and therefore tightly controlled.
Death as a basic mechanic is rather simple. Drop to zero hit points in battle, fail three death saving throws, and your character dies. However, there are many necromancy spells that exist in the forgotten realms that bring people back to life. How can this be?
In general. If you show devotion to a specific god and do as they wish, your soul goes to their realm. If you sinned greatly in life and turned your back on your god, you're given eternal punishment, the degree of which varies on the crime.
Death is but part of life: fear it not, evade it not, and view it not as evil. To fear death delivers you into the hands of those who can bring death down upon you. Die with dignity, neither raging nor seeking to embrace undeath.
People also ask
What are the beliefs about the afterlife in the Forgotten Realms?
What is the Forgotten Realms based on?
Who wrote the Forgotten Realms books?
Are the Forgotten Realms worth reading?
What are the Best Forgotten Realms books?
How many Forgotten Realms books are there?
May 10, 2023 · To help readers explore this unique series, we’ve put together our picks for the best Forgotten Realms books of all time. To keep things simple, we’ve broken them down by series, including the titles, publication dates and links to further reading.
