Afterlife

At death, a mortal's essence -- their soul -- splits naturally from their body, and Kerrigor takes their soul to the Afterlife. The Afterlife is a vast and ever-shifting dimension of spirits and soul magic that defies mortal perceptions of reality. Time and distance hold no meaning in this intangible realm, and a day on the physical world can feel like decades in the Afterlife.

The Afterlife is Kerrigor's lucid dream. All who enter it can affect it to a minor extent. While Kerrigor is the Afterlife's overseer and can control it in its entirety, he generally leaves it to evolve on its own by the addition of its inhabitants' souls.

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Entering and Exiting the Afterlife

Kerrigor can escort other gods to the Afterlife without killing them, but mortals are barred from entering and exiting the Afterlife without divine intervention. A few well-trained spiritual guides or shamans who specialize in soul magic may be able to temporarily peer into the Afterlife to speak to the souls there, but this is rare, and can only be done through dreams.

Resurrections can return souls in the Afterlife to their previous body on Ilisara, unless their soul was unnaturally severed from their body somehow. So far, the only unnatural way known is to stab a mortal through the heart with a soulblade, ensuring they may never be resurrected. The rules for resurrection are explained in detail on the Injury and Death page.

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Perceptions of the Living

Death is renown on Ilisara as a natural continuation from life. It is known that an Afterlife exists, but its precise form is unknown to mortals. Resurrected mortals do not remember the Afterlife's specifics, nor do they know Kerrigor's grand design.

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Existence Inside the Afterlife

To Kerrigor, the Afterlife constitutes of a place for souls to journey towards paradise. The Afterlife is split into three realms which souls can travel between. Somewhere in these realms (or between them) lies the perfect existence for every soul, but finding that place is not guaranteed. Every soul wanders the Afterlife searching for loved ones, meaning, fulfillment, and a place to eternally settle in peace.

Souls

Souls in the Afterlife manifest in a dreamform, which normally looks and behaves much as that individual's previous physical body might. Hence, for most creatures, moving through the Afterlife is achieved in the normal fashion, despite the realm's chiefly spiritual character. These rules do not apply to mages of sufficient skill or experience with soul magic, who are trained to work beyond physical reality. They might be capable of abnormal movement in the Afterlife, such as flying, moving through solid objects, or otherwise shifting through the Afterlife's reality.

Landscape

There are three realms within the Afterlife. From some perspectives, the realms seem to be divided by massive oceans; from others, a constellation of stars; from still other points, a field of shifting energies. Souls can travel between the realms with great effort by shaping a road, river, or some other surface to move across. This generally requires the soul to find a way to belong in the realm it is attempting to enter.

The White Fields

Those who were ethical, caring, kind, and righteous end up in the White Fields, a vast expanse of grassland, river deltas, and forests. There are collections of souls who have banded together to create civilizations here, as well as introverts who keep to themselves. A good, kind-hearted group rules the City of Lights, which serves as a beacon to all souls in the White Fields as a place to seek loved ones. People who worshipped Varos, Remedia, or Anashta tend to end up here.

The Grey Mountains

Those who made difficult decisions and strived for goodness but did not always find it end up in the Grey Mountains. The Grey Mountains are rocky and ever-shifting. It is a jagged landscape with forests, deserts, steppes, waterfalls, lakes, and a massive mountain range. Worshippers of Duros, Hejong, Esk, or Selune tend to end up here. Over the years, Hejong's bravest warriors have made a Valhalla-esque hall at the top of the tallest mountain, where they eternally feast, fight, and oversee the realm.

The Black Morass

Those who were wicked, cruel, lying, and morally unsound find themselves in the Black Morass. The sky here is dark and the landscape is a treacherous mixture of frothing dark waters and icy, hellish rock and sand. It is very cold, very bleak, and nightmares of its inhabitants run rampant as dream-monsters. Few plants grow here and there are very few outposts, as the souls in this realm do not trust each other whatsoever. Worshippers of Arth and Vandun tend to end up here, although Arth's more noble warriors find fitting homes in the Grey Mountains.

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Soulbonds and Ethereal Connections

Because Kerrigor's pledge is to look after the dead, he ensures that they hold some connection to their loved ones who remain behind in life. When a living person remembers and honors the soul of a dead ancestor, friend, or other figure, that soul can feel that remembrance and love. This power works similarly to a god's ability to hear the prayers from their followers and is made possible by Kerrigor.

Within the Afterlife, souls can all share their thoughts, desires, feelings, and other personality characteristics with others. To do so, they must touching another soul's dreamself. In this way, it is as if every single person shares a soulbond.

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Coping with the Afterlife

The Afterlife is far from paradise. Many souls expect all of their woes and injustices to be righted, and for their worth to be recognized by some grand arbiter; but Kerrigor is a neutral god, not a judge. He places some souls where he sees fit, but most begin in the oceans between realms and drift towards where they truly belong. Few actually end up where they thought they belong. Ego and vanity run further than the typical Ilisaran believes, and the true "best" of mortals are few and far between. Suffering alone does not make a soul righteous.

Thus, there are three groups of souls:

1. Those who feel they belong where they ended up, who are rare.

2. Those who feel they do not belong where they were put, and actively try to traverse into other realms.

3. Those who are so disturbed that the afterlife is constrained by limited resources and it's own laws and injustices, that they seek to return to life at any cost.

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Dying in the Afterlife, Reincarnating in Ilisara

Dying in the Afterlife causes a soul to be sent back to the real world, reincarnating into a new body, but with no memory of who they were in their previous life. They are new beings, for all intents and purposes. This allows life on Ilisara to grow.

There are four ways to die in the Afterlife:

• By peril or harm from one of the Afterlife's ambient threats, such as the oceans between the realms or nightmare-monsters.

• By defeating Kerrigor's champions (fragments of his soul) who roam the realms seeking challengers. Only the worthy are strong enough to defeat Kerrigor's champions, and those who do often find themselves reincarnating into auspicious lives.

• When a soulblade produced within the real world pierces a soul in the Afterlife, that soul dies and fragments into several pieces. Those pieces form new nascent souls that are reincarnated in Ilisara.

• After some period of time, if the people of Ilisara no longer honor a soul's memory, that soul disappears from the Afterlife and is reincarnated.

Souls who wish to reincarnate can change the conditions of who they are reincarnated as through intense study and pursuits in the Afterlife, such as studying soul magic. The nobility a soul exhibits post-death weighs into their lot in their next life. A soul who repents for sins and strives to become a better person may reincarnate into a well-to-do family. A soul full of fear and hatred may reincarnate into a family of warlocks.

Each domain has its own legends of what must be done to reincarnate back to life in a state of power, wealth, or love.

Evil Souls

In order to keep their memory alive and remain in the Afterlife long enough to accomplish their quests, evil souls sometimes manifest as ghosts on Ilisara to remind the living of them, and to haunt and consume the fear of the living -- which is traded as currency in the Black Morass.

The creatures that appear as manifestations of fear in the Black Morass all are servants that belong to evildoers who have harnessed fear.

Good Souls

Good souls send small blessings to people on Ilisara, and provide omens to help guide the living. Few good souls seek reincarnation, but there is a pathway for them to reincarnate by aiding others and doing selfless acts.

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To What End?

The state of constant work from souls isn't wasted. Kerrigor harnesses the energy and work that the souls in the Afterlife have put into their world in order to fuel the power of soul magic in both realms. Kerrigor secretly keeps a ledger of the dead in each realm, noting the most worthy souls in his possession who have produced the most energy.

The work of the souls in the Afterlife, their journeys to reincarnate, and the reincarnation of those who are forgotten creates a cycle.

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