Death in the realms

[kovah]

All this talk about the Lord of Bones yesterday at the crossroads got me reading. I'm curious to know how Sundren treats Death and final destination.

Does Kelemvor currently judge all dead? Even elves, dwarves, etc that worship their own pantheons?

What I'm wondering is if <random Myrkul cleric> is screaming about how death should be feared and <random elf whose main diety is Sehanine Moonbow> is in hearing range -- does <random elf> even give a sh*t? Should they? Won't they be judged by Sehanine and not Kelemvor (or Myrkul considering his miraculous return to godhood assuming his former profiles)?

[Deathevn]

All thoes that give their lives in the service of Auril get free snowcones for all eternity!

[GodBeastX]

All this talk about the Lord of Bones yesterday at the crossroads got me reading. I'm curious to know how Sundren treats Death and final destination.

Does Kelemvor currently judge all dead? Even elves, dwarves, etc that worship their own pantheons?

What I'm wondering is if <random Myrkul cleric> is screaming about how death should be feared and <random elf whose main diety is Sehanine Moonbow> is in hearing range -- does <random elf> even give a sh*t? Should they? Won't they be judged by Sehanine and not Kelemvor (or Myrkul considering his miraculous return to godhood assuming his former profiles)?

According to forgotten realms information presented in books, all the dead pass through the fugue plane in Kelemvor's city, no matter what pantheon or god they worship, where Jergal and Kelemvor manage things. And ironically, you're not garaunteed to end up in the afterlife of the deity you pray to unless you're a cleric or something. Faerun is a polytheistic society. People pray to whatever god they need at the time.

[kovah]

Hasn't this changed over the years from 2e - 4e? I thought back in 2e you always went to your diety.

Also, found this on Candlekeep:

4E realmslore

The Afterlife - p65 FRCG
The souls of those who die travel through the Shadowfell to the Fugue Plane. There they await judgment. Some pass out of creation before any ruling comes, others after. Where these souls go not even the gods know. One that has strong faith and capabilities might be taken to the dominion of its deity, to serve him or her beyond life. Others remain on the Fugue Plane as aides to the god of death. A few cling to the Shadowfell or to the world, continuing on as ghosts or other insubstantial undead.



Kelemvor -Lord of the Dead - Unaligned Greater God p 151 FRCG

Kelemvor presides over the passage from life to death, judging the faithless and the false and apportioning souls to their proper fate in the afterlife.

[kovah]

Okay, based on this thread: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.as...1&whichpage=40 Ed thinks the following about the FR afterlife:

the average Faerunian lives long enough to worship (or serve through their actions) one deity above all others (though in many cases just which deity “tops their points list” may not be clear to a dying mortal or anyone who knows them). If a mortal dies with a mission or task for a particular deity unfinished, and it’s a matter they felt strongly about in life, they may well be “sent back” (reborn as another mortal) to try to complete that task by the deity they were trying to serve. Otherwise, they DO end up serving the deity most appropriate to their alignment and character in the afterlife. Only those who repudiate the gods (or who as a result of their actions are renounced by their gods), despoil altars and frustrate clerical aims (of any deity, not just “foe” deities), or never pray or engage in any form of deliberate worship will qualify as either faithless or false.
Only a few deities (Cyric might be one) are insane enough not to recognize and accept the polytheistic “appease this deity and that as life situations and strivings demand” model, and demand that their faithful worship them and only them. For everyone else, it’s a matter of embracing (or drifting into) primary worship of one deity above -- even if only slightly above -- all others.

Course, that is way back in 2004.

My head is spinning from so many searches and blocks of text crit'ing me for 9999999. It seems that up till recently whoever held the position of The Lord of the Dead simply judged the False and Faithless leaving those that believed to their own dieties judgement. Now it seems that Kelemvor judges all souls that pass through the Fugue. Dragons, Goblins, Elves, Humans, etc.

My reason for starting this thread is that concept seems, to me, to be silly. If I'm an elf that grows up on Evermeet and worships Corellon Larethian almost exclusively never giving a single thought to a diety outside of the Seldarine it just makes no sense that a former human turned god would be judging my soul if I tripped over a rock and busted my skull...

/shrugs

[GodBeastX]

I'm not sure why it's silly to you. People aren't supposed to know this for the most part and according to 4E at least, most pantheon gods are just aspects of other gods anyway.

Anyway, it works like this based on the Forgotten Realms 3.5 source book.

You die, and wind up on the Fugue. MOST people don't even realize they're dead. The fugue is just a barren, flat, boring area, other than the crystal spire and the city around it. In this city all the dead chill, servants of Kelemvor/Jergal, Devils (Who try to barter for souls legally), Demon Raiders from time to time, and messengers of gods.

While in the city eventually a messenger comes, and somehow the souls know the proper messenger, and you wind up in another plane as a petitioner. It's pretty funny how some people end up, for example, if a Human winds up in the elven afterlife, they become an Elf

So yeah, everyone has to path through their domains.

[Fezzik]

[quote=GodBeastX;

While in the city eventually a messenger comes, and somehow the souls know the proper messenger, and you wind up in another plane as a petitioner. It's pretty funny how some people end up, for example, if a Human winds up in the elven afterlife, they become an Elf

So yeah, everyone has to path through their domains.[/quote]

Does that mean Cirion is going to end up in the Playboy mansion, old and wrinkled like Hugh Hefner?

[Fezzik]

While in the city eventually a messenger comes, and somehow the souls know the proper messenger, and you wind up in another plane as a petitioner. It's pretty funny how some people end up, for example, if a Human winds up in the elven afterlife, they become an Elf

So yeah, everyone has to path through their domains.

Does that mean Cirion is going to end up in the Playboy mansion, old and wrinkled like Hugh Hefner?

[Zoberraz]

Kovah, elves at the end of their lives don't really die. They more or less transcend their corporeal forms and reach Arvandor through medium provided by the Seldarine (with Sehanine Moonbow in charge)... so, yeah, they could not give a damn.

An elf brutally slain, or deceased 'before his time' (various deities might have a different conception of that), though, might very well end up on the fugue plain.

Once there, well, the mortal soul might be totally oblivious to actually what is going on if he's not so well versed in religion and planeslore. After milling about in confusion it's very likely an entity representing a pantheon will swoop by and collect the 'loss and found' to then bring them as petitioners in the appropriate planar realm.

FR 4e muddled those lines a lot, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

Example~
Angel of Jergal: "Bring out the next case."
Jergalite petitioner: "We have Harold the half-elf, a farmer whom made his living in the Silver Marches."
Angel of Jergal: "Cause of death?"
Jergalite petitioner: "One of his horses cracked his skull with a hind kick."
Angel of Jergal: "Ouch. That's one person we won't send to Lurue. What's his faith?"
Jergalite petitioner: "His file says he's highly partial to the elven pantheon; he prayed to them for a good harvest."
Angel of Jergal: "Right. Have someone page Angharradh and tell her to send someone over, because we have one of hers. Next!"

[Silas North]

What about an elf that does not worship one of the Seldarine but rather someone like Sune or Helm? Do they pretty much have to take a number and sit on the Fugue bench with the human souls?

While we are on the topic of elven gods, I wish they never got rid of Chronos.