Dungeons and Dragons Afterlives

I've been trying to read up on the various D & D afterlives on the Internet and while I can find plenty of general descriptions about them there is one piece of information I cannot find. Namely, what happens to the souls of people who go to those respective realms? The descriptions make each afterlife sound like it has its own gods and other beings who live there with a section set aside for the souls of the dead. So what is the afterlife like in each realm? I am mainly curious about the following afterlives based on the Great Wheel cosmology. Any information is appreciated.

Mechanus Arcadia Mount Celestia/Seven Heavens Elysium Beastlands/Happy Hunting Grounds Olympus/Arvandor/Arborea Ysgard Hades Gehenna Baator Tartarus The Abyss The Outlands

Thanks

Depends on the setting and the plane in question.

• Souls who go to Baator are tortured to create soul energy which fuels the devils. Once a soul has been "milked", whats left of it is turned into a Lemure, the lowest cast of devils. Some very lucky one who managed to negociate themselves awesome faustian deals may be turned into higher ranking devils.

• Abyss is sort of similar, except usually without the conversion part (Though it occasionally happen), souls are consumed by demons. Some powerful ones become demons themselves. Weaker "luckier" ones become wretches.

• Souls going to Celestia or the upper planes tend to remain as they are, living as petitioner of their gods domains. There's variations with deities and what each deities do with their petitioners.

edited 3rd Dec '14 7:00:47 PM by CobraPrime

To expand on the Abyss a bit. The souls that naturally go there turn into Manes. Manes like other Demons randomly mutate into other more powerful demons at the whims of the Abyss or Demon Lords. Manes tend to just be food for the Demons living in the Abyss if they don't mutate into a stronger Demon first.

I will also at the details of Hades. In The Grey Wastes of Hades. Souls and living creatures that go are drained of their joy, hope and passion and just start to get beaten down by the exhaustion the despair and gloom of the place causes. Eventually drains them completely and they turn into Larva. Creatures with the face of the soul it once was but with the body of a worm. They are miserable beings with only faint memories of what they once were. The Larva are harvested by the Night Hags and other denizens of the plane to be used in vile rituals or are sold to other other fiends. The Demons tend to eat them, while the Devils do the same thing Cobra Prime mentioned.

edited 14th Dec '14 12:12:17 AM by Saya1

The Abyss bit is dependant on the author. In some other books, Manes are not petitionners, but spawned by the abyss itself as are all demons (And the Abyss itself is sentient and seeks to destroy all of reality(ies)). Demons are essentially sentient chunks of the Abyss. Souls going there are consumed by the abyss itself.

In general no matter the Planes, Petitionners (Dead souls) lose their memories of their lives over time. Hence why ressurection spells often have a time limit clause.

edited 15th Dec '14 12:04:03 PM by Ghilz