| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 08 Mar 2014 : 20:06:14
We all know that in the Realms, which is to say Toril, the souls of the dead spend a little time on the Fugue Plane. Most are claimed as the Faithful of one Faerûnian deity or another, some are Faithless (and most of these end up in the Wall), a few of the dead might be raised or resurrected or reincarnated .... presumably returning to life in the Realms for a little while longer.
But we are told that Ao has split Abeir-Toril into Abeir and Toril, furthermore, he has isolated Abeir in some hidden little special quarantine plane which apparently has only tentative connections to the rest of the D&D cosmos.
So what happens to the souls of folk who die on Abeir? Do they have a stopover on some sort of Abeir Fugue? Does Ao personally oversee their fates? Are they reincarnated into the essence of the living world? Do they drift across the Astral towards eternity on some Outer Plane (as per the default on generic D&D worlds)? Are the spirits of dead Abeir elves denied Arvanaith? Are the anima of dead Abeir dragons denied their draconic afterlife?
Can the dead be raised or resurrected on Abeir? Can undead be animated? Any Abeir liches? Can ghosts (and other Ethereal-dwelling spirits) manifest? Can vampires multiply their kind there? Seems like a dash of Ravenloft could really wreak unrestrained undead havoc on Abeir. (It also seems like gunpowder technologies, also unrestrained and ungoverned, could have a tremendous impact on Abeir - but that‘s another topic altogether.)
What about those people from Toril who were transposed to Abeir, such as the elves of Evermeet? Perhaps the people of once-Halruaa, who may have been Faithful?
I note that dragonborn paladins and priests seem to be surprisingly common, suggesting their race (and their Abeir-born culture) readily recognizes divinities and religion. Surprising to me anyhow, since Abeir supposedly lacks true deities, having unresponsive Primordials in their place. Perhaps they consume the souls of the dead. Perhaps they aren‘t even aware of them ... and I wonder at the thought of being utterly ignored, denied even oblivion, throughout one‘s entire eternal afterlife. |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| CorellonsDevout |
Posted - 11 Mar 2014 : 01:57:44
I've wondered what happens to the souls on Abeir, too.
The dragonborn being atheists doesn't necessarily mean there is no afterlife for them, it is just not one made by a deity *shrugs* |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 10 Mar 2014 : 21:34:04
The incarnum rules suggest that departed souls become little more than a commodity, essentially a resource which can be tapped/depleted to power simulated magical items. Kinda sucks to die on Abeir, eh? |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 10 Mar 2014 : 02:24:00
actually, now that you say it, yeah, the incarnum rules fit exactly what I was describing with the "using spirit energy to fuel powerful magics" |
| Markustay |
Posted - 09 Mar 2014 : 18:32:48
What if Abeir had no afterlife? After all... it was 'cut-off' from the rest of the multiverse.
What if everyone who died on Abeir either simply ceased to exist, got reincarnated, or.... became some form of undead. 
EDIT: After posting that, I realized Abeir might be a great place to use the Incarnum rules. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 09 Mar 2014 : 15:37:26
Damn good question, and this kind of brings into question the idea that some of us have supposed on Saurials possibly being from Abeir (since Dragonbait was a paladin... though he may have been a rarity having "just discovered" deities or something) <caveat: Moander seeming like a primordial more than a god, and his transferring the saurials to "the lost vale".... maybe the lost vale was a portion of Abeir that transferred early...>.
Anyway, back to the original question, I'd imagine Abeir is more like what Dazzler and I were talking about with the "spirit realms" of the unapproachable east. Ancestor worship was probably prevalent, and the creation of Telthor-like beings from the spirits of beings/animals was probably very common. I'd say that the use of pact magic (more like what's presented in the "secrets of pact magic" where you're calling upon local spirits of the land, etc....) is more common <caveat, they wouldn't have access to angelic or fiendish type spirits>. Possibly their magic weave involves sacrificing spirit energy in order to fuel powerful magics (and the expended energy is then "reborn" into their universe after the spell effect is complete..... which could raise some ethical quandaries on continual type effects like mythals).
There probably was/is a transitive plane like the ethereal which was localized to Abeir, and they probably had their own split off localized inner elemental/energy planes. However, they were probably split off from all outer planar access and probably had no means of piercing the crystal sphere to get to the phlogiston. They probably also didn't have a plane of shadow or linkages to faerie (though that's pure conjecture... and it would mean that any "fey" on Abeir would be cut off from their homeland's energies). |
| Thauranil |
Posted - 09 Mar 2014 : 10:11:28
Actually according to what I have read in the Brotherhood of the Griffon series and in various other places most dragonbron are atheist and priests and paladins are actually pretty rare in their culture. Though the number of religious dragonborn are rising as Bahamut and Tiamat both vie are their worship. |
| hashimashadoo |
Posted - 08 Mar 2014 : 20:40:17
I'm guessing that there was no call for this lore to be written. There are no adventures written where you actually get to go to Abeir and those people from Abeir have had 83 years to adopt Faerûnian deities. Without asking a designer, all lore is pure supposition.
Organised religion did not exist in Abeir except where it was imposed by despotic dragons or done in secret to uncaring primordials so they wouldn't be claimed by any gods upon reaching the Fugue. I'd hazard that an entire world worth of unclaimed souls in the Fugue would have a major impact so they wouldn't end up there at the very least. As for where they DO go, your guess is as good as mine. |
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