The Study of Afterlife and Undeath

Death is viewed as a neutral evil in Urthe: greatly feared, but accepted with resignation and tragic ceremony. Death, dissolution, and destruction originate in the plane of Abaddon, and are ruled by the Power known as Mortem, whose name honors the first month of winter.

When a mortal is physically dead, their spirit (soul + will) awakens in the Ethereal Plane, and perceives a slowly swirling tunnel, brightly lit at the end, before their eyes. The temptation to enter the light is great, and if they do, the spirit travels via ethereal cyclone. On the journey, time twists, and the spirit sees their mortal life flash before their eyes, in reverse. They pass, via this ethereal cyclone, through the Astral Plane, arriving at Hamistagan, the outer plane of neutrality, where they are judged, and sent to their final, eternal plane. The truly neutral remain there as Espirits. Lawful neutral spirits move on to Nirvana, and reside there as Prospirits. Chaotic neutral spirits go to Limbo, and remain there as Conspirits. Good spirits cross the river Sanzu to become Angels, or Aspirits, or Archons, while evil spirits cross the river Stix to become Devils, or Despirits, or Demons.

If they resist the urge to enter the light, the cyclone suddenly spins itself out, and dissipates, and the light disappears. The spirit may then continue to act in Ethereal form. If the spirit enters an Outer Plane then, they become bonded to that plane, and may live out their eternity there.

If they are killed in this ethereal form, they disintegrate and diffuse into the Positive and Negative Material Planes. There is no chance of resurrection or raising dead in this case.

The only gate back to the Prime is located at the site of their remains, or the site of their death. If the spirit tries to re-enter the Prime, they are immediately split between the Prime and the Negative Energy Plane, becoming undead of some sort, usually something less powerful than a Revenant. Often a Haunt, or a Poltergeist.

The elves developed the first funeral rituals. The aquatic elves, as you might expect, performed the first burials at sea, extracting the buoyant gases from bodies, then weighing them down to sink. The wild elves were the first to build funeral pyres, and burn their dead. The wood elves bury their dead in the earth. The grey elves perform ‘air burials,’ and leave their dead in the open, usually on high mountains or hillsides.

When a character reaches their lowest HP limit, they are physically dead.

Roll lower than CHA, or “go into the light”:

If roll successful, character can observe the ethereal scene for a minute, or chose to “go into the light”.

At the end of one minute in the ethereal, they must roll below their CHA to again resist the nagging urge to “go into the light”. The tunnel swirls more quickly. If successful, they may continue to act in the Ethereal Plane for another minute.

A third Roll v. CHA is made to resist being ‘physically’ pulled into the Cyclone, spinning quickly now. If successful, no further checks are needed.

All undead creatures exist in both the Prime Material and Negative Material planes at the same time.

The only gate back to the Prime is located at the site of their remains, or the site of their death. If the PC spirit tries to re-enter the Prime, they are immediately split between the Prime and the NEP, becoming undead of some sort, usually something less powerful than a Revenant. Often a Haunt, or a Poltergeist.

Types of Immortal Beings

A Host of Angels: Chaotic Good

An Affusion of Aspirits: Neutral Good

A Caucus of Archons: Lawful Good

A Profusion of Prospirits: Lawful Neutral

A Estimation of Espirits: Neutral

A Confusion of Conspirits: Chaotic Neutral

A Legion of Demons: Chaotic Evil

A Diffusion of Dispirits: Neutral Evil

A Regiment of Devils: Lawful Evil

Types of Undead

Poltergeist: restless invisible spirit, like a malevolent haunt. May have been an unpunished criminal in life. LE CAN BE TURNED. 1/2 HD

Visitant: 1 HD Good aligned spirits who are simply lost. Do not remember their lives or deaths. Confused, but may be willing to help the living. May be turned or controlled as normal.

Skeleton: Mindless, magically animated bones 1HD

Common Zombie: Mindless, magically animated corpse 2 HD

Ghoul: 2 HD CE reproduce by killing.

Heucuva: Priests who were not faithful CE 2 HD

Shadow: Freshly slain, cursed to exist in the Negative M. Plane, with only a shadow in the Prime. The original body of a victim is changed to into a shadow. CE 3-4 HD

Phantom: visual image of a person’s spirit. Neutral. characters of 4th level or above, dying suddenly or by surprise

Haunt: restless spirit with unfinished task, seeks to possess a body. Must remain confined 60 yards from place of death, unless it takes over a host. 10% remember former lives, feel remorse, etc.. Any Alignment. Cannot be turned. 5 HD

Wight: 5 HD, LE: an undead man.

Crypt Thing: Neutral guardian of family tombs. 6 HD

Wraith: LE undead spirit of POWERFUL EVIL HUMAN, or a victim of a wraith. Usually found in tombs or battlefields. NEP 6 HD

Mummy: LE 7 HD product of magical embalming process

Spectre: haunt desolate, deserted places. Exist mostly in NEP. Require magic weapons to hurt them. LE 8HD Reproduce by killing. Unknown origin.

Revenant: vengeful spirits of murder victims NEUTRAL Can’t be turned. 8HD The dead character Constitution must be 18 and either his Wisdom or Intelligence must be greater than 16. Also, the total of his six ability scores must be 90or more. Even if these conditions are met, there is only a 5 % chance that the dead character becomes a revenant. If both Intelligence and Wisdom are over 16, the chance increases to 10%.If Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution are all 18 the creature can shift at will into any freshly killed humanoid if the revenant rolls a successful saving throw vs. death.

Death Knight: Formerly good warrior judged evil by the gods CE 9HD

Vampire: 9 HD CE, Kanchelsis was the first Vampire, drank the blood of Corellon Larethian and Silvanus.

Ghost: evil human, or very emotional death. Confined to a small area, they try to “get even”, for denial of proper burial, etc. LE 10 HD

Greater Mummy: Evil priest mummy 10 HD LE

Skeleton Warrior: Powerful warrior spirit magically controlled by a golden circlet. NE 10 HD

Lich: 18th level wizard, any evil 11+ HD

Banshee: evil female elf, live in desolation or ruins, hide by day, wander at night, hate and avoid the living. Turned as “special” undead. CE 12+ HD

Crimson Death Mist: Evil spirit of killed Vampire mages. HD 13, NE