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
Angels
High celestial beings of mercurial grace, wild passion, and fierce, individual liberty. They champion freedom across the cosmos, acting as brilliant, unguided bolts of divine intervention who refuse to be bound by laws, hierarchies, or static decrees.
Low Rank: Bralani / Deva — Shifting, wind-like spirits and brilliant minor celestials who leap into mortal realms on sudden, unbidden whims of assistance.
Middle Rank: Ghaele / Planetar — Radiant, emerald-eyed knights of liberty who wield swords of light and strike down tyrants without mercy or compromise.
High Rank: Solar — The apex of celestial might. Towering, multi-winged icons of individual liberty capable of leveling entire armies of evil with a single arrow.
Aspirits
Embodiments of pure, unadulterated benevolence, mercy, and elevation. Driven entirely by altruism unburdened by dogma, they exist to heal the broken, comfort the lost, and inspire mortal souls to achieve their highest spiritual potential.
Low Rank: Cervidal / Equinal — The satyr-like and horse-featured field healers, peaceful agrarian caretakers, and sturdy protectors of Avalon’s wilds.
Middle Rank: Avoral — Winged, hawk-featured celestials who act as swift aerial messengers, scouts, and localized protectors of mortal freedom.
High Rank: Leonal — Regal, lion-featured powerhouses of pure benevolence whose roar can shatter fiends and dispel the deepest despairs.
Archons
The cosmic vanguard of righteousness, justice, and unyielding order. Operating within a strict, luminous meritocracy, they seek to fortify the multiverse against spiritual decay through flawless discipline and absolute moral clarity.
Low Rank: Lantern Archon — Floating globes of pure, luminous light that act as scouts, guides, and the entry-level rank for ascending souls.
Middle Rank: Hound Archon — Muscular, canine-headed sentinels and muscle of the heavenly hosts, wielding greatswords and protecting the innocent.
High Rank: Throne Archon / Star Archon — Mighty, golden-armored adjudicators who govern the cities of Paradise and command its righteous caucuses.
Prospirits
The supreme architects and rigid bureaucrats of universal law. Devoid of emotion or moral bias, they view existence as a grand mathematical equation that must remain perfectly balanced, relentlessly policing the mechanics of time, space, and cosmic structure.
Low Rank: Monodrone / Quadrone — The baseline Modrons. Boxy, clockwork constructs with singular, hyper-focused tasks who operate with perfect, repetitive efficiency.
Middle Rank: Zelekhut / Kolyarut — Centaur-like or marble-faced Inevitables who are dispatched into the multiverse to relentlessly hunt down contract-breakers and fugitives of law.
High Rank: Marut — Colossal, obsidian-clad juggernauts of cosmic law. They do not care about morality; they exist solely to smash anyone who attempts to cheat death or alter fate.
Espirits
Passive observers and curators of cosmic equilibrium. They are the quiet dust between thoughts, embodying the raw essence of nature, elemental balance, and detached contemplation, interacting with mortals only when the scales of the multiverse tip too far.
Low Rank: Ferrumach — Iron-skinned foot soldiers of the Rilmani who quietly patrol boundaries and enforce localized parity between warring factions.
Middle Rank: Cuprilach — Sleek, copper-skinned operatives and master assassins who use stealth to eliminate anyone tipping the cosmic scales too far toward Good or Evil.
High Rank: Aurumach — Golden-skinned, towering philosophers and tactical geniuses who command the Espirit legions to preserve the absolute, quiet center of reality.
Conspirits
Living manifestations of pure whimsy, unpredictability, and random mutation. They are cosmic tricksters and agents of sheer possibility who reject all narrative arcs and structures, reveling in the beautiful, chaotic friction of unguided chance.
Low Rank: Red / Blue Slaad — Brutish, bipedal frog-like entities of pure instinct that spread uncontrolled mutation and physical disruption wherever they leap.
Middle Rank: Grey / Death Slaad — Highly volatile, spellcasting chaos-shifters who can walk among mortals undetected, subtly unraveling orderly institutions from within.
High Rank: Protean / Chaos Beast — Formless, titanic masses of shifting probability, raw color, and madness that warp the very laws of physics merely by existing.
Demons
Engines of raw, gibbering destruction, madness, and violent entropy. They are a ravenous, shifting horde driven by an insatiable hunger to tear down reality, consuming mortal sanity and leaving nothing but howling, unmaking ruin in their wake.
Low Rank: Dretch / Vrock — Blubbering masses of spite or vulture-headed horrors that form the endless, screaming chaff of the demonic legions.
Middle Rank: Glabrezu / Marilith — Pincer-clawed temptress-demons and six-armed serpentine generals who coordinate slaughter and drive mortals to violent madness.
High Rank: Balor — High commanders of flame and shadow, wielding whips of fire and driving the unmaking entropy of Acheron forward.
Dispirits
The quiet, chilling personification of absolute malice, nihilism, and spiritual decay. They do not seek the loud destruction of the horde or the cruel tyranny of the court—they are a slow, creeping rot that saps hope, breeds despair, and turns light to ash.
Low Rank: Mezzoloth — Insectoid, multi-limbed mercenaries who carry tridents and act as the cold, silent frontline of the spreading rot.
Middle Rank: Arcanaloth — Jackal-headed hoarders of forbidden lore who trade in dark secrets, harvest mortal souls, and broker malicious planar deals.
High Rank: Ultraloth — Faceless, hypnotic overseers of Abaddon who exude an aura of pure, crushing nihilism that saps the literal will to live from their enemies.
Devils
Cold, calculating architects of tyranny, oppression, and malicious subjugation. Operating through flawless, unbreakable contracts and ironclad hierarchies, they trade in mortal souls and use the letter of the law to bind the multiverse to their cruel whims.
Low Rank: Imp / Bearded Devil — Malicious tricksters and polearm-wielding shock troops who enforce the absolute bottom tier of the iron hierarchy.
Middle Rank: Erinyes / Ice Devil (Gelugon) — Cruel, fallen-angel torturers and insectoid tacticians who execute the literal letter of tyrannical law with freezing precision.
High Rank: Pit Fiend — Gargantuan, winged lords of iron courts who command whole regiments of Tartarus, bound entirely by ironclad contracts of oppression.
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
Pandemonium
Acheron
Abyss
Abaddon
Hades
Tartarus
Gehenna
The Ages of Urthe 