The Third Realm

Two realms exist open to mortal eyes, even if one is rarely seen. Deus, the world of living mortals, encompasses everything one can hope to encounter in a lifetime, and Caelum, the realm of the gods, exists on a higher plane of existence, overseeing the mortal world and passing down new facets of existence. With the aid of a god, travel between the two is scarecely limited both ways.

Beyond them—or possibly between them—lies the Third Realm, a world filled with the souls of all who have died on Deus. Passage to this realm is one way only for mortals, and those few gods who are able to ferry souls to the Third Realm refuse to divulge any information about its contents.

Passage to the Third Realm

A mortal soul, for as long as the mortal is alive, remains firmly tethered to its body. While some works of magic can loosen the tether for a time, and repeated efforts can slowly degrade its strength, it usually draws the soul back to its body very quickly. The only way to fully sever it is death, which leaves a soul to wander the world bodiless forever.

For a time after death, the duration of which is dependent on several factors, the soul can remain on Deus, unable to interact with the world, but able to be reached through magic. It is possible, if one acts quickly enough, to contact a freshly dead soul or bind it to a vessel—however, this becomes impossible once a soul has been ferried to the Third Realm.

As soon as a death comes to the notice of a Ferryman—one of the gods with the power to visit the Third Realm at will—they will appear to the soul and bring them to the Third Realm. Such interactions have been documented by necromancers who were able to view a soul at the moment of their passage, but none have revealed any glimpses into the Third Realm itself. Nevertheless, their efforts have given a clear image of the mechanics through which various Ferrymen bring their passengers to the next world.

Notable Ferrymen

(Index of Gods)

Vespa

Vespa, goddess of insects and torture, is one of several ferrymen who specialize in those who die under specific circumstances. In her case, she primarily guides the souls of those who die under torture or who suffered a drawn-out, painful death for any other reason.

They have only been witnessed ferrying souls on two occasions, but on both those occasions they took the soul they were ferrying by the hand and vanished into golden light. In one instance, Vespa seemed to notice the necromancer who was watching them, and afflicted them with a curse which attracted stinging insects to them for a year. The name of the necromancer in question has been withheld at their request.

The Final Reaper

Oidaron, more commonly referred to as the Final Reaper, ferries those souls who are left without a ferryman. Typically, he picks up souls who have been left to linger on Deus for more than two days, and rarely does he leave a soul to wander for more than a week. He has been witnessed by necromancers on many occasions—with or without passengers—sailing a small ship through the space occupied by souls, but his ship has never been seen passing into the Third Realm.

Reincarnation

While the mechanics of reincarnation are still poorly understood, there are several documented cases of its occurence. On occasion, a soul will find passage out of the Third Realm through currently unknown means and rid itself of its memories, in particular those of the Third Realm itself. That soul will then reenter the cycle of life in the body of a newborn.

Reincarnated souls will begin to regain the memories of their previous life at some point in their adolescence, usually through dreams which depict events from their past life. These memories are usually clear, but fragmented, and reincarnated individuals report feeling at once connected to and disconnected from the memories. Typically, a reincarnated individual can glean just enough information from these memories to recognize their past life, and no more.

Theories on the Third Realm

The Third Realm is fundamentally unknowable due to the mechanics of life and death. This unknowability has led to several competing theories on its nature, and some of the most notable are detailed below.

Paradisism

Paradisism is the most accepted image of the Third Realm. While different groups may have different beliefs of the realm's exact nature, the common thread between all images is that the Third Realm is a place freed from mortal suffering, and that existence after death is generally better than existence before death.

Some instances of Paradisism state that entry into the utopian parts of the Third Realm is dependent on actions taken during one's life or undergoing redemption from past wrongs. Those who fail to meet the criteria for paradise are sentenced either to atonement or to an unknown, painful fate.

Cyclism

According to Cyclism, the Third Realm is not merely the world after death, but also the world before birth. In short, every freshly deceased soul is also a soon-to-be-born soul, with no distinction between states. The Third Realm is seen as a featureless pool filled with souls lacking consciousness, from which new life is drawn. Reincarnated individuals, Cyclism states, are simply exceptions to the method by which all souls are reborn—they have managed to hang onto their memories through the process which scrubs all other souls clean, and the lack of memory from the Third Realm is simply the result of forming no memory of the Third Realm to begin with.

Pandemonium

The Pandemonium image of the Third Realm states that the world after death is harsh on those who enter it. Opinions on its exact nature vary, from a world merely hazardous by nature to a realm where mortal souls are actively tormented, but all who subscribe to this image of the Third Realm believe that the world after death is worse than that before death and a fate to be avoided. Under this theory, reincarnated souls are those who have managed to escape the torment they experienced after dying.

Divided Realm

In the Divided Realm theory, the Third Realm is not a monolith, but a group of sectors into which souls are sorted after death. This theory has many different realizations, many popular enough to have names of their own, and usually differing on the mechanism by which souls are sorted. Some believe souls are taken to blissful or torturous realms dependent on their morality in life, while others believe the different sections of the Third Realm are open to followers of different gods, and many more ideas coexist with them.