Death And The Nexus

The Afterlife

     When people of Edus pass on, whether from old age or winter chill or the explosion of flesh from a beast in the dark, they all experience an afterlife. Most in Edus are religious of some god or power, and when the person dies, their spirit travels into a plane of existence called The Purgatos Plane. This dull, lifeless plane of existence is where all spirits are judged, and await being accepted by their god. Purgatos is the plane where N’Asu resides in his citadel of Judgement. The city that surrounds the Nexus is named the Nexus and all souls live there until called by their god or power. When a newly dead spirit arrives, it waits outside the city as a being writes down the name of the souls as they enter the Nexus. As the spirit arrives at the gates, their name, their race and their deity or deities are recorded in the Tome of Souls.
     This immense book is N’Asu’s record of who enters and is taken from the Nexus. Often times the being recording the names will have markers set aside for souls N'Asu deems important and pushes them through the line for immediate judgment. This is because life in the Nexus is not safe... far from it.

The Nexus

     Once a soul enters the Citadel of Judgment, and is judged by N’Asu, The being is filled with an energy. The light that emanates from the judged soul pertains to their deity or power. Those with no god are given ultimate judgment from N’Asu, and are given a grey light or a black aura. These auras indicate a worthy soul, or an unworthy one. Those with the gray glow are molded into the city as pure souls for the Nexus. The black souls are cast from the Nexus and left to wander Purgatos.
     Once a soul has its color aura, it is left to wander Nexus and find a home. The colored aura is a Beacon to their Deity. Since all powers off the prime material plane rely on living worshippers or believers to continue their existence, all Deities rush to Purgatos with N’Asu’s permission and retrieve their worshipper’s souls. The colored souls of one god’s followers will all disappear one at a time, as their god comes to retrieve them and take them to his or her own throne on their own plane, before resurrection into a new body.
     As each god is given the responsibility to repopulate Edus with his or her own followers, and they only have as many followers as are found in the Nexus to rebuild from, this automatically balances power resurgence with the gods. The only way a deity or power can lose these souls is during their life, and how they live. For example, a newly born soul of a once follower of Rasfor is only under Rasfor’s control until birth. After they are reborn, it is the way Rasfor relates with the child through adulthood to determine when they die, if he again gets the soul. This is another automatic check on the gods to make sure they keep active on Edus, and lets their worshippers show them they are loyal, without fear of retribution.
     Those black souls cast from the Nexus that wander Purgatos, are soon scooped up by powers other than those of deities. The black souls are property of the Devils and Demons that fight eternal wars of death and pain in the Nine Hells. This is well known to all on Edus , and is often chided by others by being called “Black Souls” inferring where their soul will be headed when they die. Being called a Black Soul is the equivalent of being told to ‘Go to Hell.’
     The gray souls left to the Nexus have a choice to be reborn by entering the Citadel of Judgment and entering the Pool of Life, or staying in the Nexus and following the rule of N’Asu, these souls are constantly put to work, building more and more homes for wayward souls awaiting ascension.