Culture Around Death

Death

Little is known of life after death. Even those who have walked the planes, come back with different stories. Generally, it's believed that upon death a soul is sent to the Shadowfel. From here, it's said to be ferried by the Reaper. Payment of two copper coins is said to be enough to expedite ones journey. This has lead to the tradition of placing two coins on the deceased's eyes or two coins in the mouth (this various on region and beliefs, see final disposition for more info). What happens to those without payment is unknown. All of this is for the Reaper to bring one's soul to their final plane of existence. How and what plane is often debated in scholar and theological spaces alike. The pious believe their soul goes to their realm of their god, forever to serve at their will. Others have noted that this excludes the faithless and children who died before they could dedicate themselves to a god. This conjecture has led to many supporting the idea of a 'judge'. One who weighs the souls before being sent to their final plane. People who have been brought back to life after a long death confirm this theory to a certain degree. Each person has a different description of this judge. Some say they've seen a man at a gate, others speak of a floating being overlooking them, one even spoke of a one eyed horned cat, another spoke of a spooky tavern and a tavernkeep. Some cultures believe in resurrection. They believe that after death the spirit may be resurrected as a creature of the planes instead of being a spirit. This is supported by some flimsy evidence, but does support reason. They claim that they've met beings of other realms who have memories of their loved ones. Such individuals often don't have an answer for those beings when they die again. Druids often pose that the energies that embody everyone ends up as part of the energy of the world.

Resurrection

As mentioned prior, retrieval of a soul after death is possible through a variety of spells; however, if performed after a minute of passing, difficulties can occur. It's been found that the soul needs to be 'convinced' of returning. Whether this is to the soul itself or the god who is pulling it in, it does not matter. Such spells can outright fail if unsuccessful. Additionally, even if they are successful, it seems that further revivals become harder to complete. The soul appears to belong where it is going. Many see this as the natural fate of things.

Necromancy

Necromancy is the art of death magic. Whilst resurrection is technically a form of necromancy, it's often only referred to as such in technicalities as to the school of magic. When most knowledgeable people speak of "necromancy", they speak of the animation of the dead. This comes in many different forms. Sometimes using magic to puppet a corpse, other times infusing a soul with energy before it can pass on, and further times reuniting the soul with the body, but doing so in a way that it can't resonate with the flesh as it once did. Most cultures have yet to truly encounter necromancy, let alone in its many forms. This results in a general distaste for the practice. Those who worship life and nature often vilify it, as it is seen as an antithesis to the cycle of life and death.

Immortality

Beings are defined as immortal if they are able to subvert their soul passing without aid. This comes in many different forms and is hard to define wholely. Typically, if a soul is able to willfully prevent itself from passing to the realm after death or is able to subvert death entirely, the being is considered immortal. Creatures of the Material Plane typically simplify this definition and only speak of the prevention of aging and the subversion of the natural failure of ones body over time. All creatures defined as immortal are capable of death, however, they simply will be forced to take additional, extremely rare, steps that unbinds them from the world itself.

Type

Natural