As a deity concerned entirely with nature and its fundamental forces, Gozreh makes her home on the Material Plane, wandering ceaselessly in the form of windstorms that race across the land or waves that roll across vast oceans. He cares little for the Outer Planes or the concerns of other gods, choosing instead to listen to the song of every unfurling leaf or insect wing.
To support that, I've looked through The Great Beyond: A Guide to Multiverse and it really does seem that Gozreh doesn't have a domain in any of the Outer Spheres. So what happens to the souls of mortals that worship him?
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Trees, man.
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Desna's another god who primarily dwells on the material plane, although at least some of her worshippers end up on Elysium, nowhere near her, for some bizarre reason.
Most of the Great Old Ones / Outer Gods are also material plane dwellers, so this is definitely something that should be addressed somewhere, although I'm not sure where.
If there was an elemental plane of wood (for the eastern element of wood), that might make an interesting domain for Gozreh (or other plant/nature themed gods), but non-western/European-themed planes aren't really a big thing (Xibalba being a recent and welcome exception). Perhaps the elemental plane of water or air might have areas that are coterminous / adjacent, and constitute a kind of 'planar realm' for Gozreh (since their Planar Allies tend to be elementals or tritons or similar residents of the elemental planes)?
Then again, Gozreh is associated with druids, and druids are associated with reincarnation, so perhaps that's a thing? Go green, recycle those souls! The party never ends when you worship Gozreh!
Agree with Set, reincarnation just makes sense.
It works for Desna too. To steal from Tolkein, The road goes ever on and on...
They're fed to Groetus like everyone else who doesn't have a spot on the outer planes, most likely.
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I believe the answer is that if the divine realm's on the prime, then the petitioners turn into whatever petitioner is appropriate for the god's alignment and they manifest as such on the divine realm.
If the god has no realm, then they simply go to whatever plane would be alignment appropriate.
It takes a very special class of soul (true atheists who are able to maintain their disbelief even in the face of Pharasma, Groetus, and the Boneyard itself) to satisfy Groetus, and pretty much anyone who faithfully worshiped a god (including Groetus's own worshipers!) cannot qualify.
The Book of the Damned also introduced prime material petitioners (for Rakshasa and Oni demigods); Desna and Gozreh and the like might have a more benevolent version of those.
Creative Director
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This is a topic we cover in the upcoming Planar Adventures (for all deities), but also touched upon in Book of the Damned. Petitioners who go to the realms of Rakshasa or Oni demigods are known as "prey" and all others (including Gozreh) are known as "remnants". They gain SR equal to 11 + their HD and the ferocity universal monster rule. As for what they look like... that varies. Prey are generally more haunted and wounded looking creatures similar in shape (but not identical) to their mortal lives, while remnants are generally the same but look at peace or calm.
In Gozreh's specific case, petitioners are likely to transform into elementals that lurk about in areas sacred to Gozreh (aka areas of great natural beauty or awe).
Desna's planar realm is not TECHNICALLY on the Material Plane. Cynosure is a demiplane that links between the Material Plane and Elysium, where she maintains the rest of her realm. More details on that coming in Planar Adventures as well.
The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.
The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.
You'd think Malevolent beings like Nyarlathotep would see the benefit of building armies to do their evil, malevolent work.
What about Bokrug, who seems to legitimately care about the Beings of Ib, in his own alien manner?
Weirdly enough, I don't think Bokrug has an actual divine realm for souls to go to. Great Old Ones don't have that ability.
Pharasma probably COULD send his worshippers to his territory in the Dreamlands, but she's a stickler for the rules, and no true realm usually means no souls.
@ James Jacobs - thanks for providing a Word of God answer on this.
Weirdly enough, I don't think Bokrug has an actual divine realm for souls to go to. Great Old Ones don't have that ability.
Pharasma probably COULD send his worshippers to his territory in the Dreamlands, but she's a stickler for the rules, and no true realm usually means no souls.
Strange Aeons spoiler
If Strange Aeons is "canon", in the sense that Rise of the Runelords, Second Darkness, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Shattered Star are to each other, then Bokrug is now awake after a long period of sleep and may set about trying to collect the souls of all his dead worshippers, at least the ones that didn't become ghosts.
I actually may use that as a post-Campaign plot hook for my PCs, having to help Bokrug get a realm so he can get his worshippers back.
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Creative Director
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The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.
You'd think Malevolent beings like Nyarlathotep would see the benefit of building armies to do their evil, malevolent work.
What about Bokrug, who seems to legitimately care about the Beings of Ib, in his own alien manner?
Nyarlathotep understands human nature is self-destructive enough that it just needs nudges here and there at the right time to set us all on the path to self annihilation. He doesn't need armies. We are already doing the job for him on our own more or less.
Bokrug does care about the beings of Ib, but note that they died and became undead, not petitioners. Their souls never entered the River of Souls at all in the first place. In a way, he did an end-run around the whole cosmic order in that way, I guess.
The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.
You'd think Malevolent beings like Nyarlathotep would see the benefit of building armies to do their evil, malevolent work.
What about Bokrug, who seems to legitimately care about the Beings of Ib, in his own alien manner?
Nyarlathotep understands human nature is self-destructive enough that it just needs nudges here and there at the right time to set us all on the path to self annihilation. He doesn't need armies. We are already doing the job for him on our own more or less.
Bokrug does care about the beings of Ib, but note that they died and became undead, not petitioners. Their souls never entered the River of Souls at all in the first place. In a way, he did an end-run around the whole cosmic order in that way, I guess.
Thanks for the response!
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Creative Director
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The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.
You'd think Malevolent beings like Nyarlathotep would see the benefit of building armies to do their evil, malevolent work.
What about Bokrug, who seems to legitimately care about the Beings of Ib, in his own alien manner?
Nyarlathotep understands human nature is self-destructive enough that it just needs nudges here and there at the right time to set us all on the path to self annihilation. He doesn't need armies. We are already doing the job for him on our own more or less.
Bokrug does care about the beings of Ib, but note that they died and became undead, not petitioners. Their souls never entered the River of Souls at all in the first place. In a way, he did an end-run around the whole cosmic order in that way, I guess.
Thanks for the response!
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No problem!
It's worth keeping in mind that the themes and motifs and all that regarding the Lovecraftian deities work best when they do NOT play along with the rest of the faith-based cycle of souls. It helps keep them alien, helps keep them frightening, helps keep them from being knowable to us mortals, and keeps them in-line with their literary sources.