What happens when you die?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

The Exchange

Last week my character unfortunately became a bit to much of a target with his new holy bow and died. A few days later he was raised using raise dead. Now I have a few questions about what experiences my character would have had?

Do you go straight to your chosen deity (assuming you led a life they consider worthy)?

Is there a limbo stage first?

Does time feel at the same speed when you die?

What if you have no deity? My character was a staunch atheist so had no god.

What kind of things would I experience?

Would I even remember what it was like being dead?

I don't even know if there is any articles covering things like this. Links are fine.


It all depends on the setting you play in.


I would talk with your GM but also feel free to already have an idea of what he went through who knows the GM might say its all up to you.

The Exchange

We're in Golarion. I was just wondering if there was anything written about it somewhere. I only ask for flavour reasons. Perhaps I'll ask James Jacobs is he has any thoughts.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

If you remember anything at all (resurrection may very well leave your memory of the afterlife fuzzy at best), it will probably be waiting in line at the Boneyard, awaiting Pharasma's judgment.


My understanding is that you were waiting in line at the Boneyard. If you had met Pharasma and been judged, you would no longer be eligible for resurrection. I also get the impression that raised people have no memory of the time they were dead, but I don't really have a source on that.


You die -> your soul transits through the Astral* -> you wait in line at the Boneyard to be judged by Pharasma - > you get shuffled off to whatever plane and/or deity most fits your actions and/or beliefs in life.

In metagame terms, you end up in transit or waiting in line for however long it takes for your PC to be raised from the dead. Long dead NPCs or whatever are metagame often presumed to be judged and moved on to become angels, demons, devils, etc or daemon-chow and not eligible for raising. The timeline for this is all entirely up to the DM to decide as fits the campaign.

*Here be astradaemons, and souls are yummy. Nom Nom Nom.


My concept (not RAW): Let if feel like a dream, maybe a feverish one. Maybe you wait in the Boneyard line, however, you don´t have a accurate memory, it´s just like waking up and fail to remember what the dream you had one second ago was about while having some vague memory on it which doesn´t really makes any sense

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

In my games, the freshly-dead soul appears on a boat in transit via Styx river to Pharasma's domain. Depending on the soul's alignment, the crew of the boat ranges from "say, a cup of tea while we chat about the nature of the universe" agathions thru "multicolored puddle not us/them please sing with me/kill me/be my monument of approximation" proteans to "mmm. tasty." daemons.

EDIT: DAMN, beaten by a horseman!


Heh, soul refuded to return while resurrecting... what about changing that statement to "Your soul was caught by a Daemon and eaten!"

That would make the others think wice about defying death :D


heh. In most every campaign I ever played, being dead wasnt the RP part. trying to get your stuff back from the party members that looted your corpse was


It does depend on the game and GM. Here is an example from a game I playing in.

My wizard ended up getting stampeded and mauled by a bugbear bandit leader (His name being G'mok) on a heavy warhorse. My character had to be taken back to town to be raised from the dead, and it took some time for the other PC's to track down a large enough Diamond. While I was waiting I asked the GM what is it like in the afterlife for my character, she worships the Goddess of Magic, Knowledge, Scholars, and the Night in his campaign world. He described that my character was sitting in a large waiting room waiting for her name to be called, with the doors to the great library closed.

When my character was finally raised, the scholarly angel called my character up and cross referenced her name in the ledger and said "looks like you have been rescheduled to enter at a later date and must return to the land of the living."

At that point, my character woke up after the raise dead spell had been cast and the whole thing seemed like a dream. My char had to be informed she was in fact dead and not just asleep.

On a side note now, we refer to anyone getting seriously hurt as "G'mok'ed"

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Since I don't really deal with the afterlife that much this is the rule I follow.

1. The dead have at best hazy memories of thier time as living creatures. Once they become petitioners they lose virtually all of their mortal identity.

2. Souls that are raised have virtually no memories of their time as the dead. Particurlarly inspiring or terrifying moments might linger as dreams or nightmaresl, fading over time.


Depends on Game and DM
Depends on how long they were dead.

Lantern Lodge

xkcd

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