Question about ritual sacrifice (by the bad guys).

[Midnight Anarch]

It's a staple of fantasy -- the villain kidnaps the virgin and intends to sacrifice her to some dark god in a profane ritual. The heroes burst in to save her just before the dagger strikes her heart.

Except, presumably, sometimes they don't burst in.

In Pathfinder, what is the metaphysical effect of such a sacrifice? Is it just a blood sacrifice? Is the soul quickly judged and given to the dark god instead of where the person's soul might have normally gone? (Which is why it's all the more urgent for heroes to save the fair lady.) Something else?

I believe this is how it worked in 3.5, and offering souls via ritual sacrifice might earn the favor of the deity in question.

(The Book of Vile Darkness explains, "In some abstract sense, the sacrifice adds a small mote to the god's overwhelming power, and the evil deity is sometimes willing to grant a boon or blessing in return.")

Asking for some evil friends.

[Zhangar]

In Pathfinder, if the ritual sacrifice is done "right," then the victim's soul never reaches Pharasma's court for judgment; rather the victim's soul goes right to the divine realm of the appropriate evil demigod or deity.

(Relevant link - I'd asked Mr. Jacobs more or less this question some time ago.)

It'd make sense for it also to be harder to revive someone killed in such a manner - you should probably look to the damnation rules for demoniacs or diabolists (i.e., raise spells fail unless the caster passes a high DC caster level check).

This gets murkier if the dark power in question doesn't actually have a divine realm (like the Great Old Ones). The sacrificed soul probably still doesn't reach Pharasma's court, but it'd be up in the air where the soul would actually go.

[archmagi1]

One other thing to consider, is that with Occult Adventures, there are rules for actual occult rituals. It is kind of up to the GM for how a ritual's components (in this case a virgin) are consumed, but I can even reasonably see that the victims soul gets destroyed like all material components (only returnable by a wish or miracle to undo the ritual itself, or time travel shenanigans) in order to power whatever magical event that the villain is trying to accomplish.

[Ventnor]

archmagi1 wrote:

One other thing to consider, is that with Occult Adventures, there are rules for actual occult rituals. It is kind of up to the GM for how a ritual's components (in this case a virgin) are consumed, but I can even reasonably see that the victims soul gets destroyed like all material components (only returnable by a wish or miracle to undo the ritual itself, or time travel shenanigans) in order to power whatever magical event that the villain is trying to accomplish.

A forget exactly where it's printed, but there's an occult ritual for becoming a Lich. The DCs for the ritual skill checks become easier if you sacrifice a bunch of others in the process of completing it.

[archmagi1]

I like the flavor of that one even better. The souls all go toward creating the phylactery, and are kept from their afterlife as long as the lich remains.