In multiple official books it says it takes decades or even centuries for most souls to be judged. Why so long? Are the psychopomp courts just really backed up or what? Also, what do the dead do while awaiting judgment?
Creative Director
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It takes as long as it takes, and it's different for everyone. It can take decades or centuries for some, and for others it's instant.
It takes long because we needed to build in a buffer there because in 1st edition, the longest something could be dead before you couldn't resurrect it was 10 years per level. That variable meant we couldn't say "All souls are judged in the same amount of time."
Furthermore, we wanted to retain an element that let a GM decide any one particular NPC couldn't be resurrected (if only to prevent the PCs from resurrecting everything in the world and disrupting potential storylines, but also to fight against the idea that "you can just bring the dead ruler back to life after they're slain" or "there's no reason to defeat a villain since his allies will just resurrect them.").
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I am imagining something like the old video game Grim Fandango where there are entire towns for souls to hang out in while they wait. Psychopomps provide what services a soul can use (The Nosoi can do awesome concerts)
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Creative Director
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I am imagining something like the old video game Grim Fandango where there are entire towns for souls to hang out in while they wait. Psychopomps provide what services a soul can use (The Nosoi can do awesome concerts)
Yup! Exactly. There's lots of fiction examples of things like this. The waiting room in Beetlejuice. Dante's Divine Comedy. We've also got the first volume of Tyrant's Grasp as well.
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I suspect lawyers are involved. They do get paid by the hour, you know.
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I am imagining something like the old video game Grim Fandango where there are entire towns for souls to hang out in while they wait. Psychopomps provide what services a soul can use (The Nosoi can do awesome concerts)Yup! Exactly. There's lots of fiction examples of things like this. The waiting room in Beetlejuice. Dante's Divine Comedy. We've also got the first volume of Tyrant's Grasp as well.
"What do you mean I'm 100,000,000 in line?!
"Chill out and watch a movie. We'll call you."
I believe that a significant part of this time is the travel via the River of Souls. It was never specified how long it takes. Though it was said that when Mahathallah hitched a ride on the River of Souls, she took a particularily winding route , and by the time she reached the end so much time has passed that ther shrines in the mortal realm turned to rubble.
In our Rise of the Runelords campaign my character was a Fighter 1/Witch 5/ Eldritch Knight x who was very much a glass cannon and by high levels, would die at some point in essentially every fight and so the running campaign joke was that she was playing a game of chess with Pharasma during her frequent pop-ins.