River of Souls

See also: Mortality, shade, and soul

A map of the River of Souls. Click the image for a detailed legend.

The River of Souls is the name given to the constant metaphysical migration of mortal souls from the Universe to Pharasma's Boneyard in the Outer Sphere, where they are judged and sent to their eternal fate. Cyclical in nature, upon a mortal being's death the River represents a soul's afterlife, and before birth the quintessence that becomes a new soul traverses the River and arrives in the Universe to give life to a new mortal being.

Soul cycle

See also: Soul

The designed path of a mortal soul after death, in gross summary and with countless exceptions in practice, is as follows, with an indeterminate amount of time—moments in some, ages in others—passing between steps:

• Passage from the Inner Planes to the Outer Planes, via the Ethereal and Elemental planes to the Astral Plane
• Entrance to the River of Souls in the Astral Plane via one of many tributaries, and then propelled on currents driven from and leading toward the spiraling vortex of the Soulmouth
• Arrival to Pharasma's realm of the Boneyard, atop Pharasma's Spire in the Outer Plane of Axis
• Healing of a damaged soul in a soul repository, if necessary, under the purview of Narakaas
• Passage along the spiraling path to Pharasma's Court, via the Graveyard of Souls, for guidance toward the soul's intended planar destination
  • A psychopomp usher suited to the manner of the soul's mortal death might guide the soul to its destination, and souls too conflicted or confused to choose are brought before a yamaraj, who hears arguments from planar beings and judges the soul's destination accordingly; the psychopomp usher Saloc might also advocate in the soul's legal defense
  • The soul arrives to one of the Eight Courts most aligned with its mortal nature based on its faith and convictions; if no Court is suited to it, its fate is debated by planar advocates in the Inner Court, or is judged by Narakaas, or in especially complex or divided cases, the soul is personally judged by Pharasma in her Palace
  • The soul is asked if the judgment suits them, allowing for dissent

Pharasma judges souls.

• Pharasma passes final judgment and assigns the soul to an Outer Plane; no soul can be resurrected after this judgment

• The soul passes through the portal of their Court that leads to their destination plane, where by default the soul loses all of its mortal memories becomes a shade, a new being native to its assigned plane with a body made from its quintessence that is inextricable from their soul, and the form and nature of which varies by plane
• The shade exists by the rules of its new home plane, and is eventually either consumed, destroyed, or strengthens into a planar being, or outsider, of one of several templated forms specific to their plane
• The planar being eventually sheds its quintessence over time until it is destroyed or dies, upon which moment its quintessence is reabsorbed into its home plane

At this point, no whole component of the soul that was created remains; the soul's essences, including its quintessence, are absorbed into a plane.

Creation of souls

The River continues with the creation of new souls:

• Planar essence is naturally sloughed off from the planes' edges and drawn to the Maelstrom, where the Antipode transforms it into potentiality and transmits it to Creation's Forge
• Potentiality serves as the source of new quintessence, which forms new souls, either by becoming planted in the Forge and growing into fruit harvested once ripened from anemone-like mountainous trees by the jyotis and manasaputras who tend to them, or by transiting the Forge as sparks that become infused with the Forge's life-giving essences
• The nascent soul passes through portals or other planar intersections toward the Universe, typically via the First World, where some of its shed energy results in the creation of new fey
• After reaching the Universe, the soul attaches itself to life essence, then to a mortal body and becomes a new mortal creature, typically by the time the creature can exist independently from gestation

Exceptions

In practice, some souls do not fit the designed path even when allowed to freely transit it. Notably frequent exceptions include:

• Souls of mortals who experienced great emotional or psychic trauma, who sometimes become tethered to the Universe; they become undead if infused with void energy
  • Undead beings retain their souls in a subversion of the natural order, and the forceful creation of undead particularly draws the ire of Pharasma, who seeks the safe passage of those souls to the River
  • A lich stores their soul in a phylactery, and regenerates their physical form as long as the phylactery is intact.
• The souls of mortals who are resurrected, reincarnated, or otherwise have an alternative mortal vessel bound to them, which instead return to the Universe before reaching the River, or return from the River or Boneyard prior to judgment; these souls lose any memory or knowledge of their time in the afterlife
• Damned souls who were cursed or consentually agreed to their soul's fate during their mortal life; few can contest such a fate, and only Pharasma can decide upon exceptions
• The souls of mortals who died as children, who are judged exclusively by Pharasma's daughter Atropos
• "Failed" souls of mortals so unmotivated in life that they are drawn toward no plane after death and have no advocates for their soul, whom Pharasma might choose to assign to eternal interment in the Graveyard of Souls, becoming the soul debris that forms her Spire's structure
• The souls of atheists, who sometimes prefer interment in the Graveyard of Souls over the rule of beings from another plane of existence without the ability to choose their own fate
• The souls of those who die in the midst of true and fundamental change, who are judged by Narakaas and allowed to choose between completing their transformation posthumously or being judged on solely their mortal deeds as of their death
• The souls of those with unrealized potential who still failed to grow during their mortal life, whom Pharasma might assign to become an asphodi in Saloc's city-realm of Spire's Edge until they develop an affinity toward an Outer Plane
• The souls of those whose mortal actions were too morally and ethically contradictory to assign to a plane, whom Pharasma might also assign to Spire's Edge for a chance to posthumously prove their mortal intent
• The souls of those who die before their time, who remain in the Boneyard and temporarily assigned to Spire's Edge pending their fated resurrection
• Pharasma's own inscrutable decisions, which sometimes assign a soul to an incongruous plane despite all evidence to the contrary
• Fey, who reincarnate on their own when destroyed in the First World instead of traversing the River✝
• Given sufficient belief in an alternative path, a soul can forego the River of Souls for a different fate, such as reincarnation. Such diversions are ultimately temporary, however, and at some point the soul attempts to reach the Boneyard. On Golarion, such beliefs are particularly popular among the Vudrani.

Rarer exceptions result in exceptional phenomena, such as:

• Asuras, rare outsiders whose quintessence reincarnates into a new form upon destruction instead of being absorbed into their home plane
• Phantoms, souls who exit the Boneyard and River of Souls prior to judgment and re-enter the Ethereal Plane, in some cases bonding with a summoner
• Souls who are judged and become shades or outsiders, but who also retain some or all of their mortal memories and personality
• Trees in the Garden of Creation's Forge that represent mortal souls who have ascended to godhood, including those who died or fell to corruption.

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Dangers

A vanth psychopomp fights a wihsaak sahkil to protect the souls of the dead.

For other fates of souls outside of the River of Souls, see Soul.

Souls in their migration generally have little to fear on their journey, watched over as they are by powerful entities from the various planes. The two exceptions to this come from night hags and the much more dangerous astradaemons. The former travel to the Astral from their homes on the Ethereal Plane and are always in search of souls to steal and sell to the highest bidder on the Lower Planes. The latter constantly hunt for souls to consume and take back to their masters on Abaddon.

Other dangers include:

• Vetalaranas who consume enough of a soul leave its remnants incapable of continuing the path toward judgment from the Boneyard.
• In Phlegethon, souls are forged into weapons, armor, and jewelry.
• Certain spells can trap souls, preventing their progression into the afterlife, as can the powerful magical execution machines of Galt known as final blades.
• Certain creatures, such as daemons and soul eaters, can consume and destroy souls.
• Devils, demons, and night hags trade for, steal, or sell souls for eternal servitude.
• In Erebus, souls are broken apart into soul fragments and used as currency.
• Eternity's Doorstep is said to be a soul trap capable of sucking the remaining souls from undead who still cling to them.

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Appearance

On the Astral Plane, the River of Souls appears from a distance like a massive, winding silver thread. Those who approach can see the countless souls moving through a silver haze, like so many schools of fish. The esoteric tradition considers the River of Souls to be a ley line, and simply one part of the multiverse's network of magical pathways.

Nature of transit

After death, mortal souls pass through the Ethereal Plane, joining each other on their way to the Elemental Planes, then out of the Inner Sphere and into the Astral Plane. At this point souls then form the titular River, where they are watched over by countless representatives from the Outer Sphere, such as psychopomps who protect and guide souls while maintaining the River's integrity, but also angels, devils, and demons who also attempt to protect the souls in transit from malicious forces, as most souls are destined to become shades who join and empower these guardians' home planes.

The River can be turbulent, and a demiplane can form at the eye of astral storms that form from the combination of the River's turbulence, proximity to the Maelstrom, and disruptions from the Elemental Planes. The memories of mortal souls captured in these storms influence the nature of these demiplanes.

References

Paizo published a major article on the River of Souls in Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.