The title of the thread is pretty self-explanatory, but I should probably explain this thread a bit more. This thread is to discuss Afterlife-Systems of the various D&D worlds, particularly those that discriminate based on your race. For example, as of 5e's canon, in the Forgotten Realms, Elves reincarnate after dying, being temporarily sent back to Arvandor until one of the elven deities (I forget which one in particular) decides to send them back to Toril in a new elven form. The idea of different afterlife systems like this has always seemed an interesting idea to me, but they always put me off a bit. Orcs and Goblinoids go to Acheron and have to fight and endless war after they die, Gnoll souls presumably go to the Abyss, Dwarven souls go to Arcadia, and so on.
My main issue with this is, you know, the fact that the gods are so discriminatory in their afterlives. This could be fixed simply, by having a non-elf worshipper of Corellon or some other elven deity be "adopted" into their afterlife system as an "honorary elf", or similar situations for the different deities and their afterlife systems, but this still doesn't feel satisfying to me. I'm more inclined towards afterlife systems that don't discriminate based on race in any way, but more take anyone whose lives corresponded to the different planes of existence (a good person could go to a good plane of existence, a bad person would go to the Abyss, Hades, Gehanna, or Nine Hells, completely based off of their deeds instead of their race).
What do you think? Any suggestions to help would be nice.
(Disclaimer: This thread isn't for debate, it's for positive, constructive discussion. My opinion on not liking racially-discriminating afterlife systems will remain the same whether or not you argue. If you do argue, you will be reported for trying to derail the thread.)
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
You can always homebrew whatever you want storywise in your own game.
Personally I generally just keep the afterlife out of the game in general. People have different beliefs about what's out there beyond death but nobody really knows for sure, any resurrected character retains no knowledge of what it was like. I have heavenly/hellish planes be simply the home of celestial beings/demons/devils etc and not places where souls of the dead go to.
Not sure if discriminatory is the right word. It's not really a situation of deities looking at deceased individuals and deciding what happens based on their race, the race simply predetermines whom the soul goes to. I think a possible way to solve this is to make the gods actually discriminatory, just not with regards to race. Use a sorting hat, or an entity with scales and a bunch of feathers, or Santa keeping a list, or a ginormous celestial scoreboard - some kind of mechanism which determines which deity will most appreciate (or least despise) your past life, and that's where your soul goes. A diligent worshipper will very likely end up with the deity they were so loyal to, but generally speaking you'd go to the god whose causes you furthered the most even if that doesn't always correspond with your past religious practices. And if nobody claims you, you go to limbo where your soul gets scrubbed until you get spun out towards some random higher being to do with whatever it is they do.
A half-orc who spent his life plying the oceans aboard numerous vessels, never setting foot ashore, might have his soul embraced by Deep Sashelas, the elven god of the sea. A ruthless dwarf who fomented war for many decades could find their soul in the possession of Kurtulmak, the kobold deity of war and mining. Lolth might prize the soul of an individual who won her empire through deceit and intrigue sufficiently to lay claim, even if that individual was human in her previous life.
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At the end of the day, in most game worlds gods lay claim (and that claim could be legitimate or achieve through subterfuge) to souls and those souls go to where that god routes them. A game world could frame this dynamic as oppressive and whole campaigns could be build upon efforts to disrupt this arrangement.
in my game, mortal souls are important to gods and other extraplanar entities, they are valued and there is a sort of economy to them. They're valuable because while gods can have great power over souls in their grasp, they don't know where they come from or what makes them (which is an epic level campaign arc one of my games may get to at some point).
I also agree discrimination isn't quite the right word. In metaphysics the word you're look for is simple determined. By being an elf, the soul is determined to a certain set of options, same for goblinoids, etc. Philosophically determinism is the diametric opposite of free will, whether either of those forces are dominant in a game world depends on the particular game.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
How about leaning into the non-species specific aspects of these Gods? Corellon is also known as the god of magic and art. Moradin the god of creation.
From there you could write lore that supports these deities favoring any culture that places great importance on their domains, providing some historical context for why certain societies within whatever given species ended up valuing those ideals. This would also give you a way to divorce species from a singular cultural identity dominated by the evil (or good) nature of one deity and create a more complex mosaic of belief systems.
I could see a couple of options for that, both of which wopuld lead to interesting situations in the game world.
First, the elven gods refuse to accept the worship of a non-elf. When the dwarf dies, they end up in the dawrf afterlife, with a bunch of dwarven gods who are really annoyed with the unbeliever.
Second, the dwarf goes to the elven afterlife. Or rather, the dwarf goes to the Name-of-Elven-Pantheon afterlife. After all, if they accept non elf worshippers then they can't really be called "elven gods."
As an alternative, perhaps the discriminatory afterlife is a matter of biology, not attitudes? After all, elves and dwarfs are actually different. In that case saying "dwarves go to the dwarf afterlife, not the elven afterlife" is no different to saying "fish can't breath in air."
Well the point is that Corellon would no longer be the Elven God, but instead simply a god of magic and art.
It could then be established how certain cultures within whatever species have a connection to those domains and deity. Maybe Corellon still ends up being predominantly associated with various Elven societies. But maybe not. Dwarven craftsmanship can certainly be viewed as art. Maybe this is a world where Elves nearly went extinct, and the largest enclaves left are secreted away in the mountains. Cloud Elves if you will. They could be worshippers of Moradin and experts at stone and metalworking. Perhaps they worship Corellon amongst their pantheon as well, but generally place greater importance on Moradin because their harsh existence and desperation leaves little time for the leisure pleasures of art and beauty.
The details aren't really important. That's for Third's brain to explode over. The idea is a simple one. Change racial deities to domain/ideal deities because they all have some amount of that association anyways.
I think it is fine. If demons and devils can claim mortal souls despite not being their racial deity, I do not see anything wrong with racial deities claiming the souls of other races. Obviously, the mortal will still need their new deity's approval to get their desired afterlife, but if both parties agree, there is no reason a Drow cannot free their soul from Lolth's grasp with the help of another deity that is not Eilistraee for example.
In 3.5e, your soul would migrate to the plane most appropriate based on your alignment without much say on the deities' part. In 4e, this was exemplified by outsiders; souls who belong in a plane but by random chance can't enter. The deities in that setting were unable to do anything to admit outsiders to their rightful afterlife.
What I mean to say is that the preferences of the deities has historically been unimportant in determining where a soul goes after death, and that alignment, rather than race, was the main determinant. Furthermore, deities are (usually) known to accept followers of any race.
How about leaning into the non-species specific aspects of these Gods? Corellon is also known as the god of magic and art. Moradin the god of creation.
From there you could write lore that supports these deities favoring any culture that places great importance on their domains, providing some historical context for why certain societies within whatever given species ended up valuing those ideals. This would also give you a way to divorce species from a singular cultural identity dominated by the evil (or good) nature of one deity and create a more complex mosaic of belief systems.
What you are suggesting was actually how the pantheon in 4e was handled. While many of the deities were still racial deities to those races they created/adopted, they also broaden their portfolios to attract other followers from different races.
Tiamat wasn’t just the deity of chromatic dragons, she was the deity of Greed and Envy, and had the Tyranny, Strife, and Vengence Domain. She demanded her followers (dragon or not) to conquer land and collect treasure from those too weak to keep it. She taught to never forgive or overlook even the smallest slight to one’s self, and that might equals right. Her worshippers were those who sought to rule through their strength, and those seeking great wealth and power.
Likewise, Corellon wasn’t just the deity of elves, he was also the diety of Spring, the Fey, Magic, Art, and Beauty, and had the Arcane, Skill (excellence in various fields such as art and knowledge) , and Wilderness domains. He taught to cultivate the beauty in all you do from the casting of spells and the creation of music to the the art of combat. Many spellcaster, musicians, and lovers of nature and it’s beauty worshiped Corellon.
All of the 4e deities accepted worshipers that were not of their chosen/creation race.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
The cycle of Elven reincarnation is an exclusive part of their spirituality, along with their lack of need for sleep and trance, their paling throughout their life, and so on. Even in this system, there is an exception, Drow Elves have been cut off from the regular cycle, so, more exceptions could happen...
But that's a system of specific race reincarnation, in general, souls can be claimed by the underrealms for contracts or misdeed, and into the general process of afterlife in one of the upper realms, they could be captured in a liches urn and consumed, destroyed by silver fire, or so on.
Just because some races have exclusive afterlife arcs doesn't mean that this is the natural outcome for most afterlife experiences or that there are no deviations. D&D is full of official loopholes and exceptions, so if you really want to find an alternative in lore, there's bound to be one... Karthus became the god of magic for a few seconds and collapsed the weave, crazier shit has happened.
Your entire premise is based on incorrect assumptions, be it if dealt with strictly in-game, or even if you want to conflate real life with over 40 years of lore for a fantasy game.
First, the in-game problems with your premise:
1. The game is built around quite literally dozens of pantheons/religions, with hundreds of gods. Most of those pantheons are species specific. To suggest that any one pantheon/god/ species cares how another believes how its dead are treated is incorrect. Some are brutal religions, others are more gentle. No Elf will follow an Orc god, because it is simply too far removed from their history and mindset. Now, perhaps a Half-Elf MIGHT be one that straddles two worlds and follow either human or elven gods, or both. But the Half-Elf's ingame actions will dictate what pantheon's afterlife it goes to, not the player choosing.
2. Some are directly tied to the creation of a species, and are inextricably intertwined with that species. It is literally part of the DNA of that species. Gnolls are a prime example. They were hyenas until they eat from the corpse that undergoes a religious ceremony performed by a Fang of Yeenoghu, which is essentially a cleric of that god, and imbued with powers directly by that demon lord. Gnolls have zero choice in their god, as they were quite literally made directly by their god. Gnolls are evil, because they are created that way by their evil god. There is no going back on that.
Conflating real-life with a fantasy game:
1. If you feel you really need to go there, is no inherent racism involved in D&D, because there is zero connection between reality and D&D. There are once again hundreds of pantheons and gods made up by humanity over thousands of years. The majority are now considered insane, because science has proven them so, or the major religions of today have deemed it so. That is part of human history, where when a dominant culture moves in, it usually wipes out the resident religion. Are you going to suggest that it is racist to condemn and ban a religion that threw virgins into a volcano? Anyone that condemns and wipes said brutal religion is not racist. So if Elves have different beliefs that Dwarves or Orcs, it is not based on racism. Someone who believes in Buddhism today does not think a Catholic or Jew is racist, just because they believe in a different pantheon. They can't even say that zealot is racist if said zealot follows a religion that states all adherents of a religion must kill all non-believers, because said zealot wants to kill EVERYONE, not a specific race.
2. The amount of the bandwdith that players use up caring about where their dead chars goes is tiny. I have NEVER seen a player question the DM about what the destination in the afterlife is for that char, unless it was because the group wanted to try to recover the player's char. It is waste of a DM's valuable time to deal with this.
So if you plan on mounting some campaign to have WOTC wipe out 40 plus years of lore, disappear Volo's from the planet, and also burn I have no idea how much fan fiction/published books.....well, good luck with that.
Yeah I think it's more cultural than racial. It'd be like saying in our world that the ancient Greeks went to the underworld while the ancient Romans went to elysium, while the vikings went to Valhalla and the Buddhists achieved nirvana.
If all those after-lives were real simultaneously, and your cultural practices and beliefs determined which one you went to, then I wouldn't call it racially discriminatory.
In that vein, if you have a human that's been say adopted into elf culture and holds elven cultural beliefs and traditions and honors Corellon, I don't see Corellon looking down on his faithful follower and saying "sorry your ears must be this pointy to ride this afterlife". It probably doesn't happen often, but maybe every now and again it might. It sounds like the kind of thing people would write a legend about, the human servant of the elf God who was embraced by the gods and reincarnated as an elf, etc.
Personally I generally just keep the afterlife out of the game in general. People have different beliefs about what's out there beyond death but nobody really knows for sure, any resurrected character retains no knowledge of what it was like. I have heavenly/hellish planes be simply the home of celestial beings/demons/devils etc and not places where souls of the dead go to.
This is my view, too. Any character can have any beliefs they wish, but there is no way to verify them. They could all be right, some could be right, or none at all. This doesn't really affect the game, just as it doesn't really affect modern life that there are dozens of religions with no way to prove which one(s) are right. I just prefix any references to "was created by this god", "gains power from that god", or "goes to the afterlife run by the other god" with "believes that".
Personally I generally just keep the afterlife out of the game in general. People have different beliefs about what's out there beyond death but nobody really knows for sure, any resurrected character retains no knowledge of what it was like. I have heavenly/hellish planes be simply the home of celestial beings/demons/devils etc and not places where souls of the dead go to.
Sure you can do that, and discount the default setting and ecology of Fiends and other lower planes denizens (no river Styx, not Lemures and Manes, the maggots of Hades, all that stuff that does imply the lower planes are the final destination of certain sorts of souls). Devil's and Demons seems largely invested in accumulating souls so what do they do if that's not part of the picture? You can say "eh, I just don't bother with that in my game." But it then begs the question why there's a hell, Abyss, Carceri etc. I mean do all the Lower Planes denizens just like a rough harsh environment lifestye? What are Devils doing all those contracts for? NFTs?
If you're game doesn't really touch the Outer Planes, than it's all moot. But if you have a game where the PCs engage in plane plundering on the regular, not having the relationship between extraplanar powers and mortals is sorta weakening the stakes of those adventures.
I think calling the final destination of souls discriminatory, as opposed to a deterministic model, ignores the actual "higher power" to soul dynamic. Gods IRL myth and spiritual systems as well as fantasy have their "chosen people". Yes, that's discriminatory but not really analogous to human discrimination (though feeling "entitled by a god" is often historically a factor in one peoples subjugation of another). So I see two ways to "beat" these discriminatory systems for those who feel excluded from the Elf soul privileges. One is sure, you can have exceptional non elves who are allowed by that Corellon or whoever to take the elven soul path (which would probably meaning returning as an elf). Or you flip the dynamic from the "Classic" where gods choose a people to benefit from its power, to a more contemporary fantasy version a la American Gods where the gods _need_ a people in order to have any power. So perhaps Corellon or whoever had initially selected the elves as their people. But over times, as the Elf people dwindled, so did that gods power. In order to be "a player" in the game world, the god needed to expand its portfolio so to speak to other mortals. In mortal terms there's an awakening among dwarves, humans, or goblins or what have you, who are "turned on" by Elven spirituality and those new adherents evidently partake of Elven afterlife paths.
At the end of the day, the gods are the DMs and have a status like the weather and sky. There's nothing in the DMG preventing a DM to have their world perpetually cast in fog, just as there's nothing really preventing a DM from saying "souls work this way" "all who worship Correlon can return (as what, might need some thought) etc.).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Nodding at Kotath on the above, though also noting Elves having "special spirits" that work differently from other mortals is a trope in fantasy beyond FR (FR is actually reflecting LOTR and its derivatives).
I'd also say in settings where some gods or pantheons choose a race as its beneficiaries, an outsider worshipping those gods still has to be somehow accepted by those gods, sort of the answered prayers thing I've used to talk about divine magic. This could just be through carrying one self perpetually in an "act of service" to that pantheon in your day to day or perhaps undergoing a pilgrimage of some sort to prove their worth. What I'm saying is player agency needs to negotiate a game world's theology or spiritual system.
Also just as a footnote, just because you're an elf you're not necessarily entitled to the Elven pantheon soul system in FR. Jander Sunstar, last scene in 5e in Avernus, is a notable Forgotten Realms and Ravensloft lore character (multiple novels and I believe appearances in other D&D editions besides his DitA cameo) is a elf who is clearly out of his pantheon's graces, so to speak.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
In the worlds I run, my pantheon of Gods behave much like those in the Forgotten Realms novels I devour constantly. Any race can worship any God, though some Gods ARE racially biased, most accept all races as followers, provided the person follow the edicts and belief system of the God/Goddess. Orcs can worship Tymora alongside Elves, with some Dwarves and even the mangey Humans are allowed a spot, lol. In the worlds I run, any race can be good or evil and follow whatever God they shoose. yes, some tend to be primarily evil or good as a general rule, but almost any campaign I run will have the unexpected "evil" races running reputable shops in the towns and villages.
Your observations are noted, but the suggestion that any ruleset or fictional history or fabricated behaviors or practices of any existing lore isn't valid. As a DM, you decide what the Gods in your world do. Wizards just threw down a bunch of established lore for you to draw from. Add/edit/delete as you see fit. They might be Gods in the world, but it's YOUR world, so you are THE God there.
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The title of the thread is pretty self-explanatory, but I should probably explain this thread a bit more. This thread is to discuss Afterlife-Systems of the various D&D worlds, particularly those that discriminate based on your race. For example, as of 5e's canon, in the Forgotten Realms, Elves reincarnate after dying, being temporarily sent back to Arvandor until one of the elven deities (I forget which one in particular) decides to send them back to Toril in a new elven form. The idea of different afterlife systems like this has always seemed an interesting idea to me, but they always put me off a bit. Orcs and Goblinoids go to Acheron and have to fight and endless war after they die, Gnoll souls presumably go to the Abyss, Dwarven souls go to Arcadia, and so on.
My main issue with this is, you know, the fact that the gods are so discriminatory in their afterlives. This could be fixed simply, by having a non-elf worshipper of Corellon or some other elven deity be "adopted" into their afterlife system as an "honorary elf", or similar situations for the different deities and their afterlife systems, but this still doesn't feel satisfying to me. I'm more inclined towards afterlife systems that don't discriminate based on race in any way, but more take anyone whose lives corresponded to the different planes of existence (a good person could go to a good plane of existence, a bad person would go to the Abyss, Hades, Gehanna, or Nine Hells, completely based off of their deeds instead of their race).
What do you think? Any suggestions to help would be nice.
(Disclaimer: This thread isn't for debate, it's for positive, constructive discussion. My opinion on not liking racially-discriminating afterlife systems will remain the same whether or not you argue. If you do argue, you will be reported for trying to derail the thread.)
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
You can always homebrew whatever you want storywise in your own game.
Personally I generally just keep the afterlife out of the game in general. People have different beliefs about what's out there beyond death but nobody really knows for sure, any resurrected character retains no knowledge of what it was like. I have heavenly/hellish planes be simply the home of celestial beings/demons/devils etc and not places where souls of the dead go to.
Not sure if discriminatory is the right word. It's not really a situation of deities looking at deceased individuals and deciding what happens based on their race, the race simply predetermines whom the soul goes to. I think a possible way to solve this is to make the gods actually discriminatory, just not with regards to race. Use a sorting hat, or an entity with scales and a bunch of feathers, or Santa keeping a list, or a ginormous celestial scoreboard - some kind of mechanism which determines which deity will most appreciate (or least despise) your past life, and that's where your soul goes. A diligent worshipper will very likely end up with the deity they were so loyal to, but generally speaking you'd go to the god whose causes you furthered the most even if that doesn't always correspond with your past religious practices. And if nobody claims you, you go to limbo where your soul gets scrubbed until you get spun out towards some random higher being to do with whatever it is they do.
A half-orc who spent his life plying the oceans aboard numerous vessels, never setting foot ashore, might have his soul embraced by Deep Sashelas, the elven god of the sea. A ruthless dwarf who fomented war for many decades could find their soul in the possession of Kurtulmak, the kobold deity of war and mining. Lolth might prize the soul of an individual who won her empire through deceit and intrigue sufficiently to lay claim, even if that individual was human in her previous life.
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Wrench in the works: Reincarnate
At the end of the day, in most game worlds gods lay claim (and that claim could be legitimate or achieve through subterfuge) to souls and those souls go to where that god routes them. A game world could frame this dynamic as oppressive and whole campaigns could be build upon efforts to disrupt this arrangement.
in my game, mortal souls are important to gods and other extraplanar entities, they are valued and there is a sort of economy to them. They're valuable because while gods can have great power over souls in their grasp, they don't know where they come from or what makes them (which is an epic level campaign arc one of my games may get to at some point).
I also agree discrimination isn't quite the right word. In metaphysics the word you're look for is simple determined. By being an elf, the soul is determined to a certain set of options, same for goblinoids, etc. Philosophically determinism is the diametric opposite of free will, whether either of those forces are dominant in a game world depends on the particular game.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
How about leaning into the non-species specific aspects of these Gods? Corellon is also known as the god of magic and art. Moradin the god of creation.
From there you could write lore that supports these deities favoring any culture that places great importance on their domains, providing some historical context for why certain societies within whatever given species ended up valuing those ideals. This would also give you a way to divorce species from a singular cultural identity dominated by the evil (or good) nature of one deity and create a more complex mosaic of belief systems.
And what about the Dwarf who worships Elven gods?
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I could see a couple of options for that, both of which wopuld lead to interesting situations in the game world.
First, the elven gods refuse to accept the worship of a non-elf. When the dwarf dies, they end up in the dawrf afterlife, with a bunch of dwarven gods who are really annoyed with the unbeliever.
Second, the dwarf goes to the elven afterlife. Or rather, the dwarf goes to the Name-of-Elven-Pantheon afterlife. After all, if they accept non elf worshippers then they can't really be called "elven gods."
As an alternative, perhaps the discriminatory afterlife is a matter of biology, not attitudes? After all, elves and dwarfs are actually different. In that case saying "dwarves go to the dwarf afterlife, not the elven afterlife" is no different to saying "fish can't breath in air."
Well the point is that Corellon would no longer be the Elven God, but instead simply a god of magic and art.
It could then be established how certain cultures within whatever species have a connection to those domains and deity. Maybe Corellon still ends up being predominantly associated with various Elven societies. But maybe not. Dwarven craftsmanship can certainly be viewed as art. Maybe this is a world where Elves nearly went extinct, and the largest enclaves left are secreted away in the mountains. Cloud Elves if you will. They could be worshippers of Moradin and experts at stone and metalworking. Perhaps they worship Corellon amongst their pantheon as well, but generally place greater importance on Moradin because their harsh existence and desperation leaves little time for the leisure pleasures of art and beauty.
The details aren't really important. That's for Third's brain to explode over. The idea is a simple one. Change racial deities to domain/ideal deities because they all have some amount of that association anyways.
I think it is fine. If demons and devils can claim mortal souls despite not being their racial deity, I do not see anything wrong with racial deities claiming the souls of other races. Obviously, the mortal will still need their new deity's approval to get their desired afterlife, but if both parties agree, there is no reason a Drow cannot free their soul from Lolth's grasp with the help of another deity that is not Eilistraee for example.
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In 3.5e, your soul would migrate to the plane most appropriate based on your alignment without much say on the deities' part. In 4e, this was exemplified by outsiders; souls who belong in a plane but by random chance can't enter. The deities in that setting were unable to do anything to admit outsiders to their rightful afterlife.
What I mean to say is that the preferences of the deities has historically been unimportant in determining where a soul goes after death, and that alignment, rather than race, was the main determinant. Furthermore, deities are (usually) known to accept followers of any race.
What you are suggesting was actually how the pantheon in 4e was handled. While many of the deities were still racial deities to those races they created/adopted, they also broaden their portfolios to attract other followers from different races.
Tiamat wasn’t just the deity of chromatic dragons, she was the deity of Greed and Envy, and had the Tyranny, Strife, and Vengence Domain. She demanded her followers (dragon or not) to conquer land and collect treasure from those too weak to keep it. She taught to never forgive or overlook even the smallest slight to one’s self, and that might equals right. Her worshippers were those who sought to rule through their strength, and those seeking great wealth and power.
Likewise, Corellon wasn’t just the deity of elves, he was also the diety of Spring, the Fey, Magic, Art, and Beauty, and had the Arcane, Skill (excellence in various fields such as art and knowledge) , and Wilderness domains. He taught to cultivate the beauty in all you do from the casting of spells and the creation of music to the the art of combat. Many spellcaster, musicians, and lovers of nature and it’s beauty worshiped Corellon.
All of the 4e deities accepted worshipers that were not of their chosen/creation race.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
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RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Oh that's cool RoughCoronet0. I have exactly 0% experience with 4E. Switched over to Pathfinder like so many others.
The cycle of Elven reincarnation is an exclusive part of their spirituality, along with their lack of need for sleep and trance, their paling throughout their life, and so on. Even in this system, there is an exception, Drow Elves have been cut off from the regular cycle, so, more exceptions could happen...
But that's a system of specific race reincarnation, in general, souls can be claimed by the underrealms for contracts or misdeed, and into the general process of afterlife in one of the upper realms, they could be captured in a liches urn and consumed, destroyed by silver fire, or so on.
Just because some races have exclusive afterlife arcs doesn't mean that this is the natural outcome for most afterlife experiences or that there are no deviations. D&D is full of official loopholes and exceptions, so if you really want to find an alternative in lore, there's bound to be one... Karthus became the god of magic for a few seconds and collapsed the weave, crazier shit has happened.
Your entire premise is based on incorrect assumptions, be it if dealt with strictly in-game, or even if you want to conflate real life with over 40 years of lore for a fantasy game.
First, the in-game problems with your premise:
1. The game is built around quite literally dozens of pantheons/religions, with hundreds of gods. Most of those pantheons are species specific. To suggest that any one pantheon/god/ species cares how another believes how its dead are treated is incorrect. Some are brutal religions, others are more gentle. No Elf will follow an Orc god, because it is simply too far removed from their history and mindset. Now, perhaps a Half-Elf MIGHT be one that straddles two worlds and follow either human or elven gods, or both. But the Half-Elf's ingame actions will dictate what pantheon's afterlife it goes to, not the player choosing.
2. Some are directly tied to the creation of a species, and are inextricably intertwined with that species. It is literally part of the DNA of that species. Gnolls are a prime example. They were hyenas until they eat from the corpse that undergoes a religious ceremony performed by a Fang of Yeenoghu, which is essentially a cleric of that god, and imbued with powers directly by that demon lord. Gnolls have zero choice in their god, as they were quite literally made directly by their god. Gnolls are evil, because they are created that way by their evil god. There is no going back on that.
Conflating real-life with a fantasy game:
1. If you feel you really need to go there, is no inherent racism involved in D&D, because there is zero connection between reality and D&D. There are once again hundreds of pantheons and gods made up by humanity over thousands of years. The majority are now considered insane, because science has proven them so, or the major religions of today have deemed it so. That is part of human history, where when a dominant culture moves in, it usually wipes out the resident religion. Are you going to suggest that it is racist to condemn and ban a religion that threw virgins into a volcano? Anyone that condemns and wipes said brutal religion is not racist. So if Elves have different beliefs that Dwarves or Orcs, it is not based on racism. Someone who believes in Buddhism today does not think a Catholic or Jew is racist, just because they believe in a different pantheon. They can't even say that zealot is racist if said zealot follows a religion that states all adherents of a religion must kill all non-believers, because said zealot wants to kill EVERYONE, not a specific race.
2. The amount of the bandwdith that players use up caring about where their dead chars goes is tiny. I have NEVER seen a player question the DM about what the destination in the afterlife is for that char, unless it was because the group wanted to try to recover the player's char. It is waste of a DM's valuable time to deal with this.
So if you plan on mounting some campaign to have WOTC wipe out 40 plus years of lore, disappear Volo's from the planet, and also burn I have no idea how much fan fiction/published books.....well, good luck with that.
Yeah I think it's more cultural than racial. It'd be like saying in our world that the ancient Greeks went to the underworld while the ancient Romans went to elysium, while the vikings went to Valhalla and the Buddhists achieved nirvana.
If all those after-lives were real simultaneously, and your cultural practices and beliefs determined which one you went to, then I wouldn't call it racially discriminatory.
In that vein, if you have a human that's been say adopted into elf culture and holds elven cultural beliefs and traditions and honors Corellon, I don't see Corellon looking down on his faithful follower and saying "sorry your ears must be this pointy to ride this afterlife". It probably doesn't happen often, but maybe every now and again it might. It sounds like the kind of thing people would write a legend about, the human servant of the elf God who was embraced by the gods and reincarnated as an elf, etc.
This is my view, too. Any character can have any beliefs they wish, but there is no way to verify them. They could all be right, some could be right, or none at all. This doesn't really affect the game, just as it doesn't really affect modern life that there are dozens of religions with no way to prove which one(s) are right. I just prefix any references to "was created by this god", "gains power from that god", or "goes to the afterlife run by the other god" with "believes that".
Sure you can do that, and discount the default setting and ecology of Fiends and other lower planes denizens (no river Styx, not Lemures and Manes, the maggots of Hades, all that stuff that does imply the lower planes are the final destination of certain sorts of souls). Devil's and Demons seems largely invested in accumulating souls so what do they do if that's not part of the picture? You can say "eh, I just don't bother with that in my game." But it then begs the question why there's a hell, Abyss, Carceri etc. I mean do all the Lower Planes denizens just like a rough harsh environment lifestye? What are Devils doing all those contracts for? NFTs?
If you're game doesn't really touch the Outer Planes, than it's all moot. But if you have a game where the PCs engage in plane plundering on the regular, not having the relationship between extraplanar powers and mortals is sorta weakening the stakes of those adventures.
I think calling the final destination of souls discriminatory, as opposed to a deterministic model, ignores the actual "higher power" to soul dynamic. Gods IRL myth and spiritual systems as well as fantasy have their "chosen people". Yes, that's discriminatory but not really analogous to human discrimination (though feeling "entitled by a god" is often historically a factor in one peoples subjugation of another). So I see two ways to "beat" these discriminatory systems for those who feel excluded from the Elf soul privileges. One is sure, you can have exceptional non elves who are allowed by that Corellon or whoever to take the elven soul path (which would probably meaning returning as an elf). Or you flip the dynamic from the "Classic" where gods choose a people to benefit from its power, to a more contemporary fantasy version a la American Gods where the gods _need_ a people in order to have any power. So perhaps Corellon or whoever had initially selected the elves as their people. But over times, as the Elf people dwindled, so did that gods power. In order to be "a player" in the game world, the god needed to expand its portfolio so to speak to other mortals. In mortal terms there's an awakening among dwarves, humans, or goblins or what have you, who are "turned on" by Elven spirituality and those new adherents evidently partake of Elven afterlife paths.
At the end of the day, the gods are the DMs and have a status like the weather and sky. There's nothing in the DMG preventing a DM to have their world perpetually cast in fog, just as there's nothing really preventing a DM from saying "souls work this way" "all who worship Correlon can return (as what, might need some thought) etc.).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Nodding at Kotath on the above, though also noting Elves having "special spirits" that work differently from other mortals is a trope in fantasy beyond FR (FR is actually reflecting LOTR and its derivatives).
I'd also say in settings where some gods or pantheons choose a race as its beneficiaries, an outsider worshipping those gods still has to be somehow accepted by those gods, sort of the answered prayers thing I've used to talk about divine magic. This could just be through carrying one self perpetually in an "act of service" to that pantheon in your day to day or perhaps undergoing a pilgrimage of some sort to prove their worth. What I'm saying is player agency needs to negotiate a game world's theology or spiritual system.
Also just as a footnote, just because you're an elf you're not necessarily entitled to the Elven pantheon soul system in FR. Jander Sunstar, last scene in 5e in Avernus, is a notable Forgotten Realms and Ravensloft lore character (multiple novels and I believe appearances in other D&D editions besides his DitA cameo) is a elf who is clearly out of his pantheon's graces, so to speak.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
In the worlds I run, my pantheon of Gods behave much like those in the Forgotten Realms novels I devour constantly. Any race can worship any God, though some Gods ARE racially biased, most accept all races as followers, provided the person follow the edicts and belief system of the God/Goddess. Orcs can worship Tymora alongside Elves, with some Dwarves and even the mangey Humans are allowed a spot, lol. In the worlds I run, any race can be good or evil and follow whatever God they shoose. yes, some tend to be primarily evil or good as a general rule, but almost any campaign I run will have the unexpected "evil" races running reputable shops in the towns and villages.
Your observations are noted, but the suggestion that any ruleset or fictional history or fabricated behaviors or practices of any existing lore isn't valid. As a DM, you decide what the Gods in your world do. Wizards just threw down a bunch of established lore for you to draw from. Add/edit/delete as you see fit. They might be Gods in the world, but it's YOUR world, so you are THE God there.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.