I know when someone dies their soul goes to the outer plane of their corresponding alignment from life. Anyone know what conditions occur after the transit? Does someone just simply "appear" as a petitioner? And I know they lose all memories of their former life, but would they automatically gain knowledge from the plain they're in? For instance would they automatically know about such conditions as would take them up the ranks in progress on that plane, such as petitioners (I think Lantern Archons) moving up the ladder of progression in Mount Celestia to reach other higher ranks in Archons? Or would they be instantly learned in the/their deity(ies) within that plane? I know there are the realms of dwarves in Celestia, and halflings, etc. Would they be automatically conditioned to their "area" or "realm" only, or for all the plane?
Thx.
Lots of them go to palace of judgement on the outlands where they are sent to the planes they're supposed to go
I have a better question: What about petitioners on ysgard or acheron? They fight and lead armies and everything but the 3e template (for all petitioners) says none of them has any treasure or armor. Why can't they equip themselves while on the plane?
Do they end up becoming larvae (or "start off" I should say)?
Most of them start out as larvae, yes. It's not clear if there are larvae native to Gehenna or Carceri - I'm guessing no, petitioners on those planes resemble their mortal forms. In the Gray Waste (where everything tends toward larva-shape) and in Baator and the Abyss (where the larvae were originally cast by the yugoloths at the beginning of time) all petitioners start out as larvae and, if they're lucky, evolve into (depending on the plane) hordlings, nupperibos, or manes.
Individual deities and other planar beings are free to change this default, if they want. Petitioners in Dispater's realm become soulshells, while petitioners in the Underworld become gloomy shades.
Does someone just simply "appear" as a petitioner?
Yes, I think so. Larvae are a kind of petitioner (they even use the petitioner template in hte Manual of the Planes. Lantern archons are another form of petitioner.
A soul in the Outer Planes is a petitioner by definition - if it were in the Ethereal Plane, it would be a ghost.
Souls travel from the Material Plane to the Outer Planes through silver tunnels called astral conduits. These are invisible from their material end, though they can be spotted with true seeing. They're the "tunnels of light" reported by those who have experienced near death. From the Astral Plane they look like silver cords, only much bigger.
all petitioners start out as larvae and, if they're lucky, evolve into (depending on the plane) hordlings, nupperibos, or manes.
Lemures, not nupperibo. Nupperibo (rarely) spawn directly from Baator.
Lemures, not nupperibo. Nupperibo (rarely) spawn directly from Baator.
That's not right. Lemures can only be made by more powerful baatezu - they can be made directly from larvae or by transforming nupperibos.
Nupperibos evolve naturally from larvae.
Larvae are a petitioner form taken by only the most depraved souls of the Gray Waste. Regular, not-so-depraved souls in the Gray Waste just take a common humanoid petitioner form.
I believe that in 3E continuity, petitioners in the Abyss become Manes, and in the Nine Hells of Baator, petioners bypass the larval form and go straight to Lemure (do not pass go, do not collect 200 gp.)
If one were using the FR cosmology, larvae are the default form of all petitioners on the planes of the Barrens of Doom & Despair and the Blood Rift.
It should be noted that 3E Manual of the Planes has changed up the lower planar ecology somewhat.
Either that, or they merely left some details out.
But I hope we can at least discuss the Planescape interpretation of things here, on the Planescape board. Not that I would flinch from doing so elsewhere.
Ah, yes, here it is. Faces of Evil, page 12.
"Long, long ago, before the first baatezu ever saw the light of day, Baator was home to a race of powerful, unknown creatues. The larvae of the plane (which weren't born from mortal spirits, as there weren't any mortals yet) all evolved into the fleshy fiends known as nupperibos, which were the young of the mysterious race.
"Well, by the time the baatezu came along, most of the ancient Baatorians'd vanished or simply hidden themselves away*. But the larvae still grew into nupperibos. 'Course, the baatezu tried to put a stop to that by molding the larvae into lemures - the "young" of their race. And it's still going on today. If left alone on the plains of Baator long enough, larvae naturally spawn nupperibos. So the lawful fiends gather up all the larvae they can find and turn 'em into lemures instead."
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*This implies, incidently, that the baatezu didn't conquer them. Instead, perhaps they had already been destroyed, long before, by the archons and celestials observed frozen in the act of fighting them deep beneath the ice of Cania.
It should be noted that 3E Manual of the Planes has changed up the lower planar ecology somewhat. Petitioners no longer become larvae by default. Now every plane has a specialized default form of petitioner specific to their plane.
I just never assume an intentional change when it's more likely a case of brevity and lack of detail in the 3e material.
[i]"Long, long ago, before the first baatezu ever saw the light of day, Baator was home to a race of powerful, unknown creatues. The larvae of the plane (which weren't born from mortal spirits, as there weren't any mortals yet) all evolved into the fleshy fiends known as nupperibos, which were the young of the mysterious race.
Oh, I see. I assumed, as natives of the plane, that the A. Baatorians just spawned straight from Baator.
I did hear an interesting idea wherein petitioners retain memories of things they did in their lives that reflected their alignment. So a petitioner on Mt. Celestia might remember all the acts of charity he performed in life, filling him with a warm fuzzy feeling during his heavenly reward. A larva on Baator, however, might have perfect recall of all the cruelties and suffering he inflicted on others, serving as a painful reminder of why he is in such misery now.
It always seemed like petitioners losing all their memories made them fairly useless in terms of plot.
Which must be why Planescape kept providing exceptions to that rule: the cat petitioner from the Beastlands who suddenly remembers an important bit of information, the Grixxit (out to avenge the Expansionists), the petitioners in Dis granted their memories in order to make them suffer more.
I tend to assume that petitioners' memories aren't always entirely gone, but they're hazy like a half-remembered dream (and death is a bit like waking up). Petitioners remember bits that have become fundamental parts of their soul, or that they were thinking about just before they met the Great Hereafter.
IIRC On Hallowed Ground does state that petitioners can keep their memories if their patron god wills it.
(or become baatezu or whatever)As for larvae, not all hades petitioners become larvae. There are some petitioners who become blood-hungry but incorporeal and depressed beings and that's just the well-known part of hades. Every plane is infinite and if you find a new realm of some distant god, he might have a whole new type of petitioners.
To repeat my questions: Are petitioners completely without equipment? Can ysgard petitioners wear weapons and armor? The MoTP says petitioners don't get any armor bonus. Do they maybe keep petitioned equipment that followed them in the afterlife? Are they maybe naked? Or in PG13 version, with loincloths?
Planescape mostly describes how petitioners look and act which i find normal only in limbo where they don't have a stable shape, but in 3e they all have stats and everything but still no other description than that