The Underworld

Athenaeum entry. Correspondent of record: Vel Asharen. Direct observation: limited, as one would expect. The bulk of this entry draws on testimony from clergy of the Church of Meni, from the small population of mortals who have crossed and returned, and from Meni himself, who has answered direct questions on the matter with characteristic precision and characteristic brevity.

Overview

The Underworld is a realm of Meni's own making, somewhere between the mortal world and whatever lies past it. Mortals call it many things — Meni's Hall, the Threshold, the home of death, the Quiet Country. Meni himself calls it none of these and has not, on record, indicated a preferred name. It is, in his framing, simply where the work is done.

Every soul that has ever died has passed through it. Every soul that will ever die will pass through it. The realm is large enough to accommodate this without crowding and quiet enough that no soul, regardless of when they arrived, is ever rushed.

The Athenaeum classifies the Underworld as a plane for cataloguing convenience, with the standing caveats that it is unlike the other recognized planes in nearly every operational respect. It is not reachable from Yggy's valley. It has no native inhabitants. It cannot be visited and left under one's own power. The planar classification is a librarian's accommodation, not a metaphysical claim.

The Threshold

The first place a newly arrived soul perceives is the Threshold — a region described, with remarkable consistency across the testimony of returned mortals, as a long stone hall with a single black candle burning at its far end. The candle burns without smoke. The hall is neither cold nor warm.

Meni meets each soul personally at the Threshold. This is not metaphor and not delegation: every collection across the entire mortal world receives his full and undivided attention. From the soul's perspective, there is no waiting. From Meni's perspective, neither is there. The arrangement is one of the most consistently testified-to features of the realm, and one of the least understood by the living.

At the Threshold, Meni conducts what mortal theology variously calls the Judgement, the Accounting, or the Inventory. It is none of these in the punitive sense. Meni does not condemn. He simply sees — accurately, completely, and without commentary — what the soul did, what the soul became, and what the soul left unfinished. The soul, in turn, sees themselves through his sight. Most find the experience clarifying. A small minority find it more than they can bear; for these, Meni waits as long as required.

The Three Dispositions

Following the Threshold, each soul is directed to one of three further regions of the Underworld:

The Cycle

The default disposition. Most souls — by Meni's own estimate, a substantial majority — proceed to the Cycle: a long, quiet region of the Underworld in which souls rest, integrate the lives they have lived, and are eventually reincarnated into new mortal forms. The reincarnation is not punishment, not reward, and not, in Meni's account, particularly mysterious. It is what most souls choose, when given the choice, after they have rested.

How long a soul rests before reincarnation is variable and is the soul's own decision. Some return quickly. Some wait centuries. Meni does not, by his own statement, direct the timing. He attends.

The Reformation Chambers

Some souls arrive at the Threshold carrying patterns of action — habits of cruelty, refusals of love, denials of the obvious — that, by Meni's careful and non-judgmental assessment, would propagate harm into the next life if simply carried forward. These souls are directed to the Reformation Chambers.

The Chambers are not usually punishment. They are, in the Church of Meni's standard description, workshops of the self. A soul in Reformation works — under the gentle attention of Meni's staff of reformation-tenders (ancient liches who where once worshippers of Meni) — to understand what they did, why they did it, and what they would do differently if they were given the chance. The work is not coerced. It cannot be hurried. Souls who decline to engage with it remain in the Chambers indefinitely; most, eventually, engage. it is post death therapy conducted by magic practitioners of great knowledge.

When the work is complete, the soul rejoins the Cycle and proceeds to reincarnation. The Chambers are not eternal; no soul is, by record, kept in them forever. The longest documented stay is a matter Meni declines to disclose by name and has, on direct inquiry, summarized as "longer than the mortal would care to know."

The Sanctified Court

A small minority of souls arrive at the Threshold already bearing the mark of divine blessing received during their lives — the saints, mystics, and chosen of the gods. These souls are directed to the Sanctified Court, a region of the Underworld set apart for those whose mortal lives were touched by direct divine attention and whose afterlives, by mutual understanding among the pantheon, require something other than the standard cycle.

The Court is small. Admission to it is rare and is determined not by Meni alone but by the specific god whose blessing the soul carries. A saint of Aerith Soln is received into the Court at Aerith's request, in Aerith's presence. A saint of Veshen, at his. The Court is the only part of the Underworld where Meni regularly hosts other gods.

Saints in the Court retain identity, memory, and continuity across what would otherwise be the cycle. They are not gods themselves, but they have particular roles — as guides for newly arrived souls of their own faith, as intercessors when the living petition their patron god, and occasionally as proto-deities who, after enough centuries, may ascend in their own right. The pantheon has, by Saessa's example, taken this last possibility seriously.

Staff

Meni does not delegate the Threshold. He does, however, maintain a substantial staff for the rest of the Underworld's operations:

• The Reformation-Tenders — ancient liches who once held high positions in Meni’s clergy. now therapists with a wealth of knowledge due to their extended time with the living.
• The Cycle-Keepers — souls who attend the resting majority in the Cycle. Most are former clergy of Meni's earthly church who have, in their own afterlives, found the work congenial.
• The Court Stewards — small in number; assist with the maintenance of the Sanctified Court under the joint authority of Meni and the relevant patron gods. mostly small creatures who have heightened intelligence and where recruited by Cindy.

Cindy is occasionally present. She rides Meni's shoulder at the Threshold for some collections and not others; the pattern is one this correspondent has been unable to determine.

On Visiting

Living mortals do not visit the Underworld. There is no door. There is no road. There is no entry through the Yggy gate — Hjarn cannot grant passage here, and has, on direct inquiry, indicated that the realm is not one whose entrance is his to manage. The Underworld is reachable from death, and from no other direction the Athenaeum has been able to document.

Living mortals who have appeared in the Underworld through extraordinary magical means — and there have been a handful — have, by each known account, been either escorted out by Meni himself, gently and without explanation; or never seen again.

He has not been amused by the visits. He has not been angry either. He has been, in each case, unhurried.

See Also

• _Planes Index
• Meni
• Cindy
• Aerith Soln
• Veshen
• Saessa
• Hjarn
• The World Tree (Yggdrasil)
• Yggdrasil World System

— Vel Asharen, The Interplanar Athenaeum