The Sky of Pyres

*This page was created from information in the original character sheet**. Some of the details may be yet to be canonised in character. Cyclone can bring it up to date.*

## The Sky of Pyres

### Influence

Attracts and burns the souls of the dead, creating soul ash.

The Sky of Pyres exists as one of the outermost Spheres, high, high above Galbar's surface. Katharsos' realm is a largely empty one, devoid of much save for great clouds of sickly smoke and gigantic braziers where he lights the astral fires which incinerate souls so that the ashes can be recovered and recycled. There are a great many souls, and they can sometimes take quite some time to burn, so he has countless of these massive braziers drifting through the space of his Sphere, wrapping all the way around Galbar's night sky. When mortals on Galbar look up and behold the glory and light of the stars, the souls of great people are witnessed as the light of the brightest of these infernos. Katharsos connected the Sky of Pyres to Galbar through a massive invisible gateway called the Vortex of Souls, an ethereal maelstrom that tugs at all loose souls with an ultimately irresistible pull.

The Sky of Pyres, despite all Katharsos' efforts, is a grim place with an aura that most gods do not enjoy. The vast nebulae of smoke are a byproduct of the Braziers and the burning of souls, and they carry a horrific reek as well as a negative energy that can sicken anything living that somehow comes to visit the Sphere of Death.

## The Journey of Death

Death is not a short and simple process. When a mortal being finally succumbs, its soul does not immediately part with the body that it had grown so tightly bound to over an entire lifetime. Beings sometimes remain conscious and continue to retain a varying degree of sensory input and denial, but most soon come to realize their fate. A soft pulling comes to tug at their essence, and in time, even their body begins to come to terms with its fate and push away as rigor mortis sets in. Some souls rage against death, fighting to stay in their body, and they can have some success. But eventually, all must succumb. The gentle pulling will become a horrific ripping, and their soul will be torn free and unshackled.

Then they will be a disembodied spirit, able to observe their surroundings. But before they can muster the will or discover the knowledge that would be needed for them to manifest in such a form, they start to drift upwards, for that same pulling that wrested them from their corpses now seeks to deliver them to Katharsos' realm. So they drift upward, slowly at first, and behold the land of the living from high above. They can feel as the birds feel, for a brief time at least, as they slowly drift upward.

But the pulling never stops, so they accelerate. Galbar's sharp details fade into obscurity below as they begin to race through space, soaring past the other Celestial Spheres and witnessing a great many strange things that most are fated to never understand. All the while, the light of the stars grows ever closer. In silence and in the void of the space they have a few days to contemplate their lives before they finally reach the Sky of Pyres, and then the pulling finally ceases.

It is then that they are met by Katharsos. He is not a cruel god, and he is a very patient one that looks far into the future, so he is wont to allow many a mortal soul some time to wait for their loved ones or prepare for the final step of the journey, should they desire such. But in the end, all must eventually step into the Braziers.

As the Pyre is lit, all suddenly goes to black. The soul retreats deep into its memories, reliving every sensation and every joy once more before letting go and surrendering it forever. If they hold on too tightly, the memory itself becomes increasingly hot, the black turns to red, and with a piercing scream they eventually give in to the pain and let it go. The infernal heat returns to a gentle warmth, and they find the next memory to clutch onto and then release.

In the end, when there are no more memories to grasp onto, they are met with reality once again. Despite all of Katharsos' mercy and magic, honey can only ever make brine so sweet. Without any memory or comprehension left, the confused souls behold their own crumbling and blackened forms within the blinding light of the fire, and then they loose a few final wails of utter agony before it is done. For all the horrors of the final step, Katharsos still loathes it less than the preceding part where he must slowly unravel all the souls' memories, dreams, and thoughts--all the very things that made the living being itself. That is the saddest part of it all, but it's necessary, so he does not falter and carries out his work tirelessly, thanklessly, and with resolve.

## The Sky of Pyres' Effects

While it is currently only connected by gateway to Galbar, in the form of the Vortex of Souls, all Spheres eventually lead to Galbar. Through their various gateways and connections the Sky of Pyres extends its grasp; it can attract stray souls like a magnet, no matter which Sphere they reside within. However, the souls within Spheres that are many connections away (especially Chthonian ones) experience a far weaker pull. Those who die in such places might take years instead of days to reach the Sky of Pyres. Some spirits of exceptional willpower might even be able to indefinitely resist the pull of the Vortex of Souls, given sufficient distance.

In this way the Sky takes from Galbar and all other Spheres, but it also gives back. Even as the Vortex inhales souls, it exhales the ashen remnants of those that have passed through Katharsos' braziers. These ashen souls are formless, but given time they can ultimately clump together into globules, find their way into nascent life, and ultimately be recycled. Or, those with the knowledge and magical power to do such things could potentially manipulate the ashes and use them for their own ends...

In general, the soul ash will be much more prevalent in Galbar and Spheres that are closely connected to the Sky of Pyres. Those Chthonic realms that defy the Vortex' pull with their distance just as easily spurn the gift of life and new souls that it brings; in such places, life will struggle. The souls and spirits of what life does exist will tend to be weaker on average, and there will be far more stillborn and deformed infant creatures should any lifeforms dwell in such a place.

The noxious clouds of smoke that have come to exist within the Sky of Pyres are contained there by its power, and Katharsos tries to make a good neighbor by taking great care to avoid allowing any such contaminants to pollute Galbar or any other Sphere that might come to be connected to his realm through a gateway.

1. ↑ Original character sheet - https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4828223