Sheol

Sheol (*pronounced: SHEE-ohl or shee-OHL*) is the Plane of Existence where the souls of mortals go when they die. It's an infinite meadow of gray grass with black and deep scarlet roses scattered around in patches, and its sky is perpetuated in twilight. Some myths say that the roses represent the souls residing in the plane. It is the divine realm of Goldenveil, goddess of the dead and justice. It has no notable topographical features except a gray mountain in the slopes of which is located the City of the Dead. The goddess resides in the Veiled Chambers of the Hall of Judgement in the City of the Dead. Sheol's appearance changes depending on the will of its master and its landscape reflects its ruler's vision of how the afterlife of the souls that stay here should be.

## City of the Dead

The City of the Dead is inhabited by Goldenveil's petitioners, the False and the Deathguide Angels. The Deathguide Angels enact punishments on the False and act as a city guard, aided by volunteering petioners of Goldenveil, to protect against demonic raids and, on rare occasions, attack the Abyss to punish demons for entering Sheol, attacking the city and abducting souls.

The area surrounding the gray mountain is changing daily, depending on the memories and desires of the collective of the souls residing in the city. One day it could be surrounded by a lake or the sea, another by a great forest, another day by hills filled with animals and another with tall mountains or any combination of the above. Goldenveil has full control over these changes. However, for any other beings that are in Sheol and are not petitioners or denizens of the City of the Dead, these locations are, and look like, nothing more than spectral illusions. For example, when demons invade Sheol for abducting souls, they go through the spectral illusory trees and rocks of the forests, while the souls see the demons melding and passing through solid objects. In a case where the souls are in a location with greater altitude, the demons would see them floating in the illusion and would have to jump or fly to reach them. Deathguide Angels are the only ones besides Goldenveil that can traverse these changing features in either state. These features stop existing after 20 hours and start anew after 4 hours of the last cycle, meaning that for 4 hours the surrouning area of the mountain and city is just like everywhere else in Sheol.

Once reaching Sheol, before entering the City of the Dead, petitioners are given the fair opportunity to bargain with devils visiting Sheol and go to the Nine Hells to join the infernal hierarchy should they not want to meet their patron god or Goldenveil herself, if they're generally afraid of the fate their god has in store for them. This is an agreement that Goldenveil has made with Asmodeus, the ruler of the Hells, benefitting both sides and in the same time giving mortals the ability to choose their fate. This, however, does not mean that Goldenveil's faith and clergy does not oppose and destroy devils if found in the Material Plane. On the contrary, there are sects and paladins devoted to such a cause; to rid of fiends in the Material in general.

There is no way to reach Sheol and/or the City of the Dead if you are not dead. However there are three exceptions to this. The first way is if you are a divine servant collecting a deity's future petitioners or a Deathguide Angel scouting the planes for lost souls. The second way is through non-permanent portals from the Nine Hells as per the agreement or from such portals from the Abyss where demons open hidden ways through the planes. The third way is through forgotten and well-hidden portals to the Shadow Plane, remnants of when Varacres was the god of the dead. Goldenveil has hunted these shadow portals down and has sealed many of them; however, theres no way to be sure whether no such portal remains active anymore; for they were hidden by Varacres himself and he took many contigencies to hide these portals well even in Sheol and even from himself. Many a location of such portals where planted into the minds of servants of his who have perished or left Sheol after his death.

There are myths that say that each rose in Sheol represents a soul residing in the City of the Dead, while others suggest that they grow when an ancient soul residing in the city is absorbed into the essence of the plane.

## Inhabitants

### Goldenveil's Petitioners

The souls of those mortals who worshipped Goldenveil in life and held her belief in high esteem. Fair and admirable people who upholded goodness and justice in their life and did not condone tyrannical and unjust acts. Such worshipers of the goddess were usually at peace with death or retained an understanding of death throughout their lives; they viewed death as not the end but as another physical occurrence such as the blowing of the wind or the waves of the sea, a new way of seeing life's circle and a new beginning. When these people die, they stay with the goddess in the City of the Dead until they become a part of the very plane. They essentially become Sheol's core after many thousands of years; elevating in another state of being, their place taken by the next generations of petitioners.

### The False

The False are souls of those individuals who intentionally betrayed their faiths and deities after making a commitment to them during their lifetimes and left unclaimed by said deities who they betrayed. Such souls are dubbed False by Goldenveil and special punishments await them in their afterlife. The False are surprisingly many, a fact that means many people throughout the ages were betrayers of their faiths, selfish, greedy and hypocritical only caring for their own immortal soul and hiding behind their shell of a faith to reassure their place in the heavens. Many of the denizens of the City of the Dead are False and one of their punishments is helping the Deathguide Angels to find lost souls.

### Deathguide Angels

Celestials that are eternally sworn to Goldenveil and are literally her creations. When an exceptionally loyal and just person dies and is brought before her; one who embodies her ideals and faith is given the chance to be elevated and transformed into a Deathguide Angel. Should they accept their reward and responsibility that comes with it, they are transformed into these celestials. Deathguide Angels have two duties given to them: First, maintain and defend the Plane and the City of the Dead against planar threats such as demonic incursions, and second, guiding lost souls to Sheol.

## During the rule of Varacres

Before Goldenveil became the goddess of the dead and master of this Plane, Sheol was controlled by the dreaded Varacres. When he was god of the dead, Sheol was a mostly dark place, with black clouds in the sky. Undead roamed freely and the death knights of Varacres patrolled the roads of the City of the Dead and beyond, and used portals to the Shadow Plane to go to the Material Plane and spread their gods' influence. Sometimes they also snatched living mortals to add to the undead legion.

During that time, deadly and putrid swamps, forests of dead trees and dark mountains dotted Sheol's landscape. Shadows and other various undead existed in this plane, ready to rend into demons that attacked the City of the Dead or to march to the Material Plane through the Shadow Plane, doing the bidding of their god.

Varacres also accepted guests in Sheol, like Ansephal the goddess of chaos and darkness when they would ally with one another, or divine proxies of other deities Varacres collaborated with. Such guests were either housed inside the City of the Dead or in a mountaintop palace further away from the city designed for guests. The City of the Dead itself was kind of a dreary place but also had its horrors as undead were there too. The False were much more unhappy then than they are now with Goldenveil; for Varacres' punishments were much more horrid, terrible and vindictive.