Nachwelt

The Nachwelt is a realm beyond reality where the souls of the dead go. It is also the homeworld of Mementora and entered through the Nachberg.

History

The Realm where the souls of the deceased go to. Technically, everyone, even the most vile beings during their life, is allowed to enter; however, if the gods consider your soul a danger to the greater world order, they may decide to instead banish your soul into the void to prevent any chance of this soul ever returning to the mortal realm.

When Mementora, the goddess of Memories, learned that she was not allowed to gather the souls, and therefore their memories, within herself, she proposed to Norn an alternative solution that would still allow her to preserve the souls forever without the need to absorb them. She called this solution the Nachwelt and both Norn and Ayla liked the idea enough to actually manifest it into reality, kind of.

Description

The Nachwelt is always shaped to look different for every single soul as it always represents what it considers paradise. While it could be a town full of playful kids and stores full of beef and bones for a dog, it could just as well be a torture dungeon for a twisted serial killer. The options are limited only by the imagination of the soul.

While it is physically reachable by entering the Nachberg, you technically leave this plain of existence and enter the realm of the dead, the Nachwelt. Your body remains unconscious at the entrance until you leave again. The Realm itself is a full copy of Tael pardon any signs of life. Instead, you can see tiny flying lights, almost sparks, everywhere, which are the actual souls of the deceased. No one except themselves can see their perception of this reality, as it shapes itself around the soul, meaning where you may see a tiny light just floating above a lake, might be a young sailor relieving his maiden voyage in his first own boat. Touching such a soul will temporarily allow communication with it, where it will turn into a perceivable body of the soul's choice.

Bringing such a soul back to the entrance will actually cause the soul to leave the realm and become a spark in the real world, where it then either needs to find a new host body or travel forever as a light on Tael until the soul decides to return to the Nachwelt.

Natural Ressources

There is a rare flower that defies death even after being long wilted. Nachkraut can only be found near the mountain, however it is pretty much always already dead. It can only bloom temporarily by bringing it's soul from the Nachwelt back to it's wilted flower in the real world, where it will then be harvestable for a short period of time before it will wilt again.

Trivia

• While it requires Mementora's permission to enter the Nachwelt as a living being, she usually has no objection unless you have known evil intentions or are known to just needlessly disturb the souls.
• Mementora is perfectly fine with entering the Nachwelt for the sole purpose of gathering Nachkraut.
• If they so desire, souls can leave the Nachwelt on their own accord. This often results in random lights aimlessly wandering the lands, which are referred to as Will-o'-the-Wisps, or Wisps for short.