Halls of Waiting

When mortals die their souls are drawn by the River of Souls into the great yawning depths of the Halls of Waiting. The realm of Vardama of Judgement, souls naturally travel here upon the point of death but cannot leave until divine messengers or deities come to claim them. While here, these petitioners dwell in a great hall filled with pillars of grey that loom up into the darkness of heights that cannot be fathomed by their minds. Sometimes the souls that come here are grief stricken with the nature of their demise and so at times the wide halls are filled with the echoes of their lamentations and cries. The servants of Vardama move among them to offer comfort and explanations at times but Vardama herself is stoic and neutral for her task is to weigh the souls of the dead. On occasion, according to legend, she may play for them upon her harp to sooth their pains so she is not utterly without compassion even though she is rarely moved by pity alone. Those of Vardama’s own who dwell here with her, assist her and are called into unification with her dwell in great cities along The River of Souls and often they enter into Vardama’s service in the ordering of the souls of the newly departed. Souls who manage to escape The Halls of Waiting tend to end up in the Border Ethereal where they exist as insubstantial ghosts. Vardama’s folk are also ever diligent and aware of attempted intrusions by infernal forces and the agents of Thul of the Unliving.

Planar Traits

• Normal Gravity

• Infinite Size

• Alterable Morphic (Although Divinely Morphic by Vardama)

• Minor Negative Dominant

• Impeded Magic: All spells are impeded in The Halls save by those called to Vardama’s service. They may use magic as they see fit to assist them in their various appointed tasks.

Important Sites

The Halls of Waiting are often said to be fairly featureless despite their great size for they serve only one primary function and that is to hold the souls of the dead until the time of their judgement. How long a soul waits in the Halls of Waiting is unknown. Time has no true meaning here and a soul's perception of time is skewed and thrown off. When their appointed time comes they appear before Vardama and she judges their souls and sends them to their appropriate place of dwelling (which is determined either by alignment or patron deity). Those who were faithless and false in life are said to be driven from The Halls and given over to infernal powers for no deific force will have anything to do with them. Those who are summoned back to the mortal world by means of a raise dead spell soon lose any recollection of what their time was like as a petitioner or in The Halls of Waiting.

The Basalt Throne: Not merely a ‘single throne’ but the entire palace of Vardama herself where she hears the words of the souls of the dead and weighs them with her scales of balance. It should be noted that not all souls come before her in the same fashion and she only tends to directly intervene during special cases or in dealing with unique individuals. Otherwise the process is fairly regulated, orderly and lawful if not near clockwork. Vardama’s true ‘throne’ sits within a great wide hall. Her chair is black and eternally burning brazier sits before it, which shows images of the mortal’s life and the true nature of their soul.