Talk:Afterlife

Spirit vs. Soul in 1st Edition
I found the distinction you raised, Lhynard, from Deities & Demigods 1st edition, between spirits and souls very interesting, and have "stolen" your footnote for the Spirit article. I would think this stems from Tolkien's Middlearth mythology: There elves are "bound to the world" and can be reincarnated if they died (of something other than age, being immortal). "Men" on the other hand go somewhere "beyond the world" after death - which may be the equivalent of the Outer Planes in D&D. The distinction also kind of fits: Hobbits/halflings are counted as "Men" in Tolkien's legendarium, dwarves are also mortal, and half-elves decide whether they will join the fate of men or elves. Orcs descended originally from elves tortured to irrecognizability. And that origin would also explain why it was dropped after 1st edition: TSR had enough trouble with taking ideas from Tolkien without attribution. Daranios (talk) 10:17, April 29, 2020 (UTC)


 * I had never considered the Tolkien connection, but I think that you are exactly correct. wow


 * FWIW, I plan to go through your Spirit article carefully for references that I have not already found. This article is going to take me a long, long time to finish.


 * ~ Lhynard (talk) 14:01, April 29, 2020 (UTC)