Phantom Beast

The River of Souls, alongside the souls of dead sapient humanoids, also carries the spirits of monsters, animals, and other creatures. Likewise, it draws souls from across reality, and thus human and elf souls mingle with those of far stranger creatures from untold worlds. Like any others, these far-flung spirits of strange creatures sometimes wash up on the shores of the Ethereal Plane, becoming phantoms far removed from the humanoid forms typically associated with ghosts and other undead.

The phantom below is one such entity: a strange beast from a distant world, echoing their behaviors from life as they search for their postmortem fate. Their unfamiliar appearance might lead observers to assume they're a monstrous being and attack, finding the phantom beast entirely willing to fight back. More compassionate adventurers might instead seek to help the phantom find their way back to the River of Souls to complete their spiritual journey.

The typical trajectory for souls passing to the afterlife is fairly straightforward, according to most theologians. When a mortal dies, their soul enters the River of Souls and eventually reaches the Boneyard, where it is judged by Pharasma. The judged soul moves onto its appropriate domain of final rest—Heaven, Hell, Abaddon, and so forth—where it becomes a shade.

Complications arise, however, when a soul in queue for judgment prematurely departs from the River of Souls and is shunted into the Ethereal Plane. Whether as a result of nefarious interlopers like daemons or hags, malignant planar magic, or even fate, these souls become dislodged from the natural order of life and death and linger in a sort of purgatory. Unlike petitioners, these ethereal phantoms retain memories of their life before death, and unlike spirits such as ghosts, phantoms aren't tinged with the foul influences of undeath—at least, not at first, though the threat of corruption hangs heavy over a phantom's existence. Some eventually succumb to that fate, while others eventually rejoin the River of Souls. Until then, these wandering souls are a kind unto themselves—one without a true home, agenda, or purpose.

Many phantoms have no desire to remain in their strange state of purgatory, either because they seek to continue their journey through the River of Souls or because they fear the corruption of undeath. In order to complete the natural spiritual cycle and become judged so they can continue to the afterlife, a phantom must find a way back into the River of Souls. Such a quest is no easy feat, however—the hazy mists of the Ethereal Plane can befuddle even the most experienced traveler, and numerous predators prowl the realm in search of stray souls to bind or devour.