Avalon

The mighty citadel of Avalon is perched on the shores of The Astral Sea. Here, the air is always pleasantly warm and smells faintly of jasmine. While the vast majority of souls are sorted by other means, Avalon is where the souls of great heroes (and villains) receive their judgement before ultimately proceeding onto their final fate. Within its confines, they regain some semblance of form (becoming shades), and they pass their days in this city of the dead until their fate is determined.

To some shades, Avalon is seen as a place of revelry, where its inhabitants may dance and feast for seemingly eternity. For others, they may find it to be a daunting fortress where they will be imprisoned for eons before finally being released. Shades swiftly lose track of how long they have spent here; a hero a thousand years dead might be encountered here, swearing they just recently arrived, while another, dead only for a day or two, may feel a century has passed.

Certain deities and their charges are empowered to both escort the newly dead to Avalon and to sit in judgement of them. Once they have been judged, the shade in question is given up to the agents of other celestials, where they will either go on to dwell in another realm or take up service of some kind.

Avalon is not a place for the living, though in exceedingly rare circumstances the still-living may find themselves standing before its gleaming gates; those who adventure to Avalon are either utterly committed to the cause that has drawn them there, or they're in far over their heads. Usually, it's a bit of both.