Basic Information
The Underworld is the mythological Land of the Dead. Often, but not always, it will be The Bad Place, distinct and separate from Heaven. Depending upon the details of whatever religion and mythology is telling the tale, it may or may not be Hell per se or even based on morality: it may just be the place where dead people go if they died a particular way or didn't get the correct funeral rites. Souls of the dead were often guided to the Underworld by a psychopomp, but it could also be the place your soul ended up if you didn't live the correct kind of life (or face the glorious death) that would please, impress or satisfy your culture's psychopomp and/or Gods. Your mythological mileage may very.
(If you are here for the criminal type of underworld, as opposed to the spiritual one, try the Black Market page - although the concept of sin and its consequences probably tie the two together and spiritual correspondence between the two may have interesting effects).
As the name implies, the Underworld is usually subterranean, and may even be a Hollow Earth. Or it could be an Otherworld or separate Plane of Existence.
The adjective Chthonic literally means "beneath the earth", but is generally only used for Gods, spirits and other denizens or features of the Underworld.
The term Katabasis literally means "descent" or "movement downhill" but is often used to refer to when a character (usually a live mortal) in a myth enters the Underworld without dying. Often such a trip is taken to rescue or resurrect someone who has died, but it may be just to gain information or prophecy that only the dead know.
see also:
Afterlife
Death
Hollow Earth
Otherworld
World Tree
Sources
Game and Story Use
- The Underworld is an exciting location for a quest. Revive the recently slain, bargain for souls, track down a cursed public domain artifact, prove you're not afraid to raise a little hell, etc. It'll be epic!
- If there are multiple pantheons active in your campaign, you may want to consider how much syncretism and interpretatio graeca-style crossover there is. Are all underworlds connected, and multiple gods merely the local avatars of a single core truth? Or is each individually true in it's own way, separate and distinct, with a different final reward for the departed based on their deeds and beliefs?
- Speaking of which, there may be things in the Underworld besides the dead - locations (entire cities for Fallen London players) that have passed from the Earth and other places like the Vault of Hades (Mr. Butcher … a Mr Dresden on line 2…) that have always belonged there metaphysically due to their connection to a death god (Hades/Pluto was also the Greco-Roman deity of horded and hidden wealth, especially that which lay buried in the ground).
- Actual underworld access may vary - sometimes you can just walk into there, sometimes you need to die. Intermediate alternatives include astral projection, dimension breaching magic and borrowing an appropriately liminal creature as a mount or guide. Some access routes may only open under special conditions … how long they then stay open… one way routes may be a thing, either per user or generally.
- Speaking of which, coming back may be the hard part. Bringing anything back with you may be even harder. Alternatively NOT bringing things back with you may also be a problem.
- How to get the most out of that giant chart above:
- The first column is different religions, mythologies and bodies of folklore. Each row across explores that tradition's underworld in link form.
- The second column is the name of the Underworld in this culture or tradition. Some mythologies have multiple underworlds that you might visit or spend eternity within.
- The third column is the names of various inhabitants of that underworld. This often includes the rulers of the underworld, various chthonic entities and gods of the dead. These are the important mythological characters (and some mythological creatures) you'd expect to meet if you visited those underworlds.
- Some of them might even sit in judgement of your soul or sins.
- Beware, here be monsters!
- And of course, there's also the dead. The underworld usually features quite a few of them.
- They may be ghosts or spirits, or they may have more corporeal form as zombies, skeletons, or mummies. This will vary by religion and mythology, and some underworlds may specialize in bodies on a specific condition or type.
- There may be sinners burning in a firey lake, or suffering eternal torture.
- There may be gray and indistinct forgotten souls whose detail fade away as their stories are lost to mists of time and even their descendants lose all memory of them.
- Or, if you're in the Etruscan underworld it might even be a paradoxically family-friendly underworld full of family picnics, grave goods, and surprisingly happy snakes. At least that's what their art and grave goods would lead us to believe.
- The fourth column lists the psychopomp of this row's mythology. Psychopomps guide the dead to their final resting place. Depending on the characters and mythologies in question, psychopomps may or may not inhabit the underworld. They might just be the ferryman who gets you across the River Styx (or other local barrier between worlds).
- Psychopomps are probably pretty busy, but they may show up as "wandering monster" random encounters. They may be on a mission, or transporting the recently deceased, at the time they cross your path.
- They've most likely got a natural ability to enter and leave the underworld, so if you're looking for someone to trick or bribe to get back to the earth, psychopomps might be worth a shot. Depends on how seriously they take their job, and how strong a celestial hierarchy the local pantheon has in place.
- It's also possible that if the PCs are visiting the underworld in their own katabasis expedition, they might be greeted at the Gates of Hell by a psychopomp who's interested in being your guide.
- The fifth and final column is people known to have taken their own katabasis journey in those underworlds. Again, they might be "random encounters" or short cameos. Some are powerful heroes and a few are gods, so if the PCs get stuck in hell and can't bribe the guards or psychopomp to let them out, it's possible one of these katabasis delvers will mount a rescue attempt / jailbreak.
- Or, you know, maybe Odysseus will just show up with a bowl of delicious blood and ask you for your prophetic insights with no intention of taking you back to Ithaca with him.