Hi folks, I have a few questions about Upper Planar petitioners I've been wondering about. Can anybody please help me with them?
1 -- Lower Planar petioners generally turn into Larvae, Lemures, and so forth. What do Upper Planar petitioners look like? I know Beastlands petitioners turn into talking animals, and Celestia petitioners become Lantern Archons, but what about other planes? Do they resemble the species they came from (even though they lose their memories), or does each plane and/or pantheon and/or god change its petioners into a particular shape? A few power entries in the encyclopedia mention that their petitioners always look human, that's how I started wondering about it.
2 -- What happens to Upper Planar petitioners who didn't worship a particular Upper Planar god in life? Or if they worshipped a whole pantheon that doesn't happen to have a single shared realm like Olympus? In Mount Celestia they turn into Archons, and in other planes they end up in the plane of their alignment, without any memories, right? But then what -- do they get to pick a god to worship in the afterlife, or do they just go live in a petitioner burg not associated with any god's realm?
3 -- What happens if somebody's god doesn't have a planar realm, or if their realm is in an inner, transitive, or prime plane? Does the petitioner just end up on the plane of their alignment, same as if they had no god?
Generally, it's assumed they resemble the species they came from. Some sources imply that Bytopian petitioners become gnomes by default and Arborean petitioners become elves by default, but I think that's a pretty dumb idea personally.
Each god on any plane has the option of changing their petitioners to a particular shape. Petitioners of Set often become desert animals, for example.
They go to the plane that most closely matches their alignment, or they go to their pantheon's realm of the dead (for example, those who worshipped the Egyptian pantheon end up in Osiris' realm, since all dead Egyptians end up there by default; dead dwarves end up in Dumathoin's realm by default, because he's the dwarf god of the dead; similarly, dead Suel end up in Wee Jas' realm).
They don't get to pick an afterlife. If a soul was NG with chaotic tendencies, it ends up in the Beastlands. If it was NG with lawful tendencies, it ends up in Bytopia. If it was more or less balanced NG, it ends up in Elysium. If it worshipped the Finnish pantheon, it ends up in Tuonela, the realm of the Finnish dead in Pandemonium.
No. They end up where their god wants them, regardless of where that is. Petitioners of Geb, who lives on the Elemental Plane of Earth, live in his cavern in the Elemental Plane of Earth. Petitioners of Fharlanghn, who lives on the Prime Material Plane, end up as ghostlike beings who wander the roads and watch over crossroads. Petitioners of Vecna live in Vecna's hidden fortresses. Petitioners of Ptah, who lives in the Ethereal Plane, remain with Ptah unless he decides to give them to Osiris.