The Descent into Avernus adventure provides more information about what happens to souls in the Nine Hells/Baator than was previously available (soul coins and their uses, in particular).
It’s also made it clear that I really don’t understand the paths that souls in the Hells can follow, and thus don’t feel able to convey the moral/logistical implications of any particular action relating to souls to players.
I’m looking for a complete picture of the soul lifecycle in the Hells (and I’m not expecting it to be linear). I could ask a bunch of smaller questions, but that wouldn’t actually help me understand the lifecycle as a whole so I can reason about it in unusual situations.
Answers should probably include:
- States such as: being a living lawful evil mortal who hasn’t made a devilish pact, being a living mortal who has sold their soul, being a lemure, being in the River Styx, being tortured to draw out soul energy, being a higher rank devil, being trapped in a soul coin
- Transitions such as: dying, being forged into a soul coin, being utterly annihilated, being freed from a soul coin, being promoted, being demoted
- How the states and transitions relate to each other
5e materials & designer statements should take precedence, but materials from earlier editions are welcome in answers.
