"That's a broad question. Is your true query more specific?"

"What determines what afterlife people end up in? Furthermore, your statement somewhat implies that the mortal soul gets damaged by death, can you elaborate on that?"

"A mortal soul accumulates influences during life. These derive from both actions, such as the choice to help or hurt another, to keep a promise or break it, to pray, and from environmental exposure, such as being near others' rituals. There are spells which can affect this, such as Atonement, which removes unwanted influences from the soul, and Malediction, which applies fiendish influences. When a mortal dies, these influences pull them in the directions of associated deities. Additionally, divinities intervene to varying extents after a mortal's death. At minimum, when a soul drifts close enough to any plane typically classified as an 'afterlife', some mixture of the plane itself and forces from the plane will pick up the soul. This sometimes goes further. For instance, Heaven will sometimes issue or sell promises of retrieval upon death up to various limits of effort and risk."

Well, that's certainly different. Sounds like a mess, really.

"Soul damage happens on death as well as during various other circumstances, and is difficult to compensate for. We do our best with the arrivals we get, but there are … misfortunes."

"What are the effects of soul damage, typically?"

"Memory loss, loss of motor skills, personality damage, reduced intellect, et cetera. At a certain point, cessation of existence or worse. You appear concerned. Is this due to your recent daemon exposure?"

"On my arrival in the associated Material Plane here, I felt as though something important was missing, though I was distracted from this by the presence of a daemon fight. I am now concerned that this represents soul damage. The records of my previous captors would be more accurate than my memory is, if you have them, but I believe I was not a priority target for the daemons during the fight and in fact spent most of it in a Bag of Holding."

"We can do medical examinations. Is that your preference?"

"Yes."

"Understood. We'll let you know when we have results."

"Do you in fact have records from my previous captors?"

"Yes."

"Do you know if the local Lord Asmodeus wouldn't like the calendar I described there, and if so why?" Also, if Asmodeus is so great as to exist outside of Pharasma's Creation, why isn't that mentioned in the Asmodean Disciplines? Presumably He has His reasons. She hopes she may one day be a devil with the power to comprehend more of the majesty of His will, though being held prisoner by this Upper Planes seems like a setback there.

"The local year and various subcomponents of it all form whole-number durations, which is appealing to Lawful deities."

"What does the night sky on the Material Plane here look like?"

"We can display an image of it here, if you'd like."

"That should work."

There is now an image in the middle of the room. It shows a starfield on a very black sky, significantly sparser than Carissa is used to. There's no equivalent to the Godsea.

"What are clerics' typical reasons for refusing to sell resurrections?"

"Inability to channel the relevant power, lack of training in evaluation, concerns about long-term impact on the patient, or, in relevant cases, concerns about the patient's long-term impact on others if the cleric doesn't have access to containment."

"Long-term impact on the patient?"

"Resurrection is one of the aforementioned events that cause soul damage."

"What are the worse-than-nonexistence soul damage outcomes?"

"A central example is becoming something rather like a daemon."