It's a funny thing death. To some it’s the absolute end. To others it’s the next step, or the beginning. To Sludgepok it’s a 9 till 5 job.
You see, on the Ringrealm things tend to work a little differently than other places in the nearby cosmos. It's a planet like all others, spherical in shape, plonked in the dark void of space- but surrounded by two distinct rings one on top of the other. Although such an image may seem similar to you, it is the nature of these rings that are very different to anywhere else in the universe.
On the Ringrealm death is not some absolute end, a next step nor a beginning. Instead it’s a journey. Not in some soppy metaphorical sense like you'd hear at poetry club, but literally a journey from the planet to one of the rings surrounding it. Of course it's not the physical body that travels there but the soul within. Well, to be truthful it's not particularly a soul either, instead it’s the manifestation of the magic housed within every inhabitant of the Ringrealm taking form; as there is literally no body to tell it what to do anymore. But we'll just call it a soul.
You see, magic is at the very heart of the Ringrealm, it is the driving force for every plant, animal, monster and person- giving them lifeforce to love, laugh, live and dream- and inevitably give up on them by the age of twenty five. It's a shame really that it was all completely unintentional, as opposed to some divine plan from the god's … But you can't have everything I suppose.
Nobody knows the extent to this truth, wizards are about half way there but gave up as soon as the possibility arose that there is magic in any living person other than themselves and instead return to reanimating pondskaters or arguing about who's wand is bigger.
What a soul looks like depends on soul to soul. On death it's up to you what form you take- some have reverted back to what they looked like in their healthier days when their bellies didn't droop and bald heads didn't shine. With others taking the form of the creatures that inhabit the Ringrealm such as a Yeti just for the fun of it, before realising the gross extent of their grooming routine and reverting into their much more boring selves.
Invisible to the naked eye, most souls panic when they first take form- trying to flop back into their past bodies or slapping their relatives to get their attention to save them- quite a good job they're invisible really as it is rather embarrassing.
I say invisible to the naked eye and thus I should follow up by saying that if so, a Slegna is a creature with an eye that certainly has its underwear on. Waiting to greet most new souls will be a Slegna, a creature able to see and interact with any being, living or dead. Coming to think of it, the panic that a new soul has makes a lot more sense in the context of the first thing you see on death being a Slegna.
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Irrefutably the Slegna are the most hideous creatures inhabiting all of the Ringrealm, moreso than orcs, ogres, witches, satyr and revolting concoctions of all four that everybody pretends don't exist, for their very existence reminds us all of the true nature of their conception.
Rather small in size, hunched like a banana on steroids, with two enlarged fly wings sprouting from the back, a Slegna greets you into the life after life. Its face long and wrinkly with a chin and nose so long and crooked even they look like they want to put as much distance between them and the hideous creature they belong to as possible. Their eyes a slit within the folds of wrinkles protruding from its face, and grey skin pocked with warts emerge from the holes at the end of its dark brown gown, covering what some would describe as hands, but others in a different context would describe as some matches held together with a scrotum. Oh yes, I mustn't forget that they each have an individual coloured feather atop their wrinkled grey heads too- they'd get in quite the huff if I didn't mention that. They stick out as if the creator had decided that he should at least give them something to live for before sending them down the conveyor belt into production.
In actuality it was a little worse. Due to an unforeseen event that hindered the creation of the Ringrealm, the god responsible for creating all living things- Fershund, was a bit rushed to create something to fulfil a Slegna's responsibilities. He'd spent countless millennia hand crafting every living thing that will inhabit the world he and his brothers were creating, but due to circumstances this final creature had to be a little … unorthodox. Long story short, Fershund used all the bits left over from the rest to make Slegna.
Now picture this creature in your mind as I've described. You have it? Right, now run it over with a tank three times and Bob's your uncle- you have a Slegna.
Having a clothed eye, it was a Slegna's job to guide the newly free soul to the topmost ring. As well as seeing all life living and dead, a Slegna is also the only creature able to freely move from the planet itself to the topmost ring- and thus they have their purpose. When I described death as a journey, it is moreso a Slegna dragging you by your neck through the sky and atmosphere until you reach your new home on the ring- not as flashy I suppose.
Unfortunately for him, Sludgepok was a Slegna. He'd always hated his parents for calling him that, as if there was nothing else to make him even more repulsive than he already was: Sludgepok. His best friend was also a Slegna- he was called Dave.
Today started as a normal day for Sludgepok, but as you'd expect reading a fictional story for entertainment purposes this will not be the case for too much longer, as an in depth description of a usual day for Sludgepok for around 50,000 words would be a truly agonising endeavour.