Chinvat Bridge
Planar pathway
The Chinvat Bridge ain’t your everyday bricks-and-mortal arch, oh no cutter. It’s a bridge that stretches all the way between the realms of the living and the dead, and it’s made of beams of solid light. It connects the Prime to all of the Outer Planes where powers of the Persian, Sumerian, Babylonian and One Thousand Gods pantheons reside, via the Astral.
While it might be a lot shorter, and less creepy-looking than the Dead Roads, don’t assume it’ll be an easy path. As well as being a deceptively long span, the Chinvat Bridge is also a test of your moral compass. Once you step on it—after Asto Vidatu helps you shuffle off your mortal coil—where you eventually end up on the other side will depend on your deeds in life.
If you’re a paragon of virtue and you’ve lived a life that would make celestials beam with pride, you’ll breeze across the bridge like the Concordant Express, straight to the good places, like Elysium or some other heavenly Upper Plane. But if you’ve been a nasty berk, well, be prepared for a bumpy ride. The bridge senses the weight of sin on your shoulders, and narrows to the width of a razor. If you’re not extremely careful, you’ll end up taking a dive into the Underworld of the Anunnaki, or even the Abyss. To make matters even worse, there are some particularly unpleasant demons who have made it their mission to try and grab berks off the bridge. Aeshma, the Persian power of wrath and rage tries to scare bashers so they’ll fall. Chinnaphapast uses his sticky tentacles to try and grab sinful sods. And in the void beneath the bridge, fiends called xrafstars lurk, ready to devour anyone unlucky enough to fall.
If a berk does fall, and isn’t immediately grabbed by a demon or a xrafstar, things get even worse. Below the bridge is the Pit of Bones, and yes cutter, it’s exactly as bad as it sounds. A valley of bleached humanoid remains, picked over by ghouls—and worse. This is the domain of Asto Vidatu, the Bone-Dissolver. And at the lowest point of the pit is an enormous gaping hole. This is Druj-Demāna, the House of Lies. Whatever you do, don’t go there.
Back up where you should be, on the bridge, you’ll find a lot of psychopomps flitting about, keeping an eye on the souls (who the bridge is really intended for), and trying to keep them away from planewalkers (who it isn’t intended for), and the aforementioned demons. It’s best to be polite, because it’s these cutters who check your spiritual credentials—and they don’t take garnishes. Well, most of ‘em don’t. If you don’t make the cut for the Upper Planes, they’ll politely (or not so politely) show you the way to your next destination, whatever that might be. And if need by, they might even give you a good shove to help you off the bridge.
I’ve heard tales, berk, of planewalkers who’ve crossed the Bridge and come back with their heads all turned around, muttering about what’s waiting on the other side. Whether it’s a shortcut from the Prime to the Outer Planes, be warned, that Chinvat Bridge ain’t exactly a tourist attraction. But if you’re in a hurry, and feel brave enough to face the consequences of your life’s choices, and keep your fingers crossed that the psychopomps, and the bridge itself, are in a forgiving mood.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt, idea based on real world mythology