The afterlife

[Tom]

I've recently discovered that my world's religions lack serious depth. So maybe this will be the second in a series of threads--I don't know.

Only one of my cultures, the Barlanders, has an established afterlife. For them, heaven is a city of fire and pure gold, where they will be reunited with their kin and restored to the godlike state they believe humans once possessed.

Since they're a northern people, I decided that the traditional fire-and-brimstone interpretation wouldn't fit their idea of hell. Instead, their concept of hell is a barren plain of ice and snow and biting wind, stretching on forever, through which the souls of the condemned are forced to wander.

My other cultures have no clearly defined afterlives. I think it would be great if you guys would give suggestions and/or share a little about the afterlife concepts for some of your cultures. Seeing other (and probably strikingly varied) ideas might help spark my creativity. And hey, we're writers! We like to talk about our cool stuff and read about other people's cool stuff!

 

[Devor]

Are the gods real in your world?

In mine they are real, and one of them is responsible for reincarnation, assigning the souls of the dead to the children being born. She used to have an established system of honor and karma for doing so, and for awarding some souls passage into Nirvana, where they would escape the cycle of life.

But for reasons I won't get into, "honor" has become "a broken magic," and she has become untethered by those rules. She now has incredible leeway in matching souls to parents, and she hopes to spend it finding a solution to her greatest problem: The greatest souls leave the world for Nirvana, while the worst souls flourish in the world and bring suffering to the people.

 

[Tom]

I don't think the gods are real in my world. They certainly don't interfere in the mortal coil, and as yet there's been no sign that they exist.

However, I'm thinking of making the Barlandic religion the "true" religion, as it makes the most sense to me. If it is true, though, it's probably different from the way the Barlanders perceive it, applying more universal concepts than those formed by the environment and attitudes of the Barlandic culture. Still something I have to consider and explore in more depth.

 

[Queshire]

I haven't done much with the afterlife. On idea I considered using was a belief that after death their souls merge together with those of their ancestors to form archetypal gestalt entities that fulfill the same role as gods.

 

[WooHooMan]

I got five religions in my setting.
Two of my fictional religions have ancestor worship. One of them is defined by ancestor worship. When you die, your soul stays in your homeland and you're worshiped as a deity, basically. However, when people forget about you, your soul dies and you're gone forever.
Third religion believes that your soul merges with the spirit of nature.
Fourth religion just has reincarnation/rebirth. That belief is actually very important to the story's plot.
Fifth religion has no afterlife. When you die, you're done.

All five of them are right. Or maybe all of them are wrong. It's one or the other - all right or all wrong. It's established in the story that all of those religions are only partially right.

In a different story, there's an "afterlife" where your soul becomes the CPU to magic computers. Each computer has a different soul which makes it run and all the souls are linked.

I try to avoid the traditional underworld/paradise afterlife. In fact, I think reincarnation is more popular in fiction. I guess writers just think it's more "mystical" or whatever.

 

[Pythagoras]

Fifth religion has no afterlife. When you die, you're done.

All five of them are right. Or maybe all of them are wrong. It's one or the other - all right or all wrong. It's established in the story that all of those religions are only partially right.

I don't understand how they are all right or wrong when one of them does not have an afterlife. How can there be both an afterlife and no afterlife? If four of them are right, then one has to be wrong, or vice versa, right? Or am I missing something?

 

[Pythagoras]

I haven't given much thought to the afterlife, actually. I do have a realm of the Dead, but I haven't spent much effort (yet) in working out the details aside from its location relative to other realms in the cosmos. I do also have a myth about how it came into existence.

 

[Hainted]

All the stories are true, especially the ones that contradict the others. If you can't wrap your head around that then you need to stay away from religion.

 

[fshamas]

In the story I am developing, afterlife is merely a limbo - a soul arrives there and passes on to the next life. However the lives are not based on rewards because "Why should be some souls created good forever and others bad forever" Souls are pure beings unlike characters which have a story.

 

[Tom]

All the stories are true, especially the ones that contradict the others. If you can't wrap your head around that then you need to stay away from religion.

Is this directed at me? If so, then yes, all the religions of my world are true--when viewed through a universal lens. All have aspects that are true, and all have aspects that, though not necessarily incorrect, are influenced by the attitudes of their unique culture and may not be relevant to other cultures.

So are you saying that I should stay away from creating fictional religions, or stay away from real-world religions? Either way, I can wrap my head around it. I'm a practicing Pentecostal Christian, and have friends of all religions--Catholic Christianity, Islam, Shinto, and Judaism among them.

 

[ArenRax]

well i have couple of ideas for an afterlife.

1st: The Underworld ruled by the 3rd King Varlan is a place where not only the souls of the dead live but where some are punished. Here ghouls, Necromancers, and other denizens that live in the shadows thrive and live in harmony. The Realm of Perpetual Night where common folk go when they have not done Too bad in life nor too good.

2nd:The Immortal elemental Fire Dragons can live forever and do but a price. for when they die there spirits go to another realm of existence where either they live a second life until they have waited the set number years to remake the flesh of their body and return to the realm of the living, the time it takes can depend on the actions of what they did in life and maybe how many times they've died and returned. This spirit realm mirrors the living realm with a few exceptions of the magical nature. floating islands, portals, and freak mana storms.

3rd: in the universe they say that gods and mortals can die or fade away but nothing ever truly dies. The Overworld is not understood but it is where one goes when their soul is shredded or the immortal essence of a god or titan is spread out because there physical form destroyed.the Overworld also serves as a haven for those gods that are not needed anymore whether they have faded away or have been destroyed or there Immortal essence was shredded into fine pieces this is where they go. when a soul or essence is shredded/destroyed there consciousness and a small piece of them makes it to the Overworld where there Soul/essence begins to piece itself back together. This Realm also is a prison for the most Evil and dark.
This realm can be paradise, or it can be your eternal Hell.

Lastly: Nethrika was the goddess of darkness an ancient goddess who was around in the beginning but she committed crimes against other gods and so they destroyed her physical for and bloated her immortal essence so she became the Chaotic and dark realm of Nethrik where the ancient deitys of dark and evil are chained and where monsters of the most dark intent are banished.

these are only a few examples and i'm still messing around with them but i do hope you can think of something especially from what I've listed. Thinking of an afterlife can be hard but if you can get the groundwork of it done then it should be easy albeit the 3rd one is for the whole universe and all the realms of creation while the others just preside in or near a real of creation.

sorry if its super long

 

[Tom]

Great, thanks! I would give you reputation points, but somehow I've already exceeded my quota for the day.

 

[ArenRax]

It can be hard to think of a afterlife but if you use another for groundwork and then change it to suit your needs then it can be quite easy albeit i thought of the 2nd,3rd, and 4th all by myself with out using another for groundwork. the underworld one that came from greek mythology(because i read the percy jackson seiries) it had a scene where they described the underworld in which Heroes could live happily while regular people wandered and faded and the evil ones got tormented also there King was of course Hades the god of the underworld. a few changes like not having tormented souls and no Heroes get to live a second life and you presto! have a afterlife but of course you can also just use then just use the name Underworld for many thing afterlife or not.

 

[Tom]

I've heard that Hades in the original mythology was actually the most benevolent, reasonable, and level-headed of the Greek gods. It's only in retellings and adaptations that he's become a villain. I like that idea--a god of the dead who watches over his own and tries not to get entangled in the rest of the pantheon's drama.

 

[X Equestris]

Yeah, Hades was easily one of the most benevolent gods in Greco-Roman mythology. Aside from his kidnapping of Persephone, he never did anything really reprehensible.

 

[WooHooMan]

I don't understand how they are all right or wrong when one of them does not have an afterlife. How can there be both an afterlife and no afterlife? If four of them are right, then one has to be wrong, or vice versa, right? Or am I missing something?

It's a long story - like a really long story. Let's just say you're missing something.

All the stories are true, especially the ones that contradict the others. If you can't wrap your head around that then you need to stay away from religion.

Man, you ain't kidding.
Personally, I think contradictions (or at least, inconsistencies) are very useful in making a mythology seem more real. After all, real-world folklore is full of contradictions and inconsistencies. I think a lot of worldbuilders are so focused on keeping everything straight and "realistic" that they miss how useful things like contradictions can be.

I've heard that Hades in the original mythology was actually the most benevolent, reasonable, and level-headed of the Greek gods.

That's saying very little.
And honestly, he didn't get hit as hard with the whole "you're evil now" thing as say, the entirety of the Voodoo religion or the god Anubis.
On that note, I like how the afterlife is portrayed in Egyptian mythology. It's basically a bureaucracy. That's something I also like about the spirit world in Chinese mythology. I'm kind of surprise that type of afterlife isn't more common in fiction.

 

[j-max04]

It's always possible that one of the religion has an afterlife that plays into the storyline, eg. a religion that believes that anyone who refrains from using magic their whole lives gets to live on as a spirit and whisper advice into peoples minds. This could mean a character could provide aid from the grave.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

- One culture could have no belief in an afterlife and view a dead body as something to only be discarded.
- Another plain of existence where everyone goes to the same place, but takes on a life based on how good they were in this one (an afterlife based on karma).
- The dead walk among the living as observers and can sometimes influence the lives of the living. How much they can do is based on their power level in being good or evil.
- People are reincarnated as animals. The more powerful you were in life the greater a species you become.
Hope this sparks a few ideas.

 

[Hainted]

I don't care what you believe(or don't) but religion isn't about "truth" anymore than history is. Both are written by the winners, survivors, and powerful to express their own personal pov. Unless the gods are very active in your world to the point of coming down and interrupting worship to correct someone's interpretation of what they said then it's ALL true.

 

[Tom]

I don't care what you believe(or don't) but religion isn't about "truth" anymore than history is. Both are written by the winners, survivors, and powerful to express their own personal pov. Unless the gods are very active in your world to the point of coming down and interrupting worship to correct someone's interpretation of what they said then it's ALL true.

Yeah, sorry about that. I replied while still in the grip of my initial emotional response. It was only later when I'd cooled down that I got the real meaning of your post. The fault is mine--I'm always far too quick to jump the gun.

I agree--all the religions in my world are true. A deeper understanding of how they intersect, compliment, and contradict each other is definitely in order. It might help me work out the bugs in my view of them.