What are some of the cultural implications of real gods and existance beyond death?

This is a two part question related to aspects of my WIP.

Existance beyond death is an unquestionable fact. Souls originate in the cosmic flow and return to it after death...usually. In very rare cases a person has enough will or spiritual power to avoid merging back into the source shortly after physical death. Such rare individuals may form bodies out of ectoplasm, which tend to look a little uncanny. If desperate or malicious enough these souls may try and possess a person; soul/body compatibility issues often means this doesn't work out very well.

The gods are immensely complex and powerful souls dwelling on"islands" within the cosmic flow. The most spiritually attuned individuals,usually priests, can channel the energy of their god. This providence takes on two forms, one an intuitive knowledge of things under their gods purview. The second is the ability to bless or curse through influencing luck. Fate, destiny, chance, why things are the way that they are, is the result of the movements of the cosmic flow. The "gods" being great masses of spiritual power influence the course of the cosmic flow simply by existing within. Both forms of providence are stronger when they are used in attunement with that particular gods nature and will.

What I'm a specifically a asking is for ideas on how real divine influence might effect people and their way of life, as well as how existance beyond death would effect them?

What are the likely attitudes towards physical death?

What would funerary practices be like?

Are bodies just discarded or are they honored for the time that they served as a soul's vessel.

 

The Twelve old Gods were the firs sapient begins in the cosmos;An they left an indelible mark upon it. Where defeated by the new gods,mortals that had not only ascended to divinity but amassed enough power to challenge them. After the we war the gods that lead the uprising established a new supernal hierarchy with themselves at the top. There are countless gods for their are many mortals who one way or another attained ascension. Most are fairly weak, the ancestors spirits of family or clan, folk heroes who have been literally deified. The Stronger ones like Like The Red Cloaked Slayer have a large enough follower base to be accorded a chair in the supernal court.

Each of the gods according to their temperament, vocations and passion preAscension have their domains. The leaders of the Supernal Court are the classic archetypical gods;,king,warrior, trickster,sage,hunter,traveler/messenger.

The one possible reason to fear death would be,that the cosmic flow is no after life, by returning to the source one longer exists as individual but as a part of a greater whole. Particularly individualistic or egotistic individuals would likely find that scenario unacceptable.

 

While there is going to be some form of organized religion it,in light of the fact the higher powers are objectively real. It probably wouldn't resemble what we here on earth are accustom to seeing. Somewhere a the Wheel Of Time or Robert Jordan Q&A, RJ says something to the effect of, a lot of the pomp,ceremony of organized religion is to affirm faith; and in a world with proof of religion it wouldn't be necessary. My own ideas on how the faiths might interact with their communities, is that i believe that the both the institution and the clergy are to be integrated into their communities; instead of somewhat aloof of the. The only example that I've seen of this is are the religious guilds discussed in an episode of Crucible of realms.

I agree that while atheism doesn't exist, however nay-theism does, people that want nothing to do with the higher powers.

That's actually something I'd attributed to only one group of people,who'd best be described as magitech transhumanists.

That's something that i will take into consideration,especially since I'd intended direct communication between the gods and even the most devoted and spiritually attuned person to be garbled. Most folks are reacting to what they "feel" the gods want.

I laid down the theological land scape in an early post" The Twelve old Gods were the firs sapient begins in the cosmos;An they left an indelible mark upon it. Where defeated by the new gods,mortals that had not only ascended to divinity but amassed enough power to challenge them. After the we war the gods that lead the uprising established a new supernal hierarchy with themselves at the top. There are countless gods for their are many mortals who one way or another attained ascension. Most are fairly weak, the ancestors spirits of family or clan, folk heroes who have been literally deified. The Stronger ones like Like The Red Cloaked Slayer have a large enough follower base to be accorded a chair in the supernal court."

The Old Gods did not create religion, mortals did, the distant ancestors of the mortal races noticed a power that was present in the world and then figured how to tap into it. This power had it's character and cadence, and the power in tune they were with this power the effective their use of it became. After a certain threshold had been crossed the gods became aware of all the mortals on their spiritual frequencies, for all those mortals were inadvertently sending power to the gods. This is when divine politics started to get"interesting" because all those mortals where worth something beyond their value as observational instruments and curiosities.

The gods can't enter the mortal world, they have to much spiritual mass to cross the veil, in order to get across they'd have break off smaller piece of themselves and send them across in their stead. Which in fact happened in pre-prehistory, the Old Gods flinging shards of themselves across the veil is the origin of all complex then later sapient life.