# Afterlife in 40k?



## Lepaca (Oct 19, 2011)

I just wondered, what happens to the spirits of Imperial citizens that die? 
Is there such a thing as an afterlife in 40k?


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## DestroyerHive (Dec 22, 2009)

It depends if you're religious or not. If you are, then they go to Heaven, if not, Hell. The Chaos "Gods" are still entities and are techincally material, although from another dimension, therefore making them powerful deities and not Gods in the literal sense. Not to mention they couldn't exist if evil didn't exist, seeing as they represent four parts of it, therefore there would have to be a devil for the Chaos Gods to exist in the first place.

Warp Gods are also just powerful beings, and the Emperor, well, he's false .


If you're not religious, then the Chaos Gods are real Gods, and I don't know what happens to the good people.


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## Nave Senrag (Jul 8, 2010)

When you die, your soul becomes one with your chosen deity. For most Imperial citizens, that is the Emperor, and for worshipers of Chaos it depends on who you worship the most. Atheists get eaten by warp monsters because they don't have a deity protecting them.


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## Lepaca (Oct 19, 2011)

So the emperor absorbs the souls of the faithful? Or are they transported to some kind of paradise?


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## cegorach (Nov 29, 2010)

I was under the impression that either the Emperor absorbed their souls, or that actually the Emperor wasnt powerful enough of warp material enough for him to absorb souls of the faithful ... seeing as according to himself he is not a god. 

So daemons just eat imperial souls when they die, or the Emperor assimilates them. 

If the Emperor does assimilate them, I don't think they are transported to a paradise as according to the Eldar, humans are lucky enough to not be concious after death ... so it would be like if you were in paradise, but you were in a coma. 
But hey, it would not be the first time the Eldar were wrong about something, so we can hope for most of humanity that for one, they are taken in by the emperor, and two that they arnt brain dead (metaphorically speaking) so they can experiance the bliss that would come about from being part of the galaxies greatest super being ... well ... aside from the chaos gods and the star gods ... and maybe the hive mind ... but that still has the big E in the top ten so, not so bad.


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

What are you guys on about?

When you die, your soul gets sucked into the Warp and fuels it's inhabitants.

The Emperor does not protect your soul or whatever, he is kind of too busy to do that assuming he even could.


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## thelastonestanding (Mar 21, 2009)

I was under the impression that the general human's "soul" dissipates in to the warp, and rejoins the tides of energy within.
More psychically resonant races (or psychic humans) leave a stronger impression in the warp and so their "souls" are strong enough to maintain a presence after death... and are then consumed by the ravenous hordes of warp entities.


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## C'Tan Chimera (Aug 16, 2008)

Lepaca said:


> So the emperor absorbs the souls of the faithful? Or are they transported to some kind of paradise?


The proper word is 'eaten' . Gotta keep Corpse Daddy nourished somehow.


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## MEQinc (Dec 12, 2010)

Yeah, no. When you die your 'soul' which is actually the manifestation of your consious in the warp is taken and eaten by the thousands of daemons that hover around you at every moment, waiting for exactly this. The Ecclesiarchy teaches that the souls of the faithful will be protected by the Emperor but this is a lie, the Emperor doesn't have the power to do this, and even if he did it is doubtful he would have the time or desire to do so. A sufficiently strong psyker could potentially retain consious in the warp and it is theorized that one could fight off the daemons and survive as a similar being but this is the only way to ahcieve an afterlife, baring the soulstones of the Eldar.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

_Codex: Chaos Space Marines_ states that the souls of mortals essentially dissolve into the currents of the warp following death. There are several exceptions to this rule however. For example the souls of Chaos worshippers are absorbed directly by their patron god(s) and Craftworld/Exodite Eldar are able to sustain their consciousness via soulstones and the infinity circuits/world spirits. 

Essentially the ultimate destination for mortal souls is the warp, where there awaits a variety of possible fates. _Codex: Chaos Daemons_ makes reference to some of these fates (generically getting consumed by daemons aside). The souls of cowards for example reside in the _Fortress of Khorne_, and the souls of the indecisive Chaos worshippers become Furies.

As for the Imperial propoganda which suggests that the souls of the faithful are protected by the God-Emperor, there is no evidence to support this. It is not implausible but there are certainly issues with it. Firstly why would the Emperor maintain the souls of his followers within the warp (unless it directly benefited himself)? Would he even be able to considering the sheer amount of pressure his consciousness is already under maintaining the Imperium? What does he care about the souls of the faithful? Who is even to say getting _"protected"_ (consumed) by the Emperor is a more preferable fate to getting consumed by daemons?


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## Davidicus 40k (Jun 4, 2010)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Firstly why would the Emperor maintain the souls of his followers within the warp (unless it directly benefited himself)? Would he even be able to considering the sheer amount of pressure his consciousness is already under maintaining the Imperium? What does he care about the souls of the faithful? Who is even to say getting _"protected"_ (consumed) by the Emperor is a more preferable fate to getting consumed by daemons?


To have an army to destroy the Chaos Gods at the End of Time, of course. That's the final bit of the Imperial propaganda. Now, whether or not the Emperor consumes the souls of the faithful in order to power himself is unknown, but he's already consuming a thousand psykers a day to keep his consciousness alive. If his psychic presence in the Warp is strong, then I think he'd be able to protect most of, if not all, the souls that he deems worthy (i.e. those souls he can identify as belonging to his faithful, if he has that ability). If not, then he'd be unable to do anything for them. It'd be nice to imagine Imperial souls get to chill in a sub-pocket of the Warp protected by the Big E like a giant golden umbrella, but that's both unrealistic and naive.

The Emperor was really thrust into the worst situation for him personally, I think. He sought a way to destroy the Warp from the outside, from the physical plane, but now he is a part of it and closer to the Chaos Gods than ever before. Is his goal still to destroy the Gods and establish the dominance of the Imperium? I believe so, but since so much information about his desires and abilities was created by the Ecclesiarchy, we can't know for sure. What a tremendous tragedy it'd be if the Emperor was in fact a fifth Chaos God that cared nothing for the fate of his subjects or the destruction of the other Powers (though I suppose that if he were a Chaos God, he would inherently desire the demise of his rivals, as he'd be part of the Great Game).

Who knows, maybe the Emperor can cover Malal's role :victory:.


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## Karak The Unfaithful (Feb 13, 2011)

Well, afterlife in 40K can't be much bleaker and miserable as normal life.


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## SonOfStan (Feb 20, 2011)

There isn't a lot of information on the subject as to what, exactly, happens to the souls of loyal Imperial subjects...but there are some interesting tidbits of information, here and there. In one of the editions of the 40k rulebook, I believe it mentions a "Year of Ghosts," where the souls of the righteous Imperial dead come back to kick some daemon ass. Also, you have to look at Whatshisname, the Haunted Grey Knight (who constantly sees the shades of his battle buddies) Or the Grey Knight that is functionally immortal. 

So there are some indicators, I think, that at least not ALL Imperial servants die and simply dissolve in the Warp (which isn't that bad of a fate when compared to certain alternatives) If Nurgle can take the soul of a mortal and turn it into a Plaguebearer, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turns out the Emperor can AT LEAST find some sort of use for the soul of a particularly useful individual (ie Primarch/Saint)


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## Lepaca (Oct 19, 2011)

Thanks a lot! Your replies were very informative!


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## Nicholas Hadrian (Mar 20, 2011)

SonOfStan said:


> There isn't a lot of information on the subject as to what, exactly, happens to the souls of loyal Imperial subjects...but there are some interesting tidbits of information, here and there. In one of the editions of the 40k rulebook, I believe it mentions a "Year of Ghosts," where the souls of the righteous Imperial dead come back to kick some daemon ass. Also, you have to look at Whatshisname, the Haunted Grey Knight (who constantly sees the shades of his battle buddies) Or the Grey Knight that is functionally immortal.
> 
> So there are some indicators, I think, that at least not ALL Imperial servants die and simply dissolve in the Warp (which isn't that bad of a fate when compared to certain alternatives) If Nurgle can take the soul of a mortal and turn it into a Plaguebearer, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turns out the Emperor can AT LEAST find some sort of use for the soul of a particularly useful individual (ie Primarch/Saint)


Yeah, look at 
(Spoilers for Gaunt's Ghosts Sabbat Martyr)


The re-incarnation of Saint Sabbat, if she ain't SOMETHING being done by the Emperor, then what is she? Especially opposing Chaos in the Sabbat worlds >.>


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