W40K- Afterlife?

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**Wyzilla**

So out of curiosity, has it ever been touched upon what happens to those souls that inevitably perish in W40K, both in service to Chaos and those that fight it? From all the material I've found on it, the closest notes on the subject are the fate of the Eldar, consumption by She Who Thirsts. However, if consumption of the Eldar soul is to be a negative fate, this requires that they therefore must experience some sort of continued existence post-mortem, outside of soul stones- and that those of other races compatible with the warp experience a continued existence as well. So, besides Daemon Princes, Chaos Spawn, and Eldar, has it ever been specified what happens to the basic chump in W40K that bites it from a bolter round, be they human or Astartes?

**PredaKhaine**

IIRC, In 40k when you die, your soul will dissipate into the warp.
Its terrifying for the Eldar as they are more psychically powerful and retain consciousness after death. So they're still sentient when demons rip their souls apart.
For the average guy, its death and dissipation - there's no thought after death.

(I think this is in the Eldar codex - the reason why they wear soul stones)

**Broly**

An average human's soul dissipates in the warp. After that you simply stop existing. No thought process after that. No consciousness.

Scary, huh?

I'm not sure about psykers. I guess it depends on how strong their psychic abilities are.

**Pilau Rice**

If you are a normal bod and you are lucky, your soul dissipates in the warp, if you are unlucky it gets eaten by some gribbly thing. If you are aligned to a Chaos Power it gets taken up by them. If you are a soul that kept flitting about between Chaos Gods then you become a Fury.

Harlequins believe that the Laughing God takes theirs and protects them from Slaanesh.

I think that some souls, like those of the Shamans, retain sentience in the Warp until they are reborn, that was the case at least until they became the Emperor.

Orks and Tau, I have no idea. Tau have a very small signature in the Warp and the Orks have the Waagh field in addition to their connection to the Warp so I don't know if that complicates things.

**PredaKhaine**

Pilau Rice wrote:

Harlequins believe that the Laughing God takes theirs and protects them from Slaanesh.

Bar the Solitaire - he is doomed by his role to be munched by Slaanesh and Cegorach (The laughing God) challenges Slaanesh for his soul. He sometimes wins, but not often...

**Pilau Rice**

PredaKhaine wrote:
Pilau Rice wrote:

Harlequins believe that the Laughing God takes theirs and protects them from Slaanesh.

Bar the Solitaire - he is doomed by his role to be munched by Slaanesh and Cegorach (The laughing God) challenges Slaanesh for his soul. He sometimes wins, but not often...

OK, he believes that the Laughing God will protect his soul if he beats Slaanesh up then

**da001**

Broly wrote:
An average human's soul dissipates in the warp. After that you simply stop existing. No thought process after that. No consciousness.

Scary, huh?

I may be wrong, but I think that´s not the case. At least not for humans.
It is stated that the Warp is actually the afterlife (heaven, hell, whatever...) but it is also stated that in the 41st millennium it has degenerated to the point that it is only hell.

Souls are sucked into the Warp, but they do not stop existing. They become playthings and food for the entities that dwell in the Warp. And they do not destroy the soul when eating it, since they feed on its suffering. Thus the souls are tortured forever, their endless suffering feeding the Daemons and their dark masters.

So don´t worry, no need to be scared: there is an afterlife for everyone.

**PredaKhaine**

For the average guy, its death and dissipation - there's no thought after death.

In the eldar codex it explains why the eldar don't want to die and go into the warp (hence spirit stones and inifinty circuits)
I'm confident it says that most humans don't retain consciousness after death.

We die and are gone.

**da001**

Yes I stand corrected:

Codex Chaos Daemons. Page 6, final part of "The Haunted Immaterium":
"When devotees of Chaos die, their souls do not fade in the Warp and disappear like the spirits of others. Instead, their immortal energy is swallowed into the greatness of their gods, their souls sustained forever."

What a pity...

Yet I think I have read something implying what I said...

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Makes me wonder... are the souls of the Sisters of Battle attracted by the Light of the Astronomicon and devoured by their god?

**PredaKhaine**

They should be. Grimdark - the only difference between good and bad is what colour clothes you wear.

I'd love the sisters and the ecclesiarchy to become soul fuel for the emperor in the same manner as the chaos gods. So he actually would have become a chaos god...

**TiamatRoar**

It depends on your religion? There's a disclaimer though that not all religions might be correct.

According to Chaos, their followers are absorbed into them (which is actually supposed to be a good thing, from the point of view of their followers and the gods. Chaos might screw their followers over in real life at random sometimes but they at least think you're getting a good afterlife. Note that this is decidedly different from Slaanesh's devouring of unprotected Eldar souls). Wishy washy souls (not necessarily sincere followers of Chaos Undivided, but instead people who jumped from god to god) won't get taken up by any god and thus become furies.

According to the Imperial Creed, the Emperor takes your soul (nothing is stated about whether or not he absorbs it, I think? It probably varies depending on which version of the creed you're looking at)

Gork and Mork just stuff your orky soul into a new body.

Eldar belong to Slaanesh by default and thus get munched if there's nothing to anchor their soul (typically a soul stone). This is a lot less nice than the whole absorbtion thing Chaos does to its followers, apparently.

Those that don't follow any religion probably just go to the warp and die without consciousness (probably a good thing. You wouldn't want to be awake when you go there...)

With the exception of the Eldar, all of the above should come tagged with "Allegedly".

**Psienesis**

There exists the possibility that the God-Emperor is "like" a Chaos God, except representative of Order. A very powerful Warp Entity, on par with a/some/all Chaos Gods, but not on the same side as they are.

So, sure, the Imperium's faithful who die are probably absorbed by his Warp Presence. Makes sense.

**changerofways**

Broly wrote:
An average human's soul dissipates in the warp. After that you simply stop existing. No thought process after that. No consciousness.

Scary, huh?

I'm not sure about psykers. I guess it depends on how strong their psychic abilities are.

Not at all scary, this is what happens to us, minus the whole warp thing...

The scary thought is what happens to the eldar...*shiver* eternal life. Even if they don't spend it getting ripped up by daemons, imagine spending 1,000 years drifting through the warp, alone....then do it again. And again. Until you've spent an eternity doing this. Then spend another eternity. And ANOTHER! That is scary, that is terrifying. You would go insane...I wouldn't wish eternal life of any kind upon even the worst people to ever live.

**vodo40k**

It depends on how "powerful" your soul is. An average human, Tau or Ork soul is not very substantial so it dissipates into the raw energy of the warp. The more "powerful" your soul, the more likely your soul can retain its form within the warp as well as its sentience. A human psyker or a regular eldar soul has a decent amount of power and therefore both will retain a small measure consciousness after death and (if you are extremely lucky) can be re-incarnated or more likely consumed by a more powerful warp entity or chaos god, becoming part of their power. An extremely powerful psyker will be able to be fully conscious after death.

**Knockagh**

Always thought the emperor, during his period of activity on terra prior to and during the heresy period had created a 'warp bubble' which would keep human souls out of the warp in a nirvana of sorts. One of his experiments within the warp.

No evidence for this at all, just my thoughts but I'm sure more of this will be dealt with in the remaining heresy books....

**Da krimson barun**

Well in baneblade(Or soul drinkers can't remember)It says that the imperium thinks that you chill with big E forever.
Tau:The ethereals eat your soul.Probably.
Dark/Crafty panzees:Slaanesh probably tortures them forever.
Kay-oss:Teh dark gawds will use you too beee more powerful.
Daemons:Can't die.
Grey knights:Are tortured by slaanesh for their sin of being favourited by ward(same with smurfs)
Orkz:OI!Orkz can't die we just get stufed in anuther body.WAAAAAAAAAGH!(repeat forever)
Nids:They had no soul or life in the first place.They just get respawned.

**Vraksian Defender**

If you a deamon prince its pretty good.

**disdamn**

There is an afterlife and consciousness does exist in the warp when you die. It's usually quickly consumed by the many demons in the warp, or sometimes it can be captured and toyed with.
Jaq Draco from the Inquisition also used knowledge from the Eldar's Black Library to bring someone back from the dead, soul and all. Although she went insane and ran off in the webway. Jaq was also killed in the web way and his consciousness did not transition into the warp, but is trapped in the web way.

I would guess anyone who dies in the webway is similar, and may be the principal reasons Eldar use spirit stones so that no matter where you die (web way or realspace) your consciousness does not transition into the warp, and does not get lost in the web way.

**EVIL INC**

The "average" person's soul does indeed just "dissipate".
Notice, I said "average" person...
1. psychers have a greater ability to last longer and as such are usually just tasty morsals for daemons if there are daemons around when they die. The more powerful they are, the longer they last.
2. Eldar souls are indeed drawn to slannesh almost like magnets and slannesh finds that they taste REALLY good.
3. this is one of the draws for chaos. Selling souls in the hopes (usually vain hopes lol) of becoming a daemon prince and become eternal or even just to not die and keep their mortal body. Also, in the hopes that they will get preferential treatment in the warp when they die. Oh, SURE they get preferential treatment. Unless they become a daemon prince, they become food or playthings for the daemons.
If you can get your hands on the old Realm of Chaos books, I would HIGHLY recommend them. A lot of the fluff from them is no longer "accurate" but it is my favorite.

Of course, the Emperor is a force that is dissipated but conscious hiding in the warp. Makes you wonder if he is not just silently collecting the souls of the billions of imperial marines and fanatics who die in his name for some time in the future when he thinks he is powerful enough to overcome the other powers in the warp and rule it. Scarey huh?