(Or, okay, can't be raised from THAT, what now?)
Depends. There are a lot of theories as to what happens. The OlderSister religion has, not surprisingly, the most comprehensive information on the subject. And as it turns out, that can vary depending on you.
Say you die with something left undone. Say you killed a whole bunch of people and were unrepentant, and you seriously needed to repent. Or say you were killed while a pack of deranged thugs had their way with and then killed your girlfriend. Well, there's a decent chance of coming back.
As is probably pretty obvious now, undead are hardly uncommon in the TwinGate universe. Some of them are evil, spawned from those who were killed by other undead. Others are mindless, like skeletons or zombies. And some are neither evil nor mindless, but rather intensely focused. They need to get something done. Their sheer force of will has given them the strength to turn away from the OlderSister -- or perhaps they made a deal with the CryptLord -- just let me kill the man who killed me and my family, and then I don't care what kind of mindless monster I become...
This is what happens to most people. Reincarnation is not incredibly well-known, but the average guy on the street has heard about coming back as a toad to make up for his lousy life. Anyone with points in Religion knows that life is not always gotten right on the first try, and that there aren't that many new people in the world. You die, you look at your life -- really look at it, up close and personal, you and the OlderSister, and you see, without all the lies and self-delusions that govern the living, exactly what you were and what you did. And when it's over, the OlderSister turns to you and asks if you're happy.
And nine times out of ten, the person who thought they were good and smart and on the right track sees all the horrible shit they did, all the nasty words and casual lies and little sins that they didn't even remember, and they want a chance to get it right. The average person doesn't want to be evil. (At least, that's what Patrick thinks, and it's his universe, so he gets to make the rules)
So reincarnation is a real possibility. Some people, even though they did get it right, live their life as best they could, doesn't want to leave yet. They want to keep helping, or keep trying, or something. The MostHigh of the BlackPillar is said to be the same soul reincarnated over and over again since time immemorial. Some monks are said to do the same thing, born somewhere, anywhere, and inexplicably drawn back to the same temple that they served at in a past life, waiting...
If the person answers that they're satisfied, then they move on. Most people are pretty vague on this whole subject. Unless you're a cleric or paladin or druid, or you've got points in Religion, all you really know is that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. Heaven has a lot of names. So does hell. Sometimes heaven is a great feasthall, and sometimes it's a great lush field where it's always early afternoon and the grass smells good, and sometimes it's big honkin' orgies with all the girls who wouldn't date you back in school. Sometimes they call hell the abyss. Sometimes it's hot. Sometime's it's cold. It's not someplace you want to go, really.
At least, that's what they say.
In reality, there are a lot of heavens and a lot of hells. It's not as simple as alignment-based. Both heaven and hell are like circles, with the inner areas being more ordered and the outer areas being more chaotic. But it's all coherently the same place. The demons and devils exist on the same plane, and they fight for territory and try to push their respective beliefs into the other's space. The heavens are good versions of the same.
In each case, the new arrivals are given the treatment. The celestial arrivals can do whatever they want. It's peaceful. It's beautiful. It's the fulfillment of everything they want. And they know that they're done, that they're complete, that they finally got it right, that everything will be okay. And they hang out at the celestial raves for a few centuries, or scale a soaring, majestic peak. Or they just bask in eternal radiance for awhile. And eventually, some of them realize that they miss the challenge. They realize that while they did a good job, the world might need help. And even though it's peaceful, here, even though it's paradise, it doesn't feel quite right... So they volunteer to change... to become something more than what they were. It's a humble path. They start out as little glowing balls of light. But over time, they grow into some of the most powerful creatures in the metaverse.
In hell, it's a bit different. It's more like boot camp. They get tortured for a long, long time, used as currency, used as fodder, as food. The weakest never get beyond that point -- the powerful evil wizards and priests find themselves the little fish in the big pond, suddenly, and a lot of them are stuck as food for the powerful for all eternity. Only the most ruthless, the most determined, and the most dedicated make it out of that hellish primordial torture to become something more. And "something more" is essentially a glorified familiar for the first long while, a little monster a few feet high with next to nothing in terms of power. But a century or two later, those same beings will have evolved into a force that can rend and tear the mightiest of heroes and tempt the purest of hearts.
Statistically, though, very few people even make it to the point of permanent afterlife rather than reincarnating. And few of those who make it to paradise ever want to leave, and few of those who go to hell ever get the chance to do so. So the ranks of the outsiders are by no means infinite, although their great power makes up for this.
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