Of Death and the Afterlife

Right, I’ve been trying to piece together how the different things regarding death and the afterlife all fit together in supernatural, including all the new elements that we’ve added. Mostly because it is kinda important for my charrie. My SPN knowledge only goes to half way through season 4, so is there is anything important on that subject I’ve probably missed it out.

With that in mind, here we go.

When a person dies, their soul is collected by the Reapers, and taken to Erebus.

The souls travel through Erebus to the appropriate afterlife depending on the person’s religious beliefs. This journey takes varying times. For some it’s short, for others it could take an eternity.

In some cases the person will is strong enough to want to remain. In these cases the Reaper’s have to persuade the person to come with them. This appears to be a one-shot deal for some reason. If the person chooses to remain, the call of the afterlife will drive them insane eventually.

The exception to this is if a person has made a deal with a demon. In which case their soul goes straight to Hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. (Side note, if a person in Hell eventually becomes a Demon, does that mean if Richard is claimed by Hades he’d become a Reaper?)

Escape from Hades is difficult (they have a rather large guard dog), but not impossible. Though more often souls escape from Erebus because they are recalled by those still alive (i.e. Zombies). Hades, the Lord of Erebus, dislikes it when the dead refuse to come to Erebus, and hates it when those in Erebus escape. Hence Richard as his agent on Earth.

So, how does that sound?

I think that sounds good.

An interesting thought of Erebus being Purgatory, but I don't think that is right they talk about Purgatory in season 6 and it seems to be a more locked up place.

I would agree that Richard who is claimed by Hades will eventually be a Reaper, at least it would make sense how new reapers are "born".

Aha! You raise some questions that definitely need to be nailed down for our purposes, so thank you!

Can I suggest (I think) an alternative to melding the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman situation?

...What if we made it a "both" answer? Especially from episodes like "The Hammer of the Gods" we get the idea that all deities exist and have their own planes, hells, afterlifes, etc. The Judeo-Christian ones just seem to be the Top Dogs.

So, regular Purgatory exists, but also Erebus exists, as a "version" of Purgatory.

Erebus, Tartarus could still have similar "rules" as Purgatory and Hell, respectively, if we like.

So the upshot is then that the gods (in a wide sense) collect whichever souls they want. So our characters can still be Catholic or Christian and still be praying to the Judeo-Christian God (saints, angels, etc) and they are still real and they may even still answer, but the Greco-Roman gods have, we'll say, "bid highest" on our character's asses, so we'll end up dealing with them for the most part.

In which case, everything that you've written, Cal, could very well work, but more "alongside" vs. "instead of" the Judeo-Christian-Winchester plotline.

Did that make sense at all?

I do like your plots. They make much sense to me!

I was planning that this would work alongside rather than insted of. The idea was that while everybody goes through Erebus, Erebus is more like the 'bus station' where the dead all go in order to get to their final desitinations. Whatever their final desitnations are depends on their religion, but that won't stop people picking them up on the way.

Well then it's not really the canon SPN Purgatory, which has been locked until season 6. So so long as it remains separate from Purgatory, that's fine.

But Erebus could certainly be a nexus, where all souls go before they get shipped off to whichever god claimed them! So Sam and Dean have even been there, but they wouldn't know it!

Maeglin wrote:Well then it's not really the canon SPN Purgatory, which has been locked until season 6. So so long as it remains separate from Purgatory, that's fine.

Yeah, that was just a suggestion from the limited knowlegde I had of purgatory outside SPN. As I said, haven't watched past season 4, so it's not a problem.

Ahh, fair enough. Looks like someone needs to catch up!

:S *looks around guiltily....*

I think if we keep Purgatory out of the picture we are on the safe side. Otherwise I think it would look a little weird for Sam and Dean and how difficult it is for them to open Purgatory. Since it is not important for our storyline, right? We don't need Purgatory?

But thats the only problem I have, the rest looks good I like it.

Ok, removed the purgatory reference.

Looks good!