Death is inevitable, and this applies even in the distant future of Warhammer 40,000. An aspiring fan is currently exploring the Chaos Gods and wants to know what happens to his soul when he dies in the world of Warhammer. The community has answers, and they are surprisingly mild for such a grim universe.
Warhammer 40,000 is dystopian, dark, and absurdly vast. The sheer size and mass of living beings ensure that death is a ubiquitous theme. The ever-present war only further reinforces this circumstance.
Right from the premise, death and sacrifice are key elements of the story: the Emperor, for example, is only so powerful because thousands of shamans have sacrificed themselves. For most humans, dying in the name of the Emperor is quite desirable.
But what exactly does it mean to die in the world of Warhammer 40,000? A user on Reddit asks just that. He says he is just getting into the world and is particularly interested in Orks and Slaanesh.
He has come across the information that the Dark Prince promises joy in life, but afterward, an eternity of torment follows. Now the user wants to know how true that is. The community explains in detail how death works in Warhammer.
The Return to the Sea of Souls
As the top answer, most veterans come up with … nothing. When a person dies in Warhammer 40,000, nothing happens – at least from their perspective. However, a few things are happening in the background.
In the world of Warhammer, there is the Warp, which is said to be the accumulation of the souls of all connected living beings. The Warp consists of the sensations, emotions, and everything that defines humans, Eldar, and other psychic beings.
A human’s soul comes from the Warp and simply returns to the vast sea of souls after death. This is true for the vast majority of humanity, at least according to all the information currently available.
Nothing further happens to the souls there. The person simply ceases to exist, the soul loses consciousness until it may be reborn someday, or perhaps not at all. It may end up as a snack for a demon, but usually does not attract enough attention for that. There are, however, exceptions.
“Being a Psyker is like the dinner bell for demons”
There are some individuals who have a particularly strong connection to the Warp and can even harness its power: Psykers, the “space wizards” of Warhammer 40,000. Psykers can draw power from the Immaterium and to some extent control it.
Since the Warp is also the realm of Chaos, its inhabitants naturally take notice of such things. The soul of a Psyker burns in the Immaterium much brighter than all the others.
As a very extreme example: the soul of the Emperor burns so bright, that it is used as a navigation point for journeys through the Warp. However, thousands of Psykers are sacrificed to him every day.
When a Psyker dies and their soul enters the Warp, it is like a “dinner bell,” explains a user. Demons would immediately pounce on them and rip them apart – at best. More often than not, it happens that the Psyker remains more or less conscious to literally be tormented by demons for eternity so that they can revel in their suffering.
Chaos is Eternal Torment or the Greatest Reward
But what if someone has already served the Chaos Gods and devoted themselves to them during their lifetime? The gods are relatively generous when it comes to gifts in life, and they at least bestow their questionable blessings on many followers to some degree.
The souls of Chaos followers are therefore strongly drawn to one of the realms of the gods and disappear there upon death. Here too, it is usually the case that … nothing happens. At least this is the general assumption.
There are exceptions, however, when a person is particularly strong or has attracted the attention of a god. Then it may happen that the person ascends to demonhood in life or even after death – or is personally tortured by the god for all eternity.
Particular favorites are even simply resurrected. This happens with a traitor, whose death is just too amusing for Slaanesh.
By the way, the same applies to the Emperor, whom many believe to be a god. Those who are particularly lucky are “saved” by Big E – which only means that they are devoured by him instead of by other Warp entities. But that should at least be more pleasant.
Non-Humans Have a Whole Different Fate – Mostly at Least
In contrast, the situation is different for most Xenos species. Not much is known about the afterlife of most species, but there are almost universal basic ideas about death. In various comments, users explain what happens when non-humans die:
- Orks are actually fungi and spread spores upon death. Their spirits go to the
Great Green
after death, to be reborn by their gods Gork and Mork. - Necrons are now soulless beings in living metal and thus “disappear” when they are not simply reincarnated in a crypt. Truly killing Necrons is incredibly difficult.
- Tyranids also have no souls. They are a swarm consciousness that exists only to consume. When a Tyranid dies, its biomass is simply processed, and a new Tyranid is formed from the material.
There are also some exceptions here. The technologically savvy T’au have a presence in the Warp, but it is hardly perceivable. What happens to this species after death is entirely unclear.
The Kin of the Votann Conglomerate were probably once humans but, like the T’au, have no truly strong connection to the Immaterium. The consciousness of the Kin is uploaded into the “Ancestor Core” after death to contribute to the data pool. In their belief, they ascend to their ancestors, similar to how Vikings did in our culture.
The Worst Fate in the Afterlife Belongs to the Space Eldar
In contrast, it is very clear what happens to the Aeldari. The Aeldari birthed the god Slaanesh and are closely tied to him. Their souls remain conscious in death and would be tormented for all eternity by Slaanesh.
To protect themselves, the souls of fallen Aeldari wander into soulstones, which are then transported into the world or the ship they lived on to power endless machines. In times of war, these crystals are used in constructs that are deployed for battle – at the risk of being destroyed.
The same applies to their dark siblings, the Drukhari. If Drukhari are wealthy enough, their experts bring them back to life. If not … an eternity of torment awaits. This is quite fitting to how they live: Warhammer 40,000 features “evil Space Elves” who survive only by torturing others.
