Why should the gods provide an afterlife to mortals? Why would

Otherwise the dead start talking bad about the gods and then before you know it nobody's got any worshipers.

>>52414656
Cause their ghosts would just be wandering everywhere getting in the way of things

Well, either they have a soft spot for them or they get something from them.

If they have a soft spot, the fun part is figuring out why, and how humans find out, and how they build their culture around it, since it will be the most important thing they encounter probably.

If they get something, what is it?

>>52414656
There's a few possibilities.

1) There just is an afterlife. The gods don't get a say in the matter, except perhaps which god or gods shall rule it (or portions thereof).

2) The gods are generally benevolent and want to do a solid for mortals that please them, or punish those that don't, or whatever. They Feel Like It, basically. You gonna tell a good he or she shouldn't?

3) Blue Deity Needs Faith Badly. The reward of an afterlife is an incentive to worship them and thereby provide them with the Faith they need to survive.

The gods eat souls.

>>52414656
Depends on the setting.

They need worshipers for faith to stay alive or at least stay powerful. A god promising an afterlife they would enjoy would ensure they have followers.

>>52414656
They need the souls back so they can be reincarnated.

>>52414656

Mortals have been known to build tall towers and shit to mess you up if you don't promise them an afterlife.

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>>52414656
They don't have to care, that's part of the appeal. They actively choose to love you like children, and expect almost nothing in return.

>>52414697
>nobody's got any worshipers.
Why would the gods care about worshipers, you misbegotten Forgotten Realms refugee?

Those realms were forgotten for a reason...

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>>52414780
>build tall towers and shit to mess you up
And look how easy they got rekk'd.

Mortals are so full of themselves, thinking that the gods need them for anything. That's HUBRIS, and that's a PADDLIN'!

>>52414656
I mean, depending on how your gods work, the gods (probably) created mortals, and most artists care about their creations.

>>52415089
Doesn't FR have the Wall of Fedoras or whatever that specifically keeps gods and worshipers separated?

>>52414656
It's the only way to get them to behave while they're alive. Afterlife is the cosmic dessert to motivate them to eat their goddamn peas

>>52414656
Aren't there some myths where [Insert Race] was created by their specific deity?

Whether we're talking fantasy or real life mythology, I'm sure the Gods would care for their little children as much as a grandfather cares for his grandson.

>The mortal world is a prison for evil spirits who misbehaved badly.

>Those foolish enough to seek immortality in the mortal world, don't realise that they are seeking eternal imprisonment.

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>>52414656
Could possibly depend on them
>Gods source of power comes from worship
>If forgotten they die out

>>52414656
Because who just lets their creations disappear into oblivion? What's the point of creating them, then?

>>52414656
They could very well harness them as a powersource. By putting souls in their private domain, they siphon off the spirits energy until it fades away, only expending some of their reserves in displays to garner more followers. That is of course, kind of a pessimistic and edgelordy, but eh, a hook is a hook.

>>52414656
Because that's what they do. The god of afterlife was born out of the necessity for afterlife. It's his job to guard the dead.

Because mortals tend to grab power and then start in on killing the gods for being useless wankers if they don't.

Hell, mortals do that anyways, but it cuts down on the death-by-mortal murder rate if most mortals believe they need you for the afterlife.

>>52414735
>>52414762

A combination of these two. Gods eat souls to continue existing so they can stave off the inevitable end of the universe.

>>52414656

In my quasi-That GM's setting, Gods provide afterlives for mortals primarily as a way of turning their souls into lesser angels that serve them, in turn mostly so they can dickwave to each other about which is the most awesome.

What makes you think gods aren't lying to you? It's like having psychic mutants who can change how you think among you - the only safe way to make sure you aren't being mind raped is kill 'em all.

>>52414656
In my world, the gods only give afterlives to the "interesting" people - folks that either earned a specific god's praise, or provoked their ire.

The souls of most people just end up destroyed permanently, eaten by the All-Consumer goddess.

>>52414656
An axiomatic facet of what being a god means.

>>52415089
Pretty sure that goes all the way back to the Greeks.
There's an old play where birds a city in the sky that blocks the smoke-offerings to the Gods, starving them out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_(play)

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>>52414656

Are the gods all cooperating in abstaining from providing an afterlife? Because if the gods (plural) all get along then what's the fucking point of your story.

Some entity will offer mortals SOMETHING in exchange for worship +/ service +/ spreading its influence.

>>52418483
Huitzilopochtli pls go.

>>52414656
>every sentient species in the universe was trying to find a God. In the end, humanity creates a God with the help of the knowledge that was acculmulated by it's predecessors. A human is turn omnipotent and omniscient. But he's still a human. He createss an ufterlife and the concept of soul, along with other things. He creates other gods, parodies of himself, because he seeks companionship. In the end he goes insane. And that's where Earth's story begins.

I remember a warhammer novel, i cant recall the title, maybe the necromancer, and one of the few that wasnt crap.
A necromancer in his last moments of life, is telling his life to his antagonist, a witchunter or a monk. Its all a trap to win time for a spell od exchanging bodies, so the necromancer wins a younger body, and the witchhunter was trapped in a dying body.
The point is that the necromancer used to did this because he discovered that there wasnt an afterlife in the warhamme world, so he didnt to cease to exist.
It surprised me because i dont care about the miniatures game but i loved the rpg and i always suposed that there were a heaven

>>52414656
They don't care about welfare.

It's just that humans force it out of them.

>>52421763
I always wondered what happened to create the PREACHER universe.

Good to know.. Good to know.

>>52414656
Well, why are there mortals in the first place? Did anyone create them as mortals, or were they not supposed to die at the beginning? Were the gods created as well? If so, were they created by the same entity that made the mortals?
In that case, being mortal might just put you in a state where you can show that you are fit to become as the gods. Possibly in order to replace them, because they aren't doing their job right. In that case, the gods could even work against the mortals.

>>52414656
Reframing.

>Why would the gods care about mortals' welfare?
They don't.

>Why should they provide an afterlife to them?
So they can keep the dead as servants and pastimes.

>>52414656

Because afterlives are self-sustaining.

A god wants a realm of his own, right? He wants his celestial castle and so on? Souls are basically a battery. When people die and go to the afterlife, their post-mortem existence sustains Heaven. So it's win-win: the deity gets to live in it, people get to enjoy eternal bliss until they're reincarnated.