History Main / GodOfTheDead

* Anubis, the Ancient Egyptian god of the dead appears in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode [[Recap/GargoylesS2Grief "Grief"]], voiced by Creator/TonyJay, when he is summoned by the Emir in a plot by Xanatos to gain immortality. However, the Emir wants to use Anubis to bring his son back to life after dying in a car accident. When Anubis refuses, the Emir attempts to channel the captured Anubis's powers as an avatar, but Jackal complicates the plan and becomes the avatar instead (fittingly jackals are Anubis's associated animal).

** Hel, a daughter of Loki who is living on one half of her body and dead on the other, ruled Helheim (literally "Hel's home"), where those who die of old age or disease are stored until Ragnarok. Her name is related to the English word "Hell".

** The Northern Pantheon has Hel, who rules over the underworld. Due to an unusual arrangement, she gets all the souls of dwarves who don't die of honor, whom she enslaves and torments. She's shown as an unstable and spiteful woman in an EtherealWhiteDress, and [[spoiler:is the [[GreaterScopeVillain greater scope]] ArcVillain as she's trying to destroy the world to get herself a better deal]].

In personality, these deities are typically grim and uncompromising figures, neither cruel nor merciful but unwaveringly dedicated to ensuring that their part of creation works like it's supposed to, mirroring the finality and impartiality of death itself. People must die when their time comes; the dead may not cross back to the world of the living; and, once a soul shuffles off its mortal coil, be they saint or tyrant, neither prayer or offerings nor the pleading of other gods may alter their judgement. Consequently, these deities often loathe undeath, seeing it as a perversion of the cycle of life and death.

Gods of Death often have a tenuous or distant relationship with living mortals. Their worship is rarely attractive, as in most cases service and devotion won't get you favorable treatment or longer life. Their priesthoods are often limited to funerary orders who tend to the dead, but it's also common for their worshippers to be charged with hunting down undead beings and those who extend their lives unnaturally and, so to speak, "easing" their passage into the hereafter. EverybodyHatesHades may also be in play in-universe, and death gods are feared or resented by the living.

These figures usually take one of two forms -- Gods of ''Death'' and Gods of ''the Dead'' -- although there is overlap between these archetypes. Gods of death are typically the ones overseeing the actual process of death, guiding the souls of the deceased to the afterlife, while gods of the dead deal with what comes after, ruling over the afterworld and [[JudgementOfTheDead sorting and judging the souls of the dead]].

!!Examples

-->''Temperance, full title Princess Mi Finale Temperanza, is my go-to pony psychopomp when I don't want to have Luna do it. She very definitely does not run Equestria's Royal Assassinorum, because there is no such institution.''

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[[folder:Mythology & Religon]]

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* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVAbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder'': If the player decides to go for the perfect ending, Alexander winds up visiting the Island of the Dead, where the souls of the deceased in the Land of the Green Isles go before heading off to the afterlife. Surviving all the death traps of the island brings him face to face with Samhein, god of death, whom he must challenge and beat to rescue the suffering souls of Princess Cassima's parents.

* Myth/EgyptianMythology: Osiris was the main god of the dead, ruling over the spirits of the virtuous in the afterlife of the Field of Reeds. Anubis also played an important role in the process of death, overseeing the judging of each soul and determining if they were worthy of passing on.

* Myth/JapaneseMythology: Izanami was one of the original two deities in creation, alongside her male partner Izanagi. She perished in childbirth, however, and went to Yomi, the underworld of the dead, where she became a rotting corpse riddled with maggots. She vowed to Izanagi that, in punishment for leaving her there, she would claim a thousand living people every day, explaining why people died. Izanagi replied that he would have a thousand and five hundred be born every day in reply.

Less commonly, however, gods of death may be portrayed as malicious or evil figures who actively spread death and relish their power over mortals. In extreme cases, these figures may be outright {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s seeking to end all life and bring all mortal souls within their domain. Less extreme or proactive examples may still enjoy lording their power over mortals, gloating over each soul that slips into their grasp and raging at perceived thefts when a mortal literally or figuratively cheats death. These sorts, unlike the first kind, tend to have a much more favorable view of the undead and often use them as minions and enforcers.

*** [[https://scryfall.com/card/ths/85/erebos-god-of-the-dead Erebos, God of the Dead]], serves as a Hades analogue and rules over the shades of the departed in the Underworld. A bleak and forbidding figure, Erebos permits nobody to avoid or escape from his realm, and uses his impossibly long whip Mastix to snare reluctant souls and pull them into death.

*** Jergal is a lesser deity who has served every god of death and who is tasked with keeping records of every mortal soul's final fate. He's grim, emotionless figure with little interest in anything beyond watching the world's slow decline into entropy and death.

** ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'': The Raven Queen is the primary goddess of the dead, and is charged with judging the souls of the dead and sending them onward to the afterlife, although her treaties with the other gods forbid her from actively ruling over the dead. She also hates the undead, and charges her followers with hunting them down. 5[[superscript:th]] Edition largely retcons this, making the Raven Queen into a lesser power concerned with observing mortal memories and experiences.

** Pharasma is the TrueNeutral judge of the dead. She appears as a stately gray-skinned lady with white hair that doesn't quite obey gravity, despises the undead for being abominations, and runs the CelestialBureaucracy where souls wait to receive her judgement before going on to their designated afterlife. She rules over the {{psychopomp}}s, who rove the planes as her agents in safeguarding the passage of souls and battling those who would pray upon them, and charges her followers with watching over the dead on the material plane as well as battling the undead. Interestingly, besides being the goddess of death, she's also the goddess of [[BirthDeathJuxtaposition birth]], ruling over both the beginning and end of mortal lives, and is worshipped by midwives as much as by undertakers and undead-hunters.

** Morr is the main human god of the dead. Pictured as a dour, cloaked and hooded figure, he rules over the realm of the dead and keeps the souls of the departed safe from the depredations of Chaos and necromancers. His priests are similarly grim figures, and mostly oversee funerary rites and tend to graveyards. Morr despises undeath, and his church includes a number of knightly orders dedicated to hunting necromancers and the walking dead.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': Nagash, as a result of binding himself to the Wind of Death and consuming most of the old death gods during the end of the old ''Warhammer'' world, became the God of Death of the Mortal Realms. He rules over Shysh, the Realm of Death, where the souls of the other Realms' natives go after dying, and considers all souls to be rightfully his. As a consequence, he hates everything he perceives as a robbery of his property, including both resurrection and SoulEating. He's also a deity of undeath, and rules over immense legions of walking dead, necromancers and restless spirits.

* ''VideoGame/EverQuestII'' has Drinal. Visually inspired by Anubis of Egyptian mythology, Drinal used to be a natural spirit who oversaw the Ethernere, a limbo where people go after they die until such point that they are absorbed into the realms of their chosen dieties. However, with the actual slaying of Rallos Zek, the God of War in [=EQ2=]'s timeline, and Cazic Thule, the God of Fear in the original Everquest's timeline, the powers of both gods began to corrupt the physical lands of the afterlife, and Drinal himself ascended into the full God of Death and the Afterlife. He also ended up becoming corrupted by absorbing the raw powers of two dead gods, and it is up to the players to smack some sense into him and bring his powers under control in the Chains of Eternity expansion.

* Creator/AGnosis' comics on [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek myth]] feature Hades as a major character who oversees TheUnderworld and the arrival of the dead. He's a {{Workaholic}}, but is surprisingly compassionate towards the dead, especially lost ghosts, and once arranges a special meeting between Athena and a dead friend.

* ''VideoGame/EverQuestII'' has Drinal. Visually inspired by Anubis of Egyptian mythology, Drinal used to be a natural spirit who oversaw the Ethernere, a limbo where people go after they die until such point that they are absorbed into the realms of their chosen dieties. However, with the actual slaying of Rallos Zek, the God of War in [=EQ2=]'s timeline, and Cazic Thule, the God of Fear in the original Everquest's timeline, the powers of both gods began to corrupt the physical lands of the afterlife, and Drinal himself ascended into the full God of Death and the Afterlife. He also ended up becoming corrupted by absorbing the raw powers of two dead gods, and it is up to the players to smack some sense into him and bring his powers under control in the Chains of Eternity expansion.

** His cultural variants: the [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] Xarxes, who functions more as a keeper of knowledge about the dead; Tu'whacca, who guides Redguards to their afterlife; and Orkey, a [[HornyViking Nord]] variant who is [[EverybodyHatesHades more malevolent and wants people to die]].

* Hades in ''Theatre/{{Hadestown}}'' is the uncompromising Lord of the Underworld, reimagined as the CompanyTown Hadestown, who occasionally goes to the surface to recruit souls to his workforce.

** His cultural variants in the [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] Xarxes, who functions more as a keeper of knowledge about the dead, Tu'whacca, who guides Redguards to their afterlife, and Orkey, a [[HornyViking Nord]] variant who is [[EverybodyHatesHades more malevolent and wants people to die]].
** Shor, who rules over [[WarriorHeaven Sovngarde]], though he doesn't appear when you visit there in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuest5'': If the player decides to go for the perfect ending, Alexander winds up visiting the Island of the Dead, where the souls of the deceased in the Land of the Green Isles go before heading off to the afterlife. Surviving all the death traps of the island brings him face to face with Samhein, god of death, whom he must challenge and beat to rescue the suffering souls of Princess Cassima's parents.

* ''VideoGame/EverQuestII'' has Drinal. Visually inspired by Anubis of Egyptian mythology, Drinal used to be a natural spirit who oversaw the Ethernere, a limbo where people go after they die until such point that they are absorbed into the realms of their chosen dieties. However, with the actual slaying of Rallos Zek, the God of War in [=EQ2=]'s timeline, and Cazic Thule, the God of Fear in the original Everquest's timeline, the powers of both gods began to corrupt the physical lands of the afterlife, and Drinal himself ascended into the full God of Death and the Afterlife. He also ended up becoming corrupted by absorbing such raw powers of two dead gods, and it is up to the players to smack some sense into him and bring his powers under control in the Chains of Eternity expansion.

** The Northern Pantheon has Hel, who rules over the underworld. Due to an unusual arrangement, she get all the souls of dwarves who don't die of honor, whom she enslaves and torments. She's shown as an unstable and spiteful woman in an EtherealWhiteDress, and [[spoiler: is the [[GreaterScopeVillain greater scope]] ArcVillain as she's trying to destroy the world to get herself a better deal]].
* ''Webcomic/PublicHumiliation'': Lan is the grandson of Hades, thus he's a rather powerful necromancer. [[spoiler: In the sequel comic ''A Little More Humiliation'' Lan takes over as the new Hades, while his adoptive brother Warmwind becomes Thanatos.]]
* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'': One of the three creator gods, simply named Death, resides in Purgatory and oversees judgment of the souls of dead Medians. Those whose good deeds outweighs their evil go to Heaven, while those whose good and evil even out go to Purgatory with him.

->"Yo, hey, how ya doing everybody? Got a minute? Hades, Lord of the Dead. Nice to see ya. Hey, guess what? I've got a place for you DOWN UNDER!"
-->--[[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hades]], ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts1''

In personality, these deities are typically grim and uncompromising figures, neither cruel nor merciful but unwaveringly dedicated to ensuring that their part of creation works like it's supposed to, mirroring the finality and impartiality of death itself. People must die when their time comes and the dead may not cross back to the world of the living and, once a soul shuffles off its mortal coil, be they saint or tyrant, neither prayer or offerings nor the pleading of other gods may bring them back to life or alter their judgement. Consequently, these deities often loathe undeath, seeing it as a perversion of the cycle of life and death.

Less commonly, however, gods of death may be portrayed as malicious or evil figures who actively spread death and relish their power over mortals. In extreme cases, these figures may be outright {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s seeking to end all life and bring all mortal souls within their domain. Less extreme or proactive examples may still enjoy lording their power over mortals, gloating over each soul that slips into their grasp and raging when at perceived thefts when a mortal literally or figuratively cheats death. These sorts, unlike the first kind, tend to have a much more favorable view of the undead and often use them as minions and enforcers.

* ''Literature/GhostRoads'': The afterlife and spirits that end up their are managed by various deities, each ruling over their own version based on what mythology they come from. The ghost Rose Marshall ends up having to journey to the Greek underworld to meet the gods Hades and Persephone to reattach a protection she uses against the vile Bobby Cross.

* ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'': Ironeyes is generally regarded as the god of death, though one of the three major religions (Sliverism) worships him as God, period.

** Thanatos was the god and representation of death itself, ending the lives of mortals and sending them onward to the afterlife. In some tellings, Thanatos only represented and presided over natural deaths, and had a sister named Keres who personified and presided over violent deaths. However, unlike her brother, she didn't actually have the power to end to life and thus, whilst drawn to violent deaths such as battlefields, she had to wait till it was over to collect the souls. In certain myths, the messenger god Hermes played a similar role as a psychopomp.

** Hel, a daughter of Loki who is living on one half of her body and dead on the other, ruled Helheim (literally "Hel's home), where those who die of old age or disease are stored until Ragnarok. Her name is related to the English word "Hell".

*** Myrkul, the Lord of Bones, was a necromancer who became a DeityOfHumanOrigin and installed himself as the god of death and old age. He was less concerned with ensuring an orderly process of death and governance of the dead than with constantly reminding mortals of their eventual fate, using his domain as a means of furthering his power.

** ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'': The Raven Queen is the primary goddess of the dead, and is charged with judging the souls of the dead and sending them onward to the afterlife, although her treaties with the other gods forbid her from actively ruling over the dead. She also hates the undead, and charges her followers with hunting them down. 5th Edition largely retcons this, making the Raven Queen into a lesser power concerned with observing mortal memories and experiences.

** Hades was the god of the dead and lord of the underworld, ruling over the bleak fields where the shades of the dead wander forever. He was a grim and uncompromising figure, refusing to allow the dead to escape their fate when their time came to pass into death. His wife, Persephone, was Queen of the Underworld half he time and goddess of spring the other half.

Gods of Death often have a tenuous or distant relationship with living mortals. Their worship is rarely attractive, as in most cases service and devotion won't get you favorable treatment or longer life. Their priesthoods are often limited to funerary orders who tend to the dead, but it's also common for their worshippers to be charged with hunting down undead beings and those who extend their lives unnaturally and, so to speak, "easing" their passage into the hereafter. EveryoneHatesHades may also be in play in-universe, and death gods are feared or resented by the living.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'': There are two death gods: Xibalba, a malevolent trickster who rules an unpleasant afterlife due to losing a bet, and his estranged wife, La Muerte, a benevolent ruler of a nice afterlife. The two seem to be a synchretic combination of the Aztec death gods Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl and the Greek death gods Hades and Persephone.

** Hades was the god of the dead and lord of the underworld, ruling over the bleak fields where the shades of the dead wander forever. He was a grim and uncompromising figure, refusing to allow the dead to escape their fate when their time came to pass into death.