History Main / GodOfTheDead

* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/BlackCat2019'': Issue #5 introduces the Gilded Saint, a god of wealth and death from another dimension. He is the patron god of the New York Thieves Guild. In return for ten percent of what they steal, the Gilded Saint grants them immortality.

These figures usually take one of two forms -- Gods of ''Death'' and Gods of ''the Dead'' -- although there is often 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]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' had Hades as the evil Lord of the Underworld who hates his drab job and wants to take over Olympus, with Hercules as the main obstacle to that goal.

** 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 [[HornyVikings Nord]] variant who is [[EverybodyHatesHades more malevolent and wants people to die]].

** ''ComicBook/TheSandman'': Death of the Endless is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of death who comes for ''everyone'' when their time is up. While the series features other gods of death; like Anubis, and the SpinOff ''ComicBook/TheThessaliad'' features Pluto, Thoth, and Morrigan, their influence is limited to those who believe in them.

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-->-- '''[[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hades]]''', ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts1''

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' allows us to see [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hades]]' Underworld, and it's implied that him being Lord of the Dead means he gets the dead from ''every'' world, considering [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Auron]] is to be found in his clutches.

[[folder:Myths & Religon]]

** ''ComicBook/TheSandman'': Death of the Endless is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of death who comes for ''everyone'' when their time is up.. While the series features other gods of death, like Anubis, and the SpinOff ''ComicBook/TheThessaliad'' features Pluto, Thoth, and Morrigan; she has seniority.

** 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/a [[GreaterScopeVillain greater scope]] ArcVillain as she seizes on an opportunity to try to destroy the world to get herself a ''much'' better deal]].

** ''ComicBook/TheSandman'': Death of the Endless is in charge of bringing the souls of the dead into the afterlife. While the series features other gods of death, like Anubis, and the SpinOff ''ComicBook/TheThessaliad'' features Pluto, Thoth, and Morrigan, they are all subordinate to her.

** 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 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'' takes place in the Underworld of Myth/ClassicalMythology. Both Hades and Thanatos are major characters; Thanatos is portrayed as actually being responsible for collecting souls, while Hades is in charge of the postmortem CelestialBureaucracy. The game titles the latter "God of the Dead" and the former "Death Incarnate", highlighting the difference in their roles.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** The [[GodOfEvil Chaos God]] named [[{{Plaguemaster}} Nurgle]] is the god of decay, disease, and entropy, as well as the god of renewal, rebirth, and the resilience to endure hardships, up to and including death. Nurgle serves as the Chaos god of both life ''and'' death, though from a more holistic point of view, it's probably more accurate to say that he's the deity of the most twisted version of the cycle of life and death. Wherever his followers go, things die and the dead matter gives birth to hideous new life, such as unnatural insects, fungi, pathogenic bacteria; or worse, things ''stay alive'' and this happens. Nurgle's followers include zombies, demons formed from the souls of those who dies to his diseases, and unnaturally living beings like plague marines, who are so twisted (physically mutilated by disease, their shredded entrails hanging loose from distended bellies) that they should be dead, but Nurgle's gifts sustain life to them and make them notoriously hard to kill.
** Though never described as such, the Chaos God [[TheHedonist Slaanesh]] was the de facto god of the dead for [[SpaceElves the Eldar]]. Slaanesh was born out of the Eldar falling to ennui, and attempts to alleviate boredom eventually devolved into carrying out a generations-long orgy of bloodshed and hedonism, eventually coalescing a deity of excess, pleasure, and pain that had a claim on all Eldar souls in perpetuity, condemning to an afterlife of torture. Most Eldar found dedicated ways of cheating death to avoid their afterlife, and most predictions involved an actual Eldar god of the dead, Ynnead, emerging from the Eldar's collective souls once they go extinct and defeating Slaanesh once and for all. Some recent desperate action midwifed Ynnead form gestational to partly formed, as a means to save the Eldar without them having to go extict. It was partially successful, and the Eldar now have a fighting chance.

* While Czernobog from Myth/SlavicMythology was the God of Darkness, in ''Series/AmericanGods2017'' he is very much described as though he was a God of Death, Wednesday very much describing him as such in "[[Recap/AmericanGodsS1E5LemonScentedYou Lemon Scented You]]", Czernobog comparing himself to cancer in "[[Recap/AmericanGodsS2E1HouseOnTheRock House on the Rock]]" and subsisting on the deaths of cows at a slaughterhouse for a steady flow of both money and sacrifices.

** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': After being freed by Sigmar, Nagash claimed Shyish, the Realm of Death, as his rightful domain, sending his undead minions to conquer the realm’s many [[OverlySpecificAfterlife many underworlds]] and personally consumed the death gods that ruled them until he became the undisputed Gof of the Dead. Nagash takes this role very seriously 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.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** 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.
** The Nehekaran pantheon had Usirian, the lord of the underworld, a faceless god who judged the souls of the dead and decided whether they would be permitted to enter paradise or condemned to eternal suffering. He was revered by the Mortuary Cult, and the increasing Nehekaran obsession with death made him one of the empire's most important deities.
** Gazul is the dwarfish Ancestor God of the dead, and the protector of dwarfish souls. His followers are charged with opposing those who defile the dead -- especially necromancers -- never refusing burial rites to the dead, and protecting the sanctity of burial places.
** Ereth Kial, the Pale Queen, is the elven goddess who rules over the underworld. Unlike the other death gods of the setting, she's an evil being who despises the Elves, and her realm is a place of endless torment for every elven soul that she can catch. The knowledge that Ereth Kial waits for them beyond the veil is one of the reasons the Elves go to great lengths to tether their souls to the material world.
* ''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.

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* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'': Berath is the god of cycles, doors, and life and death. Berath is portrayed as either genderless or as a twinned male/female figure, and their priests teach rationality and respect for the dignity of death.
** While Berath represents the cycle of death and reincarnation, Rymrgand, the Beast of Winter and god of erosion and collapse, represents the cold, destructive act of death itself.

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See also DontFearTheReaper if the God of the Dead is depicted as a kindly and/or impartial figure. These figures may be served by or allied with {{Psychopomp}}s; note that {{Shinigami}} literally means "death gods". Subtrope of StockGods. Gods of the dead are usually responsible for the JudgementOfTheDead.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' had Hades as the evil Lord of the Underworld who hates his drab job and wants to take over Olympus, with Hercules as obstacle to that goal.

* Anubis in ''Film/GodsOfEgypt'' comes to take those who have died to the afterlife and guides them on their journey to judgment. While a stickler for rules and quite scary in appearance, Anubis is also very protective of the souls of the dead and the afterlife in general, and can also be swayed to bend (but not break) the rules by the right person.