Zazu: That's where he'll be.
Nala: Who told you this, Zazu?
Zazu: Mufasa, of course. From generations to generations, each king has passed it down to their son.
Nala: How about the queens? Are there any of them up there?
Zazu: That I do not know.
In some depictions, "good" people go to Heaven while "bad" people go to Hell (or similar equivalents), while other depictions, everyone goes to the same afterlife no matter their beliefs, cultures, or even species. Other times, you need to worship in a specific way to get into the afterlife. This trope is the latter belief but even more specific.
Only certain people are allowed into a certain afterlife. Maybe you have to be born into the right culture, family, or hierarchy, but unless you're in it, you're not allowed in. What happens to everyone else can vary. They can go to a different afterlife, they can go to no afterlife, or it could just be unclarified.
Super-Trope to Species-Specific Afterlife, Personalized Afterlife, Ironic Hell, and Warrior Heaven.
Examples:
- Dragon Ball: Implied. Frieza, an alien who died on Earth, refers to his stay in the afterlife as being in Earth's hell.
- Warriors Redux: The four Clans believe that good Clan cats enter a Hive Mind afterlife upon death, while bad Clan cats stop existing. When the kittypet-born Firepaw asks the seer Spottedleaf if non-Clan cats can enter StarClan, she treats it as a stupid question—of course they don't. StarClan is Clan heaven, not cat heaven, so only Clan cats are allowed.
- The Lion King (1994): The series only mentions that the Great Kings live in the stars upon dying. Nothing is stated about other lions or non-lions. Zira asking Scar to look after Nuka upon his death in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride implies that regular lions aren't barred from an afterlife, but it's otherwise undiscussed in the films. The semi-canon Spin-Offspring show The Lion Guard shows that animals turn into spirits.
- 1934's Wonder Bar features a black character (played by a white man in blackface) going to a black-segregated Heaven. It's full of stereotypes such as black Americans loving watermelon and pork chops.
- In Pirates of the Great Salt Lake one of the main characters' mom is worried about his lifestyle because she firmly believes pirates (or even pirate larpers) can't get into Heaven. The film's final punchline is that she's right... which is why there's a separate Pirate Heaven.
- Corum has an afterlife just for people that he kills. He can summon them to fight for him and if they kill someone to take their place there, they can move on to what's implied to be Cessation of Existence.
- In Hunter's Moon (1989) and Frost Dancers, predators and prey have different afterlives. Hare mythology is that hares are tempted by deceased predators before entering the afterlife. If the hare gives in, they enter the predator's afterlife and are forced to act as prey for all eternity.
- Warrior Cats: Three different afterlives have been shown but they're all specific to either tribe cats or Clan cats. What happens to rogues, kittypets, and other cats isn't known. Firestar's kittypet father Jake is shown to exist after dying, which means there's some sort of afterlife for pets (and whether their owners can be with them is also unspecified). Clan cats are themselves barred from the kittypet afterlife as it's been shown that even Clan cats that later become kittypets end up in StarClan.
- Awkward.: Played for laughs, when gay couple Theo and Cole tell the religious-but-questioning Lyssa that gay people don't go to Hell - they go to gay Heaven. She freaks out over "how many Heavens there are", and wonders whether or not bisexuals "go back and forth" between gay and straight Heaven.
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess: Every nation has its own pantheon of gods, and by extension their own afterlife. The Greeks go to either the Elysian Fields or Tartarus, unless someone is so evil that Tartarus is too good for them, then they go to Hell. Amazons have their own afterlife regardless of whether they are born Amazons or join from another nation. Its been shown that when gods are killed they go to the monotheist afterlife.
- The Thrilling Adventure Hour: In the Beyond Belief episode "The Haunting of Howard Schroeder", Frank explains that Heaven and Hell are based on the ideas of Heaven and Hell. Heavens exist anywhere ghosts think they have been good and deserve a reward, and Hells exist anyplace ghosts feel they deserve punishment. There are, as a result, several winning Heavens in the Hamptons, and there are more Hells than one can count; all of New Jersey for example.
- Dungeons & Dragons: The dead journey to one of seventeen Outer Planes, determined by their Character Alignment or patron god. In addition, some gods' divine realms act as Pocket Dimensions that might or might not allow travel to and from their home Plane.
- Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Shyish, the Realm of Death, is home to every afterlife anyone in any of the eight Mortal Realms has ever believed in, from ones relating to cultures and civilizations, to warrior paradises, to ones of peace; basically, if anyone anywhere in the Mortal Realms has had an idea of what they think the afterlife is like, that afterlife exists somewhere in Shyish. Originally these were all ruled by individual death gods, spirits, or otherwise, but in the Age of Myth Nagash went about subjugating them until he was the one singular god of death in the Mortal Realms. He even made them into pretty nice ones too, before his Face–Heel Turn.
- Afterlife (1996) is, as the title suggests, all about this. You have to provide suitable afterlives for your clients according to their very convoluted belief systems (covering Rewards, Punishments, and Reincarnation as needed). Most Punishments and Rewards are also tied to specific Sins and Virtues, so the Slothful spend their time suffering an itch they can never scratch while the Greedy are afflicted with a Midas-like curse where everything they touch turns into disgusting spam.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, Eorzeans who worship the Twelve believe there are six heavens and six hells in the afterlife. When you are judged by Nald'thal, you are sent to one of these heavens or hells based on your profession or sins. This is only mythology, as it's been proven that when you die your soul returns to the Aetherial Sea and will eventually reincarnate into a new life.
- MapleStory's equivalent of the afterlife is known as The Afterlands, which is made up of countless lands spread across multiple planes of... post-existence. The player goes through 4 of these lands as they look for various keys to return back to the land of the living. This trope is played with by the fact that people who end up in the Afterlands can choose the afterlife they want to go to, and can move between any afterlife experience with the help of the spirit guide Ashkaya.
- The Land of Warriors is a Warrior Heaven filled with legendary explorers that compete for the title of Greatest Warrior Ever. Marking the time of day is done by a pulley that can only be operated by the holder of the title, with monsters becoming stronger at night. The player's HP and MP are restored with a boost to compensate for the stronger enemies.
- The Land of Riches, an afterlife sutied for the Idle Rich who obsess over their riches so much to the point of starving themselves. Due to monsters in the area stealing their valuables, they have walled up themselves in a giant vase to protect their wealth.
- The Land of Contemplation is the closest one gets to Purgatory and Limbo. This land is a vast plane of nothingness where even color isn't available. Despite the bleak atmosphere, the inhabitants of this realm enjoy the place over how it is an ideal place to meditate for weeks on end.
- The Land of Innocence is a land where kids rule. The weather of the Afterlands is controlled by the overall emotions of the children around them. After helping out a striving artist, the player starts to connect the worlds one by one via the use of rainbows created by the artist that inhabits this land.
- The underworld in RuneScape is physically located deep underground in Gielinor's core. Souls must make a long journey to reach it and some souls choose not to go all the way and remain at one of the stops on the way. The final destination is further divided into different sections with the one you go to determined by which god you worshipped in life, even though the gods do not actually have control over the afterlife and can't even visit it due to the gods being banned from Gielinor. Not only that, but each planet in the universe has its own version of the underworld. An exception is the afterlife of Zaros-worshipers which they call Erebus. Erebus is an alternate dimension that is toxic to all life which souls go to apparently just because that is where they believe they will go. Zaros himself had never been to Erebus until recently.
- The afterlife in World of Warcraft is made up of hundreds if not thousands of separate realms known collectively as the Shadowlands. Unless someone's soul is claimed in life by certain powers or beings(examples include the Holy Light or the loa Bwonsamdi), you are instead judged by the Arbiter upon death. Based on what kind of person you were in life and how much of an impact you had in the world you lived in, measured in a source of energy called anima, your soul is then sent to one of the afterlives you best fit the description for.
- Deconstructing this becomes a major plot point of the titular Shadowlands expansion, exploring characters who take issue with being designated to certain relams or attitudes prevailant in them (such as Uther and how he struggles to reconcile his vengeful feelings to Arthas with Bastion's rigid adherence to the Shadowlands' hierarchy), others who've found new purpose in them despite not knowing of their existence or even gelling with their aesthetics in life (such as Drakka, Thrall's mother, who was sent to the undead-heavy Maldraxxas despite being a traditional orcish warrior, as her determination and lust for combat suits her there better than any other realm), and those who don't like their situations but are there for very good reasons (such as Kael'thas and Garrosh in Revendreth, which is essentially a purgatory used to rehabilitate souls not beyond saving but committed terrible atrocities in life). Perhaps most prominent is the inciting character of the expansion, Sylvanas Windrunner, who sides with the Jailer because by the rules of the Shadowlands, she is to be condemned to the Maw - essentially its equivalent of Hell - for the mere fact that she was raised into undeath. Not because of the atrocities she committed in undeath, but because she had the misfortune of being killed and then raised by a murderous tyrant, completely innocent of anything but love and duty for her homeland. Having already suffered in her undeath, she sees such condemnation as solidifying proof the laws of death are fundamentally unfair, and seeks to undo the heirachy the Aribter imposes.
- In Champions of Far'aus, being a follower of certain deities causes the spirits of dead mortals to go to whatever realms of Elsewhere their deities have set up for them. Ones that don't go to a specific Deity's realm of Elsewhere for their afterlife, and end up hanging around in the mortal realm, get hunted down by the Grim Council's Reapers, & sent to the Otherworld, which was created by the Grim Council. If a mishap causes a spirit meant for a certain deities Realm to get sent to the Otherworld by mistake, their deities can contact the Grim Pantheon's "Lost & Found" division.
- Comedian Heaven
is a webcomic about historical comedians interacting in a heaven specifically for them, with mention being made of Serious Actor Heaven, Politician Heaven, and Trucker Heaven.
- Nebula's Civilization: Gods can unlock the power to create an afterlife for their followers, of which specifics are up to them, both what happens there and what can lead someone to a good afterlife. Nebula explains that the kind of afterlife their followers are promised, in turn, encourages certain behaviors in their follower; making a Warrior Heaven encourages their followers to be warriors, whereas Nebula is trying to encourage scientific development by making a heaven that allows for further study in several fields, like granting the Stargazer an observatorium that allows him to study the stars after he passed.
- The Order of the Stick's cosmology is derived from Dungeons & Dragons, so souls travel to an Outer Plane that suits their Character Alignment or patron god. When Roy is temporarily killed, Elan laments
that they won't meet in the afterlife "because you're Lawful, and Chaotic Good am I". Furthermore, due to a bargain between the death goddess Hel and the other gods, dwarves only go to their alignment-respective afterlife if they died an honorable death. Dwarves who died dishonorably will end up in the domain of Hel and will be her slaves for eternity. To avoid eternal damnation, dwarf culture is extremely honor-centric.
- Played with in Schlock Mercenary: Durning a flare-up in the Andromeda-Milky Way war trillions of sentient beings are brain-uploaded into a virtual world, with plans to revive them after the battles are over. The "waiting room" for each group/world/species is presented as a particular afterlife, though at least a few on-screen cases has the tour guide say that it's just the best they could come up with to help everyone get an idea of what was happening.
- The first installment of The Grim Reaper Show
depicts people being sorted into their various afterlives. One man, who apparently made up his own religion, is told that his afterlife is to go to "the floating island of Mandingo," where everyone enjoys an eternity of steaming-hot sex, and there is no jealousy or boredom. The Reaper compliments the man on his choice of religion, and allows a nearby agnostic to go too.
- The Internet Historian episode "Going Camping at the End of the World" features a paid sponsorship for NordVPN cyber security where-in Jesus shows up at a gamer's door and tells him that after seeing his internet search history, he's no longer eligible to get into Heaven, or the more exclusive Super Heaven, which features a delicious seafood buffet.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, some humans pass onto the Spirit World after death, usually because they were very connected to other spirits. The Avatar will reincarnate on Earth, though it doesn't really fit the traditional idea of reincarnation - each life has a separate spirit that goes to the Spirit World after death, they're just all connected to each other. The afterlife for everyone is unspecified.
- In The Boondocks, after Uncle Ruckus gets struck by lightning, he is greeted by Ronald Reagan, who explains that Heaven is segregated. Black Heaven is nice for what it is, but White Heaven will always be better.
- The Simpsons:
- There's a Couch Gag where there is a Heaven for fit dogs and a Hell for unfit dogs. Santa's Little Helper dies from overeating. At the Pearly Gates, he is shown that he isn't fit enough for Heaven. He is wary about going to Hell, but the enticement of free pizza changes his mind and he heads there.
- In "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", a drunk Barney tells Lisa that when we die there will be separate planets for the French and the Chinese and we'll all be a lot happier.
- Marge in "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star" had a daydream where Heaven is divided between the Protestants and the Catholics after Bart and Homer converted to the latter. The former is like a country club attended by stereotypical WASP New Englishmen, the latter is a giant party mostly full of Irish, Italian, and Mexican people.
- Segregationist senator James Eastland (D-MS) was once heard saying heaven was racially segregated.
I remembered when Betty and I had heard him give a speech in which he proclaimed there were two heavens—one for blacks and another for whites. We were aghast by his comment, but also surprised that he even thought blacks had the chance to go to heaven. That was generous for Eastland.
