The afterlife is a speculation concerning existence after death in several religions and cultures in the known world.
Culture
Westeros
The Faith of the Seven holds that there are seven heavens and seven hells.[1][2][3][4] Each of the seven hells is deeper than the next.[5] Those who repent of their sins can taste the sweet milk of the Mother's mercy in the afterlife,[6] while those who do not repent of their sins go to the seven hells.[7] The septons of the Faith teach that the afterlife is a sweet surcease, and sing of voyaging to a far sweet land of light and honey, where men and women may laugh and love and feast until the end of days in the Father's golden hall.[8][9]
Followers of the Drowned God believe that the dead are summoned to his watery halls, where they can drink and feast for all eternity,[10][11] with mermaids attending their every want.[10] The ironborn fear that if they die on dry land and are buried there, they will not be able to find the way to the Drowned God's watery halls.[11][12]
Free folk followers of the old gods believe that those who die go to be with the gods; to be part of the earth and trees, rocks and streams, birds and beasts, to be the world and everything in it.[13]
According to Jojen Reed, the children of the forest believe that weirwood trees are the old gods, and that when they die, they become part of the godhood.[14]
Skinchangers speak of a "second life" that exists after their deaths, a much simpler life inside the mind of an animal he controls. In the second life, the skinchanger's memory slowly fades until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains.[13]
Essos
Followers of R'hllor believe that after a good person dies, they ascend to the Hall of Light, to sit beside the Lord of Light.[15]
The night lands are the afterlife of the Dothraki religion.[16] Tradition dictates that when a rider of the Dothraki dies, his horse is slain and the two bodies are burned on a funeral pyre so they can ride together to the night lands,[17] which are said to have endless black grasses.[18]
The Faceless Men, followers of the Many-Faced God, also believe in "nightlands", where the stars burn brightly forever, a place where people are led after death by their companion "dark angels".[19]
Recent Events
A Clash of Kings
Before the battle of the Blackwater, Sansa Stark asks Sandor Clegane why he is not afraid of death, as the gods might send him to a "terrible hell" for all the evil he has done. The Hound replies that he does not believe in gods, or none that care about protecting the weak from the strong.[20]
A Storm of Swords
After Lord Hoster Tully dies at Riverrun, Catelyn Tully thinks her father will be awaited in the afterlife by his grandsons, Bran and Rickon Stark, who she mistakenly believes to be dead.[21]
Davos Seaworth tells his son Devan how his elder brothers died in the Battle of the Blackwater. Devan, a follower of R'hllor, replies that they have "ascended to the Hall of Light, to sit beside the Lord", and that he will pray for them at the nightfires.[15]
A Feast for Crows
Aeron Greyjoy, a priest of the Drowned God, has no memory of his older half-brothers, Harlon, Quenton, and Donel, but imagines that he and their other deceased brothers, King Balon and Urri, will all feast together one day in the Drowned God's watery halls.[10]
Maester Aemon, very aged, ill, and dying, speaks of potential afterlives he may experience soon and dead relatives he might meet again.[9]
A Dance with Dragons
Sweets is Yezzan zo Qaggaz's favorite slave, and thus does not wish his master to die, as favorites sometimes accompany their masters to the grave and serve him in the afterlife.[22]
| Warning This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change. |
The Winds of Winter
The Red Lamb, a former Lhazarene slave, tells Ser Barristan Selmy that he is not afraid of death, as he wishes to confront the god of Lhazar, the Great Shepherd, for failing his people.[23]
Quotes
The weight of his armor would carry Lord Hoster down to rest in the soft mud of the riverbed, in the watery halls where the Tullys held eternal court, with schools of fish their last attendants.[21]
—thoughts of Catelyn Stark
Death is not the worst thing. It is His gift to us, an end to want and pain. On the day that we are born the Many-Faced God sends each of us a dark angel to walk through life beside us. When our sins and our sufferings grow too great to be borne, the angel takes us by the hand to lead us to the nightlands, where the stars burn ever bright. Those who come to drink from the black cup are looking for their angels.[19]
—the kindly man, to Arya Stark
Death should hold no fear for a man as old as me, but it does. Isn't that silly? It is always dark where I am, so why should I fear the darkness? Yet I cannot help but wonder what will follow, when the last warmth leaves my body. Will I feast forever in the Father's golden hall as the septons say? Will I talk with Egg again, find Daeron whole and happy, hear my sisters singing to their children? What if the horselords have the truth of it? Will I ride through the night sky forever on a stallion made of flame? Or must I return again to this vale of sorrow? Who can say, truly? Who has been beyond the wall of death to see? Only the wights, and we know what they are like. We know.[9]
—Maester Aemon, to Samwell Tarly
My brother Balon made us great again, which earned the Storm God's wrath. He feasts now in the Drowned God's watery halls, with mermaids to attend his every want. It shall be for us who remain behind in this dry and dismal vale to finish his great work.[10]
Your little one is with the gods now. He'll never hurt again, never hunger, never cry. The gods have taken him down into the earth, into the trees. The gods are all around us, in the rocks and streams, in the birds and beasts. Your Bump has gone to join them. He'll be the world and all that's in it.[13]
—a woods witch, to Bump's mother
Cromm: Come the morrow we will feast beneath the sea.
Hagen: If we die with dry feet, how will we find our way to the Drowned God's watery halls?
Cromm: These woods are full of little streams. All of them lead to rivers, and all the rivers to the sea.[12]
The singers of the forest had no books. No ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had the trees, and the weirwoods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered. All their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world. Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods. When singers die they become part of that godhood.[14]
—Jojen Reed, to Bran Stark
I am not afraid. Should I die, I will go before the Great Shepherd of Lhazar, break his crook across my knee, and say to him, "Why did you make your people lambs, when the world is full of wolves?" Then I will spit into his eye.[23]
—The Red Lamb, to Barristan Selmy
References
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 29, Sansa II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27, Jaime III.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 55, Catelyn VII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 43, Cersei X.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 26, Samwell III.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 35, Samwell IV.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 1, The Prophet.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 29, The Reaver.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 26, The Wayward Bride.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 A Dance with Dragons, Prologue.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 34, Bran III.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 54, Davos V.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 36, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 64, Daenerys VIII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 12, Daenerys I.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 22, Arya II.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 52, Sansa IV.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 35, Catelyn IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 57, Tyrion XI.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 The Winds of Winter, Barristan I