A Hunter's End?

[Extant Reality]

So I understand that in CoD that there is a underworld/Hades kinda place. I mean going to a shadowy place where there is no light, no stuff to do really sounds sad. Is there a Valhalla/Heaven type place that a ST could send a PC's "soul/spirit"? It would also be cool if there was a Conspiracy that could step into that place and call down their Hunter predecessors for help. Their most powerful ability could be to call down some kind of Supernal aid in form of the greatest Hunters to ever keep the Vigil. To stand in the warmth of a thousand candles, to feel the heat of your predecessors' gifts of self sacrifice being passed onto you to continue the Vigil, that is Heaven to a Hunter.

[Mr.F.I.X.]

There is a place that is the inverse of the infernal as far as I recall but I do not believe human souls go there.

Now, there is something about the underworld you may not know, those are not real people. Those are memories imprinted upon the world. The true soul has gone elsewhere. The other detail is the underworld reflects the how the region 'above' perceives it. So, below Greece it may be hades and so beneath norse nations it may be valhalla. In a way however what you are looking for you may be better served to use benedictions as a starting point and twist them to your needs in my opinion.

[Ever Professional]

Ghosts are kind of an oddball in the whole people department. While it's true Rank 1 ghosts are pretty much static films, but ghosts ranking 2 and up do have personalities and sentience; said ghosts count as people according to some groups, and they generally won't like it if you tell them they aren't people. Now on the matter of souls; a person's soul is important, but you can switch the souls of two people and no effects will ever be noticed. So it's important to have a soul, but the soul you have isn't very intrinsic to you; you could have guy down the street's soul exchanged for your soul, and you will never notice anything different.

[milo v3]

The underworld actually molds itself to reflect the various afterlife's of myth, so there is Valhalla within the underworld.

[Michael]

There's plenty to do in the Underworld, it's just not all that nice. Also, you only go there if you've become a ghost which most people don't. If you listen to the Awakened they'll tell you that ghosts are just the after echo of a soul that's already gone.

To be honest having the ability to call the dead back to life on command totally robs it of it's significance. I mean, it's an interesting concept but I'd be really sparing with it, maybe save the warmth of a thousand candles for the final part of your Chronicle. Bear in mind that the default setting is heavily slanted towards horror. For their troubles, a hunter can generally expect at best a violent death, the question of whether that's a worthwhile sacrifice is pretty central to Hunter.

[Omegaphallic]

Ghosts are kind of an oddball in the whole people department. While it's true Rank 1 ghosts are pretty much static films, but ghosts ranking 2 and up do have personalities and sentience; said ghosts count as people according to some groups, and they generally won't like it if you tell them they aren't people. Now on the matter of souls; a person's soul is important, but you can switch the souls of two people and no effects will ever be noticed. So it's important to have a soul, but the soul you have isn't very intrinsic to you; you could have guy down the street's soul exchanged for your soul, and you will never notice anything different.

That is kind of weird isn't it, that the soul in practice funtions are little more then important piece of equiptment or a strange none physical organ that you can just get a transplant to replace.

[Omegaphallic]

Its not established were souls go when someone in the CoD dies, assuming said soul isn't stolen or transformed. The only exception is some people get reincarnated.

[Ever Professional]

That is kind of weird isn't it, that the soul in practice funtions are little more then important piece of equiptment or a strange none physical organ that you can just get a transplant to replace.

I like to believe that souls are essentially batteries for life considering that every splat has one (even vampires), and ghosts are basically using essence as temporary batteries because of their lack of a soul; so in my chronicles, ghosts aren't imprints left by a person's memories and they are the person they used to be. Souls are basically recycled as batteries when a person dies.

[Tessie]

While ghosts definitely are people (even at Rank 1 in 2E) they're not the same people as those who died. Ghosts are created at the moment of death from the memories of the person who died, but they're not a direct continuation of the consciousness in the person who died. This is made apparent by the fact that near-death experiences also can lead to the creation of ghosts.

As far as I know there's not a single definite mention of an actual afterlife in CofD so we have no idea if one even end up in one.

And about the Underworld. There are certainly variations in the different domains in the Underworld, but my (admittedly limited) knowledge tells me they're not very festive. While there might be a few twisted versions of Valhall, I think it's a lot more likely the domains around Scandinavia will resemble Hel.

[Ever Professional]

This is made apparent by the fact that near-death experiences also can lead to the creation of ghosts.

While I didn't know the part about near death experiences being able to make ghosts, but I did know how the book describes them as different people, but still people. I've always just run them as what's left of the same people mostly so I don't get confused when delivering information.

[Stupid Loserman]

It's firmly ambiguous, in the Chronicles of Darkness, what the "true" outcome is after death for mortal humans: whether there is any just reward, reincarnation, escape from suffering or continuity of being.

It's definitely feasible that a conspiracy might arise that honors icons of the Vigil whose memory endures beyond death, and that has discovered some ritual that calls on that legacy to aid them somehow. In the tradition of Vigil conspiracies, it's probably cosmologically uncertain what mechanism fuels this ritual, only what the conspiracy believes of it. Could be borrowing the power of high-Rank ghosts, channeling it up from the Underworld in rites that remain of a long-dead cult of the Bound. Could be holy memorial rites that evoke the imprint great women and men have made upon the collective soul of the world. Could be guardian angels conflated with historical figures. Could be summonings that flatten the line of history, explaining out-of-body experiences and mysterious disappearances in the distant past. Could be valkyries assumed into the heavens of alien gods. Could just be exactly what the conspiracy says it is.

[milo v3]

There are certainly variations in the different domains in the Underworld, but my (admittedly limited) knowledge tells me they're not very festive.

Considering how much geist loves the day of the dead and festivities I think it'd be wrong for the underworld to not have festive parts. Though, that doesn't mean those parts wouldn't still be horrific. The Valhalla equivalent might be a place where Torn threshold ghosts fight and kill each other day after day because they can no longer inflict their rage upon the living and they drink in their halls but nothing can truly state them so these ghosts of the mangled dead are feasting to disgusting excess only to die an infinity of deaths.

[Arcanist]

They actually wrote up Valhalla (and Helheim) in the Wolf and the Raven Dark Era. They also presented a version of Limbo and Gehenna, for your traditional Purgatory and Hell. The Underworld has a way of mimicking the beliefs of the people who live above it in the same way the Hedge reflects the hopes, dreams, and nightmares of people, and the Shadow reflects the Resonance of an area.

[Steamfunk]

Considering how much geist loves the day of the dead and festivities I think it'd be wrong for the underworld to not have festive parts. Though, that doesn't mean those parts wouldn't still be horrific.

I've actually run a campaign that had a party-hell afterlife that was basically this video.

[nothri]

Considering how much geist loves the day of the dead and festivities I think it'd be wrong for the underworld to not have festive parts. Though, that doesn't mean those parts wouldn't still be horrific. The Valhalla equivalent might be a place where Torn threshold ghosts fight and kill each other day after day because they can no longer inflict their rage upon the living and they drink in their halls but nothing can truly state them so these ghosts of the mangled dead are feasting to disgusting excess only to die an infinity of deaths.

It depends on what themes you want to emphasize in your game, really. If Sin Eaters are festive because they know all too well that life is fleeting and therefore should be enjoyed, then the underworld can be presented as grim and foreboding as a way to contrast with the joy and vibrancy of the living world.