WARNING!!!! This thread talks MORE about the same crap I often talk about, and the religion of 40K. If you're sick of my always talking about this story, or not a fan of the Imperial Creed, you might skip it. Also, possible, vague spoilers to Fallen Suns, and the Warpstorm Trilogy, but not really serious ones.

What does the Imperial Creed say happens when a human dies? I'm curious because I believe that some people's faith in the God-Emperor might be like some people's in the real world, especially if they live so far away from where he is, and anything historical happened. It's rather likely that, still a being of the mortal plane, the Emperor can't grab your soul when you die, and you just evaporate (this might be what happens to us, too, though I hope not, so I won't hold the Big E responsible), but what does the faith trillions of souls follow preach? Do you go to "heaven"? Join some celestial army that helps Him battle Chaos? We know that the Emperor isn't perfect, and sometimes just as heinous, flawed, or terrible as any of us, or the myriad enemies of Mankind, but how good, or bad, do you have to be before you shouldn't want to come before Him, to face judgment?

I ask because I have read the Warpstorm books, and the end option for Kobras Acquirre seems intriguing, if not his first choice. A real immortality/afterlife, after a fashion, potentially spent with the same people you cared about, would miss, etc. It might require being a psyker, or having one's aide, but the problem is it's HERESY!!! Now, if you grew up in the Expanse, even beyond the Calixis Sector's variant of the faith, what you believe, or accept, might be unusual (this is the logic I use for the craziness a few of my characters partake of, at least), but what might the regular soul expect of the next world, if they were pious, and how much a sinner can a person be (look at many of the things even the "good" people to say nothing of the typical Rogue Trader, do in the course of their day-to-day lives) before the Emperor washes His hands of your tainted soul? For anyone who has gotten through Warpstorm, or at least Fallen Suns, have any of your players ever thought about it, knowing already that they've done some bad things, and now there looks to be an option, exotic, or otherwise, to circumvent judgment?

In my example, the person involved can see several reasons to consider it, which is heresy, on its own, and he's done several things that my understanding of the faith would claim he's in some serious trouble, but he doesn't truly regret any of it; easier to blame the narrow mind of the church, if you see what you did as successful, but he's also got several reasons to remain pious in the Emperor, and possibly face his fate, whenever the time comes. "Life" in a rock, or face the Emperor, and hope your past loved ones are waiting, and you'd get to see them? That's sort of the big choice.

You stand before the Golden Throne, and the Emperor judges your life. It varies from that point on based on the creed, but the standard answer is that the worthy walk towards the Throne where they will join the Emperor's celestial army (because there is only war) for all time.

For those that fail but still go towards the Throne, some would say you're reborn to try again, some say you have to wander the afterlife until you prove yourself worthy, and some probably just say you missed your chance and the Emperor's radiance destroys you.

The Ecclesiarchy acknowledges that the spirits of the dead persist after death. That's how they get Reborn Saints, or holy miracles, or other signs that are definitely miracles and not Psyker mind-screwery.