Arcadia's children have many different fates when they die. This is not due to an intrinsic difference of soul- many legends of creation, different as they are, agree on a common source for souls- but due to the destinies that their creators have decreed for the various races.
Humans
Humans are not native to Arcadia, but rather to the world of Lohtan. For this reason, most humans during their lifetimes are unsure where they go. Some have a legend that they will be transported back to Lohtan and allowed to have the life they should have had, if they had not been cast into Arcadia. (Many humans, though their race has now been in Arcadia for centuries, still think of it as an "alien" world, probably because so many aspects of it are hostile to them). Others believe in reincarnation, or a mystery so incomprehensible that it is impossible for the living to penetrate it. Some who worship the Arcadian gods believe they will go to the heavens of those gods.
In practice, many human souls are gathered by the gods. Others are reborn as different races. What may happen to the others is not known.
Unicorns
The unicorns believe they were created by the moons, and know that they will be reborn, most often as unicorns, perhaps as predators if they have been violent during their lifetimes. Their belief structure on the matter remains simple, since many unicorns are more concerned with the difference between reality and their peaceful hopes than with what happens after death. One unusual aspect is that they will not be reborn onto Arcadia, but into a different, peaceful world without violence or death, but which is otherwise identical to mortal life in every way (trees, animals, waters, and so on). Some shamans are believed to be able to see into this realm.
Unicorns reborn as predators are also believed to be born into this world, but they will never get a chance to feast on blood, and will ultimately be redeemed.
Corame
Corame believe themselves utterly submissive to the will of the Corametel, the goddess of their race. Since she gave them life, she is entitled to do whatever she wants with it. Most believe that she has no power over death itself, that death is outside and the Enemy, but beyond the moment of death she assigns each soul its own fate. Some will serve her, some will be reborn, some will walk the Diamond Stairs that lead to different lessons they should have learned during life, and some will pass into the grip of the Keeper, the Corametel's dark opposite, to be kept away from any chance of returning to the world, since they are too dangerous. No particular corama can tell before death what will happen to her, and those who part will only meet again at the will of the Corametel, which is one reason that corame regard death with so much fear and loathing.
Some believe that all souls will eventually form a composite deity known as the Corametalan, the Son of the Corametel, who will come back to the world and release them all at once. Then corama males will be equal to females, and all past wrongs will be redressed. However, this will happen only when all corame have existed and been redeemed.
Dragons
Dragons have no known creator, and therefore rely on their adopted god, Ylpea, the Lord of Dragonflame, for security about the afterlife. They will be raised to the Hall of Dragonflame when they die, and be transformed into fire. Most of them look forward to this as the purest existence they will ever enjoy, since fire is the purest element.
Gryphons
Gryphons have a variety of legends about their origin, but none about their end. It is uncertain if they have a private belief unshared with other races, or whether they think there is nothing but the Oblivion. They mourn the dead with grand ceremonies that could suggest either.
Wyverns
Wyvens seem to have a religion, sometimes speaking the name of the Night, but have not revealed to anyone what it is. They do not seem to have a concept of souls as other races understand it.
Alfari
Alfari created themselves, and thus have no god to answer to. They apparently return to spirit-form after death, and perhaps go back to the wild.
Elwens
Elwens have a variety of fates, all in their control. The stars who created them gave them utter freedom, and they cannot and will not control what an Elwen does after death, imposing neither mercy nor justice.
Most Elwens separate the "soul," the immortal principle, from the "spirit," the personality that makes a person what he or she is while alive, and think the spirit dies at death with the body and mind and heart and magic, while only the soul goes on. This accounts for the many tales of Elwen souls occasionally showing up on Arcadia, much changed from the people they were when alive.
Elwens may go to a particular god's heaven if they served one during life, or elect to serve the star-lords and ladies in their great hall of Tantelya. They may also elect to spend eternity dancing and singing among the stars, in an expression of utter joy. These are represented as the most common choices, though of course data on this is unavailable.
Elwens may also choose rebirth on Arcadia, choosing their own species, though they return with no memory of who they were. It is mostly believed that the sorrows of another lifetime weighing down an infant mind would be too much, and drive the reborn one mad.
The less common choices (according to the legends) belong to those Elwens who were greatly hurt during their lives. Some may have fallen in love with battle, and go into the spirit-void, the darkest part of the Oblivion, to do battle forever with the unimaginable things that live there. Others may want simply to forget, and so go to sleep in the darkness of the Oblivion. (Maruss Freewind is represented as an Elwen who has done this). Finally, those who want to leave the control of Arcadia and the presence of the stars forever may take one of the many Manifestations, roads in a variety of differing forms that lead- somewhere. No one is quite sure where those on the Manifestations go, or how long it takes them to get there.
No Elwen can know beforehand what another Elwen will choose, and so the dead may or may not meet again.
(Notes on other races will be completed as I get them up).
