So......it's pretty ambiguous.

Arkay is the God of the cycle of life and death. We're born from the dreamsleeve and return to it on death in an endless cycle that is always new.

Birth:

We mortals leave the dreaming-sleeve of birth the same, unmantled save for the symbiosis with our mothers, thus to practice and thus to rapprochement, until finally we might through new eyes leave our hearths without need or fear that she remains behind. In this moment we destroy her forever and enter the demesne of Lord Dagon. - Mythic Dawn Commentaries


Mortals leave the dreaming-sleeve of birth, without any divinity (unmantled) safe for the symbiosis with the special divinity of Nirn (our mother, Mankar wan't to destroy Nirn).

The powers also created Red Tower and the First Stone. This allowed the Mundus to exist without the full presence of the divine. In this way, the powers of Ada-mantia granted the Mundus a special kind of divinity, which is called NIRN, the consequence of variable fate. - Nu-Mantia Intercept


This special divinity comes back in the intercept, Red Mountain (tower) holds Lorkhan's Heart (stone). Lorkhan's heart is also called the divine spark, our shared divinity. As such, we already much like the Daedra, we're separate parts of a larger divinity.

Death:

When people from different cultures all believe in an afterlife and all seem to get exactly what they expect, it is reasonable to assume that their experiences are influenced by their expectations. The Nords believe they go to a place called Sovngarde which can be translated as to a meaning that means as much as the Dreamsleeve, the sleep-enclosure. So we're already back the start.

"The echo of the Void is Oblivion. The echo of Oblivion is now mortal death. Death results in reappropriation of spirit towards its aligned AE?????€?????????????either to the god-planet Aedra or the Principalities of Oblivion. Vehk?????€????????€????s name for this transaction, mentioned above, is ?????€????????€????€?"lunar currency?????€?????." - Loveletter from the Fifth Era



This shouldn't be read as some Heaven and Hell afterlife were people who've done enough bad things end up in Oblivion. The AE literally is a connector and in the sermons it is often used as: "AYEM AE VEHK AE SETH", Almelexia and Vivec and Sotha Sil, Almsivi.

This connection is the soul. Normally, when a person is killed he experiences afterlife, when a Daedra is slain he experiences the void. A soul trap can force the soul to remain connected to a soulgem and a Necromancer can call back souls and force them to animate a body again.
Ghosts can return out of their free will if they have something that binds them, but often you'll see that they've already started to disintegrate and are starting to lose their memories and thoughts while they're being mangled and stripped from their identity in the dreamsleeve.

As I've already shown above, mortals are born from the dreamsleeve, it's their to their divinity so their allinged AE goes to Mundus and while the God planets of the Aedra are often interpreted as Aetherius, they are part of Mundus, they are the gift limbs.

It's also what allows Mankar Camoran to pick up his followers in his Paradise, they've given up Mundus ("destroy her forever") and become part of Mehrunes Dagon ("enter the demesne of Lord Dagon")

For death, under normal cercumstances, everyone will be recycled through the Dreamsleeve, where all your memories, experiences, and pretty much everything is erased, and, by lottery, you get scooped out and put into a mortal body. So, in basic terms, souls are washed up and recycled. If you bound yourself to a particular daedric prince, you ended up with them. This was observed in Paradise in OB and SI. Same deal with Aedra.

The deal with Nords, though, I.......would say consult the lore specialists here. For now, I leave you http://imperial-library.info/mwbooks/bm_sovngarde.shtml . The thing I notice about it, is that it seems extremely heavily based on the Norse's thought of the afterlife, in order to prepare for Raganok (the norse apocalypse). If it does hold water, then those Nords bound themselves to Shor (Lorkhan in elvish), and went to him. I don't particularly like this explanation for Nords, but I'm open to ideas concerning this.

Sovngarde sounds vry similar to Valhalla.

That's what was escaping my tongue!

Anywho, Prowler answered the question about death and birth. There is no grim reaper, and heaven and hell.

k thanks. so, there is a reincarnation of sorts where you experience all your memories being taken away as you are wrapped in an illusion of what you believe afterlife is like. but, even in christian and other religions with heaven and hell, like you said, and religions that believe in reincarnation, there still seems to be a grim reaper. the reaper, as we mostly know him, came from europe, who also believe in a similar afterlife system, minus the reincarnation. so, with the afterlife answered, is there any lore specific to the actual death? is there a river styx with a boatman to take you away? an angel of death? or a grim reaper? if i'm not mistaken, and i probably am, there is room for a grimm reaper.
also, does anyone have tes apacolypse theories? thanks all for rapid an efficient responses.

how about this idea? lorkhan uses the 4 riders as a part of an apocolypse? hold any ground?

From the typical Nordic perspective, it is.

But...if you would actually read proweler's post, you'd realize it's just the Dreamsleeve.

the grim reaper, however, is a socially acceptable media icon, so why can't he be a part of subculture? same with the horseman?

are you not allowed to make up parts of history that were not there nor anything in that particular niche of existance? there was no psychopomp, so i thought a grim reaper could work. lorkhan's apacolypse was not specific, so why not make a new idea for it? if bethesda comes out and says that that is something they are going to specify later, then i won't use it, but short of that, nothing says anything against it, does it?

thought little thing up there was too big^^. so, tsun died from other gods, eh? so can gods kill gods, or is that just nordic? what about daedra . as all of you know, the kings is all about daedra^^

edit: I'm not too sure about the whole "gods can be killed" idea sits a lil uneasy with me. http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?act=findpost&hl=&pid=13524062 in an earlier thread.

Basically, I realize they can be..."removed" from existence, but my ideas on "killed" might be a slight bit different from everyone elses.

Basically, I realize they can be..."removed" from existence, but my ideas on "killed" might be a slight bit different from everyone elses.

Ever tried killing a river by building a dam? It's like that.