The Afterlife - Hanging Heaven Black because I like that title

i'm thinking a story about the afterlife, right? this is going to be largely inspired by scandinavian and northwestern european cultures, but i might throw in something else for fun too, we will see. Anyway, the entire world believes in different things, but they all seem to share one belief: There is an afterlife, and there are rules for getting in. For almost everyone, these rules involve fighting. Fitting, since all these different cultures are fighting each other a lot. Some believe that only dying nobly in battle will get you into the afterlife, some believe that being a model warrior (with all the bells and whistles) is the key, and some believe that as long as you're NOT doing some specific things, you'll get in just fine. but make no mistake, this is a world of war, and the people believe in that more than anything.

the story is going to circle around two characters at first: an older brother and a younger sister. the sister is bedridden and essentially crippled from chronic illness, while the brother is the picture of health. in their culture (they are definitely vikings), only the strong, courageous and battle-hardened go to heaven, and so the girl has been told all her life that she's going somewhere very different. nothing to do about it, and she has long since accepted it. these two are, after a short while, going to both die. the brother dies nobly, and the girl dies as one does when you are very sick. these two then awake in the afterlife (not sure what they call it yet, something Valhall-inspired), but they can both immediately tell that something is wrong. also, the girl is no longer sick, because dying fixes that problem.

for some reason that the characters will find out eventually, the afterlife is really, really fucked up. once upon a time it was the kinda place the living would dream of, but now its very different. monsters plague the lands, old ghosts driven mad by time cling to battered ruins, and nowhere to be found are the gods that supposedly make this realm their home. the brother takes this very poorly; he lived his whole life according to the rules, and he very much expected something grand. the sister expected nothing, and got precisely that, so she's doing better than he is. these two are going to disagree, quarrel and eventually separate as the sister is tired of her brother being mopey and the brother is tired of his sister's lackadaisical attitude to the afterlife being a lie. as they separate, the sister is going to find some other characters to befriend, and the brother will do the same. the brother's new friend will reinvigorate his sense of self-worth, and the sister's new friends will vibe with her "when i lived everyone told me that id go to hell and yet here i am"-style, and they will probably teach her magic. this is where I think that i'm going to use Fjalar finally, as a weird, magical friend of the sister. definitely not the kind of guy who would go to heaven, but he's here all the same.

the brother and sister are definitely from the viking-inspired culture. they are hard people who believe in the sanctity of battle. that's not just battle with other people, but battle with anything really. a hunter can be a warrior, is what they're saying. they dislike dying in your bed, and magic is a big no-no. Fjalar is also from this culture, and his proclivity towards magic earned him a spot in hell, according to his people.
To-do list:

• Character names.
• Names for places and cultures.
• Fantasy races?
• something about the flail as a weapon and also a symbol of man and god working together. not sure who's gonna have this but its there somewhere. i just want a guy with a flail in there tbh.