Editing In Nomine (section)

==Fate, Destiny, and You: What Happens When People Die In The Setting==
When a human dies, where their soul ends up depends on three factors (barring unusual circumstances)

# If they fulfilled their Destiny, their brightest, most positive possibility in life, they go to Heaven.
# If they fulfilled their Fate, their darkest, most destructive possibility in life, they go to Hell.
# If they have some kind of unfinished business (regardless of whether or not they fulfilled their Fate or Destiny), they become either a ghost or a dream-shade. The former resides in the corporeal realm, the latter exists in the Marches (the dream world where Ethereals live). That being said, both ghosts and dream-shades cannot sustain themselves indefinitely and will eventually need to move onto their final reward (or punishment). 
# If they fulfilled both or neither, they might reincarnate with no memory of their old life or just cease to exist entirely. It's not known what makes one more likely than the other.
# If they strongly believed in a particular Ethereal god, they go into the authority of that Ethereal as a dream-shade.

Note that religion doesn't really (directly) enter into it. And yet certain Archangels promote certain religions; this falls under Canonical Doubt and Uncertainty, but the usual explanation offered is that, beyond social engineering and Archangels' personal beliefs (e.g. Laurence and Dominic are both big on Roman Catholicism), Destinies are sometimes tied into them, since Destinies are usually very Selfless, and one good way of getting people to act such is religion (although demons are no strangers to manipulating religion in their favor either).

Also note that you ''must'' choose to embrace your Destiny or Fate of '''your own Free Will'''. Too much Angelic or Demonic interference (such as Mind Control), and the result is negated. This means Angels of Destiny (which is a Word in In Nomine) and Demons of Fate are generally ''very'' subtle and manipulative.