Quote from Vince_Snetterton >>

Your entire premise is based on incorrect assumptions, be it if dealt with strictly in-game, or even if you want to conflate real life with over 40 years of lore for a fantasy game.

First, the in-game problems with your premise:

1. The game is built around quite literally dozens of pantheons/religions, with hundreds of gods. Most of those pantheons are species specific. To suggest that any one pantheon/god/ species cares how another believes how its dead are treated is incorrect. Some are brutal religions, others are more gentle. No Elf will follow an Orc god, because it is simply too far removed from their history and mindset. Now, perhaps a Half-Elf MIGHT be one that straddles two worlds and follow either human or elven gods, or both. But the Half-Elf's ingame actions will dictate what pantheon's afterlife it goes to, not the player choosing.

2. Some are directly tied to the creation of a species, and are inextricably intertwined with that species. It is literally part of the DNA of that species. Gnolls are a prime example. They were hyenas until they eat from the corpse that undergoes a religious ceremony performed by a Fang of Yeenoghu, which is essentially a cleric of that god, and imbued with powers directly by that demon lord. Gnolls have zero choice in their god, as they were quite literally made directly by their god. Gnolls are evil, because they are created that way by their evil god. There is no going back on that.

Conflating real-life with a fantasy game:

1. If you feel you really need to go there, is no inherent racism involved in D&D, because there is zero connection between reality and D&D. There are once again hundreds of pantheons and gods made up by humanity over thousands of years. The majority are now considered insane,  because science has proven them so, or the major religions of today have deemed it so. That is part of human history, where when a dominant culture moves in, it usually wipes out the resident religion. Are you going to suggest that it is racist to condemn and ban a religion that threw virgins into a volcano? Anyone that condemns and wipes said brutal religion is not racist. So if Elves have different beliefs that Dwarves or Orcs, it is not based on racism. Someone who believes in Buddhism today does not think a Catholic or Jew is racist, just because they believe in a different pantheon. They can't even say that zealot is racist if said zealot follows a religion that states all adherents of a religion must kill all non-believers, because said zealot wants to kill EVERYONE, not a specific race.

2. The amount of the bandwdith that players use up caring about where their dead chars goes is tiny. I have NEVER seen a player question the DM about what the destination in the afterlife is for that char, unless it was because the group wanted to try to recover the player's char. It is waste of a DM's valuable time to deal with this.

So if you plan on mounting some campaign to have WOTC wipe out 40 plus years of lore, disappear Volo's from the planet, and also burn I have no idea how much fan fiction/published books.....well, good luck with that.

. . . Vince, seeing as the Moderators have not taken down this post yet (even though it breaks multiple site rules and the thread's Disclaimer), I'm just simply going to respond. 

Just, stop it. I literally said nothing that you are suggesting that I said or that I insinuated. Never. Stop jumping to conclusions to make me look insane. This thread is giving suggestions to alternatives to race-"dependent" afterlife systems, it has nothing to do with real world religions, real world racism, whatever "cancel culture" is (it isn't a thing, either), or even most players. This is a world-building question, not a player-based one. If I cared about the players in this thread, I would have mentioned them in the OP. 

Also, yes, an Elf can worship an Orc god, and vice-versa. Religion is a decision, not a genetic-part of who you are. 

Okay, so here's how I see it. And bear in mind, this is just me, at 5 am, unable to sleep, and all hopped up on the new Dr. Pepper Creme soda.

Our D&D world is very polytheistic. Lots of people follow lots of different deities for lots of different reasons. Everyone is free to choose what deity to follow, and when they die they go to whatever afterlife is associated with that deity. But some people don't make a conscious choice to follow a particular deity. By not making a conscious choice, when they die they get send to "Default Afterlife". An elf goes to Arvandor. A viking goes to Valhalla. Giants go to Jotunheim. 

Sure, an elf can choose to follow Corellon and go to Arvandor. Or that elf could choose to follow Selune and spend eternity staring up at the stars from Argentil. A human who follows Myrkul may spend eternity in the Grey Wastes of Hades. But a human who spends their life admiring the beauty of art and magic and protecting nature may die and be invited to Arvandor as an "honorary elf". 

You see, when you die it's not the deity that comes to get you. It's this thing called a psychopomp. A psychopomp is basically a cabbie (or an Uber driver for you kiddies) who takes your spirit where it needs to go when you die. The valkyrie are psychopomps. The Grim Reaper is a psychopomp. An elven psychopomp may appear as a unicorn who the person's spirit mounts and rides to Arvandor. A gnomish psychopomp may appear as a large clockwork chicken pulling a cart. They're not responsible for your death. They don't judge you. They're simply delivery agents. That's all. When the psychopomp arrives and asks you, "Where to?" it'll take you wherever you tell it to go. But if the psychopomp asks you, "Where to?" and you reply, "I don't know. Wherever, I guess." then it'll take you to your default afterlife. Maybe it'll take you to the afterlife associated with the main god of your race/species. Maybe it'll drive around for a while talking to you, getting a feel for what kind of person you are, and end up taking you to the outer plane associated with your alignment. 

They're usually pretty good at getting you to where you need to, or deserve to, go. If you get somewhere and the deity in charge of that domain decides that you're not a good fit, they can call another cabbie to take you somewhere else. It's not up to you. You're going. They're a deity, you're not. 

I was about to go into an explanation of the afterlife of my last character's deity, because it's kinda relevant, because he was a grave cleric for Kurgan, the God of the Dead, and he ended up dying and serving as a psychopomp, but that's a long story and I really need to try to get some sleep. So... raincheck on that. I hope this helped a bit.

So this thread has been interesting and all, including AnzioFaro's comment above me but the most intriguing element in the whole thread is that Dr. Pepper Creme Soda exists, and pursuant to that random rumor overheard in the public square, I gather my party and embark on a quest.  The question is whether I venture to the Pharmacy of Green Wall, an outpost of the sun cycle worshipping faith in 7-11, or the Corncopic Monesteries upholding the Safe Way.  

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

So this thread has been interesting and all, including AnzioFaro's comment above me but the most intriguing element in the whole thread is that Dr. Pepper Creme Soda exists, and pursuant to that random rumor overheard in the public square, I gather my party and embark on a quest.  The question is whether I venture to the Pharmacy of Green Wall, an outpost of the sun cycle worshipping faith in 7-11, or the Corncopic Monesteries upholding the Safe Way.  

 I've found surprising success at the Wall of Mart. 

There you will also find the Mango of Pep.

Quote from AnzioFaro >>

You see, when you die it's not the deity that comes to get you. It's this thing called a psychopomp. A psychopomp is basically a cabbie (or an Uber driver for you kiddies) who takes your spirit where it needs to go when you die. The valkyrie are psychopomps. The Grim Reaper is a psychopomp. An elven psychopomp may appear as a unicorn who the person's spirit mounts and rides to Arvandor. A gnomish psychopomp may appear as a large clockwork chicken pulling a cart. They're not responsible for your death. They don't judge you. They're simply delivery agents. That's all. When the psychopomp arrives and asks you, "Where to?" it'll take you wherever you tell it to go. But if the psychopomp asks you, "Where to?" and you reply, "I don't know. Wherever, I guess." then it'll take you to your default afterlife. Maybe it'll take you to the afterlife associated with the main god of your race/species. Maybe it'll drive around for a while talking to you, getting a feel for what kind of person you are, and end up taking you to the outer plane associated with your alignment. 

 

 So...like Collin "Jack" Murphy.