New videos explain the Klingon afterlife of STO’VO’KOR and GRE’THOR.
Star Trek carries with it a big, bold tapestry of stories. From the characters on the screen to the hundreds of books, and probably hundreds of thousands of fan-made properties, Star Trek presents itself to those who are creative. That’s why it was such a good idea to further expand the Klingon lore beyond just being bad guys, and giving them their own religion and their own resting places of STO’VO’KOR nd GRE’THOR.
YouTuber Certifiably Ingame added a double-shot of videos recently; one breaking down the “heaven” of Klingon mythology; STO’VO’KOR and one featuring the “hell’ of Klingon mythology in GRE’THOR.
With STO’VO’KOR, many will reduce it to the Klingons’ version of Valhalla, which isn’t completely wrong. While the early version of Klingons were a cheap stand-in for the issues the United State had with the then-Soviet Union, they’ve become more akin to the Nordic Viking.
In their heaven, they battle, they party and they go on adventures with the honorable dead of Klingon’s past, both their bloodlines and legendary heroes of the Klingon people. They are celebrated and have seemingly transformed their own religious views to keep up with modern tellings of their long-departed dead.
Though it’s never once been shown on screen.
GRE’THOR on the other hand…
The Klingon hell, on the other hand, is very similar to that of the River Styx and a more traditional view of the Christian version of hell. A place where you’re taken across a river of sirens, who try to lure you in. If you survive the trip, and don’t get lost, you’ll land at the gates of GRE’THOR, which are guarded by demonic Klingons, where your memories will be altered and used against you for eternity unless someone can give you an honorable death.
That’s the hangup about the whole thing; it’s not about how you live your life, only about how you die. If you die in a way that is dishonorable or cowardly, you’re going down. If you die in battle, no matter how awful you were, you go up.
Seems like a rip-off to me.