Samsara and Suffering

Everyone knows they were born into suffering. They knew it working at the cinnamon manufactories under the harsh working conditions of Théan overseers. They know it now in the salt mines of Corphaksa, under the harsh working conditions of the New Liurzan Administration. They know it when their village is plunged into bloodshed by a snake demon and they know it when their brothers come back as Jiangshi, thirsty for blood. The life of Man is full of suffering.

The Jiangshi or 僵尸 is a vampiric, Chinese zombie, here depicted in the movie "Mr Vampire"

Before the apocalypse, there were six realms, 3 elevated and 3 base, arranged in a circular wheel. Every mortal being would follow the cycle of reincarnation accruing good and bad karma, rising and falling through the various realms as they did so. Thus the cycle was fair and just, for good was met with good and evil was met with evil. (This claim comes from the same religious scholars that name the human realm an elevated one, so some doubt is in order). These realms were clearly defined and separated, a divine mechanism maintaining the cycle of reincarnation and distributing souls. It was a wheel encompassing the entirety of mortal existence and the cycle persisted.

Buddhist Wall Mural of Yama Holding the Wheel of Life. (Older depictions only have 5 realms)

The Shattering, the cataclysmic event that shapes the world of PSYCHOPOMPS, refers to the shattering of this wheel of reincarnation, breaking the karmic balance and the cosmic machinery that governed it. The wheel, once perfectly flat and stable, was now tilted. Departed souls would bleed back into the realm of man, unable to re-enter the cycle. The other mortal realms bleed into the realm of man, the once strict boundaries now permeable and unsecured. As all living beings died, their souls would stagnate, linger. They seek their original vessel, gravitating back to their recently vacated bodies. Yet, the souls, as it travels through a realm thick with other souls and malfunctioning reincarnation, is irrevocably warped and altered. This results in a spirit, a monster or a demon- the malformed, transformed soul re-enters the body, granting it new life and form. Yet more suffering is in order.

Wikus's transformation into a Prawn from the film "District 9"

The world now is a broken one, souls congealing like petrol below a faulty tank. Death is no longer merely a tragic loss but a minor disaster. A consequence of the realms bleeding is the influx of otherworldly beings from the other realms, deposited here through the cataclysm or taking refuge in the relative safety. Humanity is no longer alone in sentience, it shares its world with the other mortal beings in the realms. The Deva crash as falling stars, their original forms of light and fire now encased in the stone and rock of our material realm. Great heroes and warriors are resurrected as Asura, four-armed divine warriors full of wrath. Humans dying of deprivation- starvation, thirst, exposure- return as Ghouls, hungry ghosts cursed with an appetite for flesh. Even humanity itself is altered and every birth or resurrection may return a being not entirely human. Man is not alone in his suffering any longer.

Kill Six Billion Demons, a very significant influence.