The state of the world is the way it is because the Valkryies were prevented from doing their jobs in judging and guiding the dead...
The afterlife is very much a plot point of these games if you just open your eyes for second.
I don't get this they constantly talk about how there's various forms of afterlife.
The Einherjar are literally efficient fodder for Odin because he constantly plucks them out of Valhalla...
I don't wanna be too mean about the new God of War, but it's going to be a tough line to tread to basically recontextualize GOW2018 and Ragnarok as "Oh that whole time they were mourning her and accepting their loss? She was fighting Ifrit and making jokes with a jello cube"