I think Warhammer 40k described the experience best.

"Listen but closely Brothers, for my life's breath is all but spent. There shall come a time far from now when our Chapter itself is dying, even as I am now dying, and our foes shall gather to destroy us. Then my children, I shall listen for your call in whatever realm of death holds me, and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid. At the end I will be there. For the final battle. For the Wolftime."
— Last words of Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves Chapter, taken from the Codicium Imperialis, Vol. VI, Part I of the Liber Honorus