I once read a story which I cannot remember in full, but I think it sounds. The gist of the story is that every living person is the same soul, just reincarnated into another lifetime, and that we live as both the most tyrannical dictator and the people they persecute. We continue to be reincarnated until we have experienced all that can be, and then we transcend, though to what it doesn't say.
I like this version of the afterlife because it combines reincarnation, old tribal spirituality, and more modern thought like energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transferred.
But Zxboltyx is right when they say no one can 100% know. Perhaps that is why it is fun to speculate.
It has been my experience in this game that the easiest way to make friends is to engage with the people who bust you out of jail while you are a lower level. These will be experienced players who often are more than willing to give friendly advice.
Also, if you are focusing on making money, you should also figure out a safe way to store it so you can't lose it by being mugged. At lower levels, you don't have access to a vault, and if you didn't pick up a piggy bank when it was available, you can easily lose a lot of money if someone decides to mug you repeatedly while you are AFK.
Many people recommend ghost trading, but that only lasts for 6 hours. You could also use the bank, but that locks your money away with no possibility to retrieve until the time is up. Storing money in a faction vault is simple, but an admin has to pull your money out for you to get it back, and a dishonest faction member could steal your money.
What I do is I buy items that I know the value will not fluctuate on, so that if I ever need the money I can quickly sell the items at a store to get my money back.