Purgatory

*A sketch of the scene in The Die of Death where Philip and Satina visits the Purgatory mountain, drawn by Kenneth B. Andersen.*

**Purgatory** (Danish: *Purgatorio* or *Skærsilden*) (from Latin: *Purgatorium* "cleansing", via Anglo-Norman and Old French. Italian: *Purgatorio*), is a mountain made entirely out of black, perpetually burning fire, located just outside Hell, which the condemned who truly repent their sins may ascend to become cleansed of their crimes by the flames.

The mountain is not part of Hell, but instead its neighbor, although it is within the walls encircling Hell. It lies beyond the Ice River, which marks the end of Hell, after a stretch of barren, infertile mountainous landscape covered in gravel, with large cliffs rising in places and winding paths. On this barren mountain landscape it is completely quiet, which is a big contrast to the screaming, whip-cracking and hiss of fire heard in Hell. The mountain rises from a deep chasm filled with black fire like the one the mountain is made of, and the air around it is filled with pitch-black light, which glitters like the darkness between stars and lights the mountainsides that form the walls of Hell and creates strange, white shadows in their furrowed crevasses. The masses of fire of the mountain makes no sounds, not even a single thundering or roaring, as normal flames would have done. The pit is reached by turning the corner of a crag on the barren, silent mountain that lies before it.

A steep staircase of flame winds around the mountain seven times, reaching all the way to the top. The fire of Purgatory burns the bodies of the repenting condemned with great pain, it can be walked upon and will carry anything alive or dead. At the peak of the mountain, the flames forms a saircase made of smoke, rising up into Paradise. If the condemned are fully cleansed and the stairs are able to carry them, they may ascend to Paradise, but if it can't, they will drop through the staircase, will fall to the ground and will have to start over from the bottom.

Some of the repenting humans struggling up the steep stairs move quickly, taking long steps streching over three steps at a time, while others crawl at a snail's pace, going one step back with every two steps forward. Most of them are shrouded in black flames from top to bottom, while others only burn partly in the torso, the arms, or the hair. A rank smell of rot, the smell of sins burning, hang in the air.

It is forbidden for the devils of Hell to go to Purgatory.

After the banishment of Aziel Stofeles to Outer Reach, speaking his name became forbidden, and anyone who was discovered doing it was sent to Purgatory on orders of Lucifer.

## Known people who has been in Purgatory

* Masters. 10 Earth years in Purgatory for murdering Victor Engel, which is an eternity in Hell time standards.
* Grumblebeard (formerly). Grumblebeard was sentenced to 150 years in Purgatory for having poisoned the the gragorn Bucklehorn S. Erpant a 150 years ago with a sleeping potion which he had received in an envelope, along with a letter, in which an anonymous sender revealed, that they knew of Grumblebeard had wished for the position as gatekeeper of Hell (he had wanted it for 120 years, while hating his position as executor), and claimed to be able to give it to him. In the letter, he was instructed to pour the sleeping potion into Bucklehorn's mug of blood. The devil who had written the letter would be revealed, 150 years later, to be the mother of the devil Aziel Stofeles, and she used Bucklehorn's sleep to help a condemned, a specially dark soul, escape through the gates of Hell, away from Hell and out into the darkness of Outer Reach. Together, they had their son, the devil Aziel Stofeles. Grumblebeard chose to turn himself in to Lucifer 150 years later and ask for forgiveness, after Philip Engel and Satina Dargue had discovered the demon's crime in the Globe of Evil and confronted him with it. When it was revealed that Grumblebeard did not know that the condemned would escape, Lucifer reconsidered Grumblebeard's punishment and decided to pardon him, sending his cat, Lucifax, to release Grumblebeard. The 150 years that Lucifer had sentenced Grumblebeard to coresponded to the number of years the gatekeeper had spent in the position without his crime being discovered.
* Epicurus. A Greek philosopher, whose teachings did a lot of service to Hell, and for that reason a portrait of him came to hang on the Wall of Pain in Hell. Epicurus believed that humanity should do whatever it wants and pursue pleasure. Pleasure, also known as lust, is one of the seven deadly sins, and for having committed it, Epicurus ended in Purgatory after his death, although not in Hell as he had meant what he said well. He had also said that if one's pursuit of pleasure would harm others, or oneself, in a longer timeframe, one should refrain from purusing it. His adherents, the Epicureans, however, used his teachings as an excuse for loafing around and living in the lap of luxury, and for this they now toil forever under the whip in Hell. Epicurus also had things to say about death, as he believed there was no reason to fear it, as humans never co-existed with death, and as such he believed that death was final, that there was no afterlife, and that the terrors of Hell was nothing but fabrication. He was wrong about this. Epicurus walks up the mountain while his mouth is on fire.

## Background

### Religious background

In dogmatics of the Roman Catholic CHurch, Purgatory (Italian *purgatorio*, from the Latin *purgatorium* "cleansing") is a state between death and bliss, where deceased souls who repent of sins from their lives undergo the purification that is necessary before they can get to Paradise or Heaven, as "nothing unclean will ever enter it" according to Revelation 21:27. Purgatory, as a religious concept, is not biblical. The concept of a painful place for repentant deceased probably comes from a desire on the part of the church to make money. From the time of the early church onwards, bishops could reduce or dispense with the rigours of penances. Shortly afterwards, in the 11th and 12th centuries, the concept of indulgence arose, when the idea of ​​Purgatory took widespread hold, and as the popes became the activist leaders of the Reformed church.

According to the French historian Jacques Le Goff, ideas of Purgatory as a physical place can be dated to the 12th century, which is the heyday of medieval tales of journeys through otherworlds and pilgrimage tales of St. Patrick's purgatory, a cave-like entrance to Purgatory on a remote island in Northern Ireland.

### Dante Alighieri's *Divine Comedy*

Kenneth B. Andersen's idea of ​​making Purgatory a mountain whose peak reaches Paradise is based on Purgatory's conception in the Italian poet Dante Alighieri's three-part epic poem masterpiece *The Divine Comedy* (*La divina commedia* from the 1300s. At the end of the first part of the work, *Inferno* or *Hell*, the main character of the poem (Dante himself) reaches Purgatory after a long journey through Hell, and in the second part *Purgatorio* or *Purgatory*, he travels through Purgatory and reaches the earthly paradise. Purgatory is depicted here as a massive and high mountain that rises from the southern hemisphere of the Earth's globe and is ascended by condemned human souls who truly repent of their evil deeds in life. The mountain can be reached through a crevice in the earth that runs from the inside of the Earth, where the bottom of Hell lies, and through the rocky mass of the earth. On the way up the mountain, there are several condemned people who are punished in countless different ways, including lugging heavy weights or having to go through fire. Those who reach the summit of the mountain, which is a flat, smaller, beautiful garden, "the Earthly Paradise", have the opportunity to enter Paradise or Heaven, which is found above the Earthly Paradise and divided into nine layered spheres and above that the abode of God and the angels, "the Empyrean". The mountain has ten "terraces" or "levels", of which the two lower slopes are called "ante-purgatorio" and are not included in Purgatory's normal levels. The first of the two lower slopes is for excommunicate, that is, members of a congregation (here talking about the Catholic Church) that institutionally performs religious censorship in order to keep out, remove or regulate members of the congregation community. The excommunicate are detained at the bottom of the cliff for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy. The next level is dedicated to the late remorse, which includes (1) those who are too lazy or too busy to repent (the Indolent), (2) those who repented at the last minute without formally receiving the last rituals, as a result of violent deaths, and (3) the negligent Rulers. These souls will be absorbed in Purgatory thanks to their true repentance, but will have to wait outside for a period of time equivalent to their life on earth. The next seven levels, which are the ones that are considered for the actual Purgatory, are the order from bottom to top: the proud, the envious, the wrathful, the slothful, the covetous, the gluttonous and the lustful. The tenth level is a flat piece of land on top of the mountain's peak, and is a beautiful green garden with trees. This is "the Earthly Paradise." The concept of Paradise being located between Earth and Heaven is also taken from The Divine Comedy, as well as the concept of Purgatory leading to Paradise.

## Appearances

### *The Great Devil War*

* *The Devil's Apprentice* (The light from Purgatory's fire appears, and the location is mentioned)
* *The Die of Death*
* *The Wrongful Death* (Mentioned)
* *The Angel of Evil (mentioned in passing)*
* *The Fallen Angel*

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Die of Death*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback). Høst & Søn, October 11 2018 (English e-book). (Original Danish version published August 31, 2007 by Høst & Søn)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Devil's Apprentice*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback). Høst & Søn, October 11 2018 (English e-book). (Original Danish version published September 30, 2005 by Høst & Søn)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Wrongful Death*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback) (Original Danish version published April 30, 2009 by Høst & Søn)