Purgatory

Purgatory, also known as The Limbo, is a strange, small dimensional region of unseen space that lies between the visible dimensions of everyday life and "The Beyond" that is essentially, for lack of a better word, heaven, although the dimensional realities that compose all of this are actually a lot more complex than in any religious book or belief system currently. It is a place where the spirits of those deceased refused to leave our earthplane, with no physical body to go back to, but no desire to leave for The Beyond, these bio-energies became stuck in this sub-region.

Purgatory should not be confused with the Astral Realm where higher thought, psionic energy and dreaming occur, though they do share close dimensional approximation due to spirits essentially being detached "astrals" (dreamers, coma victims, astral projection forms still connected to their bodies in some form) and some higher-power entities can cross to the Astral Realm and vica verca.

### **Early Discovery**

The concept of Purgatory existed in Catholic beliefs as a realm between Heaven and Hell where those who died of Original Sin were sent without being assigned a place in Hell, however the dimension was known by several magi groups long before the contemporary Abrahamic religions came into being and overtook the idea, and early necromantic spiritualists and pagans claim to understand the realm as "*the edge of the page*", where life physically ends, but refuses to leave; with no body to return to, but fear of the "other side", these souls, being composed of sentient emotional energy hung around these outer edges.

### **Purpose**

As with any realm or dimension that exists as part of unseen mathematical space within the boundary of the universe, Purgatory was created along with the rest of the universe at the Big Bang, and will likely continue to exist long after all life has gone from the universe. However many magi believe that it's existence as a kind of spirit realm of ghosts and entities was not at all meant to be as it is now but merely an empty dimensional area between life and whatever lies beyond, some see it as similar to the black bars above and below old film reels as a kind of dimensional structural component between frequencies not really designed for inhabitance; some point fingers at the Catholics, and Christians for inducing fear of death, God and Hell; those who believed in such things were afraid to die, and as such their energies became "stuck" on the outskirts of the transition between "here" and "there". Old religious organisations in return became proud of this feat, and admitted that if such a realm now truly exists, it shall act as a real deterrent against what they called "sin" and over the years the Church began to see magi and magic users in a light of "helping demons". This eventually led to the crusades.

Over time Purgatory became the Catholic's ideal of what Limbo actually was; a form of punishment, and with it purgatory became twisted and deformed, resulting in a hellish reflection of our realm; Over the millennia many spiritualist magi have been asked by the House of Seasons to help cleanse Limbo of spirits and help them cross over; however during these early missions they began encountering stranger and more dangerous entities.

### **Soulforms**

Souls are the "thought essence" of the mental and higher-self (or "true-self") emotional energy of people who have died and, for whatever reason, have refused to pass over to "the beyond". In some cases particularly intelligent animals who are also afraid of divine punishment can end up here too, though in most cases it's only human souls who exist here.

The longer a soul stays here, the stranger it becomes, in most cases they wallow, they gather further negative spiritual energies and begin to "mutate", if a spirit has been in limbo for long enough it becomes more and more deformed, they become monsters composed of negative emotion capable of absorbing and combining with weaker souls, although most soulforms can be rescued an their core spirits pushed over to The Beyond, demons undergo a permanent and undoable transformation where they have to be destroyed utterly. Other souls have become quite comfortable living in this state and have found ways to protect themselves and others.

* **Spirits:** Although interchangeable with the word "souls" the term "spirit" usually describes recently deceased souls, those who have the most humanity left on the outside; when cleansed can still enter The Beyond, these spirits often appear lonely. It's noted that two spirits often have difficulty recognising eachother, and because of their closeness to our material world and to the Astral Plain, may try to use their energies to manifest, although this usually all to no avail. Some spiritualist magi, and even some neohumans can interact and channel these spirits, though often not for long. Some spirits can be angry but rarely do they have the power or want to be harmful; as such most spirits are considered relatively friendly, if simply confused. *Some* spirits, however made themselves stable, depending in which part of the world they are from; Asian and native-American spiritual entities are said to be quite helpful and live comfortably in purgatory, this may be due to their culture of preparing to exist as a soulforms all their lives for the benefit of helping others, as such these spirits suffer from no confusion and retain a great deal of sentience and knowledge and act as negative-to-positive filters, and rather than eventually becoming demons, try to focus on transcending into something more akin to an animal spirit and eventually fade to the other side as such after many centuries of protecting their kin.
* **Geists:** Geists, likely where the word "ghost" comes from, are soulforms who have been in purgatory for quite some time, usually over 50 to 70 years, and have either become aware of, or have gradually learned to harness their own errant negative energy in the form of rage or unbridled sadness; in terms of affects in this realm, they may cause telekinetic movements, although they do not last long. From within Limbo, Geists' anger can be a force to be reckoned with, and can be used to hurt and damage lesser souls such as recently deceased spirits. It is likely that the more power a Geist uses, the more energy it requires to sustain, and as limbo is primarily negative energy, Geists start needing to "feed" on the negativity of others, either in the material world, or within limbo to sustain this power. This in turn becomes an addiction and begins a snowball affect as it changes them further. Geists have the ability to possess human bodies should it find one weak enough and can enter nightmares and even control them should they be powerful enough to pass through to the Astral Realm.
* **Ghouls:** Beyond a Geist, Ghouls are a little more inhuman looking, depending on how far gone they have succumb to their own torment, individual ghouls are "mutated" Geists that may have been in existence for several hundred years can be terrifying to look at, many of them often appear skeletal or resemble corpses despite having no physical body, the negative energy within limbo is both added to and fed on by more powerful negative soulforms and can have a strong negative presence in both this world and purgatory; many ghouls also require to "feed" on negative energy much like Geists, but their needs are much grater and take to attacking other Ghouls, and even try to utterly absorb other ghouls; it is often the case that upon successfully cleansing a Ghoul, magi find the entity composed of multiple souls; however it's usually a case of dominance, and other Ghouls and Geists fear being absorbed by a more powerful entity as they will no longer be in control of what little they have left.
* **Demons:** While the term "demon" or "devils" usually conjures up images of physical beings, the true magi definition of a demon or devil is multiple souls that have gone through many centuries of torment and absorbing negative emotional energies in and outside of purgatory, and religious organisations have certainly noticed them and added their existence to their narrative over the millennia. However one aspect of demonic entities reigns true; they are powerful and they are dangerous, although many are twisted and of limited intelligence. They are also extremely rare; with Geists and Ghouls affecting a form of cannibalisation; this causes them to grow, the eventual realisation of this is the fusion of these multiple souls into a demonic form. This devil form is capable of easily possessing and controlling a human, and many of the more powerful entities can gain a degree of cognisance back, and the even rarer case where a demon has permanently fused with a host, essentially eating and using with that body's spirit too. Such entities are usually top priority for the House of Seasons.
* **Non-Human Souls:** Rarely animal spirits can also retain a coherent state in purgatory, but can quickly become demonic if not cleansed. Cleansed animal spirits, however can be powerful and raw and can become assets in fighting against negative energy and entities.

### **Necroplasma**

Necroplasma, also known as "death energy" is a fluxing state of matter/energy released at the moment of death, believed to have originated from Purgatory, the exact properties of this substance are highly unknown and can often carry a heavy negative energy, however the few beings who have harnessed, mainly necromancers and the occasional neohuman throughout history, have become masters of controlling spirits, reanimating the dead and other feats of death defiance. Some demons who manage to hold on to a stable host seem to display the ability to summon this energy.

Some magi regard necroplasma and necromancy in general as something unnatural, even so-called 'spiritualist' magi tend to stay away from summoning it directly, and use this to distance themselves from necromancers, however some spiritualists use the phrase "spiritual energy" to term a modified branch of necroplasma that is "cleansed" of it's negative properties through complex spells, runes and wards; the gunmage Pentra was a well known user of spiritually-cleansed necroplasma with some of her "gunspells" that could be used to destroy demonic entities and harm incorporeal forms.

The dark Obeah practitioner Llanzo Kerr could use bones and bonedust as a focus to summon and control necroplasma.

The spiritualist magi Marisol was capable of contacting the spirits through delicate rites and learned a great deal about the complexities of Purgatory, how it evolved and how it's existence and it's inhabitance changes from nation to nation.

### **The Ghk**

The terrifying, fear-eating transdimensional entities known as the Ghk are thought to be able to simultaneously perceive Purgatory alongside the realm of the living, though as beings of undeath, they cannot directly effect or use the energies of Limbo in any form, demons and the more powerful soulforms do seem to be attracted to, or strongly influenced by their presence, and will flock to even the smallest Ghk that manages to cross into our universe. But as these soulforms exist as representations of death, they too have no real effect on the Ghk; their presence, however may stimulate these spirits into becoming more violent of their own accord, and the Ghk may be able to sense, but not directly absorb the abundant negative emotional energy within Purgatory; If such a connection is ever made, what would happen could be catastrophic for reality itself; if creatures who cannot die, managed to enter a realm of death, the Natural Order may be so upset that reality itself could collapse; this is something the Ghk do infact seek.