purgatory -- the in-between afterlife
Purgatory is the gray plane between Heaven and Hell.
Many spirits land here after death (help death).
Your body stays on Earth; only your spirit travels.
How you play
1. Die or arrive as a spirit linger near your body -- or skip straight here after decap / immolation (help death)
2. Check in with Porter Waystation restores you (help death)
3. Living and stranded? acceptpassage when Porter offers (help passage)
4. Bound soul? paydebt in the Ledger Room once living again -- or Leviathan Bone Gate breach
Who arrives here
Neutral mortal Humans often come here instead of Heaven or Hell.
Most non-Angel / non-Demon natures check in at The Waystation.
Angels and Demons use their vessel death-kick instead (help vessel).
Wilderness and nest hostiles that die on Earth wake as living flesh on the Ashen Marches (not as spirits) -- Leviathan prey until an escape clock returns them to the living world.
Getting home
Your nest, crypt, pack den, haunt, or parlor is your HOME -- not where you automatically wake after a normal kill. After Waystation check-in you return to where you died (body_room). Homes matter for chargen spawn, Chuck rewrite while protected, phantomstep, larder, and Ghost haunt bind (haunt moves your home when you claim a new room).
Mortals and ensouled vampires: after a short linger near your body, a Reaper claims and ferries you (help reaper), then you wait roughly ten real minutes for check-out.
Monster-frequency souls (Vampire nest, Shifter, Arachne, Leviathan, …): no Reaper queue -- the Waystation pulls you straight when the linger ends. Logging off does not freeze that linger. Decapitation or complete immolation skips the linger and drops you at the Waystation at once (help death).
Porter at the Waystation restores you (Lumen does Heaven; Sift does Hell). Bound souls cannot leave this plane -- move, gate, teleport, realmhome, and ridereaper stay sealed until release:
paydebt in the Ledger Room (dollars) once you are among the living again
Leviathans never use the Ledger or Fog-Reaper -- only Master+ breach
at the Bone Gate with the seal key
Winchester brothers (Sam/Dean): the desk clocks the soul on Heaven/Hell arrival, then holds check-out for a deal window (help relationships).
Living bodies stranded here (flesh, not a death-spirit, not bound):
Porter approaches and offers passage home -- type acceptpassage
(see help passage). Homesickness climbs on the wrong plane; Echoes
Cadence-seek Porter and auto-return. There is no walk path from the Ashen Marches to Earth.
Newbie protection on Purgatory: a confirmed lethal finish is Chuck-rewritten to your origin home (help protection) -- not spirit check-in.
After protection ends, monster-frequency souls who die here route to The Empty instead of the Waystation desk (help empty).
NPC Leviathans who suffer true death here melt into ooze and may leave a Leviathan Blossom on the ash (help blossom).
Who lives here
Porter and Ashen keep the Waystation ledgers (bureaucracy, not theology). A small Leviathan nest also lingers -- Black Nest, Ash
Courtyard, Bone Gate -- and hunts living Ashen Marches prey the way player Leviathans do (help leviathan). The ash is their territory:
trespassing Angels/Demons risk black-ooze rupture when standing allows
(same ≤+1 Tier window as smite -- help ooze); mortals and monsters get consumed. Nest soldiers can still land here -- the Nest answers. A
landed finish is nothingness: trash erased, important pages rewritten by the Author to origin home. NPC Leviathan true deaths may leave a Leviathan Blossom in the ash.
Places to know
Waystation, Ledger Room, and Reaper Dock are no-combat desks (Porter check-in, paydebt, Reaper clock-in). Violence belongs on Ash Courtyard, the Ashen Marches wilderness, Black Nest, and Bone Gate.
Waystation, Ledger Room, Reaper Dock, Ash Courtyard, Black Nest, Bone Gate. Under Black Nest, search may open The Deeper Well
(help eldritch). Below that, the Bottomless Rung opens the endless pit (help pit). On Earth, a rotating ashen rift near towns also drops you straight into pit B1 -- enter rift when you find one.