Death is life’s last grand adventure. Everyone has to embark upon it at some time. Some people move on sooner than others but it is inevitable. No one knows what to expect when the lights go out. Some people expect to see pearly gates and an old man in a robe waiting to judge them. Some people believe they will only shed their current fleshy container and move on to a brand new one as soon as they die. Some folks still believe they’ll be invited into a grand war hall to party for all eternity with other warriors who died with valor in combat.
To each their own. The truth of the matter is that before you move on to what you think awaits you beyond the veil, you make a small stop by a place called Reaper’s Gate. A small town floating on a large rock through what many consider to be the cosmos. No one knows where this place came from or how it’s sustained. The only facts that are known about The Gate is that it’s always night, the gate keeper can’t wear a hat, and the population is now somewhere in the fifteen-hundreds.
When a person dies it’s like they fall into a sudden slumber. They awaken in front of a large stone wall with an iron gate in the middle of it. They find themselves in the same state they left the world. Standing on the archway over the gate is a headless man dressed in an expensive silk suit, and despite his obvious disability he speaks in a commanding voice. Addressing the newly dead by name. He then helps the visitor decide where they’re destined for in the afterlife. Some feel they belong in their idea of heaven, others know they’re going to hell. There are some, however, who think their life was unfair, or at least their death. Some form of regret, or unfinished business makes them wish they could go back and change the way things had been. Those people become residents of Reaper’s Gate.
Over the millennia the gate has grown from simply that, a gate which was used merely as a way to help people decide where they were going. Whatever they were expecting would be waiting them on the other side of the gate. Be it virgins, or torturers they would pass through the gate into their own little version of eternity. Then one person died and decided they were going to wait until they were satisfied that everything they had left behind was in order. This led to people piling up around the gate and forcing the mysterious creator to expand things a little. Soon there were houses, then eventually a bar and more businesses after that.
Many of these people eventually discover that they can control strange powers. The first occurrence everyone experiences is that the power will instinctually mend, or attempt to mend whatever caused the individual’s death. It doesn’t always work. In the case of severe mutilation it mainly serves to mask the persons appearance. The level of power some have is directly proportionate to their own will. If a person was very exuberant, or spirited in life they will usually have greater control over their powers in the afterlife. It’s tied directly to their soul.
If one has enough control over their abilities they can even return to the land of the living. Usually that’s only temporary at best. The best results of this have turned into hauntings in the physical world. There are other exceptions though. Some who manage to push themselves back through the veil often have to feed on something to retain their power. Some feed on human flesh, others blood or spiritual energy. Each one has their own vice.
Even so it’s still impossible to return a dead person to life by any means. The fake life that most find when they make it back is usually enough to get them to pass on to the eternity that waits them through the Reaper’s Gate. Other’s manage long enough to solve whatever problem they left behind and can then find peace. This is the only thing that keeps the population down in the Gate. Otherwise their would be hundreds of thousands of people who don’t want to pass on.
Reaper’s Gate thrives like any other town. New visitors show up hourly. The ones that stay are usually talked into moving on by the populous of the town who know better but still can’t bring themselves to pass on.
There are people in the world of the living who can tap into the powers of those residing in the Gate. The necromancers can steal powers from them and channel it into whatever means they desire. Some even open gates to the living world and let them out where they bind them and bend them to their will. Others borrow from the unlife that permeates from the Gate. This power is incredibly difficult to control has lead to the death of many fledgling necromancers who wished to gain power by the quickest means available.
The residents of Reaper’s Gate despise necromancers. Anyone who willingly works with a necromancer is labeled a ghoul by the populace and generally looked down upon. Most of the ghouls are to powerful to really do anything about however. Some ghouls enter into temporary contracts on a regular basis. Most are known in the physical world by some story book name or another. Characters like the Boogeyman are ghouls who are either contracted by a necromancer to perform a specific task, or who overpowered the necromancer who summoned them and became free in the real world. These monsters are usually very far gone and usually enter into hiding or go on killing rampages. It’s not often but it does occur.
Many of the people in the Gate desire true life. No one has been able to achieve such a miracle. Some fear that if they were to that the creator of the Reaper’s Gate would come down on them with great fury and force them into a world of torment unimaginable. Still, no one knows for certain.
Certainly not Richard Cullen…
