Fields of the UnRedeemed
CW: disturbing descriptions of afterlife punishment
Vantra whimpered, staring up at the menacing, tusked red being towering over her, then at the sloping hills to the side of the path she was to take.
Heads. Thousands of heads dotted the landscape, each with gaping mouths, each crying their pain to the winds. Why were they there? What was going on?
The red being took a step towards her, lifting his spear. Shrieking, she fled down the path, between the dead-grass hills and the greying soil.
“Take me!” a head shrieked.
“I don’t belong here!” another screamed.
“HELP ME!”
“REDEEM ME!”
Vantra slapped her hands over her ears and sped away, sometimes past, sometimes through, other fleeing spirits. Senseless terror sparked by the grotesque sight, the ceaseless yells, propelled her down the winding road.
A red gate loomed in front of her, taller than the trees, and seemed to be where the other wisps fled. She followed them because she did not want to fly into the hills and through the heads.
Research:
Fields of the UnRedeemed
by our queasy scholar,
Yvazhera
Yvazhera
In this Research Document:
all images by Shade Melodique
unless otherwise stated
Featured photo background by andreiuc88 from Envato Elements
unless otherwise stated
Featured photo background by andreiuc88 from Envato Elements
A Long-ago Death
A long-ago Death disliked that ghosts behaved as badly in the Evenacht as they did while alive. Since becoming a ghost did not automatically make one a good being, and those who behaved poorly continued their terrible designs in the afterlife, this long-ago Death created Death’s Judgment.
Instead of being cradled in the arms of Darkness as they passed into the Evenacht, Death brought the spirits before them for Judgment. If the ghosts did not pass, they were sent to the Fields of the Condemned, a designated site of rolling hills just beyond the gate that divided the Forest Temple from the Evenacht proper. A new spell, Death’s Mark, tied their Physical form to the hills, and they could not travel the winding path that led to the second gate and freedom in the Evenacht.
The ghosts became a warning for the newly deceased who traveled the path; do not commit wrong in the Evenacht. Death will punish you.
Of course, they needed a way for the Condemned to reach Redemption. This was not solved until Death created the UnRedeemed.
Sundered Essences
Death did not see much improvement in the spirits released from the hills. Sitting, bored, chatting with fellows who committed even more egregious acts, did nothing to alter their terrible behaviors. It even made some worse.
So they experimented with Death’s Mark, and discovered they could sunder spiritual essences and, using the original purpose of the Mark, send the essence to a designated place in the Evenacht, where it would wait until reunited with its body.
Death then punished spirits in this manner. They would sunder the body from the head and send the head to the Fields while the rest of the body parts found a place somewhere on the three continents. They bid their priests to conduct a journey after the heads seemed sufficiently ready for Redemption to retrieve those parts.
This led to the creation of Trackers, ghosts who took up the cause of these UnRedeemed spirits. They journeyed with the head to find the rest of the essences, and once they had all of them, performed the Recollection ceremony.
But this also led to longer and longer waits for Redemption, as more and more heads discovered a life ill-lived condemned them to the Fields.
The Fields of the UnRedeemed
The UnRedeemed (also known as the Condemned) needed a place to stay until they had sufficiently repented for their wrongs. The Fields expanded to hold the increase in residents.
In time, the Hallowed Collective formed, and its founder, Æshren Gerant, created a sub-organization, the Finders, to Redeem the Condemned. He declared them the sole Redeemers, destroying the Trackers, which, again, led to even longer stays in the Fields.
Under Gerant’s direction, the Finders became caretakers of the fields. They managed the heads, washing them and combing their hair at regular intervals (as Condemned are condemned to Physical Form so they can’t float away from the Fields, they get grungy, sitting in the dirt and grass, open to the elements). They created tiers for those who had spent more time in the Fields than others, as well as areas for ones who committed more heinous crimes in life.
How many? Only the Hallowed Collective knows, and they do not share that information.
One of Erse Parr's first acts as the Living Death was to find a way other than the Fields to punish those found wanting during Death's Judgment.
She discovered that 1) if more heads were not added to the Fields, the numbers of ghosts wishing to conduct Redemptions dwindled, which meant longer waits for the Condemned. And 2) this was a problem because she did not know where previous Deaths had sent the sundered essences of those they punished. She could not conduct the Recollections herself.
This attempt is seen as her greatest failure.
The Settlement
The Fields are hillsides that sit within a magical forest barrier maintained by Death. The landscape only contains droopy grass, hardy bushes, and rocky soil. The shallow slopes of First Fields are found nearest Passage Way, and house the most recent Condemned. The slopes become taller and more craggy the further west they proceed, with progressively older heads residing there. Pathways for Finders bisect the plots; no signs mark the walkways, so Finders must memorize all the trails in order to find their Candidate.
Finders called Keepers move the heads from one tier to the next, often keeping them near others they landed in the Evenacht with. The heads can form friendships and bonds with their neighbors, and when dire depression strikes, these bonds can help a Condemned ride out the storm.
Heads can also form an intense dislike for another one, especially if another head was a partner in crime. These heads are separated to keep the peace.
While the Fields are a punishment, not every moment needs to be. If a head asks to be moved next to someone else, Keepers usually oblige. There are neighborhoods among the deceased, so for instance, Keels might congregate next to each other, or artists might like to sit next to other artists. However, if someone rich believes they should be punished alongside other rich beings, or if a nymph hates anyone other than another nymph, these wants are not taken into account, and will likely end with the spirit being neighbors with someone they despise, for ‘growth’.
Spirits can develop lasting friendships in the Fields. This can lead to many things:
- wait in Evening for their friend after they enter the Evenacht proper
- become a Finder to Redeem friend
- develop found family bonds
Hillsides
The Hills, other than pathways, have no delineation, so the tiers blend into each other.
- First Fields—where the heads first arriveOften their friends or family members see them sitting along the Passage Way, which convinces them to join the Finders and Redeem their friend/loved one. No one is Redeemed from the First Fields.
- Mendacity—2nd tierFirst Field heads are moved to this tier after they accept they have to attract a Finder to get Redeemed, but still resent the punishment. A few with lighter transgressions are Redeemed from this tier. These are considered the easiest Redemptions, as the Condemned’s sundered bodies are whole (have all parts accounted for). So Finders only need to find one essence).
- Plaintive--3rd tierThe Condemned have accepted their punishment, with the glimmerings of enough despair and remorse to get Redeemed. Usually the heads who did not commit so atrocious an act get Redeemed from this tier.
- Eviction—4th tierThe Eviction is the tier most heads are Redeemed from. They feel deep despair and remorse, accept that their punishment was just, and vow to exist in a better way in the Evenacht.
- Purgis—5th tierMost of the remaining heads get Redeemed from this tier. Their heart-sickness is great, and they are bordering on giving up and embracing the Void. The Elden Fields are on the border of Eviction and Purgis. These Fields are surrounded by black iron bars covered in dead vines and shriveled flowers; inside, grungy heads sit in black soil, alongside wilted grass and leafless bushes. This is the place the heads who are not Redeemed from Purgis end up. They have often sat in punishment for millennia; their crimes do not equal the punishment given. This Field did not exist until the Finders took over Redemptions.
- There is another tier, one for those who have proven unwilling to rehabilitate (or are considered so evil upon their arrival in the Evenacht, they should not go anywhere but the Void). Previous Deaths sent them to the Void after Judgment, but Erse Parr has a strict no-Final Death policy. A ghost decides when they reach the Void, and no other. These heads are kept in an underground mausoleum, and when they pass on, it is their choice. Every other part of the Evenacht is denied them.
Children are never sent to the Fields. There is a special Hallowed Collective town called Youngton, where caretakers care for young spirits as they mentally age. When ready, they are taught to manipulate their essences, then work on ‘growing up’ (depending on which faelareign, this can take years to a century).
This is not to say children can’t be evil (they can be). But they are given far more leeway in realizing they need to change than adults. It’s extremely rare that a child raised in Youngton becomes a ghost who is sent to the Fields of the UnRedeemed to rehabilitate.
Ghosts in the Evenacht commit crimes, and some very heinous ones at that. These ghosts are hunted down by the Shades of Darkness and sent to Erse Parr for a second Judgment. They end up in the Fields (sometimes for a second time), and are treated as every other Condemned.
It is rare that a ghost does more than two punishments in the Fields, because the second time is worse than the first.
Further Reading
Ghosts of the Evenacht
Touch: The Magic of Ghosts
Death's Judgment
Trackers
The Finders
The Shades of Darkness
Touch: The Magic of Ghosts
Death's Judgment
Trackers
The Finders
The Shades of Darkness
Interesting way of the afterlife, the punishment style sounds low-key brilliant. And the idea of two feuding heads being kept apart is just plain hilarious. XD Nice way of making a hell-of-sorts sound both dreadful and hilarious, and a wonderful article styling!
Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young
Thank you :) I'm glad the styling looks good. I've been at the CSS trying so many things, but I like how this looks, so it's good to have confirmation.