The Alkestis

(The contents of this page are NOT common knowledge)   Upon the death of a person on Gaia, or any one of the many planes, a couple of hours after their death they’d wake to find themselves on a strange, yet remarkable ship (Unless, of course, something happened to them to cause them to manifest at the spot of their death as a spirit or ghost, but this is very, very rare). The ship would appear to be the size of a large longboat, with its sails down and oars extended, piloting the ship through unknown waters. The term ‘waters,’ however, is a misnomer, because the ship does not sail on any ocean known to man, instead sailing through the infinite blackness of space itself, in-between the many dimensional planes that make up the universe. The planes themselves are visible to the passengers, but are so vastly far away from the ship that they only appear as small, distant stars to those aboard it, save on rare occasions.  

Characteristics

The ship’s oars and sails are constantly in motion, heaved and powered by unseen forces. The boat itself, while only appearing visually to be the size of a large longboat, is in actuality far larger. Each step that a passenger takes results only in a new piece of the ship being revealed, popping into existence out of what used to be nothingness. It is virtually impossible to reach the edge of the ship, each and every step a passenger takes merely creating a new distance between them and their destination and revealing a new section of the ferry. The passengers aboard the boat have no need for food or water, and are condemned to merely stand or sit in place until the boat reaches its destination. Echoing, haunting cries of pain and fear also eminante throughout the ship, as most of its passengers begin to sink slowly through it, towards the unknown blackness beneath them.

Inhabitants

The Alkestis’ main inhabitants are translucent spirits, who take the shape of the person they were in their past life. The spirits, as a result of having nothing else to do, are quite talkative, conversing with one another about their past lives, the mysteries of the boat they are on, and of what will happen to them next, among other things. Some of the spirits aboard the ferry have gone insane from the journey and the experience of their death, being reduced to lonesome gibbering or crying creatures. The other sole inhabitant of the boat, who can be seen by all upon it, is called only The Ferryman.

Leaving the Alkestis

There are four primary ways to leave the Alkestis.   Firstly, if the dead person’s body is brought to a resurrection altar, a bright beam of light will shine down on them, and the spirit in question will be shot up with it towards the land of the living. Other spirits upon the boat will rush towards this beam of light, seeing it as a way to escape the Ferry and return to the land of the living. This does not, of course, work.   Secondly, If a dead person has been shown mercy by a god, a manifestation of that god’s form will appear on the ferry, first paying tribute, in the form of the only currency The Ferryman accepts, the soul of a being who is still alive. They then disappear with their chosen soul in a similar beam of light. This will elicit a similar response from the ferries’ passengers as those who witness someone be saved by a resurrection altar.   The third and fourth ways to leave are deeply tied to the destination of the ferry, and its passengers.

The Destination

The Alkestis is the primary way that the spirits of the dead are sorted, either surviving the harrowing journey and reaching paradise in the The Grand Hoard or failing miserably, losing their corporeal form and slowly falling first through the ferry, then through the void beneath it, finally arriving at Mevvet. You see, over the course of one’s life, their soul gradually accrues mass, in the form of experience, feats, and the extent and amount of lives they affect. When the person dies, and their soul becomes separated from their body, this jumble of memories, emotions, and traces of those whom they affected are all that stay with them when they arrive aboard the Alkestis. The journey through the blackness that rests in between the plains is not, however, easy. Invisible forces tug and pull at the poor, exposed spirits upon the ferry’s deck, gradually eroding the mass that surrounds their soul. Should these poor persons’ souls be eroded at sufficiently, which is the fate that awaits all but the greatest of spirits, they will lose corporeality aboard the ship, and begin to fall slowly through its deck, much to their distress and horror. Sometimes, very rarely, if a being has devoted their life in its entirety to a deity, it will show mercy upon them, and shield their soul from this erosion and thus safely guide them to paradise in the hoard. This does not happen often, however, and the vast majority of the ferry’s passengers find themselves slowly falling through its deck and then hurtling through the blackness of space towards Mevvet, where they will meet their doom. The rare heroes, villains, kings, and sorcerers that do not suffer this fate will eventually find the ferry slowing to a stop in the midst of the hoard, where they may disembark and enjoy eternity inside it.