History Main / PurgatoryAndLimbo

* In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' campaign setting, the Fugue Plane serves this purpose: a flat, gray wasteland under an equally colorless sky, the sole features of which is the City of [[JudgementOfTheDead Judgment]], ruled by impartial Kelemvor, [[TheGrimReaper god of the dead]], and the Wall of the Faithless. The souls of mortals are left to wander the city for ten days before being collected by the servants of their gods, during which time they're tempted by devils (per the Nine Hells' agreement with the city) to join the latter's ranks. The Wall, meanwhile, is where the souls of those who worshipped no gods in life (even if they never knew they had to) are pressed into the wall itself and left to languish until their minds and souls [[CessationOfExistence disintegrate into nothingness]]. Controversial in-universe, many see the Wall as a punishment even harsher (the process is said to be agonizing) than that faced by the False (those who betrayed their gods) or souls damned to the Hells.

* ''Purgatorio'', the middle work in Dante's trilogy ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', is set in Purgatory. In the same book, Limbo is the outermost circle of Hell and the final destination of "failed" souls who never attained salvation but aren't evil enough to merit any worse punishment than simply being estranged from God forever. In contrast, Purgatory is a sort of tough-love reform camp for saved but flawed souls who need to finish the process of becoming perfected enough to enter Heaven.
* In the ''Literature/{{Heck}}'' books, it's established that if a minor is bad, instead of going to Hell, they go to a place called "Heck" that is like Hell, but not as bad and is essentially a reform school where the kids are taught to drop the SevenDeadlySins.
* ''Literature/OverHeavenUnderHell'' by Creator/MargoLanagan is set in a realm where "the only hunger is for hunger", where people who commit suicide or never heard the gospel go, and the inhabitants of which eventually earn entry into heaven by working for the CelestialBureaucracy.

* Anyone ''Literature/{{Corrum}}'' kills ends up in a dimension called Limbo. He can summon their souls to fight for them and anyone they kill will take their place so they can move on to CessationOfExistence.

[[folder:Religion & Mythology]]

* Erebus in Myth/ClassicalMythology was pretty much a shadowy limbo for "neutral" souls, between Tartarus (Hell) and Elysium (Heaven).

* In the ''Film/VanHelsing'' movie, the priest/bishop at the beginning states that if Dracula isn't vanquished by Anna Valerious, her whole family will stay in Purgatory.

* In the Mexican movie ''Como caido del cielo'' ("Like a Gift from Heaven"), Mexican singing legend Pedro Infante is in purgatory, which for him is and empty, dark auditorium, where he has spent decades singing to a nonexistent crowd. He demands that he be let into heaven, stating that his music brought joy to the people of Mexico, but the unseen angels tasked with lokking after him say that, yes his music did bring joy to millions, but they can't ignore the fact that in life he was an unrepentant adulterer. They make a deal with him, if he can fix the marriage of an impersonator within two weeks, he'll be allowed into heaven, if he doesn't, it'll be purgatory for all eternity.

* In the Mexican movie ''Como caido del cielo'' ("Like a Gift from Heaven"), Mexican singing legend Pedro Infante is in purgatory, which for him is and empty, dark auditorium, where he has spent decades singing to a nonexistent crowd. He demands that he be let into heaven, stating that his music brought joy to the people of Mexico, but the unseen angels tasked with lokking after him say that, yes his music did bring joy to millions, but they can't ignore the fact that in life he was [[YourCheatingHeart an unrepentant adulterer.]] They make a deal with him, if he can fix the marriage of an impersonator within two weeks, he'll be allowed into heaven, if he doesn't, it'll be purgatory for all eternity.

Often the first place that people come when they die, this may be simply an AfterlifeAntechamber: a waiting room of the dead, where the souls of the departed may be assigned to their final destination by some manner of CelestialBureaucracy. Alternatively, in the event of a NearDeathExperience, this may serve as a brief respite where the hero can confer briefly [[DeadPersonConversation with a dead loved one]] or {{mentor|OccupationalHazard}} before coming BackFromTheDead to fulfill their ultimate destiny. Finally, this may be the setting for TheJourneyThroughDeath; an intermediary place that the dead have to cross in order to get to what awaits beyond.

Often the first place that people come when they die, this may be simply an AfterlifeAntechamber: a waiting room of the dead, where the souls of the departed may be assigned to their final destination by some manner of CelestialBureaucracy. Alternatively, in the event of a NearDeathExperience, this may serve as a brief respite where the hero can confer briefly [[DeadPersonConversation with a dead loved one]] or {{mentor|OccupationalHazard}} before coming BackFromTheDead to fulfill their ultimate destiny.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Shadowlands'', the realm of Revendreth is home to a race of vampiric overlords who feed on souls' pride and sin, purging them of wickedness until they can safely go to one of the other realms of death. It's not pleasant, but since the alternative is eternal damnation in the [[{{Hell}} Maw]], it's a much better choice for anyone sent there.

-->--'''Music/BobDylan'''

* ''{{Pathfinder}}'' has an afterlife for each alignment (and then some). The explicitly neutral ones are Purgatory (also called the Boneyard), where the souls of the dead are judged by Psychopomps working for the local Goddess of the Dead and those deemed sufficiently TrueNeutral are kept indefinitely; Limbo (also called the Maelstrom), where the inscrutable Proteans and ChaoticNeutral souls sail through ever-shifting seas of primordial chaos older than the universe; and Utopia or Axis, where LawfulNeutral souls are watched over by the eternally strict Axiomites and Inevitables.

* The final revelation in ''Series/LifeOnMars2006[=/=]Series/AshesToAshes'' is that the setting is Purgatory for dying and dead police officers.

* Parodied in ''Discworld/{{Wintersmith}}'' where the Nac Mac Feegle help Roland visit the (or rather, ''an'') underworld and explain "This one used tae be called Limbo, ye ken, 'cuz the door was verra low."

** The simple view taken in the series of goodness, though progressively getting more complex, is also applied to the names of various afterlives -- the Good Place and the Bad Place. Originally, the architects' system was so cut-throat that it was one or the other, no matter how bad or good, until Mindy St. Clair died with a perfectly neutral score and so they invented the Medium Place. Here she lives the most solidly average life all alone.
** A different version is applied when [[spoiler:the main characters]], who are in the Bad Place at the start, have become good enough that had they died then, they'd be in the Good Place. This shakes the architects' simple belief that people can't inherently change, which could break their entire system. So the Judge sends the group back to Earth the moment they died as a holding situation to allow them more time -- they'd all died young -- to prove that they can be good people and that change can happen if you let it.