Liminal Space (Promptober 2025 #12)

Both Eerie and Hopeful.

Liminal spaces lie suspended between the past and the future, between purpose and uselessness, between despair and hope, between what was and what could be. They show us beauty in their utter banality. They speak of lost intent and the transience of all things. They purposefully avoid any sense of personality with a careful indifference to identifying marks. They exist in constant impermanence at the threshold of anywhen that's not right now.

They excel as a metaphor for dying player characters.

What does the waiting room to the afterlife look like? It needs to cater to every faith, nationality, and belief system. Even if life simply ends, you still need a holding pen for those beings stuck in the last glimmers of their consciousness. What better location than a liminal space?

So what can we do to make this anonymous between space interesting?

What if the unconscious character discovers tiny graffiti scrawled on the wall? What if other visitors to this space think there's a mystery to uncover? What message would you pass along to others waiting at the threshold of death? Why does this place look like an abandoned butchery? Do people of all faiths end up here? Will people meet in here if they die at the same time? Does nobody clean in here? What does it all mean anyway?

What does the graffiti message say?

1d8	Message (Choose its language)
1	Why does death carry a scythe? Are we wheat or chaff?
2	The ravens know more than they say. Ask them for guidance.
3	If you make it back among the living, I'll find you and haunt you.
4	Moonshine Mysterium, Chesterton Village, Reign of Felix I of Volant.
5	The Pure Light will spare me or reclaim me to shine again.
6	First door on the left. Add something beautiful. Pass it on.
7	Check the back of you neck if you're revived. I found an E.
8	Live how you will. Enjoy the ride. Nobody weighs your soul.

Part of the Promtober project for 2025.