Wild speculation

I thought - what if actually all of the player characters in Echo Bazaar are dead? We all surfaced in a prison cell, with no recollection whatsoever of what happened. And wake up in a world where death is no longer permanent, devils walk on earth and actually Hell is a well defined place, west of the City. There are monsters and creatures and the Masters of the Bazaar, that could actually be concealing wings under their crooked figures and ample cloaks…

I know it’s a long shot: the Neath is a physical place, where people can come and go - the above world sends spies down under, and those who don’t “die” in the Neath should be able to return anytime. I just thought - what if the visitors from Above are actually mediums and sensitives, able to catch a glimpse of the afterlife, and people who come back to the world Above are like revenants, still tied to their old world while th vast majority of us are only living in the Neath as a purgatory before going somewhere else… Maybe Hell, maybe not. What with the North? North comes with creepy omens, but isn’t it true that the road for Heaven is narrow and difficult? And possibly scary, too?

Again, this is just wild speculation, and probably I overlooked or forgot many clues… I’m not playing by much, after all. I just thought it to bring these ideas to the attention of the community ^^

…perhaps you’re reading too much into this.

I agree with Mr Reding, you’re probably reading too much into this. And there are a number of things that don’t fit with your theory; how do you explain the Inconvenient Aunt storyline?
edited by Little The on 1/10/2012

I believe it is far more likely that we are in The Cube ('69).

I’m not dead at this point in time, though I’m sure I will be in the near future! On to the next great adventure, then! Ha!

Any remotely fantastical setting can be interpreted as some sort of purgative or intermediary afterlife… the Neath has no shortage of dead, devils and possibly even divines, but I think it makes more sense to take what we see as literal than it does to treat them as dying dreams, spiritual misconceptions or any other staple of the Jacob’s Ladder genre.

Unless the mysterious and anticipated Enigma ambition moves in some unusual directions, anyway.