I'm writing a story right with two main protagonists, one is a younger girl, around 21, and the other is an older man, in his 50s, and it takes place in the afterlife, in what we'd call purgatory. I know traditionally, purgatory is a limbo of, basically nothingness or blackness, but in the story I'm giving it a definitive setting, with a lot of fantasy elements. The problem is that I just can't quite pin it down yet. I'm seeing something a little bit like Myst or Riven, a little bit like Lord of the Rings, maybe a just a touch more gothic, because the story has adventure and it's about a journey, etc... Because it's the afterlife, I can't pin down a sort of "time period" to use as far as, clothing, accents, weapons, buildings, etc. I guess I'm here to see what kind of setting you think would be apropos, or to bounce around some ideas. My wife was thinking something like Steampunk, or like a mix mash of my idea and steampunk, or because it's purgatory and it's essentially without a time period, maybe a mix of everything? Past, present and futuristic all together? Any immediate thoughts?
I guess it really depends on what you want from your purgatory. How did it exist originally, as in what did it look like before people died and occupied it? How long does it take for lost souls to get out of purgatory? Who would be the main influences in the society of this purgatory? There are just a couple of questions, but they can possibly get you closer to your answer. For me I would suggest going with the time period that is most recent, within 50 years recent. This would of course depend on how long it would take to exit purgatory. If it only takes them 10 years tops, the older generations would be gone and the newer ones would take over and such. I could see purgatory following the living world, but with a bit of a lag behind since people would have to die. I hope this helps, and good luck
Purgatory has been around forever, so you could go with costumes from WAAAAYYY back...like no clothes, because we started out as naked apes...or you could go Greek with the chiton and chlamys, or Roman togas...or pick any period from history. Or you could take the view that, as @dragonflare137 says, there's likely to be a turnover in there such that the majority will be dressed in current fashions, with stickarounds dating back as far as you like...the more old-fashioned the dress, the more unwilling (grouchy!) to comply with whatever rules you make for the inhabitants to move on to the next level. Oh, and the majority of recent deaths (at any time) will be old folk, so old-fashioned clothing (plenty of cardigans and zip-up slippers!). You also need to decide whether their death is reflected in their purgatorial appearance. If your 21-year-old girl died in a car crash, is her face horribly mutilated by going through the windscreen? If your 50-year-old died of lung cancer, is he a wasted shell of a man? Or does everybody get to appear looking at their best?
