Synopsis
The Purgatorians is set in a world people don’t travel to, they just appear. Snatched from their ordinary lives and plunged into the unknown. After searching for a way home, they give up and give in to this new life, trying to make a new life in Serentia.
We begin with the ‘prequel before the sequel’ miniseries which jumps straight into the action in the old Asylum as one character is being forced to go through retraining. This means to break a person mentally and physically so they bend the knee to the leader of the Purgatorians, The Liberator, Demetrius Montgomory.
The prequel chronicles the final 4 days before the cycle ends, allowing you to see how deadly this is and how important it is that the following cycle must be stopped. It is an extinction level event.
You will meet the characters and see how ruthless and deadly this world truly is during these episodes. You will get to look at how unsafe the people living in this land are, and not only by the end of the cycle, by the hands of its leaders and the threat of The Purgatorians. People will be making plans for the following year, unaware of the dangers yet to come.
Then we move over to the main show where those who survived the miniseries are joined by a whole new cast, totalling 36 paid, actually living, none AI, voice actors.
The main show follows Jamie Atkinson as he arrives in this new land, confused and disorientated. You will follow him as he tries to find his way back home, making friends and enemies along the way. The problem is the leaders know of a prophecy, and he is the one to fulfill it.
The prophecy says that a man with flame red hair will come to this land to cleanse the corruption from the world, to end the leader of the Purgatorians once and for all, and to put an end to the cycle. But how? He is an ordinary man with no magical powers to speak of, not much of a fighter, and holds trust in people. He will soon come to learn that in order to survive in this ruthless world, trust is one luxury you can’t afford to have.
As he makes his way through the story Jamie will have both the Purgatorians and the Council of Five vying for his blood. Both sides wanting to put an end to him once and for all to keep the prophecy from being fulfilled.
Can he survive long enough to stop this?
How many friends will he lose along the way?
Can he protect the ones he holds the most dear?
Will this world break him?
Themes
The Purgatorians is a dramatic, thriller audio drama with horror elements. Be warned, it is not a story that everyone will enjoy as it touches upon some dark and hard hitting stories, the first of these will begin at the end of the first episode of the main show. Jamie arrives in this land when stories have already begun, some nearing their end. The show was created like this to bring a living world, not one that started just because the story had started. People have been living here longer than Jamie's arrival and I wanted to reflect this.
If you are easily offended or easily upset we advise you to avoid this show. If you are looking for a show full of twists and turns, shocks and surprises, a will they/won’t they running story, or just looking for a show full of drama, this may be the audio drama for you.
Viewer discretion is highly advised before listening to this series. I would like to add that the stories are not thrown in for shock factor alone. Each of them develops the main story, a character's story, or a character themselves. They are all created to keep the stories moving forward while evolving them.
An example of what to expect is as follows. Be cautious as there are more but I need to avoid spoilers.
The plotting of murder/suicide
Talks and implied conversations of non consensual abuse. There are no actual scenes that go through the act.
Physical and emotional abuse
Domestic abuse
Homophobia
Euthanasia
The Purgatorians Anthologies
The Anthologies will be standalone episodes that show you the backstory of a select number of the characters and shows you how they came to be the person they are in the main show, and also let you know how they managed to appear in Serentia.
These episodes will mostly be focused on drama, since they are set in our current world, so there may be some thriller or disaster elements there, but not really any horror.
Every anthology will focus on one character, or the whole family. Some will chronicle their final week, or even days, leading up to them being snatched from the real world, others may have time skips throughout the episode showing a wider range of their life. Some of these do have crossovers with other characters, both major and minor, that fleshes out some of the other characters' backstories even more.
There are a wide range of themes that run through these anthologies based on real world issues, so as with the main show, viewer discretion is advised.
Run of Show
The show is originally planned for 5+ seasons of 52 episodes each. Most episodes will run for roughly 45 minutes, give or take 10, with exception for some earlier episodes of season 1 which had their runtime dropped to roughly 30 minutes. This moves up to 45 minutes around episode 16. There are also feature length Christmas specials to come and the anthology episodes.
Firstly, 2025 cast interviews will come. This will let you know from the cast themselves the story and themes of the show, things about their character and a whole host of other questions. Please be aware that I asked the cast to be completely honest with their answers with no consequences from their answers. The only things edited out of these are long silences that are not needed and spoilers.
The prequel miniseries will release December 2025. This will run weekly until the end of the run at the end of December
Season 1 of the main show will run from mid 2026 (Date to be determined) and will run for 11 episodes before taking its first break. There will be three more breaks in season 1 for us to keep in front of the show to make sure episodes are not delayed mid run.
I’m hoping we can drop the breaks in season 2 to two only, and from season 3 onwards only one midseason finale.
The anthologies will start being released once season one ends. These can’t be released any earlier due to story reasons and huge spoilers. These episodes have a set time they can be released but they can’t go weekly, or even monthly. They must be released after crucial plot points have happened in the main show.
Extras
There will be a whole host of extras coming alongside the show for when the seasons are on a break, so you will always have content.
There are the interviews that have been mentioned. These will be released during breaks in the show. The cast will give their opinions of the overall story so far, their characters' story, and how they would like to see the stories conclude. These will not contain spoilers for future episodes.
There are also cast and director commentary episodes. There will be two or three cast commentary episodes that are released. One for YouTube, one early access or full access for Patreon, depending on how many of the cast want to do this optional paid extra, and one Patreon members only exclusive episode, once again depending on how many take this offer up.
The YouTube only one will be released between episodes. The Patreon early access one will be released also between episodes for Patreon members, during the break for Youtube, and the Patreon exclusive one will be released on Tier 3 between episodes, Tier 2 during the break, Tier 1 at the end of the season.
The YouTube only version does not contain cast from that episode, the Patreon early access has a mix of cast in and not in that episode, and the Patreon exclusive has only cast in the episode. I am looking for at least five members of the cast per cast commentary video.
The director's commentary will first come as early access to Patreon Tiers 2 and 3 between episodes, Tier 1 during breaks in the season. The Directors commentary is a Patreon exclusive but if enough people request it, I could put it in a members section here too with the other exclusive content.
At the moment there is licensed music used in the show. We are looking to get this completely original, as well as the songs and sound effects, then we may put these as Tier 3 on Patreon and possible add a shop here to sell the digital downloads of these, a physical CD version should you want that, and a DVD version with the Opening titles and end credits and scene setting images.
Outtakes will also come between breaks in seasons for YouTube and if we have enough, an exclusive outtake video for our Patreon members.
There will finally be Q&A’s with the cast who will answer select questions themselves, instead of having only my replies. There will once again be YouTube and Patreon exclusive episodes of these.
Please let me know of any other type of content you would like to see be released and also if you would like a members section setting up here. You can use the contact form for this.