Samsara

I’ve been thinking more about my Immortal Emperor idea, and as I mentioned before, Cambria originally had elements of the Ghostwalk setting planned (but I realise now that I completely misunderstood at the time how that place worked).
So now, I think I have an idea of how to pull them all together, and I’m (at least currently) calling it Samsara.

So, as I have it imagined, it works similarly to the city of Manifest in Ghostwalk – there’s a city somewhere that sits above a faultline in the afterlife, and souls can stop there on the way. But there are some differences.

The city of Samsara isn’t surrounded by Elfy trees with souls that don’t go to the afterlife, because instead of eternal damnation the afterlife, both punishment and reward are temporary and end with reincarnation.
The Emperor is some sort of Boddhisatva, who no longer receives punishment or reward before reincarnation and instead comes back straight away for another go at leading the living. Not quite sure why yet.

Now, why does the city of Samsara exist? Well, because some people refuse to pass on and receive their reward or punishment. Maybe they think they have one last task, maybe they refuse to let go of their attachments, maybe they think they can stay and help make the world better.
Of course, for whatever reason, they’re wrong.

So what is this a setting for? I’m not sure. FATE maybe? Probably Accelerated. I could go back to the well of D&D, but I’ve done a lot of those settings recently, and wanted to pull back from it. I need to take another look at the Dresden Accelerated rules because this setting definitely needs magic of some kind.
And to think up any more details I’m missing. Pure Fantasy or Alt History, humans and non-humans, and so on. And the location too. Is it going to just be an alternate Samarkand, which is where I seem to be heading?
It’s a fancy city peopled with mortals and ghosts and an immortal leader, and they do what exactly?

Yeah, lots to ponder on.