The obvious answer is "The End," and that's often the most-accepted one as well: to enter Oblivion is to cease to exist. The Void is the one destination that no one returns from: Spectres and doomed wraiths fall into it, past the Sea of Shadows, and go down into the waiting darkness to be utterly consumed. From within that primal darkness, there is no further tale to be told.

Some, however, would disagree.

A Heresy:

Outside of any religious interpretations of the Void - and there are more than a few, especially amongst the Believers - it is generally accepted that Oblivion exists to devour the spiritual flotsam and jetsam of the Underworld when it can no longer exist. When a wraith or Spectre has no reason to do anything anymore, and utterly and totally gives up, Oblivion is waiting. When Relics are finally forgotten by the living, and Artifacts are totally destroyed by the dead, Oblivion is waiting.

And even dreams, thoughts and ideas cannot escape its maw when their time has come. Whether fashioned by hands, by the mind or by the will, all things created by men are as finite as their makers, and must one day come an end,. And that end is Oblivion.

However, just as it is known that most who die do not become ghosts, so it is generally accepted that these fortunate souls either reincarnate - moving up or down the ladder of life - or else travel to some sort of afterlife. Meanwhile, those precious few wraiths who Transcend go elsewhere, and it is the hopes of many that they leave the suffering and travail of continued life, and go straight to whatever great reward they wished to have - even if it is nothing at all.

But yet there is the Void, serving to devour all that falls within it when The End has come. Oblivion is the center of gravity for the Tempest, and the core of the entire Underworld. There is no escaping it, and no outrunning it. Put simply, Oblivion IS.

So, when trying to balance those two accepted "facts," there are those who say that Oblivion - however terrifying it and its servants may be - is simply the "exit" door for the spirit: a way out of the Underworld, rather than a final end.

This would not be true Transcendence, but a kinder and gentler dissolution. The chains holding those so-devoured dissolve, the emotions they felt so strongly wisp away into silence, and whatever yet remains - memory or dream - goes on. Maybe this journey ends in a shining, promised Elysium, and maybe it ends in a fluid darkness with the sound of a great, unseen heart beating, above. But either way, the wraith would be gone.

It goes without saying that this idea is a rather unpopular one, and the Hierarchy went out of its way to squash it for fear of a spate of Oblivion-strengthening suicide leaps into the Void. But the Hierarchy doesn't exist, anymore, does it...?

Oblivion's Options:

Storytellers have more than a few choices as to where to take the story once Oblivion has come, either for the individual or for all.

* It Is Exactly What It Sounds Like:

However Oblivion devours the Underworld in your End Times Chronicle, to be immersed in the darkness is to be lost forever. Wraiths who fall into the onrushing blackness are utterly consumed, and undergo the exact same sensation that wraiths with Fatalism had in their Vision. The major difference is that this is no dream - this is the real thing; As soon as the tiny voice stops repeating the wraith's name, the wraith's consciousness is destroyed, and that individual is completely and totally gone.

* A Final Judgment:

Perhaps Oblivion's truest form is not so much a devourer as it is a scouring agent - abrading away the rust of ages in order to find what lies beneath, and set it free?

A Separate Peace: Once totally immersed in Oblivion, the character finds herself in one last Harrowing. However, this isn't like any other Harrowing she's ever been in, as it's being handled by Oblivion, itself, rather than its brutish agents in the Labyrinth. So, rather than trying to rip Fetters, Passions or her very existence away from her, Oblivion presents the wraith with one last chance to find the peace that she couldn't acquire before now.

The Passion Play: Perhaps the wraiths who fall in Oblivion it are "treated" to one, last Harrowing - one presented by both Shadow and Eidolon. This Harrowing seeks to question the importance of every last Passion and Fetter they have. Are these things and these feelings really worth all that suffering and horror, or can they truly all be let go?

The Final Conflict: In the darkness, the Psyche and Shadow are split into separate bodies, and are given a chance to confront one another, with the Eidolon keeping peace and refereeing the conversation. Perhaps they can bridge the gulf that separates their outlook, now, and come to some conclusion as to what to make of it all.

Turn Back Time: The wraith finds herself back at a crucial and pivotal moment in her life ­ the one where her biggest regret was spawned from. She is given a chance to redo that entire moment, thus negating the entire sequence of events that led to her being a wraith. But will her "new" life be acceptable to her, once Oblivion - which knows all, and sees all - shows her how things would have turned out?

* A New Beginning

Or perhaps Oblivion was never a final end at all, but rather the inevitable recycling of the spirit, or the warehousing of it until a certain time has passed, and the world can begin anew?

Cold Storage: Everyone and everything that's ever fallen into Oblivion is still in there, floating about in the darkness ­ insensate and unaware of their even existing, anymore. In this place that is no-place, where time means nothing and all things are infinite, all lost things, thoughts and souls lie in stasis, silently and thoughtlessly awaiting something. Perhaps they await a final judgment at the hands of a higher being, or perhaps they await an entirely new reality, once the wheel has turned all the way around

Through, and Then Beyond: Oblivion is the spiritual equivalent of a wormhole, and all that fall through it are buffeted by the strange forces within it. Those who went there willingly are absorbed and mercifully winked out of existence, adding to the size of the hole. However, those who were unwillingly engulfed by it ­ or else thrown in ­ have a chance to brave the dangerous journey beyond. They will be attacked by their own past, or broken by strange forces that can only exist in a place where all ideas are cracked down into dust. And those few who have the will to survive finally come out, somewhere far, far removed from where they started from

The Guardian of All: Those who fall, fall before the throne of some great, massive presence. No one perceives this guardian ­ or the throne the presence sits upon ­ in the same way, for the guardian is all guardians, in a sense. And this guardian has been set here, in what seemed The End, to guard the entrance into Wherever You Will, Now. Where do you care to go? What do you want to do, really? Choose, now, or trust in the gateway to choose for you ­ all the guardian can do is make sure that no one interferes

The White, Hot Room: As the Darkness closes in on the character, massive levels of self-deception and foolish, limited perceptions wash away, and the character ­ now wiped clean of all emotional baggage by the scouring touch of Oblivion ­ is able to see the past as a singularity and laugh. How silly it was to struggle against this! It wasn't so long ago that the character was here, waiting for the chance to be reborn into the cycle. And now that the balance has been restored, and a true end achieved, the character can go back to try one more time at enlightenment...*

* with apologies to Grant Morrison! : )