Belial

The moon Belial (Center) its parent planet Sahrtan (Left), and two suns.

The moon Belial is a small rock in Fringe Space that played an unexpected role in the lives of two powerful half-demons: Kira and Viol, who spent years cleansing the moon of its unique Gods before abruptly vanishing.

## Location

Belial is located in the remote and mostly uninhabited Sahrtan system, which derives its name from its largest planet and Belial's parent. Sahrtan possesses two other moons named Belze and Moloch, but these moons are considered uninhabitable. Sahrtan itself is a gas giant that got its moons from a collision elsewhere in the solar system between a small planet and a large asteroid, which split its victim into three separate rocks.

## Geography

The low temperatures of Sahrtan's two suns make the planet frigid and its moon similarly unforgiving. At its highest altitudes, Belial is a snowy wasteland of crags and mountains. Massive cracks in this icy crust descend for miles though slightly more tolerable ridge regions and snowy mountainside forests, before eventually reaching the temperate, forested valleys where 90% of Belial's life gathers. These valleys are lush and coniferous, with a steadily cool climate year round. Lakes, rivers, and waterfalls dot the valleys, as do the mysterious shrines of Belials' near-forgotten Pantheon. Aside from these shrines, the moon's only advanced structure is the grandiose Temple of Kalira, which was dedicated to Kira some time before her disappearance. Primitive villages exist which belong to the local race of reptilian Trappers, but these villages do not welcome outsiders and possess few amenities.

Belial is also said to have an extensive cave system which is populated by a larger and more reclusive breed of Trapper, but insufficient exploration has taken place beneath the planet's surface to say for sure how vast or advanced this supposed civilization might be.

## History

For millions of years, Belial was an uncharted moon, its inhabitants free to practice their religion freely in service to their mysterious animalistic Gods. The Gods themselves were largely itangible, but could manifest themselves in times of crisis or to do battle with one-another. When they did, they took the forms of animal folk of varying descriptions. For a full list of Belial's gods, see **Belial's Pantheon**.

Because of their divine nature, the Gods of Belial are often considered to be a colony of Space Witches, though the exact relationship between them is unclear. Some theorize that these Gods were in fact created by an unknown creator using Celestial Data, but this idea has yet to be verified, and may never be, given that what Gods might remain after Kira's reign have gone into hiding.

Belial's Trapper population worshipped these Gods and warred on their behalf. There is evidence that one or two of the Gods of Belial was killed by another God, but the majority of the remainder were eradicated by Kira, who devoured them one by one over the years following her rise to power.

The exact nature of Kira's arrival and genocide of Belial is up for debate, but the consensus is that she arrived with her sister Viol, the real mastermind behind the saga. As powerful witches and daughters of the Hell Royal Mordecai, they capitalized on the planet's recent discovery by UDS deep-space expedition 1114Y, and used the planet presumably to spread evil and fulfill their own hedonistic desires. Rather than fight against the duo of space witches, the world's trappers revolted in fear against their Gods as they watched some begin to fall. A handful of Belial's Gods allied with Kira and Viol during the Genocide, but they were not spared. The only God known to have survived is the cat Goddess Miara, whose current whereabouts are unknown. Viol spent many years attempting to track Miara down following the Goddess's escape from Belial, but eventually Viol herself and Kira disappeared. Nobody is certain what happened to the Space Witches, who have not reappeared since their conquest of Belial.

The moon has yet to recover from Kira and Viol, as if such a recovery were possible in the first place. With none of its Gods willing to show their faces for fear that the duo may still be lurking, the planet is eerily quiet. The trappers wander its forests, now nomadic and feral. They, combined with the moon's top mortal predator, the gargantuan moon bear, make traversing Belial's valleys a constant danger, and prevent expeditions from digging deeper into what really happened to the daughters of Mordecai.

## Notable Appearances

* Belial appears as a location in the non-canon fangame ***Axugaem1.*** Though the events that transpire there are in-game are non-canon, its history as depicted in Axugaem1 is accurate.