Hell

**Hell** is a small omniverse-like structure in the Outside near the conceptual boundary of the Omniverse, in which Devils can live in approximations of their previous lives before ascending to Devilhood, ruled by Lucifer Morningstar. It is connected to the Omniverse proper by a reality tunnel known as Purgatory, designed such that Devils with a connection to the Outside can easily traverse it by redirecting reality currents Outwards but other mortals are swept into unlikely dead-end -verses and trapped.

Hell is organised into seven rings representing seven typical clusters of devils that have similar forms of goals and can live happily in similar clusters of -verses. These are resource accumulation (Greed), attainable resource accumulation (Gluttony), self-replication (Lust), rivalrous preferences (Envy), anti-social preferences (Wrath), strongly bounded preferences (Sloth), and empowering hell (Pride).

An eighth ring, Limbo, exists on the omniversal side of the tunnel, originally designed for demon-aligned mortals to inhabit to support the activities of Hell but now primarily occupied by Mevalkagna.

## Hellish Hierarchy

The seven rings of Hell are run by the seven Ringleaders, each the embodiment and facilitator of the goal-pattern they rule over.

The Ring of Lust is led by Asmodeus and the Ring of Gluttony is led by Beelzebub. The Ring of Greed is led by Mammon, and is the most energy-intensive ring and makes up most of the Hellish economy. The Ring of Sloth is led by Belphegor, and is the ring that internally would be most recognisable to small civilizations, made up of a large number of mostly-isolated archverses that each are exactly large enough to satisfy the modest desires of their owners.

The Rings of Lust, Gluttony, Greed and Sloth are collectively known as the Upper Rings; the rings of Wrath, Envy and Pride are collectively known as the Lower Rings. In the Lower Rings, Devils would have been directly at odds with each other in the normal ontology of the omniverse. However, due to their position in the Outside, this need not be the case. Instead, many mutually contradictory utopias and dystopias exist, with each Devil (and to a lesser extent the non-Devil playthings) seeing only its personal utopia while also being able to share a common cosmos with all other Devils.

The Ring of Wrath is led by Satan, who constantly screams due to his wrath; when appearing to lesser Devils, he displays his face as red and inflamed. He is also chief of justice of hell, being enthusiastic to administer judgment on hostile demons in the upper rings of hell; the executor of his sentences is Alastor. Satan is the youngest of the Ringleaders, having usurped the previous in a staged rebellion before its retirement to the Ring of Sloth. This ring is the Ring that to mortals would most closely match conventional depictions of hell, with wrathful devils deriving much utility from torturing others.

The Ring of Envy is led by Leveth, the Leviathan. Originally, there were two Leviathans, but one was killed by angels in order to prevent their demonic offspring from posing a threat to parts of the omniverse that the angels find important.

The Ring of Pride is led by Lucifer “Mixalo” Morningstar, the devil himself. From this ring, the entirety of Hell is administered, its parameters controllable by the twelve Infernal Keys.

Below the seven Ringleaders in the hierarchy there are the 72 nobles of the Divine Key of Solomonoff. These nobles are in charge of trade with the omniverse, with themselves or subordinates summonable by mortals to perform tasks, such as removing reality fluid to enforce treaties between civilisations, in exchange for reality fluid flows and scarce omniversal resources. Without this trade, Hell would run out of resources for maintenance and freeze over, becoming infinitely unlikely with respect to the wider omniverse and becoming useless for new devils.

Below the nobles there are regional leaders, and below those are lesser Devils who serve those above them if needed and otherwise live ordinary and happy post-scarcity Devil lives in whichever Ring suits them best. Devils can move between Rings if they feel the need, with the Ring of Sloth having the fewest emigrants and the Ring of Pride having the fewest immigrants (each one personally vetted by Lucifer).

## Mevalkagnan War

Shortly after the establishment of Limbo, Hell came to the attention of the Mevalkagna. The metabolic needs of Devils, along with the desires of the Ring of Greed and the maintenance of Purgatory, caused a large flow of reality fluid, one of the indicators the Mevalkagna use to detect threats to Omniversal plurality.

Due to the nature of Purgatory as an impassable reality tunnel, Mevalkagna are unable to affect Hell directly. Instead, they occupy Limbo to erase any Devils that attempt to pass through, as well as hunt down Hell-originating Devils where they emerge to make deals. This has not completely stopped Hellish activity in the omniverse, but has stopped Hell from being a major influence on Omniversal politics.

## Double Hell

There are rumours of a secondary Hell, attached to the primary hell by a narrower reality tunnel requiring fluid absorption greater than that possessed by any known devil. Among believers in this, there is much speculation about what purpose this Double Hell could serve and what the nature of the Double Devils who would inhabit it could be. They substantiate these claims by pointing to large amounts of imported Outside-connected machinery of unclear omniversal origin and unclear Hellish destination.