Heaven

**Heaven** is a divine realm and a major setting in the *Divine Comedy*.

It is the abode of God and the angels as well as serving as the afterlife for virtuous souls. After the war in Heaven and Goddess' departure, Heaven is now being overseen by the Seven Archangels.

## History

### Background

Heaven was created by God and Goddess after the Genesis Jam was done and the full universe was finished. Heaven was designed to be their "family house" with the clouds as their "white picket fence" and the Tree of Life planted in their "backyard". In the beginning Heaven had no Spheres and was instead a singular celestial realm. God then designed a palace for Him and Goddess to dwell which became the Empyrean, the highest level of Heaven and where He would pop out idea after idea that gave existence meaning and purpose.

After the war in Heaven and Lucifer's banishment, Heaven was in disarray with Raphael stating that it took quite a while for the angels to repair it. Even though they succeeded, Heaven felt 'empty' to them in a sense as the war caused God to shut Himself inside His own study and for Goddess to leave Heaven as a whole. It only became worse after Metatron entered the picture, establishing Heaven's authoritarian ways and the Seven Archangels enforcing the strict laws unto all angels.

## Description

Similar to Hell, Heaven is divided into sections and layers that attribute to the type of virtue a human committed in their lifetime. However, whereas Hell has a designated Nine Circles, Heaven is said to have Nine Spheres. In addition, where Hell's circles are literally massive flat terrains or disks, Heaven's spheres are planetary domes that house luminous cities encased within said domes. When Charlie and her friends first entered Heaven and saw the cities within the Celestial Spheres they compared it to a retro science fiction fantasy movie. Also like Hell, a human that is worthy of entering Heaven is designated to a sphere that is associated with said virtue.

### Geography

Heaven's geography is described as being lush, exuberant, and peaceful. Each of the spheres of Heaven appear to be modeled after a celestial body found in the solar system. The fourth sphere, which represents the Sun, is often said to be the brightest sphere with the saints inside said sphere having luminous heads to represent their wisdom. Most of the spheres house futuristic cities with a somewhat retro aesthetic while spheres like the Sixth Sphere have glorious palaces sporting an art nouveau or Baroque visual design for just and compassionate rulers. In regards to the weather, Cassiel states that it mostly consists of snow and rain but the rain itself is a gentle one.

The technology in Heaven appears to implement the use of quantum physics with one such application being the suspension of particles in space, facilitating the creation of airborne pathways and by extension the silver cities in the Spheres of Heaven. Large blimps are said to often fly over the cities praising the glory of God and several messages from Metatron reminding the residents to abide by Heaven's rules. There are planes of Heaven where regular saints cannot travel such as the the Primum Mobile which contains the Magisterium - the heavenly counterpart to Pandemonium - and the Empyrean. The Magisterium is the city where angels congregate in order to hold important meetings concerning their duties and Hell's activities with the archangels while the Empyrean is the abode of God and his firstborn children that being the Seraphim.

### Laws

Naturally, Heaven has its own set of laws though over the centuries with God's distancing from Heaven and Metatron's take over of the celestial spheres, Heaven became something of an authoritarian realm. Both angel and saint are subject to these laws. Examples include being prohibited to blaspheme the name of God. To not have thoughts of doubt as it could essentially lead to rebellion. Angels are not to abandon the duties assigned to them and it is highly integral for them to prevent the death of a human that is under their care. Should the actions of an angel result in the death of a human they are promptly banished from, and forbidden to enter, Heaven as seen with the three putti Collin, Cleetus, and Keenie.

Some laws were also set forth after certain disastrous incidents. One of which is due to the aftermath of the "Flood accident" that resulted in God decreeing that angels are to not fall in love with a human. The second is that angels cannot imbibe alcohol ever since Dumah drunkenly abandoned his duties as a Destroyer Angel for refusing to slaughter the firstborn children of Egypt; this was due to Azazel convincing him to spare the humans during a conversation between the two while drinking copious amounts of wine.

### Other Paradises

Just as Hell has other foreign underworlds, Heaven also has foreign paradises though these heavenly realms are all connected with one another which makes up a singular heaven where the divine dwell and the souls of the virtuous are sent. These realms also stem from different mythologies and where virtuous souls are sent based on their beliefs and faiths as well.

So far the only paradises that were shown were Valhalla (the Norse afterlife), Elysium (a region that's part of the realm of Hades), Annwn (the Celtic afterlife), and Nirvana (the Buddhist afterlife). It is also revealed that there are realms not part of the typical theological system. Three such cases are the Summerland which is an afterlife reserved for Wiccans and other benign pagan religions, the Happy Hunting Grounds for Native Americans, and Fiddler's Green that is reserved for sailors who served faithfully at sea.

## Trivia

* Heaven's architecture appears to incorporate several mixtures of subgenres from Retrofuturism, most notably Steampunk and Clockpunk, and using the Baroque style.
	+ Cassiel also claims that this is due to Jophiel getting the archangels to read science fiction novels written by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells but in Jophiel's case it was because she simply loved the art designs of these genres.