Hell

**Hell** is a supernatural infernal realm and the primary setting of the *Divine Comedy*.

Hell is place that is reserved for the damned, the demonic, and the treacherous. It was said to have been molded into the structure it is seen as now by the Seven Emperors using the same power they held to fashion the universe with God during the Genesis Jam.

## History

### Background

Hell back in the primordial ages wasn't even 'Hell' or called as such but was simply an empty abyss that was away from God and the light simply called Nowhere. When Lucifer and the rest of the fallen angels fell, they collided like "fireworks and bombs" that indirectly begin to terraform the environment around them into a somewhat fiery location.

After licking their wounds, Lucifer gathered six of his greatest comrades and the majority of the other fallen angels to initiate their own little musical just as they did with God to make the universe. According to Lilith, the music of Lucifer and the rebel angels was like a "metal punk chorus", a comparison supported by Belphegor who quipped that it was the first ever song that describes Lucifer's "tortured emo" phase. Lucifer and the fallen would sing to temper and compact the fiery energies of their fall into stone while they moved their hands like that of an intense musical conductor to mold the terrain which would then become the Nine Circles of Hell.

Over the centuries, each of the emperors would have their own Circle to rule over though other regions within or by the borders of said Circles would be ruled by demon kings. Hell would be made into a kingdom instead of a prison as compensation for not having taking the throne of Heaven from God. It also became the destination of sinners and damned souls. According to Azazel, the fallen's original punishment in Hell was the absence of God but humans were the ones who made Hell into a suffering pit based on their beliefs that God could not forgive them for their sins. As a result they brought their guilt and inner decay with them to Hell which in turn made a once cold and empty realm into one of pain, misery, and chaos.

## Description

Deviating from most depiction of Hell in media, this version of Hell is not a fiery realm of eternal torture that Hell is traditionally depicted. Much of Hell mirrors that of Earth, the difference being that Hell's atmosphere is perpetually chaotic and disorderly. Hell is divided into nine circles which are colossal flat terrains of land that are connected to one another via the roots of the Tree of Knowledge which was tossed out of Eden after Adam and Eve's fall. Each circle contains sinners that were sent to Hell for committing a sin associated with said circle. Sinners can travel to other Circles, however, they are prohibited from entering other Circles that embody a sin they did not commit in life. Example is a demon that commits acts of violence through wrath and lust can only access the Wrath Circle, Lust Circle, and Violence Ring respectively.

### Geography

Hell has its own geography with many different climates within, including jungles, winter tundras, and forests, as well as its own native creatures. While some Circles like Pride, Lust, and Greed are dominated by cityscapes, other Circles such as Gluttony possess jungles and Envy is also almost entirely comprised of seas with only a few small islands and fishing villages throughout. The Wrath Circle resembles a giant desert and has a setting reminiscent of the Wild West; the Violence Ring, which is part of Wrath, has a massive woodland area where sinners condemned for committing suicide reside. The Sloth Circle is also mentioned to have rain. Treachery, which is the lowest Circle, is described as a desolate frozen wasteland with hardly any demon or sinner seen walking through the frozen tundra. When it comes to the weather, Pride is said to rain blood and Gluttony rains gastric acid.

In terms of the interior infrastructure within Hell, buildings are said to be carved out of "brimstone and bone" in Alastor's words. It is revealed that in the aftermath of the annual Extermination Event, the bodies of demons and sinners are taken to be butchered and carved into animate objects like furniture, wallpaper, and even support beams for buildings and houses. The bodies of said demons are gathered up by Sweepers, taking and then dumping them into a factory called the Chop Shop that's run by Mulciber, where the bodies are mashed and broken apart by worker imps. After reaching the end of its respective conveyor belt, the remains are dumped into a large, fiery furnace and is then melted down and used to manufacture interior and exterior complexes and objects of Hell while being used by demons in their day to day unlife.

Aside from the main Nine Circles, Hell is revealed to also have islands of its own. According to Death, the Nine Circles are the conurbation where everyone gets tortured and almost doing whatever they want during punch in. Outside of the Nine Circles, and connected via the rivers of the underworld like the Styx or Phlegethon, are a chain of islands that demons describe as "rundown college towns" and the islands themselves are fragments of the Circles the emperors were making during their little "emo rock out" session and simply could care less about. Most of these islands are inhabited by lesser demons such as imps and Mazzikin.

### Laws

Though Hell is perceived as being almost lawless, there are a surprisingly few number of laws that were set forth by the emperors as a means to stabilize the power structure of Hell's system. Examples include being prohibited from entering the Earthly plane without special permission from either a noble demon or one of the emperors. Another is that royal demons cannot murder another royal that is enlisted in a court founded by one of the emperors. It is utterly forbidden to worship or even speak of God. When dealing with mortals, the faustian bargain made between demon and human must be a fair exchange.

Anyone caught breaking these laws is often punished with extreme prejudice. In worse case scenarios, when demons go so far as to commit crimes against the royal family they are thrown into Tartarus which Vaggie describes as the "worst kind of Hell imaginable".

### Other Underworlds

It is revealed that there are other foreign underworlds connected to the Christian Hell. These Underworlds are connected to Hell via colossal gateways that lead towards those mythological afterlives and are tied to many other faiths of the world. These areas are usually governed by underworld/chthonic deities or local demons. Charlie sees them as "different countries" such as Yomi (the Japanese underworld) being Japan and Mictlan (the Aztec underworld) being Mexico.

The rulers of said underworlds in question were said to have reached a beneficiary agreement with the seven emperors - signing the Equity of Sin and Damnation Act - whereby any human that dies with faiths based around the particular deity said human will be given to them rather than Hell. According to Mammon, the ESDA is quite complicated to read through much less understand, to lesser demons that is, especially considering the way faith works in the grand order of things.

Neither sinners nor demons can traverse these foreign underworlds by themselves unless they somehow attain access to the Undervator and even when they can it is a long and exhausting process in regards to acquiring the paperwork that would legally allow them to travel to these underworlds. Vaggie compares it to spending months or even years just to get an international visa that would allow them to enter a country legally.

## Trivia

* While borrowing the same elements from Dante Alighieri's epic poem, Hell's depiction in the *Divine Comedy* series is based on C. S. Lewis’ interpretation in *"The Great Divorce"*, being a gritty and decaying cityscape.
* Similar to Heaven, most of Hell's architecture also incorporates a certain style of visual arts and product design; the most prominent being Art Deco and Streamline Moderne.
	+ Treachery, Wrath, and Sloth are the only Circles that do not sport these themes.
* Blitzø mentions that Hell experiences its own phenomenon of an earthquake: a hellshake or a hellquake. According to Moxxie, hellquakes are highly uncommon in Hell and the only time a hellquake occurred was when "God's poster boy got nailed" referring to Jesus's death.
* It is revealed that unlike Dante Alighieri's depiction of Hell in his poem which showcases unbaptized babies being sent to Limbo, in the series unbaptized babies are instead taken care of by Frau Holle - the wife of Santa Claus - before being sent off to Heaven.