The Nine Hells

## Overview

The Hells were born as a place of mortal torment and punishment, but have since morphed into nine realms that also house constant infernal politicking, scheming, trickery, and betrayal of all kinds. The highest levels of the Hells are also part of the immense, inter-planer staging ground for the Eternal War that rages between devil kind and demons.

The incomprehensible twists and turns of the River Styx flow down to all the Lower Planes, those realms beyond the Gate of Fire. Bifurcations of the river cascade down the Nine Hells, providing - with but a few exceptions - the only portals between the layers of the Nine.

## The First Hell: **Avernus**, the Bastion of Ice

### Archduke: Geryon (flying serpent devil)

A realm of ice and blood, surrounded by a great frozen sea. Lightning constantly crackles in its gloomy skies, cold flames ravage the wastes, and the daily ice storms can rend flesh from bone. Cities embedded in the ice provide shelter for the guests and prisoners of the ruler of this Hell, the once-great Geryon.

Since Avernus must serve as the first line of defence against the demon hordes, the frigid banks of the Styx here are lined with fortresses, designed both to protect against assault and to process those souls that leave the river on this Hell. Old battlegrounds litter the ice wastes. The corpses of devils who experienced true death here, having being slain in the Hells, will never rot in the frozen air. They're joined by the still-living forms of many demons trapped in huge blocks of ice, preventing their respawn in the Abyss.

Like many of the archdevils, Geryon has a complicated past, the details of which are unclear to most. He was once the ruler of a much lower, more prestigious Hell - Malbodge, the Eighth. The reasons for his immense demotion are unknown to all but the oldest, but it's suspected by many to be simply due to the Hells being much stronger now. When the Hells were young and new, Geryon was indeed a mighty force, deserving of the Eighth. Now, he simply lacks the strength compared to the newer devils that have aged alongside the fury of the Eternal War. Or so goes this theory, at least.

Whether this thinking is correct or not, one fact remains that makes Geryon and the First Hell unique: all lower-ranked devils must serve a term in the war. As such, Geryon has or will have temporarily commanded all the lesser devils of the various Hells. Perhaps Asmodeus placed him in the First Hell precisely because Geryon was a capable devil after all, worthy of such a role.

## The Second Hell: **Legion**, the Proving Grounds

### Archduke: Zariel (former archangel)

#### Notable Dukes: Bel (former archduke of the layer; lost to Zariel in combat)

Legion is the realm dedicated to the training and organisation of the infernal armies. Devils that are sent to serve in Avernus and as part of the advances into the Abyss are first transformed into their war forms here on Legion. The layer is filled with garrisons, mess halls, training grounds, fighting arenas, and so forth. Since it also serves as the Hells' second line of defence in the event of a full-frontal assault, it is designed in such a way as to easily thwart attacks coming from the direction of the First Hell.

Zariel is the ruler of this layer, but the former archangel's love of battle means she spends most of her time leading the assault against demons on the First Hell or elsewhere. As such, her chief adviser and the former archdevil of this layer, Bel, actually runs the show most often. Supposedly, he always does Zariel's bidding during her absences, but few believe he wouldn't be scheming, plotting, and moving his plans of conquest forward when given such ample opportunities.

## The Third Hell: **Minauros**, the Bog of the Damned

### Archduke: Beelzebub (big slug)

A realm of bubbling, stinking swamp, filled with unseen pits that swallow hapless travellers, clouds of choking flies that bite and gnaw at all who would dare traverse the mud, and a sky of brown clouds that bring down acidic rain every day.

The swamp is filled with the ruins of once-great infernal cities, all sacked and destroyed by the greatest and furthest of the demon horde's assaults into the Hells. Ever since, they and the layer itself have been left to rot; a reminder of the failures of those devils that displeased Asmodeus during that assault. The vile swamp that has sprung up in the wake of those failures now serves as the final defence necessary against any full-frontal assault on the Hells to come. An army that tries to march through the endless wastes of Minauros should suffer into death long before they are able to worry the lower layers of the Hells.

There is but one city that rises up from the muck: Minauros, the place for which the whole layer and realm is named. It is a huge city, carved out of beautiful granite and shimmering marble in spite of its surroundings. Beelzebub rules from the flooded halls of his palace in the centre of the city. For his wavering loyalty and failures in war, Beelzebub was cursed to the form of an enormous, oozing slug by Asmodeus. It's hard to comprehend why Beelzebub retains any of the Lord of the Nine's favour at all, but he has not yet been killed, so Asmodeus must still have a plan of some sort for him.

## The Fourth Hell: **Dis**, the Iron City

### Archduke: Dispater (unbelievably paranoid)

#### Notable Dukes: Titivillus, the Prince of Red Scribes

The Fourth Hell is a city the size of a mortal world, with Dispater's iron citadel rising up from within. From the impenetrable security of his citadel, the Lord of the Fourth surveys the whole realm, sequestering secrets. It is said he never ventures forth from his iron walls any more.

Dis is a hub for all those extra-planar travellers who don't mind the atmosphere of the Hells. As such, it's the most cosmopolitan of the Hells, in its own fashion.

A number of Iron Roads lead to Dis from elsewhere in the multiverse. Each one is, of course, guarded extremely closely from both sides and subject to a number of particular rules regarding which creatures can travel them, but they remain one of the most reliable ways to traverse in and out of the lower layers of the Hells.

## The Fifth Hell: **Mephistar**, the Tireless Workshop

### Archduke: Mephistopheles (magic devil)

#### Notable Dukes: Faust, a powerful narzugon beholden to Mephistopheles; Hutijin, highest ranked of Mephistopheles's noble pit fiends.

Mephistopheles is constantly advancing his magic and experimenting with everything he produces. The whole layer that he governs has evolved into a form that can facilitate this. Smoke and ash ever billows up from his uncountable factories, industrial waste flows into the Styx in rivers of its own, and the many minions of Mephistar toil away in the service to their lord's insatiable curiosity, as he ever seeks new weapons and routes to power.

Hellfire was one such invention of Mephistopheles's, and the four hellfire households of this layer now exist solely for the purpose of producing the substance in vast quantities. House Telphousila is one such hellfire households.

## The Sixth Hell: **Phlegethos**, the Lakes of Flame

### Archduke: Fierna (queen of infernal pleasure)

The Sixth is the hottest of all the Hells, and the heat felt on the other layers of the Nine is governed in large part by their proximity to Phlegethos.

The Styx splits into rivers of fire and boiling blood on this layer, winding around enormous volcanic calderas that bubble and churn lakes of liquid rock within them. These flames do not harm any resident of the Nine, even those devils without immunity to fire. They will reach out and strike at any non-resident though, as if the flames themselves were alive.

On the surface of the largest volcano's lava lake floats the great city of Abriymoch, rising up like the centrepiece of an enormous, infernal fountain. Fierna rules from here, and the whole city is filled with infernal versions of casinos, theatres, pleasure palaces, and other devilish delights.

Elsewhere in this layer sits one of the highest institutions of the Infernal Court, the Hall of Judgement.

## The Seventh Hell: **Tartarus**, the Great Gaol

### Archduke: Belphegor (unflinching punisher)

The Styx rings around and cascades down into an unfathomably large pit spanning as wide as a world and as deep as several. This pit is itself the Seventh Hell, Tartarus. The walls and suspended structures of a jail hang in the very centre of that pit, fashioned from the most remarkable of substances; adamantine, orichalcum, black ice, diamond, and hellfire, to name but a few.

Many of the jail's inmates are incredible in their deeds, nature, or design. Some of the most powerful creatures of all the multiverse are kept here. Zariel, the now-ruler of the Second, was kept in Tartarus while she underwent her change from angel to fiend after her prolonged exposure to the Book Most Foul.

There are stories of portals being opened that lead into Tartarus, but such portals invariably become one-way, irrespective of the magic used to make them. Belphegor is not a devil to be taken lightly, and he takes his role as the jailer perhaps more seriously than any other devil takes their job. It is said often that none escape his watch.

## The Eighth Hell: **Malbodge**, the Endless Slope

### Archduke: Lucifer (favoured child of Asmodeus)

The Eighth is a seemingly endless slope, as if the whole realm were the side of an inexplicably huge mountain. Parts of the layer periodically break off and form into deadly avalanches, making any effort to travel on the slope a fool's errand.

The archdevil of this layer, Lucifer - the only child of Asmodeus that the Lord of the Nine seems to favour - has created an enormous network of cells and torture chambers below his citadel in the capital city of Mal. These Lucifer is said to fill with all who displease them, as well as those they most favours.

## The Ninth Hell: **Nessus**, the Heart of Hell

### Archduke: Asmodeus (Lord of the Nine)

A realm pocked with deep pits, their plunging walls lined with the fortresses of those who grace Asmodeus's personal court.

A vast rift, second only to Tartarus in size, yawns open at the farthest end of this Hell, as far from where the Styx pours in from the layer above as is possible. From the centre of this rift, the great citadel-spire of Malsheem rises up, and it is here, at the very bottom and very end of the Hells, that Asmodeus presides over all the Nine.