Hell

### Known Aliases

Inferno, Chaoplasm, Land of the Damned/Demons, the Underworld, Hades, the Abyss, the Netherworld, and countless other names

## Demographics

### Type of Government

Triarchy
Absolute Monarchy (Formerly)

### Leader(s)

Ayin and the Triumvirate of Hell
Lucifer Morningstar (Formerly)

## Location

### Locale

*Unknown*

 *Welcome, my friend, to the Land of the Damned, where torture and horror walk hand in hand-- where pain and despair unfettered roam. Men call it Hell. I call it home!*
—Etrigan the Demon

**Hell** is the main realm of the Underworld, the farthest and distant dimension possible from Heaven. Hell is ruled by the Triumvirate of Hell, after Lucifer Morningstar abdicated. Home to demons and other infernal/demonic beings and were damned mortals souls get tortured.

## History

### Hell: In the Beginning...

When Lucifer got banished from Heaven he went to the Abyss and carved out a colossal piece. Lucifer bonded the spirit of Ayin to this piece and named it **Hell**, after Lucifer name, Helel. Ayin's creations/offspring, demons, and the angels that fell after Lucifer's rebellion all claimed Hell as their home.

Lucifer being the creator of Hell and the most powerful became the sole monarch of Hell. He created the **Triumvirate of Hell** to manipulated the various demons of Hell against each other for the only three spots of power. Satan has kept a sit on the triumvirate from the beginning. Seven of the most powerful demons became the Seven Princes of Hell each representing each of the seven deadly sins; Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Envy, Greed, and Wrath.

Though most angels remained loyal to the Presence, even after the Fall, a small number of angels left Heaven to settle in Hell and swear fealty to Lucifer and the triumvirate. Some of these angels were truly impressive, but Lucifer remained the only Demiurgic Archangel in Hell. This meant the others lacked the power to tame Ayin's energies in the same way and slowly began to change. Proudly, they took on one of Lucifer's epithets as a name for their race, calling themselves the devils.

Lucifer made a gate into hell and put the Banes of Hell; Maevnussut, Behemoth, and Ziz as its gatekeepers to keep the damned souls and lower demons in Hell, and guard it from unwanted intruders.

## Hierarchy

* *Sovereign of Hell*: Lucifer Morningstar (Formerly)
* *Spirit of Hell*: Ayin
* *Triumvirate of Hell*: Satan, Trigon, and Aradia.
	+ *Seven Princes of Hell*: Mephisto (Pride), Beelzebub (Gluttony), Asmodeus (Lust), Belial (Envy), Belphegor (Sloth), Abaddon (Creed), and Azazel (Wrath).

* *Banes of Hell*: Maevnussut, Behemoth, and Ziz (Gatekeepers of Hell).
* *Stygian Council*:
	+ *Great President of Hell*: Malphis.
	+ *Prime Minister of Hell*: Lucifuge Rofocale.
	+ *Chief Secretary of Hell*: Berith.
	+ *Great Generals of Hell*: Neron (Commander in Chief), 4 others.
	+ *Vassal Kings of Hell*: Iblis, Bael,
	+ *Archdemons/Dukes of Hell*: Etrigan , Abaddon, Pythius, Merihem, Dagan, Ramiel, and countless more.
	+ *Ars Goetia*: Seventy-Two demons with exemplary strength and their own legions.

## Inhabitants

**Current Inhabitants**: Ayin, Satan, Trigon, Belial, Etrigan, Mephisto, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Azazel, Crowley, Phosphoros, Aradia Morningstar, Bael, Iblis, Maalik, Leviathan, Behemoth, Ziz, Astaroth
**Former Inhabitants**: Lucifer Morningstar, Mazikeen, Pruflas,

## Points of Interest

### Gates of Hell

The Gates of Hell, also called Hellmouths, is the gateways to Hell itself. It is where the souls of the damned are lead during their time in Limbo, when they have committed sins during their life in the mortal world. It is guarded by Maevnussut, Behemoth, Ziz, some Cerberus, thousands of various kinds of demon and other creatures who reside in Hell. so that no lesser demons could ever escape it and only damned souls and spirits could enter it.

### Provinces of Hell

* *City of Dis*: Central Province of Hell, it surrounds Pandemonium.
	+ *Pandemonium*: Central Castle and Capital of Hell. The Stygian Council presides here. Palace of Pandemonium, Throne Room of Hell, Tower of Dis (Lucifer's home before he abdicated),
* *Gehenna*: The smallest province, Satan's Home.
* *Azarath*: The second largest province, Trigon's kingdom.
* *Effrul*: Effrul is a domain within Hell, marked by the skull of Effrul.
* *Lake of Fire*: The largest province, its not really a lake more like an ocean, larger then an universe. Leviathans and other under lava beings live.
* Many more.

### 9 Circles of Hell

* ***Limbo***: Limbo is the First Circle of Hell along with being the edge of Hell. It is the place that it was speculative about the afterlife condition of those who die in the original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned and also the burning place. It is also connected to one of the doors to Heaven. At the end of Limbo is the zone where the souls of the damned are sentenced to their suffering by King Minos. Limbo is also revealed to be the Circle that is connected to the various pagan Underworlds.

* ***Lust***: In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust. These "carnal malefactors" are condemned for allowing their appetites to sway their reason. These souls are buffeted back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow needlessly and aimlessly: "as the lovers drifted into self-indulgence and were carried away by their passions, so now they drift for ever. The bright, voluptuous sin is now seen as it is – a howling darkness of helpless discomfort." Since lust involves mutual indulgence and is not, therefore, completely self-centered, Dante deems it the least heinous of the sins and its punishment is the most benign within Hell proper. The "ruined slope" in this circle is thought to be a reference to the earthquake that occurred after the death of Christ.

* ***Gluttony***: In the third circle, those who were gluttonous in life wallow in a vile, putrid slush produced by a ceaseless, foul, icy rain – "a great storm of putrefaction" – as punishment for subjecting their reason to a voracious appetite. Cerberus, not the three-headed dog, (described as "il gran vermo", literally "the great worm"), the monstrous three-headed beast of Hell, ravenously guards the gluttons lying in the freezing mire, mauling and flaying them with his claws as they howl like dogs. The gluttons grovel in the mud by themselves, sightless and heedless of their neighbors, symbolizing the cold, selfish, and empty sensuality of their lives. Just as lust has revealed its true nature in the winds of the previous circle, here the slush reveals the true nature of sensuality – which includes not only overindulgence in food and drink, but also other kinds of addiction.

* ***Greed***: The Fourth Circle is guarded by a figure known as Plutus, the deity of wealth in classical mythology. Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth circle. They include the avaricious or miserly (including many "clergymen, and popes and cardinals"), who hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. The hoarders and spendthrifts joust, using great weights as weapons that they push with their chests.

* ***Wrath***: In the swampy, stinking waters of the river Styx – the Fifth Circle – the actively wrathful fight each other viciously on the surface of the slime, while the sullen (the passively wrathful) lie beneath the water, withdrawn, "into a black sulkiness which can find no joy in God or man or the universe". At the surface of the foul Stygian marsh, "the active hatreds rend and snarl at one another; at the bottom, the sullen hatreds lie gurgling, unable even to express themselves for the rage that chokes them". As the last circle of Incontinence, the "savage self-frustration" of the Fifth Circle marks the end of "that which had its tender and romantic beginnings in the dalliance of indulged passion."
	+ ***Entrance to Dis***: In the distance, there are high towers that resemble fiery red mosques, which is later revealed to be the City of Dis. Dis, itself surrounded by the Stygian marsh, contains Lower Hell within its walls. Dis is one of the names of Pluto, the classical king of the underworld, in addition to being the name of the realm. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels, the Furies, and Medusa.

* ***Heresy***: In the sixth circle, heretics are trapped in flaming tombs. A damned soul known as Farinata explains that what the souls in Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing the future, not from any observation of the present. Consequently, when "the portal of the future has been shut", it will no longer be possible for them to know anything.

* ***Violence***: The Seventh Circle, divided into three rings, houses the Violent where sinners whom have committed violence against others and themselves.
	+ ***Ring 1: Against Neighbors:*** In the first round of the seventh circle, the murderers, war-makers, plunderers, and tyrants are immersed in the Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire. Ciardi writes, "as they wallowed in blood during their lives, so they are immersed in the boiling blood forever, each according to the degree of his guilt". The Centaurs, commanded by Chiron and Pholus, patrol the ring, shooting arrows into any sinners who emerge higher out of the boiling blood than each is allowed.
	+ ***Ring 2: Against Self:*** The second round of the seventh circle is the Wood of the Suicides, in which the souls of the people who attempted or committed suicide are transformed into gnarled, thorny trees and then fed upon by Harpies, hideous clawed birds with the faces of women; the trees are only permitted to speak when broken and bleeding. In this circle are also the souls of those who showed little care for or damaged their own possessions, known as “spendthrifts”: their punishment is to eternally run away from pursuing beasts whom wish to maul them.
	+ ***Ring 3: Against God, Art, and Nature:*** The third round of the seventh circle is a great Plain of Burning Sand scorched by great flakes of flame falling slowly down from the sky, an image derived from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Blasphemers (the Violent against God) are stretched supine upon the burning sand, the Sodomites (the Violent against Nature) run in circles, while the Usurers (the Violent against Art, which is the Grandchild of God) crouch huddled and weeping. In the lower portions of the Circle and by the gates of Fraud is the Monster of Fraud, Geryon. Geryon, meanwhile, is an image of fraud, combining human, bestial, and reptilian elements: Geryon is a "monster with the general shape of a wyvern but with the tail of a scorpion, hairy arms, a gaudily-marked reptilian body, and the face of a just and honest man".The pleasant human face on this grotesque body evokes the insincere fraudster whose intentions "behind the face" are all monstrous, cold-blooded, and stinging with poison.

* ***Fraud***: The Eighth Circle, called Malebolge ("Evil ditches"), is the upper half of the Hell of the Fraudulent and Malicious. The Eighth Circle is a large funnel of stone shaped like an amphitheatre around which run a series of ten deep, narrow, concentric ditches or trenches called bolge (singular: bolgia). Within these ditches are punished those guilty of Simple Fraud. From the foot of the Great Cliff to the Well (which forms the neck of the funnel) are large spurs of rock, like umbrella ribs or spokes, which serve as bridges over the ten ditches. Dorothy L. Sayers writes that the Malebolge is, "the image of the City in corruption: the progressive disintegration of every social relationship, personal and public. Sexuality, ecclesiastical and civil office, language, ownership, counsel, authority, psychic influence, and material interdependence – all the media of the community's interchange are perverted and falsified". Fraud is divided into ten trenches, called Bolgia. Each Bolgia holds a different kind of fraudulent souls:
	+ ***Bolgia 1***: Panderers and seducers march in separate lines in opposite directions, whipped by demons.
	+ ***Bolgia 2***: Flatterers are steeped in human excrement, which represents the words they produced.
	+ ***Bolgia 3***: Those who committed simony are placed head-first in holes in the rock with flames burning on the soles of their feet.
	+ ***Bolgia 4***: Sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets here have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward, referring primarily to attempts to see into the future by forbidden means.
	+ ***Bolgia 5***: Corrupt politicians are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, which represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals.
	+ ***Bolgia 6***: Hypocrites listlessly walking along wearing gilded lead cloaks, which represent the falsity behind the surface appearance of their actions.
	+ ***Bolgia 7***: Thieves are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards. The full horror of the thieves' punishment is revealed gradually: just as they stole other people's substance in life, their very identity becomes subject to theft here, and the snake bites make them undergo various transformations.
	+ ***Bolgia 8***: Fraudulent advisers or evil counselors are concealed within individual flames. These are not people who gave false advice, but people who used their position to advise others to engage in fraud.
	+ ***Bolgia 9***: A sword-wielding demon hacks at the Sowers of Discord, dividing parts of their bodies as in life they divided others. As they make their rounds the wounds heal, only to have the demon tear apart their bodies again.
	+ ***Bolgia 10***: Various sorts of falsifiers (fake alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and impostors), who are a "disease" on society, are themselves afflicted with different types of diseases.
	+ ***Central Well of the Malebolge***:

By the end of the Malebolge is the Central Well, at the bottom of which lies the Ninth and final Circle of Hell. The classical and biblical Giants – who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery – stand perpetual guard inside the well-pit, their legs embedded in the banks of the Ninth Circle while their upper halves rise above the rim and can be visible from the Malebolge. Among the Giants, there is Nimrod (who tried to build the Tower of Babel; he shouts out the unintelligible Raphèl mai amècche zabì almi); Ephialtes and Otus (who both tried to storm Olympus during the Gigantomachy; they have their arms chained up) and Briareus (who is claimed to have challenged the gods); and Tityos, who insulted Jupiter. Also here is Antaeus, who did not join in the rebellion against the Olympian gods and therefore is not chained.

* ***Treachery***:

Treachery is the Ninth Circle of Hell where lies the souls of those who betrayed that which matters most. Treachery is the deepest part of Hell that is the only connection to the Greek Underworld via Cocytus. It acts as a prison for powerful and dangerous figures such as Satan and Kokabiel. It is also serves as a home to many rare and dangerous creatures such as the Pale Horse. It’s for those who committed the gravest sins or those who perpetrated betrayals were eternally bound in the cruelest depths of Hell. There are four concentric zones, or "rounds", to Treachery, each in descending order of seriousness, from betrayal of family ties, to betrayal of community ties, betrayal of guests, and betrayal of liege lords.

* + ***Round 1***: Named Caïna, after Cain, who killed his brother. Traitors to kindred are here immersed in the ice up to their chins.
	+ ***Round 2***: Named Antenora, after Antenor of Troy, who according to medieval tradition, betrayed his city to the Greeks. Traitors to political entities, such as parties, cities, or countries, are located here and imprisoned in the same way as the traitors in Caïna.
	+ ***Round 3***: Named Ptolomaea, after Ptolemy, son of Abubus, who invited Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banquet and then killed them. Traitors to their guests are punished here, lying supine in the ice, which covers them, except for their faces. They are punished more severely than the previous traitors, since the relationship to guests is an entirely voluntary one.
	+ ***Round 4***: Named Judecca, after Judas Iscariot, Biblical betrayer of Christ. Here are the traitors to their lords and benefactors. All of the sinners punished within are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in all conceivable positions.

### Other Realms that Connected to Hell

* Tartarus: Where Evil Primordial Beings, Titans, and other Evil Powerful Monsters are kept prisoned.

## Assessment

### Species

* *Pre-existential Entities*
* *Demons*
* *Fallen Angels*
* *Devils*
* *Fallen/Corrupted/Evil Deities*
* *Djinn*
	+ *Zabaniyah*:
* *Lilim*:
* *Infernal Beasts/Monsters*:
	+ *Balrogs*
	+ *Dragons*
	+ *Hellhounds*
	+ *Leviathans*
* Infernal Animals:
	+ *Horses*

### Climate

* **Hazards**: \* Hellfire
* Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers of Fire.
* Lava
* Ice
* Spikes

## Resources

### Natural Resources

* Flame of Ayin: The hottest flame in all creation.
* Hellstone: A Hot Strong Material.
* Damned Souls: Currency of Hell.
* Stygian Iron: What most demon weapons are made out of.
* Infernal Adamantine: A Rare Indestructible Metal.
* and many more.

### Transportation

* Trains, Horses, Carriages, Cars, and other transportation.

### Other Resources

* An Army of 10 trillion demons, and other demonic beasts.

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* Hell is the hottest and coldest realm in the Underworld.

## See Also

* Appearances of Hell
* Location Gallery: Hell [[Category: Underworld|Hell]]