Dudael

The sixth of the Nine Hells of Gehenna, **Dudael, the Burning Hell**, is a desert realm of searing sunlight and burning sands.

The Archdevil of Dudael is Buer, the Goat Sun, which looms high in the skies above his domain.

## Inhabitants

The skeletal Garamyanah is the most common of Dudael's native Qliphoth. Efreet and Shayatin are also common in Dudael. Of the various types of Shaytan, Dudael has the highest population of Ghilan in all Gehenna.

Also native to Dudael are the Gibborim, the Titanic ancestors of the Sand Giants.

## Description

The sixth of the Nine Hells, Dudael, also known as the Burning Hell, is a vast desert of burning sands. Sandstorms are common, and fierce enough to leave those caught within them nothing more than bleached skeletons, stripped utterly of all flesh and meat. The heat is oppressive and omnipresent in Dudael, and nowhere is there to be found water or any relief, no matter how slight, from the soul-crushing heat. Here and there the wastes are punctuated by great rifts and chasms, miles deep, which lead to Malebolge, the seventh hell.

The sky of Dudael shimmers with heat, and serves as the abode of the Archdevil; the sun of Dudael truly is Buer. The Goat Sun hangs high in the sky, bathing his realm in infernal light and searing the flesh of Devils and the damned alike. It never rains in Dudael but, as in Tophet, burning embers slowly but endlessly rain down from the sky.

The damned wander the trackless sands of Dudael, withering beneath the harsh light of the Goat Sun. They are often pursued for sport by groups of Garamyanahim or by ravenous Ghilan. Those that succumb to the heat are generally left alone by the wildlife and the natives alike, and after 40 years will have melted away under the intense heat of Buer, their sloughed-off meaty bits congealing into new Lemures.

Besides the grisly trees of Hitabdut, there are some sparse plants to be found in the wastes of Dudael. The zaqqum grows sporadically throughout the Burning Hell, although it is less common than in Tophet. Unique to Dudael is the dari, a thorny bush sometimes harvested for use in the creation of barbed whips and ropes.

### **Dumah**

An infamous forge-city, **Dumah** is the source of countless unholy weapons and creations, most famous of all the dreaded Adamantine Devils.

### **Eretz Tachtit**

An enormous pit, **Eretz Tachtit** serves as the prison of Azazel, the previous ruler of Dudael. The pit is situated directly beneath Buer himself, so that Azazel is forced to endure the worst of Buer's heat. Despite this, the pit is pitch black, only Buer's heat, but none of his light, beams down upon Azazel.

### **Hitabdut**

**The Wood of the Suicides, Hitabdut** is a damned forest of gnarled and twisted trees through which the River Phlegethon flows. Mortals doomed to the Nine Hells who meet their end via suicide often materialize within this wood where they are twisted into the form of gnarled and thorny trees. Trapped as helpless trees, the Damned are forever tormented here by Lilim and Mazzikim, their anguish ocassionally producing vile fruits which, when planted, grow into new Lemures.

### **Iram**

A city of great stone pillars and obsidian streets, **Iram** gleams like a black jewel against the desert of Dudael. Ruled by Amir Shaddad, the city is populated almost entirely by Efreet and Shayatin.

### **The River Phlegethon**

**The River Phlegethon** flows through Dudael, taking here the form of a river of boiling blood and fire.