Inferno

Inferno is a blemish on our reality, the refuse pile of all that didn’t fit our eternal city and the most vicious perversions of all our thoughts. Through His impossible fortress, the God-being Astaroth manifests and is manifested by the Death Angels. These are the shadows of the Archons, husks of principled will which all feed on the excess and corruption of humanity’s prison. Their servants, from purgatides and razides stalking victims within the Illusion to exalted nepharites expanding their consciousness to catch the desperate and unwary, seek only to deceive and abuse imprisoned humanity. Our sorrowful and guilt-laden souls nourish Astaroth and the Death Angels, who are always hungry. Through elaborate schemes or chance encounters when the veil between worlds is thin, Inferno’s faithful seek to capture those overwhelmed by the Principles of the Archons. Humiliating hierarchies are challenged by Thaumiel’s raw power, and when our fragile safety is challenged, Gamichicoth nurtures and fans the flames of fear. The necessity of violence between men spirals out of control with Hareb-Serap watching and cheering. Their methods are as multitudinous as our own grievances, shames, and cruelties, yet their ultimate goal remains the same: suffering.

The Death Angels do not desire humanity’s awakening, only for us to recognize our own misery within the prison created for us. It is the suffering itself which motivates them, no matter the shape it takes. In purgatories wrought from our own dreams and inadequacies, in rusted hospital beds soiled by frightened children, in pitch dark rooms where every intrusive thought is whispered aloud by a grinning nepharite, on porcelain floors where steel-toed boots again and again stomp on melancholy faces, the human experience is reduced to its inevitable and horrible core. Inferno is distant from humanity in Elysium, but by seeking out our murder scenes, gas chambers, mental hospitals, and political offices, its servants can mark and latch onto those most susceptible to the machinations of the Death Angels. They know how we struggle, they see our pain, and know to abuse us for it, even if it feels like a way out. Doomed prophecies and false promises lead us out of the Illusion, yet no closer to truth.

Inferno manifests within the Illusion through all the little cracks in society and in the mind. The prison’s cosmic rules set in motion by the Archons near demands that the human mind eventually reaches that dark consciousness where abuse, compulsion, and vengeance can burn hot enough to sear holes in the soul. Politicians are urged to strike selfish deals to assure their future, lonely men disappear in the basement of their favorite whorehouse, and snuff film producers and consumers alike satisfy themselves with the debasement and murder of kin. Humanity’s prison has produced environments ripe for harvest in the eyes of the Death Angels, and so their servants may be anywhere and take whatever role is necessary to orchestrate and prey on our misery.

The end result of this cosmological machinery is dedication to suffering, and the tending of perpetual torment. Inferno’s servants *care* about the pain they inflict, they find it important and fulfilling and joyous. Personal trauma opens gates between Elysium and the numerous realms of Inferno, and beyond that veil waits someone ready to take advantage of it. They might be envisioned as demons, aliens, monsters, gods, or even other humans. Every slight and sin has its own proper place in the hell that feeds on us.

## Keystones

The AwokenThreadsElysiumThe PrinciplesOriginsMetropolisThe OthersRealms**Inferno**