Hades (underworld)

**HhhhhjhhhjjbjhhvvbhhvvvbHades** or **the Underworld** is an underworld in Greek mythology and the Ancient Greek religion, that serves as an afterlife for humanity, and the place is ruled over by the god of death by the same name. Hades is a kind of portal to two different afterlives, for all who believes in the Ancient Greek gods. The two afterlives are Elysium for the virtuos and Tartarus for the condemned.

Hades is not doing well, as new souls rarely come to the underworld, since very few humans still follow the ancient Greek religion. When Philip Engel and Satina Dargue came to Hades to rescue Samuel, they were taken prisoner. Here they met Heracles.

The stair to Hades branches off from the stair to Hell at the 59th step from the bottom, on the left side. From the stair to Paradise, which is connected to the stair to Hell, one has to go 278 steps downwards instead. The stair to Hades is overgrown after centuries of not being used, it is steep, windy, narrow and chiseled in a kind of black stone that seems to merge with the surroundings. The steps of the stair are uneven, some of them so steep that one has to crawl backwards down over them. There are many steps, and it takes several minutes to get down. Hades is the only known afterlife whose gate is unlocked always.

Hades is the kind of place that spawns dark thoughts in one's mind, makes them multiply and fills the mind with shadows and dspondency, until one gives up or gives in, for instance becoming submissive to the pain of Tartarus or giving in to one's needs, like thirst or hunger.

## Geography

Most of Hades is barren lands, consisting of many caves of different sizes with dripping stalactites, twisting tunnels and jagged rock formations. Hades does not actually start until after its gate, but the cave with the River Styx, which lies before the gate, is considered a kind of part of the underworld.

### Locations

#### River Styx

*Main article: Styx*
The first thing one notices when nearing Hades down the stairs is the sound of a distant dripping, from the many stalactites in the place. Shortly after jagged rock formations begin to appear out of the shadows like enormous hands of a monster trying to grab one, and water streams down the damp walls of these rocks, and it smells musty and closed-in like an old basement. At the end of the stair there is a harsh and barren rocky landscape, surrounded by shardlike mountains, and the River Styx, wide and black, curves its way through the cold scenery soundlessly like a giant snake. The river resembles the Ice River in Hell, however one difference is that a faint mist rises from it like spirits floating over the oil-black water. By the bank of the river is a little stool and a rickety wooden table on which stands a game of chess chiseled in stone, and there is a worm-eaten wooden pole in the black river to which is tied a small boat with its oars in the bottom. This is the ferry-man Charon's boat, and his place. The area is completely silent. Even while sailing across the Styx there are no lappings of waves to be heard, and the sound of the water droplets falling unusually slowly from the oar, which create no ripples in the river's water, is the only sound to be heard.

Further out on the river everything is surrounded by dense shadows again and the rocks are not visible from here any longer. On the other side of the river there is more land, and it grows out of the darkness the closer one gets to it. First serrated edges of a row of cliffs appear as one gets closer to the other bank, which makes it appear as if one is sailing into the jaws of a gigantic shark. The banks here are identical to the other bank, rugged, gray raw and barren, and an eternity of stones and rocky cliffs.

#### Path to the gate of Hades

On this side a little gravel path runs alongside the bank of the Styx, which leads to the entrance of Hades. The path follows the river for a while and then turns away and leads further into the dead landscape, until it ends at the gate to Hades.

#### Gate to Hades

The gate of Hades is a big, chunky, worm-eaten wooden gate in the rock wall, hanging on rusty hinges that screech painfully whenever the gate is pushed open, however it has been silent since the murder of Hades and Persephone. Right in front of the gate, tethered with thick chains, guards the three-headed dog Cerberus, until Aziel Stofeles had let it loose and lured it into the River Styx, which he had parted with the staff of Moses and then brought together around the dog, so that it drowned and died. Now the body of Cerberus lies at the side of the Styx, where he has washed up. The gate opens inwards, and is never locked.

#### Crossroads between Elysium and Tartarus

Beyond the gate to Hades there is a cave, surrounded by damp walls and with sharp dripping stones hanging from the ceiling like daggers. There is no light anywhere, but one can still since the shadows are gray and not black. The shadows are however everywhere and envelope the place in its cold color, robbing all color from the place. The only sound and movement is the ceaseless dripping of the stalactites. There is neither humans nor any other form of life in this cave, only darkness and stones. Going through this cave, one soon reaches a crossroads, and the cave continues here to the right and to the left. This is the crossroads between Elysium and Tartarus. By the road to Elysium, on the right, there is a faitn, distant glow, while the road to Tartarus, on the left, leads into even heavier and darker shadows. Normally, the three judges, who decide whether souls go to Tartarus or Elysium, inhabits this crossroads.

#### Tartarus

*Main article: Tartarus*
By the road to Tartarus, the cave opens up and branches off into long underground vaults, meandering in and out of each other in a labyrinth of tunnels that leads deeper and deeper into the darkest part of Hades. Here it smells ancient, and of damp and decay. Here condemned human souls begin to appear, who, like in Hell, are punished for evil deeds comitted during their lives. At one point the cave expands into a large chamber, where from the ceiling hangs humans from their arms in thick chains, with anvils tied to their anklees, weighing them down. They resemble huge stalactitese. Here devils from Aziel Stofeles' army, who betrayed Lucifer and fought against him in the Great Devil War, hang like the humans from the ceiling, with both anvils, mill wheels and boulders tied to their legs and their waists, while others stand chained under stalacmites with their heads drawn back by a rope around their horns so that they are constantly hit in their forehead by the falling drops. This way also leads past a smaller mountain whose peak disappears in the shadows, and where humans try to push huge stonese up its steep mountainsidese, but every time they reac the top the stone slips out of their hands and they have to start over.

The biggest differences between Tartarus and Hell is the number of condemned and the amount of noise, and after that the temperature. Tartarus, and by extension the rest of Hades, is cold and dead. None of the condemned utter a sound and they simply submit to the pain. This silence is jarring, making the place seem even more wretched. Hades seem half-empty and sometimes one can walk several minutes without seeing a single soul. The souls in Hades are also not chained together in hordes, or forced by demons to take their punishments.

Today Tartarus is a part of the kingdom of Hell, having been incorporated into it by Lucifer following the murder of Hades and Persephone.

##### Tantalus' lake

*Main article: Tantalus' lake*
After a short time one reaches a subternnean little lake wonderfully clear water, and with a tree standing down by the lake's edge bearing juicy clusters of pears, apples, figs and olives at the top. This is the tree that Tantalus is chained to, and whose fruits lifts themselves up and out of reach every time Tantalus tries to pluck them. The lake's water pulls back back every time he reaches out for it. There is another tree by the lake's edge, which the demigod Heracles was once chained to. It has furrowed bark and is very dry. When Heracles reached out for the water, it would also slink away, like it does with Tantalus.

##### River Lethe

*Main article: Lethe*
After the lake, on the way deeper into the darkness of Hades, more tunnels, caves and condemned show up, and at one point the way leads to the River Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness, which like Styx flows soundlessly through the gloomy landscape, but whose water is not black normal-looking, clear and clean, except for the fact that there are no reflections in its surface. There is a narrow stone bridge that leads over the river.

##### River Phlegethon (and then the River Cocytus???)

*Main article: Phlegethon*
On the other side of the bridge there are twisting tunnels, narrow caves, and enormous chambers, and on the way there are two other rivers, the Phlegethon and the Cocytus (or Acheron???) and the way leads further and deeper into the shadows of Hades.

##### Hades' throne room

*Main article: Hades' throne room*
At one point the way goes into Hades' throne room. It is a large chamber whose walls curve into a vaulted ceiling, filled with an endless number of stalactites. On top of a mound of skulls and bones stand Hades' mighty stone throne or iron throne which has arm rests. A staircase leads from the ground up the skull mound, to the throne. There are stone pillars in the throne room, into which are many shapes and monstrous faces carving. There is lights in the form of pedestals of skulls with bowls on the top carrying flames. In one of the throne room's stone pillars is one of Hades' condemned whose body has merged together with the rock, so that it is impossible to see what is human and what is rock. This is one of the three judges who sentenced the philosopher Socrates to his death in Ancient Greece. His body can be seen in the rock as lines and cracks that take forms a bony arm, half of an emaciated chest and something of a face, of which an eye is visible while the other one disappears into the rocky mass.

##### River Cocytus

*Main article: Cocytus*
Going out through the throne room's exit and moving right, turning right every time the cave tunnel forks, the way quickly leads to an area with stalactites and shadows, where the Cocytus, the River of Sorrow, lies straight ahead and very close-by. The water of the Cocytus are still.

##### Prison cave

*Main article: Prison of Hades*
In Tartarus there is a prison cell, which is a small, narrow stone cave with a hard rock floor and rock walls. There are heavy iron chains attached to the rock wall, welded to a thick ring of steel meant to go around a prisoner's neck so they can be held. The cave at one point had a solid door of iron on hinges, which was one massive, heavy iron plate without a handle. This door was knocked down by Heracles when he saved Philip Engel and Sam from the eprison, after Hades had imprisoned them inside. Theree was only a small crack under the door. There is rock all around inside and not one other opening anywhere. In one corner of the cave stands three lead cops filled to the brim with water from the Lethe. The prison cave can be reached through a bunch of tunnels and caves. There lies some small chunks of rock from the ceiling inside the cave, which fell down when Heracles knocked the door in.

##### Way from the prison cave to the throne room

The way back from the prison cave to the throne room goes past a number of rock walls, where a part of the mountaisde has crumbled into rubble and dust, after Heracles smashed a fist into them in several places while leading Philip Engel, Satina Dargue and Sam back to the throne room having just saved Philip and Sam from the cave.

The way from the gate of Hades to the prison cell was marked by Satina Dargue when she escaped to convince Heracles to help Philip and Sam get out of there.

##### Fruit trees

*Main article: Hades' fruit trees*
Inside of Hades there are several trees like the one Tantalus is chained to, with juicy fruits. There are many devils from Aziel Stofeles' army who are chained to these trees, however they are allowed to eat of the fruits because they are not mortal, and if they died they could no longer be punished. The fruits however taste horrible. The way between them and the River Lethe is not long.

## Appearances

### *The Great Devil War*

* *The Wrongful Death*
* *The Fallen Devil*

## Reference

Greek hell is nt nice so you had are tray to ve very nuce if not you will bein hell and a ateity of shufaring . But if you ware nice you will go to heaven were you get to be free **and you will meet God and Jesse SO YOU BETTER BE GOOD 👍 😉 IF NOT YOU WILL GO TO HELL**

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Wrongful Death*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback) (Original Danish version published April 30, 2009 by Høst & Søn)
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Fallen Devil*. (Publication House) Month #, 2020. (Original Danish version published September 16, 2016 by Høst & Søn)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Angel of Evil*. (Publication House) October 20, 2019. (Original Danish version published April 29, 2010 by Høst & Søn)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The cover of *The Wrongful Death*, painted by Rasmus Jensen