Hell

**Hell** was a supernatural dimension of misery and fire created by Arcadius thousands of years ago. It was initially one of the two destinations one takes in the afterlife for over 4,000 years. It is believed to be an awful, fiery realm populated by every soul (both human and non-human) that has failed to find peace.

This realm is considered a "hell" due to its similarity to the unpleasant afterlife that is believed to exist by many religions as well as the violence by which it sucks in its eventual residents. However, contrary to the religious belief that only sinners are damned to hell, it has been proven that this is not the case. While some characters who could arguably be deserving of this fate, such as Katherine Pierce, Markos, and Silas, were in fact dragged into Hell, undeserving characters, who were known to have committed benevolent deeds, were also said to have been sucked into Hell as well, such as Maria and Vicki Donovan.

After Stefan and Bonnie killed Cade in *It's Been a Hell of a Ride*, Katherine Pierce became the new ruler of hell.

Hell was destroyed by Bonnie Bennett in *I Was Feeling Epic*.

## Creation

After Arcadius attempted to help a fellow villager with his impure desires, the villager manipulated and turned the entire village against Arcadius, who was then tied to a stake and stoned for being a psychic. He was then burned at the stake, and as he was burning alive, Arcadius came to believe that all the people punishing him were monsters despite the fact they were manipulated. In that moment, he released a psychic blast so powerful that it created a realm, a psychic imprint of his death, where he would forever punish those souls. From then on, whenever a soul who has committed a bad deed would die, they would be sucked into this realm where Arcadius would feed off of their souls for the rest of eternity.

## Destruction

In 2018, after Arcadius was killed by Stefan Salvatore and Bonnie Bennett, Katherine Pierce temporarily became the new ruler of Hell, revealing that she had in fact manipulated Arcadius the entire time and was the one behind his plans for Stefan and Damon. After Matt ringed the Maxwell bell 11 times, a gateway opened between Hell and earth, allowing several deceased characters such as Kai, Vicki, Kelly and Katherine to return. Kelly and Vicki were working for Katherine and the latter wanted to ring the bell 12 times, in order to unleash hellfire.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Alaric came to the conclusion that a massive amount of energy would be necessary to destroy Hell, and Katherine along with it. Such a colossal amount of energy could only have been found in hellfire, thus Matt allowed Vicki to ring the bell, knowing she will be freed of suffering due to Bonnie's plan. Bonnie meanwhile used a powerful spell to control hellfire by invoking it through the tunnels below Mystic Falls, all the way to the Armory. There, with the aid of many ancestral Bennett witches, Bonnie redirected the hellfire back into Hell, causing its permanent destruction and releasing thousands of souls from their suffering, while killing Katherine in the process.

## Hellfire

**Hellfire** was a supernatural, psychic fire originating from **Hell**. It was incredibly powerful and capable of destroying anything within its path. After the destruction of Hell it remains unknown if it's possible to recreate it.

#### Creation

Hellfire was created when Arcadius was killed and, unleashing a powerful psychic blast, created an imprint of his death (burning at the stake). Ever since, it's been used to torture souls in Hell. Hellfire became able to be released upon the earth when the Bennett Coven's mystically imbued bell was corrupted by a sirened Ethan Maxwell with the Staff of Arcadius. The amplified properties of the staff made it possible for the psychic walls of Hell to be breached with 12 rings by an individual from the Maxwell bloodline.

#### Properties

* **Mystical Energy:** According to Alaric and Bonnie in *I Was Feeling Epic*, Hellfire possesses "a few million volts of mystical energy", enough energy to effectively destroy Hell. This was proven true when Bonnie and the Bennett ancestry redirected Hellfire back into Hell, destroying it.
* **Massive Destruction:** Hellfire is capable of consuming anything within miles of where the bell was rung and has almost destroyed Mystic Falls twice. In order to stop it, it was necessary to utilize the magic of the entire Bennett Coven.

#### Usage

To date, Arcadius has been the only known Psychic able to manipulate fire, specifically Hellfire. This, seemingly, stems from the fact that Hellfire was tied to his personal psychic dimension, Hell, as he only gained this ability after his first death. In *Nostalgia's a Bitch*, Seline explained how the world Arcadius created was a massive psychic imprint of the moment of his death, making his domain a ball of fire. She also stated that Hellfire could kill a Siren and even an Original Vampire. Sometime after the the Maxwell Bell rang eleven times, Arcadius appeared and used his Hellfire to kill both Sybil and Seline, confirming the power embodied in Hellfire. In *What Are You?*, Arcadius used Hellfire to ignite the Maxwell journal, rendering it into ash. In *I Was Feeling Epic*, Katherine planed on destroying Mystic Falls with Hellfire by having Vicki Donovan ring the Founders Bell. Bonnie, however, was able to contain and redirect the Hellfire to the Armory. There, Bonnie struggled to barely hold the fire at bay, though Sheila Bennett and other members of the Bennett Ancestry came from "peace" to aid Bonnie and, together, they destroyed Cade's Hell.

## Trivia

* It is unknown if the spirits that have been dragged into Hell (the polar opposite of the Bright World) are still able to find peace and possibly transfer into the Bright World after "serving their time," or if their residency in Hell is permanent.
* According to Julie Plec, the rest of the Other Side might have been sucked into Hell.
* It is still unknown if Hell has any connection to the collapse of the Other Side when it was destroyed. It has been speculated if the "higher power" lost control of allowing or not allowing souls of the supernatural into the Other Side which resulted in the remaining spirits residing on the former supernatural purgatory; being graphically sucked away into the dark void. Katherine Pierce and Georgie being the only person to be dragged into the void, unlike others who were sucked via full body.
* In *A Closer Walk With Thee*, Hell was referred to by Klaus as "the nothingness."
* In *An Eternity of Misery*, Sybil revealed that hell was created by Cade.
* In *What Are You?*, Damon asked Cade if anyone ever earned their way out of hell, to which Cade implied no, as he told Damon he didn't want to give him false hope.
* Fire from this dimension is called "Hellfire" and has supernatural properties of its own.
	+ It is believed that the realm is filled with Hellfire due to the nature of Arcadius' death.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://vampirediaries.wikia.com/wiki/Hell
2. ↑ http://vampirediaries.wikia.com/wiki/Fire#Hellfire
3. ↑ http://tvline.com/2014/05/16/vampire-diaries-season-6-spoilers-damon-bonnie-dead-alive/