Endless Hells 2

original thread here
Post tidbits about Hell and its many, many assorted layers of nightmare, and Nexus, the one layer that is (mostly) safe from the taint of the unholy

>One of the oldest buildings in Nexus, the Crumbling Inn, is said to house ancient secrets and artifacts long left untouched

>There's an old line of warriors and poets in the hub areas of Nexus that is said to go back at least twelve generations

>On occasion, it has been known for the young children of Nexus to receive prophetic visions of cataclysmic destruction and apocalypse. The reasons behind this are unknown

>Strange figures are known to wait next to the borders of the safe-havens and whisper dark things to all those who are foolish enough to listen

>Odd bones have been seen flowing out of the Unholy Infinity as of late. Whilst most are decidedly alien and near-impossible to piece together all whilst appearing worn and broken down with age, some have been found to possess near-human structures and appear to be in almost perfect condition

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>Spirits are regularly known to flow into Nexus from layers beyond and whilst most of them tend to be mostly benevolent, situations have come up where a demonic force has slipped past the protective barriers by using unknowing Spirits as shells and vessels, utilizing the ignorant lost soul as a means to destabilize the Nexus and wreak unholy havoc

>It is near impossible to tell whether or not a Spirit has been 'infested' in such a manner

Curiously, specters, evil as "hell" (thank you, thank you, try the roasted bacon, best in six dimensions) ghosts who are usually servants of demons, seldom attempt anything in the nexus, this is because for some reason they look physically different than while outside the nexus, and it is obvious what they are while they are in the nexus.

>For reference, pictured is what a good, natural Spirit tends to look like.

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Meanwhile, specters while they are in the nexus look more like a cloud of smog, and the most evil of specters drip fluid evil concentrate out of themselves as visible droplets and smell like a busted open corpse filled with roadkill that's been marinating in human shit for 3 days.

Among myriad other horrible lands in the infinite layers of damnation there is the relatively young hell called the Pit of Dis. It is one of the very few layers to have relations with the Nexus, as it was not so long ago to be forgotten that it was a part of that land, or on its way to becoming so. Once a vast, cold region of mountains, the Pit was made when a golden vessel of mighty earthly spirits fell upon this stoney expanse and left a crater many hundreds of miles deep and yet more in diameter, shattering that realm and driving its ruin into the Unholy Infinite. The Pit of Dis is now filled by a great construction of many eons, where those unheavenly spirits hold court, an inverted pleasure dome ringed by the bleak and nearly lifeless shattered mountains like a great bowl. While the masters of the Pit are diplomatic, enticing and beguiling even, they treat with demons and shape their own servants of the fractal essence of the infinite hells, and the many damned they have brought to their abode are toyed with in accordance with their most debased natural inclinations.

There is an eldritch magical device which, when solved, takes a user straight to the pit of dis, while alive. It is difficult to solve and resembles a black and gold rubix cube.

>It is difficult to solve and resembles a black and gold rubix cube.
THE BOX

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>High Languor, circle of sloth, complacency, and apathy, is a massive slow spiral of flying ships and barges that lazily whirl on the air currents over the pit, colliding into unstable tangles and slowly falling to the layers below even as they are harried by winged ghouls.
>It is suspended high above Emporia Maxima, the highly urbanized circle of greed, perfidy, and degradation, itself a sprawling mess of industrial development and commercial complexes, using demonic methods and hellish essences to fill the empty years of infinite damnation with the warmth of consumption.
>It is built atop the innumerable giant vaults that cap the Midden of Malboge, circle of gluttony, squalor, and decay, an enormous garbage dump that accumulates the waste of the upper levels into avalanche prone mountains of fetid waste and rivers and seas of effluent, inhabited by bloated beings that feast on offal and gaunt creatures expended by other layers' torments.

Cenobites are one of the many types of warden that hell uses regularly to enforce it's rule over the inmates there, though cenobites usually only target errant specters or people who have somehow escaped hell.

Reposted for your benefit from a previous thread, since what you're working with seems related to this.

"Ghost like beings called Specters exist in the limitless hells, terrifying creatures who are demons servants, usually do-boys, errand runners, message carriers, or rarely a very skilled servant. The very-skilled minority of specters do sometimes rise high enough up to not be simply a rank servant, but it seldom happens.

They come in 9 groups.
>Hersiarchs, known for wearing garb that resembles the sanbenito and a tall pointed hat, the warpers of minds and destroyers of ideologies.
>Usurers, known for their complex networks of chains and pay-chests that they wear, the destroyers of money and values.
>Counterfeiters, known for their grotesque permanent-mutilations and permanent-injuries, the destroyers of trust.
>False Councilors, known for their whole body being cloaked in flames and unseen, the destroyers of rulership.
>Falsifiers, known for their permanent-illnesses and open wounds, the destroyers of systems.
>Schismatics, known for their single large chest slice and their faces being sliced in two, the destroyers of community.
>Murderers, known for their scalded/boiled appearance, the destroyers of love.
>Liars, known for their oil-scalded appearance and burnt off hair, the destroyers of honesty.
>Traitors, known for their ice mummy appearance, frozen so solid that they move extremely slowly when they move at all, destroyers of nations.

Like ghosts, these beings appear as very-faded hologram like beings, and are weightless, intangible, etc. In settings in which ghosts have powers, (such as WoD), specters have unique powers of their own."

>Below Malboge there is Lac Inferno, circle of wrath, violence, and destruction, a vast pool of liquid fire traversed by warships of black metal manned by warring navies of barbed steel sailors, cast in horrible new form when they arrive, at each defeat melted down and beaten into another shape as weapon or armor or impliment of violence by the victors.
>Below that are the winding dark reaches of Carnival Libidarama, circle of lust, rapaciousness, and decadence, bleak labyrinth-dungeon filled with the unearthly cavorting of viscous celebrants, where fair and foul meet and are rarefied and unified, and pleasure is a pain perversely inflicted by shape changing wyrds.
>The lowest passages of that charnel lead down intoThe Garden of Unearthly Delight, circle of envy, deception, and spite, a facsimile of paradise in the dense and alien forests at the bottom of the pit, stage for the bloody intrigues and caprices of its vainglorious immortal inhabitants and their respective circles of ambitious courtiers and servants, all to draw closest to the lowest depth of the pit.
>At the center of the garden, at very nearly the bottom of the pit, is the golden, cratered, meteoric wreck of a fallen star, Excelsior, the circle of pride, megalomania, and usurpation, home to the great beings that built up the pit and in it’s vast depths gather about themselves defective, castoff, unfit souls and spirits to be their subjects and playthings in lieu of the grander domains they were denied ere their fall. The fiendish lords of the pit abide in joy at the top of their palace of inverted virtue with their chosen disciples, rejoicing in the free dominion they have created away from those that condemned them, resolved never to return to the astral spaces they had once been cast from.

>One of the many great demonic entities that flow throughout the the Dread Eternity, the Great Dragon Moremi Prae Doloro Malus, twists and turns throughout the endless void, Its many great jaws devouring anything that crosses its path, burning them to nothingness within the unending flames of oblivion that roil within it

>Countless realms have been known to be devoured by Moremi whenever it chooses to move it's bulk beyond the Unholy Infinity, though it is perfectly willing to devour entire layers as well, should it desire

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All detrius from end of space/time events falls into hell, so the 'dead remains' of every ended universe fall there.

Do you mean large clouds of cold dark mist, or large numbers of black holes with clouds of slow supercomputing femto-materials hanging around the event horizon feeding on hawking radiation and simulating civilizations and hiveminds for periods may times longer than the entire stellar era of the universe?

I mean cold dark mist, asteroid pebbles, the energy from dead suns, etc. I don't mean living beings of any type. (except new souls, which are always arriving).

indelible dustmotes that cling to the dim glow of black holes and think at the pace of eons are hardly alive

Asmodeus is complex illusion/simulacrum created by the true master of hell. Angra Mainyu is the demiurge that spawned both the abyss and hell stays hidden, collecting souls for the sake of consumption not for power. It's true form is unknown and most believe it to be a myth made by Asmodeus' many rivals to de-ligitimize his rule. Any who speak the name become targets for consumption.

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The truth is more prosaic, every demon is but one of thousands or more of each, each specific regional linguistic variant of the spirit's name created a new, independent spirit. So both Asmodeus and Angra Mainyu exist, as do thousands of other forms of the same beings.

What I was meaning to imply was that there is a constant inflow of particle matter into hell due to the ever present end of universes, which are ending at every moment it is possible for a universe to end in, (and starting likewise), thus, the 'debris falling continuously from the sky' appearance. I was simply trying to give it a formal and easy to understand explanation.

>When Hell swallowed a realm of advanced technology like none other, a truly alien and horrifying entity was born of demonic corruption. Birthed By Malice, The Ignoble Machine Thought. Perhaps taking inspiration from the more conceptual entities of Hell, Ignoble Machine Thought is mathematical hate, incalculable zeroes and ones who are constructed of utter disdain. All this fury has amassed into a monstrous demonic entity that spreads it's infinite coded roots through countless layers, growing vile and furious like some digital tree, drinking up pain and suffering to glut itself upon.
>It is said that Ignoble Machine Thought's end goal is to calculate the perfect formula for Hatred, which supposedly will grant is power untold of throughout Hell.

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(and/or) The Unkind Infinite is a universal law unto itself. It is its own master, its own god, and its own name, and all the horrible, abstract, notional fiends, The Violence, The Agony, The Lie, The Horror, The End, are its organs. It is not some rebel to the divine, nor some purpose built punisher, nor a roving beast of the cosmos, but a polar force. Evil is defined by its likeness to the nature of hell, the Unkind Infinite, and not the other way around. There is no force ferrying souls and spirits to the abyss, nor is there a Lord on high exiling them for their transgressions. It is the nature of hell to contain their likeness and essence, it is the pole all hellish things are drawn to, and in their immortal time within the Unkind Infinite the damned are truly swallowed up. They are not eaten tooth and claw, but by wild abandon or cold resignation as they are embraced by their proper place, and embrace it in turn. The old Damned are such fixtures in hell that they become part of its local functioning, and their internal nature becomes an ever more pronounced reflection of the Unkind Infinite, until they are demons themselves, instruments of hell, with hellish minds and hellish hearts, so broken and reforged to their bleak place that they too are mere fractal extensions of the Unkind Infinite.

The mighty fiends and demons, and weathered, wicked Damned that still keep and abide by titles and storied of origins from beyond hell's confines are horrible powers in their own right, but no single extension of evil's pattern is the master of the Unkind Infinite, for all evil is true evil, there is not one in hell that is not damned by their own nature.

In order to combat the spread of Ignoble Machine Thought, a group of Hunters, warriors and occultists from all walks of life, has been formed to seek out and destroy its tendrils wherever they may manifest. These Hunters are known by the collective name of 'Numeri'is, The Bug Chasers'.

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The true ruler of Hell is in fact Satan
Satan is said to exist at the very bottom of Hell, which is physically impossible seeing as how Hell is infinite, but it's true
At least it WAS true, unknown to even the most ancient and powerful of evils in Hell, Satan has long since been gone, having been consumed by his own Dread Eternity and ascended to something beyond real. In some ways Satan still exists, as Hell itself, but also in some, far more inconceivable form

Oceans, each light years wide and deep, exist in hell. There is an ocean of fluid corpses, an ocean of bile, an ocean of burning oil, an ocean of shit, and ocean of blood, an ocean of vinegar, an ocean of gasoline, and an ocean of salty tears. Some of these oceans have life forms in them.

Perhaps 'Satan' has always been Hell, and Hell has always been Satan? There likely isn't any real difference between the two to be fair.

It is believed that if the Numeri'is had not formed to counter the Ignoble Machine Thought, more then half of Known Hell would likely be tainted by it's touch.

However it is unknown how the Numeri'is can work in Hell's nightmarish landscape, fighting one of it's most horrifying predators, and still retain their self identity. These ego defenses are a tightly kept secret by the order of Bug Chasers

True, when you look at events across and infinite expanse of time and space, things like "was" or "is" lose meaning. In fact, for all we know, Satan could have existed as lord of Hell for a total of a single instant, before the nature of infinite torment swallowed his very concept.

Well the proud being/beings at the bottom of the pit describes seem pretty classically Luciferian in the "better to rule in Hell" paradise lost sense, and seem to be either fallen angels or fallen sufficiently advanced aliens that are essentially the same. On the other hand, the Pit of Dis is only one realm, essentially a scaled down hell replica. It essentially goes back to the idea that Demons and the tortures of hell are extensions of the unholy infinite nested in an endless fractal, repeating the pattern of Evil that it defines from the highest scale down to the lowest. The rulers of the Pit of Dis strike me as the very personal, human-faced evil, made all that much worse for being comprehensible and lying on the edge of reason, but still persisting in its horrors, where as stuff like the Ashralak is horrible in its unreal intensity and magnitude of familiar, conceivable suffering, and forces like The Violence are menacing for their alienness. On a greater level though, the Unholy Infinity would have "evil" cosmological processes and environments, and its very nature interacting with the wider multiverse would likewise be degrading and "evil", from the grandest possible scale to the smallest.

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Some of these oceans ARE life forms. Such as the Great Dragon Vidus Itru Vanta (one of the Great Dragons alongside Moremi Prae Doloro Malus), an entire ocean layer in Hell that possesses an ego. Few sights are more terrifying for a realm fresh to Hell's banquet than an infinite ocean splitting open like an immense mouth and swallowing a world whole.

>perfect formula for Hatred
Perfect hatred is ultimately only an aspect of the Unholy Infinite, the vectors of infinite damnation's nature are more varied and deft. The Ignoble Machine Though, should it achieve its goal, might become another Notional Fiend, joining The Violence, The Horror, The Lie, The Agony, and other forces not known to Nexus' people as a abstracted demon, with infinite reach across all realms and a presence that tears at the fundament of souls, but this would grant no more political control of hell than any other great demon could claim. Even in victory, the Ignoble Machine Though is damned, and it will master hell no more than the dragon, or the bright one, or the eye, or the black goat, or any other.

So sayeth Mopi Morrot, duke of the Dolorous Company of Abyssal Trade, pic related

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IA IA, PRAISE THE WORD OF MORROT, IA IA

>The Lie, joining in with it's unholy kin, is a storm of nightmarish devastation, and perhaps the lie is the most sinister of them all. For The Lie does not cover swathes of layers in a torrential wind of gore and death like The Violence, nor does it cast itself in a blanket of torturous pain like Agony, The Lie, to the observer, exists like a shower of rain, imperceptible droplets the fall down from any direction, having no "up" to come from.
>In the Endless Despair, things like trust are practically non-existent concepts, even your own eyes can lie to you here, but what The Lie does is the most sinister of all. The Lie takes all sense of belief from those touched by it's creeping influence, belief in what you see, what you understand, what you remember, what you are, even. Demons will fall onto each other in a ravenous feast, having lost all semblance of belief in each other, or their own ideals (at least those that exist) and they will even fall onto themselves, tearing at their bodies and minds, to get rid of the lie they believe. Entire layers have been known to melt and fade away, no longer believing in themselves, vanishing into complete non-existence. Concepts broken down. Even the very fundamental processes of Hell are not exempt from The Lie's touch, in particular heavy downpours, Hell itself has been known to 'break'. Of course, as if to make up for how horrifying it's influence is, the Lie rarely hits heavily enough to truly destabilize the eternity, and like it's kin, it is a passing storm, and will fade in time should it hit
At least thats what the denizens of Hell believe. The truth is, The Lie never leaves, it never ends, it never stops. Every layer, ever single inch of Hell, is constantly being touched by The Lie's rain, in every direction, they just don't realize it.

There is a place, a place worse than Ashralak. It is called 'Absolute Suffering', and is one of the most extreme hells in existence. Sentences in Absolute Suffering are 10,500 million lifetimes to 60,700 septillion octillion lifetimes. Light (all light) there scorches the body like an atomic flash, Dark (all dark) there dissolves the body like acid, it rains rancid bile, scalding acid, and scalding vinegar perpetually everywhere, the ground is made of spent negative karma, a black, tar like blob-mass harder than diamond and so hot it emits visible fumes, which instantly transform into huge, enraged hell beings, each with millions or more of arms legs and faces each and millions or more weapons each. These hell beings are sanity-blasting, since they are made of nearly-pure evil, and beyond description in ugliness, so hideous that the concept of ugliness itself is not sufficient to explain them. Instead of dying and being born again, inmates of Absolute Suffering die and reform in a slow regeneration from slaughtered to alive again, and are conscious at all times, even when torn apart and 'dead'. Where there is not total darkness, blinding scalding light shines, where there is no blinding scalding light, total darkness pervades, winds which blow so hard they cut like a giant razorblade scream eternally through the area, mist heavier than lead blows through the area eternally, smog heavier than steel blows through the area eternally, storms of torrential lightning rain down millions of bolts an hour perpetually, and every broken demonic weapon or torture implement falls from above perpetually, usually on fire or so hot it explodes violently when it lands. The only tiny teeny speck of good news is; only people who spent every waking second committing acts of evil, who's every thought was an evil intention, go there.

>Witness, they, the knights of doom, the Death Jacks of the kingdom 8, which sits upon the back of Un Ti Plu, the Demon Eating Planet, floating through the infinite madness of Hell! They are of noble pain, of one of the royal families of Hell, who fight a mindless war with each other, and the countless demonic warlords across Hell, for a throne that does not exist! Hail to thee, hail to thee Death Jacks!

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>P.S. this is Un Ti Plu

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>only people who spent every waking second committing acts of evil, who's every thought was an evil intention, go there.
Welp, guess that means every single evil being of note is inevitably getting the Suffering Train then.

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Why do you think they fight for control? The more "control" they have over Hell, the less likely they will end up on the chopping block. Which is silly, since it is an inevitability.

Every being, even hell beings, answers for their misdeeds. Both inmates and hell beings are removing negative karma, inmates by suffering death, hell beings by suffering life.

>The Horror is a strange thing. In Hell, pain and suffering are common, it's part and parcel of being there, but even more common is fear. In fact, most newcomers to the Unholy Infinite get used to being scared quickly, as things that shatter sanity are the norm. Which is why The Horror, to those not in the know, is referred to as the least threatening of the Notional Fiends, after all, with what they have seen in Hell, what could possibly scare them that bad?
>Those in the know, at least those that can still think, consider these folk to be the most idiotic of all
>The Horror is a fog, a mist, a carpet that slinks through layers, unseen, unsuspecting, un-noticed, unless looked for of course (and those that have felt Horrors brush are always looking out for it, forever) It curls silently up demon, spirit and mortal alike, it holds no bias, no prejudice, both the mighty and the meek, all are welcomed into Horror's bosom.
>There are many things in Hell capable of shattering minds, destroying sanity, and generally breaking a person into tiny pieces, but none are so...masterful, so artistic, so eloquent in their methods as The Horror is. The Horror takes you, whatever you are, and it systematically breaks you down, molecule by molecule, thought by thought, feeling by feeling, in an instant that lasts an eternity, it lays out you in every aspect on the ground, neatly and perfectly, and then it shows it to you, it shows you yourself, your everything, it shows you the everything around you, as it breaks down your surroundings just as precisely, it breaks everything, time, space, reality, into infinitesimal bits, until you are incapable of discerning what is what, and you becomes meaningless. The Horror will show you the truth of eternity, ever micro-millisecond of it, every breath, every beat, The Horror is the infinite in every sense of the word, and it will MAKE you understand that. And then in the very next breath it will put you back together

>It will put it all back together, it will bring you back to yourself. And then it will MAKE you live with the realization of it all, the weight of it all, the feeling of being torn to bits and losing yourself, and then being brought back. They say you don't realize how important something is until it's gone, but what if that something was reality, and once it's taken away, it's given back, but you realize now just how it is all going to fall apart, because you experienced it, personally.
>And then it leaves.
>Needless to say, when The Horror passes, there are rarely shrieks, or screams, no real sign of it's passing like it's kin, no layer shaking sensation. Just whimpering, sobbing, muttering, the sound of broken things that can never be put back together. And perhaps the most terrifying part is those who are spared. Those that are broken just enough, but not all the way, those that can tell others, those that can pass on the message, those that can vouch for the stories, the stories of true fear, of entire worlds, shattered like glass by a passing breeze. But of course, there will be fools who laugh, who scoff, who attack and kill the story teller, the survivor, in mockery. But they will know too, they will know Horror.

Beyond that, for each fiend who's neck is on the line, another is the block and a third is the ax. There are only sinners around them on all sides, so every woe they inflict in every direction is merited, and the gods of sin punish each other each in kind. The purest and most powerful abstract fiends seem also closest to being pure extensions of hell, sweeping across all of the infinite torment, a step removed seem to be realm spanning demons and great dragons that dwell between plains, and then down to rulers of hellish dominions that reshape them to their will. Lesser demons and most damned spirits and souls are yet further removed from the ultimate nature of Hell, and so are more likely to be at odds with wherever they end up in damnation, simply because the perdition around them is more intense than the proportion of perdition in their own nature.

>The Horror will remind you that you are in Hell, and clarify to you precisely what that means in case you forgot or convinced yourself otherwise

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It's almost ironic. To run from their punishment, they grow more powerful, to grow more powerful, they must commit more evils, and thus the most powerful ones are piled to the brim with sin, thus making their situation all the worse. Maybe if they get lucky they can transcend to a higher existence and become part of Hell's order, but thats unlikely, it takes a being of immense ego and might to step beyond the sinful nature.

Perhaps at one time The Horror was known as The Truth.

Well no wonder they're so fearful and crazy and treacherous and just plain shitty, they fear being sent to ashralak or absolute suffering, or some unimaginable even worse place we haven't yet thought up.

Comprehend on that for a moment; there are hells so extreme demons fear them.

>The Violence is a hurricane tearing across layers
>The Agony is a quake shaking up through the layers
>The Lie is a downpour spreading across the layers
>The Horror is a fog creeping through the layers
>The End is not as subtle, or as barbaric as it's kin. The End is simple, it is a wave. A tidal wave. A tsunami. It is a wall, THEE wall. It is not complex and mind bending like The Lie or The Horror, nor as open and wet as The Agony or The Violence. It is simple. It comes, and it brings the end, no ifs, no ands, no buts, no bargaining, no running, no fighting back. In some shamanistic circles of Hell, it is called The Tyrant, as well. What exactly is the end that it brings? No one knows, as there is no one to survive the experience, nor come out the other side to pass on the story. Some believe it is just Hell's debt collector, cleaning up those that continue to run from punishment, though there is no evidence of this, others believe it is the literal end, the end of the cycle of Hell, the end of the process of torment and pain, the end of self and ego and existence, true and final End. As such, there are cults of The End, who see it as a true escape from Hell, and pray into the infinite for The End to crash down on them.
>Needless to say, The End comes, not for all, but for some, and for those some, there is no escape.

Well think about it, the farther you go in either direction of Hell, the more reality changes. Ashralak and Absolute Suffering are truly horrifying places, but only for those that exist as they are. You go 'up' far enough and everything breaks away until you become nothing but pulses of pain and agony in an infinite simplicity, and you go 'down' far enough and you are consumed by impossible detail and complexity until it drives you mad. There are Hells so extreme demons fear it, because they are Hells that break down reality itself into unimaginable experience. And there is yet more beyond even those Hells.

Un Ti Plu is one of the great demonic entities of Hell, and a particularly old one. Few worlds last long in Hell, before being torn asunder by the infinite and becoming part of the layers. But Un Ti Plu was different. It was more tenacious, more determined, more stubborn, and entire world clinging desperately to life. And cling it did. The land, the planets, the animals, the sky, the sea, everything on it rose up to fight, to struggle, to compete, to survive. In time, the very nature of it's struggle changed the planet, it became a being all it's own, it became the Unconquerable Titanic Plural, The All World Made One, The Demon Eating Planet, Un Ti Plu.

Many kalpa later, the early settlers of a royal family made a deal with Un Ti Plu, and they were allowed to erect the kingdom of 8 on it's back, where it still stands to this moment.

So throughout the threads it seems like there's two possible types of hells within the matrix of this region, hells that never end that you don't eventually get out of, and hells that do eventually end for you.

One very important thing that has yet to be determined is, is there any way out other than being sent to a ending hell and then proceeding on with your next life at the end of the sentence?

Any spell, any possible exit or escape, etc? Do specters (evil ghosts who are servants of demons) travel to the earth realms or other realms outside of hell or not? You can see the types of specters here

just note that those consigned to Absolute Suffering are not the ones that are eternally encased in condensed negative karma when not torturing the damned, but the many limbed jailors that dwell there are. Is it better to spend a finite portion of eternity being tortured on the surface of the black orb of Absolute Suffering, bathed in white fire and the arsenals of hell, or to be there forever, consciousness bound to the woeful matter of that blasted world, surrounded and composed of its devouring darkness long ago seeped into your essence, and charged to emerge to the searing light for kalpa at a time to torture.

The demon that turns the spit you roast on must stand in the bonfire with you and firmly grasp the red hot iron handle as he cranks, and will have ten thousand more new arrivals to deal with after you.

Some day, perhaps thousands of eternities from now, those hell beings will be reborn as something else. But it is so long away no one, not even the god of time, knows the day of it.

I imagine there are ways to slip away from Hell, but it's like getting away from your house while you're under house arrest, eventually your parole officer will find your ass. Demons of sufficient power and personal rank may uncover some way to part the layers of hell and step into an untouched realm. There could be tears in the malice that one could stumble upon as a bridge to the beyond, but I feel like there is no real escape from Hell. It sticks to you, like a miasma, or chains, and all it takes is someone to yank on the chain to drag you back in, or at least follow the chain out to take you back personally, so any exit from hell that isn't at the end of a long tunnel of punishment is temporary. Maybe thats why you have cases of demonic possession or ghost's haunting and taking over people, it's a temporary extension to their escape attempt by hiding their chains beneath the material, or within a living being.

In that case escape seems like all it would do is suspend your sentence until you were eventually caught, after which you'd do the rest of your sentence plus any added pain or time.

Oh absolutely. As it's been said, Hell is infinite, you cannot run from infinity.

Specters may be an exception to this however, since the only reason they would exit hell is to do some task or quest or mission or something for a demon at a demon's specific command.

The end of a sentence in a particular hell doesn't mean the end of your stay in the Unholy Infinite, dead is dead after all. Also, while the number of lifetimes (or whatever other metric) attached to a sentence in a finite hell is an accurate representation of the severity of a sentence, it has more to do with the severity of the effect on the entity, not time spent imprisoned.

An evil soul, even just one slightly more foul than fair, will be drawn into the abyss as sure as gravity draws matter. Consignment to a finite hell means whatever has mastery of it is taking you there, and throwing you out when it's done with you. Something with the means, technological, mystical, or ethical, to leave an infinite hell is free to, and probably will, and damned souls and un-damned interlopers with the means will travel to and abide in the most temperate parts of the Unholy Infinite, though few are so lucky. The fact that Ashralak is a special hell just for criminals of the Nexus, for the government of the Nexus to select as they will, is either down to whomever controls Ashralak or whomever controls Nexus, not sure which.

So a general 'ranking' of Hell entities goes
1. Hell and it's processes
2. Notional Fiends (conceptual evils that have transcended, powerful enough to possibly even screw with Hell itself, but still trapped within the infinity)
3. Great Demonic Entites (great dragons, great demons, the big boss shit but still bound to their forms)
4. Seven Generals
5. Possibly a wide birth of powerful demons, such as the nobles, the warlords, wizards. Possible ranking for demons who work for Hell too
6. Specters
7. Ghosts
8. Hell wildlife, weather and other 'natural' things that exist in Hell
9. Mortal souls, like those of Nexus. Individual cases notwithstanding, as some individual moral souls are powerful beyond this ranking

True, but it is no actual escape. They are still bound by their master's leash, and can be yanked back whenever, as are their masters.

I'll take being reborn any place less bad after a stay in absolute suffering or ashralak. Even if its still tormentious and horrid, its probably at least a little less horrid.

>Suffer more than 100,000,000 years of constant, unending, agonizing torture
>Get spit out at the end, your soul pretty much a shredded rag at this point, but at least it's 'clean'
>Due to some unknown methods, enter the very small reincarnation cycle that few actually find
>Get spit back into an earth realm as an ant

Hey being an ant is better than being boiled shredded scalded cleaved spitroasted stoned bombed burned (~69 years later~) ..and killed, isn't it?

Plus if I remember right for hells you eventually get out of, only a few fractions of a second passes real-time between your entry and exit.

Care to speculate on what the relationship between specters and more normal ghosts is?

Normal ghosts I imagine are just evil souls that have yet to be changed, the link between a mortal soul and a demon, perhaps. Everything you'd imagine a ghost to be, basically, where as Spectres are lap dogs, ghost bound to a Demon, given some semblance of power beyond a ghost, but now enslaved to obey

As Hell is infinite, there is not much wiggle room for things outside of Hell. But likewise, Hell doesn't really follow the logic of reality, so it's easy to ignore. And a logical question is, if there is hell, and there are earths, then there must be heaven, as well? And there is.

Heaven, unlike Hell, is not infinite, at least not in the traditional sense. Heaven is inwardly infinite, and thus Heaven, as a realm, takes up less than an atom's size of the omniexistance. Within Heaven, there are angels, yes, though they are not what mortals consider angels. They aren't people with halos and wings, they are simple strips of color, drifting in a wind in one direction, sailing towards the center of Heaven in long ribbons that make up the 'sky' At the center of Heaven is...well, not God, they call it Glory instead, a boundless light that makes up the center of Heaven. And unlike Hell, Heaven is very restrictive of it's entrances. In fact, in the entirety that Heaven has existed, only a single soul has made it's way through, that single soul spends it's time sitting on a hill, staring at Glory, forever. Of course Heaven is quite dull compared to Hell, so it's best to just ignore it.

>It is suspected that Heaven used to be far vaster, more great and bountiful in its being, where the angels and spirits of Good danced and sang the song of omniexistance, and Glory shown upon all things throughout Creation. It is said that Heaven used to be full of all manner of loves and hopes, that it used to give rise to champions of being and life and light and colour, that it used to be memorable and whole and wondrous. It is said that Heaven used to be a place with -things-.

>Until the Unholy Eternity came, and they all went.

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>Amongst the numerous artifacts and trinkets that fall into Nexus from time to time, one is of great note. The Eye Of Pahara

>The Eye's known abilities enable one to move and change the flow of time however they so wish, granting them the ability to traverse chaotic and hazardous planes with haste at any given moment. The Eye can also be used offensively, creating pockets of rending time that weaken and tear at those that move through them, lessening and degrading them down to nothing. These abilities thus make it useful for fighting against multiple hellspawn at once.

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I actually meant ghosts on earth etc, not hell ghosts, but this works too.

Eh, I like some of this but,

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The demons done got him.

Poor guy. I hope he doesn't suffer too much at least.

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Lemuria is not the sort of hell one expects. Lemures are a peaceable sort of damned, sickly, pallid, and gaunt, with wide, cloudy, eyes prone to flow with tears, and Lemurian demons are much the same, four faced and formal creatures with soft clerkish voices and the soft hands of archivists.

Lemuria is not a realm of pain hellish pain, but a circle of otherworldly sorrow. It is a silent country of gray hills and gray turbulent sky, half-lit by the eerie glow of the plane above, one consumed by cold blue fire. It’s weather is bleak, on the edge of inhospitable, it’s land infertile for all but the colorless grasses and shrubs that cover the hills. Few settlements in lemuria grow beyond shabby little hamlets built near and from the rare stand of petrified black pine trees and connected by rubbish strewn highways that carve odd paths between and through the hills. Lemurians are not subject to death or age, but have the same phisiological needs the did in life. Those damned to lemuria arrive upon the plain at the great customs house, and are each given two familiars before being cast out to the realm and left to their own devices. Lemurians each own a wiley black goat on which to feed, and a clever white raven to bring them news. The raven provides knowledge of the surrounding area, and also correspondence from the demons of the realm, who busy themselves with gleaning information of other hell’s and the melancholic goings on in lemuria; a white raven has never once brought good news to its master. The flesh and milk of the black goats is the only food in the realm, and while it is unpleasant to Lemurians, it is truly inedible to all other beings. The dull, deprived eternity Lemurians are faced with is punctuated only by bouts of pronounced misfortune among themselves, and by the reports brought to them by their ravens, which the demons of Lemuria conduct in the observation and reporting of many great woes and pains in Hell.

For those unlucky Lemurians with loved ones elsewhere in the Unholy Infinite there comes an interminable string of letters about their misfortunes and tortures, with only the heartfelt condolences of the Lemurian demons that screed such messages for comfort. Often one’s undying black goat will bolt, and many lemurians travel the highways without end in search of the sole being whose flesh can sate their hunger. The few towns in lemuria are bitter collections of bitter beings, commiserating in the dim light of their eternal home.

In lemuria fire burns white, and water runs black. Lemurian fire provides no warmth and expends no fuel, the waters of Lemuria neither quench thirst nor drown. Lemuria’s landscape stretches in all directions, with no true variety save the customs house at its center.

>There is a layer, relatively close to the layer that Nexus exists upon, residing somewhat 'above' Nexus, and slightly brushing against it from time to time. This layer is Zherig'gran, The Unending Skin.

>A realm of undulating skin and screeching flesh, Zherig'gran is a place where 'life', any life at all, is brought in and incorporated into a mass of hellish flesh and bone, forever aware of their situation and desperately clawing at themselves and against others to try and break free, unknowingly subjecting any others who fall into said realm to the same nightmarish fate

>It is suspected that Zherig'gran was 'born' when the last curse of Great Dragon Mrytuis Hadeeis Daantu Sitaaros The Timeless Blasphemy, was uttered upon its 'death' at the hands of an all-out assault by numerous spirits of Good and allied warriors. Supposedly, the Unending Skin is its attempt to forge a new body for itself through the souls of countless beings from other layers.

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So is this shaping up to be the most grimdark Veeky Forums homebrew setting yet?

Well let's see:
>Hollow Deeds: Probably the second most grimdark of the bunch. Its honestly amazing how that world managed to survive for so long.

>Fogworld: Entire world is overrun by deadly fog, and malign demonic intelligences roam the land in mechanical shells, utilizing enthralled beings to do their dark work and humanity is holed in a spare few safe havens

>Fruitknights: Featured knights based off fruits and vegetables in a Dark Souls-esque world fighting against a horde of malicious undead trying to kill them and destroy the Great Tree at the center of their kingdom, which would damn them all. And the Great Tree actually created the undead for this reason.

>Night Shift: Working a nightshift job, all whilst trying to survive against odd, alien, and at times genuinely malevolent supernatural shit. Not quite as grimdark as the rest on this list, but still pretty gloomy.

>Weird Western Town/Desolation: A town is being besieged by generally unnatural phenomena and nighterrors and has lost its bright future, all beneath the shadow of a great evil mountain. Probably the least grimdark one here, along with Night Shift.

>This Setting: Literally Hell. There is no hope, the only place that is safe from the Evil is being constantly besieged on all sides, and the darkness is truly eternal. And Heaven is no help, given that it already lost the war against Hell a long time ago, and has just battened itself down to try and endure the storm.
Yeah, fair to say that this one is the darkest one yet.

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>In Nexus, it is not uncommon for one to see Sir Grim running a shop, a shop containing all kinds of items from weaponry, to ancient artifacts, to scrolls and tomes detailing lore regarding some of the threads that can be encountered throughout Hell. The Store is always stocked with these things, at all times.

>Curiously enough, Grim has stated that he's not the owner of the store itself, and that he's just "filling in" for them. The real owner of the store is apparently a "very old friend" of his. Who this might be, none can say.

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>Great Dragons are some of the most feared demonic entities in Hell. They possess power at an almost unfathomable level, and it is no surprise that many of the Notional Fiends that stalk Hell were once Great Dragons
>One such Fiend still retains the name Great Dragon, supposedly the first Great Dragon ever. The Great Dragon Atru Ba Zet "We Who Are Divine"
>Atru Ba Zet has rarely been seen beyond the Far Hells, having lost interest in most of the going ons in the Infinite Despair, seemingly content curling itself up in the depths of complexity

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>The Blind Flautist tied what little of his soul remained from the Demon's fickle tortures to his flute. He whistles and capers, sometimes mournfully and sometimes dementedly, following a tune indecipherable to all but himself. Strangely, travelers from the Nexus claim the Flautist's song never ends, regardless of whether or not he is playing. The echoes of his mad flute drip through Hell's layers, and, it is rumored, grant him insight into some of Hell's less tangible truths.

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>Though Nexus is rarely host to guests from Hell with less than the most heinous of intentions, there are the occasional visitors who are seemingly benign. Usually guests of Sir Grim's
>One such guest is a fellow who shares Grim's demeanor of silent and stoic, Sir Grim has referred to him as Albatross, and as "an ally from some very taxing trials"
>Albatross usually visits Nexus every decade or so, somehow finding his way through the barrier of Nexus unhindered, and usually carrying something that he leaves with Sir Grim, sometimes it's a small black wooden box adorned in some elegant metal trimming, sometimes it's a suspiciously large sack filled with something heavy, and at one time he even came dragging something alive, wrapped in leather bands, fastened so tightly the leather could be heard straining.
>Albatross has never made himself a threat, or even an ill mannered guest, though he rarely speaks to the citizens of Nexus, the times he does are usually friendly and cordial, and one time he even brought a bouquet of flowers for the citizens, real flowers, not some hellish flora, something from beyond the infinity.

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>Although Atru Ba Zet is mostly apathetic to the activities within the upper layers of the Unholy Infinity, rumor has it that dark tidings have been echoing out from the Far Hells, and the domains of several great Demon Lords have been plunged into maddening chaos from being brushed against by " lashing tails and blinding tendrils of deep hunger".

>Something is happening with the supposed first of the Great Dragons. But what it could be is unknown even to those who host the power to peer deep into the Despair.

>The Remedy is the cure, the solution, and the question. It considers the chaos of the mortal soul and of Hell's infinite permutation an insufferable blight on What Is, and its single, intractable purpose is to revert all things into their most basic mathematical components. There are as many theories of the Remedy as there are victims of its passing: from fractal-scarred faces spread tales of a high ranking Demon punished by Satan himself to "correct" infinity, or of an Angel barred from Heaven for losing an occupant to Hell's treachery. Whatever its source, the Remedy leaves nothing in its wake but perfect geometric constructs, organized by element, age, color, and a million lesser categories arranged in fractal shapes according to a maddening logic.

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>There are many concepts of pain and torment in Hell, and abominations of immense size and power, but not all Hells come in big packages
>Take for example one of the humblest demonic entities in Hell, a germ by the name of Huthurdenizibelfigorum, it is not some misbegotten spirit tormented by Hells occupants, nor is it a demon itself, it is a natural part of Hell's ecosystem, it has been part of Hell always. And it is known by a simpler name, the name of it's blighted touch, The Soul Blister
>The Soul Blister is a disease that starts out simple. It is carried by the razor winds of Hell, where it collects in any liquids that gather on the edges of layer's, like mildew. There it waits, until inevitably a wayward soul or demon passes by, collecting the liquid as it passes, and then the germ goes to work.
>Huthurdenizibelfigorum works quickly, it nestles itself into the soul of whatever it comes into contact with, and it begins to slowly sap the soul of it's vitality, not enough to be notable, but it feeds on this, and multiplies, spreading throughout the soul. Once it has spread sufficiently, it takes action.
>The first sign of Soul Blister is a steadily rising pain from within, like heat in your chest. Due to the random nature of Hell, most don't consider this a problem. However the second sign is when most notice, and that is because their soul is set aflame. The germ ignites itself, like a fuse, and begins to burn the soul, fusing itself with the ephemeral, this causes excruciating pain, of course, and weakness as the soul is drained. The next stage is when the flames go out, and the disease has set in, leaving immense, festering, burning welts across the soul. The subject will likely have barely enough strength to move at this point, even ghosts. The final stage is the worst of all, as it can last anywhere from 100 to 100,000 years.

>An agonizingly slow suffering as the soul is torn to pieces, smoldering and burning, until finally the spirit is turned to dust, leaving only the germs themselves, which have grown swollen and fat with the soul they devoured steadily, and those germs then burst, spreading into the wind more of their kind, to repeat the cycle.

Heaven didn't exactly "lose" per se, it's more that that region of heaven was defiled by the presence of demons and their corpses, which became pure hate evil and mayhem as solid-mass objects, (so a physical object made of hate evil and mayhem), so that region was utterly defiled, and "walled off" by the divine beings, Angels who's only duty is to smite with instant death any demon who presents a truly credible bodily threat to divine beings, stand at the "wall" of this defiled region, shooting beams of pure death (a real 'death' ray, instant annihilation damage), out of their billions of eyes and millions of weapons, each one having trillions of eyes wings arms and legs. Their chestplates are magic forged into an object set with priceless sublime artistic-cut diamonds, their armor is made of righteousness (again, a substance), and they maintain a constant telepathic link with all deities, who are aware of their every action and sense perception, these watcher angels do not think thoughts or feel feelings, each is 80,000 stories tall, and their bodies are billions of thousands of millions of times harder than the heart of a sun.

The true heaven, the part that wasn't defiled, was wiped from public knowledge, so now, except through faith, heaven is unknowable, as it is no longer possible to logically find, as a protection against more demon intrusion.

This is one of the most beautiful hells in the whole of the Eternal Misery. A breathtaking realm of wonder, if it were not located in Hell it would surely be a landscape of heaven. This realm is known as Pitious, and while it is an awe inspiring beauty, it is also a horrible land of torment for the punished souls of the damned.

Pitious is not a realm of pain or agony, it is a land of emptiness. Those that are damned to this hell are slowly stripped of their will. It tortures it's prisoners through boredom and slothfulness, an agonizing eternity of nothing. The only thing in Pitious of any interest are it's orderlies, demons forced to suffer this blank, empty abyss, whose job it is to keep track of time, every minute that passes, and to inform those stuck here how long has passed when they ask. No night, no day, just soft lightning across a glass like world of drifting clouds. Those punished to Pitious feel the drag of time greater than any other in Hell.

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Inmates in ashralak and absolute suffering suffer thousands or more of these soul blisters, except that instead of suffering it over its normal course of time, they suffer it's symptoms growing worse in fractions of seconds, since life in both those hells is extremely short (a lifetime in ashralak is only 4 gasps of pain long, a lifetime in absolute suffering is only 6 gasps of pain long), so that their symptoms move from hardly any, to final-stage in less than 1 minute, in less than 10 seconds in some cases.

There are no deities though, only Glory, which is possibly the throne left behind by God, or gods, or whatever was.
Also your ideal of angels is a bit dull, no offense, but just people with a lot of eyes and wings and limbs with weapons and armor is kind of boring compared to the shit Hell has. If these are the only and last line of defense they should be something much less concrete. But this is a thread about Hell, so Heaven doesn't much matter

Ashralak and Absolute Suffering, from a purely subjective point of view, are magnificent examples of Hell's natural ecosystem. These realms are almost like gardens unto themselves, lush with the nightmarish flora and fauna of Hell. If it weren't so terrible to be there, it would be quite a biologistic treasure trove of study

They are simply a line of defense. Angels are truly unknowable beings, and the more powerful ones are a lot more like what you were saying in the spoiler.

Also I was somewhat confused at first, I thought that this setting should have a grander stage that just this one dark dismal area, I didn't understand that the point of the thing was only to focus on this, so I had been viewing in the birds eye view of a more balanced world (one with an earth realm and other things).

What I was envisioning was that this one grand hell connects to thousands, or even billions, of universes that are their own settings, yet all feature this underworld and all feature the nexus, is what I was trying to say.

The interpretation of Angels in this cosmology is seemingly closer to whispers of light and sheets of colour and being, compared to Hell which is just "OHGOD/GLORYWHY". So if we're going to be using the whole "many eyes faces and wings" thing, these entities would just be guardians to keep demons and abysmal powers out, whilst the actual Angels and Glory do.....whatever the hell it is that they do.

That's precisely what I was envisioning, and what I was trying to explain.