#hell worldbuilding

Torment

Each ring of hell has a circle of torment where sinners manifest in death after having their hearts weighed in heaven. Torment is not permanent - if the sinners are strong enough to pull themselves out, they seek refuge in Purgatory, a realm that exists in each ring of hell. In Torment, sinners suffer based on their Mortal Sin, and are painfully transformed into demons, then monsters, then after a century or so of torment, their souls are stripped of all humanity and become shadows of what they once were. Those that gain strength in their monstrosity crawl out of the Pits of Torment as demonic beasts, devoid of humanity, doomed to wreak havoc in whatever realm of hell they find themselves in. The rest seep through the realms, dripping like a refined oil of soul energy, to Damnation - the belly Torment, and a ring all on it's own.

Torment is different in each ring, and is different for every sinner. It's like a personalized, 4-D nightmare where your who is stripped from your what and rearranged into something you don't recognize.

Torment in Sloth has the endless corridors of St. Oozing's Home for the Unwell, a glorified torture house where Hellborne can exercise their right to malpractice. To escape to Sloth's purgatory, they must trek across frozen terrain and avoid becoming part of the landscape.

The centre of Torment in Gluttony is the Flesh Pit - the twitching, fleshy remains of the Titan that came Before us fused with the terrain, delving deep underground, the unfurling anatomy being home to many a monster and means of transformation. The Flesh Pit is also an amusement park for Hellborne to watch Sinners suffer at the hands of disgusting anatomical horrors, all from behind the safe, sterile barriers of Belphagorian Glass, like an underground zoo. To escape to Gluttony's Purgatory, they must survive the carnivorous Jungles that surround Flesh Park.

Torment in Pride is full of horrible liminal spaces. Every time you close your eyes to sleep, you wake up in Lucifer's personal laboratory, where he does live experiments on you, leaving you Changed upon waking. Time doesn't work right in Pride's Torment, with those who escape to Pride's Purgatory not knowing what century it is. Many Sinners in Pride develop insomnia from their experiences in Torment, relying on dreamless potions to get a quiet night's sleep. The only dreams you can have in Hell are nightmares. A dreamless sleep is the best anyone can hope for.

(Torment in Greed, Envy, Wrath, and Lust will be elaborated on in a later post)

Purgatory

Purgatory and Torment exist side by side, Yin and Yang, in every circle of Hell, save Damnation. Sinners arrive to suffer in Torment, and those lucky or strong enough to drag themselves from suffering can find refuge in Purgatory, a recent installment (relative to the vast expanse of time) in Hell. Purgatory only came into being when Christ died on the cross, his blood spilling into the depths, it's blessing neutralizing the cursed soil, creating zones in Hell where Sinners can seek respite, if not seek repentance so they may once again knock on Heaven's Gates. This lore, however, has fled common knowledge, saved only in the History Books in the Royal Library, which Charlie Magne has read many times.

To spend your afterlife in Purgatory does not guarantee peace. It is still hell, and with hell comes other people. Purgatory isn't just a home for the damned, it's home to the toughest of souls to escape the throws of Torment. Overlords run rampant, splitting Purg into territories, where they make the rules and lay claim to any soul who enters. Some Overlords have gotten so powerful that they reach beyond Purgatory, matching the power level of Hellborne Demons, which is quite the feat, with Sinners being at the bottom of Hell's hierarchy. Vox is one such Overlord, with estates in Sloth and Gluttony, his two benefactors.

Souls not powerful enough to climb the ranks as Overlords find themselves at their mercy. Most Sinners in Purgatory have sold at least part of their souls to be rescued from Torment, a common hunting ground for Overlords eager to grow their numbers. With recent innovations in technology, those rich and powerful enough don't even need to go to Torment themselves. Voxtek has developed Inferno-resistant drones that can teleport Sinners directly to the location of your choosing, in exchange for the souls of the Tormented. Just sign here, and you will be whisked away from this place (to another, marginally less and differently horrible place of the lessor's choosing). You can get this technology in exchange for a fraction of the souls you recruit, for the low low price of $666.

Damnation

One of the laws of the universe is that energy cannot be created or destroyed - it all has to go somewhere. In Hell, that "somewhere" is Damnation. It is the darkest pit of Hell. Within Damnation is a vast, swirling pool filled with the barely conscious remnants of sinners, stripped of their humanity from their time in Torment, each soul barely visible amongst the multitudes of the damned. The depths of Damnation reach ad infinitum - endless - with a finite cavern stretching over the pool. For Hellborne, Damnation is home to flying imps and the winged children of Belphagor, content to watch the shreds of human spirits churning for eternity. They are tasked with preventing souls from coalescing into a nifsh mimzer (Hebrew) - a Bastard Soul. They prod the pool with great rods of demonic steel, enchanted with abjuration magic to tear the bonds of the damned, lest they bring forth the end of times. Once what is left of your soul has reached damnation, it is too late. You cannot be saved. This is your eternity. To be Damned is to be numb and lost, with nothing left of you, not even the strongest of emotions could hold on after being boiled down to nothing in Torment. These spirits are weathered down to nothing but pure spirit energy, siphoned by the Roots of Evil that stretch down into Damnation, feeding off the damned like it is sweet water. These roots feed the spirit energy back into hell, feeding the Rings of Hell like Nitrogen feeds soil. This spirit energy feeds the flora and fauna of Hell by stimulating demonic plant growth, as well as manifesting as the eyes and open maws that seem to grow like a lichen or moss on any structure built in hell. Lucifer, in turn, can see through any of these lichenous eyes to spy on the sinners of hell in purgatory whenever he so pleases.