The Nine Hells are a twisted set of dimensions, each interlinked and yet very separate, each of them unique and possessing of it's own landscape and craft. The First of the Hells, is known as Zarner's Realm, the Hell of Truth. It is a calm, wide pool of water where the spirits of the dead are at peace, resting on the warm islands or walking through the ankle deep waters of the so called 'Hell'. The Second through Fifth Hells are the Elemental Hells, worlds that each fully represent the true aspects of a single element in it's full power. Indeed three of these Hells are home to three of the Gods. The Second Hell, the Hell of Fire, is a burning world, the very ground aflame and the sky ablaze. It is beyond hot, the very mind unable to comprehend the horror of an entire world aflame, where flesh runs like water with the heat and even metal simply evaporates with the heat. The Third Hell is the Hell of Water. A frozen sphere filled within endless water it is actually home to many millions of types of fish and deep sea creature, each feeding upon each other, the water lit by the power of it's greatest resident. There, in the centre of this watery paradise, is the palace of the God of Water, Hydros himself. Here the Laughing God is free, without the plotting and machinations of the other Gods. In the Third Hell He can create the creatures He so adores, the living fish and other beings of the sea. The Fourth Hell is simply a hunk of solid stone, the Hell of Earth, run through with endless seams of riches and precious metals, filled with jewels and weight of gold unimaginable. Though it is named a Hell it is also the Heaven of the Dwarves, where their creator, Terra the Earth God, takes their souls when the Dwarves die. The final and fifth Elemental Hell is starkly different to the other three. It is simply there, an endless expanse of existence with no land, water or living being within it. It is the Hell of Air and the realm of Aeros the Sky Lord. He revels in it's emptiness, in the bottomless and roofless freedom of existence than such a place allows him to live in, the fearless joy that is his and his alone to explore. The Sixth Hell is the Hell of Despair and is totally under the control of the Dark God, also known as the Corrupter. The Corrupter maintains an iron grip over his benighted realm, permitting no light to exist within the Hell, and demanding nothing more or less then absolute obedience from those He has trapped within the darkness. The Seventh Hell is controlled by Killar, a flat wasteland called the Hell of DemonKind and is the one true home of all the Demons, the place where they are spawned and where they grow into the monsters that they will become. It is highly segregated, each type of Demons residing with others of it's own type and war between the types is very common, especially as most of the Demons will simply kill anything nearby by just because it is there. In the centre of the Hell is the location of the entrance into Tal'Vorn, a weeping sore in reality that opens periodically for a brief time. When the rift opens it sparks of a flurry of movement across the Hell and indeed from the Eighth Hell as the Demons and the Night Daemons fight each other for a chance to break through into reality and gift blood to their God. The Eight Hell is the smallest and is called the Hell of Night. As the name suggests it is the home of the Night Daemons and was shaped to their will long ago into an immense castle upon a floating spire of stone. However it contains no link to Tal'Vorn and thus the Night Daemons must travel to the Seventh Hell, fight through the endless ranks of the Demons just for a chance to spill blood and cause chaos in the name of Killar. Of course the creatures have many advantages compared to the Demons, especially within the Eighth Hell. It is said that only one human has ever managed to step foot within the Hell of Night and that he is still there, cowering and gibbering in the depths of the castle, surviving off the scraps of flesh that the Night Daemons do not eat, unable to escape and to afraid for his soul to kill himself. The final Hell, the Ninth Hell, is Killar's Prison. Nothing can exist within the Ninth Hell other then Killar Himself, the raging God filling the confines of His own Hell from end to end, constantly screaming to be free, to rend and tear the flesh of the living, His screams echoing always out into the other Hells, driving His creations into a frenzied euphoria of blood letting and slaying, all in a vain attempt to appease Killar, to somehow allow Him to regain some sort of sanity, some sort of grip upon reality. |
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© Joshua Binks (Paladin), Christopher Riley (Carnage), Brad Rumsey (Lithium), Alicia Rumsey (Escapist) and Vanessa Vaughan (Andanin) 2002 - |