The Infernal Plane

[Morty]

This thread is for all information pertaining to the planes of Hell. (The Underworld, Oblivion, etc.) Post here if you have a contribution and to discuss aspects of the demon world!

[Nohiki]

So are we talking jet planes or jsut the regular propeller ones? [/troll] I'll state something to think about:
Whatever it's called by the characters, it is all ONE dimension, only different regions of it.

[Morty]

Can't say I agree with that idea haha. I think regions as disparate as Scourge's hell, and whatever place Chaos rules over, would be in a different dimension than the one Isky and Asmodeus come from. Even Hell itself is probably made up of various conquered worlds. I am still playing around with that idea though. XD

Some relevant ideas:

Worlds/dimensions:
Dragon-Essence and Earth are in the same dimension/universe, but on different planets/worlds. That distinction wouldn't really be made by demons, since they only care about places with life forms. XD The fact that you could travel up from one planet into space and eventually reach the other would be an interesting anecdote, but when you can just travel to one or the other by portal, it's sort of redundant.

Another idea: Hell is made up of various layers.
Ground 0: Real Hell. This is the wretched, sulfurous, inhospitable dominion of demons that most people think of as Hell. And they'd be right. Demons appear in their true form on this plane, and the Damned take the shape of ghostly black silhouettes. Lakes of lava and pillars of smoke and ash obscure the jagged landscape. There is no sky, only a vast rocky dome. Some demons belong only to this realm, but most can toggle between the layers at will. The damned can also do this. Most, however, prefer only to see the illusion world, Ground 1.
Ground 1: This layer is like a veneer over the actual Hell landscape. It is an illusion maintained by the demons to accommodate visitors and simply to make the land more pleasant. Seeing past the illusion is second nature to most demons, but for others, it must be taught. The illusion isn't only visual, though. Feelings, smells, sounds, etc, are all falsified. You could bite into a delicious apple in Ground 1, but in Ground 0 you might actually be eating a rotten husk or a Minotaur eyeball, or even nothing at all. While the two layers are usually acted on simultaneously, there are some instances in which the interaction is different. You could be sailing across a lake of water in Ground 1, but as soon as you switched to Ground 0 your boat would catch fire and you'd sink into what is actually a lake of lava. Stuff like that. That's why it's dangerous two switch indiscriminately between the layers. You have to be very familiar with the topography of Hell to be able to switch like that. XD
More layers to be added as I think of them lmao. Thoughts?

A model for Hell:
Hell is arranged in a ring around a giant pillar/castle where all the top demons work/live. (sort of like a parliament building IDK) The capital of Hell itself spreads out from there before splitting into the seven domains belonging to their respective Prince. What happens is that the city just gets more and more rural until it's just plains going on for miles. Keep going and the terrain will eventually start to look more like whatever's typical of that circle. Anyways I'll just draw a map and it'll be much simpler, ignore anything I've said in the create boards cause I've forgotten all that anyways. XD BLUH

[Nohiki]

I like this. Leaves space for more levels to be added if need be (unless some moron plot twister, say, me, decides for a plot tat take splace on the "last" one xDDD

[Morty]

I'm glad. :3c And I have some ideas for the other levels, just nothing solid yet. Most of them would probably just be things like a layer occupied by entities that would normally be invisible, or a layer that could reveal secret areas, etc. One idea was that the furthest layer would just be like, a lightless black plane, occupied perhaps by the beings responsible for maintaining the other levels of existence.. But that doesn't seem like it would ever be relevant. XD So it could probably be something else. 8)
The way I thought of the different layers makes me think it would be good for a video game. Toggle between the layers to make your way around obstacles! Some layers would be like Eagle Vision from assassins creed, while others would be like, I don't know, that one level in Bioshock 2 where you get to play as a Little Sister heheh.

[Zetherus]

Hey I've come up with an awesome idea. What if the last plane of hell is Oblivion: (Scourge's existence) or the Void? (The hell for gods, where evil entities are imprisoned in the nothingness for all eternity. [A.K.A] Pandora's plane that she was imprisoned in, just in a completely different location.)

Just a thought because one world "The Void" holds evil weak gods similar to tough demons to the group. Or there's Scourge's plane which is uh... well an old endless infernal plane containing massive ancient towers that could hold secrets to destroying worlds. There's a problem though, lol, Oblivion is way more interventional then Void, making it very possible that there is demonic technology found in this realm. Expect angry demons to shoot inferno cannons at yah.

Hey, what does a demon do on their spare time? XD

[Morty]

ow0 I rather thought that the various instances of hell were more like next door neighbors than people sharing a condo. Plus why does everyone want to occupy **the last level**? XDD It would be basically inaccessible, guys, unless you seriously found a way to break reality. While I haven't come up with what exactly resides on each layer, I imagine each layer would be less and less corporeal and more just like an illusion or a palimpsest over the actual, physical world. =P It wouldn't be like switching to layer 7 and suddenly you're in Wonderland, more like switching to layer 7 and suddenly you can see which paths will take you to other worlds. Sort of like opening new layers in photoshop and seeing your sketch, your guidelines, your colour palette, etc. XD They alter the perception of or build on the world already present, rather than teleporting people to a whole different realm. (Example: You're running along a clothesline on ground 1, switch to ground 0 and the clothesline is barbwire. Or, maybe you're walking under an archway on ground 1 in Luxuria. Nothing happens. You turn around, switch to ground 3-- for example-- and suddenly the archway leads to an unfamiliar forest on the border of Hell. :3)
I'm thinking, for symbolic reasons, 9 would be a good number of layers to have (Dante's 9 levels of Hell) buut if somehow we run out of layers (seriously dubious about this haha) there could be more??
I think Void could be a pretty neat layer.. It's just like, an endless black plain, right? I just don't see why it would relate to the other layers of Hell haha. (Like, how would switching to the Void layer be useful if your body is -probably- currently occupying the first and second layers? o-00)

Though, if people prefer the "layers take you to another area entirely" model rather than the "layers reveal different aspects of the Infernal Plane" model we can roll with that. :B

[Morty]

Elaborating on that, most mortals and indeed many demons only occupy the first and second layers. I think I should find something different to call them than Ground x though because that might be offensive to some peoplsfkjsdf @-@
How bout just
The Xth Plane.
On the 1st plane you got your crappy, sulfurous, barren landscape. Demons appear in their true forms here, and everything is as it seems. There are a few strange, primordial demons that only occupy this plane and are intangible/invisible in all others. The damned appear as walking wraiths, barely tangible.
On the 2nd plane everything looks considerably nicer and mortal-friendly. Lakes of lava become bodies of water. Mean, mud-splattered hovels become, at the very least, respectable and livable-looking. Citadels of volcanic stone become the palaces of the affluent, and the demons that inhabit them are relatively easy on the eyes. The dead take on the shape they were accustomed to in life, here.
On the 3rd plane you start seeing the magical gateways worked into the fabric of Hell. Certain doors don't lead where they should, and a dirt road that should take you to a wine farm in Gula instead leads into a drawing-room in Acedia. Demons capable of switching between the layers use them as a quick mode of transportation over the vast distances of Hell. Imagine being able to walk into an ordinary closet, switch to layer X, and exit the closet in a completely different area? Sure, you could just open a portal or teleport somewhere, but you have to be a pretty affluent demon to be able to do that regularly: and if you have any sort of ambition as a demon, you'll have places to be-- in Hell, power is literally money.

[Zetherus]

www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/tdomf/53080/QMan_WB_BI_2003_Watchtowers.jpg Well here's Scourge's plane of Oblivion, well the main part of it anyway. As you can see, those towers have some morbid looking height and width compared to that tiny city down on the bottom left. Oh, and nice hell hound guardians huh? XD
I guess you can see some demonic looking tech in those towers if you imagine it like I can!