Types of Hells

  Throughout the multiverse there are more Hells, Netherworlds, and spirit realms than there are human worlds. It is for this reason that the Overlord Tournament in which demons and death gods may fight over the rights to have their world connected to that human world are fought; as well as why most human worlds have multiple hells. It is especially common the simpler and more seperated the human societies to have many more hells. There are four conditions in which a Hell can either be removed from being connected to a world or challenged for its position with that human world. 1: The Overlord voluntarily withdraws their Hell from that world. 2: That Hell attempted to invade the human world in full force/over throw the heaven(s) of that world. (putting on a show of it for the mortals and lesser demons is one thing, actually trying to is another 3: The number of souls relative to the culture or world going there is too small *not because humans are suddenly all good, but because the criteria is too specific*, the Hell is no longer serving its purpose to teach, guide, and correct the reincarnating eternal soul to do better as the whispering subconcious of its next life by having the conciousness experience full repurcussions for their actions while alive.  4: the Overlord of that Hell is defeated in battle by a mortal hero *this usually only happens with worlds with high magic and/or super humans*; it means the overlord and their Hell are no longer enough of a deterrent or threat to these souls so need to be replaced by someone/something that is.

   All of that said while there are billions of indivudal "Hells" out there, there is a system in place regardless of what the cultures may think that determines what kind of punishment/rehabilitation the soul needs, generally chosen by the "judge within" as the eternal soul has to weigh the various kinds of sins, severity, context (alot of sins can be diminished in severity due to the cultural and survival restrictions; but only to a point and usually just soul and self sins get diminished; social sins are rarely diminished) against the base standards of each type. This will determine which kind of Hell they need/should go to, and where in that Hell is most fitting. Equal punishment for all sins simply doesn't make sense.

   Now while there are billions of individual Hells they can be broken up into the following categories: False Earth, Labyrinth, Alien World, Pit, Prison, Palace, and Nightmare.

  False Earth: these make up the majority of Hell worlds, especialy as cultures get bigger, more complex, and the majority of outstanding sins fall more to the "soul sin" and some "social sin" categories as society limitations reduce the severity of the self sins (hard to not knowingly cause some forms of mental and physical harm to yourself when the society makes it impossible to survive otherwise for example). False Earths while incredibly varied have one thing in common, they immitate the living world. They are forests, cities, towns, jungles, swamps, ect...that all feel and look like the living world; with some vartiations. One can go into and out of buildings, there are open environments to be explored. Souls sent here are given "Soul Bodies" which immitate a living body except they can't die (which allows for more intense pain by the way), the body has no real pain habituation system either and will regenerate a short time after the body stops being damaged. If more than 80% of the body is destroyed all at once the Soul will "respawn" in a nearby location with a new Soul Body. The major difference environment wise is False Earths are populated by a wide variety of demonic beasts that regard soul bodies as readily available meat, and alot of traps and invisible portals and such designed to cause physical pain and surreal shifts to the norm that teach the soul to not regard the material needs as so important. Beyond this the variations between them increase especially in severity and environment. No soul is told they are in Hell, or why they are there, or that there is a way out. Typically souls get back into reincarnation either by having an epithany about why they are there or time runs out (soul sins were the major factor). A big theme in False Earths is "false hope" the idea there is no hopelessness without hope as people can feel like they can arm up, team up, and build a safe place unaware of the rule of esculation (False Earth demons are programmed so the bigger and nastier ones will appear and target more heavily armed and larger groups while an individual tends to be more often targeted by smaller or psychological threats...usually, a largere predator isn't about to turn away from an easy meal).

  Labyrinth: Very much like a False Earth in that they immitate the Living World and souls get the same sort of regenerating and respawning soul bodies. The big difference is, there isn't really an "outside". One may find a "surface" but it is always a maze or what is outside the doors and windows is another Hell; yes some Labyrinth Hells are part of another Hell, but generally one that forces the Soul Bodies to stay inside such as a vast ocean of darkness, a world of floating balls of magma and fire, some nebular darkness world filled with giant flying centipedes and so on. Although these trapped inside a seemingly needless world of hallways inside a real building are younger Hells, most often an offshoot of and sometimes even have connecting portals to False Earth Hells; one may end up in a Labyrinth Hell by going into certain buildings, doors in basements, and so on, or even escape the Labyrinth Hell by finding the door that exits into the False Earth Hell, as well as described above an Alien World Hell; that later working out worse for the Soul Body should they try to escape into it. The more basic and older Labyrinth Hells are more akin to catacombs, cave systems; usually with some sort of light. There are the dark cave hells; the ones where the soul body is groping about in darkness going through tight claustrophobic tunnels; but those Hells tend to only connect to early human civilziations as once humans get past the fear of the dark, biting insects, and what not and can realize they can't permanently die in those hells the source of the fear of the situation is gone and they start to just *give up* and lie there assuming they are dead in their graves waiting for some day of judgement their living religions talk about; so the dark cavern hells end up getting retired pretty quick. The endless ever twisting mazes reflecting the most current fears filled with traps, monsters, and other people however continues to work out; why the later civilization ones even get windows and mechanical puzzles and traps because the idea of "can escape" drives them to keep moving and discovering new things about themselves. The way out of these is also like a False Earth an epiphany or time limit. There really isn't much difference between the two and why they for later end civilizations tend to be so directly connected.

  Alien World: These Hells on the surface are somewhat similar to False Earths, they have predatory creatures, plant life, demons, however it does not look like Earth; the environments are strange and twisted, alien beasts, alien plant life, shifting environments, odd colors, sometimes they are close to Earth in apperance like forests of silver trees with purple leaves, flowers that emit light; a sort of Wonder Land or stranger sci-fi alien planet feel; there are also ones with nebular environments and floating rocks, shifting directions for gravity, and others that make it feel as though the soul is wandering some random distorted part of space. They run the gamet from being really simple like a desert of blinding light or a desolate grey and dark land of the dead to the above described worlds of boiling red skies and twisting giant vines connecting floating rocks of shifting gravity and so on. These kinds of Hells don't have the same kinds of Soul Bodies as the False Earth or Labyrinth. Instead souls here are usually more ghost like that develop in a cycle. They start out as a conciousness that feels hunger, thirst, and fatigue; but they can't eat, drink, or sleep; only wander. They unknowingly absorb the ambient energy of these Hells and become first a glowing tiny ball about the size of a thumb tac, getting bigger and glowing brighter to about the size of fist, becoming more fiery with a little wisp of a tail on them; after words developing a clear projection of themselves while alive, and in the final stage (that they usually reach) taking on a denser apperance; usually either still see through with a white aura, or looking like a blue or purple hologram. As they expand like this in each stage the sensation of hunger, thirst, and fatigue only increases yet they are still unable to eat, drink, or sleep. the closest thing to rest comes when their souls are attacked and eaten; the alien beasts of these Alien world hells feed on the gathered and changed "nutritious and sweet" energy being packed inside these "ghosts". Further these spirit bodies can't talk, they can't make any audible sound so they can't speak to each other or to the alien demons. They also don't really feel pain in the sense of being torn, dissolved, stabbed, or anything; it is all about the constant suffering without satisfaction or rest. The demons of these worlds also come in intelligent forms that may actually "farm" these souls, gathering them up into pens *which not being able to wander increases the suffering*, put them inside fruit pods that get sweeter from absorbing the soul energy, or feed them to other livestock. Like with a soul body when the energy is drained away the soul will fade and :"respawn" back to invisible wandering conciousness somewhere else, usually nearby. As a single boon the fences demons make to round up souls don't work on the pre-light wandering conciousness part so they can make an escape through the fences if they respawn inside them so long as they go immediatly. But they are still destined to suffer only to fall prey to something eventually.


  Pit: Pit hells are extremly primitive and tend to get retired shortly after multiple civilizations have made contact, much to the irritation of many of their Overlords. Another name for a Pit hell is a "Thematically Specific" Hell. In that the hell has one major theme and is designed to focus on very specific offenses, many of which either end up uncommon as time goes on but worked to dissuade souls in their next lives from following that overly specific passion that harmed them and others. Soul Bodies here are much like those of False Earths and Labyrinths only with an even faster regeneration. To place some examples the Primal Hells can be classified as Pit Hells, it is a world of endless burning ground, a world of endless ice, a world of darkness with spinning blades in the shadows, a world where the soul bodies are strung up with hooks hanging over burning pots and demons slice off chunks of them to make into stews. Some of these Pit Hells actually end up being part of a False Earth or Labyrinth Hell rather than being fully retired, so long as the Overlord isn't stubborn about it, and these areas become one of many traps in those Hells. For this reason some of these older Soul Bodies end up finding their way into these other Hells and may notice the slight difference between their own regeneration and relative pain compared to others. Some Hells in this category however don't expand and end up instead being moved to new young worlds, for example the False Paradise Hell which has silver trees with gold leaves, rivers of aqumarine and mountains of jade and so on was designed to target souls that put accumulating precious metals and gems above all else even harming others to obtain them; not so much because wealth equals power but for the lust of these and could never get enough. Once currency gets a bit more abstract and civilizations trade more this Hell tends to see fewer and fewer in it, sometimes there may be a sudden surge, but generally a Hell whose purpose is to cause constant pain with sharp surfaces and the realization that they can't actually own any of the gems and metals and there is no way to spend it; emphasized by there being demons of these realms who laugh at them and torture them for lusting over what in their world amounts to dirt and wood; loses some of its effectiveness in a more open market world. Many of these Pit Hells suffer the same problem as civilizations along with mitigating circumstances, motivations, and temptations get wider and more complex. Some Pit Hells as a special note are stubborn and insist they arn't outdated and whose overlords may take part in Overlord Tournaments to retain their position for a time; a prime example of this is the Soot Swamp Hell run by Overlord Hydera Dredge, the hell is full of choking hair, soot and ash like plants, and a black boiling swamp. It is basically a hell for naraccists who put themselves above all others to be sent to screaming in constant agony ripping away at their own skin to get the acidic and boiling materials out of their mouths, lungs, and off their bodies yet even if they manage to rip some skin off it just grows back as sensative as ever to be burned and boiled again. Other Hells say they can have areas like that for that purpose, and entire Hell world just for that is unneccessary especially with mitigating circumstances in most complex socieites where people like that would end up in a Palace Hell situation.


   Prison: One of the simpler kinds of Hells and ones designed specifically to rehabilitate souls. Usually when the majority and severity of the sins fall under "Self Sins", this is the Hell one goes to. Here a person is usually alone in a single room, this blank white room will expand in time and reflection, adding features like furniture, a tv, paintings/posters, and eventually a door. The environment outside expands as a familiar place, one with items and moving pictures of reflection over one's life focusing on the things they cared about and their own actions. It is important to note here unlike a Pit or Labyrinth there are no physical pain traps (usually, some severe cases may have a few minor ones), but most of all no other people here. There may be ghostly holodeck like moments observing the living or one's past. A Prison Hell may actually be in the living world and the person is an active ghost trapped in that one area; although what they see and what the living see doesn't always match up. It is a Hell of reflection and contemplation. One doesn't deserve any severe suffering but their actions and choices need reflection on so in their next life that "gut feeling" or whisper in the ear conciousness that is the eternal soul's job can try to make the next you avoid those choices as best they can.

  Palace: Palace Hells are ones where the Soul Body is a servant/slave to demons. More often than not these also tends to end up a location in a False Earth, or even Alien World, as time goes on. Meant to humble kings, slave owners, the wealthy, and so on; at least in concept. As societies get more complex and more levels of power exist the staff in these palaces gets more complex and the term ends up applying to other things. A very common "Palace Punishment" is a Soul Body who finds themselves in an office building that is jutting up from a sea of darkness or other hell world but there is a spirit chain wrapped around their ankle that phases into the floor. They can wander about the place all they want, this chain just moving behind them into the floor but it holds them tight if they try to exit the building, a designated area, or go out a window and pull them back in. Cutting one's foot off doesn't remove the chain it is spiritually connected. Others with such chains can also be found in department stores, fast food joints, warehouses, and many other occupations. The main sin that seems to result in this, is taking too much pride in a job that hurts the self, along with the social sin of abusing a position of authority over other employees. Alot of CEOs, managers, supervisors, and people in general who insult and look down upon other occupations as beneath them even as they are suffering inside just as much from their job and especially if they use this to abuse others and take out their frustrations on others. In other wors they are condemned not only to Hell but to be trapped in an empty shell of the place they wasted their life and passion on. They can also fall prey to same torture traps, demons, and other people that can come and go from those buildings. As fitting this is much worse a situation for the higher the position of authority. An overly proud manager at a fast food joint who chased off new employees they didn't like and took advantage of their authority may find themself trapped inside some empty fast food joint stuck in an empty parkinglot of some knock off a shopping plaza with boredom as their main punishment as they can never walk out the doors of that like fifty feet from one end to the other building, but may still be visited by others and tormented by the demons of that land that may come inside. Meanwhile a super intendent of a housing project who denied people, kicked out starving families for being a day late, and so on is going to find themselves trapped in a building full of nightmarish ghouls, giant spiders, humanoid flesh eating cockroaches, a living boiler that mocks them, tiny imps that hold them down to carve off chunks of flesh in the stairwell, no heating or air conditioning, and so on to suffer in what to others in that False Earth would be a trap they could escape from.

   On the other side a Palace Hell also refers to an actual Palace, the term meaning a place souls are trapped in and must directly or indirectly serve a demon or demons. Some where these chained down soul bodies have to work in active locations like as the cashier at a demon's mall unable to leave the tiny store and go anywhere else, or as the staff of a demon's palace such as a maid, chef, there are hells where such soul bodies have to work at scalding hotsprings for giants, bath houses for spirits, clean up after foul acidic abominations. In addition another form of "Palace Hell" involves using other kinds of Soul Bodies, in particulat robbing a person of having an immitation soul body but rather a "doll body" varies from clay doll, straw doll, wooden puppet, plastic, living mannequin, and even robots and other false bodies. These soul bodies end up becoming the playthings of demons, toys, slaves, and so on. A conciousness trapped in a body that is only mockery of what they had when alive forced to serve a demonic entity. In some cases these end up as toys for demons, put into doll houses for giant demons (or shrunk down to doll size), or wandering a Toy Box like Hell world, a sort of "you toyed with and treated others as property now you are property". Unfortunatly some demon overlords and even other demons of such worlds have been known to abuse this power themselves and end up seducing and abducting soul bodies from other hells and in some extreme cases still living people to add to their doll collections. Which in Hell legality counts as demonic bargains, but some cases can be argued. A dolls only Hell is uncommon and also tends to be an area in a False Earth Hell, while the Labyrinth versions end up being regarded less as Hell worlds and more like Fae pocket dimensions as they no longer qualify to get fresh souls automatically thanks to taking souls that didn't fit the criteria or not enough end up there with the right criteria. As one can see "Palace Hell" applies to a few very different scenarios that ultimatly come down "bound to servitude in death".


    Nightmare: the final kind of Hell. This is the "natural" Hell. Without demons or death gods and only having the "judge within", souls will enter into a mental state between lives, basically the same thing as dreaming, but with too many negative aspects trapped in a loop of a nightmare that goes on and on without being able to wake up until the mind can find some sort of peace with its self and move on to reincarnate. Other Hells exist artificially because this Hell proved to be too insuficient to correct for behavior in the next life; especially if after enough lives the eternal soul which was young when it started the cycle, can't be certain what it is doing is right or wrong and things too complicated and it gets confused so the following lives just end up more chaotic and too much from the past life bleeds over so new experiences are muddled; which that last part is why heavens also exist. Hells correct and Heavens reward, one to "burn off" sin and the other to "relax away the stress of life"; in fact those with lesser sins will spend time in Hell only to then end up in a heaven for a short time to relax away and forget before being reincarnated. Older souls that have become demon lords or gods as well as higher dimensional beings that have taken part in possessing and reincarnating as physical beings so they can gain an understanding of their situations will step in and act as guides setting up Hells or connecting young human worlds to other Hells to help them develop at a pace that allow for sapient beings to develop into functional socieites eventually rather than purely chaotic madhouses of complex thoughts blending with biology and memories and stresses of past lives constantly bleeding in to confuse things; the self destruction of the physical that only results in souls maturing into eldritch abominations and other chaotic higher beings that spread the suffering and destruction to other mortal worlds. With the right guidance the souls can someday mature into the same positions to guide other mortal worlds, becoming well rounded respectful mature gods.