Supernatural: Niraya/Hell

The Kristyans of Heimland believe in Hell, a place sinners (people who are too wicked to enter Heaven) are sent to. Hell is where Lucifer (the Great-Deceiver), his demons and sinners dwell in. Sinners in Hell feel pain and agony just like living humans when they are subjected to torture. They can’t "die" from the torture because when the ordeal is over their bodies will be restored to their original states for the torture to be repeated.
Originally it was thought that Hell was just a metaphor, a mythical place. However, after research conducted by the Old Folk, it has been confirmed that Hell is a real place.

Geography

There are five rivers in Hell that flow through most of its regions; Stycks (the river of oaths), Leth (the river of oblivion), Akerousios (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (the river of lamentation) and Phlegethon (the river of fire).
There are two main sections of Hell; Upper-Hell and Lower-Hell. The deeper levels are organized into Circles; one for violence (Circle 7) and two circles for fraud (Circles 8 and 9). Circle 1 (Midpoint) is in Upper-Hell and Circle 6 (Heresy) in Lower-Hell, making 9 Circles in total; this leads to Hell containing 10 main divisions known as the ten Courts-of-Hell. Lower-Hell is further subdivided: Circle 7 (Violence) is divided into three Rings, Circle 8 (Simple-Fraud) is divided into ten Malebolge, and Circle 9 (Complex-Fraud) is divided into four Regions. Thus, Hell contains 24 Divisions with 96,816 Principalities in each; 12,800 light Principalities, eight dark Principalities, eight cold Principalities and 84,000 fiery Principalities located at the edge of the Creation. Each Court and Circle is in fact the same but the only difference is that the period of suffering in each chamber is longer than the first.
To enter the Courts and Circles, once must go through the seven Gates-of-Hell. All seven Gates are protected by bolts; the Old-God Neti is the gatekeeper. Each Gate bears an inscription ending with the famous phrase “Obə-mehi-ætuḷu-vana-siyalu-balāporottuva-athæra-damanna” written in Great-Letters, most frequently translated as "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Past the Gates are the Uncommitted. These are the souls of people who in life took no sides; the opportunists who were for neither good nor evil, but instead were merely concerned with themselves. Mixed with them are outcasts who took no side in the Second-War-of-Darkness. These souls are forever unclassified; they are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of its rivers. Naked and futile, they race around through the mist in eternal pursuit of an elusive, wavering banner (symbolic of their pursuit of ever-shifting self-interest) while relentlessly chased by swarms of wasps, hornets and snakes with legs that continually sting and bite them. Massive maggots and worms at the sinners' feet drink the putrid mixture of blood, pus, and tears that flows down their bodies. This symbolizes the sting of their guilty conscience and the repugnance of sin. Past these there stands Karon/Namtar, the messenger and boatman of Hell who drives the Ferry that goes through it. The Ferry travels through the River.
The River is a pool of filthy black blood where those who touch the water will drown. The Ferry travels to the other side of the River, where Hell officially begins.
Circle-One, known as the Midpoint, is where the Virtuous-Pagans reside. They are not sinful, but did not accept the Creator at all. After those who refused choice come those without opportunity of choice. They could not, choose the Creator but they could, and did, choose human virtue; and for that they have their reward. In Circle-One there is no punishment, although it is still in Hell.
The Second-Circle is the first of the circles of Incontinence, where the punishments of Hell proper begin. A part where nothing gleams, it is watched over by the serpentine Minos, who judges all of those condemned for active, deliberately willed sin to one of the lower circles. Minos sentences each soul to its torment by wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number of times. The Second-Circle (Lust) of Hell is inhabited by those overcome by lust and unhealthy desires. These carnal lowlifes are condemned for allowing their appetites to sway their reason. These souls are buffeted back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow needlessly and aimlessly. Since lust involves mutual indulgence and is not, therefore, completely self-centered, it is the least heinous of the sins and its punishment is the most benign within Hell proper.
In the Third-Circle (Glutton), the gluttonous wallow in a vile putrid slush produced by a ceaseless, foul, icy storm of putrefaction as punishment for subjecting their reason to a voracious appetite. Granvermo, the monstrous three-headed beast of Hell, ravenously guards the gluttons lying in the freezing mire, mauling and flaying them with his claws as they howl like dogs.
The Fourth-Circle (Greed) is guarded by a figure named as Plutus, a deity of wealth. Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the Fourth-Circle. They include the greedy or miserly that hoarded possessions, and the prodigal who squandered them. The hoarders and spendthrifts joust, using as massive bags of money and riches as weapons that they painfully push with their chests.
In the swampy, stinking waters of the Fifth-Circle (Wrath), the wrathful fight each other viciously on the surface of the slime, while the sullen (the passively wrathful) lie beneath the water, withdrawn into a black sulkiness which can find no joy in life or man or the universe. At the surface of the foul marsh the active hatreds rend and snarl at one another; some are thrown off cliffs and land on mountainous terrain with sharp blades sticking out, some are forced to climb trees with knives and sharp thorns sticking out of trunks and branches by others, some are dismembered by various means including sawing, some mash and pound each other with rocks, some crush each other with boulders and some rip out the tongues and eyes and teeth and hearts of their neighbours. At the bottom, the sullen-hatreds lie gurgling, unable even to express themselves for the rage that chokes them. As the last circle of Incontinence, the savage self-frustration of the Fifth-Circle marks the beginning of the path to the City-of-Dis.
Dis, surrounded by the marsh, contains Lower-Hell within its walls. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels. There are sixteen sections of torture within the city of Dis:

• Arbuda- a dark, frozen plain surrounded by icy mountains and continually swept by blizzards. Inhabitants of this section arise fully grown and abide lifelong naked and alone, while the cold raises blisters upon their bodies. The length of life in this section is said to be the time it would take to empty a barrel of sesame seeds if one only took out a single seed every hundred years. Torture in this section is 21,012 years long.
  Nirarbuda- even colder than Arbuda. There, the blisters burst open, leaving the beings' bodies covered with frozen blood and pus. Torture in this section is 41,013 years long.
  Aṭaṭa- beings shiver in the cold, making a painful "aṭ-aṭ-aṭ" sound with their mouths. Torture in this is 81,014 years long.
  Hahava- beings lament in the cold, going "haa, haa" in pain. Torture in this section is 1,061,016 years long.
  Huhuva- beings shiver as their teeth chatter, making the sound "hu, hu." Torture in this section is 3,021,017 years long.
  Utpala- the intense cold there makes the skin turn blue like the color of a waterlily. Torture in this section is 6,041,018 years long.
  Padma- has blizzards that crack open frozen skin, leaving one raw and bloody. Torture in this section is 10,281,020 years long.
  Mahāpadma- the entire body cracks into pieces and the internal organs are exposed to the cold, also cracking. Torture in this section is 20,561,021 years long.
  Sañjīva- has ground made of hot iron heated by an immense fire. Beings in this section appear fully grown, already in a state of fear and misery. As soon as the being begins to fear being harmed by others, their fellows appear and attack each other with iron claws and hell guards appear and attack the being with fiery weapons. As soon as the being experiences unconsciousness like death, they are suddenly restored to full health and the attacks begin again. Other tortures experienced in this section include: having molten metal dropped upon them, being sliced into pieces, and suffering from the heat of the iron ground. Torture in this section is 1.62×1012 years long.
  Kālasūtra- includes the torments of Sañjīva. In addition, black lines are drawn upon the body, which hell guards use as guides to cut the beings with fiery saws and sharp axes. Torture in this section is 1.296×1013 years long.
  Saṃghāta- surrounded by huge masses of rock that smash together and crush the beings to a bloody jelly. When the rocks move apart again, life is restored to the being and the process starts again. Torture in this section is 1.0368×1014 years long.
  Raurava- beings run wildly about, looking for refuge from the burning ground. When they find an apparent shelter, they are locked inside it as it blazes around them, while they scream inside. Torture in this section is 8.2944×1014 years long.
  Mahāraurava- similar to Raurava. Punishment here is for people who maintain their own body by hurting others. In this section, animals torment them and eat their flesh. Torture in this section is 6.63552×1015 years long.
  Tapana- where hell guards impale beings on a fiery spear until flames issue from their noses and mouths. Torture in this section is 5.308416×1016 years long.
  Pratāpana- tortures here are similar to the Tapana, but the beings are pierced more bloodily with a trident. Torture in this section is 4.2467328×1017 years long.
  Avīīchii- beings are roasted in an immense blazing oven with terrible suffering. Torture in this section is 3.39738624×1018 years long.

Through Dis begins Lower-Hell.
In the Sixth-Circle (Heresy), heretics, are trapped in flaming tombs, set aflame and cast into infernos, fried in cauldrons of oil, boiling metal is forced down sinners' throats and poured on parts of their bodies and stripped naked and tied to a large hollow metal cylinder with a fire lit at its base.
The Seventh-Circle (Violence) is divided into three Rings, houses the Violent. It is guarded by L’infamia, a Minotaur-like beast.

• In the First-Ring of the Seventh-Circle, the murderers, war-makers, plunderers, and tyrants are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire. As they wallow in blood during their lives, so they are immersed in the boiling blood forever, each according to the degree of his guilt.
  The Second-Ring of the Seventh-Circle is the Wood-of-the-Suicides, in which the souls of the people who attempted or committed suicide are transformed into gnarled, thorny trees and then bitten by hideous clawed birds with the faces of women; the trees are only permitted to speak when broken and bleeding. Suicide is an insult to the body; so here the shades are deprived of even the semblance of the human form. As they refused life, they remain fixed in a dead and withered sterility. They are the image of the self-hatred which dries up the very sap of energy and makes all life infertile. These suicides, unique among the dead, will not be resurrected after the Final-Judgement since they threw their bodies away; instead, will maintain their bushy form with their own corpses hanging from the thorny limbs. Throughout the forest race multiple Profligates, those who when possessed by a depraved passion all dissipated their goods for the sheer longing of wreckage and disorder, these Profligates are chased and savagely mauled by ferocious hounds. The destruction brought onto the wood by the profligates' flight and punishment as they crash through the undergrowth causes further suffering to the Suicides, who cannot move out of the way as they are wooden.
  The Third-Ring of the Seventh-Circle is the great Plain-of-Burning-Sand scorched by great flakes of flame falling slowly down from the sky. The Blasphemers (the Violent against divinity) are stretched flat upon the burning sand, the Heathens (the Violent against nature) run in circles, while the Usurers (the Violent against Art itself, which is the grandchild of the Creator) crouch huddled and weeping. The overflow of Phlegethon, the river of blood from the First-Ring, flows boiling through the Wood of the Suicides (the Second-Ring) and crosses the Burning-Plain. Just past this is the waterfall that plunges over the Great-Cliff into the Eighth-Circle, to pass safely through the filthy air of the abyss once must fly down from the cliff on the back of the Monster-of-Fraud.

The Eighth-Circle (Fraud), called Malebolge ("Evil ditches") is the upper half of the Hell of the Fraudulent-and-Malicious. The Eighth-Circle is a large funnel of stone shaped like an amphitheater around which run a series of ten deep, narrow, concentric ditches or trenches called Bolge (singular: Bolgia). Within these ditches are punished those guilty of Simple-Fraud. From the foot of the Great-Cliff to the Well (which forms the neck of the funnel) are large spurs of rock, like umbrella ribs or spokes, which serve as bridges over the ten ditches.

• Bolgia-One is filled with Panderers and seducers: These sinners make two files, one along either bank of the ditch and march quickly in opposite directions while being whipped by horned demons for eternity. They deliberately exploited the passions of others and so drove them to serve their own interests, and are now themselves driven and scourged.
  Bolgia-Two is filled with Flatterers: these also exploited other people, this time abusing and corrupting language to play upon others' desires and fears. They are steeped in excrement (representative of the false flattering they told on earth) as they howl and fight among themselves.
  Bolgia-Three is filled with Simoniacs: those who committed simony, the sale of ecclesiastic favors and offices and therefore made money for themselves out of what belongs to their respective church. The sinners are placed head-downwards in round, tube-like holes within the rock (debased mockeries of baptismal fonts), with flames burning the soles of their feet. The heat of the fire is proportioned to their guilt.
  Bolgia-Four is filled with fortune tellers, diviners, astrologers and other false prophets. The punishment of those who attempted to usurp Creation’s privilege by prying into the future, is to have their heads twisted around on their bodies; in this horrible contortion of the human form, these sinners are compelled to walk backwards for eternity, blinded by their own tears. Those who sought to penetrate the future now cannot even see in front of themselves; they attempted to move themselves forward in time, so must they go backwards through all eternity; and as the arts of sorcery are a distortion of Creation’s law, so are their bodies distorted in Hell.
  Bolgia-Five is filled with Barraters: Corrupt politicians who made money by trafficking in public offices (the political analogue of the Simoniacs), are immersed in a lake of boiling tar, which represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals. They are guarded by demons called the Malebranche (Evil-Claws), who tear them to pieces with claws and grappling hooks if they catch them above the surface of the pitch. The leader of the Malebranche, named Malacoda ("Evil Tail") throws the Barraters into the pitch where the demons set upon them.
  Bolgia-Six is full of Hypocrites: the hypocrites listlessly walking around a narrow track for eternity, weighted down by leaden robes. The robes are brilliantly gilded on the outside and are shaped like a monk's habit, the hypocrite's outward appearance shines brightly and passes for holiness, but under that show lays the terrible weight of deceit, a falsity that weighs them down and makes spiritual progress impossible for them.
  Bolgia-Seven is full of Thieves: a pit filled with monstrous reptiles, snakes and lizards pursue and bite the thieves, curl themselves about the sinners and bind their hands behind their backs.
  Bolgia-Eight is full of Counsellors of Fraud: fraudulent advisers or evil counsellors move about, hidden from view inside individual flames. These are not people who gave false advice, but people who used their position to advise others to engage in fraud.
  Bolgia-Nine is filled with Sowers of Discord: the Sowers of Discord are hacked and mutilated for all eternity by a large demon wielding a bloody sword; their bodies are divided as, in life, their sin was to tear apart what was intended to be united; these are the sinners who are ready to rip up the whole fabric of society to gratify a sectional egotism. The souls must drag their ruined bodies around the ditch, their wounds healing in the course of the circuit, only to have the demon tear them apart anew. There are divided into three categories: religious schism and discord, civil strife and political discord and family disunion or discord between kinsmen.
  Bolgia-Ten is filled with Falsifiers: a disease on society, they are themselves afflicted with different types of afflictions: horrible diseases, stench, thirst, filth, darkness, and screaming. Some lie prostrate while others run hungering through the pit, tearing others to pieces, viciously scrubbing and clawing at their leprous scabs.

The Central-Well, at the bottom of which lies the Ninth and final Circle of Hell, is filled with Titans/Rakshasa who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery, they stand perpetual guard inside the well-pit, their legs embedded in the banks of the Ninth-Circle while their upper halves rise above the rim and can be visible from the Malebolge.
At the base of the Well is a large frozen lake; Cocytus, the Ninth-Circle of Hell. Trapped in the ice, each according to his guilt, are punished sinners guilty of treachery against those with whom they had special relationships. The lake of ice is divided into four concentric rings (or "rounds") of traitors corresponding, in order of seriousness, to betrayal of family ties, betrayal of community ties, betrayal of guests, and betrayal of lords. This final, deepest level of hell is reserved for traitors, betrayers and oath-breakers (its most famous inmate is Judas Iscariot). It is reserved for sinners who have committed heinous crimes, including the Five-Grave-Offences [intentionally murdering one's father, intentionally murdering one's mother, killing an Angel, Archangel or Old-God), shedding the blood of an innocent (children, harmless animals) and creating a schism within humankind and Creation]. Their bodies eventually fall apart or break into pieces, and reform again.

• Round-One of the Lake is Caïna: this Round houses the Traitors to their Kindred; they have their necks and heads out of the ice and are allowed to bow their heads, allowing some protection from the freezing wind.
  Round-Two of the Lake is Antenora: here lie the Traitors to their Country: those who committed treason against political entities (parties, cities, or countries) have their heads above the ice, but they cannot bend their necks.
  Round-Three is Ptolomaea: Traitors to their Guests lie supine in the ice while their tears freeze in their eye sockets, sealing them with small visors of crystal: even the comfort of weeping is denied them.
  Round-Four is Judecca: contains the Traitors to their Lords and benefactors. Judecca is completely silent: all of the sinners are fully encapsulated in ice, distorted and twisted in every conceivable position. The sinners present an image of utter immobility.

And finally is the Center-of-Hell: in the very center of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin (personal treachery against the Creator) is Lucifer, also known as Lord Dis. The traitor was once held by the Creator to be fairest of the angels before his pride led him to rebel against Him, resulting in his expulsion from Heaven. Lucifer is a giant, terrifying beast trapped waist-deep in the ice, fixed and suffering. He has three faces, each a different color: one red (the middle, representing the innocent blood he mercilessly shed), one pale yellow (the right, representing his cowardice) and one black (the left, representing his pride and the darkening of his soul). Lucifer retains his six wings (he originally belonged to the angelic order of the Seraphim Archangels), but these are now dark, bat-like and futile: the icy wind that emanates from the beating of Lucifer's wings only further ensures his own imprisonment in the frozen lake. The wings are pierced with hooks and hung up painfully. He weeps from his six eyes, and his tears mix with bloody froth and pus as they pour down his three chins. The froth and pus is consumed by Cravyāda/Malasanguis (“Bad Blood”), demonic cattle with horns and tusks that maul, sting and bite Lucifer’s neck eternally. Each face of Lucifer has a mouth that chews eternally on a prominent traitor. Past Lucifer is the Centre-of-Creation and the Exit of Hell, where one can travel to Mount Purgatory.

Fauna & Flora

The massive City-of-Dis in particular is inhabited by spirits, creatures, and other beings including Bakbak-Matsil (demons that afflict pregnant women, the elderly, and infants who happen to stumble into remote woods, caves, and ruins of Hell. Bakbak-Matsil can be male or female; male Bakbak-Matsil generally appear monstrous, while female Bakbak-Matsil can shift between tempting beauty and hag-like ugliness), Deivuó (many-headed demons whose heads can regenerate if any of them are cut off. These malevolent giants hoard treasure troves and keep their captives), Dobilni (disease-spreading spirits, appearing usually in the form of women, children or animals), Gveleshapi (evil serpents that lived in the lakes, rivers, and water sources of Dis), K’akǰi (spirits who are as magic-wielding, demonic metal-workers. They have magic powers that they use against the humans trapped in Dis), Kudiani (hideous hunchbacked hags, having large teeth and long serpentine tails. Kudianis can disguise themselves as humans in order to bewitch them. The demonic leader of the Kudianis, Rokap, often summons them to a special mountain near the Great-Cliff where they hold a festival in which they consume human sacrifices), Ochokochi (evil spirits that plague travellers and hunters. Instead of hair on their chests, they have protrusions in the form of pointed bones which they use to kill passersby by embracing them) and Paskunji (phoenix-like beings who are hostile to humans and persecute them).
The sixteen sections of the City of Dis are managed by the Dharmapāla, wrathful deities of Hell of which there are sixteen: Vajrayaksha, Nagpo-Chenpo, Mahakalī, Shinje, Yamantaka, Hayagriva, Dorje-Legpa, Palden-Lhamo, Ekajaṭī, Rāhula, Vajrasādhu, Tshangspa, Maharakta, Rigchema, Takkiraja and Prana-Atma.
The rest of the fauna are demons.

Natural Resources

None

Alternative Name(s)

Naraka, Hubris, Kveskneli

Type

Dimensional plane