Nine Hells of Baator
The Nine Hells of Baator, sometimes Hell or Hells, also known as Baator[16] in Infernal, was the home of the devils.[17] It was a plane of sinister evil and institutional cruelty organized in a strict caste system with a very rigid chain of command. Unlike the demons of the Abyss, the devils were highly organized in their quest for power and status—scheming and plotting power plays, coups, and assassinations. Each of the nine Hells had its own physical laws or properties of matter, but all were inhospitable or deadly to outsiders.[10] This plane's place in the cosmology of the Forgotten Realms shifted over time but was always a bastion and incubator for those of the lawful evil persuasion.
Geography
Each of the nine Hells was unique and usually mirrored the malevolent characteristics of its ruler, or perhaps the archdevils were shaped by the domains they schemed to control, no one can be certain. In earlier cosmologies, each Hell was a separate infinite layer rigidly joined to its neighbors by barriers at fixed locations.[10][note 1] After the Spellplague, the domains of the archdevils were described as territories (large, but finite)[12] or circles.[15] The relationship between layers and circles is not fully known. What follows are descriptions of the nine Hells reported by various cosmologists working under different cosmological models, gathered, collated, and summarized.
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