Modern Hell

AvernusThe first layer of Baator is a wasteland of broken concrete, barbed wire and choking smog. Under an eternal rain of flames massive factory complexes churn out armaments for the diabolic legions, while in immense courtyards the fiends themselves drill endlessly in preparation for the next battle against the Tanar'ri. Filling the factories and the training grounds are the twisted soul shells and lemures, working endlessly under the eyes of greater fiend overseers. Those who do not meet expectations or fail to fill quotas are turned into raw materials for Hell's terrible war machine.Amid clusters of industrial horror are gleaming academies for the elite of Baatezu society, where Pit Fiend generals are trained in the arts of tactics and administration.The Bronze CitadelTowering over the surrounding industrial complexes and training grounds stands the Bronze Citadel. A fortress city built of tarnished scrap metal, the central power of Avernus appears at first to be a blasted and decrepit wreck.Appearances, though, are deceiving - under the decay and rust lies a core of stainless steel and fiberoptics. From his comand room at the citadel's heart, Warlord-Regent Bael can observe and command anything within the entierity of the first hell. The Pillar of SkullsTowering high into the clouds of soot and smog, this landmark is a testament to the Devil's might in war and a visual history of their enemies. Near the base of the tower the mostly demonic skulls display almost as much metal as bone, while the higher, and older, reaches of the tower are pure; a reminder to the devils that, as they have changed and grown greater, so have their enemies, and that they should never grow complacent in the propagation of Law and Evil. At the Pillar's base old Tiamat rests, not reduced by her scarred hide and sightless eyes. She guards the stairway from Avernus to Dis, while her chromatic children attend to her wills and desires.DisThe second layer of Baator is a city of red hot stainless steel. Skyscrapers rise like an eternal and terrible forest, the streets are packed with vehicles and the sidewalks bustle with the economic comings and goings of the city's fiendish occupants.Within the glowing towers soul shells and lemures shuffle between cubicles and offices, delivering the commands and dictates of the Baatezu Elite to the lesser fiends that labor endlessly, designing and programing and filing and accounting, slaving away endlessly to fufill the plans and purposes of their masters. In their top-floor offices, the Baatezu nobles plan and scheme, playing an intricate game of economic diplomacy and sabatoge. The Iron TowerAbove the city's tallest skyscraper rises the Iron Tower, the executive center of Dis. Out of place in this city of glowing metal and burning glass, the tower is sculpted of black iron as if by a demented gothic architect. For all its twisted monstrosity, it displays a dark symmetry and darker purpose. Within this baroque monstrosity resides Dispater, the Executive-Regent of the city. From the tower he can observe everything that happens in his domain, every petty victory and defeat in the war of currency and trade that rages below him, every plot and plan of his underlings.MinaurosThe third layer of Baator is a damp wasteland of thick, soft mud and decay. Littering the grounds are the corpses of ancient beasts, forgotten even by immortals. Rising from the muck are industrial furnaces that produce consumer goods to be exported and sold to the rest of the Hells. The massive revenue produced is sucked into the coffers of the Minauros bureocracy, and most of the workers are destitute.The City of MinaurosRising into the sky like some ancient and decrepit beast is the city of Minauros, from which the layer gains its name. The lower levels of the city are relatively uninhabited, and house the vaults of the bureaucrats and tax collectors. The stone from which these layers are built is old, damp and scored by acid; a silent testament to the great acidic swamps that once filled the layer. Above the vaults are the manors of the Bureaucrats and Tax collectors themselves - vast, decadent estates filled with servants and slaves. At the highest point in the city lies the estate of the Viscount-Regent Mammon, a mausoleum miles wide crafted from the finest marble in the planes.Jangling HiterHigh above the muck and decay of the plains below, the Kyton city of Jangling Hiter is suspended by huge chains of steel and iron. Within the city of Chains, the Kytons regard each other as equals but defer to Qytel. The Kytons have taken over the vital role as the bankers of Hell, and most transactions go through the Hanging City, There, the masters of chains forge links of debt which contract into a jingling net spanning and binding the entirety of Hell.PhlegethosThe fourth layer of Hell is a giant urban sprawl. Unlike Dis, the buildings here are daibolic casinos, massive entertainment halls and titanic brothels, all lit by flame from below and flashing neon lights from everywhere else.Filling the streets are lesser devils, indulging in the vices and pleasures offered by the pimps and the pushers. Luxury vehicles for the elite and nobility traverse less crowded routs, leading directly to the V.I.P. suits and the most extravagant hotels and entertainment facilities. AbriymochThe heart of the great city, Abriymoch, is located within the caldera of an extinct volcano, and is the home to the lord and lady of the Layer, Belail and his daughter Fierna. The city is made up almost entirely of brothels specializing in the most sadistic of perversions. Mortals and outsiders of all types can be enjoyed here, and have been enhanced magically to regenerate the wounds inflicted on them by their clients. At the center of it all, Lady Fierna holds lavish orgies of suffering and pain for the highest of the high in the diabolic hierarchy.StygiaBUY! BUY! SPEND! A SOUL SAVED IS A SOUL WASTED! NEW SLAVES TODAY, JUST 3 SOULS A DOZEN! BUY! SPEND!On entering the Fifth Hell, a being is inundated with an endless stream of advertisements, propaganda and commercials for everything the mind could possibly imagine. The layer is a frozen world, with massive ice floes drifting through frigid seas. Under the waters, built into the undersides of the frozen bergs, are cities surrounded by magical wards that keep the waters of the styx from pouring in. These wards are not entirely effective, and a mind numbing mist swirls in the streets, slowly sapping the will and memories of the petitioners and fiends that dwell here. Everywhere are vision screens, magical resonators projecting telepathic messages, billboards, speakers and a host of stranger media. In the mental void left by the stygian mists, these media inject messages to buy, spend, do this, do that, belive this and obey that, all in an uneding torrent. In these cities the goods produced in Minauros are sold according to the economic plans of Dis, all advertised by the media of Stygia.TantlinOnce known as the City of Ice, Tantalin is the one city free of the unending torrent of advertisement. Here is the marketing core of the layer, where the ad campaigns and the subliminal messages that bombard the rest of the layer are created. In the harbor of the city is a massive iceberg in which Leviathan is trapped. In the facets of the ice flickering images can be seen, all displaying the mental conditioning constantly being concocted by the lord of the Fifth.MalbolgeThe sixth layer of hell is an endless maze of stone cliffs. Steel scaffolds cling to the sheer cliffs like the webs of spiders. It is among these scaffolds that the slaves of hell labor endlessly, harvesting the raw materials poured into the machines of Avernus and Minauros.Smoke belches from the hanging refineries, poisoning the air and staining the rock faces while their wastes are thrown into the endless depths; a filithy rain falling on the lower refineries and mining camps. Palace of the CountessAt the center of the massive web of scaffolds, suspended between two of the endless cliff faces, the Regent-Hag supervises the endless mining opperations. She sells to every layer of Hell, reaping great rewards in the process. Lost CampsDotting the endless expanses of cliff faces are the rusting remnants of those camps who failed to meet the quotas set to them by the Hag countess. Within these webs of rust and decay strange creatures lurk, their horrific howlings echoing up through the canyonsand terrifying the slaves of hell. These scaffolds are observed by specially asigned devils from Nessus, who bear authority equal to a duke of hell. Maladomini The Seventh Hell is a world of ruined citys, crumbling roads and rusting iron. Beneath the broken shadows of this ruined wasteland, lesser devils huddle in sagging buildings, broken and defeated, bereft of the slightest hope of acension through the ranks of their race.MalgaurdRising from the ruin and decay of the layer, Malgaurd is a titanic white and grey city which gleams in the dim light. Within the city, devils of all ranks move about their lives according to prescripted plans, performing actions and thinking thoughts all chosen by the supreme master of the city, Regent Beezulbub.Every action is carefully observed and documented, every movement examined, every thought cataloged by the legions of observers, and all this is passed on to Beezulbub. Any deviation from the norm is stamped out, every subversive element culled. Identical devils perform identical tasks in identical rooms of identical buildings in identical blocks of the perfectly symetric city.CaniaThe Eighth layer of Hell is wrapped in eternal cold. Massive glaciers rise from plains of ice, buried by an undying blizzard. The entire layer is lit by the surreal glow of fiberoptic cables running through the ice, and the frozen wastes are criss-crossed by cables conveying information to and from sealed labs where fiendish researchers conduct horrific experiments in the search for new knowledge.MephistarIn the end all the cables carrying information, all the waves of communication, converge on Mephistar. Here, Lord-Regent Mephistopheles sifts through the masses of data, deciding which projects shall be funded and which shall be cut, which discovery will be released to which researchers, which technologies will be implemented and which shall be stored away for some other time.All knowledge comes to the Frozen Lord, but only what he wants leaves.Shapes in the IceDeep within some glaciers of Cania, strange shapes can be seen. Around such glaciers are zones of darkness where no cables run. These zones have been declared off limits to the fiendish research body as a whole, and only specially assigned fiends are ever given a chance to study them.Experimentation CampsAmidst the glowing icebergs lie massive camps, cut off from the rest of the plane by magically sealed walls of jagged metal. In these camps, the "research subjects" of Cania are collected. Each camp specializes in a particular form of subject - camps for elves, humans, dwarves, and exemplar breeds can all be found. Some camps are even more specialized, containing only members of a particular subrace, religion, political leaning, or whatever classification can be imagined. In the camps some "research subjects" undergo horrific tortures and strange treatments, while others are kept healthy and fit so as to provide the maximum amount of variety for testing.The PitSurrounded by a ledge of titanic icebergs is the Pit. The primary access point to Nessus, the Pit is several hundred feet wide and emits an uneding torrent of steam. Elevators, wrought from superheated steel, are built into the sides of of the pit and it is from the points where they touch the frozen walls of the pit that the steam issues. These elevators are guarded by legions of fiends.NessusThe Ninth Hell. Of all the incarnations of Law and Evil, this is the most true. Here, no factories belch forth smoke, no lesser fiends toil endlessly at the whims of their dark lords. That is the job of the other Eight. Here the ground is an endless, glassy plain of still-hot obsidan, with all cracks and imperfections smoothed out. Rising from this endless expanse of solidified flame are pristine cities of white marble and steel. Under lightless skies, the Baatezu rulers of Hell govern the affairs of the other Eight, their constant interference reminding the Lord-Regents of who truely sits upon the Serpent Throne of Hell. Here, in the deepest pits, the diabolic slaves of Hell are untouched by the baseness and dirt of the layers above; the horror that they inflict upon the universe is reduced to numbers and lists, commands to faceless servitors and minions.MalsheemTowering into the sunless sky, the great citadel of Malsheem is the largest structure in all the planes. Hundreds of miles high at the least, this is but the tip of the iceberg. Worming its way deep into the very surface of Nessus, the great Citadel houses armies vast beyond anything every fielded in the Blood War, legions of Pit Fiends larger and more cunning than any others of that breed.From his place on the Serpent's throne, Lord Asmodeus watches and commands all of the Hells. His gaze is omnipresent, as is His will. For the Dread Lord to blink would bring relief and succor to all of Hell, if only for a moment.The Lord of the Serpent Throne never blinks.The Serpent ChamberRumor speaks of a chamber within the deepest layer of Malsheem, far deeper than any Lord of the Nine or Duke of Hell has ever set foot. There, the miles long True Form of Asmodeus rests in a sea of its own ichor, its ancient wounds slowly healing.Those who whisper these secrets last no longer than a day before their destruction.