Modern Hell/Baator?

Lower baatezu could be like that. Higher baatezu might be 1000s of years old old-school tormentors :twisted:

Baator is going to be a tricky plane to convert-mostly because everyone and his dog has a different idea of what modernized Hell should look like. Fortunately, there are 9 layers to work with, so different manifestations of Lawful Evil (Hell as militarized fascism, Hell as a place of pain and suffering, Hell as a gigantic corporation, etc) can all be included in Urban Planescape.

'Ulden Throatbane' wrote:

Baator is going to be a tricky plane to convert-mostly because everyone and his dog has a different idea of what modernized Hell should look like. Fortunately, there are 9 layers to work with, so different manifestations of Lawful Evil (Hell as militarized fascism, Hell as a place of pain and suffering, Hell as a gigantic corporation, etc) can all be included in Urban Planescape.

It might be better to go with two things as a good rubric for determining what version of Baator to go with: representation and natural progression.

The layers of Baator are not randomly picked out of someone's hat. They *do* have a signifigance and concept of belief that they represent (too many layers to match with the seven sins, sorry, it's not that neat and tidy). So if we're lost on the subject, we should match the modern version to the traditional meaning. Baator is going to be more complex than a single description of the place could achieve.

So:
1 Avernus: war, violence
2 Dis: iron, domination, 'civilized' progress
3 Minauros: sloth, disease, corruption
4 Phlegethos: forge (or crucible), the remaking of things
5 Stygia: loss, forgetfulness
6 Malbolge: apathy, free fall
7 Maladomini: perfection, pride, imposition of will on environment
8 Cania: pride, imprisonment
9 Nessus: pride, tyranny, harshness

We also know enough about the old Baator to progress the politics and leadership to any new configuration. It's not like we have to make up *any* of this out of complete scratch. We have something to start with.

I think this is an excellent start with that you could flesh out a modern nine hells.

This list was taken from the back of the first chapter of Dicefreak's "The Gates of Hell"- I've included my own comments in parentheses:

Breakdown of the Perditions:

Avernus: War. Corrupted Honor. Violence. Genocide...(the modern armed-forces of Baator, backed by an infernal industrial-military complex)

Dis: Corrupted Ethics. Stagnation. Sloth. Elitists...(best match for Corporate Hell-meaningless work assignments, century long meetings, corporate intrigue)

Minauros: Greed. Averice. Envy...(a welfare state gone horribly wrong-everyone is equal in their destitution)

Phlegethos: Pain. Suffering. Physical Oppresion. Fire...(Also, purification- making souls useful to the needs of Hell. An aspect of physical oppresion is control through pleasure-there's probably a thriving drug trade in Phlegethos)

Stygia: Traitors. Gluttony. Ignorance. Water...(Gluttony means much more than eating till you're bloated, though that is part of it. A broader definition would be a desire have something that's so powerful, one goes to any length to acquire it, even though they won't be satisfied when they have it. Also, an Important aspect of ignorance is willful ignorance-If you don't know who suffered for you to gain something, then there is nothing to feel bad about)

Malbolge: Corrupt Nature...(Natural relations, both in the wild and in civilization, are rearranged in order to benefit Hell. Genetic engineering for infernal goals would be an important aspect of this theme)

Maladomini: Pride. Perfection. Intrigue. Arrogance...(An Orwellian Big Brother state, where close "associates" are constantly spying on each other to gain some valuable secret)

Cania: Corrupt Knowledge. Contempt. Careless Stocism. Cold...(Knowledge is pursued with no regard to anything else, and once acquired, used to achieve greater power, which in turn leads to more knowledge. Everything else in the cosmos is worthless).

Nessus: Damnation. Power. Lost Knowledge. Tyranny. Darkness. Oppresion...(This layer is secretive, but provides tantilizing glimpses of what is hiding in the Darkness. Such glimpses are both terrifying and mesmerizing. This layer personifies the Overlord's command over Lawful Evil)

Same species - so I don't think that'd need to be changed much.
How they act? Same way. As civilized, orderly, viscious, evil, fiends.
Primary motivations in dealing with mortals: "Get your soul."
Primary motivations in dealing with tanarri: "I'm right. You're wrong. Nyahnyahnayha."

I don't see them changing *that* much other than using the tools of modernity to be more effecient.

Eyrines who post frequently on political forums subtly guiding the course of political thought?

Wait... this may be kinda obvious, but I don't think anyone has seen it yet.
Baator has invaded primes in the past. More then a few campaigns are based around defeating an army of invading fiends. but the thing is: they had to win some of them.

Think about it. I can easily see the Bataazue as being Imperialistic. Taking over primes, imposing their tainted brand of order on it, and setting up a socioty which encourages a actions and an alignment sure to send the souls who live there straight to the 9 hells. Or just take it over and used manual labor to pump out wands for dirt cheap prices to sell for twice their value on the planar market. I don't know. but It seems silly that they would bother invading primes if they didn't manage to do it at least once or twice.

And I dont see them as laying waste to it and leaving. Thats seems more like the tan'ari's style.

they shall be done at a later time no doubt I'd love to flesh out a world like that.

Okay then. We wouldn't even need to completly flesh out such a prime. It isn't likely to play a major role on the planes, anyway. But mentioning them, or even having a bunch of humans from such a prime serving as 'interns' (Humans who have proven their devotion to the Bataazue cause, and are assured a rank of a lowly imp upon death. Might as well get a jump on the process, right?). These humans whould have to be very good at being Lawful Evil, to the point that any one of them could probably be a decent villian in their own right. After all, they managed to impress the bataazue, right? It's amazing waht you can do with Culturally brainwashing the citizens of a world from the age of 5.

From Dicefreak's write up on Lixer (Asmodeus' son through a mortal noblewomen), the Pale Prince of Hell was born on the prime world of Sharnth. I'd assume that by the UPS time period, this world is firmly under Infernal control.

Editor's note: added to the "Thread of Threads"

Found "Modern Hell" if anyone wants to know.