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#1 umbralknight Jun 30, 2008 12:14:37

Hello all. What I am going to post here is a short passage from my campaign notes outlining my own take on the 4e Nine Hells. My 4e campaign world is considerably influenced by greek mythology, so this vision of the hells is rather loosely based on that. I admit that what spured me on to this idea was that, thematically, I just didn't like the idea of the nine hells being in the astral sea, and thus *above* the material plane. I also wanted to link hell more closely with the shadowfell, for the sake of afterlife efficiency, so this is what I came up with. Just a note, while I call the plane "tartarus", it isn't in any way modelled after the tartarus/carceri of 3.5, but loosely based on the tartarus of greek mythology. Anyway, feel free to take this, change it, add to it, or whatever to your liking. I am always looking for new contributions to my cosmology, so if you have any cool contributary ideas to go with this, then please post them. Also please note that this is directly from my bloated file of campaign notes, so don't expect an excersize in creative writing. --------------------------- In the great war between the gods and the primordials, the gods found it necessary to imprison their foes, for the mighty primordials proved in many cases to be too powerful to kill or dislodge from the world that they had crafted. Because of this, the gods created Tartarus. The gods entered the Shadowfell, the dark echo of the world, and sought a place to build their prison. It was deep in the bowels of the shadowfell, in the even darker echo of the underdark, that they found what they were looking for. They began their work. They drew a great amount of astral energy from their seat of power in the Astral Sea, and channeled into it the creation of a new plane. A plane within a plane, a plane beneath a plane, a place so far beneath the astral sea that the gods would never need to look on those they banished here. And so Tartarus was formed. This early Tartarus was a cold, bleak and lightless place. And here did the gods imprison those enemies of theirs who were too powerful or too resilient to kill or banish back into the Elemental Chaos. Bryakus, the progenitor of hydra-kind. Kerboros, first and greatest of the primordials’ hell hounds. The dread abomination called Tarrasque, the great devourer. These, and more, were the terrors sealed within Tartarus. Guarded by a legion of angels, Tartarus was the single most fortified place in all the planes. In later eons, after the gods had triumphed over the primordials, the gods found that many of their enemies’ servitors still ran amok on the world they had claimed. Chief among these were the great titans, who ruled over an empire of giants. Tired from their long struggle, the gods retired to the Astral, and left the task of combating the titans to their exarchs and angels. The angels were largely successful, and succeeded in banishing and imprisoning many titans, but ultimately failed in scouring them completely. This robbed the giant empire of the bulk of its ruling class, and the giants dispersed, trying to adjust to a life without the guiding will of their titan overlords. Those titans who were imprisoned, primarily fire titans, were sealed in Tartarus, along with the Primordials. The Titans were not alone. Many other creations of the primordials were imprisoned in Tartarus, such as the hell hounds and mezzodemons, and they were forgotten by the world. It was some time after this that the damnation of Asmodeus occurred. The great general of the divine legions led his forces astray, became willful and arrogant and power hungry, and committed the ultimate atrocity; the crime of deicide. For his transgressions, Asmodeus was cast from the Astral Sea. He fell through the planes, being blasted violently through creation, until his decent ended in the bowels of Tartarus. The gods saw this, and were pleased, and from this a punished was devised. Asmodeus and his legions would be banished to Tartarus. In Tartarus, these devils would be guards and wardens, as well as prisoners themselves. Despite their blasphemy, Asmodeus and his ilk were still creatures of order, and were forced to comply with a binding divine edict. The sly Asmodeus cunningly convinced the gods that, if he were to successfully contain the Primordials, he would need a source of divine power. The gods deliberated on this, and came to a conclusion. In the time since the war, many mortal races had come to worship the gods, and the gods saw an opportunity to solve another problem in the same stroke. They decreed that the souls of the wicked and depraved, the dead who were damned, would pass from the Shadowfell into Tartarus, where their punishment would be fitting to their crime. The devils would serve as their punishers and taskmasters, and derive divine power from their souls. This outcome was exactly what Asmodeus had desired, and he swiftly used this new power to twist his new home to his liking. He divided Tartarus into nine realms, split between himself and his eight lieutenants, and they began the conversion of a prison into a hell. Great pits were torn open, and from them flames spouted, which illuminated the formerly lightless plane. The landscape of Tartarus was drastically altered; rivers of magma were called into being, vast ice flows came to cover entire stretches of territory, and the “skies” of Tartarus became filled with thick, toxic smoke. Asmodeus’ next step was come to terms with the beings he was placed to guard. Asmodeus battled Kerboros in single combat, forcing the mighty beast into submission, and binding it into his service. After this, Kerboros’ offspring, the hell hounds, were easily tamed by the devilish legions. Asmodeus then went to the imprisoned fire titans, and promised them greater freedom within his new kingdom if they agreed to submit to his rule. The fire titans begrudgingly agreed, and serve Asmodeus despite their hatred of him. Meanwhile, Mephistopheles, Asmodeus’ second, enlisted the hive of mezzodemons jailed in Tartarus into his service with a diabolical pact, and set about remaking them until they became the creatures now known as Ice Devils. As for the imprisoned Primordials, Asmodeus did all in his power to strengthen the locks on their cages, lest they break free and plunge his new kingdom into chaos and anarchy. With Tartarus fully transformed into the Nine Hells, Asmodeus is now working on his next goal; the consolidation of his power, until such a time as he can free himself from it.