The Nine Hells
History
Creation:
The earliest instance of the nine hells were the nine fortresses of Asmodeus on the mortal plane during the time of the great scourge. Starting as the cities and strongholds of the Tieflings and then evolving to be the home of many more creatures, each worse than before. The largest of these cities was Avernus, and it was the largest and greatest city in the world. When Asmodeus brought his proposal before the other gods, Avernus and the other citadels to the then god of Majesty flew banners of red and god, calling out their allegiance in Asmodeus' plan of rebirth. During the great scourge, these nine citadels became centers for the efforts of the betrayers. Avernus in particular was remade to be a center of creation for the horribly twisted weapons of Asmodeus for the war. The application of these foul magics twisted the citadels into dark versions of their former selves. Once Asmodeus caught wind of the plot of the Alliance to imprison all the gods in new planes built above the world, he investigated for himself, finding the lower half of the planes to be mostly barren wastelands yet to be developed into the prisons they were intended to be. In an effort to save himself and his cause, Asmodeus shifted his nine citadels over to these lower planes. This enormous use of magic twisted the planes, corrupting their roots and setting them entirely apart from the higher planes. This was the birth of the nine hells, where Asmodeus sat his throne for the 2000 years that passed between the great scourge and the sundering of the world.
The Blood War Begins:
Asmodeus had delved far into deeply forbidden magics to develop the creatures that he made. He cared nothing for their morality or how repulsive he found their brutality, all that mattered was that they would allow him to win the war and remake the world to his own liking. He shut his heart to the tortured cries of the tieflings he experimented on to create and pushed forwards with visions of his new world. But the creatures he created were too chaotic, too bent on destruction to yield to Asmodeus' vision. These creatures were far too brutal and chaotic to conceive rebellion against Asmodeus, but there were devils among his kind that saw their existence as an opportunity. One such fiend was Lilith, a great archdevil who had long assisted Asmodeus in his work of creating such terrible fiends. But she developed a love for her creations, viewing them as her children. When together with Asmodeus, they created the mightiest fiend of all, she was driven to rebellion. That fiend was the Demogorgon, a creature so terrifying that even Asmodeus decried the necessity of its destruction. Lilith would not allow it, and her creations flocked to her aid. In a bloody rebellion, Lilith and her army of followers struck quickly at the established domain, causing enormous amounts of damage in the first days of the war. The Demogorgon even reached the ninth layer of Nessus, where he tried to take down Asmodeus himself. Their battle tore into the hearts of the nine realms, but Demogorgon was ultimately unable to match the ferocity of the god of the nine hells. He was forced to flee, but his attack had huge consequences for the nine hells. In their furious struggle, the two fiends power reached into the heart of Baator itself, breaking off huge parts of the nine hells and permanently reducing their size. These fragments converged to form a new plane, bigger than any one of the nine hells but still smaller than it in its entirety. The Abyss became a land of lawless chaos, where demons fought to maintain a position as top predator. But the demons were united in one thing, their hatred of Asmodeus and his devils. The conflict between the demons and the devils would later become known as the blood war. Because Demonic war parties would shift into the hells and wreak havoc, Asmodeus sealed off every hell except Avernus to portals from beyond, forcing the Demons to go from hell to hell if they wanted to reach his infernal throne. The blood war would go on to be fought for hundreds and hundreds of years, with enormous losses on both sides. This would perpetuate the creation of new Demons and Devils for war.
The Stronghold of Malsheem:
Shortly after the beginning of the blood war, Asmodeus began construction of a secret project. He was thoroughly shaken that one of his underlings could get so close to taking him down. In an effort to protect himself, he built an enormous infernal fortress around his throne at Nessus. Millions of fiends were worked to death in order to build this fortress, growing the dread of Asmodeus in the hearts of his followers. Within the heart of this stronghold, Asmodeus moved his true form to rest, protected by magic so powerful that lesser devils were incinerated without even triggering the spells. From here, he projects avatars of himself in order to rule his kingdom from complete safety.
Zanafel's Crusade:
In the material plane, Zanafel was the ruler of the Holy Solar Empire, an enormous domain that engulfed all of Brenaurus, Tyria, the Iashi archipelago, and parts of Yeslan and Andusia. Within his capital of Tyria City, he prayed every day for guidance from the alliance. He came to the conclusion that his destiny was to do what the alliance could not, take the nine hells by force and kill the lord of lies. His bloodline carried powerful magic and he used this to craft weapons of power far beyond anything that can be found today. He amassed an army from all of his lands, a force so large that you could look in all directions and still see soldiers as they amassed at Tyria City. He used his epic level magic to shift them into Avernus, where his crusade began. Zanafel the Crusader had early success, and over a five year period he was able to subdue the eight main cities on Avernus and destroy much of their fortresses. Over the next 10 years, he was also able to conquer the city of Dis and even made it to the bogs of Minauros. The difficult terrain of this landscape made it incredibly difficult to wage war and it was here that Zanafel's crusade fell. He died at the hands of Zariel herself, who had escaped his conquest of Avernus. This conquest became a warning to religious empires everywhere of the dangers of fanaticism and what it could do to an empire.
The Sundering begins:
Asmodeus sent an agent to the material plane, a half devil who spoke to a revolutionary planning on taking down the great Brenaurus empire. The cambion twisted the mind of this revolutionary and drove him to attack an airship bearing a huge source of power, a cube of residuum so dense that powerful mages could see it from across the planes. He said that they could use this for a weapon against the Brenaurus empire but once they got their hands on it, he betrayed the revolutionary and burned up this residuum, using it as a focus to burn a hole in the divine shield that separated the lower planes from the material plane. From this hole, devils and demons emerged to ravage the world and lay waste to its peoples.
