Hell Is War: Difference between revisions

* Death is not an option for escape

 

 

{{examples}}

== Live-Action TV ==

 

* An episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', where the crew lands on a planet with two rival factions incapable of dying thanks to highly unusual microbes. Anyone who 'dies' at least once on the planet comes back to life, but is now unable to leave the planet due to the microbes being the only things keeping them alive.

** From the original ''[[Star Trek]]'' "The Alternative Factor" - Matter and Anti-Matter versions of the same man are locked in combat forever in the corridor separating their universes.

== Tabletop Games ==

 

** Quite explicitly made so in earlier editions of the game, where a multidimensional war between [[Chaotic Evil|endless hordes of demons]] and the vast, [[Lawful Evil|disciplined legions of hell]], all based loosely on Milton and Dante, field armies of millions in each battle of a [[Kill'Em All|genocidal conflict]] that spans every plane between them and occasionally spills on the others. Into this madness, evil mortal souls go.

*** ''[[Planescape]]'' expanded on this, and treated the whole thing as [[Black Comedy]] gold. The Blood War suits the rest of Multiverse not involved in process - after all, if the fiends weren't too busy slaughtering each other, they'd surely attack everyone else - so occasionally outsiders join on the basis of "whom you hate more" or "who gained too much of an upper hand".

*** This form of punishment is made explicit in the [[Lawful Evil]]/[[Lawful Neutral]] plane of Acheron - it's a place of malevolent conformity and brooding, where on surfaces of enormous floating iron cubes - that don't support much life and are illuminated by dull grey light - great armies march and fight each other, winning only survival and loot they'll use to continue their war.

** In 4e this remained a major aspect of cosmology: the various factions of Hell are always fighting among themselves, and this is maintained by the Good-aligned gods who throw an [[Infinity+1 Sword]] in the fray now and then to ensure no one faction is stronger than the other. Because if Hell was to be unified, they'd overthrow the heavens in no time.

** There are also several other Daemon Worlds where the Daemons fight each other, and indeed the Realm of Chaos itself consists mostly out of the legions of the Chaos Gods fighting an endless war with each other.

* ''[[Infernum]]'' does this in miniature with the [[Circles of Hell|Circle of]] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Slaughter]]. This was the testing ground for the demons back when the First Fallen were running the show, and even nowadays, it's an endless meatgrinder of demons versus demons, demons versus humans, and demons versus spawn. And sometimes [[Melee a Trois|demons versus humans versus spawn versus other demons]]. Blood rains from the sky and forms gory mists that induce homicidal rage, the earth buckles and spews lava in response to artillery and sorcery barrages, and untold millions of demons are wiped out without a single thought. After all, a single demon can be rendered down to produce as many as thirty-six new demons, which will be fully grown and ready to kill about six or seven months after being "born".

 

* The afterlife in ''[[The Darkness]]'' in which "dead" soldiers are sewed up and made to continue fighting.

** {{spoiler|Not so much of a downer as a [[Bittersweet Ending]], as the Nameless One's ''other'' choice was an eternity of amnesiac resurrections. He simply stopped trying to run away from the War. Additionally, the player just merged with a being that described itself as godlike. Before the merger, the player character could potentially kick the crap out of greater demons in single combat or be among the smartest/wisest/most charismatic beings in existence (or all of the above). After the merger... well, let's just say the Nameless One may do alright for himself even in the middle of the Blood War.}}

* The [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Painkiller]]'' takes place in Hell, which is portrayed here as a freeze-frame of war, depicting war throughout various points in history.

[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]