Hell Is War: Difference between revisions

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* Kriegsaffe's "autopsy" of the infamous ''[[Christian Humber Reloaded]]'' includes a few breakaways to Kriegsaffe's own vision of Humber's world- in it, Hell is staffed by noble demons who have the damned continually re-enact battles (the D-Day landings are specifically mentioned) not as punishment, but as a means of redeeming themselves by strengthening the 'soldiers' into a team and instilling virtues in them.

** ...until Christian Humber [[Klingon Promotion|kills Hell's previous ruler and becomes the new one,]] and promptly neglects his new responsibility. After Kekanu and his family all perish trying to kill Humber and take his ~~thrown~~, it succumbs to Chaos and becomes [[The Nothing After Death]]. That was a fun one to write, I gotta say.

** ...until Christian Humber [[Klingon Promotion|kills Hell's previous ruler and becomes the new one,]] and promptly neglects his new responsibility. After Kekanu and his family all perish trying to kill Humber and take his throne, it succumbs to Chaos and becomes [[The Nothing After Death]]. That was a fun one to write, I gotta say.

== Film ==

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* The fifth circle of ''[[Divine Comedy|Dante's Inferno]]''. Also gives sad people something to cry about.

* ''Here In Cold Hell'' has ''both'' this and [[Warrior Heaven]] at once: while in a strange, violent Hell where each character is subtly being punished, one admits that for him, this is ''heaven''. {{spoiler|He was born a crippled, deformed child who only lived to around ten years old, but was guaranteed a spot because he fought every day to live.}}

* In Tad Williams's [[Otherland]] series, a very wealthy man treats people as expendable, torturing several for information and, upon learning they know nothing, dismisses them without ending their torment, merely silencing it. For someone who actively displeases him, he reserves the right to truly punish him; he sticks a man in an unending simulation of the trenches of the first world war with no memory of his life except for the grey mud and horror of the trenches.

* In Tad Williams's ''[[Otherland]]'' series, a very wealthy man treats people as expendable, torturing several for information and, upon learning they know nothing, dismisses them without ending their torment, merely silencing it. For someone who actively displeases him, he reserves the right to truly punish him; he sticks a man in an unending simulation of the trenches of the first world war with no memory of his life except for the grey mud and horror of the trenches.

* Inverted in ''[[Odd Thomas]]:'' Stormy, Odd's girlfriend, believes that life on earth is a sort of "boot camp" the afterlife is a lighter version of this; good, noble, and brave souls are recruited into service to combat evil on a higher plain, while the rest, well...[[Cessation of Existence|don't.]] According to her, the rewards for this service will be given in a person's third life. Odd himself mentions disliking this theory, mainly because it implies that all the horror on our little rock is preparation for something ''worse.''

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== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has as a major aspect of cosmology.

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* ~~This~~ is a major aspect of ~~''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'''~~ 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.

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** 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.

** This form of punishment is made explicit in the Lawful Evil plane of Acheron.

*** ''[[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".

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*** 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 ~~seven~~ ~~dimensions~~ of ~~endless~~ ~~torment~~. Into this madness, evil mortal souls go~~. ''[[Planescape]]'' took this idea to its logical conclusion, and treated the whole thing as [[Black Comedy]] gold~~.

*** 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.

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** 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.

* In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', one [[Our Orcs Are Different|Ork]] Warboss and his WAAAAGH! was treated to this trope after invading several Daemon Worlds (each one a literal [[World of Chaos]]) until his WAAAGH! was finally stopped and exterminated at the private daemon world of a [[Eldritch Abomination|Daemon]] [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence|Prince]] of [[War God|Khorne]]. For invading this Prince's world and castrating him, they were punished by being forced to fight for all eternity on that world, dying each day and rising anew every morning to fight again. The Orks, however, [[Warrior Heaven|don't see it as much of a punishment]]. And [[Subverted Trope|it may not even be meant to be much of one]] since Khorne cares only about violence, [[Blood Knight|especially for its own sake]].

** 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".

* ''[[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".

== Video Games ==