Hellfire: Difference between revisions

Want to burn asbestos but haven't got the time? Need to [[Kill It with Fire]] but regular fire isn't enough?

 

 

 

[[Powered by a Forsaken Child|…Okay, maybe it is.]]

The point is, hellfire is not physical in origin, and doesn't have to play by the same rules as normal fire. Ignition without a source of oxygen? Sure! Scorching things that are supposed to be fireproof or ''made of fire''? You bet! Notable when it comes from a story without any references to Christianity.

 

 

Contrast [[Holy Hand Grenade]] and [[Cold Flames]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* This is Ioryogi's signature power in ''[[Kobato.]]''.

* [[Epileptic Trees|Theories that it summons fire from hell]] aside, Amaterasu from ''[[Naruto]]'' doesn't have any connection to hell, but exhibits many traits as hell fire: special color (black), extremely hot ([[Convection, Schmonvection|supposedly as hot as the sun]]), has impossible properties (can burn non-flammable objects, even underwater & can cause even [[Eldritch Abomination|Bijuus]] who shrug off lesser attacks to cry out in pain), and is very hard to put out (can't be put out unless you wait for a week, seal it, or the user snuffs it out).

* In ''[[Slayers]]'', there's a distinction: for example, Fireball is Shamanism spell - it calls upon fire spirit. Gaav Flare, on the other hand, was <ref>Defunct after Gaav's demise, of course.</ref> [[Black Magic]] using the power of Chaos Dragon, one of Dark Lords. Reflecting [[The Brute|Gaav's nature and power level]], it's much nastier and burns ''through'' the first target, then whoever was behind it... Another distinction is that White and Black magic aren't limited to only Astral like Spirit magic in Shamanism or oly material world like elemental Shamanism, but are present on both levels and as such cannot be easily "dodged" by entities moving between them.

* In ''[[Bastard!!]]'', Dark Schneider's ultimate spell [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Halloween/Helloween/Harrowing]] summons fire that is hotter than the ''sun'', completely obliterating an Efreet MADE of fire.

** Unless this is a variation between manga and anime, he used Exodus to take out Efreet. And he created a fire that was hotter than the sun by harnessing the heat of Efreet's own fire spells. With a nice middle finger to [[Convection Shmonvection]], the room made of stone is actually melting. BEFORE this "fire hotter than the sun" was created. And the actual proper name of his ultimate spell is "Helloween", after the band. The anime changed some of the spell names for fear of copyright issues. Such awesome spell names included are "Poison, Megadeath, Guns & Roses, etc". It's a post apocalyptic fantasy manga with a LOT of rock references thrown in.

== Card Games ==

* The ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189229 Demonfire]. If it kills a creature they're rendered [[Deader Than Dead]].

 

 

* In ''[[Dept Heaven Apocrypha]]'', this is [[The Medic|Fia]]'s slightly-less-holy [[Holy Hand Grenade]]; she still can't control it yet, though.

* ''[[Thirty Hs]]'' grants [[Harry Potter]] the power to wreathe his fists in "Holy Fuckfire" with which he punches the heads off vampires, sending them into the past of Mars, or... something. Notable for being evidently a holy force rather than an infernal one, and... powered by swearing, or something.

 

 

*** Dragonfire could destroy the ''lesser'' Rings of Power (the Three, Seven and Nine), and in fact that's what had happened to some of the Seven Rings of the Dwarves), but Gandalf says that not even the fire of Ancalagon the Black (the greatest of all dragons) could destroy the ''One'' Ring.

* In the ''[[Betsy the Vampire Queen]]'' books by Mary Janice Davidson, the titular queen's half sister Laura is the daughter of Satan (don't ask). As such, one of Laura's powers is to summon a sword made of hellfire. It can transform into a crossbow in the blink of an eye, and is implied to always be hanging at Laura's hip, invisible when she doesn't need it. Hellfire only disrupts magic, so it passes harmlessly through mundane humans but incinerates vampires instantly. However, Betsy's odd status as [[The Chosen One|Queen of the Dead]] means that the sword neither passes harmlessly through nor incinerates her, but stabs her like a normal sword would. It gets stuck and must be pulled out, but leaves no wound behind.

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has wildfire and dragon's breath. Wildfire is the exclusive creation of the Alchemist's Guild, a liquid something like magical napalm which burns with an intense green flame that's impossible to extinguish (it can burn water!), and seems to be almost alive in larger conflagrations. It seems to be based on Greek fire. Dragon's breath is apparently much hotter than normal flames, and is said to possess magical qualities, such as its use in the creation of [[Mithril|Valyrian Steel]].

* [[Science Fiction]] variant in [[Charles Stross]]' ''[[Glasshouse]]'' - "Blasters" are very simple weapons based around a couple of wormholes. One end opens at the end of your pistol; the other opens into ''a sun''.

* A certain spell in ''[[Chronicles Of The Raven]]'' makes very powerful jets of fire that supposedly home in on enemies. Have a guess at its name.

* [[The Wheel of Time]] has balefire, a magical flame so strong that it not only kills you, it burns your recent past ''out of history''. One scene has a bad guy killing several major protagonists, and then being killed by balefire - the recently-dead protagonists are brought back to life(very confused), because the baddie retroactively didn't exist to kill them. Enough use of this destroys the very fabric of reality. {{spoiler|It's also the only way to prevent the Big Bad from resurrecting his assorted Dragons after you kill them.}}

** Despite being called "balefire," it is not actually ''fire'' of any kind except metaphorically, as it "burns the threads from the Pattern. " It appears as a white beam that more or less instantly annihilates what it's aimed at.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Adapted in a third-party setting called "[[Infernum]]". There, it's basically negative spiritual energy (despair, pain, misery) given physical expression as sickly green-black flames, which are capable of consuming flesh, bone and soul with equal ease and which thus makes it especially powerful against creatures like demons and angels. It consequently has its own damage type (and damage resistance), so ordinary Fire resistance is worthless against it (although, conversely, a character with only Hellfire Resistance is defenseless against Fire damage).

** For a less evil version, the Searing Spell feat from ''Sandstorm'' can make your normal fire spells burn hot enough to deal damage even to creatures immune to fire.

** The first edition of D&D had [[The Phoenix]] radiate this. To get a resistance to this fire, you needed one of the feathers dropped by said Phoenix as a spell component.

** Third edition has Mephistopheles, the Lord of Hellfire, who grants warlock followers the power to draw upon his powers of hellfire that function as normal fire damage, except that effects that provide resistance or immunity to fire damage don't affect them.

* [[Mutants and Masterminds]] classifies Hellfire as a type of magical energy that looks like fire but isn't. It can be any color, most elements, and act as numerous other powers.

* In an interesting variation, infernal powers in ''[[Exalted]]'' tend to use the burning, poisonous light of Ligier, the demonic Green Sun of Malfeas, in the same manner as characters in other settings use hellfire. In addition to the usual attributes of a Hellfire-analogue, this can also infect victims with Green Sun Wasting, a [[Nausea Fuel|truly horrifying]] supernatural disease that makes Ebola look like the common cold in comparison.

** The fandom often jokes that Ligier's fire is basically [[I Love Nuclear Power|radioactive]], which technically makes the Green Sun a more "realistic" sun than the Daystar.

* Essential Flame in ''[[GURPS]]: Magic'' is similar in concept to this but seems to be based more on Plato than Christianity.

* In [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]], powerful servants of the Wyrm use balefire, which is sickly green and has effects similar to severe radiation burns. It is also used by certain infernalists in [[Vampire: The Masquerade]].

 

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has this as a - surprise! - warlock spell, which spews apparently unholy flame in a radius around the warlock, dealing decent damage per second in an aoe but also injures the warlock. Oddly enough, the self-damaging part is the thing warlocks use it for as they have more powerful AoE but dying to hellfire doesn't cause durability loss.

** Chaos Bolt, another warlock spell, is probably a better example. It fires a bolt of chaotic fire that goes right through absorption effects and ignores fire resistance. It does not, however, work against targets that are completely immune to fire damage.

*** They did give warlock's green fire. Its only in two attacks (Chaos Bolt and Fel Flame) but its there.

** WotLK also introduced the concept of dual-element spells, primarily so you can't easily resist them by stacking a specific magic resistance (usually fire). Spellfire, Spellfrost, Frostfire, etc.

* [[Castlevania]]'s Dracula has a three-to-five-directional fireball attack by this name. On occasion, he cranks up the damage factor and throws big black METEOR-fireballs at you.

** Alucard can mimic the three-fireball and two-meteor-fireball attacks EXACTLY in ''Symphony of the Night''. It is so immensely satisfying to be able to pull Dracula's shenanigans on his henchtwits. To gamers unfamiliar with the old [[Nintendo Hard]] console titles and their relatively slow Belmont heroes, the fireballs may seem like small potatoes, but this troper has seen very skilled, hardcore gamers reduced to incoherent howling by the original ''Castlevania'' and the Sharp X68000 remake of that title. (We do not mention ''Castlevania III'' around these gamers. They will go insane.)

** Soma Cruz, can also perform the three-fireball attack if he equips the right soul. In ''Aria of Sorrow'', {{spoiler|it's one of the three souls he needs to equip during the battle with the [[Disc One Final Boss]] to unlock the path to the true ending}}.

* ''[[Pokémon]]'': Throughout the series, various Pokemon have attacks that are much like hellfire, one example is Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire.

 

== Web Original ==

 

 

** Acetylene/oxygen flame, a most common and widely used in industry. 3300&nbsp;°C, 6000&nbsp;°F. Melts most materials in your house.

** Atomic hydrogen flame. No need for oxygen. Atomic hydrogen is produced by electric discharge and 'stable' in gas form (fuses into molecules slowly). When directed onto a hard surface, it is catalytically fused back into molecules and produces up to 4000&nbsp;°C. Enough to melt tungsten, but not enough to melt special ceramics, which require about 4500&nbsp;°C to melt.

** Dicyanoacetylene/oxygene flame is 4990&nbsp;°C (9010&nbsp;°F) hot. BTW, the Sun is about 6000&nbsp;°C on its surface and most common stars (red dwarfs) are even cooler—about 3000&nbsp;°C. A real starfire is here.

* Of course, in terms of raw energy, it's hard to beat nuclear fusion. It is what stars run on, after all.

[[Category:This Index Is On Fire]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]