Looking for a History of Hell

[sam500]

Hi Guys,
I'm starting an epic spanning campaign in hell.
My players take on the forms of recently deceased mortals who have sinned in one way or another during life and hence suffer their own personal torment for all eternity.
The campaign begins with each player (I'll only have 4 max) being GMed through their unique escape from their personal hell into a much larger underworld. Once together it's up to them whether they want to try and repent, escape, conquor, submit. I'll offer them various plot hooks if it seems they aren't biting on the open endedness of the thing.
I'm drawing on various sources for my hell setting, but one thing I'm having a hard time finding are sources on the HISTORY OF HELL. I want a fictitous history of hell, the setting is important, just something that I can mine good ideas from.
Does anyone have some suggestions?
Cheers mates,
Sammy
:)

[DigitalMage]

I'm drawing on various sources for my hell setting, but one thing I'm having a hard time finding are sources on the HISTORY OF HELL. I want a fictitous history of hell, the setting is important, just something that I can mine good ideas from.
I have not read it, buut Mongoose's Infernum - Book of the Damned (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2151&affiliate_id=5706 ) is still free on DriveThru RPG. The game is set in hell it seems and so might have a history you could at least get ideas from.

Cheers!

[Karanov]

Dante's Divina Comedia is an obvious resource. Milton's Paradise Lost is another one.

For RPG related materials... if you stretch the definition of hell a bit, Wraith: the Oblivion gives an extremely personal, surreal and IMO frightening vision of damnation in the underworld. And the concept of escaping your own personal hell is a part of the setting (and game mechanics) in the form of Harrowings.

It is a bi-polar setting however, as it trying to contact the living and a vast underworld to explore in the same setting. Just focus on the underworld part and you basically have the setting you've just described. Hell... there's even various different underworlds, inspired by various cultures, that PCs can visit.

[sam500]

already got it mate.
well at least book 1 and 3. no history there.
Cheers though.
sam

[AndyGuest]

IIRC no-one described hell before Dante, at least not more than it's not a very nice place. I don't think I've ever encountered anything resembling a history of hell, the closest I can think of would be the DC comics related stuff (from Sandman, Hellblazer, Swam Thing, etc).

Hell is usually described as almost timeless so perhaps a history would be more or less irrelevant.

In Nomine may give some sort of history to hell but I suspect that it'll be more a history of what things from hell have done on earth.

[Karanov]

IIRC no-one described hell before Dante, at least not more than it's not a very nice place.Actually, Dante's work is the last and greatest work (and the only one that's well known today) in an entire genre of "trips to hell" stories. Couldn't name the title of other works in the genre, but there are earlier examples than the Divina Comedia out there.

[sam500]

I've read both Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy.
I'll be using them.
I've also got a bunch of Dore's Illustrations from both (as well as his bible illustrations). Those will make excellent handouts.

I hadn't considered Wraith: The Oblivion stuff. What books do you recommend specifically?

My hell won't be timeless, just very very old. Hence I'm looking for a real history.
Cheers guys.

[Mytholder]

already got it mate.
well at least book 1 and 3. no history there.
Cheers though.
sam

That's 'cos book II is the setting guide, and has an awful lot of detail on the history of the Infernum... :)

[Karanov]

I hadn't considered Wraith: The Oblivion stuff. What books do you recommend specifically?The core book of the 2nd edition will provide you with just about everything you need. To get info on various versions of the underworld you might want to check out the Player's Guide or Dark Kingdom of Jade (for a China inspired underworld).

[sam500]

That's 'cos book II is the setting guide, and has an awful lot of detail on the history of the Infernum... :)

Cool,
I'll check it out.

[sam500]

The core book of the 2nd edition will provide you with just about everything you need. To get info on various versions of the underworld you might want to check out the Player's Guide or Dark Kingdom of Jade (for a China inspired underworld).

Excellent. thanks.

[Lenin]

You might consider Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Inferno, which draws heavily on Dante's work, updating it to the theme of a science fiction writer in hell. I think it's somewhat more readable.

[Thomas T]

Just in case you've not looked, and because (remarkably) nobody's linked it yet, here's the wikipedia article on Hell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell). Though it focusses more on the history of hell's depiction rather than the history of hell itself, you might find something useful.

[frosty]

I'm interested in what your players can do in Hell.

Since presumably they can't die or be killed, how will you create tension?

[Uberxael]

In terms of Wraith books, Doomslayers is pretty much a Hell guidebook.

What are you looking for in terms of history? I'd imagine that, from a human perspective, the history of Hell looks more like *ithurtsithurtsithurts* than any sort of narrative. If you're interested in demonic internal politics, the Sandman series and it's more Hell-oriented sucessor, Lucifer, are probably worth a look.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Just in case you've not looked, and because (remarkably) nobody's linked it yet, here's the wikipedia article on Hell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell). Though it focusses more on the history of hell's depiction rather than the history of hell itself, you might find something useful.
It mentions the Greek underworld Tartarus - there's a section of The Odyssey set there, which could provide atmosphere for the ancient Hell.

[dogstar]

Good Place to Start ?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156001373/104-3965532-4235965?v=glance&n=283155

[Ancient History]

If you've never read any of them, the Heroes in Hell series gives a good idea of what happens when various impressive personages die and have to cope with each other for eternity. I would avoid Dante's Disciples, however.

At the very least, there are a two key periods you should probably address:

1) The Creation of Hell. Milton is probably your best bet, here. This could segue into prehistory, describing how various demons perpetuated themselves as gods to suck souls into Hell, etc.

2) The Harrowing. Jesus descends into Hell and rises out of it again. The imagery from the Infernos (both Dante's and Niven/Pournelle's) would be especially appropriate here.

Other important periods would include historical mass deaths - the Black Death, the World Wars, various genocides, etc. - and religious movements and divisions.

The mythology of Hell would have some bearing:

What if the Lesser Key of Solomon and related books worked (i.e. could you summon demons or the shades of the damned from Hell?)

Are there prophecies in Hell (shades of Constantine and The Prophecy, etc.)

Does sin-eating actually work, and if so, what happens to sin-eaters when they go to Hell (actual sin-eating, not the electric jellyfish portrayed in The Order).

[Dulahan]

Whoa!

That sounds like a damned cool game I'd love to play in.

[cjh]

If you've never read any of them, the Heroes in Hell series gives a good idea of what happens when various impressive personages die and have to cope with each other for eternity. I would avoid Dante's Disciples, however.

I would second these. You can usually find used copies of them fairly easily, just look under Janet Morris, the primary editor of the series. Heroes in Hell was one of the early second wave shared universe series, when the idea really took off and became a mini-fad. There is some good history in there too.

[Thanuir]

For a D&Dish take on the matter, The Gates of Hell (http://community.dicefreaks.com/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=6124cd34acc867c5d43a8d1829403d0e) by Dicefreaks may be interesting.

[joewolz]

No one with the obvious? How about A History of Hell (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156001373/sr=8-1/qid=1152805020/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7392362-4212646?ie=UTF8)?

I own it and it is really cool, it can really help you get into why certain things in Hell and exist, and maybe create some accurate RL metaphors in the game.

[Bacrof]

Dragon Magazine #28 (August 1979) had an article titled "The Politics of Hell" that picked up the story once Satan became lord of Hell, describes how he lost power to Beelzebub, and how Asmodeus eventually overthrew Beelzebub. It's an interesting fictional account.

[ArcheiosAggelos]

Um, you guys need to read the Aeneid. Dante was greatly inspired by it, and despite Vergil being a pagan, his description of the underworld greatly informed the Christian view of hell. There's a reason that Dante chose Vergil as his guide in the Divine Comedy.

[Keal]

I'm not entirely sure if the game Inferno is based off of the RPG, or if the RPG is based off of Inferno, but there used to be a game in print by the name of "Abyss: Roleplaying in Dante's Inferno," wherein the PCs are demons from the various circles of Hell. I seem to recall that it was rife with details from (and references to) Dante's writing, not merely inspired by them.

I had a copy but now I can't find it anywhere... :o

[Rolzup]

Not a whole lot of text, but Barlowe's Infernohas some wonderful visual references to the history of Hell.

Take a look here....

http://www.waynebarlowe.com/barlowe_pages/index_inferno.htm

Very evocative stuff. The Wargate, commemorating the First Battle, is a favorite.

http://www.waynebarlowe.com/inferno_images/barlowe_marchbystatue.jpg

There's also little snippets of information about the people and animals that inhabited Hell *before* the Fall, which is an idea I really like.

[sam500]

This guys artwork is amazing. These will make perfect handouts.
Sam

[ShaneJackson]

Not a whole lot of text, but Barlowe's Infernohas some wonderful visual references to the history of Hell.


You beat me to the Barlowe reference. One of these days I want to run a political game set in hell in which armies try to topple Satan--all because of that man's vision.

There was another portfolio released later that was even shorter on text, but, oh man, those images!

--Shane

[The Grey Elf]

The Apocalypse of Peter, is one of the earliest examples of the background and "geography" of Hell. You can find it here:

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/apocalypsepeter.html

And the Wikipedia article on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_of_Peter

This is not to be confused with the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, which is an entirely different work and can be found here:

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apopet.html

[The Grey Elf]

Of course, you may also get some use out of the writings of William Blake, who was somewhat obsessed with the ideas of the soul, Heave, and Hell. I'm not as familiar with Blake as I'd like to be, but here's a complete online index of all his prose and poetry. I'm sure a quick browse might turn something up.

http://www.english.uga.edu/nhilton/Blake/blaketxt1/