For Information on Hell and Its History (Spoilers)

for more information on this, you have three Fate-Locked stories:

Bound in Diocesan Intrigue, the Regretful Soldier at the House of Chimes, and the most recent ES - Five Minutes to Midday

I believe Hell also exports hydrogen and devilbone dice.

When you buy fuel on the surface in Sunless Sea, there’s some text saying that it’s especially expensive this far from hell. It’s cheapest in the Iron Republic, and second-cheapest at Mt. Palmerson.

Mt. Palmerson is home to the Brimstone Convention, which is what remains of Hell’s exiled aristocracy.

According to the Wistfull Deviless, who lives on Mt. Palmerson in Sunless Sea, the devils used to build their hives on the edge of dream, back when men were still monkeys. She also sometimes wishes she had never been hatched.

Virginia’s former lover, a one-time prince of Hell that you meet towards the end of Heart’s Desire, ruled a Principality called the Perfection of Bells. According to the tour guide you might meet at the Brass Embassy during this month’s Exceptional Story, the Perfection of Bells is where the fires are coldest. There’s also a decent pub in Glory’s Realization.

Well, they are bees, if you remember.

In reading an older thread from 2014 on devils themselves, rather than Hell, I just learned this, but it never mentioned where it says this. Is it content from the Iron Republic?[/quote]
There’s a lot of snippets around, from the interactions you have with devils at Mt Palmerston, to the Prince at Corpsecage, and so on, but you get to see something early in Fallen London during the Loquacious Vicar’s storyline.

[li]

They’re BEES? Like, giant bees wearing disguises? A bunch of bees in the shape of a person, all sharing a collective intelligence? Can they fly? Make honey? Sting people? Why are they carnivorous? Are those goat demons they associate with bees too?

Seriously, bees? That’s very…uh…different.

The most straightforward clue I’ve actually seen is that quote from the Wistful Deviless, when she mentioned that devils build hives.

The descriptions of the Prince on Corpsecage Island ( http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Peter~James?fromEchoId=8515936 ) seem to indicate that he’s an insect, or possibly a swarm of insects.

This is the icon of the “Changed by the Iron Republic” quality: https://d39jqyxiuv7ej3.cloudfront.net/icons/beeface.png

I have yet to learn how it is that these “bees” manage to look so human-like. There also seem to be about as many males as females, which isn’t very bee-like at all. Is their entire humanoid aspect a disguise, so that their appearance and gender bear no relationship to their underlying bee-qualities?

[quote=Professor Sketch]
Hell has mud (Infernal Sharpshooter, again.)[/quote]
I recall from the regretful soldier’s story that the actual war against Hell was fought in the forgotten quarter, as the devils launched an alarmingly fast pre-emptive strike on the Londoners. The rifle says &quotHell’s hinterlands&quot, though, so who knows.

I’m going through the Loquacious Vicars’ story on an alt at the moment, I’ll drop any interesting bits here.

On devils’ mortality: lots of people saying they know how to kill one or saying they have killed one, much less evidence. A drunk says he saw the corpse of a devil “but his story is a crazed rant about fire and bees”. In Nemesis, however, you kill a deviless in the forgotten quarter, with no fancy tricks, causing her body to blacken and char and leaving behind a scream that never really stops.

They definitely made it in the gates because our favorite Bishop who isn’t involved in candles was one of the few who made it in there and survived. It did involve fire and roses. You get that bit from his confession!

I also recall mentions of hangman’s arches or nooses or some other sort of public-execution-ey type of decor in Hell but can’t recall the details.

The bit in Loquacious Vicar’s storyline that’s particularly significant is when you manage to kill the devil yourself.

There is some discussion about the apparent inconsistency of the Nemesis scene here

[quote=genesis]
The bit in Loquacious Vicar’s storyline that’s particularly significant is when you manage to kill the devil yourself.

There is some discussion about the apparent inconsistency of the Nemesis scene here[/quote]

One explanation could be that in Loquacious Vicar’s story you simply destoy the shell the bee is using, while in Nemesis you get lucky and actually crush the bee underneath with your blow. Somewhat supported by the death coming from one mighty blow in Nemesis, and what sounds like a battle of attrition in Vicar’s story. I mean, besides the explanation that it’s just a little hickup on consistency from the writers.
edited by John Moose on 6/4/2016

There’s also that surprisingly nice chap in the Nadir. The infernal fellow who invites you to sit down with him, and will share a soup recipe from his homeland.
He has a buzzing quality to his voice.

They almost certainly didn’t come from Polythreme. They came from Parabola but it’s unclear whether that was their ultimate origin

Hell is on the border between Parabola and Reality.

Are you basing that on the Wistful Deviless’ line? Because I took that line to mean that they’re on bordering on Parabola anymore.

And anyway, I’ve always thought of Hell being west while Parabola is east.

Hell is at least accessible to the West. Parabola is nowhere in particular since it’s a whole different dimension that Is-Not. You’re thinking of the borders between realities being thinner in Irem, but the same thing is described as being the case in the Forgotten Quarter.

The Devils we see are apparently sort of paper suits for the bees. I don’t remember the exact source of that, but Saint-Arthur posted it a while back so I’d believe it.

Odd, because wasps are the ones who live in structures that they make out of paper. But this thread was intended to collect information about Hell, not its inhabitants.

The Iron Republic definitely sells hydrogen to the Empire of Hands. I don’t know whether they get it from Hell, but since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe I imagine they have quite a bit of it in Hell, just like everywhere else. ;-)

I’d maybe go around understanding our friendzzzz less based on what biology books say on bees and more on what a caveman would have thought of bees, seeing as we’re talking about ancient Parabolan bees. Or maybe they have Parabola-wasps making the disguises for them.

On hydrogen, I’ll quote a sidebar snippet talking of Hell’s convenient location: “Which is great if you want to buy brass, obsidian, sulphur, hydrogen, devilbone or any of Hell’s other well-known exports.”

Also, does anyone have ANY idea what the souls are used for, or why the devils are so crazy for them? I’ve been getting the impression that they care little for having one after getting it, but that seems a bit… Weird. I mean, I’d assume there’d be something behind the obsession besides “they’re pretty.”

I don’t think we know yet what Devils use the souls for, just that they’re very keen on collecting them.