Abandon every hope, all you who enter
| Dominator | Aspect | Attribute | Populace |
| Melisse | Punishment | Melisse's Fire Sermon | The Damned |
the doleful city; the way to eternal grief
From the Book of the New Day:
"A Wathan found wanting by the Hall of Judgment passes through the First Door Guarded
into Hell for Longer Than the Soul Can Bear." Those sentenced here cry out in despair
for the sweet oblivion of the Real Death, but there is no such mercy. Many lies and much
wishful thinking have been written of Hell by the ignorant and the deluded. Here are lies
written by one who knows the truth.
The Gateway to Hell can be found in the Hall of Judgment at the border between the Fountains
of Paradise and the Dry Land. Inscribed above the First Door Guarded into Hell are these words:
I am the way into the doleful city,
I am the way into eternal grief,
I am the way to a forgotten race.Justice it was that moved my great creator;
divine omnipotence created me,
and highest wisdom joined with primal love.Before me nothing but eternal things
were made, and I shall last eternally.
Abandon every hope, all you who enter.
Inside the gateway is the low, damp plain of Limbo. Scattered about are sealed bronze
jars containing the souls of those who were uncommitted in life to any god; they now have
eternity to ponder their choices. You will hear their sighs and cries and shrieks of
lamentation echoed throughout the starless air of Hell. Limbo is the realm of the
Chromatic Dragon.
At the end of the plain is broad Acheron, river of Sorrows, where the ferryman Charon
will greet you with these words: "Give up all hope of ever seeing heaven. I come to
lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness, ice, and fire." On the far side
Minos, Judge of the Damned, awaits you in his marble palace, to pass judgment upon you
and to cast you down into the Pit of Hell to your place of punishment, into darkness
and fire lit smoke.
Were you lustful, feeling helpless in life within the storms of passion? Then you will
be thrown into the whirlwind, battered and bruised in the dark as you strain to maintain
human contact, always to be torn away shrieking by the cruel, howling winds. Were you
gluttonous? Then your place is buried in the terrible stench of cold muck, in frigid
sleet and hail, with Cerebus to rend you if you dare lift your head above the mud.
Were you prodigal or avaricious? Then your fate is to join one of the opposing armies
condemned to roll huge boulders against each other, to be crushed beneath again and
again and again... Below them, the wrathful and sullen are confined to the vast swamp
of Styx, striking and biting each other, or brooding under the surface, choking on their
own rage.
If your offenses were more serious than a weakness of will, Minos will cast you to the
ferryman Phlegyas, who will take you across to the red-hot walls of the iron city of Dis,
gateway to the lower regions of Hell. There, you will be dragged screaming to
your place of punishment.
Within the city are fiery tombs confining heretics, those who have offended the gods
with false teachings. These fires light the dense smokes which choke and cloud the
atmosphere of Hell. Beyond the city and below a cliff is the lake of boiling blood
where the violent scream and claw, trying to climb over each other for even a moment's
respite from their agony. Further on is the Wood of the Suicides, the Wasteland of the
Polluters, and the burning desert where flakes of fire fall to torment those who
actively defied the gods to their Names. Through all these flows Phlegethon, the river
of Blood, which then plunges over a great abyss into the lowest circles of Hell.
The monster Geryon awaits those guilty of the worst offenses, crushing them in his
grasp before descending the abyss to Malebolge. The fraudulent and deceivers are thrown
into one of a series of great canyons, there to suffer a punishment specially designed
for their crimes. If I told you now what agony awaits you here, why should you believe me?
The greatest offenses of all are treason and betrayal. The torture of the betrayers of
kindred, country, guests, or masters is my own personal delight. I await you within the
great ice plain at the center of the Pit of Hell, frozen by the contempt and lack of mercy
I show to each of my charges.
Colbart
infinite power and infinite sadism
Melisse was given the Real Death and was brought back knowing the experience. Is it any
wonder that she has a score to settle with the Universe? Let's put it mildly: she is an
angry young woman. She is the Spirit of Retribution. Pray (and pray hard) that you never
cross her path.
eternal darkness, ice, and fire
All souls condemned to Hell have the capacity to feel infinite pain and never faint,
never grow accustomed to their torment; each moment, the agony is fresh and bright as
the very first. But the Spirit of Retribution is crueler yet: at each instant throughout
eternity, the damned soul can remember his or her crimes, and each individual moment of
choice which sealed their terrible fate. And do not imagine, foolish mortals, that you
could suffer gladly in martyrdom at some "noble" sacrifice. The vain will know themselves
forgotten, and the proud will see their causes fall to ruin.
Even this description is a part of her cruelty. You who have read this now know what lies
ahead of you; so when you in turn face your punishment the worst suffering of all will be
the knowledge that you sinned in full awareness of the fate you could have avoided.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...
Melisse's Fire Sermon provides, supports, and controls nine-tenths of all manifestations of Punishment in worlorn.good fences make good neighbors
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