Maps of Heaven and Hell

[Matthias Wasser]

I see Hell as organized sociospatially around two metropoles of about 2B souls each - Hades, the elder, political center and Shal-Mari the younger, commercial center - and otherwise consisting of a "rural" periphery of about 7B souls, from which essence flows at varying levels of efficiency to the core, and a "wilderness" of about 1B souls.

Hades is represented in maps and seals as a cincture because its rules (not laws, rules) constrict Hell, because it is the first line of defense against hypothetical divine aggression, and because of its attempts (however unsuccessful) to maintain tabs on Tethers and the continual influx of refugees from the Corporeal. "Hades" proper refers to the principate of the Game, and in the strictest sense solely to Asmodeus' personal holdings, but the Hadean conurbation gathers together the power centers of the older, more serious, and more martial elements of Hell. Compared to Shal-Mari, it squeezes its periphery harder, has a slighter semiperiphery, and though its residents are more likely to be in a position of formal dependence on demons, they live easier and more cultured lives; the latifundia of Sheol enable the salons of the Archives. Although Hadeans define themselves against Marians, and thus as a fairly ascetic people devoted to the higher pleasures, Hades is still a fleshpot by Corporeal standards.

Shal-Mari by contrast is usually represented as a hub-and-spokes system, for that recalls the imperial-capitalist efficient extraction and management of resources, the octopus spreading its tentacles wherever it may (and symbolizing the Impudite elite of the region), and a tree spreading its roots inexorably outward and downward. It has a high proportion of allods and a vast semiperiphery consisting of damned hoping to strike it rich. It's also growing much faster than Hades - a fact which not only worries Hadean elites but also Marian ones, as it's unclear how quickly the metropolis can absorb immigrants and maintain thematic cohesion. While Hades emphasizes smooth networking and long-term, entangling contracts, Marians prefer geasa - and, indeed, friendships - that are unlikely to outlast current market conditions, and so the city rearranges itself at a faster rate. Neighborhoods the size of nations gentrify into downtown one year and exit to penury and periphery the next.

Soul is space; and spaces connect to each other as their owners do. Allods, then, tend to float and rearrange like islands of ice; while fiefs are connected to each other through relations of peerage and patronage. Sympathy between Words and other, poorly understood things can also spatially join fiefs. In general, a short path exists between any two places, but it has been in existence for long enough to be generally known, the owners of the way along will charge what they can. If at least two well-known routes exist then prices may dip down for a while, making the endpoints effectively nearby; this means that geographic realignments can be trickier than they first appear.

[William]

That's a pretty cool geography for Hell.

[JCD]

You can buy maps of Hell in Shal Mari for one Essence a piece...and none of the maps match any of the others...