Background
Ba'al discovered how to extract the energy released by a soul's passage into the afterlife, and he proposed the construction of the Nine Hells in order to collect this energy on a global scale. Shortly after that, one of the gods or daedra — some say it was Suspira, while others insist that it was Artela and Lilith working together — discovered that mortal behavior could be drawn on as a source of energy, as well.
These discoveries changed everything; the mortal races, once mere curiosities, were now the most potent energy source on Earth. The questions of how best to use these resources, and who would control them, quickly became a major source of contention between the Elders' children. Though all 27 of them worked together to construct the Nine Hells, the Titans asserted that they would be in charge of running these soul-collectors, and their presumption angered their younger brothers and sisters who had first come up with the idea.
At some point during the construction of the Nine Hells, Ba'al approached Kammoloth and proposed an alliance against the Titans. If they struck first and took the titans by surprise, Ba'al believed that they could destroy the titans before the Nine Hells made them so powerful that their dominance could not be opposed. The Aedra and Daedra had taken the lead in setting themselves up as gods over the mortal races, and the energy they had collected through mortal worship made them strong enough that victory over the Titans was possible. Kammoloth agreed to the plan but insisted that the titans must be imprisoned, not killed; he was afraid that the Elders would return and punish them if they stooped to killing their own siblings.
The details of the war that followed have been lost, but by the time it ended the titans had all been imprisoned in various remote and desolate places: the Great Northern Desert, the moon, deep underground, in the depths of the sea, and in the Wastelands of Kilyarnie (a barren expanse in the middle of the Fifth Hell).
The Process of the Afterlife
The Hells were set up to trap the soul on its normal progression through the afterlife. Since their creation, all mortal souls, no matter how good or evil the person was in life, pass through the Hells.
Most mortals take the following progression: Life -> Death -> Astral Plane -> Nine Hells -> Veil -> Oblivion
This means that the Nine Hells are not eternal reward or eternal punishment for how someone conducted their lives. They are simply the cosmic equivalent of a hydroelectric dam, designed to trap escaping souls and extract from them every erg of usable energy before they pass beyond the Wall into Oblivion. Since the process can take centuries, however — and the Nine Hells are fairly well-understood, while Oblivion is not — most people think of the Nine Hells as "the" afterlife.
Exceptions
The only known exception are the elves. Ba'al was not able to construct the Hells in a way that could trap an elven soul, so they take this progression: Life-> (Epiphany ->) Death (chosen after Epiphany)-> Veil -> Obilvion
If the Elf dies before they reach their Epiphany, his soul is reincarnated in a new body and he takes another stab at it in his next life. Powerful, secret magic exists among the Elven druids whereby the destination of the Elven soul can actually be controlled, so that the Elf returns in a fully-formed adult body with all of his experiences intact. This is equivalent to the reincarnate spell of D&D, except that it only works on Elves and the new body is always an Elf (though its appearance, subtype, and gender may all change). The Elves keep this magic secret from the humans and half-Elves
It is not known what happens to the souls of Dragons, although if Ba'al could not catch Elves in his trap, it would be reasonable to assume that dragons likewise have been free of the Hells.
It is not fully known what happens to the souls of aedra and daedra when they are killed. While it is clear that their power and influence pass onto the individual that killed them (e.g. Lilith & Talia), nothing is known what happens to the rest of the soul. Likewise the passing of the souls of celestials and fiends who died as a result of the Great War are also unknown.
The Sorting of Souls
ALL souls (except those noted above, and in the Hauntings section below), go to a Hell upon death.
The noblest and most virtuous souls find peace and rest in Nocturna's First Hell, while the most depraved found unspeakable torment in Prince Ba'al's Ninth Hell. It is unknown how these souls fare after the Great Fall. It is also unknown how these realms continue in the modern day.
Upon death, each soul automatically lands in whichever Hell it deserves; priests speak metaphorically about the "weight" of evil deeds dragging souls down into the deeper layers, while good deeds help to elevate souls. Even when they ruled the Hells, the daedra lords could not control which layer a person ended up in unless the person had sold his soul to one of them; the process is entirely mechanistic, and while the daedra maintained the soul-machinery of the hells they could never redirect the flow of soul-traffic. Each soul lingers in its particular Hell until it has exhausted whatever karmic balance holds it within the bounds of the universe as we know it; souls whose energy is exhausted more rapidly (e.g., by being consumed by a fiendish creature1) will pass more quickly out of the Nine Hells and into whatever lies beyond. No one knows what lies beyond — religious types call it Oblivion — but it may be rebirth, nirvana, re-absorption into the essence of the All-Father, or some "true" afterlife that is beyond the realm of human (or daedric) understanding.
Levels of Hell & Specific Locations
Note- this is information based on what was known before the Great Fall. No one can get into the Nine Hells to check on what is going on there at this point.
- First Hell - Nocturna
- Peace and rest under an eternally moonlit night sky. Pleasures are plentiful and souls are able to spend time freely with each other. Occasionally souls were allowed brief passes into the Dreamlands, under escort, where they can appear in the dreams of the living and communicate with them. The Commune with Dead spell (as in D&D) could usually only access souls on this plane, though the daedra lords in charge of the other hells would make exceptions for souls that amused them.
- Second Hell - Lilith
- Similar to the forested lands of Earth, with changing seasons. Souls had to avoid being devoured by the infernal predators that wandered the land, but there was also a lot of beauty here. Most souls banded into small villages and communities for fellowship and mutual protection, but only stone age technology was permitted; those who want more amenities had to serve in the labor force that maintained Lilith's palace.
- Terminus for the mana well in the Elderwood
- Third Hell - Tallakath
- Tallakath's interest is in diseases, so the souls here endured various afflictions for the furtherance of the god's "research." The physical bodies given to these souls endured frequent death and regeneration. Topography is Earth-like, but usually consists of insect-infested swamps, decaying forests, and other depressing locations.
- Fourth Hell - Klepnos
- Souls that land here ended up as the playthings for Klepnos and his offspring, and contended with frequent and inconvenient transformations in accordance with the mad god's whims. They were often forced to assume the roles of characters in elaborate dramas of Klepnos's devising; the entire plane was his "holodeck," and the mortal souls were the actors who must play out the scenes he gives them — which might turn rather grisly, if the play was a tragedy or a heroic epic. No souls were permanently destroyed in these games, but the frequent mental compulsions could be maddening and the pain was all too real. Fortunately, the pleasures were also real, so this plane was not one of eternal misery and torment. Klepnos insisted that he was trying to teach these souls important lessons through the plays they act out, lessons they ignored during life, but few besides Klepnos himself could understand what those lessons were.
- Fifth Hell - Oblineth
- The Fifth Hell is a place of endless winter, often beautiful and always deathly quiet. It is said that this plane is the destination for those apathetic souls who never cared about anyone or anything but themselves — those who never lifted a hand to do evil, but never lifted a hand to do good, either. Their numbers are few, and the barren land is a fitting reward for their lives of self-imposed isolation.
- Wastelands of Kilyarnie- The best-known geographical region of the Fifth Hell is a place called the Wastelands of Kilyarnie, which exists primarily as a prison for one of the Titans. (A city of mortals once stood here, in the long-distant past, but only the Titan's tomb and a few blasted ruins remain.) The landscape is much like the Utah salt flats: a place of endless desolation and almost unbearable loneliness.
- The Fifth Hell is a place of endless winter, often beautiful and always deathly quiet. It is said that this plane is the destination for those apathetic souls who never cared about anyone or anything but themselves — those who never lifted a hand to do evil, but never lifted a hand to do good, either. Their numbers are few, and the barren land is a fitting reward for their lives of self-imposed isolation.
- Sixth Hell - Revonos
- Here those who have lived lives of rage, hatred or wanton violence. When the plane was filled by the daedra and fiends the souls were helpless vessels for the same sorts of agony that they once inflicted on others. It is a harsh, broken land of blood, iron and dust, with claustrophobic "living" conditions that offer souls no escape from the intolerable, hateful presence of others like themselves. Punishment and torture were frequent and seemingly arbitrary, though everyone who lands here deserves whatever agony is inflicted on them.
- Seventh Hell - Suspira
- The Seventh Hell's appearance is deceptive. Lush rolling hills, lavender skies, sparkling beaches and cities of white marble bring to mind one of the Nine Heavens rather than a place of torment. In truth, all of this is a deadly snare to mortals, and the pleasures were for the benefit of the daedra alone. The souls that come here — degenerate beings who fed their lustful appetites in life, without regard for the needs or desires of others — soon found that they are not merely prisoners: they are food. Suspira and her incubi and succubae feed on the life force of mortals, but there are limits to how much energy they can take in the mortal world. Here, unrestricted by the ancient laws and the limitations of mortal flesh, they could gorge themselves. These mortal souls found themselves being used and abused in every way imaginable to feed the appetites of Suspira's innumerable progeny. What gave them pleasure in life now becomes torture, for the incubi and succubae would use them for days or weeks without respite; when one had sated itself, another took its place. When they became so exhausted that they could not go on, they were dragged into their well-appointed cells for a break — but they were only given long enough to restore themselves that they would once again prove interesting to the fiends that use them. Souls are hardier than bodies, and they could linger on in this cycle for centuries — but in the end they withered away to mindless husks, and their spiritual bodies were taken to Suspira's kennels to feed to the hell hounds.
- Eight Hell - Agemnos
- This hell is the destination for those who have lived their lives by exploiting others to advance their own ends — oppressive despots, corrupt politicians, self-serving lawyers, greedy tax collectors, and anyone else who uses a position of power and authority to exploit those beneath them. Here, those wretched souls were slowly and agonizingly rendered down into a distilled, black, oily liquid, which Agemnos sells to the other daedra lords for use as fuel for the machinery and furnaces throughout the Nine Hells.
- Ninth Hell - Ba'al
- City of Night- The realm of Ba'al is a place of darkness and soul-searing cold; the only illumination comes from the rivers and pools of blue-white hellfire that spread across the land in a complex, logical, and intricate network of stone channels. A vast city spreads out for miles in all directions around the Palace of Darkness (see below). The towers and spires of the daedric elite were interspersed between prisons and dungeons where the blackest souls that have ever lived writhed and wail in unending torment. No one knows just what horrors a person has to commit in life in order to be consigned here, and it's probably best not to dwell too long on the possibilities.
- Palace of Darkness - a huge black pyramid that served as Ba'al's headquarters
- City of Night- The realm of Ba'al is a place of darkness and soul-searing cold; the only illumination comes from the rivers and pools of blue-white hellfire that spread across the land in a complex, logical, and intricate network of stone channels. A vast city spreads out for miles in all directions around the Palace of Darkness (see below). The towers and spires of the daedric elite were interspersed between prisons and dungeons where the blackest souls that have ever lived writhed and wail in unending torment. No one knows just what horrors a person has to commit in life in order to be consigned here, and it's probably best not to dwell too long on the possibilities.
The Hells as opposed to The Heavens
The Hells were constructed to process the energy from the mortal souls of those who died, until that energy is gone. The souls actually reside in the Hells while their energy is being processed. However, the Heavens process the ongoing energy of those who are alive in the Material Plane. Their energy of day to day life is what filters through the heavens, and enriched each of the Aedra.
The Great Fall and Hauntings
After the The Great Fall, when the Starchild emptied the outer planes of their inhabitants, the machinery of the Nine Hells continued to operate, processing souls on their way from Earth to the true afterlife. Without the considerable effort and diligence of the lesser daedra to monitor them, however, errors began to creep into the system.2 As a result, some souls have been caught in between Earth and the Hells — unable to move on, but no longer truly alive. For the first time in the MK-world's history, ghosts and other disembodied spirits became a reality.
Legends and myths of spirits haunting the living had been a part of human culture since the dawn of human history, but the Lothanasi dismissed them as pure fantasy or the actions of inhuman creatures such as wraiths or The Fallen. It took years after the Great Fall for the first credible reports of ghosts and hauntings to begin coming in, and years more before the phenomenon was verified as legitimate. Terrified at the possible response if the general public were ever to learn that the afterlife was malfunctioning, the Lightbringers buried the knowledge from outside eyes and began a clandestine effort to correct these errors without commoners finding out about them. The cover-up was largely successful, and even today many people do not seriously believe that ghosts actually exist. Even among those who do believe that ghosts exist, few suspect that the reason for their existence is something as serious as a glitch in the machinery of the afterlife.
Author's Notes
Sources: Titans, hauntings, start, conversation with RavenB/Etherius at the SSDWC 2010 Summer (not) Picnic, an email from RavenB (regarding life and death, and the heavens/hells, in Metamor Keep - titled "The High Cost of Dying"), email conversation with RavenB August 2010