[INFERIS INFORMATION]

[Lazarus Carter]

I N F E R I S

Inferis.

Hell. The Underworld. Styx. Hel. The Great Below. Many names from many religions and cultures, all talking of a fiery pit of suffering where those who do wrong end up in the eternal afterlife. Fast-forward to 2012 and most people have their own conception of it: but seeds of doubt have been artfully sown amidst the general populace by the Templar Order.

The existence of Inferis has always been a reality and a problem for a sacred few who work behind the scenes to keep humanity functioning as intended. For everyone else it is a myth and a legend, some form of conceptual and spiritual idea, but for this handful it is naught but a thorn in their side.

I N F E R I S / E A R T H

There should be no two ways about it: Inferis IS Hell. However, it's different in that instead of being a different plane of existence entirely as conceptualised biblically and by Dante in his Inferno, Inferis is an alternate, parallel dimension, separated from the alterverse Earth of Deus Mortuus by a thin interdimensional barrier, completely impermeable and unbreakable under normal circumstances.

However, as one could expect, this roleplay does not function under "normal circumstances". This barrier is weak in a number of points, defined colloquially as "tears". There are ten of these tears presently known of, nine of which possess an area of around ten or fifteen miles in both the Real World and Inferis. The ten tears, each found in cities around the world, are as follows on Earth: London, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Irkutsk, Helsinki, Washington D.C., and, finally, a special case, the Vatican City. The tear in the Vatican was located first, and the city was founded around it in an attempt to contain it - and through numerous Templar defenses, this has been pseudo-fruitful. The only way to access the tenth tear is through the Pope's living quarters in the Vatican - it cannot be accessed simply by being in its area of influence like the others. TEARS ARE NOT VISIBLE IN EITHER WORLD - BUT DEMON HUNTERS CAN SENSE SOME SORT OF "HUNCH" OR GUT FEELING WHEN THEY'RE IN THE PRESENCE OF ONE.

These tears can be manipulated by four types of entities, provided they are in a fifteen-mile radius of the nine viable area-accessible tears: Demon Hunters are born with an innate and natural ability to manipulate these tears and "cross over" at will from Earth to Inferis and vice-versa. Templars have perfected technology which allows them to locate with specialised goggles and handheld devices which administer a temporary shock to a being's core. Ritualists, when bonded with a Demon, can utilise these tears through a fusion of Demon and human essence, and having part in each dimension, and, finally, Archdemons are powerful enough to walk in both, though this occurrence is very rare due to most Hell Princes' reluctance to leave their realms.

I N F E R I S / G E O G R A P H Y

The geography of Inferis is similar to a hellish Pangaea. An island split into ten regions, nine of which form an expansive, massive ring, the borders of which are split apart - around the centric tenth. These regions are as follows. The Regal Necropolis, the Stygian Tundra, the Entropic Chasm, the Tarpit Enclaves, the Blightscape, the Forlorn Ashland, the Great Undercroft, the Darkroot Domain, and the Black Sea all surround the Spirelands, a distinctively smaller island at the centre, home to the Devil Spire, where Lucifer, the Overlord of Hell and the Leader of the Hell Princes resides.

Each region in Inferis contains one Outpost, treated as a safe-zone for human life inside Inferis, and one Bastion, which is where the region's reigning Archdemon can be found. THe Bastion is heavily defensible and treated as a combination of a barrack and a stronghold, filled with vindictive and demonic life who will viciously respond to any interlopers who come even remotely close.

Each of these nine regions serves not as a different region entirely, but instead as a dystopian, apocalyptic, and hellish parallel of its corresponding real-world city. This works two ways - for instance, the Regal Necropolis and London are corresponding, the Necropolis being the Inferis equivalent to London as a city on Earth. This means that if you enter Inferis through the London tear, you will arrive in the Regal Necropolis - and vice versa. See the forum's board structure for how this works in full.

Also note that because these nine regions all mirror cities which the entirety of which can be utilised to cross over, inside Inferis, one can cross over in any of the nine Inferis regions, anywhere within them. All of Inferis is essentially able to be utilised as a tear aside from border-lands and the Spirelands, which one must exit - or reach the tenth tear, found in Lucifer's throne room on the 666th floor of the Devil Spire - in order to cross back over to Earth.

I N F E R I S / S O U L E N E R G Y

Inferis thrives on something known as soul energy. This soul energy is made up of the billions of continually-tormented souls who have ceased their mortal existence on Earth and, in the afterlife, have trans-dimensionally arrived in Inferis. Souls never die in Inferis, and as such, some have been here for thousands of years.

The stronger and more evil of sinners that arrive in Inferis become demons, but the majority join a great flowing stream of souls, which flourishes far beneath the ground of Inferis as rivers of flowing, liquid, soul-like energy. Every river or deposit of souls goes straight to the same place: the Devil Spire at Inferis' epicentre, where it is channeled up through the bowels of the spire and into one refining floor - known colloquially as "the City of Dis" - where these souls are burnt down, and then channeled upwards to a distribution centre - known as "the Malebolge" - which is a great fiery pit which exudes this gaseous soul energy. Every life-form inside Inferis utilises and exudes soul energy for anything it does - similarly to the laws of conservation in the real world, soul energy is never destroyed, just converted, reabsorbed into the atmosphere, and re-refined.

This soul energy is what Demon Hunters manipulate to create their Evocations, what Templars utilise as fuel for their Augments, what Demons use for their Apparatus - and indeed THRIVE upon - and finally what bonded Ritualists that have crossed over embrace when they utilise their Inferis Morphs.

I N F E R I S / H E A V E N

To make this short and sweet, even with the inclusion of Angels, Skyhavens are the only relatively holy or celestial dominions for Angelic life that can be roleplayed in. Do not ask: YOU CANNOT RP IN HEAVEN.

I N F E R I S / M A P

We now have a map of Inferis, with named Bastions and Skyhavens - alongside little squares for the ten Outposts, so you can go on your travels knowledgeably!