A new Inferno

[Storm Kesocascay]

Well hey guys. Been a while since I've posted. My Junsereig series is going well so moving away from that. On to another thing.

My English class is reading Inferno (one of my favorite pieces of literature of all time) and we have been tasked with an interesting assignment over spring break; create our own Inferno and bring it to life. Write about it, cast people into it, present it, ect.

I have my Hell as Yoltrund, the Kaiyumian World of Eternal Torment and Crude Sinners. Yoltrund is a twin of Inferno in the idea that sinners who are driven out are judged by their sins and are forced to be purged of them. Except, with Inferno, you can either purge yourself and move on to Purgatorio, or be saved by one in Paradiso. (a common example Dante provides is Judgement Day.) In Yoltrund, to sin to the point to go there, you will never be purged. Yoltrund was actually designed for gods rather than humans so there is no escape whatsoever. (the sins are so bad that at the entrance, there is a river called Keter and it is made by the tears of those who have suffered by the sinners. The sins committed were so bad that the tears are full of hate and sorrow to the point that anything that goes into the crystal clear waters is stripped violently of its flesh.)

There are a total of 11 sins that will end you up here. The Seven Deadly Sins are seven of them, but in order to end up in Yoltrund instead of Inferno is that you have committed these sins to the point where Inferno dares not to take you. In order from least offending to most offending (which is the order these sins are punished), these sins are
-Indecisiveness (crooked or fickle sinners go here)
-Incontinence (sinners who are so foul that no other Hell will take them)
-Pride
-Wrath (Towards self, towards others)
-Envy
-Gluttony
-Sloth
-Greed
-Lust (of self, of others)
-Rape (of the body, of the mind, of the soul)
-Betrayal (of self, of others, of the Gods)

The set up and the punishments are set, but now I need people to populate these places. This is highly morbid, I know, but I'm not sure what else to do. I've already added some characters from myth and some others from my own works. Only like 2 people so far are real. I'm taking suggestions of who will go, but not everyone will go. I would prefer the person dead, but if they're alive, then I'll make do. We'll see how this goes.

Also, should I plan to go through with keeping this story, are there any publishers known who would publish such a morbid thing?

 

[WooHooMan]

First off: don't worry about getting published. You won't get writing if you have the mindset that publishes may veto anything you write.

Second: yes, keep going. Even if the story ends up being crap, it's better to finish it.

Third: eleven is kind of a strange number. If you're doing a totally new set of sins, eleven is too many. It's easier for the reader if you have fewer sins with wider application than a bunch of specific ones. I was able to boil-down my ideological system to only 6 sins and that's working well for me.
Basically, I'd recommend simplifying it. For example, lust can mean lust for physical indulgences (gluttony) or blood lust (wrath) so having it as its own circle is a little redundant. Lust, gluttony and envy can be considered types of greed.
I think having fewer circles with broader definitions will make them easier to populate.

Rape and betrayal are also weird since those are actions rather than personality traits though I like the idea of a "hell reserved for traitors". Maybe instead of dividing your hells by sins, you can organize them by sinners: thieves, murderers, tyrants, traitors and so forth.

I'm just throwing-out ideas here. Is any of this helping?

 

[Trick]

Either I am misunderstanding your post or you may be confused about something in the Divine Comedy. Sinners who go to Inferno are there forever. It is a permanent punishment, not a purging. Purgatorio, or Purgatory in English, is for the purging of lesser sins that do not merit Hell, or Inferno, and Paradiso, Heaven, is permanent and one can either go there directly or get there from Purgatorio.

Also, considering the long-lived popularity of The Divine Comedy, I don't think your project will be considered as morbid as you think.

As a suggestion, if you are choosing real people from history and fictional characters, I would set up a little bit more background for the sins you mention. Try coming at them from a particular version of morality, basically pick a religion that suits your work, and find out who the followers and leaders of said religion would have been likely to condemn for the sins you mention. It might help you choose.

 

[Storm Kesocascay]

First off: don't worry about getting published. You won't get writing if you have the mindset that publishes may veto anything you write.

Second: yes, keep going. Even if the story ends up being crap, it's better to finish it.

Third: eleven is kind of a strange number. If you're doing a totally new set of sins, eleven is too many. It's easier for the reader if you have fewer sins with wider application than a bunch of specific ones. I was able to boil-down my ideological system to only 6 sins and that's working well for me.
Basically, I'd recommend simplifying it. For example, lust can mean lust for physical indulgences (gluttony) or blood lust (wrath) so having it as its own circle is a little redundant. Lust, gluttony and envy can be considered types of greed.
I think having fewer circles with broader definitions will make them easier to populate.

Rape and betrayal are also weird since those are actions rather than personality traits though I like the idea of a "hell reserved for traitors". Maybe instead of dividing your hells by sins, you can organize them by sinners: thieves, murderers, tyrants, traitors and so forth.

I'm just throwing-out ideas here. Is any of this helping?

Thanks for the help. Actually, that could help me out a little bit because some of the people and ideas some of my friends suggested could easily be brought into Yoltrund, but I would have no clue where to put them. I can understand where you're coming from with using lust as an example because even I use lust very loosely where I describe gluttony or anger using lust.

I guess, if I'm following correctly, keep only the necessary sins and any that could be combined with the others, do so? In that case, could I combine them and have them set up like in Inferno with the ring of Violence? (in Inferno, Violence is divided into 3 rings; violence towards neighbors, violence against oneself, and violence against God.) Basically, if I combine Lust in that way, I could have it as one place in Yoltrund for the lustful, but have it further divided within by type like blood lust or bodily lust? If I use this, then I shouldn't spend time going in depth of each and individual difference or that would be counter productive so I should be brief like "this here is where the lustful are punished. Over there suffer the ones who lust for blood and they are punished in this way, while over there are those who lust for the flesh and they suffer this. Alright, let's keep going." (just an example)

And on that note, I'm taking out envy, greed, and sloth. If I use lust in that way, I can combine lust and greed in with it and sloth serves really no purpose in this. Out the door with sloth.


Rape and betrayal were my own personal additions because I find in most writings that rape, which the way I'm trying to set it off, is the closest to, if not, the most offensive sin. I call it a sin because, like the rest, one must willingly give in to the action that is so repulsive as that. No one is forced to rape a person; they willingly give in when they have the ability and reason to stop themselves. Betrayal I find the most offensive, just slightly more so than rape, mainly because almost any type of the sins punishable in Yoltrund are a betrayal of some kind, either you trick a friend or betray another person, or you betray your own soul by giving into these sins.

I put it in a weird way, but basically to end up in Yoltrund, you did not harm yourself; you must have harmed another person in violent ways or have betrayed them. So, essentially, it is a Hell for traitors. That is actually the center point; I was originally designing it to be only for traitors, but the other sins slowly came into it.

Gods, this response is unnecessarily long, but in short; I can shorten down the sins and combine them, but rape and betrayal stand on their own. (I do like the idea of dividing between the types of sinners. That would make things a tad easier.)

 

[Terry Greer]

It's a great idea - I always wanted to do a game set there - but couldn't get any publishers interested.

There is a science fiction novel (and sequel) set in Date's inferno written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - which makes interesting reading:

Inferno (Niven and Pournelle novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Escape from Hell (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

And on that note, I'm taking out envy, greed, and sloth. If I use lust in that way, I can combine lust and greed in with it and sloth serves really no purpose in this. Out the door with sloth. ...

I put it in a weird way, but basically to end up in Yoltrund, you did not harm yourself; you must have harmed another person in violent ways or have betrayed them. So, essentially, it is a Hell for traitors. That is actually the center point; I was originally designing it to be only for traitors, but the other sins slowly came into it.

I adore the Divine Comedy and I find your project to be intriguing. I like your explanation that each of (what you have defined as) the sins are based on betrayal. I think this sounds like a great reinterpretation of sin in the traditional Catholic sense which is that (Mortal) sin is the conscious a betrayal of God and this choice brings w it grave consequences for the rest of humanity. Here you seem to bypass the first clause and jump straight to sins against humanity- a compelling worldview that I'd be curious to pick up & read.

Of course you don't have to but if you wanted to include Sloth it could be explained as the exploitation of others. Along w sloth may come entitlement so (at least the way I learned it growing up was something framed vaguely like) when you're lazy and don't pull your own weight, you force others to work harder to makeup for it. In the same sense, when you're greedy and not willing to give to the less fortunate you're "stealing" by exploiting resources that God intended to shared or utilized by others.
If you wanted to you could maybe use this as an entry point for including sloth... just a thought.

 

[ascanius]

I just wanted to point out that lust greed and envy are three different things that most people confuse. Lust is about pleasure, sex, drugs etc, while greed is about having everything. Envy on the other hand is more about nothing ever being good enough, the grass is always green on the other side.

I'm doing something similar with my WIP, that is crawling at a snails pace right now. I have the seven deadly sins as a sort of demi gods.

 

[Ireth]

I had a nightmare once that was like the inferno; the circles of Hell were supposedly tailored to my specific fears. Thankfully, I woke up partway through the second circle. (Un-thankfully, now I wonder what the rest of them would have been.)

 

[Tom]

I had a dream like that once. The first layer was an innocuous-looking meadow, but as soon as I stepped on the grass I discovered the whole thing was riddled with bees' nests. (I have melissophobia.) It just got even worse from there....

 

[Ireth]

My first level was your typical fire-and-brimstone Hell. The second level started out as a desolate grey plain which then became a playground full of demonic children who wanted me to play with them. The swings were nooses and the play structure was a death trap. *shudders* Woke up partway through the death trap.

 

[Tom]

My second layer was a twisty hallway with a low ceiling and beige walls. As I went down it, the ceiling got lower and lower, and the twists in the hallway got sharper and sharper, until I could barely see anything around the turns. Behind me was this sort of...living darkness. It was breathing and following me. When it caught me, it was going to make me fall asleep.

There is nothing I hate more than being trapped or losing consciousness. (The latter was big on my mind before my surgery earlier this week.)

I don't remember the third layer that clearly. It had something to do with no one being able to see, hear, or touch me.

 

[ascanius]

You two have horrifying dreams, how do you sleep. I thought my nightmares were bad yours' (is that correct, yours' ) are much worse. I'll take getting chased on a giant rotating ball by a giant Trex anynight now.

 

[Tom]

Hah, I rarely have nightmares. But when I do, they're bad. I may feel fear when I'm experiencing them, but as soon as I wake up they don't frighten me. I have a high tolerance for horror and gore.

 

[Ireth]

I had a nightmare not long ago about becoming a zombie. It wasn't scary so much as disgusting. ._.

 

[Tom]

My nightmares tend to have more psychological themes. One time I dreamed I was trapped in the mind of a serial killer, and had to watch him slaughter his victims. Ugh.