History Main / PhysicalHell

* Greek mythology has Hades[[hottip:*:The place, not to be confused with its boss. Depending on the language, "Hades" could refer to either -- or ''both''.]], which is occasionally depicted as an actual physical location accessible via various caves.

* In ''Terraria'', you can actually enter Hell (called the Underworld ingame)simply by digging down deep enough. In there you'll find demons, a wall of flesh, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bats]]. There's [[FireAndBrimstoneHell lava, fire]], imps, lava slimes, hellbats, [[RedundantDepartmentOfRedundancy lava, fire, and lava.]] [[CaptainObvious It's dangerous down there.]]

* WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} has a physical hell for robots, complete with a robot devil. It's built from an abandoned theme park in New Jersey.

Hell on Earth, literally. In most cases, Hell is something you don't have to worry about unless you're on the negative side of the KarmaMeter, and even then, only if you're careless enough to die. Even if it's more tangible, its usually on the other side of a HellGate which can be handily sealed up if necessary at a maximum of a few thousand human sacrifices to the dark ones. Then there are the unlucky worlds which have the ultimate in {{Crapsack World}}s in their backyards.

![[AC: Examples]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: CardGames]]

[[AC: {{Mythology}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: WebOriginal]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

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* In Literature/TheDescent by JeffLong, it turns out that there's an underground world under ours, inhabited by cruel demon-like humanoids. There's also a {{Satan}}... of sorts.

HellOnEarth is when Hell was originally in another dimension, but is deciding to colonise the physical realm and create this situation. Or just kill everyone; demons are fickle like that. {{Mordor}} is related - a dark physical realm which is like hell but often isn't explicitly said or even meant to be hell, just an inherently evil land.

* ''{{Diablo}}''[==]'s titular archdemon ends up creating a physical hell from the dreams of the luckless prince Albrecht, it being a separate dimension originally. All the games have you heading into Hell at some point to carry out your mission -- ''in Diablo II'', you head there to destroy Diablo and undo the mistake of the hero of the first Diablo, while in ''Diablo III'', you head there to [[spoiler:close the rifts that are allowing Diablo's forces to invade Heaven]].

* In {{Bedazzled}}, the Devil and George materialize in a grim, vacant city neighborhood that hadn't rebuilt from the Blitz. George wonders if it's Hell; the Devil tells him it's his London branch, pointing to his HQ, a sleazy-looking little basement nightclub.
** In the remake, the Devil takes Elliot to a Los Angeles nightclub where everyone is partying and having a great time, and welcome Elliot with open arms; the Devil later says she has offices in Hell, Purgatory and L.A., so this is presumably her L.A. branch. Near the end of the movie Elliot returns, and the party is ''still'' going on, and he notices that everyone seems to be enjoying it less than before.

* Gensokyo, the setting of the ''TouhouProject'', used to have at least one of the many hells, the Hell of Blazing Fires, located beneath the ground. All you had to do was enter the cave known as the Dark Blowhole, pass over the forgotten bridge, and through the Palace of Earth Spirits. At some point though it was relocated and it's not exactly clear where.

[[AC: Video Games]]

* ''DwarfFortress'': [[spoiler: Yes, you can now [[DugTooDeep dig to hell]]. Just don't expect to win when you arrive; hell has a population that is [[EpilepticTrees either in the billions or infinite]], and some of the demons don't have organs, so you literally cannot kill them.]]

* {{Futurama}} has a physical hell for robots, complete with a robot devil. It's built from an abandoned theme park in New Jersey.

* Those urban legends you occasionally hear about Russian scientists in the 1980s drilling a hole to Hell, lowering down a microphone, and recording the sounds thereof. We should break through and invade them first - ''that'll'' surprise Satan!

* Gensokyo, the setting of TouhouProject, used to have at least one of the many hells, the Hell of Blazing Fires, located beneath the ground. All you had to do was enter the cave known as the Dark Blowhole, pass over the forgotten bridge, and through the Palace of Earth Spirits. At some point though it was relocated and it's not exactly clear where.

* Those urban legends you occasionally hear about Russian scientists in the 1980s drilling a hole to Hell, lowering down a microphone, and recording the sounds thereof. We should break through and invade them first - that'll surprise Satan!

* ''{{Diablo}}''[==]'s titular demon ends up creating a physical hell from the dreams of the luckless prince Albrecht, it being a separate dimension originally. Two games on and with two waves of heroes driven insane by the effort of defeating the demonic colonies, they're still there.

* {{Neil Gaiman}} wrote a short story called ''{{Cold Colours}}'', which is about this.

[[AC: {{Card Games}}]]

* ''{{Dwarf Fortress}}'': [[spoiler: Yes, you can now [[DugTooDeep dig to hell]]. Just don't expect to win when you arrive; hell has a population that is [[EpilepticTrees either in the billions or infinite]], and some of the demons don't have organs, so you literally cannot kill them.]]

* ''{{Doom}}'''s entire plot revolves around the idea that teleportation experiments on Mars resulted in portals to hell itself, cue [[PlayerCharacter The Marine]]. [[spoiler: Also, the Martians already did the same thing by accident long ago, sacrificed most of their civilisation to fix it and fled to Earth]].

* Gensokyo, the setting of {{Touhou Project}}, used to have at least one of the many hells, the Hell of Blazing Fires, located beneath the ground. All you had to do was enter the cave known as the Dark Blowhole, pass over the forgotten bridge, and through the Palace of Earth Spirits. At some point though it was relocated and it's not exactly clear where.

Hell on Earth, literally. In most cases, Hell is something you don't have to worry about unless you're on the negative side of the KarmaMeter, and even then, only if you're careless enough to die. Even if it's more tangible, its usually on the other side of a HellGate which can be handily sealed up if necessary at a maximum of a few thousand human sacrifices to the dark ones. Then there are the unlucky worlds which have the ultimate in {{Crapsack World}}s in their backyards.

Usually deep underground, occupied by the physical LegionsOfHell and probably [[DemonicInvaders making themselves felt]] on the human lands above them. In particularly bad cases they may be unstoppable, and the only hope is to avoid [[DugTooDeep disturbing them in the first place.]] In more optimistic settings, some heroes may find themselves completely occupied keeping the demons at bay and stopping them from ravaging their fellow humans. Should they manage to fight the demons off, only the truly mightiest of heroes can actually take the step of [[ToHellAndBack invading hell,]] and most [[MindRape won't be the most stable individuals after the experience.]]

If the humans are lucky, [[PhysicalHeaven heaven will also have set up shop in the region.]] If they're even luckier, the hapless monkeys won't end up caught in the supernatural crossfire.

HellOnEarth is when Hell was originally in another dimension, but is deciding to colonise the physical realm and create this situation. Or just kill everyone; demons are fickle like that. {{Mordor}} is related - a dark physical realm which is like hell but often isn't explicitly said or even meant to be hell, just an inherently evil land.

![[AC: Examples]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: {{Mythology}}]]

* Thomas Hobbes was a materialist but was weary of being accused of atheism and believed in physical everything. Democritus said if matter is eternally conserved, then any combination of them will eventually be repeated - therefore the Resurrection. Physical heaven, hell, God, they're all out there somewhere.

[[AC: Video Games]]

* ''{{Diablo}}''[==]'s titular demon ends up creating a physical hell from the dreams of the luckless prince Albrecht, it being a separate dimension originally. Two games on and with two waves of heroes driven insane by the effort of defeating the demonic colonies, they're still there.

* ''PrincessMaker 2'' has a physical hell complete with its legions, though it appears to be under heavens jurisdiction.
* ''Hell'' terrain in the {{Civilization}} IV dark fantasy mod FallFromHeaven.

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

* {{Futurama}} has a physical hell for robots, complete with a robot devil. It's built from an abandoned theme park in New Jersey.

[[AC: RealLife]]

* In ''Terraria'', you can actually enter Hell (called the Underworld ingame)simply by digging down deep enough. In there you'll find demons, a wall of flesh, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bats]]. There's lava, fire, imps, lava slimes, hellbats, [[RedundantDepartmentOfRedundancy lava, fire, and lava.]] [[CaptainObvious It's dangerous down there.]]

* ''Hell in Dark Angel'': the Ascent was portrayed this way.

* ''{{Scribblenauts}}'': Just as how you can summon schools and museums you can actually summon Hell. Interacting with it produces a demon. PhysicalHeaven also exists.

* Was it {{Neil Gaiman}} wrote a short story called ''{{Cold Colours}}'', which is about this.

* A lot of people in the Dark Ages thought Hell was a system of caves somewhere, perhaps at the center of the earth. Dante's ''DivineComedy'' bears this out: Dante accesses Hell by following a river underground and eventually emerges on the other side of the world.

* Was it {{Neil Gaiman}} who write a short story where Earth had become Hell? There's a line about how the main character goes into a subway station... and can see his dead grandfather screaming in agony in a pit.
** Yes. It was a poem called "''Cold Colours''".

* Greek mythology has Hades, which is occasionally depicted as an actual physical location accessible via various caves.
** You're thinking of Erebus/Tartarus- Hades was the God of the Underworld, not the Underworld itself.
*** Actually, depending on the language, Hades is the underworld, the god of the underworld, or ''both''. Yeah, it gets confusing.

* Was it Neil Gaiman who write a short story where Earth had become Hell? There's a line about how the main character goes into a subway station... and can see his dead grandfather screaming in agony in a pit.

* ''{{Dwarf Fortress}}'': [[spoiler: Yes, you can now [[DugTooDeep dig to hell]]. Just don't expect to win when you arrive; hell has a population that is [[EpilepticTrees either in the billions or infinite]], and they [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheat]] by some of the demons not having organs, so you literally cannot kill them.]]

* ''Hell in Dark Angel'': the Ascent was portrayed this way.

*{{Futurama}} has a physical hell for robots, complete with a robot devil. It's in New Jersey.