Line #32 Main/BloodyBowelsOfHell


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5	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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11	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1439398027091208200
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14	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/DantesInferno https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gluttony.png]]]]
15	[[caption-width-right:350:That's a {{Hell}} of a mess.]]
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17	%% Caption selected per IP thread above. Please do not replace or remove without discussion here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
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19	->''A far as the eye could see, the ground heaved and undulated with mountains of raw muscle. Eyes larger than city blocks twitched and rolled and gazed straight at him. Mouths the size of villages opened and moaned in gluttonous ecstasy. Hills of flesh rose above smaller mounds of flesh just so their eyes could glimpse their microscopic new prey.\
20	Directly below him, the greatest mouth of all, the greatest mouth in the universe, opened as wide as an entire city, bellowed as loud as a thermonuclear choir; and in its glowing red depths was a throat with nine rings, all squirming as if each and every tiny cell was in the throes of chaos.''
21	-->-- ''WebSite/OrionsArm'', "[[https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-story&story=dr_yes_jolonah Yes Jolonah there is a hell]]"
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23	{{Hell}} can be depicted in many different ways. From the classic FireAndBrimstoneHell, where sinners burn for eternity, to a more [[CirclesOfHell organized structure]] with different sins punished in different ways, sometimes going all the way to [[IronicHell torments personalized to the individual]], and sometimes a [[TheNothingAfterDeath dark void where nothing exists]], as it was portrayed in [[Literature/TheBible the actual Bible]]. Then there's this [[NauseaFuel decidedly]] {{squick}}y version.
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25	This kind of Hell is like being inside a living being, with walls of flesh and structures like organs. This is a fairly recent phenomenon which plays upon the PrimalFear of being eaten and the idea that EvilIsVisceral rather than ancient mythologies, but the idea of the entrance to Hell being an actual mouth that would swallow the damned is very much older than the use of the word "hellmouth" in [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer certain 90's TV shows]]. (See this [[https://oi180.photobucket.com/albums/x226/yukon6/hellmouth6.jpg Hellmouth]] image from TheMiddleAges.)
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27	Compare WombLevel (when the creature doesn't represent hell), EvilIsVisceral, BodyHorror.
28	----
29	!!Examples:
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31	[[foldercontrol]]
32
33	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
34	* The depiction of the Nexus from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'', where Guts and the Hawks wind up when Griffith calls the Godhand during the Eclipse, is a seemingly-endless landscape of enormous faces and limbs that are themselves made up of smaller faces. The water is blood, and in the sky there’s a swirling vortex of moaning, tortured souls.
35	* Inspired by Literature/TheDivineComedy, ''Manga/SaintSeiya'''s version of Hell is [[CirclesOfHell structured]] in several locations or "Prisons". The Sixth Prison is a lake of boiling blood, whereas those who sin of greed are devoured by Cerberus in the Third Prison.
36	* ''Anime/TheLawsOfEternity'': The "Hell of the Bloody Pond", which is tailored for people who lived their lives lusting for the opposite sex, is depicted as a RedLightDistrict on the outside and pools of blood resembling hot springs on the inside, with the souls inside writhing in lust.
37	* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has the endless blood-filled PocketDimension inside Gluttony's stomach.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Books]]
41	* In 'ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'', the purgatorial dimension of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent "The Others"]] resembles this in its true form. Though they usually mask it with whatever time period or genre setting fits their momentary fancy.
42	* In ''ComicBook/TheMarquis'', the buildings in Hell are made from bones and flesh.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
46	* ''Film/TheFrighteners'' showed Hell to be the bowels of a gigantic eldritch worm filled with tentacles.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Literature]]
50	* While Inferno in Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' was mostly the more traditional IronicHell, murderers and tyrants are punished by immersion in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood. In the Circle of Gluttony the three-headed dog Cerberus chews on the gluttons. And Judas, Brutus, and Cassius were given the special privilege of being Satan's personal chew toys. And we're not speaking figuratively. He has all three of them in his mouths (yes, plural) and is chewing on them for eternity.
51	** The quasi-sequel [[Literature/{{InfernoLarryNivenAndJerryPournelle}} Inferno]] has the Devil existing in the center of hell as a mammoth body (that the protagonists climb up to escape).
52	* In ''{{Literature/Doom}}'', flesh walls and organs are a favorite form of "reworking" the aliens make to the facilities.
53	* In ''Literature/GodsDemon'', the ground and some buildings in Hell are made from living flesh.
54	* ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' depicts Tartarus, the darkest depths of the Myth/{{classical\|Mythology}} underworld, like this. As in the original myths, [[GeniusLoci Tartarus appears as a character embodying that part of the cosmos]], and the region of Tartarus is his literal body in this version.
55	* Played with slightly In Clive Barker's ''Literature/{{Imajica}}'', as it's like being inside a dead being. The First Dominion (where the souls of the dead travel) [[spoiler:is the physical embodiment of the god Hapexamendios, and when he dies, his flesh -- i.e. the entire universe -- begins to rot with expectedly squicky results.]]
56	* In the third book of the ''Literature/{{Silverwing}}'' series, the bat version of the afterlife is relatively nice. However, those who especially displease the god of the underworld, Cama Zotz, spend the rest of eternity in his digestive system.
57	* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/{{Tarot}}'' trilogy, Brother Paul and the others involved in the Quest are taken to Hell and their souls are tried by the Devil. One by one they are eaten alive by Satan -- although he castrates Paul first. Even though he knows this is only a hallucination, a virtual reality brought on by the planet, he is taken aback to regain consciousness inside an office in the Satanic bureaucracy -- which he also knows is in some way inside Satan. After an unpleasant interview, he is then removed from Satan's body by the nearest available orifice...
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
61	* The descriptions of Hell on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' vary, [[UnreliableNarrator depending upon]] [[MindScrew who's describing it]]. However, in the second season, one demon [[spoiler:(Meg, who's currently possessing Sam)]] describes it as "a prison made of bone and flesh and blood and fear."
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Music]]
65	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYnG8QhmDYA Hell's Forecast]] by the Music/InsaneClownPosse tells the story of a man (portrayed by Violent J) waking up to discover that all of his friends are dead, and that outside the sky is red and raining corpses into his ghetto. The corpses are all described as "naked and mangled, most withered for days" and their faces are twisted in expressions of horror and pain. J, frightened and confused, tries to retreat from the visceral storm, only to find that he has actually died and is in Hell.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
69	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
70	** The ''Fiendish Codex II'', published in 3rd Edition, decides that layer six of the Nine Hells (Malbolge) is under the direction of the [[DaddysLittleVillain daughter of Asmodeus (the most powerful devil lord),]] Glasya, who has made the plane fleshy, with tall oily hairs instead of forests, lakes of bile and viscera, and ivory towers that used to be fingers or ribs. Special mention must also be made of a great mound at the layer's center called the Birthing Pit. The reason it looks like this is because, as part of taking over the layer, Glasya used her powers to turn Malagarde, the previous ruler, ''into'' the layer. (Step into the wrong part of Malbolge and [[AndIMustScream you can still hear screaming]].)
71	** ''{{TabletopGame/Planescape}}'' has 666 layers in the abyss, home of the ChaoticEvil demons. Zegrentilandib, layer 393, is sentient, with fleshy ground.
72	** ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'' setting has the realm of Torog, the King Who Crawls, god of imprisonment and torture. His capital city, as it were, is Gargash, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Living Torture Den]]. The reason it looks so horrible is that it's ''literally'' the not-quite-corpse of the ancient primordial that crippled and cursed Torog in the first place. It's "tended to" by an army of Wrackspawn, themselves the twisted not-angel-but-not-demon remnants of Torog's other victims, who are eternally hacking, destroying, and reshaping the entire city-sized horror simply so that Gargash doesn't regenerate enough to let it ''[[SealedEvilInACan wake back up]]''.
73	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': Most parts of Malfeas, the Demon City, don't look organic, but the place is nevertheless made of Malfeas, the fallen king of the Primordials. The ancient Exalted mutilated him, turned his planet-sized body inside out, and stuffed the world-bodies of all the other defeated Primordials inside of him. You can still find their world-bodies in there, including Cecelyne the Infinite Desert. Her body is imprisoned inside Malfeas, and ''his'' body is [[AlienGeometries imprisoned inside her]]. Most of the Primordials' bodies don't look like the innards of an animal, but that's just because they're inhuman {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who far predate the invention of things like animals.
74	* While it does have a sky and thus isn't as claustrophobic as most of the examples here, the terrain in the hellish shard-plane of Grixis in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is said to be made of bones and decaying flesh. Even its cities are referred to as "necropoli."
75	** Old Phyrexia was a more straight example, complete with [[Literature/TheDivineComedy nine spheres]].
76	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Caina, the eight layer of Hell, is implied to have once been this. According to legend, when [[{{Satan}} Asmodeus]] first claimed Hell as his own, he conquered [[GeniusLoci Hell's consciousness]] traveling into Caina's pulsing depths and tearing Hell's flesh from its bones, which he reformed into the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils archdevil]] Mephistopheles. In the present, Caina -- also known as the Bones of Hell -- is mostly an empty black void pierced by unimaginably tall towers of rock and bone, adorned in some areas by platforms of tendons, cartilage and bits of flesh.
77	[[/folder]]
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79	[[folder:Video Games]]
80	* The ultimate punishment for the gluttonous in ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'' has them sewn into the intestines of an archdemon, with a tube connecting their mouths to their neighbor's stomachs. Their revulsion at the meals consumed by their host causes an endless chain-reaction of vomiting, and structure description is even interrupted by the narrator getting sick. And you thought ''Film/TheHumanCentipede'' was unpleasant.
81	* Making the most over-the-top version of these ever was the entire point of ''VideoGame/Agony2018''. The entire game is set in Hell and pretty much ''everything'' is blood, bone, teeth and twisted flesh.
82	* The computer game ''VideoGame/AncientEvil'' has a variant -- the walls of Hell are made of what seem to be human flesh and bone, with a pond forming from the blood.
83	* ''VideoGame/ArcTheLad: [[VideoGame/ArcTheLadTwilightOfTheSpirits Twilight of the Spirits]]'' has a handful of later battles in such a place.
84	%%* The Queen of Hearts's castle in ''Videogame/AliceMadnessReturns''.%%ZCE
85	* One of the endings of ''VideoGame/TheBardsTale'' is preceded by a scene in a dark void on top of a platform of flesh while blood rains from above.
86	* [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Infinity]] from ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' is the game's Hell analogue where [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Deathevans]] and his demon horde are {{sealed\|EvilInACan}}, and is completely made out of ''pulsating flesh''.
87	* While not strictly "Hell" in the traditional sense, the pain elemental Chzo (a.k.a. "[[Quotes/MindRape the King]]") from the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' games is not so much an entity as an entire hellish dimension, a labyrinth of fleshy tunnels from which there is no escape. That, FYI, [[FateWorseThanDeath includes death]]: Chzo feeds off of suffering, and he not only tortures his prisoners into becoming mindless, mutilated slaves, but he [[AndIMustScream keeps them alive for all eternity]].
88	* ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'': Gluttony, the Third Level of Hell, is populated by giant toothy worms and obese demons that attack with excrement, and the organic landscape itself. People who have overindulged in food, drink, or addictions are forced to wade in the muck and fluids for eternity.
89	* The aesthetic of Hell seen across the whole ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series varies from game to game, but the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 original]] definitely featured this flavor. Several of the last few missions in Hell see Dante journey through what looks to be a massive, pulsating cardiovascular system.
90	* Hell in ''VideoGame/Diablo1997'' consisted of what seems to be bony walls filled with blood. The Nest in ''Hellfire'' was even more organic, but less infernal.
91	** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' plays it in-between, with hell consisting of a dry, bony landscape paved with what turns out to be the skin of flayed demons.
92	* A lot of the levels set in Hell from ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''Doom II'', as well as parts of ''Doom 3'', are like this. ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' carries on the tradition, only instead of the architecture being gory, this time it's rusting rocks covered in the gore of human victims, fresh carcasses often piled up in visceral piles and forming pools of blood. Blood leaking from the ceiling is also a common sight in demon territory. ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' ups the ante by adopting the aesthetic from the older games, as Hell's terraforming activities on Earth have resulted in entire man-made structures being slowly converted into masses of bloody, pulsating flesh.
93	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
94	** Coldharbour is the [[EldritchLocation Daedric realm]] of Molag Bal, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[TheCorrupter Domination and Corruption]]. The ground is sludge, the sky is on fire, and the [[EvilIsDeathlyCold air is freezing]]. It resembles a ruined and desecrated copy of Nirn that is filled with suffering and "spattered" with blood and excrement. It contains charnel houses full of the dead and slave pens beyond count. The smell of the place alone is enough to kill most mortals, and it is said that no mortals willingly visit this place except in error. You get to venture into Coldharbour yourself in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline Online]]''.
95	** The Deadlands are the Daedric realm of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of [[DestroyerDeity Destruction]]. They have more of a FireAndBrimstoneHell aesthetic, with the buildings having some AlienGeometries, but they also have elements of this trope. You get to visit the Deadlands in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]''.
96	* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI'': The walls of the [[BonusDungeon Claret Hollows]] are nothing but flesh, and since many of the other features are also of biological origin (the toxic fluids, the valve-shaped doors, and certain enemies like Leukocytes and Red Cells), it's made clear that the dungeon takes place inside the animalistic structure of the Yggdrasil, contrasting the botanical one from the labyrinth's highest floors.
97	* The Hell level in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarI'' is distinctly covered in gore.
98	%%* The Domain of Pain in ''VideoGame/GuildWars''. Also the Depths of Madness, which is a bloodstained mountain region.
99	* In ''[[VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'', several structures associated with the Inferno faction and Sheogh, the demon's prison dimension, appear to be composed of flesh.
100	* In ''VideoGame/HolyDiver'', the second stage is titled "Zoumotsu Zigoku," which roughly translates to "entrails hell."
101	* One popular GameMod for ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', called "Biomes O'Plenty", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin adds dozens of new biomes to the game]], a few of them in the Nether, ''Minecraft''[='=]s version of Hell. One of them, "Visceral Heap", plays this trope straight.
102	* The original ''VideoGame/NexusWar'' had two Evil planes, one on the back of one of the pantheon of gods, and the second within the body of said god. It's not a pretty sight. The sequel replaced the second plane with a maddening [[AlienGeometries maze crawl]] through that god's ''mind''.
103	%%* ''VideoGame/{{Paranoiascape}}'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUaDPpCwwOM a very obscure PS1 game is all about this.]]%%Weblinks are not examples.
104	* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': The top portions of the central recurring dungeon of Mementos resemble a slightly red-tinted version of the Tokyo Subway, but as you progress deeper down, it takes on a more [[EvilIsVisceral visceral appearance]]; the red tinting becomes more aggressive, and large bones and arteries emerge from the floor and run through the walls, making it resemble a subway crossed with the insides of some giant creature. [[spoiler: The VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and GreaterScopeVillain residing at its very bottom reinforce the hellish overtones]].
105	* ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'' begins in a cave resembling the insides of a huge demon. As the Hero learns late in the game, [[spoiler:that cave is the Dark One itself, partially summoned and trapped between this world and its own hellish dimension]].
106	* ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' features such a setting in the caves beneath Monkey Island, referred to [[ContinuityNod in a later game]] as "The Caverns of Meat."
107	* Domains in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' are dimensional distortions created by demons to serve as bases that impinge on the real world. They mostly consist of masses of fused flesh and AlienGeometries coexisting uneasily. Once you're trapped in one, the only way to escape is to kill the demon who made the Domain.
108	%%* The DarkWorld in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' and ''The Room''. Naturally, it's ''very'' symbolic.
109	* The "[[PlanetHeck Heck]]" biome in ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' consists mostly of flesh blocks, brain blocks, and "plants" that resemble organs that drop flesh when harvested. The Heck objects (Altars, Chests, lights, etc.) are also made of flesh. It has since been removed, but Alien planets may have the "Flesh" biome that is a somewhat downplayed variant - fleshy ground, spikes, fleshy "trees", and a fleshy biome-specific monster: the Hemogoblin.
110	** The ''VideoGame/FrackinUniverse'' megamod has since resurrected the heck biome in the form of the Atropus planets. Flesh and brains, oceans of blood and pus, twisted plantlife, horrible monstrosities, and keening background sounds make for a truly terrifying experience. Oh, and landing without the appropriate protections will drive you insane, meaning that your controls are reversed, your defense drops constantly, and you start hearing voices urging you to kill yourself. [[SarcasmMode What fun!]]
111	* As of version 1.2 of ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', worlds in the game may spawn with an alternative to the Corruption, the Crimson. It's mechanically the same thing, but new, blood-and-viscera-themed monsters are running around, Shadow Orbs are replaced with Demon Hearts, and Demonite ore is replaced with Crimtane.
112	* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'': The Gluttony Layer is depicted [[YouDontLookLikeYou completely differently]] from its [[Literature/TheDivineComedy poem counterpart]]. Instead of being a realm of raining snow and scum, Gluttony is depicted as [[WombLevel a visceral realm]] where its surfaces are made of flesh, gaping mouths with teeth serve as doors, giant stone hands decorate the layer, [[TheWallsHaveEyes the surfaces are covered in giant eyes]], and stomach acid is a common environmental hazard. Speaking of the surfaces, a closer look at them reveals that they are made of ''[[AndIMustScream living sinners]]''.
113	[[/folder]]
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115	[[folder:Webcomics]]
116	%%* ''Webcomic/BioApocalypse'': '''[[CrapsackWorld The entire planet]]''' becomes this due to [[ScienceIsBad an experiment]] [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone wrong]].%%Became what?
117	%%* ''Webcomic/DemonEater'' might qualify, although it's ambiguous whether this actually Hell or merely another dimension with an utterly bizarre ecosystem. So far at least we've never seen any humans there, alive or dead.%%Might or does? How?
118	* ''Webcomic/{{Jack\|DavidHopkins}}'': The landscape of Drip's lair is made up of the bodies of those guilty of the sin of Lust.
119	%%* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': The [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003959 Land of Pulse and Haze]].
120	* ''Webcomic/{{Kagerou}}'': Vast swathes of the BlackBugRoom that is Kano Jurgen's mind comprise cavernous rooms made of red, lumpy, veiny flesh. The doors to some of these are even [[http://www.electric-manga.com/22/26.html labeled]] [[http://www.electric-manga.com/22/28.html for your]] [[http://www.kagerou.org/46/05.html convenience]].
121	%%* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheBlackDog'': Probably the closest trope we have to what Rhoda saw of [[http://orderoftheblackdog.com/comic.php?pid=20130607 the astral plane]].
122	* ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'': Bloddengogga is the home of Demons and the afterlife for the ChaoticEvil. Its ground is meaty and dotted with gigantic eyeballs, while its trees have hands for leaves and are dotted with lipless, eyeless faces.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Web Original]]
126	* ''Blog/CodexInversus'': The Flesh Fields of Minauros, one of the most unique locations in the Holy Infernal Empire, are an immense field of living flesh believed to have formed during the collapse when the Blood Veil, an immaterial passage that granted new bodies to the spirits of the dead, was forced into material reality. The result is a disordered sprawl of random body parts, assembled without rhyme nor reason in forests of limp limbs, fields of hair, and ridges of bones over vast cavernous organ systems. Most of these parts are human; some instead resemble other humanoids, such as patches of green orcish skin or fields of pointed elven ears; rarer still are appearances of fur, claws, feathers, scales or other animal traits of the [[BeastMan beast-kin]]. In the areas where the Fields slope into the sea, divers record vast slopes of scaly skin, immense fins, and deep gill-chasms. The area is considered extremely valuable as a source of organic products -- after considerable theologic debate, the Infernal Church decided that the Flesh Fields have no mind and soul and as such are fair game for... processing purposes provided that no recognizably human structures are used -- and home to a thriving ecosystem of parasites, scavengers, and "flesh grazers" ranging from flightless vultures and mosquitoes to tapeworms hundreds of feet in length.
127	%%* ''Literature/NESGodzillaCreepypasta'' includes some truly nightmarish versions of this in Zenith.
128	* ''Website/OrionsArm'': The Queen of Pain is an [[AlmightyIdiot an animin]], an EldritchAbomination that has ascended to the [[DivineRanks fourth singularity]] and yet isn't self-aware. It takes the form of a nation-sized mass of flesh that imprisons the worst of the worst inside of its body and uses its nanotech to [[AndIMustScream horribly torture them for all eternity]].
129	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BloodyBowelsOfHell