Exploring the seven hells...

Been thinking about this a lot lately because I would love an expansion structured like the Divine Comedy. Though I realized a little while ago that, at least in the lore book, six of the hells are like the domains of The Twelve.... which we kinda visited during the endwalker alliance raids? But I feel kind of unsatisfied with that fact (and also lowkey don't remember the lore implications from that quest).... Also what is the deal with the Seventh Hell? We have that black mage artifact gear but man I'm real curious about more of the lore or potential ideas behind the hells.... As such, I was wondering if anybody has some knowledge on this part of the game's world or ideas!!

According to Koji Fox, there were originally six hells, but it didn't sound as satisfying as seven.

That meant there would be an astral / umbral version of each element (totaling twelve) and then one astral and umbral "pole" completing each set of 7, which also satisfyingly totals XIV.

My favorite part is the Seventh Hell lore. Once you have suffered "an eternity" in the hell you were damned to, you make a pilgrimage through the other five to see the sins of others. At the end, you arrive at the seventh gate, where your heart is weighed. If it is heavy with repentance, your punishment is over and you are admitted to the heavens. If it is not, you are damned to suffer in the seventh hell forevermore.

The Black Warden guarding the seventh gate has not gotten nearly enough mentions, imo, lol.

Pretty sure the hells don't really exist. When you die your soul just goes to the aetherial sea. This is pretty clearly established.

Which raises the question of what's going on in the areas we go to in the Endwalker alliance raids, but it's not like we actually see any people there...

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Originally Posted by PorxiesRCute

Pretty sure the hells don't really exist. When you die your soul just goes to the aetherial sea. This is pretty clearly established.

Which raises the question of what's going on in the areas we go to in the Endwalker alliance raids, but it's not like we actually see any people there...

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You're probably right, especially considering almost all gods/divinities end up being "fake". However, based on the ending of Dawntrail, this is my current theory/head-canon:

So we know that with Everkeep/Living Memory essentially recreated an artificial version of the process of death with the soul being extracted and memories being separated so they could live on in Living Memory. We also know that while a soul is in the aetherial sea the memories imprinted on that soul will slowly, naturally separated over time. So my current theory/head-canon is that after the memories are separated they would be taken to live in the heavens/hells as beings of essentially pure memory in a similar (but natural) manner to the beings in Living Memory.

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Originally Posted by PorxiesRCute

Pretty sure the hells don't really exist. When you die your soul just goes to the aetherial sea. This is pretty clearly established.

Which raises the question of what's going on in the areas we go to in the Endwalker alliance raids, but it's not like we actually see any people there...

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It would be a bit of an interesting twist that the seven heavens were based on a real thing (albeit not an afterlife), but the seven hells were a total fabrication.

You could certainly say... something about that notion, although I'm not quite at an end state for it yet: maybe that humanity's optimistic enough to believe that the otherworldy space they glimpsed is heaven, but so stuck on the notion of pain, punishment, or even just symmetry that they've assumed that there must also be a hell that they just haven't seen.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

It would be a bit of an interesting twist that the seven heavens were based on a real thing (albeit not an afterlife), but the seven hells were a total fabrication.

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I really hope they're based on something, because yeah, its definitely kinda underwhelming the reality of the twelve and their domains not really being real because so many aspects of the world are based on the perception and prayer of people it'd be crazy if there was something those prayers were truly founded on...

Also when Asahi drags Amon to super hell or wherever, like what deep dark part of the aetherial sea could that have been... Like I want more of that yaknow?

Also it just begs the question of how Hydaelyn, thus Venat, got a grip over the aetherial sea cuz idk if they ever elaborate on that? Especially considering the underworld is Emet-Selch's domain... so then what exactly is the underworld if things go beyond the aetherial sea...?

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Originally Posted by Ubersuberuber

Also when Asahi drags Amon to super hell or wherever, like what deep dark part of the aetherial sea could that have been... Like I want more of that yaknow?

Also it just begs the question of how Hydaelyn, thus Venat, got a grip over the aetherial sea cuz idk if they ever elaborate on that? Especially considering the underworld is Emet-Selch's domain... so then what exactly is the underworld if things go beyond the aetherial sea...?

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My read on Asahi and Amon was basically that no, he didn't drag him to a specific place, it was basically going 'we'll reincarnate eventually, but I'm gonna make you suffer until we do'. Somewhere in a corner of the Aetherial Sea, Asahi is kicking Amon in the face forever.

And I don't actually think Hydaelyn had any control over the aetherial sea at all, she was just... down there. Which yeah, plausibly means that Emet-Selch could've gone to find her and therefore raises the question of why he didn't, but they also never bothered freeing Zodiark; it might just be that it wasn't really worth bothering.