| “ | So, Cade damned them in return. With his last breath, he let loose a psychic blast so powerful that it created its own world. Call it hell if you want. It doesn't matter what name you give it or whether you believe in it or not. Either way, that is where Cade feeds on the souls of the damned. | ” |
Hell was a supernatural dimension of misery and fire created by Arcadius thousands of years ago and one of the two ultimate destinations one takes in the afterlife. It is believed to be an ugly realm populated by every soul (both human and non-human) that has failed to find peace.
This realm is considered a "hell" due to its similarity to the unpleasant afterlife that is believed to exist by many religions as well as the violence by which it sucks in its eventual residents. However, contrary to the religious belief that only sinners are damned to hell, it has been proven that this is not the case. While some characters who could arguably be deserving of this fate, such as Katherine Pierce, Markos, and Silas, were in fact dragged into Hell, undeserving characters, who were known to have committed benevolent deeds, were also said to have been sucked into Hell as well, such as Maria and Vicki Donovan.
Hell was destroyed when Stefan Salvatore killed Arcadius.
Creation
After being betrayed by his own villagers and brother, Arcadius was tied to a stake and stoned for being a psychic. He was then burned at the stake, and as he was burning alive, he realized that the all the people punishing him were monsters. In that moment, he released a psychic blast so powerful that it created a realm, a psychic imprint of his death, where he would forever punish those souls. From then on, whenever an evil soul would die, they would be sucked into this realm where Arcadius would feed off of their souls for the rest of eternity.
Trivia
- It is unknown if the spirits that have been dragged into Hell (the polar opposite of the Bright World) are still able to find peace and possibly transfer into the Bright World after "serving their time," or if their residency in Hell is permanent.
- According to Julie Plec, the rest of the Other Side might have been sucked into Hell.[1]
- It is still unknown if Hell has any connection to the collapse of the Other Side when it was destroyed. It has been speculated if the "higher power" lost control of allowing or not allowing souls of the supernatural into the Other Side which resulted in the remaining spirits residing on the former supernatural purgatory; being graphically sucked away into the dark void. Katherine Pierce and Georgie being the only person to be dragged into the void, unlike others who were sucked via full body.
- In A Closer Walk With Thee, Hell was referred to by Klaus as "the nothingness."
- In An Eternity of Misery, Sybil revealed that hell was created by Cade.
- In What Are You?, Damon asked Cade if anyone ever earned their way out of hell, to which Cade implied no, as he told Damon he didn't want to give him false hope.
References
See also
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