Hell was a merciless, unforgiving place, a realm reserved for souls that carried the permanent mark of sin. Demons ruled that dark abyss without question. The souls who arrived there were not candidates for redemption. They were currency, valuable goods to be collected and traded, a way for the denizens of the infernal realm to build power.
So what counted as "sin" in a place like that? Seven demons, known together as the Sins, carried the grim duty of gathering souls. The more wicked and depraved the soul, the more power it handed to the demon who caught it. Each of the Sins embodied a different kind of human transgression, and each held dark sway over every soul that crossed its path.
Each Sin, in turn, commanded an army of demons. Among them were the worker demons, whose task was ferrying banished souls from Heaven down to Hell. Heaven's standards for purity were brutally strict, and countless souls failed them. That flaw would help push the divine realm toward its own downfall.
Strangely, with all those souls and all that power, the demons never joined forces to overthrow Heaven. The reason behind their restraint was simple. Demons were not immortal. Their power, and their very existence, came from the souls they possessed. Anarchy in their own ranks was the last thing they wanted, because it risked wiping them out.
Above that restless hierarchy sat one supreme monarch, malevolence and darkness given a crown. He carried many titles. Some were whispered in fear; others he had proclaimed himself. The one he preferred was "The Hell Prince."
His true name was Lizen, and he held dominion over Hell itself. He devoured the lion's share of every soul the Sins brought in, and his authority went unquestioned. Even the Sins, formidable and wicked as they were, never challenged his rule. They were malicious, but they were not fools. Whatever souls remained were coveted and feared, and they were divided among the ranks of demonkind, each taking its portion according to the infernal hierarchy.
In the depths of Hell, where treachery and malevolence ruled, the Hell Prince Lizen stood as a darkness nothing else could match. No one knew what he wanted, why he wanted it, or how far his power reached, and that secrecy cast an ominous shadow over the whole nightmarish realm. Heaven and Hell each guarded their own secrets and their own enigmatic leaders, and between them the balance of power in the struggle between light and darkness stayed as fragile and volatile as ever, poised on the brink of upheaval and revelation.