Abyss

The Abyss, otherwise known as the Underworld, Hell, Hades, Perdition, and many other names, is actually an idyllic subterranean sprawl. It exists in essentially another dimension entirely from anything else but is reachable through many means, including railways located throughout Earth and other worlds.

Time does not pass in a conventional way in the Abyss, and so the seasons may be very different in different parts of the Abyss, and they may take inordinately long amounts of time to cycle. Some parts of the Abyss remain perpetually in a single season and never change them. Others are governed by their ruler or lord and shift whenever he or she wishes, but on the whole most only do this gradually if at all.

The chiefest city is Dis, a gorgeous circular metropolis surrounded by a high wall on all sides. Most of it borders water, a massive lake that sees regular ferries. Although most visitors arrive by rail, most tourists ride the ferries at least once since they are a popular attraction. Dis is a surprising and exciting blend of styles that somehow manages to blend them all together well. Among its many attractions are an underground garden in vast catacombs spread under the city, a sizable ampitheatre, a cathedral-shaped tea and coffee house, numerous botanical gardens, the Palace of Luceferos, and the Gallery of Time.

Trains may be caught to virtually any Abyssal destination, although there are other methods of transport such as carriage and even airship. Magical portals are also often used, although most residents of the Abyss prefer the relaxing and leisurely pace of the rails to instantaneous departure and arrival. Tourists, however, eagerly explore by way of portal just as much as they take the rails.

The tourist industry waned for some years, but due to the efforts of Luceferos and other prominent rulers of the Abyss, it has been bolstered and shows signs of strong improvement.

Demons
Demons, who are of the Abyss and born in it, manifest in their full form. They all call Lilith their mother, and she knows the name of each and every one. They are not born as humans are; they appear and begin existence with their forms vague and undecided. Young demons must first master the ability to settle on their form, before anything else.

In the first years of existence, a demon typically goes through a wide variety of appearances before settling on one or a few that he likes. Although some demons are constant shapeshifters, others settle into a single form and stay with it most of the time. Most demons also identify with one gender or the other, but some maintain forms of both, and still others combine them into androgyny.

Incubi and Succubi are demons of pleasure, and it is by fostering pleasure that they exist. Sexual release is a quick and easy source of this pleasure, so many of them use their natural empathy and empathic bond -- through which they may freely enhance sensation of their partner or partners -- to cultivate this. It has been said that Succubi and Incubi really have no enemies, because part of their very being is an aura that enhances pleasureable sensations and decreases less pleasant ones. Since demons may shift their forms at will, the distinction between the two kinds of demon is sometimes blurred. However, most Incubi identify with the male gender and remain male most of the time, and most Succubi accordingly stay female.

Most demons, as they age, tend to choose a single basic form as their own, reluctant to alter any part of it. Since demons are not subject to ageing, their perception of time tends to be very different from other beings; a demon may spend a decade trying to decide whether or not he should change his hairstyle, and even then it may only be an inch one way or another! Most demons do naturally allow their hair to grow and other such things to take place, although some do not.

Demons do not require much sleep unless they have expended large amounts of energy, and most also do not require food and drink; they gain sustenance from energy. Incubi, for example, live off of pleasure. However, since food and drink can be a pleasure of their own, most demons do eat and drink for purely pleasureable purposes.

Most all demons leave home after a few decades, to experience more of the universe. Since they are able to traverse the dimensions freely, many find places to settle for a time, although almost all of them will occasionally return home for a little while, which for demons can mean decades. Sooner or later most demons return to the Abyss and live there in some location. Most everyone lives in Dis at some time or another, but eventually most also end up moving away and only visiting it thereafter.

Lilith is extremely diligent and amazingly productive in keeping up with her children; all of them receive care packages from home, with items from the Abyss pertaining to their own interests and loves inside. She writes them all personal letters and often stops by to visit them. Since she loves to travel, she is always pleased at how widely spread her children are, and she is often abroad, visiting them and staying with them. It is a Demonic expression, affectionate and humourous, that "Lilith is always and never in Lilith's Palace".