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Inferno (魔界 Makai, "Demon World"), otherwise referred to as Hell, is an important location in the Bayonetta universe. Created when the cosmos split into three parts, Inferno is the realm that houses the universal force of darkness. In the first Bayonetta game, it is only spoken and never seen in great detail. In the second game, Bayonetta 2Bayonetta must travel into its depths in order to rescue Jeanne's soul after she is killed by Gomorrah. In both games, both Bayonetta and Jeanne are capable of summoning Inferno's inhabitants to battle against their angelic foes.

Due to their contracts, when an Umbra Witch dies, their souls will be extracted from their body and dragged into Inferno.

Inhabitants of Inferno[]

Main article: Infernal Demons

Story[]

Bayonetta[]

Only glimpses are seen of Inferno in the first game, mostly when demons come to claim the bodies of defeated Auditio when Rodin crosses into the realm when creating weapons for Bayonetta using the golden LPs collected throughout the game, or when the player chooses not to continue on the Game Over screen. It appears only as red, occasionally with twisted deformed hands reaching out or simply bloody in appearance from which screams and other indiscernible noises can be heard.

Bayonetta 2[]

After Jeanne's soul is dragged into Inferno when trying to protect Bayonetta from a frenzied Gomorrah, Bayonetta vows to rescue her from its clutches. She learns from Rodin and Enzo that the entrance to Inferno, the actual Gates of Hell, resides on the sacred mountain of Fimbulventr that has so far never been found by human hands. Upon arriving in Noatun at the mountain's base, Bayonetta meets the mysterious child Loki, who claims that his powers will be needed in order to get to Inferno.

After a long journey and multiple clashes with a masked assailant and a self-titled prophet, Bayonetta eventually finds her way inside Inferno's Seventh Circle. Here, she sees it for what it truly is, a realm where demons run amok free from any control, and the very nature of the land is alive with monstrous plant growth and abominations. Inside, she also meets Rodin on a mission to capture a new demonic soul for his new weapon creation and he warns her not to smash up his target to save Jeanne.

Inside an infernal palace of vines, Bayonetta meets the demoness who has claimed Jeanne's soul for her own, Alraune. The demon tells her that there is no real escape from Inferno and battles the witch when she realizes who the intruder to her domain is. She is swiftly put down and Bayonetta is able to rescue her friend's soul and eventually gain a new weapon thank to Rodin at the same time.

Bayonetta 3[]

Description[]

Inferno in the Bayonetta universe seems to closely mirror the description of Hell found in the poem "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. Many of the weapons' backstories and the Infernal Demons found within the game's descriptions make mention of specific locations that take their origin from the said poem. 

Locations[]

Both Madama Styx and Lex Talionis reside in the River Styx, described as "the boundary between humanity and Hades" that "runs through the land of the dead". The River Styx originates from Greek mythology, across which newly deceased souls would cross on their way to enter the underworld, Hades. In Dante's Inferno, it is described as a marsh comprising Hell's Fifth Circle, wherein the actively wrathful constantly fight each other while the sullen (passively wrathful) lie beneath the water where they feel no joy. Phlegyas ferries Virgil and Dante across the Styx. Similarly, Kraken is said to reside in the swamp named Stygia located "on the far rim of Inferno". It is unclear if this is intended to be the same area, or even anywhere near the River Styx, but its name comes from "Stygian", which refers to Styx.

Phantasmaraneae hails from the Sea of Magma named Phalaris.[1] Phalaris is named for an Italian tyrant known for his excessive cruelty and rumored cannibalism. A special torture device known as the brazen bull was built for and used by him, wherein a victim would be placed inside and a fire lit underneath so as to roast them alive until they perished. The bull was rumored to have an acoustic apparatus built into it so that the victims' screams would bellow from the device's mouth and resemble the sounds of a bull. Phalaris is said to have eventually been killed in a brazen bull himself, which would come to bear his name by association.

Baal, and likely the rest of the royal family she belongs to, originates from and likely rules over the Lucifugus Swamp.[1] Lucifigus is a Latin term that means "to shun daylight", "nocturnal", or "reclusive".

Malphas originates from the Goetia Valley,[1] named for the section of the book The Lesser Key of Solomon named Ars Goetia (Latin for "the art of Goetia" or "the art of the evocation of demons"), which contains a list of various demons, including Malphas.

Mictlantecuhtli originates from the Teotihuacan Plateau.[1] Teotihuacan is the name of an ancient Mesoamerican city in the Valley of Mexico, glossed as meaning "birthplace of the gods" to reflect various Nahua and Aztec creation myths said to occur in the city.

Gomorrah and Fury are said to hail from "the demonic wood, Johnson Forest". Gomorrah's most powerful form, Sin Gomorrah (only achievable through Deadly Sin) resembles that of the legendary "Beast Tyrant", a mountainous demon rumored to live in the forest and said to rule over all Gomorrah demons. This could very well be a reference to "The Wood Of The Suicides", located in the Seventh Circle of Hell. It is described here that those who had taken their own lives were transformed into trees; they were forever damned to suffer the pain of their leaves being torn by harpies, and upon the Last Judgment the bodies they had rejected would dangle uselessly from their branches. This is the second area of Inferno that Bayonetta enters in Chapter X: The Depths, as evidenced by the appearance of Gomorrah in Chapter XII and the Background OST (The Depths: Johnson Forest). Due to Jeanne's death being of her own choice (sacrificing herself for Bayonetta), this is the circle of Inferno she ends up in. Madama Butterfly and Alraune also inhabit this area due to both once being humans who took their own lives. The trees that Bayonetta has to attack in order to reach new areas may in-fact be the trees mentioned in Dante's Inferno, as they appear to be sentient.

Scolopendra hails from "...Frejentonta, a river of boiling blood in the depths of inferno." This river is also described in the Seventh Circle of Hell. The name given to it by Dante is "Phlegethon"; the river being a place where violent offenders and spillers of blood are sent and submerged to a level corresponding to their guilt, with any who try to escape their appointed death being shot by arrows from the Centaurs that guard the river. Dante says that Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun exist in this river submerged up to their eyebrows. A bloody river is seen within the Johnson Forest in Bayonetta 2, as Bayonetta rides Diomedes. As both Johnson Forest's and Frejentonta's respective basis are both located in the Seventh Circle of Inferno, and multiple Scolopendra appear at the entrance of the Johnson Forest, it would be safe to guess the river is Frejentonta.

Hideous and Hatred infest the "Malebolge caves" of Inferno. In Dante's Inferno, Malebolge is the Eighth Circle of Hell and is described as a large cavern divided into many concentric circular trenches or ditches. At its center is the Ninth and final Circle of Hell. Here, sinners of "simple" fraud (fraud committed without particularly malicious intent) such as counterfeiters, grafters, sorcerers, and simoniacs are punished.

Odette and Karen are a demon witch and woman respectively who were banished to the "icy hell" Cocytus. Another woman named Undine threw herself into "the Cocytus river" after a failed relationship. In the Divine Comedy, Cocytus is a lake made of frozen tears within the Ninth and final Circle of Hell, where sinners who betrayed their benefactors are sent. Lucifer himself (along with Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot, who his three heads endlessly gnaw upon) is imprisoned in the center of the circle, and the icy gales created when he flaps his wings to escape only serve to keep him trapped in his frozen prison.

Culture[]

Some inhabitants of Inferno are deities, also known as Infernal Gods, who preside over and control different domains and aspects of reality such as time, flame, destruction, and death. Most known deities have been transformed into weapons by Rodin.

Royalty exists within Inferno. Queen Sheba, though not necessarily a demon, resides in Inferno and is named its queen. Madama Styx is the queen of the River Styx, Baal belongs to a royal family that rules over "a certain region of Inferno" (likely the Lucifugus Swamp), Odile is a "stubborn" demon queen, and Zero is the "king of little devils". Madama Butterfly's true form, achievable only through Deadly Sin, is named Queen Butterfly. Though not explicitly stated, Alraune may be considered royalty in Inferno due to her great strength and residing in a "palace".

Plants[]

Onyx Roses and Garnet Roses are flowers that are said to only grow only Inferno, which are known to be collected by some fairies; however, Onyx Roses do sometimes bloom in the human world, at least in places with great spiritual/magical energy. Alraune flowers also grow in Inferno, and their buds have a likeness with a weapon containing the soul of the demoness that shares her name with them. The palace that Alraune rules over is comprised of enormous and seemingly living plants, and resides in or near the Fohnson Forest.

Gallery[]


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