#esp since it's being handled well and nothing has been clumsy about the explanations

[muzzleroars]

Wanna share my take on the lore that was revealed in the Ultrakill ARG

Like,, at first, when I saw that Hell is A Living, Thinking Thing Actually, I was like "aaah scary evil mastermind, noo"

But then, after thinking some more (though some media that I've consumed recently might have influenced me) I came to a different conclusion: hell is baby. evil but baby

I mean, just think about it

God creates Hell

Hell gains sentience

And then what it sees? Eternal torment

And the human expeditions probably aren't better, cause humans probably only thought about what use Hell is for them; and also probably violence was more common after humans and machines came to Hell cause demons and husks attack them on sight in most cases and then they had to protect themselves and stuff

And children generally can be cruel unless they're taught what is wrong, bored children especially so, and in hell's case it's even worse

And all Hell has ever saw and could learn from was violence and other amoral stuff

So in the end we have Hell, a bored, cruel, likely powerfull toddler, basically

Machines at least had their programming (for better or for worse), which might have limited their violence to some extent (or in some hcs still does), and yet they still had a hand in killing off humanity. Hell either doesn't have any "programming", or if it does, it's probably smth among the lines of "torment sinners", as that's the purpose with which God created it. And obviously this doesn't make Hell any less likely to be violent and amoral

Anyway, I'm not good with words and this sounded better in my head, but that's it

YEA let's talk about hell theories!!! (i get pretty speculative, BUT this is such an interesting topic!!!)

your idea is a really interesting take on what might be going on with hell, and in a similar vein i very much enjoy that while hell may be orchestrating a lot of what's happening, it's quite difficult to say if it's truly at fault in this scenario. because like you said, hell is made for one purpose and hell knows nothing else beyond that purpose. it was made as a place of eternal torment and i'm kind of half wondering if hell is like. lucifer prime, should that exist for angels. that he was killed in his fall and transformed into hell upon his death, spawning into being hateful of what had been done to him but still under god's directive to be the source of eternal damnation. WHICH IS PROBABLY WRONG BUT i think no matter what, hell was conceived to carry out damnation and that was an entirely new concept upon its creation, nothing had ever been made before to be strictly evil and cruel. and it was left to fester, denied god's light and left on its own but still with a job to carry out. and not to relate EVERYTHING to inhnmaims, but it's very reminiscent of am in this regard - relegated underground, trained only on violence and torture, and then left to rot on its own with no other input. what else would it become but something that wants to devour all, that needs more and more grotesque entertainment in its wretched existence?

to me, the machines made by humans and the hell made by god parallel each other a lot - they are created in hubris, in a sense of complete control on the part of their makers, and yet look at what they are. the machines are powered by blood, possibly made so due to wartime needs; hell is a place filled by design with unfathomable horrors. and i think both of these decisions were far from rational choices, but instead the creators acting in fear and anger, on pure emotion. and they both created something they could not undo. the machines are blood hungry, they don't care about the new peace; hell exists only to satisfy a need for punishment, for revenge, for torture. and the terminals get bored. and hell gets bored. and now both creators have a massive, sentient network on their hands that is no longer taking their orders because they've been too far away from it for too long. i am REALLY starting to think the terminals absolutely had something to do with humanity's fall, locked up in hell and forgotten just as hell itself is. they are abandoned and uncared for, but still they think, still they live, still they want to do what they are designed to do. perhaps they were twisted by hell, perhaps they weren't at all, but these two beings are operating in sync at this point imo and no one is left at the wheel. no humans. no god. no creators, only beings like machines, angels, and hell itself that can only run on their programming and protocols. in that sense, ultrakill is a bleakly empty and directionless world, everything that's left something that was only ever meant to be...automated. the mechanisms run forever on, into destruction, into extremes, with what they were designed for disappearing in the rearview mirror. the prime souls are kind of the only thing left that has a true sense of autonomy, and they're being slaughtered by v1's directives as well.

GOT A LITTLE CARRIED AWAY...but i totally agree that hell isn't necessarily a mastermind, just another being that is, in a way, doing the only thing it knows to do. i do wonder if there's really any goal to it, or if it just wants the show to last as long as possible. does it know its resources are finite, does it want to survive or is it finding something to kill it when god couldn't? does none of that factor into it and hell truly is just bored, it doesn't care about the outcome nor does it care to speculate about it or even consider it. whatever the case i'm interested to see how it turns out, especially because this lore is answering literally all of the mechanics on how the game works in a satisfying way...which is just such neat worldbuilding!!