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The Nine Hells, sometimes Hell or Hells, also known as Baator in Infernal, was the home of the devils. It was a plane of sinister evil and institutional cruelty organized in a strict caste system with a very rigid chain of command. Unlike the demons of the Abyss, the devils were highly organized in their quest for power and status: scheming and plotting power plays, coups, and assassinations. Each of the nine Hells had its own physical laws or properties of matter but all were inhospitable or deadly to outsiders. This plane's place in the cosmology of the Forgotten Realms shifted over time but was always a bastion and incubator for those of the lawful evil persuasion.

Cosmology
First and second edition D&D placed the Nine Hells in the Outer Planes of the Great Wheel between Gehenna and Acheron, with connections to Concordant Opposition and the Astral Plane. Each Hell was a different infinite layer interconnected at barriers much like a nine-layered cake&mdash;the lowest points of one layer manifested barriers that exited high above the surface of the next lower layer. The river Styx flowed through the first layer, Avernus, and also the fifth layer, Stygia, before crossing over into Gehenna.

When the Great Wheel model was overshadowed by the World Tree cosmology model, the river Styx was renamed the River of Blood and it flowed through all the fiendish planes (except for the Supreme Throne and the Demonweb Pits) originating in the Abyss, passing through the Blood Rift&mdash;an unusual plane that connected the Abyss with the Nine Hells &mdash;bringing the devils even closer to their arch-enemies the demons, resulting in the Blood War. Cosmologists verified portals between the Nine Hells and the Barrens of Doom and Despair and Clangor. The Astral plane connected all of the fiendish planes to the Prime Material Plane, but not directly to each other.

After the Spellplague, Asmodeus consumed the essence of the fallen Azuth achieving (some say regaining) greater godhood and ended the Blood War by casting the Abyss to the furthest depths of the Elemental Chaos. The World Axis cosmology model described the Nine Hells as an astral dominion floating in the Astral Sea, no longer of infinite size nor consisting of layers, ruled by Asmodeus and his eight archdevil vassals. Once again the river Styx flowed through the Nine Hells and the Abyss, but then emptied its pollution into the Astral Sea.

Description
Each of the nine Hells was unique and usually mirrored the malevolent characteristics of its ruler, or perhaps the archdevils were shaped by the domains they schemed to control, no one can be certain. In early editions, each Hell was a separate infinite layer rigidly joined to its neighbors by barriers at fixed locations. After the Spellplague, the domains of the archdevils were described as territories (large, but finite) or circles. The relationship between layers and circles is not fully known. What follows are descriptions of the nine Hells reported by various cosmologists working under different cosmological models, gathered, collated, and summarized.

Avernus
The first circle of Hell was also the "topmost" because Astral travelers would emerge from color pools on this layer and reaching the next circle required descending to the lower depths to breach a barrier to Dis. According to the Great Wheel cosmology model, this layer was also connected by portal to Acheron, Gehenna, and Concordant Opposition. By the World Tree cosmology model, portals connected Avernus to Clangor, the Barrens of Doom and Despair and the Blood Rift via the River of Blood. It was believed at the time that some of the archdukes maintained portals to the realms of Bane, Loviatar, and Talona, but the ownership and location of those portals is unknown. The World Axis cosmology model posits the Nine Hells were isolated with no direct connections except via the river Styx to the Abyss. Travelers on the Astral Sea who did not follow the Styx likely found themselves falling out of the sky to a fiery death.

By all accounts Avernus was a desolate wasteland with rocky terrain, sparse, twisted vegetation, volcanoes, and rivers of magma. The sky was starless, full of choking smoke, and glowed a dark red due to balls of flammable gas that floated about or streaked across the atmosphere, randomly exploding as a fireball. During the Blood War, Avernus echoed with the marching of legions of devil troops preparing for the next campaign against the demons of the Abyss and the ground was littered with the detritus of countless battles.

Dis
The second circle of Hell, when described as its own layer, was a flat barren plain containing little more than stagnant rivers, stretching for thousands of miles/kilometers until it reached some rolling hills. The sky was a cloudy dull green shot through with lightning. In the center of this plain rose the Iron City of Dis, several miles/kilometers in height and hundreds of mile/kilometers wide. In the World Axis view, the city of Dis was enclosed in a huge cavern. The walls of the buildings and the stones of the streets were said to radiate extreme heat; more than brief skin contact resulted in severe burns.

Minauros
The third layer of Minauros is an endless bog of vile pollution. The weather on Minauros consists of acidic rain and harsh winds.

The city of Minauros the Sinking is located here, so called because the weight of the city causes it to continually slip beneath the slimy waters; only the endless efforts of thousands of slaves prevents it from doing so. The kyton city of Jangling Hiter, City of Chains can also be found on this layer.

Mammon the Viscount is the ruler of Minauros, he resembles a long serpent with a human torso. He rules from the centre of the city, within a huge mausoleum like structure.

Phlegethos
Phlegethos is a fiery wasteland filled with active volcanoes and rivers of molten lava. Lady Fierna and Archduke Belial are the lords of this layer. Few can exist here for long without suitable protection from the extreme heat. The city of Abriymoch is composed of hardened magma in the caldera of a volcano and is somewhat more bearable than the rest of Phlegethos. Fierna and Belial reside in a palace of pure obsidian high up on one side of the city.

Stygia
Stygia, the fifth layer is a freezing layer of cold and ice dominated by a murky ocean fed directly by the River Styx. The dark sky is constantly filled with lightning storms. Tantlin, the City of Ice, is built on a huge ice floe with a large harbor to the river Styx, and is ruled over by a huge pit fiend. The lack of any kind of law enforcement leads itself to gangs controlling much of the city. Prince Levistus rules over this layer, frozen in a giant iceberg floating in the harbor. The sahuagin deity Sekolah laired here in the realm of Sheyruushk. Set had a realm here called Ankhwughat.

Malbolge
Malbolge was an endless mountain where rockslides and avalanches of boulders were common. Numerous copper fortresses provided some refuge from the avalanches. Formerly, the Hag Countess ruled from her mountain-sized boulder fortress, which perpetually rolled down the slopes of Malbolge. Now however the layer is ruled by Glasya, the daughter of Asmodeus. The Countess grew to such a height and girth that she exploded and became the layer itself.

Maladomini
Maladomini is a barren landscape scarred by countless forgotten ruins, abandoned mines and gruesome subterranean dungeons. The city of Malagard is the layer's primary settlement. Archduke Baalzebul presides over this layer.

Cania
Cania is an unimaginably cold wasteland, few living things can survive more than a few moments in an unsheltered area. Huge fast moving glaciers crash around the layer sending snow and ice up in the sky.

The layer is ruled over by Mephistopheles, from his great citadel of ice Mephistar. It sits upon a giant glacier called Nargus, the movement of which is controlled by Mephistopheles himself. Inside Mephistar huge heated baths and fire warm the citadel, providing quite a comfortable environment.

Nessus
Nessus is the ninth and deepest layer of Baator. It is of pits and ravines of virtually endless depths. The great city of Malsheem lies immediately below the layer between Cania and Nessus and is the largest city in all of the Outer Planes. Here, Asmodeus rules over the entire plane, and thus the entire race of devils.

Inhabitants
The principal inhabitants of Baator are the devils, fiendish creatures of pure lawful evil; the most populous variety of devils are the baatezu, a race which effectively rules the plane. The devils are in a constant conflict known as the Blood War with the Chaotic Evil demons. The ultimate rulers of Baator are the Archdevils, also called Lords of the Nine Hells; each one rules absolutely over one of the layers. The current political climate of Baator was determined by a civil war known as the Reckoning of Hell.

Besides the devils, Baator is home to hell hounds, rakshasa, night hags, nightmares and other evil creatures. A few mortals live in well-defended fortresses in Baator.

Baator's petitioners are those that have been stolen or lured from the Fugue Plane by the devils sent there to do just that. Most start as lemures, though some strong-willed souls begin their devilish afterlives as spinagons, the next step up from a lemure. Petitioners can 'evolve' to inhabit more powerful bodies, if they survive and prosper long enough to do so.

In earlier Planescape supplements, another type of creature, the nupperibo, is said to inhabit Baator as a remnant of an ancient race that existed long before the Baatezu. Nupperibos grow naturally from larvae present on the plane if left to develop. Since the arrival of the Baatezu, the larvae have been molded by the devils into lemures in an effort to prevent large numbers of nupperibo developing.

Realms
Tiamat's realm, the Dragonspawn Pits of Azharul, was found on this layer, as was Kurtulmak's realm Draukari. The Archduke Dispater rules this layer from the Iron Tower, an impregnable fortress that reaches far into the sky and can be seen everywhere on Dis.