So, I was thinking of a map of Dante's Inferno, or the Circles of Hell. Indeed, after a little bit of research, this becomes part one of a series of three maps, with the next two being Dante's Purgatory and Dante's Paradise (or the Terraces of Purgatory and the Spheres of Heaven).
Again, I'm not an artist, so I'd need someone with graphics skills to come on board, but I am a programmer, so I'll do the XML
and I'll also do some research and ideas. I'll post what I've started below
Dante's Inferno:
I envision this as a series of concentric circles, with a pathway winding its way through them perhaps? Or perhaps the pathway as the spiral, with each circle as a separate section image, a-la Bamboo Jack? Not sure exactly... Between each circle is a guardian usually, so I think the idea of a central spiral, with extended limbs perhaps?
Important Features:
:::Prior to entering Hell:::
Virgil - Roman Poet who guides Dante through Hell
Dante - He who journeys
Beasts: A Lion, A Leopard, A She-Wolf
>>>The Opportunists>>>
> Pope Celestine V
> Pontius Pilate
> Neutrals in the Rebellion of Angels
> Wasps
> Hornets
> Maggots (punishing the opportunists)
The Gate to Hell: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
Shores of the Acheron: A branch of the River Styx to be crossed to enter hell
Charon: The ferryman who carries Virgil and Dante across the River Acheron
:::The First Circle - Limbo::: (Similar to Elysian Fields, an earlier, but "deficient" heaven)
The Unbaptized
Virtuous Pagans
Other Non-Christians
Green Fields
Infants stained by Original Sin
>>>A Castle - Dwelling place of the wisest men of Antiquity>>>
> Virgil himself (his home)
> Averroes
> Avicenna (Islamic Philosophers)
> Homer
> Horace
> Ovid
> Lucan (Poets)
> Socrates
> Plato (Philosophers)
> Saladin (Sultan of Egypy/Syria)
Caesar
Brutus
Lucretia
Aristotle
Democritus
Thales
Heraclitus
Euclid
Hector
Aeneas
Epictatus
Ptolemy
Hippocrates
[Obviously we would choose some of these, perhaps grouping them
]
The Palace of Minos is a big winding structure where people get lost and end up coming alone to face
Minos - A Minotaur who stands at the end of the first circle and judges sinners, sentencing them to one of 8 lower circles
A one way set of stairs leads down into the second circle, or Minos can cast sinners into each of the levels of hell by wrapping his tail around them, the number of loops indicating which level of hell. I thought we could do this by the number of armies on Minos (mod 9) would determine which level of hell he could attack. 5 armies could attack level 5, 9 armies, level 9, 10 armies, level 1, etc. Again, I don't know if this is programmable, but would be cool.
"Circles 2-5 are the sins of Incontinence, wrong actions through inadequate control of natural appetites/desires"
:::The Second Circle - Lust:::
The steps from limbo peter out into a rocky 45 degree slope
A violent Storm blows souls about to and fro with no hope of rest, the winds of passion
Francesca da Rimini and
Paolo (her husbands brother) committed adultery
Kelevra and
Noirsa are Pagan souls in the second circle
All the great lovers are here - Semiramis, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris, Tristan
Standing on the ground in the Second Circle are unsuccessful lovers attempting to be caught up by the winds of passion.
At the end of the slope ends the broad ledge of the Second Circle
On the edge of the cliff grows a single contorted tree
At the top of this tree grows a fruit. To advance to the next circle this fruit must be eaten.
It only reappears every once in a while (I think this could be a one way attack path, only useable once every 3 rounds if this could be coded)
:::The Third Circle - Gluttony:::
The gluttons are forced to lie in the mud under continual cold rain and hail
They are guarded by Cereberus, the 3 headed Dog of Hell
Ciacco (also called Hog) talks with Dante here
Aecrid
November Rain
Sumac
Jack
:::The Fourth Circle - The Hoarders and Spendthrifts:::
Entering the fourth circle, one meets Plutus, the god of Wealth
In this circle, the sinners are divided into two raging mobs.
Each mob is pushing madly at a great boulder-like weight (huge faceted diamonds, surfaces dulled by time)
One mob yells "Why Waste" the other mob yells "Why Hoard"
Until they crush their boulders together, they then push them apart again, and repeat
Allister Toomey sits in the middle getting crushed by the boulders (then resurrected and done again)
To advance to the next circle, a battle must be fought between two sinners,
The winner becomes the wrathful and the loser becomes the Sullen
:::The Fifth Circle - The River Styx:::
Wounds inflicted here will never heal and the comfort of death does not exist (not sure how to game-ise this)
This circle consists of a stinking swamp, mostly hidden by thick fog (I wonder, perhaps Fog always, even in no fog games?)
The Wrathful fight each other on the surface
The Sullen lie under the river, bubbling away
Phlegyas transports Dante and Virgil across on his Skiff
They are accosted by Filippo Argenti along the way.
They reach the Stygian Marsh, and then the City of Dis (containing the active, not passive sinners)
:::The City of Dis:::
The walls are guarded by fallen angels
In the city is the Human Bureaucracy of Hell - a vast organisation that wastes everyone's time doing things that aren't helpful.
Furies will appear if one loiters too long, flapping down from the sky,
and call upon Medusa to turn the loiterers into stone and keep them in Hell forever.
:::The Sixth Circle - The Heretics:::
a countryside of pain and anguish, teeming with tombs
Divided into two parts:
One part is a plain of flinty ground dotted with the iron tombs of heretics, Dante talks to
Farinata degli Uberti and
Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti here
The other part of Dis is a huge white marble mausoleum, Behind each slab is imprisoned an unbeliever
square-cut marble slabs each of which has a brass plate listing name, birth date and date of death
In other places the walls are lined with densely-packed niches, each with an urn in it
In yet others there are short alcoves with huge, ornate tombs in various styles
Some of the corridors of the mausoleum lead back to the iron walls of Dis
Other halls lead to the drop-off into the Seventh Circle.
Inward from the torn-down gate in the wall of Dis is a craggy landslide
At the edge of the Sixth Circle a disgusting stench arises from below. This is so strongly offensive that travellers may have to wait to become accustomed to it.
:::The Seventh Circle - The Violent:::
This circle holds those condemned for Brutishness or Bestiality
The guardian of this circle is the Minotaur
This Circle is divided into three rings, each with different types of sinners
--RING I - THE RIVER PHLEGETHON - TYRANTS AND MURDERERS
River Phlegethon (also known as the River Phlegyas), a river of boiling blood
Fierce Centaurs roam the banks.
leader of the Centaurs is Chiron
Nessus, another Centaur, was appointed by Chiron to guide Dante and Virgil
one sunken wooden sailing ship immersed in it. This contains slave traders
an island, entirely made up of officials who knowingly let criminals go free
In one place a stream of the blood leaves the River Phlegethon and flows downwards through the rest of this Circle towards the drop into the Eighth Circle.
---RING II - VIOLENCE AGAINST SELF
those who raised a hand against themselves, such as in suicide,
or those who gamble all their wealth away and weep when they should have rejoiced.
violent against themselves are eternally destroyed by Harpies in the Wood of the Suicides
souls of the suicides are encased in thorny trees, only able to speak when attacked by harpies
Running through the wood are the Violent Wasters
Pursued by wild dogs who would tear them apart
The polluters also make up a section of this ring, wastelands of oil and rubbish
---RING III - VIOLENCE AGAINST GOD AND NATURE
those who were violent against God in life
blasphemers, usurers and sodomites
Plain of Burning Sand - The Abominable Sands
Blasphemers, who were violent against God, are stretched supine and naked upon the ground under the burning rain
Sodomites, also naked, must wander forever on those hot sands, or squat with their arms about themselves.
Usurers, who were in life violent against art, must crouch on the hot sand with heavy moneybags around their necks.
Loan Sharks are the modern Usurers, and are also condemned here.
:::The Eighth Circle - Malebolge - The Fraudulent:::
BOLGE I/THE FIRST EVIL DITCH - PANDERERS AND SEDUCERS
BOLGE II/THE SECOND EVIL DITCH - FLATTERERS
BOLGE III/THE THIRD EVIL DITCH - SIMONIACS
BOLGE IV/THE FOURTH EVIL DITCH - SORCERERS, SOOTHSAYERS AND FORTUNE TELLERS
BOLGE V/THE FIFTH EVIL DITCH - BARRATORS AND GRAFTERS
BOLGE VI/THE SIXTH EVIL DITCH - HYPOCRITES
BOLGE VII/THE SEVENTH EVIL DITCH - THIEVES
BOLGE VIII/THE EIGHTH EVIL DITCH - FRAUDULENT COUNSELLORS/DECEIVERS
BOLGE IX/THE NINTH EVIL DITCH - SOWERS OF DISCORD, SCANDAL AND SCHISM
BOLGE X/THE TENTH EVIL DITCH - THE FALSIFIERS
Then an empty rocky land (perhaps reserved for new sins, not made up yet)
THE WELL OF GIANTS
On the far side of this land enormous giants are buried from the navel down in the ground.
The giant Antaeus can be persuaded to carry travellers to the Ninth Circle
Another of the other giants is Nimrod, the supposed builder of Babylon
A third is named Ephialtes, a giant son of Poseidon from Greek mythology
:::The Ninth Circle - Cocytus - The Traitors:::
four Regions
CAINA - TRAITORS TO KINDRED
ANTENORA - TRAITORS TO THEIR COUNTRY
PTOLOMEA - TRAITORS TO THEIR GUESTS OR HOST
JUDECCA - TRAITORS TO THEIR BENEFACTORS
THE EXIT FROM HELL
To exit Hell, one must climb down the body of Lucifer, which is covered in shaggy hair; the ice stops a yard or so from Lucifer himself. If one climbs down for long enough, one eventually feels as if one is climbing up again. This marks that one is crossing the centre of the earth, or "the point to which all weight from every part is drawn". One then makes their way up to a type of hollow tomb, a echoing grotto of dimly lit grey rock, from the floor of which the hooves of Lucifer project upwards, upside-down from this perspective. A stream of clear, sweet water runs through this grotto.
This place serves as the exit of Hell and entrance to Purgatory. Its roof goes up thousands of miles, tapering gradually until the opening into Purgatory is reached. This distance must be climbed, and when it is the travellers finally make their way to the surface, where they come "out to see once more the stars" on the shore at the base of Mount Purgatory...
So - anyone still reading? Heh... I think there's a lot of potential here. I'm going to do up some sketches of possible ways to implement this, if anyone else has any ideas, especially in a gameplay sense, I'd love to hear them.
by Virus(eX)Urban on Sun Jul 22, 2007 2:30 am 
So excuse me on that.
Virus(eX)Urban
... and I'm not very 'keen' on your borders and bonuses, as is (they look a little rushed and ill conceived)... BUT, I think the idea's kinda nice and I think that with a great deal of effort on your part and perhaps from others too, the map could be a visual treat and very fun to play on.
