Cocytus

Despite the inhospitable conditions, Cocytus teems with life, though little of it welcomes visitors.

• The Damned: Betrayers, saboteurs, and the cruelly ambitious shudder beneath the ice, some trapped for eternity, others drawn from mortal realms to eke out a miserable existence near fleeting warmth.
• Devils: Elite diabolical soldiers—cornugons, exiled malebranche aspirants, and gelugon strategists—train, plot, and reign here. Infernal dukes, wary of Baalzebul's capricious rule, are rare, but those who dwell upon Cocytus are among Hell's most radical and merciless minds.
• Wisagatcak: Six-limbed, spidery fiends that skulk among the ice, whispering despair and lies to travelers.
• Leviathans: Titanic, primordial horrors roil beneath the glacial expanses. Though glimpsed only rarely, their mountainous forms or vast, unblinking eyes haunt the frozen wastes.

Betzebbul, the Lofty House

Suspended by colossal chains over a plain of ash-black snow and wailing, half-frozen souls, Betzebbul is the floating citadel of Baalzebul, Lord of Cocytus. Its impossible architecture—a profane cathedral twisted into a monument of decay—rises from a soaring glacier. Bound within a perpetual autumn, its columned halls, cloisters, and towering altars conceal cesspit-like chevets and shrines filled with fly-ridden sacrifices.   Within Betzebbul's central spire lies Baalzebul's throne room, where the desiccated corpse of the forgotten god Azhia hangs in shackles, eternally devoured by the buzzing swarms that form the archfiend's verminous body. Baalzebul himself rarely appears in his once-glorious form, preferring to stalk his realm as a mass of countless flies or a tall, insectile devil clad in tarnished angelic armor.  

The Forest of Pillars

A vast plain and several icy mountainsides are choked with towering icicles, each encasing a mortal betrayer whose sins robbed the Material Plane of untold wonders. At the heart of this forest stands a crimson spire of frozen blood—the domain of Duke Vassago. The draconic duke commands 26 legions from his tower, his prophetic riddles and visions drawn from the frozen ichor that surrounds him.  

Tichaim

A pitiful village of damned souls and stranded travelers, Tichaim's crude ice hovels provide meager shelter against the merciless cold. Its residents live in constant fear of the nearby cornugon warcamp. Each year, the devils march to the village demanding a sacrifice—ten souls offered, or taken by force.  

The Cathedrals Beneath

Deep beneath the glacial surface, mile-long stairwells descend into cavernous cathedrals hewn from solid ice. There, devils meet in secret rites and cruel devotions. The walls glisten with the frozen forms of millions of damned, their wide, suffering eyes reflecting the faint candlelight like a field of frozen stars. In one forgotten chapel, hidden behind crystalline ice, the monstrous eye of an ancient entity—perhaps a fallen god or primordial—stares back, unblinking, its slow presence unsettling even Hell's devils.

Harsh beyond reason, Cocytus defies mortal physics. Its frozen oceans, drifting glaciers, and volcanic peaks form a realm in constant, merciless flux.  

• Frozen Oceans: The vast, black seas of Cocytus stretch endlessly, broken only by continent-sized glaciers and jagged icebergs that grind and collide in titanic slow-motion.
• Glacial Peaks: Mountains of pure ice stab skyward, some spewing cold lava so frigid that it freezes all it touches, others leaking molten rock that momentarily softens the realm's deadly chill.
• Floating Glaciers: These impossible islands drift through the sky, sometimes crashing into one another or plummeting to the plains below. Many serve as lairs for gelugons or host cities of damned souls and diabolical nobility.
• Roving Blizzards: Shredding ice storms and hurricane-force winds sweep the plains, grounding flight and hope alike.
• Beneath the Ice: Vast caverns carved by ancient forces or infernal ambition stretch for miles, housing hidden cathedrals, leviathans, and the slow, creaking weight of shifting glaciers.