#hierarchy of hell

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Old drawing showing a map of Hell

[mask131]

Sometimes I see analysis videos for Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, and the demonic hierarchies of Hell... and it kinds of make me laugh to see how people over-analyze obsessively things. Especially by comparing real-life demonology and the worldbuilding of this version of Hell.

In general what I see missing in those analysis post and videos are two basic considerations:

1) Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss are NOT copy-pastes of real-world demonology texts. They merely take inspiration from demonology. It is a unique work that doesn’t try to adapt any old specific grimoire. So yes, they include the Ars Goetia demons, but as seen already they are wildly different from how they are depicted in the old texts - because they are INSPIRED or ADAPTED. To know the Ars Goetia helps understand some subtle jokes and references, yes... but trying to create fake hierarchies, never-confirmed relationships and bizarre family trees out of the ancient demonology treaties is a very shaky and barely working way to go. Don’t try to say that Y has to be X because in the Ars Goetia, it is X,. Things doesn’t work that way Xp

2) These people also tend to forget that demonology isn’t a canon of specific texts like a religion, nor is demonology an exact science. There are TONS of different hierarchies of Hell and demon classifications, coming from many different centuries and many different countries, and they rarely agree with each other - they take inspiration with each other, some do answer one another, but often they disagree or clash wildly. I am getting a bit tired to see people talk of “demonology” as a whole.

Already we see here that the Ars Goetia and the Seven Princes of Hell were included into one cohesive hierarchy... which is already a twist and reimagining of the old texts, because originally the Ars Goetia and the Seven Princes are two very distinct approaches of the hierarchy of Hell, which were not designed to work together. So taking all the info about the Ars Goetia for something granted in the show is doomed to fail, as the original Ars Goetia was already twisted and reshaped to fit with the Seven Princes. 

Basically, demonology is like philosophy. There’s lots of different versions, currents and interpretations that coexist, that were not designed to work together and yet feed of each other and take inspiration from each other. 

[americaneldritch]

Pruflas, Great Prince of Hell, who commands twenty-six legions. He causes men to commit quarrels, discord, and falsehood, and should be never admitted into any place. If conjured, he gives truthful, generous answers.