Location from Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas
The demon realm beyond Midgard — not evil by nature, but alien, ancient, and ruled by princes who have been fighting the Asteri longer than anyone else alive.
Hel is the Asteri's mirror — another civilization with its own rulers, its own culture, and its own agenda. The Princes of Hel oppose the Asteri not from altruism but from territorial rivalry and genuine moral objection to their parasitic nature. The realm itself is stable and ordered, governed by ancient custom rather than the Asteri's bureaucratic control. The atmosphere is cold and pressurized, as if the realm exists at a different density than Midgard. Sound carries differently — whispers travel far, shouts are dampened. The Daemonaki who live here are not the mindless demons of Midgard's propaganda; they are a complex civilization that the Asteri deliberately demonized to keep Midgard's population afraid.
A vast realm of dark landscapes — obsidian plains, rivers of cold fire, skies lit by stars that don't match Midgard's constellations. The architecture is monumental: carved cliff faces, bridges spanning chasms of shadow, and palaces built from materials that absorb rather than reflect light. It is not ugly — it's beautiful in a way that the human eye wasn't designed to process.
Also known as: Hel, The Pit