Each of the nine circles of hell featured in my Gothic horror novel ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance’ has its own distinctive look and atmosphere. Yet there was one that stands out, the one where the party never stops and resident demons seem to have the most fun. One of my Alpha readers even stated that it was his favourite out of all the circles. I’m talking about Queen Mazikeen’s home in the 8th Circle, the circle of lust. This is the home of the succubi, lust demons. So I thought I’d share some information about this circle including its function, residents as well as my inspirations for this region.

Although the concept of a story set in the Nine Circles of Hell was inspired by Dante’s Inferno, the circles I describe in my novel bear little resemblance to those of Dante’s masterpiece. For this particular circle I drew inspiration from a completely different source – heavy metal music. The circle of lust was inspired by a music video for the song ‘Demons are A Girl’s Best Friend’ featuring Alissa White-Gluz by the power metal band Powerwolf. For those who haven’t seen the video, it features three succubi, one of whom, their leader played by Alissa Whit-Gluz enchant a group of men to fight each to the death for their personal amusement. There’s a similar scene in my book, where Queen Mazikeen and her daughter Princess Lucretia cast a spell on two men and watch them fight each other with their bare fists. The men are in a state of trance and have no choice but to keep fighting until the queen or the princess ends the enchantment. This is meant to highlight the sadistic nature of the succubi and how easily they’re able to manipulate human minds.

Unlike other lilim, whose magic involves manipulating elements and mixing verbs, the succubi specialize in enchantments, mind manipulating magic. Being lust demons they typically seduce their victims first before drinking their blood. Mazikeen’s palace in the 8th Circle is a lively place where the party never stops. The succubi enjoy good music, dancing, blood and of course lots of sex. The sinners, mostly various types of sexual deviants, are naked and kept in cages so that the succubi to torment them as often as they please. But there’s only so much sex a succubi can have before getting bored. And that’s when they resort to enchantments as a means of playing sadistic games with their victims. As with all the Circles of Hell, the sinners’ suffering doesn’t end once a succubus has consumed his or her blood. After all, they’re souls who have already died once. No matter how grisly their death, every single soul will come back to life and the cycle starts all over again. Their torment never ends.

As for the characters, most of the succubi in my book were inspired by those from Jewish folklore. Princess Lucretia is my own invention. Her mother, Queen Mazikeen, the ruler of the realm, was inspired by a character of the same name (though not a queen) from Mike Carey’s ‘Lucifer’ comics (a DC series spin-off from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman’). Her creepy appearance with half her face misshaped, is based on Lucifer’s lover, the lilim Mazikeen. In my story she’s also a warrior and daughter of Lilith but she’s Lucifer’s oldest daughter instead of his lover. Also the origins of her misshaped face are different. Unlike the comic book character Mazikeen wasn’t born like that. Her face was partially burned during a fight. I don’t want to go into any more details because it would spoil the plot.

I hope that you enjoyed this region spotlight. I’d also like to share an AI (Freepik) generated image of Princess Lucretia based on my description of the character.