Hellaverse Belphegor - Tumblr Posts

The plague doctor theory

The more I think about these two the more fascinated I am by them. At first I thought they were imps, candleheads, or hybrids, but I don't think that's the case, mostly due to their pattern-less, all black horns, which no imp or candlehead has displayed.

This got me thinking, if my theory that Belphegor and Baphomet are indeed a couple, with Baph doing most of the actual ruling while Bel prefers to stay in her lab, then like how the candleheads were made by Baph to populate Sloth, these plague doctors might have been made by Bel, specifically to be her lab workers, meaning she might have plague doctor element to her design.

This explains why they were the ones to take Stolas away, they're the elite healthcare experts in Sloth, which already specializes in healthcare, they're the cream of the crop. It would also explain why we only see two, the plague doctors weren't meant to be a wide spread species.

I don't think anyone's theorized about these guys before, so I hope this will start some discussion.

Having read your analysis on Bee, I found myself thinking up a scenerio wherein Mammon chews out the other Sins. Like, the others air out their grievances with Mam and how him personifying Greed rather than encouraging it is giving them a bad public image, what with them being what is basically celebrities in the context of the show. Mammon would sat through it, silently glaring at the others, and when they’re done, he just tears into them. Mammon then proceeds to pick apart the other Sins’ actions and behaviors, noting how they used to personify their respective vices before eventually becoming the watered down versions of themselves they are in the present, probably even questioning why they’d even bother doing so in the first place. The others would probably try to “high road” him, but Mam isn’t having any of it and admits that, yes he is an unapologetically shitty person, but at the very least he’s honest about it, unlike them and the countless skeletons they undoubtedly keep in their closets. (I always interpreted Mammon’s only reason for trying to (poorly) hide his greedy nature is so he doesn’t alienate his potential consumers) Eventually, Mammon decides he’s tired of the conversation, notes he’s got a hot date with a recent divorcee later, and teleports away, leaving the others to stand in awkward silence, none of them willing to admit that Mammon’s verbal eviseration was right on the mark.

Sorry for the wall of text, just sort of had a flash of inspiration from your analysis.

Mam chewing them out would be extremely cathartic to see. After giving it some thought, I think Ozzie and Bee might be the only Sins that go out of their way to "mitigate" their public images. It would work especially well if Mammon reminds them of how well they used to get along and how, unlike Ozzie, he hasn't gone out of his way to antagonize them despite their "growth".

To elaborate on the Bee and Ozzie thing, Lucifer is canonically a pretentious ass to everyone but his family, Bel is highly implied to be so apathetic and lazy that she uses Sloth's general population as her test subjects and is likely too apathetic to care about appearances. What we've seen of Wrath doesn't paint the best picture of Satan, and it's too early to say anything about Levi, or Envy in general.

Nice to see the Golden Goose agenda spreading. And don't sweat it, text walls written in streams of consciousness are always more than welcome here!

Shockingly, I have a non Mammon related idea to share. Namely, some ideas I’ve been mulling over of how Belphagor may be characterized:

Bel will be presented as surprisingly genial and diligent with her duties despite being drowsy 24/7 and constantly falling asleep (think Sleep from Orion and the Dark), possibly even being able to function/work while she is sleeping.

Bel will be asleep at all times and basically be a living prop with a reoccurring joke that she’s basically automated everything in her domain so she can get around, work, and even communicate without having to wake up and actually do anything herself.

Bel is a NEET/stoner that stays cooped up in her room, having delegated all of her duties to others and only getting involved when she absolutely has to. Unlike all of the other Sins, she isn’t propped up as some big celebrity around Hell and she dresses very informally/casually, especially compared to the six.

Bel is just straight up Inside Out 2’s Ennui and just doesn’t give a shit. She’s completely uninvolved in pretty much every aspect of Hell’s political landscape and the Sloth ring’s inhabitants have basically made a ramshackle democratic government since she can’t be bothered to lead it.

Bel is just a straight up mad scientist that not only tests her drugs on her subjects, but uses specially made drugs to keep them placid and under her thumb.

I know this is pretty messy and more importantly not Mammon related, but I’ve had these rattling in my head for a while and wanted to them.

Oh, NOW we're taking!

I have some T H O U G H T S on Bel, I've pondered her quite a bit. While I can't explain it fully, Sloth gives me a really uneasy feeling and, in my experience, most powerful entity ensembles usually involves at least one designated creepy member. I think the creepy Sin will either be Levi or Bel.

Now, I will admit there's a chance Levi is the creepy one and what I'm about to say is totally off base, but I would like to share some of my Levi ideas soon, too.

So, my Bel idea is one of those neigh-emotionless "for science/knowledge/progress!" mad scientists, with the twist of being very lax. The reason most Sloth natives are deformed in some way is due to her using her subjects as guinea pigs.

She also has a thing about how efficient things are, like, she has a text to speech keyboard on her hover chair because she deems it more efficient than actually talking.

I also have a HC for Sloth's general past. Bel and Baphomet are a couple who rule Sloth together, or rather, Baphomet does the ruling while Bel is hold up in her lab. Baphomet's creations are the candleheads, while Bel's are the plague doctors from Western Energy, and almost exclusively live in Sloth, mostly working as Bel's personal lab workers. Sloth used to be a vacation destination first and foremost, until the quack wellness market started and Baphomet convinced Bel to rebrand their ring.

Because of this, Baphomet has a typical caricature tourist look, while Bel wears a fancier plague doctor suit which gives her a humanoid outline, despite the fact she's actually badly mutated under her suit.

Hope you like these ideas, they've been brewing in my brain for a while. Also, small thing but I'm that kind of guy, it's actually "Beplhegor", with 2 "e"s.

Here’s one last round of headcanons & ideas I want to share before the grind of my classes really sets in:

Back when they were still a circus troupe, Asmodeus and Mammon had a stand up act wherein they would respectively take the role of the straight man and wise guy. Ozzie eventually grew sick of being the punchline to all of the act’s jokes and he eventually quit. This would be the start of Ozzie’s resentment towards Mam. Mammon for his part sort of had a Jack Fenton like fondness for Ozzie that made him oblivious to the patter’s growing disdain, at least until the events of the mid season finale caused them to come to the surface.

Prior to falling, Bee was a completely insectile angel. After getting exiled from Heaven and becoming a demon, adjusting to the fact she only retained a handful of her original buggy features was a major hurdle for her to overcome, with the creation of the Hellhounds being a major step in her coming to terms with her new body.

You mentioned Levi potentially undermining the others as part of him being the embodiment of Envy, and it got me thinking that this isn’t a behavior exclusive to him (granted, he’s probably the most active when it comes to tripping up the others). The Sins and what they embody don’t always gel well with one another, so, whether it be intentional or not, they tend to sabotage one another just as often as they manage to work together.

While the entirety of Sloth is basically Belphagor’s personal Petri dish, I doubt she’d stop at experimenting on her own subjects. I think she’d probably find a subtle way to broaden her test groups without upsetting the other Sins. Namely, by marketing experimental (and highly sketchy) pharmaceuticals to some of the other Rings. Like, anabolic steroids for Wrath, dietary supplements for Gluttony, “performance enhancers” for Lust, etc.

For some reason I can’t explain, my mental image of your interpretation of Baphomet looks like goat headed version of this guy:

Also, working off of your idea that Mammon used to perform opera, I think it would be neat if either Camio or Furfur were fans of/familiar with his older musical works.

I also like to think Mam’s opera career was his way of proving he wasn’t just a comedic clown, but also a dramatic clown. The mixed reception his operatic works received also could have contributed to his distaste towards performing.

Building on my idea of Lucifer going through a tyrannical phase, I feel he’d try his hardest to keep Charlie in the dark about that chapter of his life out of fear it would drive her away.

I also had the idea of Leviathan’s having a small inner circle of demons that resemble remoras he works with that are basically just a bunch of yes men trying to coast on their boss’s success and status.

My personal theory for the Ars Goetia’s origin in the Hellaverse is that founding members were angels that sympathized or identified with Lucifer and the others, and were consequently exiled to prevent further dissension in the ranks.

You cannot convince me that Mammon and Mimzy have not met at least once. With Mimzy’s ego, she’s probably convinced herself that she and Mam are as thick as thieves. Mammon, for his part, finds her overbearing and grating to be around, but lets her live her little fantasy as it makes her easier to con out of her money. As an aside, I like to think the Loan Sharks she was indebted to in Dad Beat Dad were on his payroll.

I don’t know why, but I kinda picture Satan as having glassblowing and possibly smithing as a hobby, with his personal dwellings have a lot of his work either on display or directly incorporated into the structure. All of it is done with his own barehands too.

I’m rather fond of the idea that Octavia got her taste in music from Stella (one of the few less refined indulgences she could manage growing), with the two bonding over their shared interest after leaving Stolas.

Since Mammon undoubtedly has strong ties with the crime families that inhabit his ring, I think it would be funny if at one point when Charlie was little there was a bit of a schedule overlap, wherein he has to babysit her at the same time he had a meeting with a mob boss. Shenanigans naturally ensued, which eventually led to a moment like this:

That’s all I’ve got for now. Hope you enjoy them.

I really like you idea for the Sins having more than 1 act tied to them. I love exploring Ozzie and Mam's dynamic, I especially like the idea of Asmodeus developing gradual resentment for Mammon, while he latter just sees him as an occasionally annoying younger brother. There's also the added irony that Inside no.9 has an episode about a failed comedy duo reuniting.

Ohh, Bee only getting canine traits after the fall is such a great idea! We could do a lot with this idea.

See, get what you mean and I agree, the Sins being a chaotic found family kind of comes with that. The point I was specifically trying to make it that Leviathan would probably be the only one to do it both intentionally and on the regular. Hope this clears things up.

Another great idea. I think Bel also forbids Bee from taking her party drugs is because the stash is always full of untested concoctions and she uses reverse psychology to make Bee take as much as she can for the parties so she can take stock of what was taken and track the side effects when they show up (because they always do) by comparing samples from patients to the testing samples she kept.

Yep, that's hitting the nail, but I must say, my favorite Baphomet idea is easily your concept of his Hawaiian shirt having medical patterns on it.

YEAH! Mam's older works still have plenty of fans. He tries not to show it, but he's always really happy to see his older projects being enjoyed and respected.

Yeah, he's a great creative, but his performances don't always stick the landing.

Absolutely, Luci would do literally anything to keep this from Charlie, he'll avoid the topic around the other Sins like the plague.

Levi's assistants being literal parasites like him is great, maybe he has cleaners who look lie deep sea prawns, too.

I really like the concept of the original Goetia being "lesser" rebels. Nothing more to say, really. Just a really solid idea.

Mimzy is one of Mammon's more recent disaster patsies, he keeps her around not just because she's easy to talk into pretty much anything, but because she's genuinely loyal to him, and most importantly, when he wants to test new loan sharks, he sees if they can survive tracking her down, they never catch her, she's too unpredictable for that, but making it out of chasing that walking disaster alive is an impressive feet for an average hellborn in it's own right.

Interesting, I had this ide of him having a thing for reenactments, since they're another great reason for fights and destruction.

This is so wholesome! I can picture a scene of Stella listening to something with earbuds and when she takes them out because Octavia wants to ask her something, Via is so surprised that she forgets what she was going to ask and they just end up talking about music.

Oh, that's amazing. This has a whole fic worth of potential, I can just imagine Charlie accidentally doing something that gets the most important gangster at the meeting killed and Mam, now with the big issue out of the way, just barks some quick orders to the ones who are left and they wordlessly shuffle out the door, making sure to avoid Charlie in the process. Of course, this would all happen when Charlie's too young to remember and Mammon wants to keep it that way, he knows she wouldn't be proud of it

Great ideas, all around, as always!

I know you’re on a Spooky Month kick and I’m mostly offline due to classes and work, but here are some Hellaverse ideas/headcanons I’ve come up with:

Satan and Mammon are both hoarders, but their reasons, what they hoard, and how they store it differs greatly. Satan’s hoarding tendency is related to how imps (which are associated with him) have a hoarding instinct according to Viv. He typically collects battle trophies and has all of them displayed throughout his personal dwellings, with his favorite trophies being displayed in his man cave/in home gym. Mammon‘s hoarding tendencies are an offshoot of him being the Sin of Greed. He collects pretty much anything that he has even a shred of sentimentality towards, ranging from old performing outfits to drawings a young Charlie gave him to the beta models of Mammon brand products. Mam’s collection is so big he stores it in a series of heavily guarded warehouses.

After Stella divorces Stolas and gets together with Mammon, they refuse to let Asmodeus live down how he unwittingly helped and enabled the prince beforehand. To Ozzy’s credit, he doesn’t offer much of an argument against them.

I’ve sort of always in visioned Mammon and Stolas first interaction going like that meme/video where a guy blows an air horn at a goose and yells “Get fucked!”.

The rare instances Belphagor actually talks instead of using her text-to-speech device, the other’s immediately start listening.

Sort of building off of the idea of Baphomet dressing like a tourist, he has a collection of different hats (primarily fishing, bucket, sun, & straw) that he’ll cycle through. All of them are specifically designed to accommodate his head candle(s).

I had an idea on how to (sort of) power scale the Sins: barring Lucifer who is on a different level by virtue of still having his angelic abilities, the Sins are more or less equal in terms of power, with each possessing specific areas that give them an edge over the others. To elaborate, Satan=physically the most powerful & durable, Leviathan=propaganda (I'm honestly not sure what to put here), Belphagor=smartest on a technical/mechanical level, Asmodeus=smartest on a magical level, Beelzebub=smartest on an emotional level, and Mammon=the single wealthiest demon in the entirety of Hell.

My idea for the Sins ages from old east to youngest: Lucifer, Belphagor, Leviathan, Mammon, Satan, Bee, and Ozzie.

Since we agree Levi is probably based on deep sea life, I really like the idea of him having bioluminescent markings all across his body that he can use to mesmerize weaker demons and possibly even use as a sort of built in light show whenever he performs.

Speaking of performing, I like to think that whenever the Sins get together, Baph doesn’t actually perform with them and is instead placed in charge with organizing and running the events.

I really enjoy the idea of their being a massive gallery in the Morningtars’ castle that contains nothing but the family portraits and pictures that have been collected over the millennia. The twist being that since the Sins, Lilith, and Charlie are some of the oldest beings in existence, these “portraits” range from cave paintings, to ancient mosaics, to intricate tapestries, to antique oil paintings, to monochromatic photographs. Naturally, each depiction has them in (mostly) period appropriate attire.

At the heart of the gallery is a massive painting that is essentially a cursed artificer in and of itself. It looks as surreal as a Hieronymus Bosch painting and has brutal imagery comparable to Francisco Goya’s Jupiter Devouring His Son. Any demon below the Ars Goetia that gazes upon it are stricken with an intense feeling of existential dread, as if they are getting a vision of their truest, final death. The members of the Ars Goetia themselves feel an intense, primal unease that stays with them for months on end just from looking at it. By contrast, the Sins, Lilith, and Charlie look at it as little more than a kitschy family photo that holds a special place in their hearts despite no one else getting the appeal.

I’m just going to say it, Ozzy probably has more than a few kids running around… and I’m not entirely convinced Fizz is aware of the fact.

I think I remember you suggesting that Mammon had a hand in Charlie’s education, and I think that could be built upon by the other Sins similarly aiding in it or otherwise imparting wisdom to her while she was growing up… with mixed results of effectiveness (Bee and Ozzy didn’t do a great job teaching her get what she wants through charisma alone).

Related to the above point, Mammon is an undisputed mathematic and analytical genius. Like, with a cursory glance at a jar full of jellybeans, he can tell the exact amount in the jar and the jar’s total volume. I also like the idea of Mam’s approach to calculating being pretty old school, with him being able to do the work of a whole team of mathematicians with little else but an abacus and a notepad.

A persisting thought regarding the Sins true demon forms I’ve had is that what we see in canon is only a “game face” the put on when sufficiently pissed off. My idea is that the Sins True Demon forms sees them turning into mind breaking eldritch abominations that cost them the use of their higher mental faculties. My ideas for each one include: Lucifer=a biblically accurate Angel that exudes blinding light, Satan=a dragon made of volcanic rock, Bee=a huge queen be with sparse fox features, Mammon=a massive, electrified spider made of gold that has elements of Moana’s Tamatoa and Yo-Kai Watch 3’s The Goldfather, Asmodeus=a three headed beast wreathed in flames, Leviathan=a titanic, rotting eel/whale fall that can encircle the Pride Ring, Belphagor=takes a page out of Akira’s Tetsuo’s book. Before you ask, yes, I was watching anime when I came up with this headcanon.

On a more lighthearted note, I like to think each Sin has an affectionate nickname for Charlie. The only ones I have in mind are Mammon (Little Dingo), Belphagor (My Favorite Patient), Satan (Pardner), and Bee (Sweetie).

This is a lot more words than I thought it would be, but I hope you like it.

Sorry for the slightly delayed response, I've been all over the places in the last few days

I really like these ideas, but especially their contrast. One has a very personal view on it and is keeping things with a set intention, the other is hoarding from an intuition and with a general sentimental attachment.

Realistically, I think Ozzie would personally take the most offense at Stolas' actions, I definitely spends some time focusing on making sure Stolas is never in a position of authority over someone again. But also, yes, I do feel they would occasionally use it to annoy him.

Accurate

Oooo. Yeah, the idea of Bel suddenly speaking is scary because she either thinks the thing is very important, or, the worse alternative, it's somehow managed to provoke and intense emotional state from her.

Baphomet having multiple candles on his head is a really interesting visual. This gave me the idea of his horns having a similar texture to the candle wax, this might extend to candleheads in general, but it's more pronounced with Baph.

I actually have a completely different take on this topic. Basically, the rings are laid out in the order of the Sins' power levels (which have quite a variance between them) at the time of Hell's formation. Bel got the bottom ring on the grounds she didn't want to participate in the activity that was used to scale them. Since then, the differing values of society lead to different sins proliferating differently. Ozzie is now the weakest, then Levi, Bel, Bee, Mammon, Satan, Luci. I'm still working out the kinks on Levi's whole deal on this front, but that's for another time.

I would consider Satan the second oldest and Bee the youngest, and Mam and Levi switched, but other than that, I agree.

My take on this is Levi's skin being partly translucent, also works with his design being highly metaphorical of a scummy reviewer/publisher, in that one can literally see through him if they squint a little.

I also share the view that Baphomet wasn't a member of the Sins troupe, now that think about it, by our logic, Baph would be one of, if not the first non-sin goetic demon.

I love this. Luci always complain about inaccuracies of human portrayals of his family. Somewhat related to this, Lucifer, Satan and Beelzebub despise being conflated. The other Sins sometimes mess with them by doing exactly that.

Can't remember where I first saw it, but I remember coming across the idea of Ozzie being barren as a sort of ironic punishment upon his fall. As in some contexts, lust is viewed as anything sexual outside the context of procreation....... ..... That or you could do the Quagmire joke of him realizing too late that someone is one of his bastard children.

Again, nothing to add, just an idea I agree with.

YESSS. I live for the idea of Mammon "secretly" being a genius, I put secretly in air quotes because it's common knowledge, it's just a bit hard to take seriously when you're around him, because of his eccentricities, but that exactly what he wants.

I like your ideas, but I have some concepts of my own on the Sin "truest" forms which I'm saving for another occasion.

I love these!!!!!!! I'll add on Asmodeus calling her Char-Char, to go with his fire motif.