hell never was complicated, that is, until modern politics...
Hello dear readers, welcome to this cycles "Hammer time"
As you all know by now, the whole "heaven" belief is a massive misconception. Don't know how it formed, don't care either, probably just some fabrication out of the glimpses the mortals saw while temporarily "disposed" suits us livin' the real life pretty well.
So, with neither heaven, nor god really a thing that exists, rich or poor, good or bad, you end up here. Why an afterlife? Don't ask me, there's people a lot smarter than me who can explain it, but it has something to do with some ancient system built into everyone that takes your consciousness at the end of your mortal life, and transports it to an artificial dimension just for us, I think it was something about our precursors not being satisfied with dying? Idk, important thing is, you die, you end up here. Don't think it's all lawlessness et cetera though. No matter the place, there is one thing hell is in agreement on; if you're a danger to people just trying to live their afterlife, you are exiled until you aren't anymore, simple as that. Now, the "forbidden lands" (huhhh scary), that place is truly worthy of the name hell, a shithole you DO NOT want to end up in. Luckily, most people know how to behave, so that place is pretty empty most of the time, especially because reforming rates are high. How has hell judged who goes into the hellhole and who can play with the normal folk since time eternal? Simple; you don't take your pretty human vessel with you. Instead, you get a new one made just for you, something that represents your essence at the moment of passing. Those ancients really must have smoked strong shit to come up with something like that huh? Well regardless, your new form represents who you were. A virtue in the flesh? Ya will prob look like a dove or something. A shrewd businessman? Prob a shark. Notice something? Your right on the money; the form you get fits what you yourself and your culture at large associated with your own traits. Me, for example, I was a blacksmith in now ancient Rome, a damn good one at that, so I got the mane of a lion, after the god of Smiths Vulcan, and the general build of a wolf, after the god of artistry, apollo. Satisfaction with your new body varies with how much you liked your own traits in life, and since I was content with myself, I think my new form kicks ass, But I digress. Simply put, if you look like a psycho, that's not a good start.
So basically, the bad people go into the hole, and the rest of us live a kind of tribalistic existence, where every old system of government can be found, from empires to tribes. That is how it has always been, until about 140 earth years ago, when the first signs of modernity started disrupting our well-established rules. I don't know what in hell is going on up there, nor do I care, but the people that come down here, especially those weirdos that call themselves "politicians" are just... strange. To be fair, a lot of 'em go straight into the pit for a few decades after coming here, but even the small group that has managed to be accepted in have really shaken things up. It all started, when yet another famine swept over the globe, which meant overtime for the boys at the gates. The people that arrived, instead of general confusion, just accepted their fate, and asked to be put to work for "Mother Russia". This confused us, because firstly, there is no Russia here, and secondly, since most mortal needs are not required anymore, there is plenty of workforce around too. With their wishes struck down, they just trudged off, later we heard that they joined into some weird collective they called something like the new Russian assembly somewhere out in the wilderness, we have never been starved for space after all.
Most of us just dismissed this as another farce and moved on, but to our dismay, things only became weirder from here. Now, to be fair, I never really fit in anywhere, the greeks were too cerebral, the romans, my old overseers, where weirdly empyreal for no reason (again, hell is, if not infinite, really damn big), and what was once the Babylonian empire had, through a lot of cultural exchanges and time, evolved into something we just overlooked because it was too damn strange to comprehend.
That was, until I stumbled upon the Americans. Now, those guys knew how to make the most out of their afterlives, and I've considered myself an American post mortem ever since. However, as great as those guys may be, suffered from the same affliction as most of the runts we get these days. Now, those fuckers are obsessed with "democracy". As soon as enough of them had conglomerated, they started erecting the most convoluted systems of government I've ever witnessed, and again, Babylon is a thing.
There were like, 10 different kinds of courts, senators, mayors, the king, but he calls himself "President" and apparently isn't completely in charge either, a thousand different military units, counties, states, the list is not even close to done. Oh, and the laws, man, the laws really must be ecstasy for those guys, because they have hundreds of bills, all ordered under like, tenets of the state? One of em gives every citizen the right to be as loaded with high tier weapons as they like, pretty cool that one, I'll admit.
Instead of keeping to themselves, once they had established what they literally called "the second states of America" they, instead of doing their own stuff like all of us, insisted on interacting with everyone next to them, willing or not. They tried to establish diplomatic channels, precure trade agreements, one senator once accidently called the arguably lionlike queen of the eternal kingdom Neter-khertet "good kitty" in front of 10000 people, after which he was swiftly disposed of by the SSA, despite the queen admitting she found it pretty funny and later being seen with that very same senator in a romantic setting. Such occurrences happen almost daily, and so the SSA, whos big bro on earth apparently is the strongest nation there is (according to themselves naturally) has become an object of fascination, and quite possibly entertainment for the entire circle. Theres plenty more of these new states popping up all over the nine most inhabited circles, and they all are weirdly infatuated with talking to their neighbours. I think I heard one of my guys call it "Globalisation of hell" which sounds super stupid, considering theres not even a globe here to begin with.