City of Dis

Several miles tall and hundreds across,[18] to call Dis a vast maze of a city was an understatement; it was a labyrinthine[8] and disorienting place almost-constantly defying possibility, where one could truly wander the streets forever and get nowhere for the effort.[11] The residents eagerly conned and cajoled the visitors,[15] uncovered secrets were sold to the highest bidder,[12] and Dispater dispensed his own paranoid brand of justice.[19] A plane of heat and pain, the layer perfectly reflected its infernal master.[20] Like Avernus above it, it was a reality where the forces of fire and earth were magnified, but went a step further by rendering magic of air and water not just diminished, but totally impotent.[8][21] Any who fail to show caution were likely to get burned in more ways than one.[15]

From the walls to the cobblestones, all of Dis was constructed of the same smoking, unrusting, blackened iron, which glowed red-hot from the infernal heat.[14][2][22][23] Just being near the smoldering metal was enough to slow and drench mortals with sweat,[24] and even casual contact with most exterior architecture would horrifically and agonizingly burn mortal flesh.[11][5] Without proper protection, most visitors would quickly write in the streets.[14]

While metal armor would prevent direct contact with the city's iron, it was insufficient defense against the unbearable heat; upon arrival, those wearing such gear would be slowed, weakened, and gradually baked alive, as if it was constantly under the effect of heat metal.[24][25] The best defense was thick cloth, padded armor and iron-shod boots of the heaviest leather, although even magical cloth not treated against fire was at risk of bursting into flame if it made contact with the iron.[24][5] Other potential defenses were certain magical items, like rings of fire resistance, or thick enough natural armor, as most baatezu had even if they weren't already immune to fire.[14][24]

The burning hot buildings of Dis extended out to every horizon, occasionally broken up by the palatial mansions of particularly important devils and Blood War officers.[14] The cityscape was connected by garbage-choked streets and ramshackle alleyways to create the tangled, narrow architectural network that was the Iron City.[8][5][22] Within the dismal City of Pain were city squares, squalid slums, iron ramparts, eyrie-riddled towers, brooding iron gargoyles, and iron-barred cells chocked with chains and implements of torture. Beneath the crowded streets and even Dispater's own palace, in the lightless underways known as the "pits" of Dis, were numerous caverns and vast dungeons where prisoners lived lives of savage survival fighting for scraps of edible garbage from above amidst the filth and lost treasures.[8][22][26]

Dis was the heart of arguably the greatest weapons supplying operation in the multiverse. With iron harvested from the mines beyond the city and with the many secret forging techniques unearthed by Dispater and put to use in the Iron City's workshops and foundries, an unending supply of weapons, armor and other armaments were constantly churned out and used up to fight the endless demonic hordes of the Abyss.[16] The focus of Dis itself was far less military than Avernus however, concentrated instead on progress and industry. This reality was blurred however, for it was completely unclear what the city was meant to be progressing towards.[2]

The urban hellscape of Dis existed in a state of perpetual remodeling, its condemned slave crews constantly building up and tearing down to the city. Roads and buildings, even paths being walked or inns in which people were asleep, might be placed, removed, obstructed, opened up, repaired, or simply rebuilt at a moment's notice, sometimes just after the latest work in the same spot was complete. Guides were of little help in a realm that changed every minute,[2][14][15][28][27] maps were useless by the time they were drafted,[11] and teleportation risked ending up trapped below collapsing debris or inside burning iron that wasn't there before.[28] All the while the crews sweat and screamed and burned, completing their work with impressive speed without tools or protection.[11][28]

Yet mundane labor alone could not explain the cityscape of Dis, for it changed faster than such a force could ever manage.[11] Parts of the layout seemed to rise and fall according to some hidden terrain,[14] but more important was the magical alteration supposedly done by none other than Dispater himself.[11] Ever-weaving a web of impenetrable defenses around his holdings,[29] the changes of Dis were said to be a reflection of Dispater's own mind,[2] and the reality of that fact put into the focus the paradox that the city embodied.[11]

Like so many other realms and layers, Dis appeared impossibly large and contained hypothetically infinite space, and yet those within always felt enclosed, trapped and oppressed. The deeper Dispater's paranoia became, the more cramped and warren-like did the city become to match. Scrying devices were omnipresent, with iron statues of Dispater following passersby with red, paranoid eyes, while the very walls could be said to have ears.[11] And yet, even as the city seemed both claustrophobically tight and unfathomably vast, from the balcony near the top of Dispater's palace, it could all be seen at once, down to the tiniest details. The realization was enough to leave one temporarily catatonic, or, for beings of law who could withstand the revelation, permanently enlightened.[30][20]