There is no Hell?

Does it need to be a supernatural world though? You can have a layer or a world that matches depictions of hell (fiery, demons, not fun).
There is definitely a way to fit it in to the setting without making it totally fantastical or anti-scifi.

The penguins are an advanced alien race with a civilization spanning countless worlds. A certain amount of the populace, be they free thinkers, criminals or genetically inferior spawn, were exiled from the society, and sent to live in solitude.
At the time the planets would have been devoid of intelligent life so as to not allow a means of escape or to cut them off from not just the penguin society, but any other society too.
Some colonies fared well after exile, and some flourished, even some day returning to aid those who had exiled them in wars, or to wage wars and pillage the colonies of their former species.
Other colonies didn't fare so well. Some starved. Others were destroyed by native creatures. Others still, like the colony on Earth, simply devolved. They lost their intelligence, and they became known as simple creatures to the evolving species native to the planet.

Bam. Imagination.

 

Since we're traveling an entire universe, and not just a single planet (much less Earth), I'd prefer not to have any Earth-based mysticism in the game. Even in Earth history, hell's a fairly recent invention, so I think it's safe to assume that other cultures, especially those from other planets and galaxies, will have radically different concepts of what happens after you die. Doesn't make a great deal of sense to insert afterlife-based concepts into the universe, but it might be fun to find such things on rare occasions, and then have each race explain what the see differently, based on their own racial "norms."

 

Heaven and Hell: Parallel universes/alternate dimensions with their respective angels and demons also being alien races that are ruled by by their respective leaders whom just happen to be named "God" and "Satan." Tah-dah!

 

I thought of something a while ago about it being a species that harvests the inner layers of worlds, which means they'd live in 'fiery pits', travelling to the surface on occasion to look for technology, slaves, or to scare the crap out of any less-than-intelligent race they may find, just for fun.
What if the depiction of a 'demon' (scary, wings, teeth, horns, whatever) is actually a description of this alien race, which inspired these myths and beliefs? Much like the dragon-like alien in Ben 10 don't judge pls that inspired stories and legends.

or, alien races that are so advanced that lesser races believe them to be supernatural, rather than perceiving them as mortal beings.
Ever seen that episode in Star Trek, 'Who Watches the Watchers'? The plot of that is kind of like what I'm trying to get across here.

 

Actually, if you look through the game's assets, there's a file filled with a bunch of old underground biomes, six in total. From what I can tell, two of the biomes in the folder, "Shroomcave" and "Slime", were revamped sometime before release and implemented into the game. The other four, "Shadowrealm", "Sulphur", "Hive", and most importantly, "Heck", were scrapped.

So, I can confirm that the game does, in fact, have an unused hell biome somewhere in the code. However, looking through the biome's files indicates it's nothing more than a normal cave with walls made of brains and some stone variant. It probably sucks, and judging by the biome's place in the files, the devs likely agree.

 

That would actually be rather interesting. Perhaps as a quest, however those are going to be implemented? Or maybe a few planets could have alien facilities in the core, and inside there would be lore.

If they suck the core dry though, wouldn't that be bad news for the planet's inhabitants?

I'm all for more variation.

 

Exactly. I'm just saying that one shouldn't automatically dismiss something just because it's based in religion when the material can so easily be tied to science and especially science fiction.

 

Why not have both? 40k has both science fiction and religion with its assortment of Chaos gods, cults and other worlds. Even the Emperor of Mankind is god-like.

It would be bad news indeed. The process takes a while, given the size of a planet's core and the amount of raw power to be harvested.

Imagine coming across a desert planet like any other. You beam down to see remnants of a ruined civilization scattered across the landscape, as if it had been destroyed by some powerful race.
A portal opens nearby and seemingly demonic creatures leap out and attack you, presumably for your technology. They seem to be protected by thin shielding, as if they can't surive on the surface for very long. You defeat them, and you go back through their portal.

You are transported to the near-center of the planet, where this race of demon-like creatures is harvesting the core. They don't wear the shields down here. Perhaps they can only survive in these conditions. perhaps they are harvesting the cores of planets to fuel their own ever-dying world. You can either leave, or you can stop them by killing them all (which would take a while, given how many there would need to be) or you can permanently sabotage their equipment, forcing them to leave.

After they are gone, the planet is given a chance to 'live'. The biosphere can replenish. Life can spread again. But if the core was already too unstable, the planet continues to be unstable, or even continues to decay.
If only you had some sort of technology that could repair worlds... technology like that would surely belong to a super advanced race. A race believed to be supernatural or other-worldly, like the planet eaters.
An angelic race.

 

You can have both. I'm only talking about the science-based portion of this subject since that was the topic. Er, sort of. And like I said, the terminology may be based in religion but the material itself can easily be applied to science so such ideas have my vote of approval.

 

No, I think the "race-made-entierly-of-badguys" cliche should be avoided at all costs.

Decaying worlds sound interesting though. Maybe it could be a natural phenomenon, the star's about to die, or maybe the crust has become unstable, and the biosphere is in it's final stage of existing.

 

Who says they're necessarily bad guys? They want their planet to survive. They want their home to survive. It's the only habitable world they have.

 

Since based on what you said, they seem to attack you by default, killing them all repairs the planet, and you can fix damage done by them thanks to an angelic "race-made-entierly-of-goodguys."

Even if they aren't all "badguys," they appear that way. And I really want that to be avoided.

 

I didn't say anything about a race made entirely of good guys. Getting rid of them doesn't repair the planet as much as it stops it from being destroyed.

 

I've never thought Doom was a fantasy game.