Angels bleed gold. Cuts knit over minutes and major trauma takes much longer. Kevin says an angel of his stature heals as a sinner does.

Kevin's hearing in Hell is sharp enough to count bodies and catch whispers through a door. It is still below Charlie's.

Kevin can turn the angelic nature of his halo weapon on or off. Turned off, it cuts a demon like ordinary steel, and the demon regenerates instead of being erased. He can also dim its glow to nothing, down to bare steel, or use it as a flashlight.

Heaven practices deep meditation to purge doubt and negative emotion.

Exorcist masks have built-in heat vision and targeting displays. Adam's masked face glitches in Book 1.

Exorcist wings are smaller, combat-oriented designs, distinct from High Angel wings. Some High Angels armor their wings.

A halo is physical angelic steel, not pure energy. Angelic steel erases a sinner's soul when it kills (B2 ch-21).

A binding contract with Lucifer requires Heaven to honestly consider his daughter's petitions. It is the reason Charlie's case is heard at all.

The courthouse and its grounds are where formal hearings take place. A hearing has a presiding Seraph, a jury of angels, and objections, in the style of the show's canon.

New souls arrive through a gate and are logged in a ledger. Sir Peter and Emily greet them. Heaven's arrival process also erases the memories of incoming souls.

Heaven keeps private, unredacted media servers restricted by rank.

Heaven's residences share a uniform architecture. Adam's apartment is an example.

High Angels advise the court, welcome new souls, and have time for meditation and leisure. They can unlock doors with magic. A High Angel's post can be "mandated from above" rather than chosen by Seraphim.

Eryn is a Highborn general who judged Lucifer. She can sense lies. She outranks the exorcist commander Lute "on every level" even though Lute commands the exorcist army in the field (B2 ch-13).

Souls entering Heaven have their memories erased as part of the welcome. The novels introduce this as a core feature of how Heaven receives the dead.

Sir Peter and Emily also handle reuniting new souls with deceased loved ones. Unannounced visits are rare and improper in Heaven.

Sera is Heaven's serene, authoritative Seraph. A Seraph presides over court hearings, and a Seraph can create policy and add addenda to court declarations on their own authority (B2 ch-16).

Sera's private office has a door that rings a call-chime. It is where she speaks to her High Angels in private.

The exorcist training facility has a Colosseum as the army's training ground.

Exorcist angels are Adam's army, led in the field by Lute, who carry out the yearly Extermination of Hell's sinners. In Book 1 the army is about sixty strong with an informal command structure. In the show canon an exorcist was killed during a prior Extermination.

Thorns was expelled from Heaven without being damned. He is neither sinner nor Hell-born and wants to return to Heaven.

Vaggie lost a wing and an eye to Lute after she showed mercy during an execution.

Souls who have reached Heaven are always called winners there, never “saved” or “sinless.”

Alastor's ward on the hotel completely blocks Heaven's surveillance once someone is inside.

Alastor's tower has tinted windows, green lantern lighting and a crooked red-and-black door. Above his suite sits a Radio Tower filled with broadcast gear.

Newborns attack anything, so mothers birth alone and have about six months left. At adolescence they turn sociable, form packs and take mates. A pup driven from the nest before bonding is never accepted into a group. Spaying or neutering lengthens life, and the record is thirty years.

Ars Goetia nobility include the Gremory family. Tyrion Gremory is a tall noble with a goatee and one broken horn. His sibling Cailan is a therapist in Cannibal Town who must stay at the family estate two weeks before and after each Extermination Day.

Asmodeus is rooster-like with three tails and a very tall top hat. Fizzaroli is a three-foot celebrity clown imp who manages the club and is Asmodeus's boyfriend. Charlie calls Asmodeus "Uncle Ozzie."

A breaking-news broadcast can override every channel in all seven rings at once. Sinners like Vox interrupt daily life in the Pride Ring all the time, but the Hellborn rarely do, so a Hellborn interruption is a rare event in the other six rings. Studio 42 uses one to air the Dowager Duchess of Hearts' statement.

Cannibal Town is a preserved corner of the Pride Ring in 1920s style, with black onyx eyes and filed teeth. It holds the only undefaced Morningstar memorial Kevin has seen in Hell, and a gazebo like the one in New Orleans.

Carmilla supplies the hotel's weapons and defense. Since the hotel attack she has given out angelic weapons free so sinners can resist the next Extermination.

Some Sins give sinners talismans to cross rings. Asmodeus's crystals do this for Earth. The Collector is the only known sinner who lives outside Pride (B2 ch-32).

Diax is the son of overlord Malphas. He was disowned and briefly apprenticed under Mammon. He makes no-soul-contract spectacle such as escape rooms and shows, and is working on the hotel's grand-opening menu.

Enslavement bindings tie to the caster's life and end at the caster's death. The Collector used dark magic and one of Velvette's love potions on Cailan.

A traditional handshake is a safe category of deal, separate from a soul contract. A favor lets the overlord call in one service at their discretion, with no immediate cost. Kevin's tips for dealing with Alastor: never offer your soul, be specific, set limits, and hide your emotions (B2 ch-34).

Arlepines are alley and junkyard scavengers, Yorkshire Terrier-sized, with four legs and one claw each, a spider-like body and large rabbit-like ears. Adolescents and adults spit sulfuric acid. They were made by magic.

Studio 42's parent company. Satan is the primary shareholder on paper and Lord Gremory the largest after him. Lilith once approached Lord Gremory about investing, wanting a Goetic demon who would not use the media for his own gain to hold a majority stake, but Satan got in ahead of him. Satan put the conglomerate together behind Lucifer's back, and imps do most of the work for little pay. Studio 42's main office is in the Wrath Ring.

Hell's consumer tech closely mirrors Earth's. Lucifer runs a private network for himself, Charlie and Vaggie, keeping Vox-tech out of the family. Navigation is an HPS and the Ferryman service is Hell's rideshare (B2 ch-35).

Hell has no wage economy. Hotel staff trade labor for room and board, and the hotel plans to move toward paid staff. Ring-based agriculture feeds sinner-run restaurants. Hell liquor is much stronger than Earth's and can drop an angel who has never drunk in one shot (B2 ch-18).

Hell has hospitals, mental-health facilities and regeneration care.

In Hell, A.M. and P.M. are reversed on purpose. "8 a.m." is Hell's evening hour, as shown by the gargoyle clock at the hotel's evening celebration.

The nickname of the Dowager Duchess of Hearts, used across six of the seven rings. When she speaks, Hell does not question her word.

The Immediate Murder Professionals — Blitzø, Moxxie, Millie and Loona — take contracts from an office in Imp Town in the Pride Ring.

Imps are small servants and performers. Examples are Blix, the Collector's three-foot driver, and Fizzaroli. Razzle drives with a booster seat and pedals.

Higher demons, overlords and royalty keep Arlepines as pets. Captivity extends their lifespan, and they bond with anyone who cares for them.

Lilith gave demon-kind the power to express themselves through song. The magic pulls at people and waits for them if they refuse.

Tyrion's father and Cailan's parent, a thin, tall version of his son in the finest silk from Sloth, with eyes like countless stars. He hates the media, holds a large share of Studio 42, and keeps the Gremory estate in the Lust Ring. He took up the Gremory household a few centuries after his mother, the Dowager Duchess, stepped away from public life.

Lucifer is obsessed with ducks and decorates with them.

Lust & Laces is a satellite club of Asmodeus's in the Pride Ring, for couples or multi-partner groups only. Singles are forbidden, enhancements are allowed but non-consent is not, and a spiker is counter-spiked and banned.

Curio sellers and delivery sinners carry gossip, so nothing important stays unknown beyond a day.

A soul-free magical pact can bind two parties against knowingly or intentionally harming each other.

A boss holds ground and the muscle to keep it. An overlord holds territory and controls bosses, who run it for them. Territory is "like gold bullion," because it turns into clout and purchasing power. New overlords are expected to take goods from merchants. Paying and offering protection is a deliberate break from that custom.

Pentagram City is a neon, decaying metropolis in the Pride Ring. Red eyes are embedded in its architecture as the residue of sinner souls erased by angelic steel. Its Glitter District is the wealthy entertainment quarter (B2 ch-22).

Rosie is the overlord of Cannibal Town. She is eight feet tall in heels, with a 1910s bob, a rose-covered hat, and a blood-tea parlor. Her Emporium sells everything from fabric to preserved organs, and she moves in a blur.

The Sins may not interfere with each other or with deals and contracts. Public exposure is the one exception.

Satan is a figure separate from Lucifer and has his own court. Using angelic weapons against other sinners is punishable by death by the same means (B2 ch-29).

In Hell, signature weapons are almost a law of nature. Examples are Niffty's oversized needle knife, Vaggie's spear and Angel Dust's Tommy guns.

Sinners regenerate from any death except by angelic steel, painfully as part of their punishment. A shooting can end up a domestic argument, because the victim is back by evening. Hell-born demons live and die on an ordinary natural cycle.

Sinners are the souls who ended up in Hell. The strongest and most feared of them rule territory as overlords, such as Rosie of Cannibal Town, Alastor the Radio Demon, and the Vees.

Overlords offer soul contracts to build power quickly. An overlord who collects enough souls ranks up, and killing one wins their contracts. Interfering with a deal means a trial in Satan's court, where judgment favors the overlord (B2 ch-32).

Marvin Douglas is a pink-skinned incubus with a handlebar mustache, a pointed goatee, and decades of broadcasts behind him. Jackie Adams is a tall, maroon-skinned imp with jet-black dreadlocks who climbed up from the bottom to become his co-anchor. They front Studio 42's news and answer Xezbeth's cue with a chorus of "Ratings!"

Vox's Studio 666 (Katie Killjoy and Tom Trench) reaches only the Pride Ring. Studio 42 carries news to the other six rings from the Wrath Ring, run by Xezbeth.

The courtyard, originally a BBQ and lounge space, is now a training ground with weapon racks. Niffty organizes the weapon wall by length and weight.

Known simply as Gremory, the namesake of the Gremory family: ten thousand years old and ageless, with pale skin, a silver-white mane, twin horns, and eyes of slow-turning galaxies that run deeper than her son's and grandson's. A heart-shaped ring sits over a chest that opens onto a spiraling wormhole of stars. She last appeared in public over two thousand years ago, when she welcomed her first son and stepped away from public life, and returns on Studio 42 to address all of Hell.

Greed has a sickly green sky, factory smog, trash and rivers of toxic sludge.

Charlie Morningstar’s hotel for rehabilitating sinners. She runs it with Vaggie, Kevin handles security, and a stubborn found family lives and works there.

Intake uses paper forms for name, cause of death, greatest sin and occupation. Guests must avoid violence, territory disputes and theft, and must attend group activities. Dinner is at 6 PM.

The hotel has twenty-three floors and hundreds of rooms. It was rebuilt in a week with workers from all seven rings and Alastor's demons.

Night in the Pride Ring never fully darkens.

A gothic gateway links the seven rings, with vehicle-sized elevators. The ride to Greed takes about ten minutes.

Hell is divided into seven rings. The Seven Sins roster is Satan (Wrath), Asmodeus (Lust), Beelzebub (Gluttony), Leviathan, Belphegor, Mammon (Greed), plus Lucifer himself (B2 ch-07). Wrath supplies livestock and dairy and other rings supply produce (B2 ch-21).

Vox, Velvette and Valentino are Pentagram City's top electronics overlords. Velvette sells love potions legally as "emotional enhancement" (B2 ch-32).

Studio 42's chief executive producer, a true demon rather than a sinner, and a very old one. In her office she is a short, doll-like figure with porcelain skin, silver hair, and tiny black horns, seated on a white pillow. In the newsroom she is a taller producer in a blue-gray skirt suit, with jaw-length hair, a spade-tipped tail, and golden eyes with red pupils. Furious, she swells into a jet-black scorpion demon, then shrinks back. Lord Gremory calls her a very skilled liar who reshapes her body the way she manipulates the truth.

Angel's rule is to take captives alive for the courts. His kit includes a CO2 dart gun with tranquilizers, zip ties and a hidden tracking tag. His night-vision goggles are tech, unlike Charlie's innate night vision.

Bible is a cigar-chewing crime boss who runs a child trafficking pipeline shipping victims by barge, with a base in Libya.

A book titled "Mysteries of the Seven Rings of Hell" is a human-world reference text, incomplete.

Cassie can feel raw power by touch and sense whether it carries evil intent. Later she feels Charlie's energy at a distance as a "buzzing or echo."

"Charmed, I'm Sure" sits in the French Quarter near Decatur Street. The shop's grandfather clock is stuck at 3:07 a.m. Her assistant Davis is a hazel-eyed college student.

Cassie's specialty is rare "powder magic," plus crystals and a coven. Barite cleanses memory-related emotional blocks and hematite grounds. She trains with a bō staff and Taiji.

Charlie has a human form, a name-triggered partial state (when called "Morningstar"), a lighter "hybrid" form with horns, claws and a tail, and a full demon form with long black hair and crimson-and-yellow eyes. She also shows cloven hooves in hybrid form.

She can turn invisible, summon distant objects she can picture, and send items away to a fixed place. She heals, climbs walls, moves like liquid shadow and manipulates electronics.

In human form, Charlotte has pale skin, black eyes and blonde hair. In ch-35 she asks to be called "Charlie." Cassandra Elizabeth Collins goes by "Cassie," "Miss Collins" and "Chatterbug."

Cassie's community discourages demon summoning and body-manipulation magic, though a minority keep that knowledge to counter it.

On Earth, Kevin Angelus Collins goes by "Angel," his Special Forces call sign taken from his middle name. He is a bounty hunter and tracker of missing and trafficked children, based around Gratton, Virginia. He served as a sergeant.

Ley lines are planetary energy that gifted witches can use to communicate telepathically. Mastery is vanishingly rare.

The French Quarter landmarks used are the French Market, Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, Woldenberg Park and the River Walk Gazebo. The Mississippi, the Industrial Canal and bayous drive the search strategy.

Samedi is a Vodou-practicing trafficker who uses chanted incantations and unseen fire. Cassie identifies Chloe's murder as consistent with Vodou witchcraft.

Agent Amanda Sims manages Angel's cover and was once his girlfriend. SAC Mike Stefon heads the New Orleans field office, Deputy Director Ethan Wilkes is in DC, and Commander Tucker leads the field investigation.

"The Frequencies" is a supernatural information source Cassie tracks.

Cassie uses blood-clotting powder, spell-infused adhesive strips and a blinding powder. A sleep-and-healing draught uses painkillers with her powders.

A beaded necklace carries a spoken ward spell that hurts nearby demons and creatures. It forces Rygen to retreat when used.

Charlie's healing closes wounds and can even cure a hangover.

Charlie's demon form comes out involuntarily under strong emotion, horns first. Alastor's full overlord form has antlers, spindly limbs, a split grin and shadow tentacles and is named a Wendigo (B2 ch-43). Niffty's true form is spider-limbed (B2 ch-05).

Lucifer built a tranq gun with Eryn's help from a portion of Kevin's halo energy. It is keyed to Kevin's consent, and the darts self-replenish and adapt to any target.

Velvette's love potions are strongest on succubus and incubus bloodlines.

Siphoning magic can drain even halo magic. It is very rare and very dangerous.

A corporate tower in Pentagram City, noticed by Kevin on his date with Vaggie. “Corporate greed made a mark in Hell, too, huh?”

A retro diner where sinners go to eat normal Earth food.

Earth version: Ride-hailing

Hell’s ride service. When the limo is unavailable, Alastor tells someone to call a Ferryman.

Earth version: DoorDash

Hell’s food-delivery service. Vaggie notes that it brought the hotel’s meals every day during the rebuild.

A popular cocktail with an innuendo for a name, served at the hotel bar and at Lust & Laces. Vaggie orders one from Husk for a stressed Charlie.

Earth version: Dollars

Hell’s money. Kevin offers a bet of twenty Hell Bucks.

Earth version: … for Dummies books

The beginner’s guide to Hell that Kevin wishes existed, and that Lucifer later gives him.

Earth version: Syfy

A cable channel that airs old sci-fi shows late at night, including reruns of Sliders.

Earth version: Berry jelly

A fruit jelly from the Gluttony Ring. Lucifer tries it on pancakes and approves.

Earth version: Dillard’s (department store)

A clothier in town that Charlie visits for measurements and Eryn wants to stop at for a dress. Vaggie dislikes it because the staff are too touchy.

Earth version: Cell phone

Hell’s smartphone. Everyone from Kevin to Vaggie and Charlie uses one to check the time, call and text,. In Book 2 Kevin carries the newest model, released only the week before.

Earth version: Professional journals

Cailan keeps current issues of The Pride Ring Psychologist and Hellborn Therapy Quarterly stacked on the coffee table.

Earth version: GPS

The navigation system built into a limo’s dashboard, followed by Razzle on the way to an address.

Hell’s theme park. Charlie plans to take everyone there for a fun day out.

One of Asmodeus’s satellite clubs, in the Pride Ring. Its grand opening is billed as an extravaganza that all of Hell’s major players may attend, with Verosika Mayday performing.

Earth version: Secret Santa

The hotel’s Sinsmas gift exchange, where everyone draws a name and keeps it secret.

Hell’s adult-film awards season, for which Valentino’s studio is rushing a feature-film parody.

Earth version: Christmas

Hell’s version of Christmas: a loud holiday of decorations, parties and a gift exchange. Charlie celebrates the Earth version too.

Earth version: Star Trek

A sci-fi show Charlie watched as a kid, starring Colonel Kruk and Mr. Spork. Baxter’s teleporting device is compared to its transporter.

Earth version: Google Maps

The map app on a Hellphone. Kevin uses it to find the I.M.P. offices.

Earth version: Taco Bell

Hell’s fast-food taco chain.

A nightclub where Husk once tended bar for Diax, for three years.