My dimension is based on Mayan mythology as described in the “Popol Vuh”. (I will try to keep this short.) Ruled by death gods and their helpers, Xibalba, “place of fear”, is the name of the Mayan underworld, a place beneath the earth. Despite being ruled by fearsome gods, Xibalba was once a place of greatness and its inhabitants received offerings from the people who walked the earth, above.

The entrance to Xibalba is believed to be through a cenote, a surface connection to a subterranean body of water, which may or may not be linked to an active cave system. The path to Xibalba is rife with tests and traps such as a river filled with scorpions. Xibalba is home to at least six deadly houses filled with trials. There is a “Dark House” that is completely dark inside, a “Cold House” filled with icy cold and hailstorms, a “Jaguar House” filled with hungry jaguars, a “Bat House” filled with terrifying bats, a “Razor House” filled with spinning blades, and a “Hot House” filled with blazes and dazzling bursts. The purpose of these houses was to either kill or humiliate people placed into them if they could not outwit the test. I combined a few of these ideas into distinct areas: the river of scorpions and the Jaguar House became my river of hellbugs, and the Dark House and Bat House were combined. Other areas I kept separate: Cold House, Razor House, Hot House.

Xibalbans enjoyed the worship and offerings of surface dwellers. In my “Dark House” I added a portal to the final destination with offerings to the Rain God, and at the bottom of my cenote are the remnants of offerings.

The downfall of Xibalba came about at the hands of the Maya Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalenque, who later became the sun and the moon. My dimension portrays the way to Xibalba prior to its downfall.