History Main / Hellfire

* While the Black Flame Art in ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'' isn't literally from hell and is instead generated by the user's magicule supply, it does break a few laws of nature such as being unaffected by oxygen or lack thereof and has an application called Hell Flare [[note]] which generates a SphereOfDestruction in which everything is consumed by flames capable of reaching hundreds of millions of degrees without leaving any ashes behind and consuming magic to fuel its own growth. [[/note]]

*** Characters/DoctorDoom opens a portal to Hell, and Johnny and Franklin are pulled inside. Johnny gets out, but not without being badly burned; especially notable considering he's the ''Human Torch'', master of flame in all forms, who hasn't suffered a burn in, like, [[ComicBookTime thirteen years]]. Yeah. Hellfire. It'll mess you up.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Soul Fire is a [[TechnicolorFire turquoise flame]] that burns only on soul soil, which is found in [[{{Hell}} the Nether]]. It doesn't combust the blocks around it, drives away Piglins and is also twice as painful as regular fire. Soul Fire can also be used via implementing soul soil into certain crafting recipes to craft special lanterns, torches, and campfires which, despite being slightly dimmer, share the Piglin-repelling properties.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Hellfire is a substance often used by devils and devil-worshippers. The damage it deals is half regular fire damage and half unholy damage, which are subject to different immunities -- evil creatures ignore the unholy damage, while good creatures take double the damage it would otherwise deal. Essentially, hellfire consists of evil flames that will quite literally hurt you more if you're a good person.

** Shanoa from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'' can do this, too, with the Dominus Anger glyph, but not without downsides. There's only one per shot, it's Dark property instead of Fire, which means it's watered down against many endgame bosses (like Drac himself), and, most importantly, [[CastFromHitPoints it consumes HP equal to one sixth of Shanoa's capacity per shot!]] If that isn't enough reason to not use it, let's not forget what it's part of and where it came from...

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Throughout the series, various Pokemon have attacks that are much like hellfire, one example is [[OlympusMons Ho-Oh's]] Sacred Fire.
** A more serious version is Shadow Fire from XD. Exclusive to Shadow Moltres, it's a Shadow version Flamethrower attack that, like other Shadow moves, is super-effective against every other type except itself - [[ScissorsCutsRock Water, Rock, and Dragon-type Pokemon included]].
** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' also gives us Inferno (called Purgatory in Japan). Whilst somewhat inaccurate, it is guaranteed to burn the target if it connects.
** The Gold Pokedex entry for [[{{Hellhound}} Houndoom]] is meant to evoke this trope:

* In ''WesternAnimation/HelluvaBoss'', it's made explicit that normal fire doesn't affect demons, but in hell, there's some kind of green fire that most certainly hurts them.

** The Primordial Flame of the Fire Giants, often known as Giantsflame, was a purely destructive manifestation of the Giants' One-Eyed God that is apparently the one thing that could truly threaten the Erdtree and the Greater Will, hence why the Golden Order slaughtered the Fire Giants to the last to deprive the One-Eyed God of its power via the faith of its followers. [[spoiler:Although the Giantsflame is apparently ''so'' powerful that not even the combined might of the Greater Will can permanently snuff it out, and thus Marika left a sole Fire Giant alive to tend to the flame and ensure that it never ran rampant again. It is also apparently empowered by HumanSacrifice and can cause the One-Eyed God to physically manifest within its followers, as the Fire Giant sacrifices its own leg to the One-Eyed God in his phase transition and opens the third flaming eye in its torso before throwing much more powerful and potent fire magic at you than before. Ginatsflame, along with the Frenzied Flame, is one of two forces known that are able to ignite and burn down the Erdtree, and in every ending except for the Lord of Frenzied Flame it is necessary to commit this cardinal sin against the Golden Order to enter the Erdtree and beat the game.]]

* In ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' there are a few different varieties of this, as the Greater Will seems to treat any source of flame as a threat to itself. Given that its primary manifestation in the Lands Between is in the form of a WorldTree, this isn't without precedent.

** The Primordial Flame of the Fire Giants, often known as Giantsflame, was a purely destructive manifestation of the Giants' One-Eyed God that is apparently the one thing that could truly threaten the Erdtree and the Greater Will, hence why the Golden Order slaughtered the Fire Giants to the last to deprive the One-Eyed God of its power via the faith of its followers. [[spoiler:Although the Giantsflame is apparently ''so'' powerful that not even the combined might of the Greater Will can permanently snuff it out, and thus Marika left a sole Fire Giant alive to tend to the flame and ensure that it never ran rampant again. It is also apparently empowered by HumanSacrifice and can cause the One-Eyed God to physically manifest within its followers, as the Fire Giant sacrifices its own leg to the One-Eyed God in his phase transition and opens the third flaming eye in its torso before throwing much more powerful and potent fire magic at you than before.]]
** The Frenzied Flame, possibly also known as Yelough, is probably the closest to this trope in the Lands Between, it being a vivid and erratic yellow fire that drives people insane with extended proximity and mostly manifests by erupting from people’s ''eye sockets''. [[spoiler:It is also wholly committed to the omnicidal destruction of all life, as the Three Fingers that house its power believe that all life is born from the mistaken fragmenting of the "One Great", and that to restore the One Great all life must be burned and metled down by the Frenzied Flame. The Lord of Frenzied Flame ending sees this happen, and the end result has the Erdtree ''split in half'' from the titanic gout of yellow flame issuing out of it, which has now paradoxically darkened the sky with a vortex of Frenzied Flame as the rest of the world burns down beneath it.]]

* The Frenzied Flame in ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' is roughly equivalent to the concept in the Lands Between, it being a vivid and erratic yellow fire that drives people insane with extended proximity and mostly manifests by erupting from people’s ''eye sockets''. [[spoiler:It is explicitly tied to a different and more malevolent force than the Greater Will, and by inheriting it from the Three Fingers and becoming the Lord of Frenzied Flame you split the Erdtree in half, immolate the Lands Between, and turn the chaos and insanity of the Frenzied Flame into a ''law of nature''.]]

* In ''Manga/Bastard1988'', Dark Schneider's ultimate spell [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Halloween/Helloween/Harrowing]] summons fire that is hotter than the ''sun'', completely obliterating an Efreet MADE of fire.

Since Hellfire is often explicitly [[MagicFire magical]] in nature, it may also have other effects or the way it does what it does is different from conventional fire. While normal fire might melt something with heat, Hellfire may just disintegrate it entirely. Maybe whatever normal fire affected will be hot after, but eventually the heat will die down, but with Hellfire, the object may stay hot or [[EvilIsDeathlyCold even feel cold.]] More than that, when used on a living creature, Hellfire might not hurt it the same way as normal fire. Instead of burning the body, Hellfire may burn the ''[[ImHavingSoulPains soul]]'', and physical injuries are the result of a wounded spirit that [[WoundThatWillNotHeal may never heal]]. This is especially dangerous for characters with a HealingFactor or who are ImmuneToFire because, if they are caught off guard and take a serious hit, they could die as Hellfire can [[ArmorPiercingAttack bypass immunity to natural fire]] or [[AntiRegeneration negate a healing factor]] (at the very least, the Hellfire-induced injuries might not heal). In Japanese series, it's often called "Gokuen" (獄炎 "hell flame" or "prison flame").

** ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': Members of the Lucifuge get the ability to throw about Hellfire as [[HalfHumanHybrid part of their special heritage]].

** A few years after [[spoiler:"Lash", the psychic copy of a Fallen in Harry head dies saving Harry's life]] he finds out that [[spoiler:the archangel in charge of maintaining free will, and God's own holy hitman, Uriel[[note]]The one who killed all of Egypt's firstborn.[[/note]]]] has gifted him with [[HolyHandGrenade Soulfire]],the angelic counterpart to Hellfire. It fits the trope just as well as normal Hellfire, it makes his spells more powerful, and he can do things he couldn't before (making magical constructs), but it's fueled by soul, and takes up a little bit of Harry's soul each time he uses it. While it would sound like it leaves him in danger of becoming TheSoulless, his soul would regenerate in just a few weeks after even heavy usage, so long as he has some left. It regenerates more quickly if he takes time to nurture it; for example, [[spoiler:going on a date with Luccio at the end of ''Small Favor'']]). The Soulfire also burns an unusual color--it usually adds a bit of a silver tinge, depending on how much he uses and what spell he ties it to.

For a similarly-named story written by Creator/IsaacAsimov, see ''Literature/HellFire1956''.

** Hellfire in 3rd Edition is a substance wielded by the devils of the Nine Hells of Baator, which some say isn't real fire at all, but a form of evil energy unique to Hell. It isn't subject to any energy resistance or immunities, so yes, you can burn fire elementals to death with it. [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Mephistopheles, Lord of the Eighth,]] claims to have invented Hellfire, uses it to power fearsome [[HumongousMecha Hellfire Engines]], and often strikes [[DealWithTheDevil deals]] with mortals to let them wield it. The Hellfire Warlock {{prestige class}} allows player characters to augment their spells with Hellfire, though [[CastFromHitPoints each use of it deals Constitution damage]] - not all of such spellcasters are evil, but most are. The irony of ironies is that Cania is [[EvilIsDeathlyCold the coldest layer of Baator]], so Mephistopheles' [[AnIcePerson Gelugon]] minions are deeply unhappy with their master's latest obsession, and his frozen palace is in danger of melting, symbolic of how Mephistopheles may be overextending himself by focusing more on promoting Hellfire than traditional soul-harvesting operations.
** Hellfire is adapted in a third-party setting called "TabletopGame/{{Infernum}}". There, it's basically negative spiritual energy (despair, pain, misery) given physical expression as sickly green-black flames, which are capable of consuming flesh, bone and soul with equal ease and which thus makes it especially powerful against creatures like demons and angels. It consequently has its own damage type (and damage resistance), so ordinary Fire resistance is worthless against it (although, conversely, a character with only Hellfire Resistance is defenseless against Fire damage).

* Warpfire in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is ''evil'' fire drawn from the Warp. Unsurprisingly, it's chiefly the weapon of daemons, their servants, and the odd race of evil RatMen (who have Warpfire flamethrowers). Tzeentch's daemons in particular are little more than living flamethrowers, and vehicles dedicated to Tzeentch in ''40k'' are covered in eldritch fire. There's also the Holocaust power, which is incredibly dangerous and deadly, and burns Demons just as well as anything. Bonus; it makes resurrection impossible and even kills immortal demons. [[WarGod Khorne's]] Daemons often bear [[FlamingSword weapons wreathed in this]]. The final Khornate talent for [[EvilOverlord Eliphas the Inheritor]] in Dawn of War II also apparently engulfs him in this.
* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' classifies Hellfire as a type of magical energy that looks like fire but isn't. It can be any color, most elements, and act as numerous other powers.

** In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', powerful servants of the Wyrm use balefire, which is sickly green and has effects similar to severe radiation burns. It is also used by certain infernalists in TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade, particularly Dark Thaumaturges who use the Fires of the Inferno and Lure of Flames discipline paths.
** And in ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'', members of the Lucifuge get the ability to throw about Hellfire as [[HalfHumanHybrid part of their special heritage]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Hellfire is a substance often used by devils and devil-worshippers. The damage it deals is half regular fire damage and half unholy damage, which are subject to different immunities -- evil creatures ignore the unholy damage, while good creatures take double the damage it would otherwise deal. Essentially, hellfire consists of evil flames that will quite literally hurt you more if you're a good person.
* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse's'' Infernal damage type, which is associated with demons and the occult and favored by the likes of the villains Apostate, The Ennead and Spite, and hero Nightmist. Like its opposite, Radiant, few if any targets are immune to it.