I know we all know it’s the name of the Dungeons & Dragons group on Stranger Things, and the new D&D starter set, but I thought it would be fun to take a look at the origin of the real-world Hellfire Club!
The Hellfire Club was started by the Duke of Wharton, a man reputed as “a drunkard, a rioter, an infidel and a rake”, in the 18th Century in London. Apparently the 4th Earl of Sandwich (yes, the guy who invented the sandwich) was a member. Unusually, it was a mixed club (not men only, as most private clubs were at the time). Members were usually high society and interested in ‘taboo’ activities–drinking, gambling, and mock religious ceremonies. The president of the club was said to be the Devil. The members were not devil worshippers, though; it was more tongue-in-cheek and they referred to themselves as devils.
Over the years the name actually referred to several clubs across Britain and Ireland. The most notorious of these was the club known at the time as the Order of the Friars of St Francis of Wycombe and run by Francis Dashwood in the 1750s–it became known as the Hellfire Club later. The motto of that club was Fais ce que tu voudras (Do what thou wilt), a phrase later used by the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, and the club met at The George and Vulture Inn, which is now a restaurant in London.
Meetings were typically held at members’ houses, riding clubs, and inns, though at one point meetings were held in the Hellfire Caves, near High Wycombe. Those caves still exist, and the Hellfire Caves are now a tourist spot.
The name is also used to refer to Brooke’s, a ‘gentleman’s’ club founded in London in March 1764 and which exists to this day. More recently, the name was used for a group of mutants in Marvel comic books and, of course, the Dungeons & Dragons club run by Eddie Munsen at Hawkins High in Stranger Things.
Dungeons & Dragons’ most recent starter box is called Welcome to the Hellfire Club and was released in October. The boxed set includes four adventures, pregenerated characters, tokens, cards, and maps. The final season of Stranger Things debuts on Netflix on November 26th.
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