[Demonworld #2] The Pig Devils Read online

  “Happiness” Joe Heffer - Leader of the Left Arm of the Ugly. A mighty warrior. Ironically enough, he is not a very happy person.

  Utrecht Sera - Leader of the Right Leg of the Ugly. His face is covered in horrible burn scars.

  Appendix 2

  Chronopolitical Errata

  556 FH - Professor Korliss Matri breaks taboo and unifies many progressive Senators into a Party, who argue among themselves before voting as one. Individual constituency-bound Senators, and even the Prime Minister, cannot compete effectively against the Rabbit Party when allocating tax funds. Funding to Guardians and Department of Science is increased manifold. Aegis Vachs is a young Rabbit Senator. Old ideal of weak governance replaced by the ideal of a state that “gets things done.” A young professor claims that Matri resurrected the idea of Party rule from the wasteland, where brute force and strength of numbers are more important than individual reason, creativity, or will.

  568 FH - Newly-formed Stone Ridge Party, made up of conservative elements and discontent Rabbits, take many seats from Rabbits. Another conservative Prime Minister holds office. Aegis Vachs tempers liberal views, becomes Senate Voice.

  580 FH - Liberal Rabbit Party dissolved, replaced by Vachs’s Running Wind Party. Aegis Vachs is elected to position of Prime Minister. Stone Ridge loses many seats, many of its members discredited. Remaining conservative element forms Stone Warren Party.

  590 FH - The Exile Incident.

  591 FH January - Now. Senator Tomasino makes a bid for Stone Warren endorsement to run against Prime Minister Vachs in 592.

  Years are given in FH, which stands for Foundation of Haven.

  Prime Ministers have twelve-year runs in office and can be re-elected once. A Senator may be re-elected perpetually. A Senate Voice is a majority leader, a representative of representatives. Sometimes the title of Voice may be given to a minority Party leader, by the Prime Minister, in exchange for political favors.

  Appendix 3

  The Gangs of Pontius

  (Best if read after Chapter Two: The Living Scar.)

  The Ugly. Possibly the most powerful force in Pontius. Their granite castle is the largest structure in the city. Their troops, mostly young men marked with self-inflicted scars, roam the streets looking for trouble. (On the weekends, city jails are packed with screaming Ugly youths; Monday mornings are filled with bleary-eyed Ugly turned out into the streets.) They run many protection rackets on small and large businesses, but the main part of their income comes from the flesh trade: enslavement of debtors, the contracting of forced labor, and prostitution. There are many laws in Pontius that regulate the treatment and care of slaves - however, since slavery itself is illegal in Pontius, the Lawmen can force their way into Ugly safehouses and records whenever they want; city judges and Lawmen exact a heavy graft on Ugly profits whenever they can.

  The Ugly are divided into a body. The multi-segmented Left and Right Arms sweep out of the city and into demon-controlled territory to capture fresh slaves. The Left and Right Legs are made of the most battle-hardened troops, who run to fight wherever battles occur; their berserker elite fight against Lawmen, the Coil, business mercenaries, slave uprisings, dogmen, even if outnumbered. The Body is composed of the Ugly youth, young men ready to give up their lives as worthless individuals and live with meaning - meaning as handed out by the Head of the Ugly, who is the ideological master of the Ugly and is guarded by the terrible Hands.

  They follow the tenets recorded in a sacred book called the Red Book, the Book of the Red, the Leather Book, or simply The Book, of which there are as many versions as there are handmade copies. The Pontius court registry lists the Ugly as a tax-exempt religious organization.

  Their flag is a scarred skull-and-bones on purple background.

  The Coil. Sworn enemies of the Ugly. Masters of subversion, invisibility, and exploitation. They have no visible quarters and no public figurehead; they rule in the shadowy niches of society. Their finances are difficult to track, but they may be the wealthiest gang in Pontius. The majority of their income comes from protection racketeering. They quietly demand money from businesses and wealthy individuals, and those that don’t pay have their homes and stores burned to the ground. They are a parasite on society - but even the city government pays them protection money, for the Coil has shown itself willing to burn the very foundations of society into ash. They also make and distribute most of the illegal recreational drugs in Pontius, and run many speakeasies.

  Some say they have no headquarters and that the majority of businesses in Pontius operate as Coil safehouses. Still others believe that three aged Master Thieves govern the Coil and its businesses from a bunker thousands of feet underground. Many of these rumors spring from the fact that the Coil are incredibly elitist - the higher echelons carry themselves like lords. Lords of other people’s effort and other people’s property.

  The Coil often use their economic influence to employ a group of mercenaries called Cognati. The gangs of Pontius fear these southlanders greatly, for they are said to be wizards who can read minds and kill with a thought.

  Coilmen in the field wear either plain clothes or the garb of whichever group they’ve infiltrated. In their secret meetings, they wear fine black suits tinged with strips of dark green or gray. Their flag is a gray four-legged snake, sometimes eating its own tail, on a background of black or green.

  The Smiths. Their power is their monopoly on technology. They preserve the blueprints and techniques for the creation of steel, engines, guns, radios, paper, medicines and poisons, etc. They sell their products and warranties to businessmen and gangsters alike. They are treated with much honor; crossing a Smith means missing out on necessary technology. They are led by men who understand the techniques of statecraft, and can ensure the welfare of the Smiths who do the actual work of studying and creating the technology of the Ancients. It is rumored that they have vast underground vaults full of advanced technology, the make and use of which has been gone from the knowledge of men for thousands of years.

  Since the Smiths power is monopoly, and since that monopoly rests on adherence to absolute secrecy, no true Smith would hesitate to kill one of his own should he be suspected of revealing clan secrets. “Without ownership of the Secrets,” say the Smiths, “we are no different from any other starving wretch.” Overall, their monopoly is not resented; the logic of their clients being that the technology in use has kept the powers of Pontius in balance, and to use forbidden technology, which the Smiths are said to keep in their vaults, could arouse the curiosity of the demon. The gamble of the new is not worth the risk.

  The Smiths wear skullcaps or bandannas of red or white, and black aprons, cloaks, or robes. Their flag is a golden gear on a black background.

  The Law. Their power is the power of invulnerability. Without the power of the Law, the gangs of Pontius would drown the entire city in bloody violence. The Law collects great amounts of money from every Law-abiding citizen and business. Though their income is regular, it is far less than the Coil fortunes. Lawmen regulate drug traffic, slave traffic, public disturbances, and enforce non-Ugly religious traditions. Farmers outside of Pontius city walls can pay for the Law’s protection from humans and demons.

  Their main headquarters is Precinct Zero, a giant, square structure built above a dungeon that houses the city’s worst psychopaths, and is situated near Cathedralia, where the city’s rulers make decisions concerning the Law. While less in number than the Ugly, each Lawman is better trained than the Body of the Ugly. Regular Lawmen wear traditional denim; high-ranking Lawmen and detectives wear suits. Black and blue are the colors of the Law.

  The Entertainers. More a cult than a gang. The nature of their power is as mysterious as the nature of their secret beliefs. Whatever the case, the fact is that people - artists, philosophers, dreamers - disappear from the routines of “real life” all the time. Sometimes they come back, hollow and strange and unreceptive to the things we hold dear. Sometimes they never c
ome back at all.

  These are the pillars that uphold and feed off the body of Pontius: Religion, business, science, law, art.