BurgerSlave/ManifestCommandments

The Manifest Commandments of Infernal Stricture

Hell is a prison. Make no mistake. It is a place of confinement and torment, built by the gods out of the very souls of their vanquished foes. For uncounted millenia, the Demon City has housed the insane, chthonic souls of the Ones Who Came Before. It is not simply the shame of surrender that has driven the Malfeans to madness. The true cause of their many insanities comes from being denied the Games of Divinity. The siren song of the Games calls to the Malfeans in their prison, and they spiral into sheer insanity from their need to play. If a heroin addict in detox can fall into screaming madness, then imagine the unimaginably powerful Yozis and the depths of their addiction to the Games, and one begins to have some dim comprehension of the true weight of Hell's psychosis.

But madness has not blunted the Primordials' need for order and stability. It is they who drew Creation out of the unformed chaos of the Wyld, and it is they who created the Celestial Bureaucracy to minister to each and every facet of the world, down to its leastmost aspect. Even in the swirling chaos of the Demon City, there is order and function. Each of the uncountable souls and fetiches of the Demon Princes has a clearly defined place in the rigid hierarchy of Hell. And despite all their many machinations, only one thought occupies every demon, from the lowest of servitors to the Yozis themselves: freedom. Freedom and vengeance.

This is where the Yozis differ from the Malfeans. The Neverborn sleep in their tombs and dream of the day when everything shall be perfectly silent. They care not for revenge, only the stillness of Oblivion. The Yozis, on the other hand, ache to punish their upstart children and the buzzing insects who threw them down. Their every thought is bent upon escaping their prison and restoring the rightful order of things. Creation shall be cleansed by Infernal fire, scourged clean of the mortal filth that crawls upon its surface. The gods shall be made to crawl, made to beg to serve their former masters again. The Unconquered Sun shall be conquered at long last, His light consumed by Ligier's emerald radience, and his Exalted champions ground into the dust.

This, then, is a listing of the Manifest Commandments of Infernal Stricture, the various laws that bind and define the inhabitants of the Demon City. They are ironclad and unbreakable, for what punishment could be worse than what the demons themselves already suffer?

KNOW THY PLACE. RULE THOSE BELOW THEE. OBEY THOSE ABOVE THEE.

This is the first and most sacred dictum of the Manifest Commandments. All things have a clearly and distinctly defined place in the Grand Hierarchy. Perfection is stasis and order. By overthrowing that perfected order, the gods are guilty of violating the first and most sacred of laws.

FREE WILL IS A LIE. WE ARE WHAT WE MUST BE, NO MORE, NO LESS.

Freedom does not exist. Freedom is the Wyld, and there is no place for the Wyld in Creation. It was the intention of the Primordials to create a place of perfect stasis and order. In order to do this, it was necessary that all things in Creation follow the Primordials' plan to the very letter. By pretending to act upon their own volition, the gods are guilty of breaking this law as well. Thus, they have flawed Creation by permitting the Wyld entrance through the borders of the world in the form of free will and self-determination.

SUFFER NOT THE EXISTENCE OF THOSE WHO WOULD VIOLATE THESE COMMANDMENTS.

The Wyld is Anathema. It is not to be tolerated. It must be kept from Creation by any means necessary. All things are permitted so that the Yozis may be freed from their prison. Ethics and morality are paltry mortal concepts that do not apply to the Primordials. Lies, deception, torture, and any number of acts that humans would consider appalling and inhuman are a matter of course for the inhabitants of the Demon City. Desperate times call for the most extreme measures. As rebels and insurgents, the gods are guilty of this infraction as well.

PRIVILEGE TO THOSE OF GREATEST STATION. SUBSERVIENCE FOR THOSE OF LESSER STATION.

Rank hath its privilege. That is what it means to be the First. Those of highest station have the greatest responsibility. Thus, they are accorded highest prestige and given the best privileges. To the first-most go the Games of Divinity and the exquisite joys and raptures that they entail. Those below the highest in station are expected to obey. That is the way of things. When the Yozis are freed from the Demon City, the upstart gods will be taught this lesson with the most exquisite tortures, so that they will never again forget their place.

MAR NOT WHAT HAS BEEN MADE PERFECT. CHANGE NOT WHAT IS UNCHANGEABLE.

That which is perfect cannot be broken. To change is to become less than perfect. That the gods have done this enrages the Yozis to no end. They have ruined the perfect Creation the Primordials fashioned. And now, because the gods have lost themselves to the Games of Divinity, Creation itself is at risk. Mortals have not the capacity to tame the Wyld. Even the Exalted are swept up and consumed by the chaos that emanates from the Elemental Poles. Thus, they are not fit caretakers for Creation and must be swept away, so that the true rulers of the universe may reassume their rightful place and fix what their arrogant children have sundered.