Article 15: Pit Lords

When the formerly-Divine rebels from the Angelic Protectorate arrived through the Teleporter on Pharadon, it quickly became obvious that things there would not be easy for this new Deviling society. The planet had very little in the way of natural resources, almost no food, and was constantly barraged by deadly radiation storms that swept across the land. Even after holing themselves up in the caves that pockmarked the world's surface, the first storm season wiped out nearly half of their population, and with no beam of holy light to reincarnate themselves in, they feared that they would not last another. There was, however, a ray of hope in this darkness--The thirteen heretic Judges that had been sent to Pharadon still survived, and though their powers had been warped by the magic of the Teleporter, their new abilities could be used with some of the technology they had brought with them to shield the population from at least some of the radiation, increasing their chances for survival. There were a couple of issues that had to be discussed, though, and this led to the convening of the first council of heretic judges.

The primary issue was with determining the setting of the planet's lone shield device. The larger an area it was meant to cover, the less potent its shielding and the more radiation would be able to get through. Six of the judges were appalled by the suggestion that it be used to cover any less than the entire area inhabited by Devilings, but even more so by the final decision made by vote of 7-6 that the nearly planetwide colony be arranged into a series of concentric circles, with the central cities housing the judges themselves along with their personal retinue, then each further circle being home to those they saw of less and less potential value, with the shield set to provide its strongest coverage towards the center and the lower-caste Devilings none the wiser. Though they at first appeared to acquiesce to the will of the council majority, the six dissenting judges privately met and came to the determination that the council of judges was no better than the same Divine council that sent them to Pharadon in the first place. Submitting to the will of God led only to terrible things, and democracy was just as untenable an option.

Though the majority judges had found themselves gifted with the ability to lie, they found that this also made truth a deadly weapon against them. All it took was for the six dissenting judges to tell the other Devilings of what was actually going on for a bloody coup to erupt. When word reached the outer rings of their masters' treachery, they quickly took up arms to fight for their future, but much to the dissenting heretics' surprise, many of those in the more-protected inner circles joined in the cause as well, willing to sacrifice their own safety to ensure that another who would be considered beneath them receive the same protections. Before the next season started, the seven majority judges were all dead, and Pharadon's energy shield was set to distribute its load evenly, the six remaining judges spending most of their time and willpower maintaining it to the highest level possible. During that time, the dissenting judges sealed themselves off almost entirely from the rest of Pharadon, focusing on the shield while only pausing to sleep. Ten years later, the remains of the Teleporter were finally converted into the Entropic Phase Generator, which was more than able to fully power the shields. As life began to flourish on Pharadon, the dissenting judges convened their final council of heretic judges.

Being primarily responsible for the safety of the planet and heralded as war heroes, the heretic judges knew what awaited them when they finally stepped out of the shield chamber for the first time in a decade. The new Deviling society would hail their new leaders, and ask them for guidance which they felt unfit to offer. They saw their own peers, former pillars of justice, willing to cast any beneath them into the fire in the name of the "greater good". Though they were natural-born and experienced leaders, they had grown to loathe the very idea of being obeyed simply because they were the ones in charge. In their discussions had while keeping up the planetary shield, they had come to a consensus of their own, that each Deviling should be free to run their own lives as they saw fit, and believed that learning to live without lawgivers might be difficult for many of the Devilings on Pharadon. What they hadn't expected in that time cut off from the rest of the populace was that the others had thus far managed to get by better than they expected, with functioning roads, volunteer emergency services and the more well-off willingly providing assistance to those that were less fortunate. The incredible job that the Pharadonians had done of taking care of themselves convinced the judges that their new society would be an anarchy, free of those who might wish to rule over another.

Despite their decision, the remaining judges had questions that they needed to answer to help this society operate smoothly and peacefully. Without laws, who would have the authority to administer justice to perpetrators of crimes? Who would find a way to make restitution to victims? More pressing, who would be able to stop anyone with enough motivation and power from creating a government of their own? This, the heretic judges decided, was their true destiny, but their means to bring this society about would have to be a bit unorthodox. When they announced that the world of Pharadon would be one without laws, they presented a stipulation--though the most terrible of actions would all be technically permissible with no laws to stop someone from committing them, the judges themselves declared dominion over the most heinous of vices. Any who dared to encroach on their territory would be swiftly dealt with by the judges, now calling themselves the Six Pit Lords of Pharadon, and those who brought would-be usurpers to them to receive their just punishment would be rewarded for their efforts. The more astute among Deviling society realized the purpose of this, while those who actually believed that their would-be masters had declared themselves evil overlords would be dissuaded from committing heinous acts through fear of retribution. Those who understood the good intentions behind the Pit Lords actions joined them as willing subordinates, and through this means they each obtained their own private security forces. When the Deviling society became able to travel to other star systems, these private armies became personal fleets of the Pit Lords, delivering justice disguised as terror to any who needed it. This system persists today as the closest thing the Galactic Anarchists have to governance.