Thursday 9 July 2015

Who Eats Most?

The admirals and diplomats eat the most. Quality is not an issue with ghouls, but quantity is essential. The hunger is never sated, but the more you eat, the more rational you become. Those at the top, those who make the decisions are fed regularly. They are still utterly insane from the hunger, a howling which will not cease. Endless.

The captains and the Wardens - tasked with caring for the Restless - are the next step below, still retaining an edge of the feral ferocity associated with the wild Ghouls not incorporated into the Hungry Empire. To interfere with a Warden is one of the only crimes in the Empire.

The sailors do well from their flesh-piracy, although many captains allow the Ghoulish fear of water to maintain their focus rather regular feeding. The soldiers of the Empire are allowed to eat of the enemy dead as their pay, leading to a strange rhythm of minimalistic assaults lacking all strategy before organised, well-executed maneuvers as befitting a professional army.

The Restless are those driven to near catatonia by the lack of meat.  Most the Empire's territory is taken up by these figures, sitting beneath the sun, shaded by their hats. Visitors have compared the effect to a field of flowers with dead, twitching stems, swaying in the wind and beaten remorselessly by the sunlight. As needed, sections of the Restless are rounded up and fed to a state suiting their new station.

A Note on Culture ~ Sir Terrence of Floyd

A most puzzling export of the Hungry Empire is their art and literature- truly stunning works produced by dead minds animated by a single force. This force taints all of their works, although many of the more skilled are able to cloak this terrible urge under layers of abstraction. Some of the more fashionable readers and nobles of the Nilfenberg Empire clamour for genuine articles of Ghoulish art and writing, something obviously restricted by the Church. Something about this all encompassing passion speaks to the living as much as the dead, although the scandalous knowledge of what must be bartered to obtain it no doubt thrills the jaded nobility.




2 comments:

  1. Your stuff never fails to impress me. The Hungry Empire has a very China Mieville-ish feel to it, which I adore.

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    Replies
    1. China is still on the REALLY NEED TO READ THIS list, where's a good place to start? Thanks for the comment, really means a lot.

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