A Devil's Town Organization Help

[penbed400]

Hey. So I'm writing a campaign where the world is run by Devils and the party is a group of rebels sent to slowly bring the country back to the good side. They aren't strong enough to take them on completely so until they become stronger they are supposed to take everything slow and easy and have it be sneakier. I am having trouble setting up a government for the town they are going to first. So if you like politics and map making by all means help me out. For those of you who know how Devils work as well be sure to keep that in mind.....yea, so any idea on how to set up the basic government?

[shadowfox]

Bureaucracy.

Last I heard (from 3.5), devils themselves have a very structured government style. There's a policy for everything. Everything is kept track of. Logs, in that sense, are VERY important.

I don't have the book on me right now, but you should pick up version 3.5's Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells. It actually goes over devil society, and, when devils corrupt a society, that society adopts the devil's government style.

Edit:
Lots of laws, too. For example, maybe adventurers are allowed, but they must have an adventuring license, which can only be obtained by joining the adventurer's guild.

As for chain of command... There's always a chain. And people in that chain are always looking for ways to move up. The PCs themselves could use that to their advantage.

[bosssmiley]

Perfect hierarchy corrupted by constant toadying and jockeying for status. Picture the most relentless blind elephant of a bureaucracy you've ever seen (the EU, the IRS, the Army); now imagine that everyone is on the take and is scheming to supplant their superior all the time. The Screwtape Letters (if you haven't already read it) is probably one of the best tales on infernal psychology.

Infernal cities. My current model is "God's Demon" by Wayne Barlowe (of Inferno fame). Grotesquely overbuilt urban nightmares dominated by the palatial holds of a profligate quasi-feudal elite. Said elite mercilessly lording it over their legions of thrall warriors who in turn drive swarms of abused souls in the construction of ever more elaborate memorials and architectural follies. Stark juxtapositions of grandeur and squalor, opulence and cruelty. Think 'Cecil B. De Mille does 1984'...

[Kaiyanwang]

Hierarchy. Everybody knows who's above and who's under, and orders must be followed. If this not happens, terrible punishment.

Everybody must live in fear. Fear of be caught out of law, fear of your neghbour, your father your sister denouncing you. Order are followed even if stoopid. Maybe this can bring hooks to our heroes.

Executions are frequent - there should be a way to find someone guilty of something.

On the top of hierarchy, people fight each other to reach te top, as Devils do.

As another parallelism, should exist something to justify the existence and or the birth of this establishment - maybe a CE horde of orcs ready to invade a "weak" (read not LE) reign. Something like Tanar'ri in outer planes.

Following this. Militarize everithing if possible. Maybe weak must be enslaved, or killed to make the society (or at least the Elite) stronger.

From 1984: propaganda. Make sure that every little win of the tyrant is a great win, every great loss a small loss.

From Brave New World: Conditioning. People are trained in a way that they can only think the way the tyrant wants. They may repeat sentences regarding they conditioning ("culling the weak" - "the overlord is always right"). MAgic helps a lot about this.

From Fahrenheit 451: Censorship. Not only Good must be fought, good shouldn't even exist.

[Ianuagonde]

I agree with bureaucracy. It's ordered, you can look things up, everybody knows his place in the chain of command.

I always pictured devils as extremely efficient: they do not lose your papers. They have sent all documents. The archive contains everything you have ever said to a devil. They do not sleep. They know. Inefficient bureaucracy defeats the purpose. The devils that decide on the chain of command are extremely intelligent: why bother with reports that no-one reads? Papers that get lost can't be used to pin the blame when something goes wrong.

Of course, this doesn't mean they're not evil. You need papers for entering town, and these papers can be obtained in city hall, in the center of the town. You need permits for wearing weapons and for having a spell component pouch. Permits are given to evil outsiders, or people who have served in the army ("just sign on the dotted line, we'll fill in the rest for you"). Having a holy symbol of a good deity is punishable by death if it is your first offence (the punishment makes sure there is no second offence). Office opening hours are not based on the usual 24/7 week. The first person in the line for the stamp you need is a zombie who doesn't move, and they will help you as soon as the zombie steps to a counter. Cutting in line = breaking the rules, and will result in security guards showing up.

This would be a good moment to browse through the MoMa for obscure languages. Huge Int means lots of languages, and spellcasting devils have even less problems with strange languages.
-"There was a clear sign in plain sight saying you shouldn't do that!"
-"It didn't use any alphabet I know, I didn't know it was a message. I've told you before, I can't read Sphinx!"
-"Tell it to the judge."