The Land of Thin Flowers

This place is lower in the ground than even the deepest part of the underworld. It is the abode of demons, and the place of torment of the wicked dead.

At least, that is the teaching of many religions. Yet there are stories of people who have found the Land, either by delving too deeply in the underworld, or by falling into a pit. The latter mode of entry may be set as a trap; for those who claim to have fallen always report that they fell so far they expected to die, yet did not, and that a demon was waiting to bind them with chains. Escape is difficult, not so much due to any great vigilance of the demons, but due to the horror and misery of the place which saps the will.

Some have claimed that this place's physical existence, and the fact that it can be escaped, prove that it is not any kind of afterlife, but rather is a real place created in imitation of the teachings of religion. Who would do this, and why, is unknown.

In any case, the place is described as filled with a fire which gives no light or warmth, but burns flesh and produces choking grey smoke.

The Land is said to have five families of demon, each dedicated to the torment of a particular sense (vision, smell, touch, hearing, and taste). In peak periods each family may also hire imps (from a timp agency).

Others hold this to be mere superstition, saying that there are far more. La-La-Luff lists ten, with touch actually being divided among three families, one each for pressure, texture and temperature; an additional type specialising in the sense of balance; and two more types dealing in senses only posessed by non-humans; the perception of electric and magnetic currents. The last type, she claims, discovered that iron could be used to torment fairies.

There is agreed to be a great hatred and rivalry between the demons of sight and the demons of hearing. This is because both claim dominion over the echo-locative sense used by bats, and the similar ability of some blind people to sense objects by sound.

Relations between the demons of taste and smell are also somewhat tense, due to disputes over which parts of The Sewers the two clans may use for research.

The demons of touch (or those of pressure and temperature in the scheme of La-La-Luff), will be most familiar to the reader, resembling the demons of Christianity, or the Oni of Japan. The demons of taste are said to resemble giant tongues. Those of hearing are said to resemble blackboards, and to have arms with long, hard fingernails. They love to scratch themselves, producing an agonising squeak.

All these demons may be summoned if the correct ritual is performed. However the summoner must have discovered the ritual for themselves, not learned it from another (the law of copyrite).