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Description

Based on this RPG setting: bluwiki.com/go/Devil's_Dixie

---

The art of demonology has been around for millennia, but with the rise of religions such as Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, knowledge of this blackest of magic largely died away in the more "civilized" parts of the world. Only a few masters kept the dark art alive, hiding from the watchful gaze of authorities both of heaven and earth.

This changed with the Enlightenment. In Europe, many thinkers shed the superstitious fear their recent ancestors had held and sought to understand everything about the universe. Some traveled the world, seeking the forbidden codexes as potential gateways to the true nature of the universe. Most went missing, and those that did not turned up in an asylum far from home.

When Napoleon I became Emperor of the French, he knew that he could not defeat Britain without some support. Inspired by whatever had driven some of Europe's greatest thinkers to madness, he sought to augment his material strength with whatever he could. He went to Egypt in search of occult lore, but found no answers there. Instead, he found answers in books brought back to France by occultists throughout the centuries, and whatever his men could find from Rome after the Pope fled to Switzerland in the wake of the city's annexation into Napoleon's empire.

The earliest French attempts at demon-binding had some unwanted side effects, but those were ironed out as older and more detailed texts were translated and the knowledge of the old masters were brought back. On the front lines, demons were used as scouts, spies and assassins, although their terrifying forms sometimes allowed bayonet charges to succeed even when the French were outnumbered. Prussia and Austria were crushed in the Wars of the Fourth and Fifth coalitions, respectively, and reduced to a collection of puppet states. The Russians were forced to retreat all the way to Moscow, but not even Napoleon's demonologists could save the entire Grand Armee from the freezing cold. The demons did allow French forces to successfully challenge the Royal Navy, as they could fly and board ships with ease. By 1814, Russia and Britain agreed to peace with Napoleon, giving him continental Europe.

World history from that point forward would be defined by the Great Game between France and Britain. The French continued to perfect their demonology, while the British used their industrial might along with their own demonology as a counter. The two empires would fight proxy wars throughout the world, and the greatest would come in the 1860s, with the American Civil War. By 1864, the materially inferior Confederacy was losing to the Union, and sought greater assistance from the French. Napoleon decided to aid the Confederates with some occult materials, so they may use demons without direct French intervention. This would lead to disaster, as the Confederates were less-skilled with demons and lacked the protections the Catholic Church had distributed throughout Europe for centuries. Jefferson Davis succeeded in summoning a being claiming to be the Devil himself.

Davis, no doubt intimidated by this avatar of evil, made a pact with him: the Devil would be granted control of the Confederate States military and territory in exchange for ensuring Southern independence. For a while, the pact seemed to have been in Davis' favor. Southern soldiers did not fall when fired at; or, more precisely, they did not stay down. Union forces retreated in panic at this horrific sight, and the Confederates won battle after battle. However, once the true nature of Davis' pact became known throughout the Union, Lincoln was able to get the religious energies of the Third Great Awakening on his side and repainted the Civil War as a crusade against Hell itself. The South had driven Union forces off their lands, but the war did not end. When Lincoln was assassinated by a demon-possessed Confederate agent, he became a martyr, and President Andrew Johnson swore that the Confederacy would be eradicated.

British support for the Union, and French support for the Confederacy, along with the growth of Union industry and the continued transformation of the Confederacy under Satan, would continue the war for decades, and then generations. The land between the two countries became a blasted, literal hellscape, littered with corpses and fallen machinery. The United States became a de facto military dictatorship, run publicly by puppet presidents but in truth by a cabal of American and British military leaders and industrialists. The government has taken control of virtually all industry, overseen by the still-profiting descendants of Carnegie and Rockefeller, and turned it to fighting the eternal war against Hell. The country is covered in sprawling factory-cities that fill the air with smoke and the rivers with sludge. Aggressive drafting measures and the newest and most horrific steam-powered war machines have ensured that the Union forces are on equal footing with their Confederate counterparts, even without the aid of demonic forces.

The Confederacy has not been a union of states for decades. It is instead a collection of fiefdoms of various demon-generals, who have enslaved all of the mortals within their territories. All mortals, white or black, are chattel for the demon-generals and their demonic underlings. These slaves are often tortured, for new recruits from Hell often have very bad habits. The only escape is through possession, sacrifice or signing up for the Confederate military (which is effectively one of the first two). This automatically damns the soul to the real Hell, but from their a soul has an opportunity to make their way up the Machiavellian ladder and possibly return to Earth as a champion of Hell. The Confederacy itself has begun to resemble Hell: the land is dry and cracked, the trees are leafless and bone-white, and the local fauna have been consumed by their counterparts from Hell. And somewhere, deep in the Appalachians, the Confederates are working on a permanent portal to Hell, so that the bulk of Hell's armies can emerge on Earth and conquer the entire planet.

Also fighting in North America are various other groups. The Lee Enclaves, sickened by Davis' pact but equally loathing of the Union's industrial tyranny continue their guerrilla war against both sides in an attempt to restore the old America. The British support the Union and some North American states in order to contain the Confederates. The Holy State of Deseret has declared war on both the demonic Confederacy and the "heretic" Union. Both the British and French are wary of their claims that they have spoken to "angels," as their descriptions of these "angels" resemble beings which the ancient texts speak of with an unparalleled dread. Various native groups, such as the Sioux, Apache and the Five Nations, have taken advantage of the white man's war to forge de facto independent states, using their knowledge of the spiritual world to have more limited, but more controllable, demon armies of their own. And the Mexicans seek to take land lost during the Mexican-American War with the aid of the old Aztec gods, with a veneer of Catholicism to ensure that the Samaritans do not wage war against them.

Europe is still locked in the bitter conflict between Britain and France. The British have mastered the art of "enhanced industry," which is the binding of non-sapient demons into machines. Britain is perhaps the freest place in the world, with a powerless monarch and an all-powerful Parliament. Their dominions, Canada, India and Oceania, are de facto independent, although they will not hesitate to defend the mother country in case of war with France. The East African Protectorate was formed by the British to defend against the expansionist South Africans. The Ottomans, defeated in the Franco-Turkish War of the 1900s, are bitter about their betrayal and seek to reclaim their lost territories. The use of demonic forces by the French has turned the Ottomans to Islamic fundamentalism, but they have no problems with using "djinn" in their armies.

The French, on the other hand, are still under the wise, immortal rule of Napoleon I, and their demonology is the most advanced in the world. While still keeping abreast of events outside of Europe, Napoleon's greatest concern is the rising power of the German Confederacy, which Napoleon had allowed to form in the 1890s in order to have a German state that he had some control over as opposed to a German state which openly opposed him. Napoleon's longevity is widely known to be the result of occult arts, and there are rumors that the original Napoleon died long ago, and his corpse is merely being possessed by a demon.

The French have also made an alliance with the Chinese Empire, whose scholars have emulated the European example by tapping into China's rich supernatural history to augment their technologically stagnant forces. This did require the purging of Confucian thinkers who looked down upon such sorcery, but anything for progress in this rapidly changing world.

Also challenging Napoleon's domination of Europe is the Samaritan League, still led by the Pope from Switzerland. The Papacy still has control of the bulk of occult literature and knows how to defend against it. Switzerland itself is surrounded by holy wards, preventing Napoleon's demonic forces from crossing into Switzerland. This will not stop Napoleon's conventional forces, so the Papacy depends on alliances with the British and Russians to ward off French thoughts of expansion. The Kingdom of Gran Colombia, housing the Bourbon monarchy of Spain, and the Kingdom of La Plata are strong Catholic theocracies and are the Pope's most dependable allies in the Americas. In case of Confederate victory in the Civil War, they are expected to bear the brunt of the fighting against the forces of Hell.

The Russians are wary of all sides, although they do still have agreements with Britain to fight against Napoleon should a war between the two come. The Russians have clung onto their Eastern Orthodox Christianity very strongly, although there are doubts about how devout the Tsar and his court really is. The influence of "mad monks" and sightings of what could only be described as werewolves in St. Petersburg do cast doubts, and there's nothing Biblical about cryothaumaturgy that needs several courses in Old Norse to use.

There are other occult states apart from the Confederacy. There is the Boer-dominated Union of Sovereign South African Republics, a white supremacist regime established after the Boer Revolution had some aid from demonic Confederate forces. The Kingdom of Misr has driven its Muslim population into the Ottoman Empire or into the desert, while those who have converted to the old gods and obey the priesthood that overthrew the Ottoman government in Cairo back in the 1920s wish to be granted "gifts" from the old gods. The Empire of Japan, closed off from the outside world after a samurai revolt aided by monsters from Japan's past threw out the Westerners. And the Empire of the True Inka is ruled by the reanimated, mummified remains of an ancient Inka emperor who also claims to be the Second Coming of Jesus.

Then there's all of that strange stuff coming from French and British expeditions in Antarctica. Some of these scholars are claiming that "Satan"'s obsession with ruling humanity betrays a terrible truth: that he isn't a very big fish in the cosmic pond. There are others out there, and they couldn't care less about whether or not humanity lives or dies.

Description

Based on this RPG setting: bluwiki.com/go/Devil's_Dixie

---

The art of demonology has been around for millennia, but with the rise of religions such as Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, knowledge of this blackest of magic largely died away in the more "civilized" parts of the world. Only a few masters kept the dark art alive, hiding from the watchful gaze of authorities both of heaven and earth.

This changed with the Enlightenment. In Europe, many thinkers shed the superstitious fear their recent ancestors had held and sought to understand everything about the universe. Some traveled the world, seeking the forbidden codexes as potential gateways to the true nature of the universe. Most went missing, and those that did not turned up in an asylum far from home.

When Napoleon I became Emperor of the French, he knew that he could not defeat Britain without some support. Inspired by whatever had driven some of Europe's greatest thinkers to madness, he sought to augment his material strength with whatever he could. He went to Egypt in search of occult lore, but found no answers there. Instead, he found answers in books brought back to France by occultists throughout the centuries, and whatever his men could find from Rome after the Pope fled to Switzerland in the wake of the city's annexation into Napoleon's empire.

The earliest French attempts at demon-binding had some unwanted side effects, but those were ironed out as older and more detailed texts were translated and the knowledge of the old masters were brought back. On the front lines, demons were used as scouts, spies and assassins, although their terrifying forms sometimes allowed bayonet charges to succeed even when the French were outnumbered. Prussia and Austria were crushed in the Wars of the Fourth and Fifth coalitions, respectively, and reduced to a collection of puppet states. The Russians were forced to retreat all the way to Moscow, but not even Napoleon's demonologists could save the entire Grand Armee from the freezing cold. The demons did allow French forces to successfully challenge the Royal Navy, as they could fly and board ships with ease. By 1814, Russia and Britain agreed to peace with Napoleon, giving him continental Europe.

World history from that point forward would be defined by the Great Game between France and Britain. The French continued to perfect their demonology, while the British used their industrial might along with their own demonology as a counter. The two empires would fight proxy wars throughout the world, and the greatest would come in the 1860s, with the American Civil War. By 1864, the materially inferior Confederacy was losing to the Union, and sought greater assistance from the French. Napoleon decided to aid the Confederates with some occult materials, so they may use demons without direct French intervention. This would lead to disaster, as the Confederates were less-skilled with demons and lacked the protections the Catholic Church had distributed throughout Europe for centuries. Jefferson Davis succeeded in summoning a being claiming to be the Devil himself.

Davis, no doubt intimidated by this avatar of evil, made a pact with him: the Devil would be granted control of the Confederate States military and territory in exchange for ensuring Southern independence. For a while, the pact seemed to have been in Davis' favor. Southern soldiers did not fall when fired at; or, more precisely, they did not stay down. Union forces retreated in panic at this horrific sight, and the Confederates won battle after battle. However, once the true nature of Davis' pact became known throughout the Union, Lincoln was able to get the religious energies of the Third Great Awakening on his side and repainted the Civil War as a crusade against Hell itself. The South had driven Union forces off their lands, but the war did not end. When Lincoln was assassinated by a demon-possessed Confederate agent, he became a martyr, and President Andrew Johnson swore that the Confederacy would be eradicated.

British support for the Union, and French support for the Confederacy, along with the growth of Union industry and the continued transformation of the Confederacy under Satan, would continue the war for decades, and then generations. The land between the two countries became a blasted, literal hellscape, littered with corpses and fallen machinery. The United States became a de facto military dictatorship, run publicly by puppet presidents but in truth by a cabal of American and British military leaders and industrialists. The government has taken control of virtually all industry, overseen by the still-profiting descendants of Carnegie and Rockefeller, and turned it to fighting the eternal war against Hell. The country is covered in sprawling factory-cities that fill the air with smoke and the rivers with sludge. Aggressive drafting measures and the newest and most horrific steam-powered war machines have ensured that the Union forces are on equal footing with their Confederate counterparts, even without the aid of demonic forces.

The Confederacy has not been a union of states for decades. It is instead a collection of fiefdoms of various demon-generals, who have enslaved all of the mortals within their territories. All mortals, white or black, are chattel for the demon-generals and their demonic underlings. These slaves are often tortured, for new recruits from Hell often have very bad habits. The only escape is through possession, sacrifice or signing up for the Confederate military (which is effectively one of the first two). This automatically damns the soul to the real Hell, but from their a soul has an opportunity to make their way up the Machiavellian ladder and possibly return to Earth as a champion of Hell. The Confederacy itself has begun to resemble Hell: the land is dry and cracked, the trees are leafless and bone-white, and the local fauna have been consumed by their counterparts from Hell. And somewhere, deep in the Appalachians, the Confederates are working on a permanent portal to Hell, so that the bulk of Hell's armies can emerge on Earth and conquer the entire planet.

Also fighting in North America are various other groups. The Lee Enclaves, sickened by Davis' pact but equally loathing of the Union's industrial tyranny continue their guerrilla war against both sides in an attempt to restore the old America. The British support the Union and some North American states in order to contain the Confederates. The Holy State of Deseret has declared war on both the demonic Confederacy and the "heretic" Union. Both the British and French are wary of their claims that they have spoken to "angels," as their descriptions of these "angels" resemble beings which the ancient texts speak of with an unparalleled dread. Various native groups, such as the Sioux, Apache and the Five Nations, have taken advantage of the white man's war to forge de facto independent states, using their knowledge of the spiritual world to have more limited, but more controllable, demon armies of their own. And the Mexicans seek to take land lost during the Mexican-American War with the aid of the old Aztec gods, with a veneer of Catholicism to ensure that the Samaritans do not wage war against them.

Europe is still locked in the bitter conflict between Britain and France. The British have mastered the art of "enhanced industry," which is the binding of non-sapient demons into machines. Britain is perhaps the freest place in the world, with a powerless monarch and an all-powerful Parliament. Their dominions, Canada, India and Oceania, are de facto independent, although they will not hesitate to defend the mother country in case of war with France. The East African Protectorate was formed by the British to defend against the expansionist South Africans. The Ottomans, defeated in the Franco-Turkish War of the 1900s, are bitter about their betrayal and seek to reclaim their lost territories. The use of demonic forces by the French has turned the Ottomans to Islamic fundamentalism, but they have no problems with using "djinn" in their armies.

The French, on the other hand, are still under the wise, immortal rule of Napoleon I, and their demonology is the most advanced in the world. While still keeping abreast of events outside of Europe, Napoleon's greatest concern is the rising power of the German Confederacy, which Napoleon had allowed to form in the 1890s in order to have a German state that he had some control over as opposed to a German state which openly opposed him. Napoleon's longevity is widely known to be the result of occult arts, and there are rumors that the original Napoleon died long ago, and his corpse is merely being possessed by a demon.

The French have also made an alliance with the Chinese Empire, whose scholars have emulated the European example by tapping into China's rich supernatural history to augment their technologically stagnant forces. This did require the purging of Confucian thinkers who looked down upon such sorcery, but anything for progress in this rapidly changing world.

Also challenging Napoleon's domination of Europe is the Samaritan League, still led by the Pope from Switzerland. The Papacy still has control of the bulk of occult literature and knows how to defend against it. Switzerland itself is surrounded by holy wards, preventing Napoleon's demonic forces from crossing into Switzerland. This will not stop Napoleon's conventional forces, so the Papacy depends on alliances with the British and Russians to ward off French thoughts of expansion. The Kingdom of Gran Colombia, housing the Bourbon monarchy of Spain, and the Kingdom of La Plata are strong Catholic theocracies and are the Pope's most dependable allies in the Americas. In case of Confederate victory in the Civil War, they are expected to bear the brunt of the fighting against the forces of Hell.

The Russians are wary of all sides, although they do still have agreements with Britain to fight against Napoleon should a war between the two come. The Russians have clung onto their Eastern Orthodox Christianity very strongly, although there are doubts about how devout the Tsar and his court really is. The influence of "mad monks" and sightings of what could only be described as werewolves in St. Petersburg do cast doubts, and there's nothing Biblical about cryothaumaturgy that needs several courses in Old Norse to use.

There are other occult states apart from the Confederacy. There is the Boer-dominated Union of Sovereign South African Republics, a white supremacist regime established after the Boer Revolution had some aid from demonic Confederate forces. The Kingdom of Misr has driven its Muslim population into the Ottoman Empire or into the desert, while those who have converted to the old gods and obey the priesthood that overthrew the Ottoman government in Cairo back in the 1920s wish to be granted "gifts" from the old gods. The Empire of Japan, closed off from the outside world after a samurai revolt aided by monsters from Japan's past threw out the Westerners. And the Empire of the True Inka is ruled by the reanimated, mummified remains of an ancient Inka emperor who also claims to be the Second Coming of Jesus.

Then there's all of that strange stuff coming from French and British expeditions in Antarctica. Some of these scholars are claiming that "Satan"'s obsession with ruling humanity betrays a terrible truth: that he isn't a very big fish in the cosmic pond. There are others out there, and they couldn't care less about whether or not humanity lives or dies.