I wanted to have a conversation with you all about my ideas for the 9 Hells in #ChaosTheoryAU

There are a few tenants that I have decided to include to ensure that it feels "evil", but just functioning enough as a society to be respected and even feared by the rest of the world.

Firstly, I want to premise this by pointing out that designing a society that is "evil" is not easy, because with it comes the weight of ensuring that you are not making false equivalents to real cultures.

Therefore, I have decided to openly address this in my story.

I want our "good" characters to have rather limited and bigoted views on the politics and dynamics of Baator and how it came to be.

As you notice, most of the characters do call this collection of 9 regions "The 9 Hells" and comfortably describe it as a BAD PLACE.

So let us explore how Baator actually runs its society and why these assumptions may be made:

Baator describes itself as a "A Society that Strives for Humanly Achievable Perfection" by following specific principles.

They practice eugenics and genetic engineering to ensure that citizens (who can afford it) fit the "Competitive Standard" when it comes to cognitive and physical presentation.

This is also a symbol of national pride, and there is strong disdain for those who do not comply.

All natives from Baator who either have the money or the ancestry, have a common "look" to them that visually distinguishes them both within the culture and outside the culture. (Imagine if Instagram was a country and the people all really looked like that).

Baator also prides itself on being the "Perfect Meritocracy", with wholly standardized schooling.

They claim that in their economy, a person's personal wealth is a direct reflection of their innate skills and abilities, which are monitored and stored in a central computer.

The legal system of Baator is both preventative and punitive. Baator constantly calculates the probability a crime against the cost of solving the damages of said crime, and generally acts to snuff out any crime before it even occurs.

Such strategies include the abortion of fetuses that are considered to be an "expense" to society, building architecture that funnels crime into specific, easily monitored locations, and "social experimentation".

Surveillance and body recognition software are nationwide.

However, Baator also uses their prison system as a means of making a profit. Therefore, it is generally in the best interest of the Private Prison CEOs to leave room for "some" crime. The philosophy centers around the need for "Subjects for Scientific Research to Enrich Society".

All citizens of Baator, at birth, are legal participants in all scientific research. This means that any social experiment that does not have known bodily consequences, can be legally performed on any citizen without written or conscious permission.

Such social experiments includes everything from actors performing false crimes to see if citizens report to the correct authorities in a timely manner, to random camera checks in individual residences.

Any arrested criminals enter a new societal category.

The personal rights of the criminals in Baator are calculated by AI justices to see what debt the criminal owes to society, and how best they can repay that cost, whether in life or in death.

The legal system of Baator is such that in contentious situations, almost all laws have "two sides" that can be argued. For instance, homicides and assaults can almost always be argued as "accidents" or "self-defence". Theft can also be argued as legal in the correct contexts.

To navigate this complex legal web, it is generally expected that all citizens of Baator pay for a family lawyer, and such lawyers will help deal with monthly lawsuits. A family's ability to pay for a good lawyer plays into the family's "Value" in society, and is thus "Fair".

All policing and lawyering is done by families that have been considered "high value" for an extended period of time. Only individuals from families with high scores can apply to become lawyers or police offices, to ensure that "Model citizens model good behavior".

Punishments for "Non-model" citizens can range from re-education, to forced labor, to the death penalty with no funeral rights. However, all criminals become participants in drug trials, and the safety of such drug trials depends on the talent of the criminal's lawyer.

Baator prides itself on being the best and quickest producer of medicine in the world, thanks to their strong computers who calculate the health risks of drug trials and assign criminals according to their crimes and the arguments of their lawyers.

It is not uncommon for individuals from "Good Family Stock" to be assigned medical trials that are statistically less lethal even in situations that call for the death penalty, as surviving such a drug trial counts as a "Free Pass".

This is founded in the theoretical idea that there is a "Cosmic Order", and that Baator is the civilization that has gotten closest to it. They therefore believe those who are "Lucky" are actually not lucky, but cosmically aligned with "The way things should be".

Now, let us talk about Baator ex-patriots...

Escaping Baator is not easy, but many still try. Immigrants who move to Baator in the hopes of finding a better life from the Midlands are often met with harsh treatment and conditions, and often try to flee within a few years.

Individuals who are bought from other locations and private prisons are often coerced into staying by being offered a stipend upon release, and rarely have a reasonable choice.

Those who can afford plastic surgery or genetic modification do so, but never achieve that privilege.

Some individuals whose families have lived in Baator for more than one generation still reject the society, generally following some form of extreme punishment.

For instance, mothers who know their fetuses may be aborted will often attempt to emigrate or flee.

Of course, all escapees are considered criminals, and all ex-pats and their descendants are often hunted by native or foreign head-hunters.

Many ex-pats will get extreme body modifications like piercings, tattoos and surgery as a direct protest against their "Designer" bodies.

However, despite the circumstances of Baator ex-pats, many outsiders still treat them with mistrust out of fear that they may be double-agents, often using the slur "Tiefling", which is "Thiefling" pronounced without the TH sound, as many from Baator cannot make this sound.

Overall, most large cities have snuffed out most fears toward individuals from Baator, as Baator often uses the bigotry toward their emigrants as fodder for foreign legal battles (Which is ironic, given their own disdain for their own ex-pats).

Still, given their recognizable look, their affinity for body-modifications, and their rarity, most Baator ex-pats stand out in a crowd and tend to be treated differently, with some even achieving high positions is society, such as diplomats, politicians, teachers, and spies.