EREBUS — Beast folk citizen of the Holy Infernal Empire
Beast folks have a tumultuous relationship with the Holy Infernal Empire, and Erebus is most affected by the troubled past between the nations.
The Beast claimed independence in the VI century after being fed up with their subservient role in the Empire and incited by the rise of a new religion, the Spirits’ way. But not all the Beasts wanted to leave the empire or convert, some were, and are, fine with life under the devils.
The Empire’s Beast Folks are caught between two radically opposing conceptions of themselves, promoted or discredited in turns by different propagandas, philosophies, and political movements.
If you read the right passages in the Sacred Scriptures and cherrypick your observations you can argue that the Beasts are not human. First, they don’t look entirely human, then the holy books say the beast folks were not the “recipient” of creations. Some texts say that each beastly lineage had a purpose in the creation, like Crow People caring for the psychopomps creatures or the Felinars being “marshall of the damned” bringing to hell fugitives and escapees.
For this reason, they should not be given rights or consideration.
But, reading other passages and focusing on different details, you can argue equally well that beast folks are better than humans.
They clearly have some superior abilities (the stamina of the minotaurs, the senses of the nagas, for example), and the fact that they work for the creation makes them more similar to the divinities’ descendants (that means, in the Empire, the aristocracy). They were not the “children of creation”, just there to contemplate the world, they were active agents that made the world function, and as such, they should have the same ruling role now.
The theological question of the role of Beast Folk in the grand scheme of creation is open and probably impossible to settle.
For this reason, different times and places have wildly different attitudes toward the Beasts, sometimes paradoxically coexisting.
In north Erebus, in the content territory of Taurides, most Beast folks are treated with diffidence and disdain. They were mortal enemies forty years ago and rebel groups are very active, making every Beast a past or present menace. There are attempts to integrate the Beast folks through conversion and a more welcoming attitude. Unfortunately, Prince Nergal has a personal grudge against the Beasts, since he was kidnap and tortured by them during the war, and won’t endorse any sort of kindness. Beast people in the north are therefore confined to the margin of society, to low jobs or outright begging. Many nobles have no problem oppressing and exploiting them if needed (they are not human after all), and that feeds the resentment and the rebellion side.
But the underground networks of dissidents are not made only by true believers in the cause: a lot of Beat Folks join ranks just for mutual aid, or even for peer pressure (you can’t be seen fraternizing with the devils, even if they may be the “good ones”).
In southern Erebus, the Cisalpine region, you’ll find beasts folk at every level of society. While aristocracy is strictly by blood, beasts have climbed every other institution: army officials, bishops, guild masters… there are Beast Folks of every kind in every high-up place.
Beastfolk judges in particular have the fame of being rigid and inflexible, almost cruel: they treat every crime as blasphemy and are quite famous for giving the maximum sentence possible (something that is encouraged by the aristocracy, since harsher sentences mean more undead workers).
They are probably the most fervent follower of Diabolism, and they see their “cousins” up north as traitors. Their religiosity, often degenerating in bigotry and zealotry, is often genuine, a way to forward their ancestral divine purpose. As much as often, their devotion is a shield, a way to defend themselves from prejudice and suspicion, a defense from accusations of being terrorists or heretics.
