The Zebubims and the Susmaggots
Maladomini is the “homeland” of the Fly-folk, the Zububim. Archdevil Beelzebub had dozens and dozens of fly people as attendants, pages, footmen, and maids, both before and after the Cosmic War (a classic subject of many frescos cycles is the wake of Belzebub, surrounded by a crowd of Zebubim in mourning).
Everywhere people push Zebubims into servile positions: they are meek and neurotic due to a culture built on their heightened sense of danger and minute physique. But, while elsewhere fly people are relegated to be kitchen maids and errand boys, in Maladomini they can have a career, becoming secretaries, lady’s confidants, butlers: the highest tier of those servile jobs. Similarly, Zebubims are often employed in undesirable jobs like tending to pigs or dogs, but in Maladomini they can access the best versions of that line of work: they look after the prized three head dogs of the nobles and breed the most delicious swine of all, the Susmaggot.
The Susmaggots are half-pig and half-worm animals. They are clearly unable to survive in the wild as they drag their lower half slowly, easy prey for any carnivore. They are not only easy targets but enticing too: they smell delicious, watering the mouth of all predators in the surroundings. Such ineptitude to survival is seen as a hint of their supernatural origin.
In the description of Hells contained in the Diabolist scripture, there are sparse mentions of “succulent beasts” that tantalize the sinners guilty of spreading famine, hoarding food, and causing hunger. There are also post-War diaries and records mentioning “the delicious swine of Infernus” offered at the Archdevils’ feasts. The Susmaggots must be those creatures: some of the few beings native to the Outer Planes barely touched by the Collapse of the multiverse.
Susmaggots are docile and friendly, they eat almost anything organic and they not only smell good, they taste good too. A whiff of a Susmaggot roast will build you a ravenous appetite and give you untamable cravings. They say hunger is the best sauce: anything containing Susmaggot’s meat will have that delicious condiment. Bacon, sausages, lard, hams, roasts, steak: everything tastes like the first thing you eat after a day-long fast.
Susmaggots, while evidently desirable livestock, present a couple of challenges to the farmers. First, they are long-lived and slow breeders, making them more a luxury than a staple: a sow will give birth to just one piglet-worm a year. Secondly, and mostly importantly, the Susmaggot must always be pampered, as stress can turn their meat sour and tangy.
Killing a susmaggot will “turn it bad”, in a sort of defense mechanism. Probably a feature created to prevent the sinners from ever getting satisfaction would they eventually put their end on one of them. This mechanism doesn’t really work on wolves and other predators, since the smell is so alluring to bypass any other kind of conditioning.
The Zububims involved in this kind of pig farming take the job incredibly seriously. During the day they constantly and anxiously look after the animals, to be sure they are always well-fed and content. During the night, they keep guard to avoid wolves, foxes, or other animals molesting the pigs.
The complex part is the butchering: since the Susmaggot will “go sour” if stressed out, they must be killed quickly and by surprise, so they don’t even realize what’s happening. For this reason, Zebubim will take the chosen pig for a stroll and give it a wonderful day, almost a party. When the Susmaggot is at the top of happiness it will be hit by a pike in the head: the metal will pierce the skull and squash the brain in an instant.
It’s a compassionate way to kill an animal, they die happy and painlessly after all, nonetheless most people just can’t bring themselves to do it. Only the Zebubims, apparently, have no problem with it.
