"Yeah, it's fetching in its own way but I doubt it's for me. I might try it sometime, though. And I've been thinking of claws and maybe fangs... It's been a while since I switched up my appendages."

"I'd expect those to get annoying in day to day life. The claws more than the fangs, I guess."

"Probably. I think I could get used to them, though. And I definitely know some folks who would appreciate them."

"I see."

"Are there buildings here that aren't individuals' tacky houses?" wonders Cam. "Is there government of any kind? I'm told Hell is anarchy, but that doesn't necessarily apply to individual cities."

"Mmm... There's theaters and arenas and such, and I believe one of the ex-summoners has something approximating a restaurant, at which you can pay by telling him in great detail exactly what you thought of your meal. 'Shops' exist where the very creative conjure things for the less creative, but generally you'll need some piece of media to pay for those. And there's a library with some decent lists of books and music, you can contribute to it if you like but you don't want to publicize too many titles if you're ever going to want to buy something around here. Government-wise... in a word, no. If something comes up, occasionally there'll be some kind of council that meets on it, but there's nobody with real authority."

"Huh. And this all rubs along in a reasonably friendly manner, I take it."

"Yep! There's less friendly types, but generally they don't go for us too much. Too busy warring endlessly with each other in the void. Every so often some jackass tosses an unrestrained black hole into the middle of the city or something, but that's only a temporary problem. Most of the jackasses don't have much persistence."

"Good. I wouldn't have liked to land in a war zone."

"Recommend you stay out of Amngaroth then. That place is more holes than void by now. Very unpleasant."

"Noted. Where is Amngaroth? Can I get a map?"

Ari causes such a map to exist! It's on a state-of-the-art (given the state of the art) holographic projector. The center is a wobbly thing that appears to be the plane of gold. "There," says Ari, pointing to a cluster of somethingorother in space opposite their side of the plane, "is Amngaroth. I don't recall what supposedly started the feud, but there's a few thousand demons over there who've been warring with each other for much longer than I've been around. By this point they hate each other more than the angels."

"Huh. And where are we?"

Ari points at a red dot on the plane. It's about as far from Amngaroth as it's possible to be. "Scenic Nagala. I think the story is that a bunch of the Galegans and Kelkaron who hadn't been around for the start of the war got sick of the whole thing and decided to go to the opposite side of the plane. The Kelkaron mostly live in Talrakk, a few hundred miles east, they're nice enough."

"And these are - subcultures or communities of some kind, as opposed to the Earth gold standard of ethnic groups."

"Yep! Far as I can tell it's just who popped in nearest who, but that doesn't stop them from hating each other. I do my best not to get involved."

"Have I acquired some sort of affiliation via talking to you?"

"Ex-humans are a special class. We can take sides, but nobody expects you to. If you'd popped near a particularly orthodox Amnagarothe they might have tried to indoctrinate you, but even so you'd have been safe to get out of there. And as I said, I don't get involved."

"What a thrilling cultural education I am about to acquire."

"Don't worry too much about it, it took me almost twenty years to get all the cultures straight. Those are the two main groups in the region, anyway."

"About what fraction of demons live on the giant tacky plane anyway?"

"Around three-quarters are on or around it. There's some other landmasses, but this one's been around forever and it's pretty much the best game going."

"I wonder who decided Hell needed a gigantic plane of gold. It's not really a good substrate for a civilization. I guess you can put whatever on top of it."

"We have absolutely no idea, but feel free to curse their name for their role in the spread of demonic tackiness. I would've made the world out of a great sphere of multicolored corundum, myself. Much more tasteful."