Thinking about it more, I don't see how a city population can be 800K if it is only relying on what resources can be found within city limits. There's a reason cities of antiquity weren't all that populous. There needs to be a system for bringing water and food (and medicine and fuel and clothing) in, and taking trash and poop out. But--thinking of reasons for this--if the demons need to keep humans alive for their prophecy or whatever, there's no reason to break down the country's infrastructure if it'll make them all starve or poison each other. So I don't see the whole serfdom thing working (on a macro scale). I'm gonna talk this out and correct me if there seem to be too many weird jumps:
+ There's gotta be some 'government,' in charge of maintaining major services for the city (sewer, water, electricity (such as it is), health???), and maintaining transport/communications with the rest of the country (mail, telegraph? phone?). We know this has happened because the city still has a population too large to be organized on a community level. (Question: was this a large city that's lost much of its population? or a smaller one that's swelled as the strength of the church/destruction of other urban areas has drawn many refugees from other locations?)
+ Personally, I like the idea of Vichy France-type puppet government that in theory gives humans all the power they ever had!! but in practice can only do what the demon leadership allows. They do stuff like provide food rations (grain/meat/beans grown outside of Gehenna--it is never quite enough), manage trash collection and sewers (collection days are spotty and certain areas always smell bad), and keep a police force (ineffective when not corrupt). Oh, and like, providing job licenses or travel permissions, maybe? Distributing some required medicines? (blood pressure, insulin, etc) Schools for reeducation??? Either way, they are understaffed and underpaid and disrespected by demons and humans alike. Some government staff just wants! to make a difference! even if it's this small!! but corruption is rampant. But they are helpful enough (and supported by demons enough) that generally no one is trying to overthrow them.
+ As electricity seems to have been supplanted by technomancy provided by the demons (Pandaemonium), it would stand to reason that demons are in charge of these services. Uncertain what else is done in Pandaemonium (is there an Internet analogue? Do they have something like cellular networks for communicating with others? Do they sell these technologies to rich humans or just to other demons?) -> (Related: do demons need clean water or air? Food? What is their main way of communication with other cities? Do they need anything 'human'? If so they would probably be in charge of its distribution to ensure they had most of it)
+ Whatever humans WANT but demons don't judge they absolutely NEED will be provided by other human groups. Just throwing out some world-building nuggets, I'd say the Church, the mob (have all gangs banded together? or are there a few? uneasy alliance?), a few rich human dynasties have probably maintained enough power to have other humans affiliate with them. This is probably on a more neighborhood basis--local urban farms to supplement the rations, local schools? Childcare? Help with clothing & shelter? Free or cheap transportation options? Neighborhood watch/protection and probably volunteer fire brigade would go here. Regular folk would flock to these more powerful groups to protect themselves from demon raids and disease. --> (Perhaps there are demonic 'Save the Human' interest groups that are attempting to help place humans into their 'native habitats', etc???)
+ probably also some 'freedom-fighter' guerrilla groups who want to take back our planet!! from demons and don't believe the Church's defensive-only stance is good enough!! So, terrorists who may steal from the rich and give to the poor, or may just attack demons because they're there
okay that's probably enough for one comment; ugh i just like working out this sort of thing
You're correct, there is some infastructure, because the demons don't want or need everyone dead, and if the city stops working it makes life harder on them. Not to mention hell has a really fairly strict government, because that's the only way to make Hell work, and they brought over a lot of that with them, and they don't really care about some human concerns, so humans are allowed to deal with certain matters on their own, but basically have no choice but to bow to demonic interests, when the demons take an interest. So the sewer system continues to be maintained, because fucking no one wants that to be disrupted. Even the plague-bringers, that shit is nasty. Electricity has been covered, it's provided by Pandaemonium, but spotty in areas the demons don't care about or aren't really on the grid: so downtown, Pandaemonium, Judecca all are firmly on the grid. Silverside is iffy, the lines go down there a lot, think like. California during Enron. Same for Antenora, though there it's because of the confusion of battle royale versus paying for utilities. Viath and Fell's do not have electricity, Viath being basically a bunch of squatters, and Fell being wild. Amabilis does not due to demonic power not working there, so they're reliant on doing things like artificial distillation the old fashioned way. The church is really heavy on the virtues of self-reliance right now, to try and promote this. Amabilis and Silverside have a lot of urban/vertical farming efforts, due to the fact they're sort of on the edge of the social safety net. Some people still go to Viath and Fell's to hunt or fish, but that's considered risky for. obvious. reasons... uh, pets are rare because yes, people will eat them. Still, the situation is not nearly as dire as it was, since Gehenna's had six years to work its shit out. The fact demon presence is strong enough to crush any rebellion easily honestly helped, some areas with lesser presence still have yet to organize because they're too busy trying to push the invaders out.
Gehenna is a large city that has lost a sizable chunk of it's population, and had the old population supplanted with demonic inhabitants.
There is no internet analogue and nothing like a celluar network, since digital technology doesn't work, and there's no real advantage to transgressors to go make CELLPHONES FOR EVERYONE!! also this OOCly spares me the pain of figuring out an internet or cellphone system. so yes, no. But Pandaemonium is more or less the center of services-- I won't say center of power, since Gehenna is still very steeped in Hell's hierarchy and politics, and transgressors aren't going to do anything that goes against the wishes of Judecca's finest. But generally, the demonic Princes don't really care about the day to day running of the city, so they leave them to it.
uh I know I missed stuff, ask things I missed clarification on.
So wait, I'm kind of confused: what does Pandaemonium do other than demon electricity?
How do they communicate with other parts of Earth? With Hell?
(I assume humans have gone back to telegraphs(?) and hand-written correspondence--personal couriers, carrier pigeons/hawks/whatever bird, pony express...etc. lots of stolen packages. lots of people writing in code to keep their personal letters from being read. Reliable and quick couriers can probably command a sizable fee...)
Pandaemonium is taking care of maintainence of clean water, sewer system, burnable trash, medicine (since like, medicines do need to be synthesized and I assume it's. difficult to make and store some of the more modern medicines without modern technology). That it's a central area for all those things makes it convenient for the seat of human power to be relocated there, so all these things can be administrated from the same area, and still be under demon surveillance. So not all of it is a direct result of Pandaemonium technology, but it is just the general seat of governance.
Also yeah that sounds right for the humans. WORKS FOR ME.
DEPENDING ON WHERE ON EARTH?? Demons probably can discorporate and go to hell directly to communicate. There's probably messenger demons that do that, taking letters or whatever. Failing that, possibly they have cursed objects that have a direct line to hell open, mirrors that reflect what another mirror in hell shows, ect.
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Re: ABOUT HUMANS
+ There's gotta be some 'government,' in charge of maintaining major services for the city (sewer, water, electricity (such as it is), health???), and maintaining transport/communications with the rest of the country (mail, telegraph? phone?). We know this has happened because the city still has a population too large to be organized on a community level. (Question: was this a large city that's lost much of its population? or a smaller one that's swelled as the strength of the church/destruction of other urban areas has drawn many refugees from other locations?)
+ Personally, I like the idea of Vichy France-type puppet government that in theory gives humans all the power they ever had!! but in practice can only do what the demon leadership allows. They do stuff like provide food rations (grain/meat/beans grown outside of Gehenna--it is never quite enough), manage trash collection and sewers (collection days are spotty and certain areas always smell bad), and keep a police force (ineffective when not corrupt). Oh, and like, providing job licenses or travel permissions, maybe? Distributing some required medicines? (blood pressure, insulin, etc) Schools for reeducation??? Either way, they are understaffed and underpaid and disrespected by demons and humans alike. Some government staff just wants! to make a difference! even if it's this small!! but corruption is rampant. But they are helpful enough (and supported by demons enough) that generally no one is trying to overthrow them.
+ As electricity seems to have been supplanted by technomancy provided by the demons (Pandaemonium), it would stand to reason that demons are in charge of these services. Uncertain what else is done in Pandaemonium (is there an Internet analogue? Do they have something like cellular networks for communicating with others? Do they sell these technologies to rich humans or just to other demons?)
-> (Related: do demons need clean water or air? Food? What is their main way of communication with other cities? Do they need anything 'human'? If so they would probably be in charge of its distribution to ensure they had most of it)
+ Whatever humans WANT but demons don't judge they absolutely NEED will be provided by other human groups. Just throwing out some world-building nuggets, I'd say the Church, the mob (have all gangs banded together? or are there a few? uneasy alliance?), a few rich human dynasties have probably maintained enough power to have other humans affiliate with them. This is probably on a more neighborhood basis--local urban farms to supplement the rations, local schools? Childcare? Help with clothing & shelter? Free or cheap transportation options? Neighborhood watch/protection and probably volunteer fire brigade would go here. Regular folk would flock to these more powerful groups to protect themselves from demon raids and disease.
--> (Perhaps there are demonic 'Save the Human' interest groups that are attempting to help place humans into their 'native habitats', etc???)
+ probably also some 'freedom-fighter' guerrilla groups who want to take back our planet!! from demons and don't believe the Church's defensive-only stance is good enough!! So, terrorists who may steal from the rich and give to the poor, or may just attack demons because they're there
okay that's probably enough for one comment; ugh i just like working out this sort of thing
Re: ABOUT HUMANS
Gehenna is a large city that has lost a sizable chunk of it's population, and had the old population supplanted with demonic inhabitants.
There is no internet analogue and nothing like a celluar network, since digital technology doesn't work, and there's no real advantage to transgressors to go make CELLPHONES FOR EVERYONE!! also this OOCly spares me the pain of figuring out an internet or cellphone system. so yes, no. But Pandaemonium is more or less the center of services-- I won't say center of power, since Gehenna is still very steeped in Hell's hierarchy and politics, and transgressors aren't going to do anything that goes against the wishes of Judecca's finest. But generally, the demonic Princes don't really care about the day to day running of the city, so they leave them to it.
uh I know I missed stuff, ask things I missed clarification on.
Re: ABOUT HUMANS
How do they communicate with other parts of Earth? With Hell?
(I assume humans have gone back to telegraphs(?) and hand-written correspondence--personal couriers, carrier pigeons/hawks/whatever bird, pony express...etc. lots of stolen packages. lots of people writing in code to keep their personal letters from being read. Reliable and quick couriers can probably command a sizable fee...)
Re: ABOUT HUMANS
Also yeah that sounds right for the humans. WORKS FOR ME.
DEPENDING ON WHERE ON EARTH?? Demons probably can discorporate and go to hell directly to communicate. There's probably messenger demons that do that, taking letters or whatever. Failing that, possibly they have cursed objects that have a direct line to hell open, mirrors that reflect what another mirror in hell shows, ect.