Healing Blitzo

Parliament

By all the stars in Heaven, Hell, and Earth, how much longer am I going to be here? Stolas thought to himself as he rested his head against his arms. For the past three hours, he had been sitting in Hell's Parliament for an emergency meeting requested by the Wraith and Greed Party members who wanted a matter settled right now of all times. And I was going to visit Blitzy with everyone else today.

Usually, Stolas let his Family Delegate stand in for him during regular Parliament discussions, but when one of the higher-ranking members requested you to join, there was no choice. It wasn't like he wanted to be part of this anyway, but seeing as he was one of the few who cared about the demons under his dominion, he felt he had no choice but to become part of Parliament.

If you were to ask most humans what they thought the government of Heaven and Hell was like, they would just assume that God and Satan were the supreme rulers, and, for the most part, that was true save for a few things. Most humans believed Satan and Lucifer were the same beings, but in truth, they were separate. Satan was the first demon to be born in Hell, made from all the negative energies during creation. It was Satan who first ruled and controlled all the demons into a united kingdom and went to war against Heaven until his defeat.

His body was used to create the nine rings of Hell with his heart said to be somewhere deep in the ninth circle that nobody has managed to find to this day. Yet despite his somewhat demise, it was believed he still lived, and so many demons praised him even now as their deity, hoping he had some way to help his former subjects. After his defeat, the Goetia Demons and other Overlords began to fight for power and control until Lucifer and the Fallen, having failed in their Great Rebellion, arrived and took control with their great power in what was known as The Demon War.

Since then, Lucifer was referred to as the King-Emperor of Hell, while others held other titles that made up the nobility or high positions of power. Yet, as time went on, Hell became even too much for Lucifer to rule on his own, and so he created a body of government to help him oversee things while still keeping the complete authority he held.

There were three branches of Hell's Parliament: The Ring Lords, The House of Nobles, and The Representatives of Hellborn and Sinners.

The first was the most influential and powerful among all the demons. Each ring of Hell was ruled by a Ring Lord, someone that Lucifer himself trusted to oversee things in his name save for the Ring of Pride which he declared his own territory to rule entirely over. There was Asmodeus The Ring Lord of Lust, Beelzebub The Ring Lord of Gluttony, Mammon The Ring Lord of Greed, Belphegor The Ring Lord of Sloth, Leviathan The Ring Lord of Heresy, Belberith The Ring Lord of Wraith, Mephisto The Ring Lord of Lies, and finally Samael, the Ring Lord of Treachery. Each of the eight was also members of the "Inner Council'' that answered to Lucifer only and were essential to establishing his control over Hell. Out of all three branches, they had the most voting power behind each of their votes despite nine members. They each also made the nine political parties each named after their respective circles.

The second branch was The House of Nobles, which was the branch that Stolas was part of. Despite no longer being in absolute power, the Goetia Demons were still powerful and influential in their own right, having traced their demonic origins to the start of Hell and under the rulership of Satan. While there were many Goetia Demon families, nine representatives were selected among all seven ranks to represent that rank via voting every five hundred years, making their total number sixty-two. Typically, the Goetia Demons were split between Royalists, Parliamentarians, and Neutrals. The first was more loyal and bending to Lucifer and his rule, the second wanted more power split evenly among Hell's nobles, and the last ones took no sides but their own. Stolas himself often considered himself a bit of a Royalist but also Neutral. He was willing to do what was necessary for the good of Hell's Population, but he wasn't ready to sacrifice his own family or lands for it.