The Devil's Details | Ep. 1

Speaker 1 Rusty Quill presents

Speaker 2 Good evening, gentlemen and gentle ladies of hell.

Speaker 3 First and foremost, thank you for tuning in. Your support keeps the flames of the gentleman from hell burning bright.

Speaker 4 If you're enjoying your descent into the infernal depths of our world and want to dive even deeper, consider supporting us on Patreon.

Speaker 4 There, you'll unlock exclusive content, including original art from Mark Angelon, housed in the legendary Gallery of the Damned, deep lore and world-building treasures within the memorabilia of the House of Sparrows, and coming soon, the Testimonies of the Damned, a Patreon-exclusive audio series that expands the twisted mythology of the gentleman from hell.

Speaker 7 Plus, fans of the wider Meltopia universe will uncover a trove of exclusive lore, audio dramas, artwork, behind-the-scenes videos, and much more. Ready to explore the deeper circles of horror?

Speaker 4 Join us at www.patreon.com forward slash Meltopia And embrace the darkness.

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Speaker 10 Hello, everyone, and thank you very much for taking the time to hear my little spiel.

Speaker 10 Could someone lock those back doors, please? Why are you locking the door, Professor? Let's just say I have my reasons.

Speaker 10 Okay, now that that's taken care of, let's discuss the business at hand, shall we?

Speaker 10 Well, for those of you who are new to the subject, Mephitiga is a system of beliefs that originated in the ancient city of the same name, located in southern Mesopotamia, where modern-day southern Iraq is located.

Speaker 10 Radiocarbon dating of the clay tablets suggests they were inscribed around 2600 BCE, firmly placing them several centuries before the earliest biblical texts.

Speaker 10 The discovered work, dubbed the Mephitican Codex, is a collection of clay tablets written in cuneiform.

Speaker 10 Unlike the typical Sumerian view of the underworld as a gloomy, indifferent realm where all souls simply resided, this Codex introduces a transformative concept, a moral afterlife where the souls of the wicked face eternal containment and punishment.

Speaker 10 At the heart of Mephitica lies a a fundamental claim. Souls, once created, are indestructible.

Speaker 10 This idea suggests that obliteration is not a possible endpoint for any soul, regardless of its moral quality. As such, rather than facing annihilation, evil souls must be managed.

Speaker 10 The concept leads to a sort of cosmic quarantine, a system of isolation of malevolent entities to protect the sanctity of ongoing cycles of life and rebirth.

Speaker 10 According to this text, these malevolent souls are confined within a hellish realm known as Dibasul,

Speaker 10 or more commonly, Dibalon.

Speaker 10 The latter name gained prominence due to its frequent appearance in subsequent texts.

Speaker 10 Rather than more conventional notions of damnation, however, mephitic in hell, Daibalon is referred to as a refined machine, a divine apparatus meticulously engineered to sift out wickedness.

Speaker 10 In this view, Diabolon functions much like a quarantining system in modern science, where pathogens are isolated to prevent the spread of disease.

Speaker 10 Here, the disease is the evil present within a wayward soul, and its containment ensures that it can no longer be spread throughout the continuing cycles of creation and reincarnation.

Speaker 10 There's a lot to take in here at the jump, so I'd like to pause a moment for questions just to make sure we're all on the same page. Anyone?

Speaker 10 Yes, the lady with the long red coat?

Speaker 20 If hell, or Diabolon, is a sort of prison or isolation chamber for the quarantining of evil from the rest of the world,

Speaker 20 what happens if one of these imprisoned souls gets out? How does the escaped evil manifest?

Speaker 10 An excellent question.

Speaker 10 According to the Mephitican narrative, should an evil soul somehow reintegrate into into the cycle of rebirth, its corruption could warp or otherwise damage the existing natural order.

Speaker 10 It can be seen as a consequence of uncontrolled moral toxicity, much like how unchecked cell growth leads to cancer.

Speaker 10 This idea of escaped evil tainting the universe might have been a way for ancient peoples to make sense of famine, disease, violence, and other forms of human suffering and misfortune.

Speaker 10 Yes, you, sir, in the hat.

Speaker 10 Are there any examples of souls actually escaping this containment mechanism?

Speaker 10 Not in the original writings, no. However, there are several other texts that myself and other scholars have identified as part of, or largely derived from, the Mephitican system of belief.

Speaker 10 Within those writings, there are, in fact, several instances of souls escaping containment.

Speaker 10 A well-known example of Mephitica's influence on others' belief systems is the tale of Jesus and the mother from Nabada.

Speaker 10 Once a fixture of early Christian traditions, but later omitted from the biblical canon, this tale tells of a grieving mother who pleaded with Jesus to save her son, falsely condemned for blasphemy.

Speaker 10 Moved by her sorrow, Jesus restored the son to life, freeing him from hell.

Speaker 10 This soul's name, Diolis, suddenly alludes to Dibellon, reinforcing the connection between between Bephidica and early Christianity.

Speaker 10 Now, are there any other questions before we go on?

Speaker 10 Yes, you'll serve. In the corner, go ahead.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I was curious if there's any mention of who made this Diabolon containment device. I was wondering when I get that question.

Speaker 10 A question that brings us to another fascinating aspect of Mephitican cosmology, which is that it does not include an origin story, as it admits of no beginning, which is to say the Daibalon was never built.

Speaker 10 It exists eternally.

Speaker 9 I should be getting paid a lot more for translating one of the biggest finds in the field of neo-esotericism, namely a third book of Mephitica.

Speaker 9 But instead, I'm ghost translating it for an insufferable professor at Thurston University, Professor Byron Gates, the man who replaced Dr. Philip Lochtrum as the school's expert on Mephitica.

Speaker 9 Apparently, Lochtrum dug a little too deep for someone's comfort. Someone who tried to kill him during a conference in Naples.
Accordingly, the university promptly shut down the course.

Speaker 9 It wasn't reinstated until earlier this year, following the discovery of a partial second Mephitican codex.

Speaker 9 The renewed interest in Mephitica not only prompted the university to reinstate the class, but also led to the creation of an entire Mephitican studies department.

Speaker 9 I suppose they chose Gates to head it on the strength of the one book he wrote on the topic. Which,

Speaker 9 incidentally, I also ghost wrote.

Speaker 9 I can't complain too much, though. With the discovery of the new material, I can finally afford groceries.

Speaker 9 Turns out being a clinical introvert with a wealth of knowledge on fringe occult topics isn't quite the lucrative enterprise I once imagined.

Speaker 9 The new codex was apparently leaked to the university, where the higher-ups deemed it genuine. Whoever did the leaking remains a mystery.

Speaker 9 It was handed off to Gates almost immediately, which means it was on my hands about five minutes later.

Speaker 9 From what I can tell, the Codex serves as a kind of retrospective on an ancient city where various Mephitican doctrines were first enshrined, the Ruja Noor.

Speaker 9 It's noticeably clearer and more direct than the original text, suggesting it may have been written by entirely different authors. Or perhaps in an entirely different era.

Speaker 9 I've already translated several passages, mainly those written in the Mesopotamian and regional dialects I know best, and they indicate that Diabolon underwent significant transformations since the first Codex.

Speaker 9 From this newer account, the Diaboli, the damned, who once escaped only sporadically, are now described as having been fully unleashed upon the world. It was they, in fact, who raised Drujenor.

Speaker 9 The departure from the original Codex is vast, and I can practically feel all of the cult academia tremble as I write out the translation in my spidery cursive.

Speaker 9 while I'm reasonably certain of my work, a development of this magnitude requires independent confirmation, and I know just where to acquire it.

Speaker 9 Hey, Mike, have a seat. I won't keep you long.

Speaker 21 Keep me as long as you want, Judith. I haven't left my apartment in days.
I'm always looking for a good excuse to step out. So, what do you got for me?

Speaker 9 Normally, I'd have just texted this over, but it's a little on the hush-hush side.

Speaker 9 What do you make of this?

Speaker 9 Where the hell did you get this?

Speaker 9 Never mind that.

Speaker 9 Does it say what I think it says?

Speaker 21 Well, I'm flat as you think I can verify you work, but we both know it does.

Speaker 9 I just like to make sure all my I's and T's are dotted and crossed.

Speaker 21 Since I'm sure this isn't some joke, God would assume this is legit, right?

Speaker 9 Yep.

Speaker 9 Sure is.

Speaker 21 Christ, you just invalidated about 50% of the speculative we're given predicated on the first codex.

Speaker 9 Me? Hmm. You should know better than that, Mike.
My name will never be associated with any of this.

Speaker 21 You really should step out of the shadows at some point.

Speaker 9 You sound like my therapist. She thinks I could use the money, too.
Probably so I can catch up on a copays.

Speaker 21 Have you ever come across anything that might point to a specific time period? Or even a physical location for this city, to Genore?

Speaker 9 Not much. I've barely scratched the surface so far.
Though a few sections seem to follow regional writing conventions that might offer some clues.

Speaker 9 But when I reached the part suggesting Diablon is now seen less as a prison for evil and more as its source,

Speaker 9 I realized I needed to be absolutely certain about what I was reading before going any further.

Speaker 21 I'd be more interested in the city itself. I'm thinking it could be a precaution to southern Mangmara.

Speaker 9 Not likely. The Epla tablets seem to suggest they were real cities.
And from what I'm seeing, this new manuscript is a lot older than them.

Speaker 21 Jesus, I'm not stupid. I'm talking about the myths surrounding the cities, not the cities themselves.
Anyway, who are you pinches in for now?

Speaker 9 Granger?

Speaker 5 Millis?

Speaker 9 Gates?

Speaker 21 Ah, Jesus, it's Gates, isn't it?

Speaker 11 What an asshole that guy is.

Speaker 21 Is there someone whose head doesn't need to be any fucking beggar, it is? And here you are, older than the bellows.

Speaker 9 Guilty is charged on both counts. As arrogant as he is, he's the easiest to work for.
Most of my big clients want to feel like they had something to do with the work, that it wasn't all me.

Speaker 9 Every time I meet with them to go over my progress, I have to deal with their little suggestions as if they might know better than I do. It's all just to soothe their egos.

Speaker 9 Gates, though, he couldn't care less about intellectual vanity. He's all about fame and money.
I still turn in my notes and reports, but I'm pretty sure he only reads the summaries.

Speaker 9 Just enough to sound like he knows his ass from a hole in the ground whenever he has to talk about it.

Speaker 21 You didn't realize you've got some competition, right?

Speaker 9 Hmm. You mean, of course, the uh, the inimitable Mr.
Coffer Lynch?

Speaker 19 None other.

Speaker 21 He's been working with Caleb and Mother on the monograph on good old Eastland Montgombri with us. You can't stop a fusing about the guy.

Speaker 9 I'll worry about him when he cuts into my bottom line. Until then, I'm content to hear the minstrels sing his praises.

Speaker 21 That's it, eh?

Speaker 9 There's a lot more to translate where that came from. And uh, just make sure you don't let that little cat out of the bag.

Speaker 21 Not sure anyone would believe me if I did. Let me know if you need me to take another look.
I'd love to see where this goes.

Speaker 9 Will do.

Speaker 9 Thanks, Mike.

Speaker 9 Sitting down to translate more of the manuscript felt like venturing through ancient ruins, where every turn promised the discovery of hidden treasures and forgotten histories.

Speaker 9 Only here the labyrinth I wandered was made of tangled, time-worn script.

Speaker 9 The further I plunged into the manuscript, the more I realized the task ahead of me was a lot tougher than I had initially thought.

Speaker 9 Before long, I found myself at a dead stop. One section was written in a way that defied my every attempt at translation.
Six hours later, I realized it was no use and gave up.

Speaker 9 The solution to the roadblock seemed as obvious as it was inevitable. Good thing pride was never a vice of mine.

Speaker 9 Hey, that was quick. Another air shattering revelation, you need double checks.
Uh, not quite.

Speaker 9 I need you to set up a meeting with that new Mephitico Wonderkend.

Speaker 9 Lynch?

Speaker 9 I was until I hit a rough patch. I need a quick turnover if this thing's gonna get out anytime soon.
Figured your guy was my best option. Sure, I can make it happen.

Speaker 9 Can't say what it wants for the pleasure, though. I'm certain we can work something out.

Speaker 9 Any idea how soon? New idea, but I'll try to put a rush on this. Thanks, Mike.
I appreciate it. You got it.

Speaker 9 Mike was a man of his word, getting me a meeting with Lynch the very next night. I was a little taken aback by the location of the guy's place.

Speaker 9 Compared to where Lynch was living, I was staying in the Taj Mahal. His apartment building, located in the least desirable part of the Branson district, appeared ready for demolition, not habitation.

Speaker 9 But I was hardly one to look down my nose at a fellow underachiever.

Speaker 11 Judith Hallway, I presume.

Speaker 9 Yes, and thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I really appreciate it.
Think nothing of it. Come in.

Speaker 11 Please, let me take your coat.

Speaker 11 You know, you're something of a legend in certain circles, the autodidact of Mephitecan literature.

Speaker 11 Thus, I was somewhat starstruck when Mr. Rutherford said you'd ask for my assistance.

Speaker 9 The feeling's mutual. I've heard quite a bit about you, especially since you've been collaborating with Cahill and Mueller on a new book about Withers.

Speaker 11 What more there is to tell about Mr. Withers, I don't know, but they pay well, so

Speaker 9 trust me, I completely understand.

Speaker 9 Well, let's retire to the living room, shall we? Certainly,

Speaker 11 please have a seat. Coffee, tea?

Speaker 9 Coffee, please.

Speaker 11 Mr. Rutherford seemed rather tight-lipped considering the details of your work.

Speaker 11 Is this a private work of yours, or are you on the clock, so to speak?

Speaker 9 For a client, yes. I was hoping you could make more sense out of this than I've been able to.

Speaker 11 Well, it's been some time since I was handed translations written upon honest-to-goodness paper

Speaker 9 and in such lovely cursive notice.

Speaker 9 I find that certain conventions, like laptops, sour the pursuit, if that makes any sense.

Speaker 11 Intimately, in fact.

Speaker 9 Huh.

Speaker 11 The city of Druze Noor.

Speaker 9 You've heard of it.

Speaker 11 Well, not exactly. Are you familiar by chance with any of Miracle Lordland's works?

Speaker 9 Lordland?

Speaker 9 No, I can't say I am.

Speaker 11 He was a poet, contemporary to Milton, and by some accounts, even his rival. A writer of considerable dark notoriety, though spoken of only in certain rather

Speaker 9 heretical circles.

Speaker 9 Forbidden?

Speaker 11 Yes, he was something of a lunatic, drawing upon his darkest, the most fevered visions to inform his creations,

Speaker 9 primarily about hell.

Speaker 11 Most reputable publications banned his work altogether.

Speaker 9 I see.

Speaker 9 But what does any of that have to do with Druja Nor?

Speaker 11 Lordwyn wrote a poem called the Druja Nan. It was about a construct of pure evil.
A city carved from blackest sin, risen from hell and inhabited by demons.

Speaker 9 Kind of hits the nail on the shoulder, not the head, doesn't it?

Speaker 11 In fact, I have a copy of his most important work right here in my library. Give me a moment and I'll fish it out.

Speaker 9 Lynch was an odd duck, that was for sure. And his place looked like the digs of a hermit.
But beyond that, there was something else that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Speaker 9 He sort of reminded me of the very manuscript I'd come to talk to him about. At least, in that he required some translating before I could really get a beat on him.

Speaker 9 But one thing,

Speaker 9 or several things, stood out to me almost immediately after he left. He wasn't nearly as poor as he let on.

Speaker 9 From my singular vantage in his sitting room, I could see a small museum's worth of Mephitican relics, none of which were displayed in a way that extolled their true value, instead, just tucked into corners, leaning against walls.

Speaker 9 Most surprising of what I could see was the Frisillus fragment, one of the first reliable and complete images of Giel, the lord of the left-handed.

Speaker 9 It was framed in dirty, cracked glass, lying atop a pile of bundled newspapers. The thing was worth a fortune.

Speaker 9 I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mueller and Cahill had missed it, assuming Lynch hosted their collaborations here.

Speaker 9 They couldn't tell a genuine Mephitica from a knockoff, even if the fake had a maid-in-China sticker slapped across it.

Speaker 11 Sorry that took so long. I'm afraid my research library has grown over large and cumbersome as of late.
But here it is, by the old lights, by the late, great Merrick Lordlin.

Speaker 11 Let's see.

Speaker 9 Ah, yes, here it is.

Speaker 11 The Drujanan.

Speaker 11 By breathless power, the city rose, a seed seed of sin that split the stone, and from its wound came tales unsold, a kingdom built on marrow and bone.

Speaker 11 Its towers curl like tongues of flame, each whispering ruin a sin proclaimed. The streets washed in shadows red, for its time is long, its hour foresaid.

Speaker 11 A burning black flower in endless bloom, drinking lights, exhaling gloom. Its petals reek of open grave, its roots fed by damned enslave.

Speaker 11 No heaven's gaze disputes its spires, no winged messengers, no saintly liars. Here the soul is solid, a rotten thing, and vice is crowned eternal king.

Speaker 11 So stands the Druzhanan in sable grace, a dream unbirthed, a curse replaced. The earth recoils our maker forlorn, yet it still blossoms through the scorn.

Speaker 9 Well, it certainly sounds the part.

Speaker 9 I can't help but wonder if Lordland got a hold of some version of what I'm working on now.

Speaker 11 I take it then that you don't credit him with any sort of

Speaker 11 intuition.

Speaker 9 You mean like some kind of vision from the ether?

Speaker 9 Um, no.

Speaker 9 Thrujin Nor might not even be a real place. Just a story that serves some kind of point or another.

Speaker 9 Fair enough.

Speaker 11 Well, I suppose we should get down to work then.

Speaker 9 It had been a long night, but it was worth it. Between the two of us, we worked through a good chunk of the section that had been giving giving me trouble.

Speaker 9 Unfortunately, it also meant I'd be splitting my gains with Lynch, even though he never expressly mentioned any kind of compensation.

Speaker 9 Maybe he wasn't in it for the money.

Speaker 9 After all, judging from the stuff he'd crammed into his dirty apartment, I could see why.

Speaker 9 As for the man himself, he was certainly an accomplished scholar of Mephitica. But there was something about him.

Speaker 9 The way he lingered over the pages, as if he were looking through a window, sorting through sights rather than words.

Speaker 9 All that aside, the night had been exhausting, and I had more important mysteries to ponder in the morning. So, giving no more thought to filthy rich recluses,

Speaker 9 I headed to bed.

Speaker 9 What the?

Speaker 9 Where

Speaker 9 am I?

Speaker 9 For God's sakes, what is happening

Speaker 9 when I opened the window? The world outside struck me like a fist,

Speaker 9 one filled with the howling voices of madness. From the black expanse beyond rose a city chiseled from shadow and nightmare, its towers trembling beneath the chorus of hideous, inhuman exhalations.

Speaker 9 The air pulsed with shrieks and roars that seemed to glorify some evil,

Speaker 9 each sound scraping at my mind like claws.

Speaker 9 No star shone above, only a sky that had never known light, vibrating with the monstrous hymns of things things too vile to imagine.

Speaker 9 The noise filled the room, which was little more than a narrow, filthy tunnel of rough black stone. Instinctively, I stumbled back from the window and fled towards the door on the far side.

Speaker 9 The darkness on the other side of the door seemed to breathe. Even Twitch, at the touch of my hand where I stuck it out to guide my way from the room, I could actually feel it.

Speaker 9 A sort of gossamer texture, like braids of cobweb being drawn across my skin. I had no idea where to go.
I just dumbly pushed forward, hoping for some sign of an exit.

Speaker 9 Anything that would let me run away from wherever the hell I was. While I didn't see anything, I did hear something.

Speaker 9 Like a primitive orchestra. Strings and drums and flutes, and something like singing.
A wretched sound I hoped wasn't coming from living vocal cords.

Speaker 9 There was a faint bloom to the darkness in front of me, like a dying bulb smothered beneath layers of black silk.

Speaker 9 Slowly, stumbling ahead, desperate for even a sliver of good, clean light, I came upon a vast chamber, an amphitheater.

Speaker 9 Spread across the chamber were long, black benches, every inch of them occupied by loathsome, misshapen figures. Monsters, whose twisted bodies barely resembled anything human.

Speaker 9 All of them aimed inhuman eyes upon a vast gaping hole in the distant stone wall, as though waiting for a performance to begin.

Speaker 9 A deathly hush fell over the grotesque assembly as something stirred within the yawning void. Then came the stench, thick and vile.

Speaker 9 A choking mixture of brimstone and rot that clawed at the back of my throat. I nearly screamed when a colossal head emerged from the darkness, filling the hole entirely.

Speaker 9 The aperture must have been a thousand feet across, if it was an inch. The thing's face was roughly human in shape, yet twisted with abominable distortions.

Speaker 9 Horn-like, gnarled tree branches of bone jutted outward, scraping against the stone as it pushed itself into view.

Speaker 9 It parted its mouth to speak, a wet garden of teeth glistening in the weak light.

Speaker 9 just a nightmare.

Speaker 9 Oh, God.

Speaker 9 What the fuck?

Speaker 9 Hold on, I'm coming

Speaker 9 Um

Speaker 9 Uh

Speaker 9 who's there?

Speaker 9 I'm not opening the door until you answer me.

Speaker 9 What the hell is this?

Speaker 9 Rock

Speaker 9 I raised the thing to the light and turned it over in my hands.

Speaker 9 It was no common rock. It was a chunk of dark, lusterless stone.
The same dark stone from which the city in my dreams had been carved.

Speaker 2 The Devil's Details is a Maltopia production. It was written by Mark Anzalone and performed by Gina Smith, Lou Sutcliffe, and Trenton Butt.

Speaker 2 Sound editing was completed by Stephen Anzalone, and script editing was conducted by Walker Kornfeld.

Speaker 8 Be sure to rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. And follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Meltopia.

Speaker 8 If you want unique art and animations of Meltopia's stories, visit our YouTube page or click on the link in the show notes.

Speaker 8 And for more exclusive content, such as additional lore, stories, and art, be sure to check out our Patreon at www.patreon.com forward slash Meltopia.

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Speaker 17 Please play responsibly.

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Speaker 13 Hi folks, it's Mark Bittman from the podcast, podcast Food with Mark Bittman.

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