Deadworld

Even before its transformation, the parallel Earth thereafter known as Deadworld was an extremely unpleasant place. In appearance it was a reasonable facsimile of late twentieth-century Earth (the architecture and technology, for example), apart from the toothed 'birds' that looked uncannily like the avian fossil archaeopteryx. However, it was a much more brutal and callous place than probably any modern Earth country has ever been, barring one or two draconian dictatorships. Life was cheaper than pick 'n' mix, with Judges (educated at a Law School that resembled a fee-paying English school such as Eton, except that it had its own torture lab) empowered to execute citizens at their discretion. Their recruiting poster read as follows:

JOIN THE JUDGES

• Beat people up

• Kill anyone you like (within reason)

• Good rates of pay

• Plenty of graft

• Vicious nature a plus

• LUNCHEON VOUCHERS

In a world like this, it is hardly surprising that the father of an ambitious juvenile psychopath called Sidney was able to get away with torturing patients in a mobile dentist's clinic for so long. People who did not delight in pain and death did exist, but they were definitely in the minority. However, even the Judges were taken aback when young Sidney joined their ranks and decided to execute people who had committed the most minor of misdemeanours. Consumed with missionary zeal, the warped product of his environment and his sadistic father, Sidney adopted the name Judge Death and had himself and his three disciples transformed into the living dead by a couple of witches. Judge Death became Chief Judge by the time-honoured method of killing his predecessor, declared life to be a crime and systematically slaughtered the entire population of his planet, which he renamed 'Deadworld'. The Judges assisted in the genocide and its logistical challenges (see accompanying picture by Greg Staples) before being wiped out themselves. It is arguable that Judge Death was right to see his actions as essentially altruistic: all he did was to give Deadworld the consummation which it had been craving all along.