Blurkon, Hell, Infernum, Kex, Mrk, Nork, Quardex, Tahk, Vim

The alien worlds of the Demonic Empire and the aliens that inhabit them are major parts of the Hell Hole books. These alien worlds are connected by portals, an advanced alien technology based on wormholes that enable near-instantaneous travel between them.

Blurkon

The Demonic Empire conquered Blurkon, the homeworld of the blurks, tens of thousands of years ago. Interstellar portals connect Blurkon to Infernum, Hell, and several other inhabited worlds. Like Hell, Blurkon circles an orange dwarf star. Being nearly the same size and mass as Earth, Blurkon and Earth have roughly the same gravity. Blurkon is a water planet with three small continents and hundreds of lesser islands and atolls scattered across its vast oceans. Blurkon’s landmasses primarily lie along its equator, resulting in warm and wet climates dominated by tropical rainforests.

Blurks

Devils classify most blurks as food. Those that are classified as slaves are primarily used as manual laborers. A very small number of blurks are used as gladiators. Blurks can be formidable fighters due to their aggressive nature, great strength, and ability to wield up to four weapons at once.

Blurks have egg-shaped heads that are wider in the front and narrower in the back. Blurks have four round compound eyes (two large ones in front and two smaller ones on either side) that provide excellent primary and peripheral vision. They wear their slave rings around their necks. Blurks are herbivores that have evolved large parrot-like beaks to eat a diet of tough, wood-like vegetation.

Standing five feet high, they have a flattened, pear-shaped body. Blurks have four heavily-muscled arms (left and right, upper and lower) with four fingers on each hand, and they stand on four short elephantine legs with four “toes” on each foot. An iridescent-blue exoskeleton protects their spines, while numerous bony disks embedded in their thick purple skin protect the lower third of their bodies.

Blurk blood is blue due to using hemocyanin (copper) rather the hemoglobin (iron) to carry oxygen.

Hell

The Demonic Empire colonized the uninhabited planet Hell several thousand years ago. Hell is connected via portal to Earth, Mrk, Nork, and Kex. Because Hell is the nearest demon-occupied planet to Earth and the planet from which the demons’ invasion originates.

Hell is a hot, largely desert planet that circles an ancient orange dwarf star. Because its star is relatively-cool, Hell circles much closer to its star than Earth does to the Sun, and the orange dwarf appears three times larger than the sun in the sky. Radioactive elements in the planet’s larger core generate a great deal of heat, resulting in large numbers of volcanoes and significant sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere. This gives rise to the stench of brimstone associated with both demons and Hell.

Hell is populated by demons and their slaves (primarily blurks, humans, mrkl, norg, and kextuxixes).

Krugahs

Krugahs are semi-domesticated herbivores native to Hell that are raised as a source of meat for ogres, trolls, and norg administrators. To forage sufficient food under Hell’s semi-desert conditions, the farm’s herd of krugahs was scattered across tens of square miles. Some of the small, widely-scattered groups of krugahs consist of a bull, several cows, and their juvenile offspring, while others consist of immature bulls not yet strong enough to have their own harems.

Roughly the size of hippos, krugahs’ barrel-shaped bodies are dark gray, covered in large white spots, and supported by six stubby legs. A krugah’s head has small ears and an arc of eight pale green, compound eyes, two large ones in the middle and three small ones on either side. Their mouths are surrounded by eight finger-length tentacles at the end of a long elephantine trunk. They feed by sweeping their tube-mouths back and forth across the ground like vacuum cleaners sucking up small, purple, ball-shaped succulents.

Infernum

Infernum is the homeworld of the demons (e.g., the devil and the hellhound above) and the political center of their empire. Infernum is a “giant Earth” with roughly 20% more gravity. Because of the higher gravity, demons are innately hypermuscular compared with humans and terrestrial animals.

Demons

There are many different species of high demons (intelligent humanoids) and low demons (beasts). For more information about demons, click here.

Kex

The Demonic Empire conquered Kex, the homeworld of the kextuxixes, approximately 700 years ago. Interstellar portals connect the planet to Infernum, Mrk, Nork, and several other inhabited worlds. Kex circles a yellow dwarf star that is similar to Earth’s sun. Being nearly the same size and mass as Earth, Kex and Earth have roughly the same gravity. Kex has three major land-locked seas scattered across its single vast continent. Kex is an arid world with numerous deserts and dry savannas.

Kextuxixes

The kextuxix are the only intelligent species of Kex. Devils classify most kextuxixes as food. Those they classify as slaves are primarily used as manual laborers. Devils choose a tiny number of kextuxixes for gladiatorial combat in their coliseums. Because female kextuxixes are larger and more aggressive than males, all kextuxix gladiators are females.

Their gray, seven-foot-tall, bulbous bodies are roughly egg-shaped and covered with large, pointed, snake-like scales. Their scales give them a vaguely reptilian appearance.

The kextuxixes’ six independently movable, chameleon-like eyes ring their squat, cylindrical heads, providing them with a 360-degree field of vision. Kextuxixes can fling their long tongues several feet out of their broad, frog-like mouths. But unlike frogs, their tongues are tipped with a stinger that injects a neurotoxin that paralyzes the muscles. Kextuxixes have both sharp and flat teeth, marking them as omnivores eating both meat and plants.

Kextuxix anatomy favors the number three. They have three arms: muscular, normal-length, left and right arms and a shorter, third arm that extended from the center of their chests. Each one ends in a three-fingered hand. Similarly, they have three legs: a left and right leg in front and a single, central leg in back. Kextuxixes walk on their front two legs with their hind leg acting as a tail to counter-balance their forward-leaning bodies. When they stop, they tend to lean back on their hind leg as though sitting on a three-legged stool. By leaning back, they can kick out their front feet tipped with three wicked, raptor-like talons. By kicking off with their hind leg, they can spring forward like a kangaroo.

Kextuxix blood is green because of the high concentration of the green bile pigment biliverdin in the blood.

Mrk

The Demonic Empire conquered Mrk, the homeworld of the mrkl (pronounced as mer-kull), over 3000 years ago. A tropical world of large lakes and lush rain forests, Mrk is connected via portal to Infernum, Kex, Nork, and other conquered worlds. Smaller than Earth, Mrk has less gravity, which explains the mrkls’ slight build.

Mrkl

The mrkl are the highly intelligent species of the demon-conquered world, Mrk. They are small, gray, hairless humanoids with large, black, almond-shaped eyes and very narrow mouths and jaws. Standing between four and five feet tall, they have a very slender build with relatively weak arms and legs. Each hand has two thumbs and five fingers. Mrkl are primarily vegetarians.

Mrkl tend to be friendly and subservient. Their personality makes them prized across the demon empire as personal slaves suited for light duties such as cooking, serving food, washing laundry, and house cleaning. Because they are hermaphrodites with neither external sex organs nor secondary sexual characteristics, they are referred to using the pronouns “they,” “their,” and “them.”

Nork

The Demonic Empire conquered Nork, the homeworld of the norg, approximately 3,500 years ago. Interstellar portals connect the planet to Infernum, Blurkon, Hell, Kex, Mrk, and several other inhabited worlds. Nork circles an orange dwarf star that is similar to Hell’s sun. Being a little smaller and less massive than Earth, Nork has weaker gravity and a somewhat thinner atmosphere. Nork is a flat world with no mountains and only shallow seas. Because it is a desert world subject to frequent sand storms, the norg – like most of its large animals – have evolved protective shells and scales.

Norgs

The norg are an intelligent species often used on Hell as administrators of farms, factories, and businesses.

Norgs look a bit like giant metallic scorpions, except their bodies and tails are smooth instead of segmented. Instead of a poisonous stinger, the triangular end of their tails is used as a spike for impaling both predators and prey. Norgs stand on four, rear-angled legs ending in three-toed, clawed feet. Each norg also has two arms ending in three finger-sized pincers. Hundreds of shiny, thumb-sized, triangular scales covered the creature’s hard shell like a suit of armor made of metallic mirrors.

Norgs have two large black expressionless eyes above a wide mouth filled with dozens of needle-shaped teeth. Not having a forehead, a norg’s slave identification number is stamped on a rectangular metal plate riveted to the top of its sloping head.

Norgs reproduce asexually so that individual norg are referred to with the pronouns: it and its.

Quardex (a.k.a., Trapist-1e)

Quardex is one of the many worlds that the demons have colonized. Slightly smaller than Earth, Quardex orbits its red dwarf star every six days.

Gorgokons

Gorgokons are the armored apex predators of Quardex. A gorgokon is twenty-six feet long from the tips of its tentacles to the end of its whip-like tail. A gorgokon’s circular mouth is surrounded by eight eyes and eight muscular, six-feet-long tentacles. A gorgokon can charge short distances on its six stout legs, and the four spikes on its whip-like tail are a deadly defense. Gorgokons are imported to Hell for gladiatorial hunts.

Tahk

Tahk is one of the many worlds that the demons have conquered.

Tahku

The tahku are the highly intelligent native inhabitants of Tahk. The tahku can be roughly described as centauripedes, a cross between centaurs and giant centipedes. Between six and nine feet in length and approximately one foot in diameter, a tahku’s cylindrical body consists of seven segments, the first of which serves as its head. Each of the tahku’s segments has a pair of gray, highly flexible, and boneless appendages reminiscent of octopus arms (without the suckers) and elephant trunks. The two tiny ones on either side of its circular mouth are used when eating, while the four long slender ones on its vertical second and third segments act as its hands and arms. Finally, the eight short, muscular appendages on its four back horizontal segments serve as its legs. The tahku have a flexible copper-colored carapace covering their backs and sides that acts as armor protecting their soft, greenish-white underbodies.

The Tahku have two independently movable eyes on the ends of flexible, grayish, foot-long eyestalks that see colors ranging from ultraviolet through the infrared. They use a pair of small round drum-like membranes below each lateral eye to both speak and hear, meaning that they cannot do both simultaneously. The speaker-like form of their speech-ears enables the Tahku to speak accent-free Demonic as well as slave languages such as English. Consistent with being strict herbivores, their circular mouth hides an internal set of teeth suitable for grinding hard and fibrous vegetation. Breathing through narrow vents on the side of each segment except for its head, a tahku’s every breath causes its body to swell and shrink like a sausage-shaped balloon.

Because tahku do not have “normal” necks, their slave collars (rings) are partially embedded in the middle of their second segment (i.e., between their two octopoid arms).

Vimbar

Vimbar is a demon-conquered world that is several teleport jumps from Hell.

Vim

The vim are the most intelligent race of aliens in the Demonic Empire. Vim are the only aliens with the knowledge of how to build and maintain the portal system linking the worlds in the empire. Similar to mollusks in that they have neither bones nor external carapace, they can radically change their body shape, enabling them to grow tentacles for manipulating objects, pseudopods for walking, and “mouths” for eating. Unable to speak, they rapidly and expertly change the color of their skin, using different patterns to communicate visually instead of orally. They have numerous eyes that move around their bodies giving them full vision in every direction.