However, Calder depicts so many atrocities perpetrated by both humans and Malignos that no obvious moral imperative stands out. Further, as is revealed in the course of the quest, the Malignos are fueled by instincts bred in a violent universe of ecstatic beauty. These impulses have in turn been perverted by contact with this universe. The beauty is mostly lost and all that is left is a vicious brutality bereft of the context that gave it purpose and meaning. The world is filled with decaying human and Perverse technology that no one understands.
Humanity keeps slaves made of other humans infected by the same poison as Gala.
Malignos matrons keep human boy-toys to amuse themselves. Swarms of youthful cannibal Malignos terrorize the underworld by assaulting and eating Malignos and humans alike. Laws of science have been twisted out of shape, allowing Perverse technology to maintain an underworld resplendent with mythic archetypes and primal fears. Pike's vain machismo involves constantly having to fix his make-up and mascara. The usually ignored phallic implications of featuring a sword-wielding protagonist are, in Malignos , laid bare, ridiculed, deconstructed and perversely genderbendered.