Deadworld

Deadworld is an alternate universe where the Dark Judges .

## History

While it originally resembled a late 20th/early 21st century Earth, it possessed technology on par with that of Dredd 's Earth. Among the various differences between the two universes, ranging from different judges to different names for American states, one of them being called Tuscarora- the biggest difference is that society in Deadworld placed very little emphasis on the value on life. As a result, the inhabitants were sadistic and violent toward one-another.

Dreams were seen as childish and it was considered strange and dirty to continue having them into adulthood. There existed a Dream Elimination Department that took Psis and violently removed their psychic energies.

One of the most popular bands in Deadworld was Skool of Hate, whose members committed mass suicide after 10 years. Television included shows like "My Favorite Car Smash" and "The Banzo Show," which advertised Banzo junk food.

By the 21st century, the United States of this world had emerged from a massive war known as "The Big One." Much of the capital is abandoned due to damage from the war, leaving derelict buildings and overgrown bomb craters, such as those in Sector 17.

The planet was wracked with environmental damage, including violent storms and massive swarms of mutated locusts known as Critters. Particularly large masses of them, known as "Critterswarms," would decimate vast areas of land, with a particularly bad one in 2134. Crops had begun to fail due to the extinction of bees and what did grow was often twisted and mutated.

The Judges of this world came to power as a federal force, armed with J-Wagons, AI Lawriders linked to the "Judgecloud", and heavy firepower. They were even more heavily armed than those on Dredd's Earth and could give out any sentence at their discretion. Part of their training was learning how to torture and kill without remorse, but to also stick to the three "I's:" Inter, Interrogate, and Intel. They advertised graft and violence as a reason to join up, along with free luncheon vouchers.

This drew the attention of a young Sydney De'ath, the son of a travelling dentist and serial killer. After helping his father kill people, Sydney reported him to the Judges in order to sign up. After years of secretly murdering the "wets" in Law School who thought his ideas were sick, he was given a routine day in charge of civil court in Sixth Year. Trainee Judge Sidney gave the death sentence to all twenty seven cases, whatever their plea: when the shocked principal tried to discipline him, De'ath's passionate argument forced him to stand down. After that, the other Trainees called him "Sidney Death".

Upon graduating, the first thing Death did was hunt down and murder his mother and sister.

By this point in time, an anti-Judge resistance movement had formed.

Death's philosophy that only the living cause crimes began to catch on with the other Judges. One of them was Judge Fuego, who was nicknamed Judge Fire after burning down an entire school for breaching noise regulations. Fuego was later sent undercover to join the resistance.

The Judges only dared enter Sector 17 as a group. Two witches, who would later be known as the Sisters of Death, set up shop in a cave system around there and it gained a reputation of being haunted after a series of murders; the water treatment plant was named the "Cavern of Lost Souls" due to the mysterious deaths of over a hundred workers. One of them had been transformed into a creature known as Half-Life, who was a test subject for various diseases. When Death found the sisters, he described it as "love at first sight."

After this encounter, the Judges went on a killing spree, sentencing to people to death for the smallest crimes. People fled the capital while Judge Fire lead the resistance to liberate the Psis being held in the Dream Elimination Department. Death was waiting for them with a judicial squad and slaughtered the resistance and many of the children inside the facility.

The Sisters transformed Death and his closest allies into unkillable zombies, who then went on to kill the Chief Judge and take control themselves.

In the midst of the Dark Judges' genocidal campaign, Superstorm Cassandra hit the Midwestern United States, murderous cults attacked isolated towns, and food riots sprang up in the capital, The Dark Judges also began to use the Sisters' mental powers to 'recruit' new members to their cause. The regular Judges began dragging people from their homes across the capital and taken them to the Dark Judges' new base, a vast twisted monolith, for mass execution. The sun itself was being blotted out by darkness at this point.

Eventually, the Dark Judges succeeded in wiping out most life on their world. However, they were left with little else to do and were gradually consumed with their own fears and personal issues. Sister Despair began experimenting on a few survivors she'd kept until Judge Fire killed her out of jealously for spurning him. Judge Mortis grew a "garden" of fungal mounds and rotting corpses.

Judge Death, fearing that they were becoming too much like the living, organized a cull. Only Death, Judge Fear, Judge Mortis, and Judge Fire were left. They waited in darkness and tried to discover a way to leave Deadworld. As if on cue, a race of dimension-travelling aliens arrived and were imme diately murdered by the Dark Judges. They used their technology to finally leave Deadworld and travel to Mega-City One.