The Fever (La Fiebre) is a pit fiend, called “the biggest devil in Antiterra”: guardian of the zodiacal Platform of Libra, ambassador to an ancient Sigil, and once Prime Minister of England.
| Type | Entity (devil) |
| Refuge | Cairo Museum |
| Spanish entry | La Fiebre |
Origins
“The Fever was already there in the age of the Devils”, when the Devils dwelt in Axis. He is a single entity, unique in rank and older than his offices; the Libra platform is “under British rule”. In Antiterra, human politics and the diabolic hierarchy run through the same creature.
Forms
- Human: a blond French model “looking like a hunk”, in furs around Paris in winter; in Cairo, spreading “his whole robe, red”.
- True form: a huge red devil, far taller than a man, with a giant claw, terrible muscles and a pointed tail.
- Copies: on transforming, five more Fevers appear, “identical to the guy” but not mirror images: “each moves at different moments”.
- Fish form: all the Fevers can transform into it together.
Companies have fought him; he is not invulnerable, only sixfold.
Contracts
He is “the baleful guardian who had made you sign for your souls”, keeping the contracts and governing the signers. He held Oratiol’s contract and controlled him; the same passage calls this figure Lotario and links him to a well spirit. Contracts he had signed are blamed for “the death of 69 young girls”. He can imbue the weapons of some allies with his power and essence — “four, to be exact”.
The museum
He fled to the empty Cairo Museum, where he is “a greater evil presence” with lesser ones, and with Jacques one of its “first two” guardians. He was the Frenchman “who began a series of depredations against the Egyptians and took the pieces to build this museum”.
Conflicting accounts
- He is the guardian, as the Libra and museum records name him.
- He is “the guardian’s puppet, the political puppet, the visible face”, implying an unnamed third face.
- Of a monarch it is said “his fever now affects you too”; whether the illness and the pit fiend are one is asked, not answered.
Open questions
- Whether Oratiol and Lotario are one entity or two joined by mistake.
- What other contracts he keeps and who else signed.
- What links Oratiol’s well, the Libra platform and the Cairo Museum, if anything.
- What triggers the copies and the fish form, and whether the copies bleed with the original.
- His size, smell and voice are not recorded.