There are so many spirits and gods in our spiritual system that it can get hard to keep track of who rules over the land of the dead, and the complexities involved don’t make it easier for those with only a casual interest to keep track. There is also a bit of context that helps explain why the city of the dead is the way that it is.

The king of heaven Hechun has ideas of purity and explains why his city is the way it is. It is a paradise full of positive light energy and nothing questionable in dignity or morality, but many living there end up bored and doing the things they are not supposed to do. The city of the dead was once like this, but this was not inclusive of what people actually wanted to do once they got to the land of the dead. Hechun trusted The Black Fox to enforce and maintain order in the city of the dead, and he would decide to overlook casinos, brothels, and late night raves where people got intoxicated on plants of the spirit world that do not exist here. Some forces from the sky realm pressured the black fox to crack down on these amenities, so he had to make himself appear as if he actually was. He created a large bureaucracy and put the ghosts of heroic people in charge of the city of the dead. Their authority does not extend beyond the city, but they play important roles in shaping it. There were also legal safeguards put in place to make them perpetually unable to do anything to stop the fun.

However, the hall of honor and the deathly bureaucracy are only the official governing bodies of the land of the dead. Baron Blackjack and his wife are in charge of illicit enterprises of the underworld and the underground parties and gatherings. He officially runs the casinos and brothels, but is also the spirit that ghosts go to in order to ask for things they would not ask of the other gods.

Outside of the city at the center of hell full of dead ghosts and ancestors, there does not actually exist official governing bodies. Other gods exercise control over areas or in the steppes of elysium there are various warlords trying to claim control in opposition to the khanate.