Dero

The deros are a diminutive race of sadists described by Richard Sharpe Shaver to exist underneath the Earth's surface. This word is a contraction of "detrimental energy robotism", referring to their minds as mechanical instead of their bodies, reshaped to only act out on the impulses of destructive radiation. Anyone can become a dero from the effects of radiation poisoning, any irrationally vile person is a detrimental energy robot.

Radiation, according to Shaver, inhibits the body's ability to absorb the "ex-disintegrance" needed for growth. A human being would become indefinitely larger and wiser with their absorption of exd, inspiring the stories of "angels", "gods" and "giants". Shaver cited the accelerated aging of radium girls to make the point that all aging comes from radiation poisoning. The radiation faced by deros bleaches their hair, stunts their growth and inflicts other deformities on their being, making them as hideous on the inside as on the outside.

Deros reside in the abandoned caverns that Earth's elder races once inhabited, where they've become mutated by both the natural radiation of this planet and the unnatural radiation of neglected ancient technology. The deros use this technology to inflict suffering on all the inhabitants of Earth's surface. Nightmares, common accidents, reports of alien abduction, and insanity are all blamed on the acts of the deros. In other words, if the elder races are the gods in heaven, then the deros are the demons who rule the world from within Hell.