Jeff Richardson
You've heard the cliché, that the greatest trick ever played by the devil was to convince the world that he doesn't exist (doubtful that Baudelaire coined it). Notice the craven townsfolk above: zombie-like they give offerings to their tortured vessel in hope of raising an abomination (an homunculus). Above them looms an evil Sylph, laughing as they dance upon invisible strings, consumed with their hocus-pocus; their will abandoned through lack of any reason. And so, the story goes on and on.