a whole separate ecosystem of crab-clawed scroungers , whores with superhuman strength , schizophrenic phantoms , coprophagous bodybuilders , ethereal scapegoats , exposed missionary spies , sensory-deprived word-fetishists , reanimated exhibitionist corpses , blind hermitic fishermen , impious snake-handlers , lecherous wimps , sleepwalking hermaphrodites , mercenary cherubs and all natures of ultra-venomous flora and fauna inhabited the marshlands below the surface city .