From the most awwwwww-inducing of animals to probably the most ewwwwww-inducing!
Leeches are blood-sucking animals. They attach themselves to their victims through suckers on their body then bite into the victim, leaving a triangular incision. You might not know one has got its teeth into you because they secrete an anaesthetic. Their saliva also has an anticoagulant which ensures the blood keeps flowing.
If you’ve watched the Game of Thrones series, you’ll probably remember the scene in series three where Melisandre, the prophet of the God of Light, using leeches on Gendry, illegitimate son of former king Robert Baratheon. If you haven’t, and you’re aiming to do so, don’t read the next paragraph – spoilers!
Melisandre seduces the young Gendry, gets him naked, ties him to a bed, and then places three leeches on his body: one on his chest, one on his stomach, and the third… well, lower down the body; we don’t actually see where but the implication is that it’s somewhere that would make every man’s testicles withdraw in panic.
In past times, leeches have been used for the medical procedure of blood-letting. This was often used to cleanse a patient of uncleanness, based on Galen’s theory of the four humors. This theory may have seen its origin in Egypt, Mesopotamia or India. As the Macedonian Empire reached all three of these lands (just about, with India), it made its introduction to Greek physicians possible.
The idea was that the body had four types of chemicals – blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm – that needed to be maintained in balance to ensure the wellness of a person. If one humor was out of balance with the rest, it needed to be removed. Blood-letting was one way of doing this. Before RFK gets excited about this, the discovery of microbes disproved it (although he never seems to let science get in his way).
The Diplomacy ‘Leech’
In Diplomacy, a ‘Leech’ is a player who sucks all the joy, all the energy, out of the game. They’re the type of player who, through one means or another, makes sure nobody else in the game can enjoy it.
A Leech tends to specialise in being deliberately offensive, however. In general, I don’t think being offensive is the fault of the offender but down to the sensitivity of the offendee. I often think that, while language used can be edgy, the offensiveness is limited. I’ve been accused of being offensive when I’ve said someone’s play was idiotic, because the person I accused of this couldn’t tell the difference between me saying their play was idiotic and me calling them an idiot.
A Leech, however, sets out to cause offence. This might be personal abuse, aimed at the player, or collective, aimed at a group within society. They might do this to mimic a Jellyfish player, but they are nasty with it, abusive rather than irritating.
Many Leeches, however, are simply small-minded people who let their hatred of diversity spread like ink into the game, staining it irreversibly. While this might be targeted at one player, it tends not to be limited to this, because it leaks out.
Leeches are not particularly clever players, although many think they’re a psychological genius. They tend to be simple, unsubtle and aggressive. They really need to squashed out of the Hobby.
THE DIPLOMATICON 
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