Daemon
"Daemon are one of the many sentient races that have remained elusive for quite sometime. We are working arduously to bring their diverse culture into the public consciousness, but unfortunately, the pop culture phenomenon associated with their appearance has given them a bad reputation. If their descendents are still out there, we are sorry."Race Information (5e)
---Carmo Alvarez, 'Beyond the Wall: An Architectural Approach to Ancient Civilizations'
Daemon [based on Tiefling and Changeling Statblocks]
Daemon in the Dungeons and Dragons setting are said to be a race created by the intermingling of tiefling and changelings. Their true appearances have a sort of plainness, but possess the tail and horns of their infernal heritage. Many Daemon share the gender fluidity that their changeling heritage celebrates; though many wish to stay truthful, they feel the need to deceive to survive.
Age. Daemon can boast long lifespans, but cultural practices are known to lower it. Daemon reach adulthood around 21, and the most powerful can live to be 300, but most don't make it to 200.
Alignment. As they tend to be calculative and efficient, Daemon are typically true neutral. Many are known to lean towards chaos, however.
Size. Many Daemon are between 4 and 7 feet tall, and weigh 110 to 240 lbs. Your size is Medium.
Ability Scores: Charisma +2; +1 Int or Dex.
Winged. You have bat-like wings sprouting from your shoulder blades, and you are able to use an action to reveal or hide them. You have a flying speed of 50 feet while you aren't wearing Medium or Heavy Armor.
Shapechanger. As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including coloration and sex, but cannot grow hair you do not have, nor change your eye color. You must have seen this creature before, and must have a similar body plan as this creature. Game statistics do not change with this shift, nor do your clothing and equipment.
You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write in Common and two other languages of your choice.Basic Information
Anatomy
- The Kin'ra: horns, membranous wings, a leg plan that is either plantigrade or digitigrade;
- The Si'rin: beaks, feathers [including feathered wings], a digitigrade leg plan with talons;
- The Im'pe: horns, no wings, drastic shortness and stoutness, plantigrade legs; and
- The To'rin: hybrids of one of the three above and either a human or another Daemon.
Daemonic Markings
When it comes to body markings, Daemon (typically) possess fingerprint-like markings that wrap around their arms and limbs, extend down the back, and, in some cases, wrap around the face. These markings vary by elemental affinity, but they usually symbolize the deity associated with their element.
Sometimes, these markings are visible to the Human eye. Most times, however, they are only detectable with the use of a blacklight: Daemon markings, like those of Avian creatures, are camouflaged to the untrained eye.
For example: Folgra (Fire) Daemon can have either scale or plate-like markings on their body, either individually marked or "inverted" with cracks. This is in reference to Typhon, the fire drake in which their home is named after.Biological Traits
A Daemon's appearance and morphology is wholly dependent on their Core: the heart-like origin of a creature's Life Essence [Ziel] which, like a typical heart, rhythmically pumps Ziel-enriched blood throughout their body.
Origin Core, Core, and Life Expectancy
The Origin Core is where a Daemon channels their Ziel Affinity, and its size and density defines the Daemon's strength and life expectancy. The three Origin Core points are the brain, the heart, and the urogenital mound. There is debate on which of the three is the most vital. Some Daemonic scientists argue that the brain is the most vital Origin Core; Daemonic tradition, however, claims it is the heart.
Core is, to a lesser extent, considered the outer, crystalline lining of Daemonic organs, with the softer membranes of these organs being a mixture of both cell and pure Ziel. So long as the Daemon keeps themselves both happy and healthy, this means that they are capable of drawing out a near-infinite supply of Ziel. Directly pulling Ziel from an Origin Core, however, starts to degrade its outer shell, which lowers the Daemon's life expectancy.Genetics and Reproduction
Daemonic reproduction is controlled by the individual, only activating the release of gametes when the individual is willing. They can either partner with another to sexually reproduce, or have a child via parthenogenesis. This latter option is more taxing on the body, as it depletes the Elemental Core, so many opt for multi-parent births.
The gestation period of a Daemon is half that of a human's, lasting 20 weeks or 5 months. This is, unfortunately, fairly taxing on the future parent, so they become incapable of lactation. Since all Daemon have the capacity to lactate, however, those who stay within close proximity to them typically take the role of wet nurse.
Daemonic DNA is highly adaptive, meaning that Daemon children born may share very few resemblances with their Daemon parent. When it comes to parental heredity, there are only three gene factors that are passed through within their genes: elemental affinity, which is a dominant trait, and the color of both hair and skin.
Hair and skin color can fluctuate wildly, depending on the individual, but human-like hair and skin colors are tied to a recessive gene. Some call this recessive trait Daemonic Albinism, but when it comes to skin color, most just call the afflicted Daemon ‘Humanskins’. They look identically to humans, but lack colored soles and palms.Growth Rate & Stages
Due to a great degree of human influence, Daemon have similar growth rates that humans do on the lower end. This means that they hit puberty around 13 years of age, and are full-fledged adults at 21. Additional physical appearance changes of a Daemon start to slow rapidly once they hit this age.
It takes roughly half a century for their bodies to start to degress into being more in-line with human aging once more. Changes unique to Daemon start to prop up, such as a shift of their skin tone to a muted sable, and for those who are Superadults, their integument turns white at a rapid pace.
Their mental growth rate is far different, however. Daemonic children's brains develop rapidly, being able to formulate basic sentences at a few months old, and having the mental capacity of a freshly-adult human in their teens. This doesn't mean that they are Daemonic adults, and are capable of consent in terms of their society, though: Daemonic teenagers still stay underneath their Parent's wing until the age of 21, where their brain development is told to be on par with that of an early-30s human.Ecology and Habitats
Daemon are a hardy species, able to withstand extreme temperatures within 10 to 20 degrees of humans' natural tolerances. This metric shifts depending on the elemental affinity the Daemon has: Eise Daemon can withstand sub-20 weather with ease, and Pyre Daemon can persist in temperatures of over 50.
There is one unusual condition of Daemon that makes this untrue, however: Vakad Miventer, known as vavak vela or Blue-Blood Syndrome, makes it so that a Daemon's temperature acclimations are on par with humans. This can be dangerous to flight-borne Daemon, as flying above the recommended altitude can cause a slow and painful death via Hypothermia.
Outside of temperature, Daemon are highly adaptive. The original Daemon were arboreal creatures that built their homes in the tall, wide trees of their homeland. When different races were introduced to their habitat, they shifted to dwelling in caves; when they were outsed to Typhon's Teeth, they built burrows into the cliffsides.Dietary Needs and Habits
Daemon do not have a complex digestive system like mammals: their traditional digestive system is more in line with that of avians, being an avian race themselves. This means that they can eat what humans and other animals consume, but the efficiency of turning food to energy depends on the Elemental affinity of the Daemon; the stronger the Elemental affinity, the less able the body is to break down traditional foodstuffs into energy.
When food is in short supply, or a Daemon needs to replenish their energy sufficiently, they do what they colloquially call ‘Feeding’. This is when the Daemon taps into the radiant energy of living things around them and absorbs it directly. This radiant energy is most present when the creatures express great emotion, which means humans are the most efficient source of food to Daemon, next to pregnant creatures and, in much smaller quantities, Daemon themselves.
Auras are a natural glow mostly associated with pregnant humans, a constant emission of energy so long as the mind of that individual is stimulated strongly in some manner. Many Daemon associate the Feedable Auras to the 7 Rites of Human Corruption: Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Envy, Pride, and Gluttony. This means that when Daemon are of age, most seduce human beings for their meals, as Lust is the simplest, and usually safest, Rite to exploit.Additional Information
Social Structure
The social system of the modern Daemon is unintentionally indicative of the technologically-advanced human societies, but instead of wealth being the determining factor of social standing, it is elemental affinity.
The Daemonic Caste system is an archaic social structure that places Kin'ra at the top. The Castes are numbered from 1 to -2, where those under 0 are considered comparatively lesser Daemon. This is because Caste 1 and 0, the Kin'ra and Si'rin, are the descendant races that the humans coloquially called demons and angels, respectively.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
To no surprise, Daemon are mostly found in Typhon's Teeth, claimed to be their native homeland. Their origins, however, are far beyond The Wall, in the Southwestern portion of the mainland. Due to the Great War, Daemon were pushed far out of their ancestral lands and have been living on Typhon's Teeth for a millennia and a half.
Due to their dietary habits, however, many Daemon are found in human societies, but disguised. Since humans are the best supply of Aura for Daemon, living amongst them is a no-brainer. This, unfortunately, doesn't come without its caveats-- namely, a loss of dignity and a constant fight with their ancestral cultures and ideals.Average Intelligence
Daemon boast high degrees of intelligence, known to be able to learn new information at the speeds of human infants as adults. As such, they are often polyglots, knowing their native tongue Daemonic, the Universal Human Tongue, and two human languages of their choice, usually determined by the human civilizations they frequent.
This has led humans to believe that Daemon are naturally inclined to be cruel, aggressive, and selfish, as humans who "boast high intelligence" are usually cruel megalomaniacs themselves. This is wholly false, as Daemon are no more inclined to be violent as they are to be pacifistic. The Daemonic mindset is to do things with high efficiency.Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Daemon possess the five widely-known senses that Humans have-- the senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and smell-- as well as the typical sentient senses of orientation, time, balance, and spacial orientation.
Being an avian race, Daemon are tetrachromats, possessing four cones in their eyes that perceive red, blue, green, and ultraviolet light. This perception of ultraviolet coloration allows the Daemon to display markings that are otherwise undetected by the unaltered eye of most humans. They also have sharp eyesight, able to process movements that humans otherwise cannot detect, such as planetary orientation and rapid light oscillation.
Daemon also have a very keen sense of magnetoreception, allowing them to revisit (or avoid) places they have been only once before by detecting minute shifts in the planet's magnetic field. This also allows them to naturally gauge their altitude, allowing themselves to fly out of vision of humans without flying too high.
It is believed that Daemon have a poor sense of touch, compared to that of humans. Interestingly enough, this may be because they have a high pain tolerance-- scientifically-speaking, their nociceptors' lower limit for pain is significantly higher than their human counterparts. This is likely due to the fact that Daemon are a shape-shifting race, and them having a lower pain threshold would cause unneeded distress.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
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