Demons are the work of the
Dark God. They reside in the Demon Realm - the Dark God's home plane - until they are either
summoned via fell magic, or an event that is significantly dark or tragic enough has occurred somewhere. Demons lack the ability to feel guilt for the suffering of others, and are wholly devoted to causing chaos and destruction.
Demons can take a variety of forms, from writhing abominations to beautiful and dangerous humanoids.
Each of them has their own individuality, personality, and even goals, but
all of them share in common a prime directive: the ultimate destruction of everything that lives. How they go about accomplishing this task is left up to them, resulting in a great variety of methods that demons employ.
Many demons are capable of speech, and
some even hint at a life once lived as a mortal.
The Demon Realm itself has been described in many ways: primarily, a quiet, everlasting night with a great field of stars above. Beyond that, some describe it as having burning hellscapes and barren wastelands; a place quite vast and unforgiving, especially to the unlucky few non-demons who find themselves there from time to time.
Demons work in a hierarchy ranging from Lesser Demons all the way up to Archdemons. A demon of a higher rank has great authority over any demons lower than it. For more details on specific demons and types of demons, see the
Accounts of Known Demons lore entry.
FAQ
Can you explain the relationship between demons, the Dark God, and followers of the Dark God in more detail?
Certainly.
Do not be mistaken: every demon is
chosen by the Dark God. Whether they were born naturally in the Demon Realm itself or are the result of a person who has been fully
Corrupted, the Dark God ensures that they already began with an inclination toward It's ultimate goal - with a displeasure or dissatisfaction in the very concept of life, or a deep love for It's mission in some way or another.
In other words, demons - an
overwhelming majority of them - are more than happy to do It's bidding, and aren't under any sort of mind control or mental subjugation.
The bond between the Dark God, It's demons, and It's followers is meant to be a sort of familial, "us against the world" type of vibe. They have very few other allies in the universe, so the Dark God treats It's demons like they are It's unholy children, demons in turn seek to do their part - no matter how small or tangential - to achieve the prime directive, and the followers of the Dark God move and communicate through a secret network amongst each other and help each other as best they can.
As long as there's no personal bad blood, everyone else can get ground up by the
Cycle for all they care.
If I were to write a demon, what's the best advice you could give me?
It's hard to put into words, but most demons aren't just evil-bad killing machines who feel nothing: try to imagine them as 95% people, 5% "the universe must ultimately come to an end".
Is it possible a demon could be changed by the experiences they previously had or how they were bound?
The experiences a demon has had can definitely have an impact on their future behavior - they
are like people, after all. As for "how they were bound", I assume you mean the negotiation that happens during a
demon summoning? The only way to "bind" a demon is to out-negotiate it and come to an agreement that favors the other more than the demon, and that is very difficult to do.
I've read demons can also be familiars...
Yes, this is possible; it usually happens with Lesser Demons, but it can even happen to standard Demons.
Circumstances like this don't happen very often; it's already uncommon to forge such a deep personal bond with a creature that
isn't designed to be the bane of
Kin, after all.
...
unless a character was a follower of the Dark God; in that case, they would have a much easier time finding a demon as their familiar.
Lycanthropy is a sort of soul curse - how much does this sort of thing share with a demon?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. If you're asking whether or not demonhood is a curse of some kind, I would say that it's far more than that - more intrinsic, more esoteric than a simple curse.
You could also be asking if lycanthropy transitions over to or "stacks" with being a demon; to that, I would say that one's lycanthropy would certainly inform the expression of their ultimate transformation into a demon, but this would be along with the person's personality, the actions they took in their previous life, and so on and so forth.
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