Succubus

Fiendish Ecology

A succubus first appears in ethereal form, passing through walls like a ghost to lurk next to a mortal’s bedside and whisper forbidden pleasures. Sleeping victims are tempted to give in to their darkest desires, indulge in taboos, and feed forbidden appetites. As the fiend fills the victim’s dreams with debauched images, the victim becomes more susceptible to temptation in everyday life. Inevitably, the fiend enters the mortal realm in tempting form to directly influence a creature’s actions. Appearing in the guise of a humanoid who has previously appeared only in the victim’s dreams, the succubus or incubus seduces or befriends its victim, indulging all its desires so that it performs evil acts of its own free will. A mortal bequeaths its soul to the fiend not by formal pledge or contract. Instead, when a succubus has corrupted a creature completely — some say by causing the victim to commit the three betrayals of thought, word, and deed — the victim’s soul belongs to the fiend. The more virtuous the fiend’s prey, the longer the corruption takes, but the more rewarding the downfall. After successfully corrupting a victim, the succubus kills it, and the tainted soul descends into the lower planes. It must be stressed that though all temptations these devils impart are debased, they are not inherently of a sexual in nature. Seduction takes many forms beyond carnal pleasures: power, wealth, knowledge, etc. Succubi use any tool at their disposal to corrupt their victims, their inclination towards beautiful forms has a simple reason: mortals are more easily seduced whilst their eyes are busy admiring a view, sexualized or not.
Within the lower planes, they can be found in service to other devils, demons, night hags, rakshasas, and yugoloths. Asmodeus, ruler of the Nine Hells, uses these fiends to tempt mortals to perform evil acts. The demon lord Graz’zt keeps succubi and incubi as advisers and consorts. Though legend speaks of them separately, any succubus can become an incubus, and vice versa. Most of these fiends do have a preference for one form or the other. Mortals only rarely see a succubus or incubus in its true form, however, for the fiend typically begins its corruption in veiled, insidious ways.

Abilities

Succubi in their true form possess powerful wings that can allow them to fly, though it is not strong enough nor used for offensive purposes. Succubi are one of the most potent shapeshifting creatures, among fiends and other types of creatures, not because of the scope of their transformations but because their polymorphing abilities are nearly impossible to detect except by those who know what to and how to look for signs that a mortal is actually a disguised succubus. Though they cannot charm their prey, for acts compelled by supernatural force do not affect one's soul and would therefore impede their primary objective, their ability to charm individuals makes them quite dangerous. Many a hunter or demonologist has been the architect of their own demise by underestimating this ability, sometimes being used against their colleagues to compound their own folly exponentially. Succubi are the reason any reputable group dedicated to the hunting of fiends screens their members regularly, as fiends are a constant hazard to mortals who are frequently exposed to them, none more so than a succubus. The Delmaire Institute, for example, has enacted even more rigorous testing methodology for its demonology department during the process of publishing this very tome. A charmed creature has a direct telepathic link to the controlling succubus, with the range being determined to be at this point unlimited, regardless of spatial, temporal, or planar barriers. The charm of a succubus is so powerful, their charm defies another common rule for such magic: the ability to compel self-harm and even suicidal action from a creature. Though it is proven to wane in strength when such commands are given, the potential alone makes avoiding becoming charmed imperative. Even without a charm, succubi have a 60 ft. range to telepathically communicate with others. They also possess an ability known as the "draining kiss", a kiss that allows them to steal vitality from a mortal creature. However, it can only be performed on a willing or charmed creature. Succubi are also able to enter the material plane at will within a matter of moments, making detaining them quite and ordeal for most.

Daemonic Siring/Tribe Affiliation

Classifying the succubus among the three primary trees of fiends has been one of the most difficult endeavors for the academically minded demonologist. For a time, succubi were classified as devils due to their desire for souls through temptation and aversion to brute force approaches. However, once it was discovered that they did not actually fulfill the diabolic law of contracts to receive souls and could indeed allow or even embrace chaos, there was a heavy discourse on whether they were devil of demon. The true answer was available since the beginning of this debate, but neither side had a broad enough perspective of fiends to allow for its application. Succubi are daemons. They fit every determinate put into the classification: they possess diabolic and demonic traits that do not contradict one another, they are without other supernatural origin or through arcane synthetic creation, and most importantly, they desire to do evil for its own sake. A devil seeks to do evil because they are compelled by a cosmic law of equal exchange. A demon does evil because they are raw chaos seeking to disrupt stagnation and forever charge the flow of change. Succubi that have been interrogated and examined clearly exhibit daemonic sensibility. There is no desire to sustain a perverse balance, nor is there a compulsion to expand causality. A succubus corrupts because it gives them pleasure to do so, a pleasure devoid of order or chaos. This, is evil in its purest form. What prevented the classification for so long is that succubi are far more subtle than their fellow daemon cohorts, in both methodology and appearance. Though this highlights why daemons are arguably the greatest of the fiendish threat to existence: they are evil unbound by order or chaos, free to develop in new trajectories and forms without end.
Due to their daemonic nature and ability to manipulate mortals, succubi can be found in nearly any diabolic tribe as figures of worship, elements of power structure, and on rare occasions as familiars. They are however more likely to be seen in tribes that function like pleasure cults, such as the Hedonites of Onesh or the Carnal Cohort.

Slaying Methodology

Like many fiends, succubi are resistant to fire, cold, and lightning based attacks, and like many daemons they are resistant to attacks from non-magical weapons and poison. Holy weapons are still a powerful tool to use against them, like with any fiend, and cold iron based weapons do seem to be effective as well. What is most important to anyone looking to slay a succubus is proper protection from their charm. Whether through resistance training or magical equipment such as warding lips, a hunter guarded from becoming charmed has already won half the battle against a succubus. In truth, any direct confrontation with a succubus is terribly easy for any sensible hunter. But succubi are just as aware of this as we are, and will do their best to avoid such scenarios. Succubi will often use other mortals to help them blend in or to act as a surrogate for battle. Many moral issues are raised by this, particularly when dealing with a charmed individual, as they are not responsible for their actions. It is up to each hunter to discern acceptable losses, but this guide recommends one thing: one tragic death is nothing compared to the wave of evil born from a succubus being allowed to roam and corrupt mortal souls. Since succubi are inclined to flee from confrontation, it is wise to prepare deterrents for common methods of them fleeing. Cold iron bolas are highly effective means to prevent a succubus from absconding, as the cold iron not only burns a succubus and if well placed can restrict their wings, but while wrapped in cold iron a succubus is unable to enter the ethereal plane. For purely physical negation, deadlimb pins to each wing are effective. For those who are absolutely capable of doing so, detainment methods recommended are a cold iron maiden device, faust-class, thorned manacles, incense blessed by a Sune cleric, and regular theo-psyche litany readings during travel. Cold water is also recommended to be carried for those transporting a succubus.