How are demons like in your setting?

Horny

No, is it good?

Hmmm... I just realized I haven't had to define them just yet. They've been presented to the players on a couple of occasions, but only briefly in "OH FUCK GET THE HELL OUT IF THERE" situations.

I guess they are a "psuedo-physical" manifestation of degeneracy or unnatural evil in the realm of the living. They are usually brought to the physical world through vile rituals that corrupt their participants and they usually taint the place that they stay to make it hospitable to their kind.

Some examples so far:
>The Thing With Many Arms, lingers in the sewers beneath the PC's hometown. The players never got a good look at it, all they know is that it is vaguely humanoid, larger than a man, and that it has many gray hands with flesh like a tarantula. It is just waiting down there. Waiting for something.
>The Bat Lady, they inadvertently set her free by opening her sealed tomb and leaving it open. Since she was set free, they have seen her wandering the woods and it has dragged two of their hirelings off into the woods, only to be found gutted and hanging from a try the next day. It has the body of a beautiful, full figured woman with voluptuous unrealistic proportions, but has the head and arms of a diseased bat, and wicked horns that protrude where it's eyes would be. The party's wizard has heard it's cry in his sleep, and though it has left them alone for some time, they occasionally get a feeling like they are being watched from the shadows.

Demons like the oens in Keys of Solomon are pretty underused in fantasy settings. They're mostly highly educated nobles with weird hobbies, and with a few exceptions you can deal honestly with them. Several are committed to resolving conflicts between men and nations, some will teach you about gemcutting. Also, there's no obvious theme to them -- they're weird beast-people-shapes, because that's their natural shape.

>how do you like your demons senpai?
>Horned
>Say no more!

They were a legion of warriors cast by the God of Sunlight as warriors of light & brilliance. But the war they were sent to fight corrupted them. Now they are fire not light, & they seek to enslave all into their legion to do battle against all foes.

These are great, but they have the laziest names to ever be

>How are demons like in your setting?

Beings that are predisposed by their very spiritual nature to be chaotic; they can be good, they can be neutral, they can be evil, but they MUST be chaotic, their minds and personalities simply do not allow for the concept of law, order, or any business like that. Demons possess free will (unlike Angels) and are completely capable of making their own choices and are thus capable of acts of good or bad.
Sin is the next defining feature of a Demon is it's 'sin'; a Demon needs a sin in order to be it's 'vice' so that it may define, design, and express it's physical being and traits: a Demon can have many vices in it's life, but it will typically gravitate or favor one in particular over all the others. Sins are the standard: Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Envy, and while Demons can vary wildly between forms with seemingly no consistency- they can roll into certain trends and patterns of appearance thanks to their sin.

Couple of other basic, but perhaps interesting trivia:
Demons come in basically every colour that Yoshis do, with the oldest and most powerful of their kind coming in pure Black or White, the common 'weaker' ones being closer to primary colours such as red, blue, yellow, and green, and the medium-tier Demons being purple, pink, gold, or silver.
All Demons are male, no exceptions. There are no female Demons, yes, even Succubi are dudes.

Well, I am unsure. I was 12 when I last read it. But demons were basically portrayed as inter-dimensional Tyranids that wanted nothing more than to eat all of the humans. They were unimaginative, and so steal their shapes from the human world, often blending things together in horrific ways.

Also the books are so violent for a kids series, it's ridiculous. To say its violent is like saying the ocean is wet. People die suddenly 'on-screen' and it's depicted in graphic, gruesome ultra-detail.

>Also the books are so violent for a kids series, it's ridiculous. To say its violent is like saying the ocean is wet. People die suddenly 'on-screen' and it's depicted in graphic, gruesome ultra-detail.

Different user, but I've noticed this more and more looking back at a lot of children's novels: some of them are shockingly graphic and disturbing, Animorphs specifically coming to mind in terms of the fucked up, demented shit they seem to have gotten away with that book series.

These are fucking great. Give us more.

Kinda reminds me of the "names" given to the Demons and monsters of Night land really. Not actual 'names' as we would normally use the term, but more descriptors for what they *are*, since giving them names can let them into your mind and can even end up destroying you utterly in some cases.

There are many sophonts in the galaxy who would call themselves demons, from highly irrational and chaotic godking warriors to the tantalizing seductresses of the Underworld, and most living in the Shadow Zealot controlled quadrants, but the only creatures who truly live up to the title are the Hellborne, monsters of pure chaos and ashen flame who coalesce from the shadows at random (in the d100 based game, whenever you roll a 66), who invaded the galaxy dozens of millenia ago and caused us so much pain and suffering. Thank The Absolute that the Celestials came to our aid, and have been holding off the worst of the Hellborne legion for the good part of the last 10,000 years.

I'll post art of all the Hellborne battle castes now, which the Hellborne grow up through like larval stages/metamorphosis, they only can grow by eating ash of something they killed and burned. Which they've done to every world they've invaded.

If they die before they grow up fully, they are reborn in hell as a sad caricature of their old personalities, with their sins made physical and usually hurting them or weighting them down, such as gluttony being a tight band around the neck they have to wear for the rest of time.

...

Hellborne Guards, always come in pairs

Hellborne Legion/Storm Demon. I used to call them "crab knights" and I think that still comes through (they were based of of Destiny Hive Knights initially).

If one of these gets a hold of you you, they rip your soul and all of your chakras out of your body and hang them on those floating horns to rot. And you usually die too.

I took D&D demons and devils, got rid of the devils, call the demons devils, and made my own demons which are like lovecraft monsters, shit like pic-related.

Very good

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These are great, user. Got any More? Also:

Which comic was this from Again? I'm genuinely unable to recall or even find it through searching.

Usually when I use demons, I take note of old scripture and Old Testament descriptions of angels, then bastardize them.

Angels and Demons are amalgamations of nonsensical technology and flesh, and "god" is an only vaguely-humanoid chunk of glowing gold and pale skin.

Demons would be similar, but release internal heat in the forms of black ichorous smoke and flames and their bodies twisted after thousands upon thousands of years of neglecting maintaince.

If I employ demons in any of my settings, they never have physical forms but operate entirely through possession. The possessed hosts are then warped by the demon's will into other, more horrifying forms. Never anything that could not be achieved with the mass of the host, though.

Depends on what they first prey on.
The greater the intelligence, the higher their inherent heirarchy is.

Plants just net them barely sapient value
Animals, depending on the ability to learn, earn them low to lower-middle class rankings.
Human children usually seat them comfortably in the middle to upper-middle class.
Teen humans get them upper-middle for sure.
Highly intellectual adults usually earn the demon a place in high demon society.

Satan pretty much got lucky as fuck because the host got high only once.

Originally mortal races and creatures that either delved too deeply into the deepest secrets of the world's magical underpinnings or were exposed to such primal magics in their raw form. That was ages ago though, they've formed their own self sustaining, albeit perverse, ecosystem. Too bad they're hostile to anything less mutated than they are.

Evil. Absolutely, horrifyingly, irredeemably evil. I'm sick of people cheapening demons because they want a succubus girlfriend.

that's supposed to be a given

The gods and creatures that allied with Tiamat in the war of creation. When they lost the war, they were sealed within the Pit, a prison fashioned from half of Tiamat's corpse. Since then they have developed a whole society within the Pit. The difference between Devils and Demons are a matter of politics. Devils defer to Asmodeus and the many Houses of Pandemonium. Demons do not, and have independent realms scattered throughout the Pit.

Vidar was the purest form of bullshit. 10+ episodes of build up for maybe 5 minutes of action.

The moon is kind of an evil place that demons live on. Sometimes they manage to get from there to the planet. They all have disturbing habits, and they all have desires that wind up poorly for non demons. Nobody is really sure what happens up there.

One is not a prime number, One is its own force. The Primes are loosely allied and frequently fight one another for power. The current "demon king" is 137.

1) Demons can come in virtually any physical shape and be made of virtually any material. Though they often tend towards bizarre and unpleasant shapes, they are occasionally alluring or pleasing to look at.
2) Demons personalities are similarly virtually endless. Some are incredibly intelligent and civil, even friendly. Many are simply raging and animalistic, or so inscrutable they appear so.
3) All demons have one overriding motivation that they can not deny. These motivations, again, are virtually limitless. They all understand exactly what their motivation is, and most that are capable of discussion are very willing to tell what their motivation is.
4) Demons are supernaturally cursed to never ever satisfy their motivation. Since they can't ignore it, and can't ever have it, it always ends in suffering for everybody involved.
5) Demons are supernaturally cursed to never understand that their motivation is completely unachievable. They may occasionally be forced into admitting it, or convinced of it, but they can not keep that idea in their head for more than a short time. Because of this they are eternally relentless in achieving their goals and will bring suffering until they're slain.

For example, a demon may appear as a basically human woman shaped creature with eyes and claws of obsidian and spider silk hair, with a motivation to find true love. It will try many fruitless times, and can tell you dozens of failed love stories, like the simple blacksmith who died gruesomely searching for the perfect diamond to set in a ring, or the sorcerer king who threw himself from a cliff after growing mad with jealousy after bringing the demon numerous exotic lovers for its pleasure. It will never understand how it's insatiable demands for gestures of love caused these tragedies.

Responding because these posts are neat. Care to divulge anything more?

God-constructs based on the concept of "corruption," in opposition to the "pure" angels. This can take many forms and can be interpreted in many ways, but the most common forms are those that are convoluted and excessive in terms of appearance or mannerisms. For example, while an angel is usually composed of one or two substances and is relatively simple in form, a demon might be a mess of clashing textures, body parts, and twisted anatomy. They are made out of pure magic bound to a dimensional template like all similar constructs. Each demon is slightly different from those of its same type, and bear what may be considered defects regularly. They usually like to destroy and create disorder (corrupting orderly form by shattering it), but may also seek to create (corrupting orderly form by making it unrecognizable). One of the creative demons is the Welder, a six-limbed creature that bears two arms that end in magical apparatuses that can join things together. They constantly seek up small objects to attach to themselves and others, and the long-lived individuals are basically walking scrapheaps. A more direct demon is basically a constantly shifting and rippling ball of sharp edges that crawls around and violently mashes things to paste. Intelligent demons (and angels) are generally rare, but do occur sometimes and sort of shift into a different sort of being.

If 1 were a prime number, the fundamental theorem of arithmetic wouldn't be as pretty. And the guy who wrote the fundamental theorem of arithmetic thought the fundamental theorem of arithmetic was more important than the definition of prime numbers. So 1 isn't prime.

Well it's just kind of a neat way to get cool monsters for game purposes. Like a demon might be motivated to give skin to every tree in the forest, and now there's a glass tiger skeleton running around tearing people's skin off.

But also, you can be more complex and riff on ideas like 'desire is the root of all suffering' or whatever and have some drama with it, or have some kind of psychological thrill.

These are the "names" that the players have given them. In my campaigns, I always leave the naming of monsters and things up to the players. If you run into bizarre creatures, it's up to you to either find out what they're called or come up with a name yourself. Furthermore, these creatures aren't really something that a character can communicate with. At most, an occultist could call their attention from across the veil of the worlds, but never actually converse.

I'll give some examples from past campaigns in my setting:
>The Horned Snake of the Bog, there was a terrible snake-like creature that lived in the bottom of a swamp. It would conjure images of a beautiful bathing woman, and would drown those that came into the waters. It's head would flex inside-out to spew innards around the target and would tangle them dragging them under. He was slain by Lord Whitcomb of Fray. His horn was fashioned into a staff, used as an arcane catalyst by Lorzire The Wise. (He may be the only demon in this setting that I can remember being slain by a mortal. Though, the setting is 2 decades old so...)
>Thing in the Vault. The players came across this thing at the bottom of a well that sat in the back corner of a subterranean island. Cultists had built a shrine to it on the island that "shed a darkness that no torch may undo", all around the hole were the remains of dozens of virgin offerings and signs of struggle. All they saw of it was a vaguely humanoid shape covered in "thorns and teeth". It was orgasmicly undulating and quivering with a hungry delight. It seemed to be predisposed with some deranged fantasy as it snickered and moaned, eyes rolled back in it's skull. I think it was also described as larger than any man and covered in a sweaty grease.
>The Toad Demon, (I actually forgot about this until just now.) This demon was called upon by the vile sorcerer Ouxash who used him to guard his lair. He was a giant toad that ate children.

Bump

'How are they?' or 'What are they like?'
Pick one.

Plasmids are incorporeal beings that can cause magical effects.They can bond with a sentient being and that being can then use the magical effects on demand.

Demons are plasmids that are powerful enough to possess the one they bond with, and evil enough to abuse that power and the position of the one who hosts them.

They aren't. The Borders between realities were sealed by the gods in ages past to prevent Azkaellion the Conqueror from enslaving the mortal plane. This had the unintended side effect of cutting off the mortal plane from the gods. It's fun telling your players "oh yeah, there are no gods. Divine magic functions literally exactly the same you just get to pick any 2 domains you want. You can make up your own god if you want to as well, but don't expect to be evangelizing to a world that hasn't heard from the gods in 4,000 years."

In other news, I now have to tell the new guy to our group why his summoner build isn't going to be much fun for him and help him work something else out.

Eldritch nightmares beyond the known gods and notion of the soul that manifest in the physical world through possession, usually of corpses.
Demons are really just a placeholder name, I think it might be better suited to the unaligned angels wandering heaven.

Just like you
made by he
despised by they
nearly human
pity them they are almost a human being

Literally that group

There are much more Voltaire fans than I imagined on Veeky Forums.

Bump

Yay.

No different from gods and spirits.

All just different words for the same thing.

'Demon' is just a word you use to describe one you don't like and imply it's evil.

Sci-Fantasy setting.
Small d "demons" are bound to the various magitechnical devices as power sources.
Big D Demons are terrifying mechanical-gestalt flesh monstrosities that spawn from these devices under *really specific* circumstances.
Like, a "virus" can corrupt and convert a device into one, with a key objective. One "Ultra-Buy" store had a malicious employee upload a virus into the store's display models that made them convert into a horde of ravenous Demons who were keen to escape the store into the back of his waiting lift, where they would complete their program and revert to consumer electronics.
Problem was the "ravenous" part. They killed and ate him before moving on to the nearby pet store, then headed out on a rampage.