Twisting Demons

Demons can be pretty fun. But I also think the traditional D&D lesser demons and their lore is confusing and I’d rather make up my own.

Incorporeality

Elric of Melnibone is very cool. In the classic sword & sorcery series he acts as much like a wizard as he does a fighter, conjuring spirits to come to his aid. I’m a big fan of the invisible, intangible, and all-around mysterious nature of the demons. There’s something much more terrifying about ultimate chaotic evil if it can’t be comprehended.

This also matches the real-world description of most spirits and demons. They’re often speaking through objects, possessing animals and people, and summoned invisibly in occult ritual.

Possession

Demon possession! Super super fun. I watched Journey to the West (2013) this month and I thought it was great. Especially loved its treatment of demons.

The demons appear to have possessed and transformed common animals beyond their natural form, increasing in size, intelligence, humanoid form, and monstrous appearance.

Archdemons, Demon Princes, Dukes, Presidents

Demons having a formal court like devils doesn’t make sense to me. I’m starting to imagine demons as the hellish version of animals and beasts much like devils are the hellish version of people or angels.

Monkey King

And some beasts in D&D are incredibly intelligent. I think demon nobility has a lot in common with fantasy’s depiction of archfey. Going back to Journey to the West. I think Sun Wukong, the monkey king, is a great example of a demon king: a chaotic trickster, cannot be trusted, doesn’t abide by the law or agreements (unlike devils), constantly shifting form, causing destruction. 

Demons of Lefort

Demons can be summoned, but they’ll need a host to possess or they remain incorporeal, only visible through a crystal ball or triangular prism. 

Demons interact with the overworld, or physical reality, by possessing animals and people. The longer they possess a singular creature the more they twist the beast beyond its natural form. A creature possessed long enough by a lesser demon physically transforms into the demon’s standard fantasy role playing game’s description.

Knight slaying a dretch 

For example, a dretch favors possessing swine, and over time the pig’s body would morph into the dretch’s true hellish form.

More examples of this exist with unspecific lesser demons. A demon could possess a bull and over time the bull becomes the equivalent of a minotaur. Or a giant snake. Or a fish under demon possession for a decade transforming into an aboleth. 

Demons don’t scheme. They just act. Even the intelligent, genius, high nobility. There is no future or past. There is only now to a demon.

The island of Lefort is full of monsters, and most of them are just common animals under the control of a demon. This, partnered with the unproven existence of demons within Lefort, makes possessions contentious issues around belief. Was the man under demon possession or is he a serial killer? Conspiracy theories, like is the king of Sowden a demon in corporeal disguise? And are the great beasts of Boar Valley and the Holy Land not, in fact, old gods, but ancient demons?


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