Demons

Demons are one of the two types of Fiends - creatures from another plane of existence that feed upon the souls of mortals.

Traits

Demons are best described as "raw emotion made manifest". They represent the base, unthinking, instincts that reside in all life: Anger, Lust, Jealousy, Selfishness, Greed (and it's counterpart, Avarice) and all the various forms of Hate.

All Demons, to some extent, personify chaos but will only ever work together to fight Celestials or, more commonly, Devils both of whom are in competition for their 'food source'.

Location

Demons all reside in the Abyss and each layer is ruled over by the most powerful demon in each location.

Description

There is no set form that Demons can take. Whilst many do appear to be vaguely humanoid there are many others that are slug-like, fungus-like or just writhing, indistinguishable masses of limbs and mouths.

Behaviour

Demons are not planners; they exist in the moment and are fickle - heading where their appetites take them, sowing chaos where possible. Occasionally, a more powerful Demon will tell them where to go and what to do and they will do so for precisely as long as they have to and no longer. Demons hate being summoned by mortals and will only tolerate it as long as they get a payment that matches their greed (usually a sacrifice or twenty) or it allows them to wreck havoc upon the Material Plane.

Luckily Fiends cannot be permanently killed when on the Material Plane as their 'essence' as such is permanently tied to the Abyss and they will reform there after some variable length of time has passed. Demons know this and know that once on the Material Plane they can be as reckless as they wish with very few consequences. A loose Demon is a truly terrifying thing.

Notable Demons

There are far too many notable Demons to list but the more powerful ones have 'Cults' on the Material Plane that serve to funnel souls to their masters (or mistresses). These 'top tier' Demons refer to themselves as Princes (or, occasionally, Princesses) and all are exceptional among Demons both for their power and ability to forward plan. Each rules a specific layer of the Abyss. Among these are:

• Demogorgon - Prince of Madness, Layer 88
• Fraz-Urb'Luu - Prince of Illusions, Layer 176
• Jubilex - The Faceless Prince, Layer 528
• Lolth - Princess of Spiders, Layer 65
• Orcus - Prince of Undeath, Layer 113
• Yeenoghu - Prince of Gnolls, Layer 422
• Zuggtmoy - Princess of Fungi, 222

Layer 666

Layer 666 is a special case in the Abyss. Rumours abound that the actual ruler of the Abyss lives there. It is also rumoured that no Demons reside there. Certainly no Demon wishes to go there without a VERY good reason and without the backing of the ruler of their own realm (and preferably that of some others). Something down there scares them.