"Demon" is the Brethren term for a malevolent creature of the Aether.
THE DIVINE
Iaoth
The living spirit of Brethren land. Like Mydaiel and Anauel, she is originally from a world called Elysium; the three of them bound themselves into Valsora to protect its burgeoning life from the Consuming Lords. Iaoth's will is simply to be inviolate, and all her gargoyles exist for this purpose and this alone.
The Sea (Mydaiel)
See title. Her presence is unpleasant and destructive to most malevolent forces, so it weakens and sometimes destroys any possessions or curses a person has while deterring the Consuming Lords from coming too close. Seawater can be used to create any of the positive magical effects available to Brethren; ordinary salt water works too but it is not as potent. The Sea has sometimes been known to lift heavy burdens from a person's heart, but more often than not the relief is over as soon as they step out of the water again. Her name, like Anauel's, is not in common use.
The Wind (Anauel)
The force behind fate and magic, mostly neutral in conflict. It is what causes Dolphinist alchemy to work, in accordance with a mostly-forgotten covenant. The gift of prophecy is attributed to a particularly close connection with the Wind. Its name is not in common use as it has lost most conventional markers of personhood in favour of becoming a force of nature.
Dolphin
The Messenger Archangel, who relayed the holy laws to the first Brethren long ago and left, never to be seen again (ordinary dolphins are still around and considered echoes of the Divine, but Dolphin himself only appeared once). Some believe this to be the same being as the Wind, and they might have been right once but the resemblance is long gone now.
Zerachiel
The Archangel of Compassion and the only thing in the universe that can hate more intensely than a Val Knight. Most of that hatred is directed at Livich, but there's a large chunk set aside for each of the other Lords. Zerachiel appears quite frequently to protect, comfort, guide and punish (sometimes all at the same time). Zerachiel's holy and inedible wrath is instilled in Brethren dragons, with Furies receiving a double share.
Aphaeleon
The Archangel of Justice, long since broken into three separate individuals. Harsher than most Powers revered by Dolphinists, and with a tendency to punish without explanation. She is now revered by the Imislest in a peculiar spinoff of Dolphinism.
Hadariel, Aphaeleon's Heart
The only part of the shattered angel remaining in Elysium. She has been effectively a child since Triraxus shattered Aphaeleon and left with Istruzeth, but a sweet child nonetheless. Hadariel retains the creative ability of an angel.
OUROU
The Aether Lords of Hope, notorious among Brethren for coldness, harsh authoritarianism and lack of empathy.
GARGOYLES
Lesser
These gargoyles are permanently in their corporeal form and cannot leave the bounds of their territory. There can be many lesser gargoyles in the same territory, but they do not behave socially - the only emotional attachment they seem capable of is the one to their land. Lesser gargoyles allow animals and spirits to cross their borders without interference; anything more complicated registers as a threat to be driven away. It is possible to placate them with regular offerings of milk, making it safe to live on their land (as long as you don't invite malevolence in). Lesser gargoyles are helpless against major earthbound demons but well able to take out most other things by virtue of persistence.
Greater
Huge gargoyles most often resembling clouds of blue-grey smoke. They can take on a physical form when they so choose, but prefer not to. Unlike their lesser cousins, greater gargoyles can move past the bounds of their territory and choose a new place to settle; they often wander about seeking offerings. Only an offering of blood and flesh will satisfy a greater gargoyle; Beauties in the wild are very generous with their gifts of gore and intestines, and it often pays off. After three generations of consistent offerings, a greater gargoyle will take an entire bloodline under its protection along with the land. Major earthbound demons present a challenge to most greater gargoyles - usually a challenge the gargoyle wins, but not always.
A dragon tree will gradually warp to accommodate its greater gargoyle: it turns to stone and slowly creates a cavity for the gargoyle to use as a den. Stone trees continue growing as long as the gargoyle stays, and they start up again if a new one arrives. The tree widens and the branches curve upwards, creating a large shelter for the dragons. In the rare event that a stone tree reaches above the forest canopy, the branches spread wide again and sprout many large, rigid leaves - this makes a sunbathing area for the dragons and perpetual shade underneath, slowly killing off the normal trees and removing the cover other predators might use. The very oldest trees develop hollows farther up; legend says this is where greater gargoyles come from. Below the hollows are embryonic sacs, borne like fruit on the trees, containing lesser gargoyles waiting to take up their duty in the world. Wherever a system's far-reaching roots break through the soil, a new stone tree begins (much like aspens). Sometimes, when they sprout up in unclaimed territory, a lesser gargoyle will spring up instead of a tree.
The Guarding Heart
The gargoyle system that began them all. It formed out of Iaoth's rage at a demonic incursion; Gargoyles and their Systems exist solely to defend for the sake of the defense itself. The Guarding Heart is also a connection directly to Iaoth, and through her the rest of Heaven. People seek it out to pray for guidance and to speak with dead loved ones.
The Heart is a circle of massive stone trees with leaves that blot out the sky. It is soothingly warm, smells of cut grass and cinnamon, and there is never wind within the circle of trees.
EARTHBOUND DEMONS
Minor
Lures
Will-o'-the-wisps, need I say more? They lure people into death traps and let them die slowly in pain (feeding on that pain). When there is plentiful food, they split like amoebas, spreading the patch. Orinuk's creation, similar in appearance to a blue leech.
Blue Leeches
These appear as small blobs of sickly blue light, gaining a more and more defined form the longer they are attached to their hosts. A fully corporeal blue leech has countless branching tendrils threaded through its host's flesh (often inside blood vessels and around the spine), a dull blue exoskeleton and two faceted red false eyes, bearing some resemblance to a giant tick. The place where a blue leech is attached (usually the back of the neck) will ache relentlessly, so most of their victims are people who brush that off.
Blue leech infestation is not lethal on its own, but they must be removed to alleviate the pain, and once the leech is fully corporeal that will be fatal for the host. Catch it early.
Orinuk's creation.
Harriers
While these are technically minor demons, a harrier sighting is still cause for great alarm. Harriers, unique among earthbound demons, do not rely directly on humans to stay "alive"; their masters provide for them. Another odd trait of harriers is that they are neotenous and cute: tiny, fluffy-downed children with ridiculously large heads and eyes, always smiling and paying lavish attention to whoever they meet.
They act as imaginary friends and dark little voices, inflating egos and irritating tempers, guiding children to feel unsafe with their parents while the parents grow less and less patient with the child. When their harriers have made the community ripe for harvest, the reapers arrive.
Major
Reapers
Twisted, vaguely humanoid creatures with long, crooked necks, praying mantis "arms," long jagged teeth and clawed feet. Usually about as long as they are tall due to the long neck and hunched posture. The hungrier it is, the less solid a reaper will be; they can appear as sooty clouds, still just as deadly.
Reapers feed on distress and death. If someone is already mentally ill or experiencing inner conflict, they're ideal reaper food; if there are not enough such people for the demon's desired feast, harriers create distress and conflict until there are. No one knows if reapers truly need their feasts to survive; the one Seer who tried to answer that question described the reaper's heart as "war-torn Geiriskali" and spent the rest of her days in a small padded room. Whether the reapers need their food or not, they are certainly determined to enjoy it and spice it with as much distress as possible - just their presence is enough to wake up sleeping fears and doubts, and their venom instills such hideous self-loathing that it seems wrong for the victim to run.
Most reapers owe their primary allegiance to their pact-hunting masters (they are the lesser gargoyles to the hunters' Greater), with Triraxus a close second. Theoretically, any fragment of Aphaeleon should be able to order them around.
River Maidens
You may be familiar with the idea from Russian folklore: a rusalka, a drowned girl intent on luring others to share her grave. There's not much of a difference except that river maidens aren't dead, they were never alive. Primarily, they want to capture people as sacrifices to the pact hunters that live in their area. Often, they keep little hoards for themselves as well.
Some river maidens become so powerful and selfish, and amass such large hoards of stolen treasure, they are usually called river queens. A river queen will demand trinkets and sacrifices for herself, with pact hunters knowing better than to try for a share. Queens are like amphibians in that they can easily leave their waters and hunt away from them. They shape new maidens out of magic and clay, and leave to find new waters once their creations have been breathed to life.
A river maiden takes the form of a dark, oily serpent with a head resembling that of a dead girl around 12 years of age.
It is unclear which of the Lords brought river maidens into being; scholars believe it has since died. Whichever Lord it was gave them a complicated suite of emotions and full sapience: they are people. This fact is becoming more widely accepted in the Congregation, and the more antisocial tendencies of a traditional RQ are attributed to the abandonment they suffer early on.
Shamblers
Horrible-smelling miniatures of Orinuk, made entirely of black goo. They have no vital organs and cannot be killed; when cut apart, each piece of the shambler continues to move. Meeting a shambler's eyes will begin your transformation into yet another shambler.
There are three ways to deal with shamblers: dilute them with water or some other liquid until they cannot stay together, and seep into the ground (they'll be back), dry them up with fire (they'll be back if moisture touches them), or freeze them (they'll be back if the temperature rises).
Goliath Honey Badgers (GHBs)
Don't be fooled by the name. These creatures are very dangerous and not at all badger-like. Thankfully, they only surface to consume the black goop, the "honey," produced by shamblers.
A GHB has 10 blobby "feet," featuring no claws, pads or hair. They're just pale flesh lumps, usually torn up and festering from contact with the ground. GHBs usually die of blood poisoning from their feet. Their fur never ceases to grow, and is never cleaned; an adult GHB will always be matted, flea-infested and reeking of everything it has ever encountered (but mostly its own waste and infections). The mats in a GHB's coat often tear off swatches of skin, the flesh then becoming infected and/or infested by larvae. They have a seemingly random (and large) number of pale, opaque, lidless, completely useless eyes (these may or may not be functional at birth; they are certainly not functional by the time a GHB emerges above ground). GHBs have huge, lolling grey tongues that perpetually drag on the ground, used to lap up black honey. They have no teeth, nor even gums; their mouths are as unformed as their feet. Their minds are more complex than one would think, to allow for optimal production of despair and misery.
Like the River Queens, GHBs have been abandoned by their creator. Unlike the River Queens, we know for these ones it's Orinuk.
It is completely possible to keep them alive and healthy in a controlled environment; Hadariel's Touch Animal Sanctuary has embarked on this task. Orinuk hates them with a vengeance for sidestepping his plan.
Fire-thieves
These do not have a physical form. They're only noticeable as a damp, cold sensation and a bit of quiet despair. Fire-thieves usually prey on dragons, literally stealing the fire from inside them so their cold blood can't run, but they can also sap the strength and fighting spirit from a warm-blooded creature. At least with these killers, there's no question they eat to "live": a fire-thief without stolen warmth will just . . . drift apart, shimmering slightly as it disappears. Believed to be extensions of Orinuk in the world.
Pact Hunters
Demon lords on earth. They are constantly maneuvering to gain more land and subjects (burning back their corrupted, reaper-bearing trees is a yearly activity). Pact hunters positively reek of lilacs and all they truly want is a steady supply of devotion and souls. They look somewhat like smaller, less deformed reapers.
Pact hunters are to Aphaeleon as dragons are to Zerachiel: reflections and shadows in the world (they weren't always; in fact they were born of damaged gargoyle systems following attacks by Livich and the Val, but Aphaeleon wrenched them under her control and melded the two systems into one). Of course with Aphaeleon shattered, they've gone off the rails; the rewards and terms they offer now are nothing Elysium would sanction. Istruzeth has the best chance of commanding pact hunters today, as she bears the closest resemblance to Aphaeleon out of all the fragments.
DEMONS OF THE AETHER
Goka
Purveyor of cursed books. He can be summoned with a simple pentagram and usually appeased with the sacrifice of an innocent life. Anyone teaching from Goka's books will be cast to the Dolphin's Justice and, if they survive that, exiled.
Graden
Lord of neglect and violence.
IZEVAL, Wrath and Hate
Comprehensive, up-to-date information:
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Other information:
The demon Hate is said to bring about anger, resentment, and jealousy. It is also commonly viewed as the force behind certain ideologies like humanism according to Brethren. The demon is known to go by many names throughout various cultures; such as Envy, Wrath, Hate, Discord, Erivail, Malvuk, and Izeval. Izeval being the most well known name in Eastern Kaiserreich. What's different about this demon is that it can never be killed or in a sense, defeated, as it feeds on various sources of emotion and their causes. The demon feeds off of feelings of hate, anger, and jealousy; it can even feed off of negative energy admitted from the sources of any of those said feelings. Even feeling a tiny amount of any of those emotions will be enough to supply the demon. This demon is known to affect humans, nekos, and other species on a sub-conscious level; slowly building up negative feelings whenever they think or are shown something they may dislike or be bothered by. The demon appears to be anywhere at once except for especially holy, religious, and sacred buildings like churches. While people can still feel his affects there, as long as they keep their emotions stable the demon will be weak there. Very rarely does the demon show themselves or speak to anyone; however several accounts from people claim that the demon talked to them and showed itself to them. They describe its voice as male, his voice being a mix of spine chilling and relaxing. They claimed he could take any form or shape he wished but remained as a tall dark blue mist shadowy figure with glowing yellow eyes when he approached them. Although his personality has varied between sources; he is described as being calm and neutral towards all things except other demons. He is described as feeling resentment toward them and believes that they are simply trying to take what's his. Some sources have even stated that he devoured another demon in front of them. Those sources claim that he showed himself to them to offer his resources, that he claimed he would such such negative feelings inside of them that they could be pushed to their limit and become extremely successful and get whatever they wanted. There apparently was no catch. And None of the sources confirm whether they accepted this supposed deal.
Izeval stands equal to the archangels in power, with shadow creatures and all (the pact hunters). He is most powerful in the deep forest where those servants grow on twisted trees. He presides over a world fuelled by his own preferred foods of wrath and hate, called Val World. There is a company of Val Knights fighting there when they are not out hunting in the world. Other demonic creatures simply live there.
LIVICH, Fear
The boogeyman, the tall man, the shadow, all of them he was. The monster under your bed, in your closet, the creature that caused you to scream in the darkest of nights. Which would make your parents burst into your room and ask you what was wrong. He was that creature, that monster, but it was just your imagination right? That's what most, if not, all would think. But they were all wrong. Or were they? Again most, if not, all would never truly know.
But he was there, in the shadows, watching and preying. And so were his abominations. The ones he made to strike even more fear when he couldn't be there. There were many he made. And they also went by many names. Chupacabra, the kraken, Krampus. Many and many different creatures. A lot of them had even stranger names; such as the goat man, bigfoot, and black eyed children. The point is, they were made to bring about fear. To bring about him, and his influence, into you. As said before, he had many names.
But a lot of them were pretty basic in a way, as if children came up with them. Came up with names to represent the scary monster they saw. But there were those who knew more than them. Who knew it wasn't just some childish imagination. They knew he was more than what they saw. And they had a name for him, Livich.
ISTRUZETH, Aphaeleon's Strength
Ripped away from the original along with Triraxus (she now lives in Gehenna with that same fragment). Istruzeth is what remains of Aphaeleon's nature as a fearsome crusader knight.
TRIRAXUS, Aphaeleon's Madness
I say that those tormented in gehenna are struck by the scourge of love. And how bitter and cruel is this agony of love, for, feeling that they have sinned against love, they experience a torment that is greater than any other. The affliction that strikes the heart because of the sin against love is more terrible than any possible punishment. It is wrong to think that gehenna are deprived of God’s love. Love is produced by knowledge of the truth, which (everyone is in agreement about this) is given to all in general. But by its power love affects human beings in a twofold manner: It torments sinners, as even here a friend sometimes causes one to suffer, and it gladdens those who have carried out their duty. And so, in my opinion, the torment of gehenna consists in repentance. Love fills with its joys the souls of the children on high.
---St. Isaac of Syria, BRIDE p. 466
Imagine a Gehenna inspired not by love, but by the ideal of a flawless world. "Repentance" where it doesn't matter if you've done wrong or not, because there doesn't need to be a wrong when you yourself are the sin and the blot on the world. Where you are stripped down slowly into nothing but the desperate wish to destroy yourself, to be anything other than yourself, and kept like that for all eternity.
Triraxus watches and relishes that stripping-down. Her Gehenna is an endless hall of display cases, one for each of her victims, showcasing every tiny break in their heart and mind for the demon queen's pleasure. Those who are "finished" stay pinned on the corkboard at the back of each case. Triraxus has no servants wandering the hallway with her; she cannot make them. She can twist the creations of others to the point where they seem new (as she did in turning three gargoyle systems into producers of pact hunters, reapers etc.), but creation ex nihilo is wholly out of her grasp.
The prisoners could sustain Gehenna indefinitely if Triraxus stopped annihilating them by the hundreds whenever the mood struck. She doesn't. Still, there has never been a shortage for this demon; everyone has her in their heart and they feed her at least a little. Some people feed her a lot. For a delicacy, she drinks the blood spilled in suicide and self-harm; Gehenna is full of various decanters full of blood, which she treats like fine wine. It's said that once Triraxus drinks your blood you will never get better, because she owns you now.
She appears as a tall, cold-eyed woman outfitted in furs and a heavy crown.
ORINUK, Despair
He owns a world of deep, viscous black liquid (the substance of which shamblers are made) with stinking islands of something like mould. Orinuk himself rests at the bottom of the ocean as a hunchbacked, pudgy little thing with hands that drag across the ground, watching as his captured souls struggle at the futile task of reaching the ocean's surface for a breath.
Orinuk visits struggling people as a soothing grey mist, cooling their skin and slowing their heartbeats. He gives them promises of rest, of an end to the struggle, all the while reassuring them that they couldn't change the outcome anyway.
Most of his servants in the world are fire-thieves, the demons that steal dragons' fire and humans' energy.
DRAGONS
General Information
Fire Lungs
Dragon fire is not usually a weapon. Most of the time, it's burning low in the dragon's fire lungs, keeping their blood warm in the cold.
Fire lungs are attached to the normal lungs which are for breathing. Their lining produces a gas which bursts into flame upon contact with oxygen (most dragons are capable of white-hot fire, though not necessarily for long stretches of time). Dragon throats, mouths, and both kinds of their lungs are fire-resistant in the extreme.
The connection between fire lungs and breathing lungs allows a dragon to exhale flames. The catch: it takes them significant time to regenerate their fire gas, so letting fire escape is a last resort except in warm climates.
Tails
A dragon's tail is prehensile and slightly shorter than the main trunk of its body. They mostly use it for hugging people. It comes with three sets of fins (the largest ones are closest to the tip and they get progressively smaller). The fins do not extend to the tip of the tail, and they can easily be folded up, meaning it's useful for pointing at things.
Auxiliary Eyes
There's one set of forward-facing eyes for binocular vision, and either two or four eyes facing to the sides. Directly behind the dragon is still a blind spot.
Paws
Much like a monkey, their paws have awkward and stubby fingers.
Retractable Claws
Like a cat's, just deadlier.
Telepathy
They do not have a verbal language, so this is how dragons communicate. They can speak past language barriers but can't usually understand the replies unless they're fluent in the relevant language. When in perfect control, a dragon can select which individuals (within range) hear or don't hear it, and convey exactly as much emotion as they wish (they cannot, however, convey an emotion they're not feeling at that moment). Distress, exhaustion and simply being a child all reduce a dragon's control. It is considered very rude to hide your emotions from your loved ones as you speak.
Dolphin's Sight
Significantly weaker than that of the humans who do possess it, but in common use for discerning who is allowed near the eggs.
Social Structures
Dragon families are defined by their matron (the founder of their family). The matron settles disputes, provides a sense of stability and makes the rarely needed executive decisions. Only matrons may adopt; if a dragon who is not a matron decides to adopt someone, she becomes the matron of her own immediate family (spouse and children) and independent of her old family. When two dragons get married, they choose which of their matrons to live under (only ever two choices). When the matron of a large family dies, all the remaining mothers, grandmothers etc. become the matrons of their respective descendants. Matrons who are related to each other tend to live a respectful distance apart.
A War Angel born to Beauties is automatically not under their matron, and leaves as soon as they're able to look after themselves; same deal for a Fury born to War Angels.
A standard dragon community consists of three or four matrons and their large families, with smaller families mixed in but not exactly defining the place. This arrangement usually doesn't form in interspecies communities; instead, each matron will adopt a human and the family clusters around that. This gives them access to a wide, supportive community without them needing to reconstruct the entire system of Matron and Tree under different social rules.
Scales
Dragons of the same size generally have to try very hard to really hurt each other; they're not strong enough to pierce their own type of scale with teeth or claws. Bruising, however, can happen underneath the scales and take quite a long time to heal. Furies can usually bite through War Angel scales with effort and Beauty scales without much effort; War Angels can bite through Beauty scales with a medium amount of effort.
Beauty scales function as leather armour in combat; War Angel scales function as scale mail; Fury scales function as plate mail that covers everything. Obviously they don't restrict the dragons' movement.
Wings and tail fins are not scaled, generally the most vulnerable part of a dragon. If they are sufficiently torn up the dragon's flight will be severely impaired (and painful).
Demonic Influence
Exposure to demonic activity provokes the "guardian mechanism" instilled by Zerachiel, making War Angels out of Beauty eggs and Furies out of War Angel eggs. Both War Angels and Furies can have children of their same type, but this is not exactly likely as they are fairly rare.
Variants
Beauties
The standard, original dragons: cat-sized, with brightly coloured metallic scales. They have one eye to each side and no horns. Beauties usually lay clutches of one to four eggs.
War Angels
The next level of dragon: about the size of a Russian bear dog, usually some shade of grey, brown or black, with short curved horns reminiscent of a sheep's. One eye to each side. Only one egg at a time.
Furies
The final level of dragon. The main trunk of an adult Fury's body is approximately the size of a bus. They have long, straight horns designed for goring things. Furies have two eyes on each side of their head and two facing forward. Second-generation Furies tend to be chubbier than their parents.
