Demons

The denizens of the Abyss are no less feared than the Abyss itself, although not many people know anything about them. They are called demons and scholars describe them as being very different from the sentient races, and that being sentient is about the only thing we have in common. While humans and the other races derive their self-consciousness from their bodies, demons have achieved theirs from magical energies. They are spirits, of sorts, but of a completely different composition than the spirits that dwell in the Spirit Realm. Demons speak a language of their own which is unfortunately unspeakable by humans except when aided by magic.

In the Abyss demons create their own bodies, which are often extravagant and excessive. As a race, demons are not very imaginative, and once a form has been assumed they cannot change it, only add to it. They envy humans and the other races for their ability to use their bodies as extensions of themselves, while demons only have bodies that reflect what they already are. This means that for all demons their physical characteristics reflects their mental counterparts, so a demon can never have a higher agility than intelligence as it is the demon’s speed of mind that determines its bodily speed as well.

In the Abyss demons ignore all wounds as they are of a spiritual nature and cannot be killed from physical harm to their bodies.Wounds however affect them if they appear in the Mortal Realm and grave injuries will expel them back to the Abyss. Demons cannot survive being unconscious. If they become unconscious while in the Abyss they will perish. If they become unconscious in the Mortal Realm they will vanish and return to the Abyss where they will be fully recovered.

As demons attain power they shapechange into more powerful forms. They generally strive towards improving themselves or gaining status but how they try to achieve this have led scholars to divide demons into the amaroks, devourers, djinns, fiends, gorgons and satyrs.

Demons can travel to the Spirit Realm in the same way as mortals can. They can battle and befriend spirits and explore the strange landscape. For demons the Spirit Realm is far less confusing than to mortals but they stand little to gain from being there. Most demons in the Spirit Realm are there to either spy on mortals who are sleeping or to actually try to find mortals visiting the Spirit Realm who they can possess.

Demonic crafting
Demons are skilled craftsmen and artisans in their own realm, but they are not used to working with materials in the way mortals do. Demonic crafted items are usually very effective but not very durable. Many items are turned into artifacts due to the fact that demons recover magical power much faster in the Abyss.

Demons hate to part with their crafted items, especially to mortals. Their price is therefore often high in the only things demons crave from mortals: mortal souls or time to spend freely in the Mortal Realm. Note that demons, especially devils, often imbue artifacts they create with fateful flaws that are intended to somehow punish its wielder for his or her insolence in their dealings.

Summoning
It is possible to summon the denizens of the Abyss to the Mortal Realm using magic from the conjuration school. Demons are divided into minor, lesser, moderate, greater and lords. The level of the demon determines the level of the spell required to summon it but also what protective means might be taken.

When a demon is summoned it is allowed to take on its natural physical form. Being in this state in the Mortal Realm requires a lot of magical energies and the demon will have it's magical powers drained over time. When the demon has no power left it will be returned to the Abyss. Mages summoning demons can bind then, using part of their own power to sustain them. Bound demons can act in the Mortal Realm for as long as the mage sustains the Spell. When the Spell ends their own power will start to be drained.

Using the appropriate conjuration spell will open up a passageway through which a demon can travel to the Mortal Realm. If a demon does not want to be summoned it may attempt to resist, which would require the summoner to test his or her willpower against the demon. A Pentagram is recommended as it prevents lower level demons from attacking once summoned. Pentagram or not, once a demon has been summoned a conjurer must either charm, command or coerce it into submission. If this fails the demon will be hostile and try to attack or possess the summoner unless a Pentagram is active. If a summoned demon become hostile but cannot contend with is summoner it will instead try to escape and cause as much havoc as possible until its power is drained.

Manifestation
Demons usually cannot manifest on their own in the Mortal Realm. They need a portal or to be summoned to be able to cross over. The presence of very strong magic can sometimes make it easy enough for a determined demon to cross.

Possession
An alternative to manifesting in the Mortal Realm is for a demon to take control over a mortal host. The host must be a creature which is self-conscious. If possessing a creature a demon does not drain any of its power to remain in the Mortal Realm. The mortal possessed will still be wide awake but unable to control him or herself beyond what the demon permits.

A demon can be summoned to manifest itself and then aided in taking possession over a body. It can also attempt to do this by itself, although this is quite difficult for the demon. It is somewhat easier for a demon to try and possess a summoner.

The third option for possession is for a demon to encounter a mortal within the Spirit Realm. The mortal must be there by choice and not just sleeping. The demon may then attempt to dominate the mind of the mortal.

It is important to know that while a demon in possession of a host can command complete control over the body they rarely do so. Instead they try to influence their host into doing what they want. Not letting their presence become known they don’t have to deal with a mortal actively trying to resist them.