Demons (LEDDlabs)

This page describes a story I'm actually trying to write. Any information past the first section counts as spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Demons
i googled "demon clip art" for this image

Demons are a type of being researched within LEDDlabs. Known demons include Rat and Astaroth.

Biology

Appearance

Demons are humanoid beings with animal features. All demons have at least one set of horns, but beyond that, features can vary wildly. Tails are also common. Due to their affinity for shapeshifting, most demons can hide their features easily to blend in with humans. Powerful demons also have more monsterous forms they can utilize when necessary. These forms appear similar to chimeras, an amalgamation of all their animal inspirations. Demon's appearances are also known to shift and change slowly over time, with traits being added, moved, or removed as they age. Some demons have specific attributes they carefully maintain over time, and some demons look like completely new people after a few centuries.

Abilities

Demons are immortal beings, and thus can only be killed by a more powerful demon or a holy entity. They can be injured, but their regenerative abilities allow them to return from even the worst states, with some powerful demons able to regenerate practically instantly. All demons have some affinity for shapeshifting, though the specifics of what they can do vary. Other commonly found abilities include unnatural strength, unnatural speed, telekinesis, telepathy, possession, and illusion magic. More complex abilities are dependant on a demon's classification. Wings are fairly common with higher demons, but many still find flight difficult.

As beings intended to inspire sin amongst mortals, demons have an ability to quickly identify someone's moral weaknesses, their sins, vices, guilts. This is to help them better manipulate mortals into doing what they want. Rat compares the ability to a sense of smell. It isn't something demons can "turn off", as much as humans may see it as a breach of privacy.

A demon's monsterous form is typically only used in extreme last-ditch-effort scenarios. These bigger and more dangerous forms use up a lot of energy to maintain and control. For powerful demons, this isn't so much an issue, and some archdemons are known to stay in them constantly as a display of power.

Categories

There are multiple "levels" of demons, and multiple subcategories within. The most powerful demons are archdemons, who directly fell from Heaven. The demons decended from those are simply refered to as demons, making up the majority of Hell's population. Below those are devils, imps, hellhounds, and any other fiends. These are demons that are less powerful or more animalistic than typical demons.

Most demons also have a classificiation they swear themselves to, the most common of which are the 7 sins. A demon's classifictions have nothing to do with their own personality; for example, a Sloth demon isn't necessarily sleepy all the time. They work more like jobs and come with specific tasks to support Hell. Classifications can be changed, with some difficulty. Due to how they impact a demon's abilities and appearance, changing classifications comes with an awkward transition phase where the demon doesn't quite belong to either category and is inefficient at most tasks. Rat's classification of pestilence is considered old-fashioned and unusual.

Reproduction

The original archdemons, as fallen angels, were not made with the capacity to reproduce between each other. Instead, they found ways of increasing their numbers by using mortals. Pregnancy between a human and a demon will always result in a demon child. However, this method has a decrease of demonic power with each generation. This is what leads to later generations producing imps or devils, rather than full demons. As long as the archdemons are alive, new fully-powered demons can always be made.

Demons have no maternal/paternal instincts, and do not particiapte in raising their children. Demon children are either left with the human parent until they are old enough to join Hell's forces, or left to fend for themselves within Hell. Tracking of heritige is extremely difficult, though those born directly from the archdemons love to flaunt their bloodline.

Diet

Demons cannot starve to death, but they do still need to eat. Energy derived from eating is used for magic, like shapeshifting and regeneration. Demons can eat just about anything, thanks to their immortality, but they only gain energy from corrupting and consuming mortals. The only other method for generating energy is sleeping, and it only gives a small amount. Most demons don't bother sleeping at all.

Hell

Hell is ruled by multiple levels of leaders, with the highest in power being archdemons, like Astaroth. Demons fall under the jurisdiction of different leaders based upon their classifications, though these divisions aren't strict. Archdemons randomly selecting demons to various classifications to serve under them is not unheard of. Their society is also primarily focused on military strength, as their main purpose is to oppose the forces of Heaven.