Demon
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Basic Information

A Demon is an evil spirit from mythology, folklore or religion.

Appearance:

Demons could look like anything. If you examine the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, for example, you'll see that his demons are downright surreal. Other old depictions often give them cloven hooves and/or fur from the waist down, like a Satyr. Depictions of demons can run the gamut from humanoid to angelic to eldritch abomination.

According to the “confessions” of those who have been tortured into "admitting" they are witches (and/or had sex with a demon), demons often have icy cold bodies, black skin, and weigh more than humans. If such Demons also sometimes appear as animals, usually all black specimens, such as the traditional black cats as a Witch's Familiar. (Of course, confessions given under duress of torture might not have any truth to them.)

A lot of movies and tv shows depict them with horns, wings, and claws. Often the body is an odd color, like bright red, deathly gray, or lustrous black. When it's gray, they look a little reminiscent of medieval gargoyles. Most of the demons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it's imitators are pretty much Rubber Forehead Alien or People In Rubber Suits.

It's also pretty common to see Demons depicted as looking like, or inhabiting humans. Due to tropes like Evil is Sexy and Horny Devils, this will often result in a demon that wears a slinky dress, S&M leathers, or a stylish business suit. When angered or on the prowl, however, they may manifest fangs or femme fatalons, or just Glowing Eyes of Doom. See Glamour Failure for more ideas on demons that can almost pass for human.

Powers:

With or without wings, demons are often depicted as being capable of flight. As a spirit, they may be able to turn Invisible or Intangible. Many demons have potent combat powers, sometimes including pyrokinesis (see also hellfire). But the most universal power ascribed to demons is the ability to tempt, seduce, influence or possess. Some can grant wishes, or bargain for power, but there's always strings attached.

Demons in Religion:

In Christian Demonology, a Demon is specifically a Fallen Angel. Lucifer rebelled against heaven, and was cast down by the armies of God (which were lead by the Archangel Michael). In the New Testament, Jesus drives out demons left and right. In more recent times, mere mention of the name of Jesus is often depicted as enough to at least force a demon to reveal itself, if not flee. “The Power Of Christ Compels Thee” is a useful (and memorable) line to insert into your game.

The term demon predates Christianity by several centuries, however, and did not always mean what it does now. Demons fall into two categories in the Hebrew Bible, the se'irim and the shedim. The term “demon” was also employed by Hesiod, Plato, and Xenocrates to refer to various spirits and weaker gods. Some elements of the demon concept in Judaism and Christianity originated in Zoroastrianism. In addition, many of the demons mentioned in religious works of Judaism and Christianity share the names of various gods of other religions and mythologies.

Demons and Devils:

In some settings, the term “Demon” and “Devil” are interchangeable, though often The Devil is reserved for Lucifer or a similar Ultimate Evil.

In settings with a Multiverse full of numerous Planes of Existence, and/or systems that care a lot about Character Alignment, you may find a functional or thematic difference between Demons and Devils. In such a case, often the Devils are the Legions of Hell, a Lawful Evil army in the service of Satan, in contrast to the Chaotic Evil demons. Another fairly common take is that devils are focused on evil, whereas demons are focused on chaos.

Non-Evil Demons

Lately, some media (Buffy, for example) have popularized the notion of a Demon not necessarily being evil. These recent films and shows are not the originators of such a concept, however, as both Hesiod and Shakespeare depicted some “good” demons. The terms Daemon, Daimon or Eudaimon is sometimes used to refer to such spirits, to distinguish them from the fallen angel types. However, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k use Daemon to mean Demon (or perhaps Demon In Space), so you can't always assume the alternate spelling actually means a darned thing.

See Also:

Interpretations and Classifications

Demon subtypes

Demon-Related Tropes

Demons In Science, Psychiatry, and Philosophy

The demon is sometimes used as a concept, metaphor, or thought puzzle in scientific fields.

Demons in the News

Miscellaneous Links

Sources

Bibliography

Game and Story Use

  • Demons make perfect villains - there's no doubt (in most settings) they're evil, and they come with a pretty wicked back story. May serve as the Big Bad, or a conjured demon may be The Dragon.
  • Demonic Possession makes it easy to insert a misleading villain that is not what he seems. Either an ally who gets possessed mid-campaign, or an obvious villain who looks like one creature or trope, but has a diabolically sinister secret.
  • When backed into a corner, some PCs might be willing to deal with the devil. Unless the game has cheap resurrection, there might not be any disadvantage to the players for selling their characters souls.
    • On the other hand, a sneaky GM may just figure out how to make the drawbacks kick in while you're still alive.
    • Deadlands combines the resurrection with the deal with the devil. Sometimes a dead hero comes back as a Harrowed, a sporadically-possessed form of undead. You still get to play the character, but there's a constant struggle for control.
Page tags: character demon evil monster supernatural
page revision: 6, last edited: 06 May 2010 16:39
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