Demons

Up until very recently the actual existence of demons was a fact known to only a few religious scholars, students of the occult, and the occasional demonologist as a verifiable fact. The demons have always been there of course, but they kept their interactions with the mortal world brief and subtle: the occasional possession, crossroads deals, whispered encouragements to do the “wrong” thing... Demons have preferred to keep a low profile, so as to avoid tipping their hands, and as a way to keep information about them from spreading. But, something has changed.

What that might be, no one can say for sure, but what is known is that demons are coming to Earth in far greater numbers than ever before and are far more active and aggressive than they have been in the past.

The Origins of Demons

After the creator had finished creating, he stood before the primal forms of the first man and the first woman and he commanded his first creations, the Angels, to love the humans more than they loved Him. Many of the Angels did as they were commanded, but others did not. Lucifer, Second Born, and one of God’s favorite angels refused to do so, arguing that the humans were flawed deeply in their souls and that he could not love a creature created by the Almighty more than he loved the Almighty himself. For this crime, Lucifer and his followers were cast from Heaven in an event known as the Fall. In the Fall, God's wrath transformed all of the fallen angels into Demons, except for Lucifer who remained an Archangel.

After the fall, Lucifer and his fallen angels, now known as the Princes of Hell, set about learning and exploiting humanity to prove that they were flawed and unworthy of such divine love. Lucifer was the first to devise the method that human souls can be warped into demons, and taught the others this process, known as conversion.

The Almighty was not pleased, and his displeasure created the spiritual realm of Hell, and he cast Lucifer into a prison in the depths of Hell, condemning Lucifer to be imprisoned forever.

What are demons?

Most demons are the souls of human beings which have been tortured, broken, and twisted by other demons in hell. After they are broken or twisted they must take a host in order to traffic with the living. But, there are other ways of becoming a demon, such as making a deal with a Crossroad Demon, to being a sorcerer, or trading one's soul to a demon for the seals of a demonic thrall.

On the Nature of Evil

Very few individuals actually consider themselves to be 'evil' in the common sense of the term, and everyone is the protagonist of their own stories, for better or worse. It is also known that evil is ultimately banal, boring, and repetitive. There are only so many innocents you can slaughter and eat, so many horrors you can inflict on the world, before their pleasures begin to pall. Most demons are human souls, tortured and twisted, but still human, that have forgotten what it means and how it feels to be human. In light of that knowledge, when considering playing a demon, remember that horror does not allows have to be rooted in atrocity or random acts of insane super-violence. Ravening evil is a threat, but a controlled, disciplined, determined demon with a goal should always be scarier than the ravening bloodthirsty monster.

Demonic Secrets

• Unbeknownst to all but the oldest of demons, some angels, and ancient vampires, vampires were created by the demons to use as weapons against Heaven in the Apocalypse.