Succubi

> "*It's not easy being one of my kind, Inquisitor. I did not choose my nature. I do what I must to survive. Imagine, with every new stranger you meet, you look in their eyes and their darkest, most obscene and most hidden desire flashes before you... that's my entire life. My makers had a cruel sense of humour.*"
> ― The Succubus known as Dili
>
>

**Succubi** were a rare but highly dreaded and feared intelligent demon which survived by extracting and consuming the life-essence of mortal or demonic prey, and were capable of radically changing their apperance through magical means to avoid suspicion and trick their target into compliance. In western sources, Succubi are sometimes referred to as Incubi when taking a male form, but this distinction is arbitrary and was never one made by Inecurians. However, Succubi were far more commonly found in a female form than a male one, likely because they tended to be more successful this way.

The exact origin of Succubi is unknown, but it is widely believed - including by the Succubi themselves, according to interviews conducted by Inquisitors - that they were created to serve as spies and assassins in a war between Titans, possibly in the Annihilation itself. However, with their master gone - most likely dead - they began to roam freely across both the Dreadlands and the mortal world with no other objective than finding prey to keep themselves alive.

However, not all Succubi relegated themselves to being pure predators. Some Succubi were known to make contracts with mortals to be spies and assassins, and even the Imperial Inquisition made use of Succubi they were certain they could keep under control, using them to infiltrate demon-worshipping cults and criminal slaver gangs. During the Time of Troubles, the Inquisition even made use of a Succubus in a court of law to prove that an Asarebian priest accused of sexually molesting a horse was a zoophile, leading to his execution.

## Feeding

How a Succubus fed itself is similar to the principle of how Vampires feed themselves; they directly consumed life-essence (also referred to as life-energy or life-force) rather than physical food to keep themselves alive. However, whilst Vampires extract life-essence by eating flesh and blood, Succubi extracted it magically. To achieve this, they made use of the phenomenon of Chaos - that is, the disruption of magical energy and the weakening of magical barriers caused by intense and extreme emotional states. Whilst most demons and Titans that consumed life-essence made use of negative emotions such as fear and despair to make direct extraction possible, Succubi - as their western name may suggest - made use of ecstatic pleasure, weakening their target by bringing them to orgasm before wrenching out their life-essence.

The purpose of a Succubus's shapeshifting was to serve the goal of feeding; they shifted into a form pleasing to their chosen prey to drive them mad with desire, making the process of enticing the prey into a sexual act - as well as the act itself - significantly easier. To further serve this end, Succubi were capable of a limited degree of mind-reading; they were capable of seeing the greatest sexual desires of all those they encountered - provided that they were a creature capable of sexual desire - to learn which specific acts would induce the most potent pleasure, in order to weaken the barriers shielding their life-essence as far as possible. According to a Succubus who spoke with the Inquisition known as Dili, this mind-reading was not a voluntary or conscious process; a Succubus saw the most depraved desires of all those they met whether they wanted to or not.

Although feeding necessarily entailed sexual acts and bringing their prey to orgasm, sexual acts did not necessarily entail feeding. Much of a Succubus's behaviour was instinctual and unconscious, but the decision to tear out a victim's life-essence was always within their control, and a Succubus was capable of engaging in sexual acts without killing their partner. This was extremely rare, since a Succubus did not often have a reason to engage in sexual acts without the promise of food.

## Shapeshifting

The key ability of a Succubus was their ability to magically change their shape, the only known case of a non-Titanic creature being able to do so. The physical body of a Succubus was not the Succubus itself, but merely a puppet of flesh; the true Succubus was an immaterial and unobservable being. When a Succubus adopted a new form, it did not merely alter the form of its body, but rather completely destroy its old body and create an entirely separate new one; Succubi whose body suffered wounds and diseases would typically change their shape to instantly heal themselves. However, shapeshifting would also eradicate any material eaten by the body, meaning they were generally very hungry after shifting.

The health of the Succubus itself was only loosely tied to the health of its body, since its body was nothing but a physical vessel. Killing a Succubus's body did not kill the Succubus - in fact, Succubi were known to be able to essentially resurrect themselves multiple times by shapeshifting after being "killed" - and the body had to be sustained separately to the Succubus, needing to eat and drink and perform all other duties mortals must do to survive.

The method of killing a Succubus was based on starving the Succubus rather than their body; they would often still have their body killed regardless to incapacitate them, but they were then locked away in a secure container - usually a large metal box - and left completely alone so that the Succubus itself was starved of energy until it was no longer capable of taking a new shape, at which point it was considered dead. Depending on how recently the Succubus had fed, this could take up to six months. However, it remains unknown whether a Succubus could actually truly be killed, or whether those who were deprived of energy were condemned to eternal, immortal imprisonment in the bones of their puppet. In either case, the result was the same; the Succubus was no longer capable of being a threat.

### Limitations

There were limitations on how far a Succubus could change its size. The shortest height a Succubus was ever observed taking was three feet (91.4 cm), and the tallest was eight feet (243.8 cm). Given that Succubi generally took on hominid forms, their heights tended to cluster between five and seven feet. However, within this size range, they could take essentially any possible shape as long as it was that of an organic creature; Succubi could not become or imitate inanimate objects.

The most substantial limitation, however, was that a Succubus could not simply take whatever form they wanted. Since the purpose of their shapeshifting was to entice prey into sexual acts, they could only shapeshift into whatever form a chosen target found the most sexually desirable - and if the target was incapable of sexual desire, they could not be used to change shape. In order to target an individual to shift into their greatest desire, a Succubus had to be in close proximity to them - generally estimated to be within twenty metres - and, although direct visual contact did not appear to be necessary, the Succubus had to know exactly where they were. If a Succubus had shifted into the desire of a target, they could not use the same target again; if they wished to refresh their body to heal wounds or disease, they first had to shift into another's desire before shifting back.

Though the shape of a Succubus was tied to the desires of others and not what the Succubus themselves wanted to be, Succubi understood the rules they operated under and were fully capable of gaming the system by seeking out specific individuals to shapeshift with. The most famous example of this is Elisa Escarion, the Succubus Queen of Cosria, who maintained a constant identity as Elisa Escarion by capturing and imprisoning her "brother" Elavon so that she could continually use him to shift back into a consistent form even after taking different forms when going out to hunt.

### Clothing and Accessories

To some extent, Succubi were capable of conjuring clothing from seemingly nothing, though this behaviour is poorly understood, and most morcanologists have resigned themselves to describing it as a complete mystery. Observations of Succubi and the testimonies of Succubi themselves give inconsistent and contradictory evidence on how far this ability could reach and what it was capable of creating. It is possible that even the Succubi themselves may not have understood how this ability functioned, as it was an instinctual and subconscious process for them.

The two main theories concerning what this ability was capable of are known as the Talent theory and the Target theory. The Talent theory states that what a Succubus could conjure depended on the individual Succubus themselves and how much they were capable of, both through natural talent and trained skill. Less talented Succubi could only make basic clothing of limited materials, whereas the most talented could fashion armour for themselves and even create weapons and currency out of thin air. This aligns with how magic generally works in other species - that it is dependent on a mix of both natural affinity and experience - but it is generally not supported by interviews conducted on actual Succubi, as they do not appear to have considered it a skill that needed to be trained in.

The Target theory states that what a Succubus could conjure depended not on their talent, but rather what effect they were trying to have on their chosen target. Given that the physical body of a Succubus was dependent on their target's desire rather than what the Succubus actually wanted to turn into, the Target theory continues this line of thinking to other objects conjured by the Succubus; in other words, they were only capable of creating clothing and accessories that their target desired. If the target found a certain type of clothing especially appealing or arousing, the Succubus would wear it; if the target found soldiers desirable, they would take on arms and armour; if the target was attracted to wealth, they would manifest hoards of coins and exquisite jewellery. This theory has generally been favoured more by morcanologists ever since the Imperial Civil War, which gave access to a new wave of Succubi for observation.

The clothing and accessories that a Succubus conjured were destroyed along with the old body whenever they changed their shape, which sometimes led to cases of infuriated merchants who sold expensive goods to wealthy customers only to have the money later disintegrate before their eyes.

## Psychology

Succubi were observed having a wide range of personalities, and a range of opinions on how much they liked their lifestyle. Some Succubi delighted in the hunt, enjoying the thrill of manipulating and killing their prey, whereas others cursed their nature and despised the fact they had to murder to survive. Some found the sexual acts they needed to perform pleasurable, whilst others considered them a chore. Some were predators only concerned with survival, whereas others had a genuine interest in changing the world around them and used their powers to that end.

Psychologically, Succubi were rather alike Savuans in that, mentally, they were little different from mortals. Though evidence suggests that most of them cared little for their victims, this is generally understood to be a coping mechanism to deflect away from the trauma of being forced to murder thousands of people in their most intimate moments over the course of multiple centuries. The existence of Succubi who loathed themselves and went to great pains to never kill those they considered innocent disproves the notion that their psychopathic tendencies were innate - as does the fact that there were Succubi who differentiated between those who were innocent and those who deserved death through their wickedness.