Daemon Ritus

The **Daemon Ritus** is a relic prominently featured in *Scooby-Doo: The Movie*.

The relic is necessary for summoning demons and its inscriptions tell of the evil Darkopalypse Ritual. Used once before by Scrappy-Doo, it was later encased in a plexiglass container and donated by Mystery Inc. for display at the Smithsonian Institute.

## History

### *Scooby-Doo: The Movie*

During an investigation of the Spooky Island Castle, Daphne Blake came across a room housing the relic and approached it with curiosity. As she went to touch it, it suddenly sprung open, allowing her to view inscriptions depicting demons on each of the four panels. She closed the object and removed it from the platform, causing bars to lift and start forming a cage around her. She jumped through one of the closing gaps and narrowly avoided capture.

Shortly thereafter, Daphne and the other members of Mystery Inc. wore disguises to avoid notice by approaching henchmen. They listened as one henchman told Zarkos about the stolen relic, to which he said that it was time to summon the "big muchachos".

Velma Dinkley investigated the relic at Spooky Hotel, discovering further inscriptions and attracting the attention of N'goo Tauna. She noted to Metal Head that the text appeared to describe instructions to a secret ritual. After Velma was captured by a demon, N'goo tried to get the relic and was beaten there by Daphne.

The next day, Daphne was carrying the Daemon Ritus in her purse when she was captured by Zarkos outside the women's locker room. It would soon be placed on a pedestal in the cavern as Daphne's soul was removed from her body and replaced with a demon. Shaggy Rogers quickly swiped it from the pedestal after freeing Daphne, Velma and Fred Jones from the soul vat.

When Daphne and Fred's souls were each in the opposite person's body, the Daemon Ritus had a negative reaction and began scrambling the souls of all those present. It took a few minutes until each member of the group was in the appropriate body.

Following a conversation with the Voodoo Maestro, Velma re-examined the relic and realized that it told of the Darkopalypse Ritual. Furthermore, she realized that Scooby-Doo was to be used as an ultimate sacrifice when it was performed.

During the attempted Darkopalypse Ritual, the Daemon Ritus was confiscated from Fred and Velma's bags as they were caught in the middle of a rescue plan. The relic was attached to the chest of Scrappy-Doo, and it absorbed a majority of the stolen souls before being interrupted by Shaggy. Shaggy later used the Soul Snatcher to rip the Daemon Ritus out from Scrappy's chest, freeing all of the absorbed souls.

The relic was ultimately placed in a plexiglass container and donated to the Smithsonian Institute.

## Apocryphal

In the first script draft, the Daemon Ritus is actually a book, hundreds of years old. After taking it, Daphne showed some of the pages to Shaggy and Scooby, which each featured an illustration of demons wreaking havoc on Earth. While Daphne found the art disturbing, Shaggy and Scooby noted that they would look good as T-shirt designs. Instead of keeping the entire book, Shaggy tore out and pocketed a few of the pages.

Later, Shaggy presented Velma with the stolen pages as the gang reunited on the beach. Velma was able to read the text, which told directly of Scooby's role in the Darkopalypse Ritual, and which included an illustration of a "well-muscled" version of him.

Sometime after solving the case on Spooky Island, Shaggy acquired a T-shirt with artwork of a demon eating a baby's head, referencing one of the illustrations found in the Daemon Ritus.

## Appearance

In the film and all adaptations, the Daemon Ritus is a pyramid-shaped metallic object with yin-yang symbols on each side. When opened, one can find a wheel in the center, as well as visual depictions of demonic possession on each of the four panels. When the wheel is turned, even more illustrations become visible, depicting demons ruling on Earth. Covering the object is an ancient text that reminds Velma of Babylonian hieroglyphics, describing the Darkopalypse Ritual.

In the first script draft, the Daemon Ritus is an aging book with its name on the cover in gold writing. All of the text inside is written in a language derivative of Latin, describing the Darkopalypse Ritual and the "Great Canine" that would become Scooby-Doo. Illustrations similar to the film version's engravings can be found on some of the pages. Various passages were marked with yellow highlighter.

## Appearances

* *Scooby-Doo: The Movie*
* *Scooby-Doo: The Movie!* novel

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Scooby-Doo: The Movie*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Scooby-Doo: The Movie!* (novel)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Scooby-Doo* (March 17, 2000 draft)