Demon Culture/History

General

**History**

Culture

Abilities

Original

## Known History

### Early Life

There is a legend among Demons about a Demon known as The Beast which supposedly takes place before the Angel-Demon War, back during the times when Demons lived on the surface. The Beast is believed to be the first beastly Demon. According to legend The Beast got a taste of the pure souls of children and began to consume many children regardless of if they were surface dweller, Angel or even Demon children. Eventually, The Devil of the time hunted down The Beast but every prison he was placed in failed to hold him due to the powers he had acquired from consuming so many children's souls. For revenge against The Devil for attempting to lock him away The Beast devoured The Devil's son. The Devil was furious at the death of his son and cursed The Beast by ripping his soul out. The Devil then placed The Beast's soul into a lantern and banished him to the shadows. The stories claim that The Beast's lantern was tossed into Hell with the rest of the Demon's and that he is still looking to consume children's souls in Hell's darkest corners. This story is so old that it is unclear whether these events actually transpired or if they are simply a legend to discourage Demon children from going too deep into Hell's caverns (Inky Extra's Ch 89).

In the past, Demons lived on the surface along with all other toons in peace with the other races. According to The Devil of the time's journal he appeared to be a beloved ruler and Demon culture as a whole was much calmer compared to their modern-day culture. They had grand cities and a flourishing culture (Ch 151).

### Notable Events

#### Ink Illness

A little over four thousand years ago, before the War, the world was ravaged by Ink Illness. The Demons came together with the Angels, Dishes and Micco to create a cure for this terrible disease which turned out to be the Ink Machine. As their contribution to the machine the Demons created The Instrument (Ch 186). Once all the pieces were put together the first test of the Ink Machine was performed on a Demon called Grandidier, which was successful even if some adjustments still had to be made to the machine following this test. In fact most of the early tests of the Ink Machine were performed on Demon's given that they were the most resilient to the extreme magical changes caused by the Ink Machine curing process (Ch 216).

#### The Angel-Demon War

In the past, approximately 4000 years ago, Demon's lived on the surface along with all other toons in peace with the other races. According to The Devil of the times journal he appeared to be a beloved ruler and Demon culture as a whole was much calmer compared to the modern day culture. But then one night Micco General Vicerion walked in on what appeared to be The Devil (though the actual identity of this individual is up for debate) attempting to take the Ink Machine for himself. General Vicerion fought to protect the machine and, while he died in this fight, he managed to curse his opponent as his final act to prevent them from ever being able to use the Ink Machine themselves. Moments after the general's death his daughter Ventis and a couple Angels burst into the room, seemingly catching "The Devil" in the act before he used his magic to escape them (Ch 217).

General Vicerion's death was the inciting incident for the Angel-Demon War as The Devil claimed he was being framed and refused to turn himself in as he knew that instead of a fair trial he would simply be killed for his supposed crime. The Demons also refused to hand The Devil over, claiming that the other races were planning their destruction. This refusal to hand over The Devil led to the War as the Angels fought to get the justice they believed was owed. It is important to note that despite the fact that it physically appears to be The Devil who killed the General at the time that both The Devil's personal journals and the assessment of one of General Vicerions own daughter, Lukahd, who used her mastery of soul magic to check The Devil's soul to see if he was lying about his guilt, attested to the fact that The Devil is actually being framed (Ch 217).

It seems that, a long with the fighting between the races themselves, much of the War as about the Angel's side keeping the Ink Machine out of the Demon's side hands (Ch 217).

At some point during the war one of The Devil's closest friends killed Archangel Barachiel and took his wings as a prize, which can still be found displayed in Hell's museum to this day (Ch 151).

The Demon's base during the War was protected not only by the Demons themselves but also by various magical barricades. For example, there was one barricade that was a thick wall of thorns. Another barricade was an air defense against the Angels in the form of tall towers with diamond shaped heads and purple gems in them (Ch 221). When activated these diamond headed towers would flash purple, filling the air with lightning and preventing the Angels from flying safely (Ch 214). Enormous spider webs covered many of these barricades. There also seems to have been some form of spatial magic protection around these barriers as Lukahd was not able to teleport as she usually would until she had passed the wall of thorns (Ch 221).

During the War, Demons started devouring enemies souls on the battlefield, leaving the physical, soulless husks of what was left of the individuals behind. The Angels also seemed to have gotten more brutal during the War as Lukahd implies that any Demon unlucky enough to get captured suffered terrible agony during their imprisonment. She also mentions that what happened to the Demons at the hand of the Laputan Micco was particularly viscous (Ch 217).

Despite the general viciousness of the War the Demons still committed to certain War etiquette rules. For example, one such rule was that whoever captured an enemy got to keep them as their prize until that person releases said enemy (Ch 221).

The various battles waged during the War destroyed many cities, both those controlled by the Demons and by the Angels. Eventually, the conflict grew to the point where an extermination order on all Demon's was issued (Ch 151).

Later on in the War, Demons began not only eating souls on the battlefield but also stealing them in order for their allies, most notably Lukahd (aka the Lady of Despair), to perform inhumane experiment on them. By the end of the War thousands of souls and people had been taken captive to use in these experiments. The Demons strategies also got more viscous as the War continued, once again in part due to the Lady of Despair's contributions. Lukahd used her experience with strategy, learned from her father, General Vicerion, to make plans of attack for the Demon forces. She also helped in creating plans to specifically counter her sister Ventis, who was the only other one who would know of their father's battle strategies like she did. In the beginning the strategies Lukahd employed were tailored towards efficiency, fast victories with few causalities. Later on her strategies, much like the woman herself, become more deadly and involved the committing of various war crimes. As her sister, Ventis, described them these later strategies involved, "Murder and ill-treatment of occupied territories toward civilian populations and prisoners of war. Plundering of public and private property, needless destruction of cities, towns, and villages and unjustified devastation." (Ch 221).

At some point near the end of the War the last of the Demon's barriers fell and a genocide occurred. Many Demons rushed to hide evidence of the various crimes they had committed, such as killing the captives they were experimenting on. Many of these poor test subjects were successfully killed before their Angel allies could get through to save them (Ch 221).

According to a scroll found by Black Hat in the current Devil's office it was a Dish that defeated The Devil of the time using the Lost Super. While the Dish who defeated The Devil died due to using the Lost Super this attack weakened The Devil enough for the Angels to capture him (Ch 150).

After losing the War, Demons were captured in magic cages by the Angel forces and then imprisoned in Hell as punishment. The Demons were literally dropped into the pit of Hell, still in their cages, while the Angels executed several Demon leaders on a nearby stage in their line of sight. Many Demons did not survive the fall and those that did either had to hope that the cage was destroyed enough to allow them to escape or that another Demon would come to unlock their cage. The Devil himself was the last to be pushed into the pit after being forced to watch all the other Demons being dropped in. Following this imprisonment Angels would hunt down and kill any Demons that managed to make it back to the Surface. At some point after the Demons were imprisoned in Hell, The Devil from the War was replaced by the current Devil (Ch 151).

In modern times Demons are only allowed back on the Surface after agreeing to certain rules and obtaining the Angels approval, although Black Hat mentions that it's fairly common for Demon's to illegally sneak onto the Surface for short periods of time (Ch 97). These rules were negotiated in the Treaty between Angels and Demons, a document which the current Devil helped write (Ch 155). Understandably, many Demons hold a grudge against the Angels for trapping them in Hell after the War and will look for any way to get revenge on the Angels that they can find (Inky Extra's Ch 89).

### Attempts to Overthrow The Devil

Due to the way Hell's government is set up attempts to overthrow the current Devil are a fairly normal event. There have been multiple attempts to overthrow the current Devil but, at this point in time, all have failed. The current Devil especially has become unpopular among the Demon masses due to seemingly not making any attempts to free them from Hell.

One noteworthy attempt was performed about 200 hundred years ago by the Demon Chernabog. While the exact details of the attempted overthrow are unknown it apparently lead to a fight between Chernabog and The Devil. This fight is considered legendary as, if the rumors' are to be believed, the fight ripped apart the upper levels of Hell so much that new holes were created in Hell. Of course, The Devil won the fight and as punishment he sealed Chernabog away in a mountain. Chernabog has stayed sealed in this mountain ever since, however he did come close to escaping at one point when some of his Demon underlings managed to weaken the seals imprisoning him. Unfortunately for Chernabog the Angels caught wind of his plan and sealed him up again after taking care of his underlings (Inky Extra's Ch 89).

Cuphead has also referenced that Black Hat has attempted to overthrow The Devil multiple times (Ch 84). Hat also admits to having launched an attack on The Devil by using the Angel magic he had harvested from the Angels at his casino as a kind of bomb. However, he claims that this attack was just a way to obtain information and not an actual attempt to overthrow The Devil (Ch 150).