Demon

### Summary

Former angels who fought alongside Lucifer and were banished from Heaven for their rebellion. They are rulers of the Underworld and all demonic creatures.

**Demons**, also known as **Archdevils**, are the rulers of all devils, daemon, and demonic beings. The majority of them are sealed within the Underworld and those who are free now live anonymously across Creation.

## Overview

A **demon** is a supernatural being, typically associated with evil, prevalent historically in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, and television series.

In Ancient Near Eastern religions and in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered a harmful spiritual entity which may cause demonic possession, calling for an exorcism. Large portions of the Jewish demonology, a key influence on Christianity and Islam, originated from a later form of Zoroastrianism, and were transferred to Judaism during the Persian era.

In Western occultism and Renaissance magic, which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic, Jewish Aggadah and Christian demonology, a demon is believed to be a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. The supposed existence of demons remains an important concept in many modern religions and occultist traditions. Demons are still feared largely due to their alleged power to possess living creatures. In the contemporary Western occultist tradition, a demon is a useful metaphor for certain inner psychological processes (inner demons), though some may also regard it as an objectively real phenomenon.

The original Greek word *daimon* did not carry negative connotations. The Ancient Greek word δαίμων *daimōn* denotes a spirit or divine power. The Greek conception of a *daimōn* notably appears in the works of Plato, where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates. In Christianity morally ambivalent daimons were replaced by demons, forces of evil only striving for corruption. Such demons are not the Greek intermediary spirits, but hostile entities, already known in Irianian beliefs.

## Appearance

### Human Form

Like angels and fallen angels, demons appear as people of unparalleled beauty that can make anyone - regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, and established relationships - to become infatuated and aroused at the mere sight of them.

However, to those who possess the holy attribute within them, the more they look at a demon, the more they look at them, the more distorted their appearance will become, until they become an incomprehensible being beyond the understanding of mortals and immortals alike. They are difficult even for angels and fallen angels to look at, as their aura is "both too bright and pure, and too vile and corruptive" for their celestial mind to comprehend.

Unlike angels and fallen angels, demons don't have wings, as theirs had burnt away when they were banished from Heaven into the Empty, being torned and destroyed beyond oblivion because of the primordial nothingness. They can, however, create astral-like wings from their demonic power which appear on their shadow upon any surface behind them, with the number of wings they possess correspond with their former angelic ranks.

The appearance of a demon in the mortal world often accompanies with demonic omens, horrid natural disasters that Creation forcefully manifests in an attempt to defend itself against their demonic presence and/or warn the world of their arrival.

### True Form

According to Azazel, the true form of demons are horrors beyond comprehension of celestials and non-celestials alike. He described it to be like the bottomless abyss of terrors that consumed all existence of light and goodness, evilness and corruption in its most primordial forms. It exudes such an aura of foul and mighty demonic energy that it consumes everything, reverting them back into nothingness.

## Characteristics

Compared to angels and fallen angels, there is limited information about demons. According to Dulio, in all of the religious institutions associated with Heaven and the Abrahamic religions, there are only a total of seven tomes about the demons' characteristics. However, the knowledge inside these tomes isn't foolproof as most of the information revealed to be false and based on popular, incorrect texts.

They are cruel, sadistic and merciless abominations who thrive upon the pain and suffering of others, on the cries and agony of the damned in torment. Unlike modern devils and daemon who are deemed "human enough to live" by the Celestial Prince Raphael, demons are embodiments and originators of Sin - The original transgressors of the Enochian laws established under God's will - and the roots of all curses, misfortunes, and evils in existence.

They are infamously known for their absolute loyalty toward Lucifer. Unlike fallen angels, who are burdened by their banishment from Heaven and their supposed loss of favor in God's eyes, demons showed outright anger when asked if they regretted accepting Lucifer's calls and will lash out in destructive manners. For them, as long as Lucifer still has use of them, they will be in eternally servitude to them.

Despite this, they still follow the heavenly duties given to them by God to maintain the balance and order of Creation, though it's implied that they are only doing this because of Lucifer's commands. Because of this, they tend to do their duties with a lackluster attitude and only put in efforts when they personally find any entertainment in their duties. As such, the only duties they whole-heartedly perform is the eternally torment of the souls damned there because of their crimes when they were alive, or the tempting humans into committing sins as part of Heaven's test.

They despise all mortal beings, especially humans who they claim to hate more than they hate the Heavenly Council and the Enochian laws. According to them, their hatred of humans came from the fact the original humans, Adam and Eve, were "wrongly" claimed as God's greatest creations instead of the Celestial Prince - or rather, more than Lucifer - which directly caused the Heavenly War when the Morningstar became offended and insult by his Father's claims. As a result, they came to dedicate their immortal lives to condemn humanity to eternal struggles and torteure to partially soothe Lucifer's sadness, which Michael and Gabriel both raised eyebrows at.

According to the original Gremory, the greatest taboo a demon could commit - one that isn't directly associated with Lucifer at least - is betraying their fellow demons. This is because of their low number, already limited by the circumstances behind their birth, every demon regardless of their ranks holds immense importance in the Underworld and in the infernal hierarchy, and the aftermath of their death could only be described as "apocalyptic". If any demon is found guilty of this taboo, all of their authority will be taken away and said demon thrown into the Abaddon Prison in the Circle of Pride, beneath the temple dedicated to Lucifer.

However, due to many circumstances, the majority of demons are now sealed within the Underworld because of the Ouroboros Barrier and the remaining demons in existence seemed to have all decided to lay low and pretend their deaths. Many even commanded the cardinal devils they created to replace their name and position, taking over as the demons mentioned in religious texts, and scattered across Creation, not just the Netherworld, living quiet and anonymous lives. Like most of their major decisions, this is one made by Lucifer, who asked them to live as quietly and peacefully as possible if the Great War ended not in their favor.

## Weaknesses

* **Witchcraft**: Due to its nature as a bastardization of the demons' infernal magic, witchcraft holds the power to oppose all those of celestial origins, including the demons themselves (much to their embarrassment). There are many witchery spells and rituals that can be used to trap and weaken demons, with some even capable of banishing them back to the Underworld for an extended amount of time.
* **Enochian Magick**: As the original and most powerful kind of all Ancient Magicks, Enochian Magick is capable of a variety of powerful and primordial phenomena and can affect all those of angelic nature, regardless of their alignments - angels, fallen angels, and demons alike. However, depending on the amount of angelic power a demon retains after their fall, the effects of Enochian Magick has upon them may differ, as the higher the amount of one's angelic power, the less effective Enochian Magick will be upon them, and vice versa.
* **Holy Attribute**: As the pinnacles of all demonic creatures, the holy attribute is the one of few shared weaknesses between the demons and their creations, though not on the same level. Symbols, scriptures and prayers from the Abrahamic religions are effective when defending oneself against demons but are generally useless when used offensively.
	+ **Hallowed Ground**: Demons are incapable of entering hallowed grounds, such as churches, synagogues, mosques or other religious places without physically injuring themselves with every second.
	+ **Holy Weapons**: Demons can be wounded by weapons bearing the holy attribute, like holy swords or Sacred Gears with divine properties, such as Blade Blacksmith or Twilight Healing (Asia's the single exception).
* **Divine Weapons**: The celestial weapons of the gods, imbued with their users' divine power and made out of the highest-quality sacred metals, can be used to inflict damage onto demons, though the amount of damage inflicted on them are usually little to none.
	+ **Symbols of Power**: The gods' Symbols of Power are the only known divine weapons capable of dealing semi-serious damage on lower-ranked demons.
* **Enochian Weapons**: Like nearly all beings in existence, demons can be killed with heavenly weapons made out of Enochian metals.
	+ **Angel Blade**: All demons can be killed with an angel blade with their true name engraved upon the blade in angelic hieroglyphs.
	+ **Original Longinus**: As the original 13 Longinus are exceptionally powerful Sacred Gears created by the Fifth Heaven from the highest-ranking Enochian metals and are imbued with divine power by the Biblical God, those with enough skills and experience can use their Longinus to kill even immortal beings such as the demons.
* **Faustian Weapons**: Like nearly all beings in existence, demons can be killed with infernal weapons made out of Faustian metals.
* **Primordial Regalia**: Weapons and artifacts that belong to the primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely destroy every and any being in existence save for other primordial entities, erasing their existence completely so that they can never be reborn or resurrected without God's involvement.

## Death

When a demon's physical form is destroyed and they are "killed", their soul will be instantaneously transferred to the Empty, where they will sleep for possibly millions of years until their body can be reformed, either on their own or by God' will. However, when a demon is resurrected, they will return to their original state as a pure angel, with their entire memory, experience and personality wiped and they will return to "factory's settings", completely lacking any of their own free will.

In addition to that, whenever a demon is killed with an Enochian/Faustian weapon, their physical body will instantaneously combust, creating an explosion great enough to destroy an entire mountain down to its sub-molecular structure and imbued the land around it with such a vile and demonic miasma that it becomes uninhabitable by any non-demonic being for possibly eternity.

## Population

The population of demons is extremely restricted. While there are hundreds of thousands of demons, due to the special circumstances of their creation, their number is permanently fixed at that exact number and it is impossible for them to raise their population. Because of this, they had to create numerous devils, daemon and countless other demonic creatures to serve as their heirs, concubines, servants and soldiers of each noble house's armies.

After the Ouroboros Barrier was created by the Four Great Seraphs, almost all of the demons were sealed within the Underworld and only a handful of demons were able to escape into the Netherworld, which was originally the highest layer of the Underworld that was severed during the barrier's construction process.

## Ranking

The demons use a hierarchical system that is split into several different ranks. The ranking here refers to the noble title given to demons by the Seven Deadly Sins based on their classes, former heavenly positions and reflect on strength. The ranks and their known owners are:

1. **God-Emperor**: Lucifer Morningstar.
2. **Emperors of Hell**: Divided into two groups based on their origins.
	* **Seven Deadly Sins**: Consisting of Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Lucifuge, Belphegor, Leviathan, Mammon, and Satan.
	* **Prime Evils**: Consisting of Lilith, Ahriman, Iblis, Yaldabaoth, and the Antichrist.
3. **Crowned Princes of Hell**: Cathariel, Ghogiel, Sheireil, Azariel, Usiel, Zomiel, Theumiel, Theuniel, Ogiel, and Nehema...
4. **Princes of Hell**: Amaymon, Ziminiar, Corson, Urieus, Aeryton, Nebiros, Satanachia, Agaliarept, Fleurety, and Sargatanas...
5. **Infernal Overlords**: Consisting of the remaining demons, such as the original 72 Pillars and the progenitors of the Extra Demons.

## Factions

### Emperors of Hell

**Emperors of Hell** (地獄の皇帝, *Jigoku no Kōtei*) are the twelve ultimate rulers of all demons and the gods of devils, daemon and demonic creatures. They lead the Stygian Council from Pandæmonium, the capital city and supposed center of the Underworld, while each of them also hold sovereign over each one of the twelve circles of the Underworld, with the lowest and thirteenth one being the endless sea of nothingness that surrounds the Cage of Lucifer where the divine-emperor of all demonic beings is imprisoned.

#### Seven Deadly Sins

**Seven Deadly Sins** (七つの大罪, *Nanatsu no Taizai*), or the **Seven Cardinal Demons**, are the original Emperors of Hell appointed by Lucifer before the other six emperors rose to power. They were Lucifer's greatest generals during the Heavenly War and each had hundreds upon hundreds of achievements and victories under their name. They are rulers of the first seven circles of the Underworld and each represents one of the capital vices of mankind: Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Envy, Greed and Wrath.

## Trivia

* Because of their angelic/demonic nature, they can wield both holy and demonic weapons.
* As shown by Belial, Astaroth, and Abaddon, a demon can hold multiple different rankings.
* While not all Emperors of Hell are demons, all demons in the Underworld still swore sertitute to all of them because they were chosen by Lucifer.
* Michael claims that all demons and fallen angels wish to return to Heaven, but refuse to act on it. The latter is because of their pride stopping them from doing so, while the former didn't because of their loyalty and adoration to Lucifer "makes even the bowels of hell seem like the highest heavens".
* Due to the Underworld's unique characteristic, demons are invincible and cannot be permanently killed while staying within, as every time their physical body is destroyed, it will instantly reformed.