Demon

### Summary

Former ngels who joined Lucifer's rebellion and were banished from Heaven. Rulers of the Underworld and all demonic creatures.

**Demons**, also known as **Archdevils**, are the rulers of all devils, daemon, and demonic creatures. 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

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. While appearing as regular humans, they still possess two infamous traits, which is their lack of wings and their hollowed eye sockets, the result of Michael's anger shortly after their banishment.

According to ancient religious texts, to true believers of the Abrahamic faiths, 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 beings only described as "blots of defection upon an otherwise perfection canvas".

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

### True Appearance

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 devours everything, reverting them back into nothingness.

## Characteristics

Compared to angels, fallen angels, or devils, there is little information about the characteristics of demons. According to Dulio, in his personal research about the demon-kind, he has spent time among the numerous religious institutions affiliated with Heaven and the Abrahamic Factions, and later on, with organizations associated with the Grigori, and all the information that he could gather about the demons can only filled up three 200-pages notebooks. And even then, this information isn't foolproof and he believes many of them to be false and based on popular, incorrect texts.

In general, they are known as cruel, sadistic, and merciless abominations who thrive upon the pain and suffering of others and on the cries of agony of those damned in the Underworld. Unlike modern devils and daemon, who had adapted more human-like characteristics as time when on, demons, being ancient entities as old as time itself, are embodiments and originators of [Sin] and the roots of all curses, misfortunes, evils, and damnations in existence.

They are infamously known for their absolute loyalty toward Lucifer, and by proxy, toward those the Celestial Prince approves of and grants positions of power to, even if said people aren't actual demons. It is also because of their loyalty toward Lucifer that makes them perform their heavenly duties, even though they had rebelled against God and the authority of the Heavenly Council, as had Lucifer not told them to do so, they would have remained in the Underworld for indefinitely and not interacted with the rest of Creation.

According to Dantalion, despite popular belief, they don't really "hate" humans, or rather, they don't hate the Primordial Men and the First Men, though their opinion toward the current race of *Homo sapiens* may vary from demon to demon. He had stated that, in general, they mainly see humans as great sources of entertainment, as, due to a combination of humans' natural free will and the "stalemate of immortality", even the daily lives of the most boring of humans may be seen as interesting to demons.

Mephisto had once stated that treachery is the greatest taboo among demons, even though no demon, ever since the Heavenly War and their banishment, had ever committed it. This is due to their exceptionally low number, every demon regardless of their former angelic rank holds immense importance within the Stygian Council, and a single act of betrayal could easily result in mass chaos among the Underworld's nobility. While it is unknown what is the punishment for a demon who was found committing treachery, it's implied to be something worse than death.

## 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 the demon's capability, sense of duty, effectiveness, as well as their general strength and military feats during the Heavenly War.

 **Overlord** | General demons who rule over large territories of the Underworld and the creators of many cardinal devils who would later become progenitors of pureblood devil houses such as the 72 Pillars or the Extra Demons. While not exactly weak, they aren't as influential as the Crowned Princes due to their own disinterest in politics.

## Population

The population of demons is extremely low, limited to only the demonized fallen angels casted out of Heaven during the Heavenly War. Because of this, they have to increase their military power through their demonic creations such as devils or daemon during the Great War in order to balance the difference in number between them and the other factions.

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. Those who escaped then hid themselves away from the world and lived lives of anonymity throughout Creation, either as common devils, magicians, or even mundane humans.

## Factions

### Stygian Council

**Stygian Council** (悪神の帝国裁判所スティジアン・カウンシル, *Sutijian Kaunshiru*) is the ruling government of the demons as a whole, led by the Emperors of Hell, and is based at Pandaemonium - the "capital city" of the Underworld located at the center of the Ring of Pride. Once every year, the council will call a gathering in which all demons will gather in Pandaemonium for a three-days festival, the first day of the festival being a debate about the events within the Underworld, in which even the demons who trapped outside the Ouroboros Barrier will attend through astral projection.

## Weaknesses

### Harming

* **Witchcraft**: Due to its nature as a bastardization of the demons' infernal magic, witchcraft holds the power to oppose all those of celestial origins, which also included the demons (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 Netherworld, formerly the Underworld, for an extended amount of time.
* **Enochian Magick**: As the original and most powerful kind of Ancient Magicks, Enochian Magick is capable of a variety of powerful and primordial phenomena and can affect all those of celestial origins, regardless of their alignments. However, depending on the amount of angelic power a demon still possesses, the effects of Enochian Magick has upon them may differ, as the greater the amount of one's angelic power, the less effective it will be upon them, and vice versa.
* **Holy Attribute**: The bane of all demonic creatures. Religious symbols, scriptures, and prayers are extremely effective when defending oneself against a demon's demonic powers, and items imbued with the holy attribute such as holy water or consecrated oil are the typical items used when fighting against them. However, depending on the amount of demonic power a demon possesses, the holy attribute's effects have upon them may differ, as the greater the amount of one's demonic power, the less effective the attribute will be upon them, and vice versa.
	+ **Reciting Scriptures**: Demons consider hearing recited texts from the Bible, the Tanakh, the Quran, or any religious scriptures within the Abrahamic religions to be torturous for them. If they are exposed to them for an extended amount of time, they suffer from serious headaches that will immensely affect concentration, as well as their demonic powers as a whole.
	+ **Hallowed Ground**: Demons are physically incapable of entering religious grounds, such as churches, synagogues, mosques, or other hallowed grounds associated with the Abrahamic religions. Dirt collected from hallowed ground is also used in exorcism and protection rituals against their demonic power.
	+ **Holy Weapons**: Demons can be wounded by weapons imbued with the holy attribute, such as holy swords or Sacred Gears with divine properties.
* **Sacred Metals**: Weapons made out of sacred metals can be used against the majority of supernatural beings, demons included. However, the amount of damage that can be caused by regular weapons on them is usually little to none.
	+ **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 cause semi-serious damage onto demons, with the gods' Symbols of Power are the only known weapons capable of inflicting serious injuries on them.

### Killing

* **Enochian Weapons**: Like all beings in existence, demons can be killed with special heavenly weapons made out of divine metals.
	+ **Angel Blade**: All demons can be killed with an angel blade with their true angelic name engraved upon the blade with human blood and in Enochian hieroglyphs.
	+ **Original Longinus**: As the original 13 Longinus are exceptionally powerful Sacred Gears crafted from the most powerful divine metals and are imbued with immense power by the Biblical God, those with enough power and experience can use their Longinus to kill all immortal beings such as the demons.
* **Faustian Weapons**: Like all beings in existence, demons can be killed with special infernal weapons made out of divine metals.
* **Primordial Regalia**: Weapons and artifacts belonging to the primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely destroy every and any being in existence, aside from other primordial entities, and erase their existence completely so that they can never be reborn or resurrected without the involvement of God.

## 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's 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 or a 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 an immense miasma that it becomes uninhabitable by any non-demonic being for possibly eternity.

## Trivia

* Despite their supposed hatred of God, most of them detest pagan gods because "there is only one true god" and to reject His authority means rejecting theirs for they are God's creations.
* Because of their angelic/demonic nature, they can wield both holy and demonic weapons.
* It's implied that demons can still passively influence events within Creation - or at least, within the mortal world - from behind the Ouroboros Barrier, though not as powerful or extensively as they could before its creation.