Cardinal Devil

### Summary

The original devils created by the demons. Leaders and progenitors of the pureblood devil houses.

**Cardinal Devils** are the original devils created by the demons and the progenitors of the pureblood devil houses. In Jewish folklore, they're known as foreign and/or night spirits called the **Shedim** (sing. **Shedah**).

## Overview

**Shedim** (Hebrew: שֵׁדִים‎) are spirits or demons in Jewish mythology. However, they are not necessarily equivalent to the modern connotation of demons as evil entities. Evil spirits were thought as the cause of maladies; conceptually differing from the shedim, who are not evil demigods, but the foreign gods themselves. Shedim are just evil in the sense that they are *not God*.

They appear only twice (always plural) in the Tanakh, at Psalm 106:37 and Deuteronomy 32:17. Both times it deals with child or animal sacrifices. Although the word is traditionally derived from the root šwd (Hebrew: שוד‎ *shûd*) that conveys the meaning of "acting with violence" or "laying waste," it was possibly a loan-word from Akkadian in which the word *shedu* referred to a spirit which could be either protective or malevolent.

With the translation of Hebrew texts into Greek, under influence of Zoroastrian dualism, *shedim* were translated into *daimonia* with implicit negativity. Otherwise, later in Judeo-Islamic culture, *shedim* became the Hebrew word for *Jinn* with a morally ambivalent attitude.

## Summary

Cardinal devils are the first demonic creatures to be created by the demons after their banishment into the Underworld, thus making them some of the most ancient and powerful non-celestial beings in existence, as they antedating the primordial gods' creations for hundreds of eons.

The first cardinal devil is Lilith, who was created by Lucifer in the same way that God had created the Primordial Humans, Adam and Eve, though instead of celestial light, the Celestial Prince created her with infernal darkness. Afterward, her body was used as an artificial "womb" to create new cardinal devils from the blood of the demons, thus giving her the epithet "Mother of All Devils".

Due to the nature of their birth, cardinal devils are extremely loyal toward their demon creators, as they are often considered their creators' heirs and true children, not just mere concubines, servants, or guards like ordinary devils.

During the Great War, most cardinal devils fought alongside their creators against the angels of Heaven and the fallen angels of Purgatory in an attempt to help their creators become the rulers of all existence. After the Ouroboros Barrier was created and the majority of demons were sealed in the Underworld, most cardinal devils escaped the same fate as they dwell in the first Ring of Hell where the majority of devils and daemon lived.

When the Three Factions ended the war with a mutual cease fire, the cardinal devils retreated back to the Netherworld where the remaining demons were and helped them to fake their deaths and hide their survival. However, due to conflicting opinions, a small war broke out between them, known only in small passings as the "War of the Little Kings", in which the cardinal devils separated into two small groups with different agendas: One in full support of unleashing the demons from the Underworld, while the other strives to seek peace in a post-Great War world.

Following the Devil Civil War, to hold control over the new Four Great Satans, the aggressive side decided to form their own political faction within the new devil government. They manipulated their children and descendants into believing this was to protect the "pureblood traditions and values" to form the Great King Faction, and made themselves the secret rulers of the Netherworld.

Eventually, the pacifist side abandoned the current devil government to create a new safe haven in the Inferno for themselves and for other devils who disagreed with the new Satans' policies, as well as for the daemon who felt frustration for being seen as second-class to ordinary devils, and created the Extra Demons.

## Appearance

In terms of appearance, cardinal devils appear no different from regular humans, though they are unnaturally more attractive and refined-looking than ordinary people. However, the more one pays close attention to their appearance, the more warped they become, as this isn't their true appearance but merely a humanoid facade they take in order to blend in with ordinary humans and devils.

In their true form is that of humanoid beings made of darkness and rolling black smoke, with pits of blazing gold fire for eyes. They also possess multiple pairs of bat-like wings, which like the angels and fallen angels, the number of wings a cardinal devil possesses can grow over time as correspondent to their powers.

## Characteristics

Cardinal devils are terrifyingly powerful devils who ranked at the highest in the infernal hierarchy, and are only beneath the original demons themselves in terms of power and authority, with the exception of Lilith, as she is Lucifer's first child and ranked as an Empress of Hell. They inflict fear and admiration in other devils as almost all devils are well aware of their power.

They are some of the most powerful beings in existence, being the first demonic creatures to be created by the demons soon after their banishment hundreds of eons before the first progenitor gods were even created. Because of their power, they are the only ones allowed to call themselves the demons' heirs, as aside from them, no one possesses enough authority to possess that title. In addition, while they aren't powerful enough to kill regular angels, with skilled plans and preparations, they are even capable of holding their own against low to middle-ranked angels.

Despite this, they aren't necessarily the most powerful devils. According to Zekram, for many of them, most of their power tended to originate from their background, their political authority, and their influence over human's mythology more than physical and/or magical strength.

Super Devils such as the current Four Great Satans or Lilith's Children, being considered anomalies that push the definition of "devilhood", have also been stated multiple times to be as strong as, if not even stronger, than many of the cardinal devils.

Following the aftermath of the "War of the Little Kings", an obvious fracture was created between the remaining cardinal devils, as half of them want to break the demons free of their prison while the other half want to honor their creators' wishes and not interfering with the Ouroboros Barrier until further commands. According to Serafall, as a result of this conflict, the relationship between the Netherworld and the Inferno is always tense and the possibility of war is always present.

## Population

Cardinal devils are the original progenitors of the pureblood devil houses, both of the 72 Pillars and of the Extra Demons, thus making them the oldest of all devils. In addition, due to them being the direct creations of the demons, only demons can create new cardinal devils, something that none of the remaining demons are particularly interested in doing anytime in the present or future.

While many of them died in the Great War or in the "War of the Little Kings", the majority of the original cardinal devils still survived to this day, though the majority of them have entered "retirement" and many even chose to leave the Netherworld entirely to live with the remaining demons.

Those who still remained in the Netherworld, however, are divided into two factions, with the more aggressives forming the Great King Faction to rule the Netherworld from the shadows while the pacifists left the realm entirely and form their own new land across the Boiling Sea in the Inferno.

## Factions

### Great King Faction

**Great King Faction** (大王派グレート・キング, *Gurēto Kingu-ha*) is a political faction formed by the cardinal devils, spear-headed by Zekram Bael, to control the Netherworld and the new devil government from the shadows in order to increase the influence and authority of the devils' pureblood aristocracy. Their true motives, however, is to destroy the Ouroboros Barrier and release the demons back into Creation.

### Extra Demons

**Extra Demons** (番外の悪魔エキストラ・デーモン, *Ekisutora Dēmon*) is the political faction that serves as the pseudo-government of the Inferno, led by the demon Mephisto Pheles and the remaining members of the Six Houses of Lucifer. They are formed by the cardinal devils who choose to honor their creators' wish to honor Lucifer's command and not to restart the Great War by releasing their imprisoned brethren.

## Weaknesses

### Harming

* **Physical Damage**: Like the majority of supernatural species, cardinal devils can still be killed through normal means if they receive a large amount of physical damage or fatal injuries that aren't properly healed in time.
* **Ashes**: Cardinal devils' signature demonic power can be detected if ashes are thrown on the ground or floor of the area. If a cardinal devil accidentally ingests or breaths in the ashes, all of their powers would become gradually weakened, and this weakened state can only be removed through certain demonic purifying rituals and/or surgeries to physically remove the ashes from their body.
	+ **Cremation Ashes**: The cremated remains of a *rabbi* is considered to be one of the deadliest substances for cardinal devils, as even a teaspoon of bone fragments when mixed with water is enough to create a poison that can kill a dozen of cardinal devils upon contact. When their skin makes contact with the cremated remains, it will instantly rots and the cardinal devil will die and decay into a solid mass of "maggots and smoke" in the span of seconds.
* **Light Element**: As dark creatures, cardinal devils are vulnerable against the Light element. Sunlight will drain them of their stamina, though not to the same extent as regular devils. And as such, intense light, such as the one generated through Light Magic or used in the light constructs of angels and fallen angels are extremely deadly weapons against them.
* **Holy Attribute**: The bane of all demonic creatures. Religious symbols, scriptures, and prayers are extremely effective when defending oneself against a cardinal devil'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 cardinal devil 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**: Cardinal devils consider hearing recited texts from the Bible, the Tanakh, the Quran, or any religious scriptures within the Abrahamic religions to be torturous for them. They will suffer from intense headaches from hearing the reciting texts alone, and if they are exposed to them for an extended amount of time, they suffer from traumatic brain injuries that can potentially kill them.
	+ **Hallowed Ground**: Cardinal devils are physically incapable of entering religious grounds, such as churches, synagogues, mosques, or other hallowed grounds associated with the Abrahamic religions. Dirt taken from hallowed grounds is also one of the ingredients needed in rituals for banishing them.
	+ **Holy Weapons**: Cardinal devils 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, cardinal devils 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 and even possibly killing cardinal devils.

### Killing

* **Divine Metal**: Like all beings in existence, cardinal devils can be killed with special weapons made out of divine metals.
	+ **Enochian Weapons**: Heavenly weapons made from divine metals can easily kill them.
		- **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 cardinal devils.
	+ **Faustian Weapons**: Internal weapons made from divine metals can easily kill them.
* **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.

## Trivia

* The name, shedim, derived from the root šwd (Hebrew: שוד‎) that conveys the meaning of "acting with violence" or "laying waste".
	+ The name's possibly a loan-word from Akkadian in which the word *shedu* referred to a spirit which could be either protective or malevolent.
* One of Asmodeus' titles is "King of Shedim", implying that he's directly in charge of them.
* In Judeo-Islamic culture, *shedim* became the Hebrew word for *jinn*.
* In Jewish folklore, they are said to have had the feet and claws of a rooster.
* The Talmud described them as having traits of both humans and angels.
* In the Zohar, they're said to be the children of Azazel and Namaah.
* In some legends, it's said that God had started making them as proto-humans, but did not complete their creation because He was resting during the Sabbath. Even after the Sabbath, He left them how they were to show that when the Sabbath comes, all work must be viewed as complete.
	+ In some legends, they are the offspring of Lilith, either with Adam or other men.
	+ In other legends, they are descendants of serpents, or of demons in the form of serpents, alluding to the serpent in Eden as related in Genesis.
* Supposedly, sinful people sacrificed their daughters to them in exchange for wealth and power, but it is unclear if the sacrifice consisted in the murdering of the victims or in the sexual satisfaction of the demons.