Warlock

**Warlocks** are demonic hybrids born between daemon and humans. They are known for their powerful demonic power and their practice of witchcraft.

## Summary

Warlocks have existed since humans were created and began to populate the Earth, though their number only grew during the Incursion, when countless legions of devils and daemon came into the mortal world under the commands of the Lucifer Clan.

The oldest recorded sighting of a warlock in history dated back since the early days of human civilization. Said warlock was an offspring between a human man and a "screeching she-owl" that many speculated to be Lilith herself. The clay tablet on which her life was recorded was heavily damaged, though it did state that she had used her witchcraft to ensnare a Sumerian king and take over his kingdom.

Because of their unique characteristics, many warlocks were bred purely for the purpose of being employed into the Underworld's armies during the Great War, despite the demonic creatures' hatred for all things associated with humanity, including half-human hybrids like warlocks.

According to many historians, during this period, there were nearly a million Underworld-bred warlocks born every year due to the daemon kidnapping human maidens to rape and impregnate them with their demonic seeds. Due to their power, they were assigned works as both field agents and as supporters for the demonic armies in their war against the Heavenly Council and the Grigori.

When the Great War ended in a standstill between the Three Factions, they were the first to be hunted down and killed by the Vatican's exorcists under the crimes of their birth. Around 15 years after the war ended, nearly 70% of the warlock population were killed by the devils due to them being a liability.

In the span of a century, from a population of over a million, they were hunted down to the verge of extinction, as by 1256, there were only a total of 72 adult warlocks who were able to survive the Vatican's witch-hunt and the Netherworld's assassination attempt. They then allied themselves with the Grigori, who was the only faction that welcomed them with open arms, and found the Spiral Labyrinth in Purgatory after a peace-treaty was signed between them and the Sorcery Department.

Only by the beginning of the Hundred Years' War did they begin to see hope for their kind again, mainly due to the Devil Civil War happening in the Netherworld and the internal political struggles within the Vatican reaching its climax.

## Appearance

For the most part, warlocks appear as entirely human, if not for the universal trait among them that is their **Warlock Mark** (悪霊の特性ウォーロック・マーク, *U~ōrokku Māku*) - Distinct and/or strange physical features that are strange or unique that identify them as unearthly. Warlocks may hide or disguise their more extraordinary marks with Illusion Magic to blend in among mundane humans.

### Warlock Mark

A list of known warlock marks:

	+ Antlers
	+ Bat ears
	+ Carapace
	+ Claws
	+ Goat feet
	+ Horns
	+ Scales (various types, e.g. fish, reptilian)
	+ Tails (various types, e.g. fox tail, feathered tail)
	+ Taloned hands
	+ Tentacles
	+ Tiger stripes
	+ Webbed hands
	+ Wings (various types, e.g. bat wings, and other wings in general)
	+ Forked tounge
	+ Extra finger joints
* Absence of body part:
	+ No facial expression
	+ No navel
* Odd-looking skin, hair and eyes:
	+ Blue skin
	+ Green skin
	+ Cat eyes
	+ Gold star-shaped pupils
	+ Reptilian eyes
* Unusual height
* Permanent phenomenons in warlock's body:
	+ Flames in hair

## Characteristics

Warlocks are immortal beings who stop aging entirely at one point in their life, though which point exactly will depend on their demonic parent. At a certain point in their immortal life, after a *long* duration of time, they will begin to fade away when they become unsurprised by life and stop looking forward to the years ahead, which is the sign of the weight of their immortality settles on them.

Because of this, most of them tend to be very independent and mostly keep to themselves, hence why they do not have an established community or organized society of their own other than the Spiral Labyrinth. The closest thing they have to a government is the Spiral Council, which only rules over the Spiral Labyrinth and resembles a board of governors more than government officials. There also exist high warlocks who are seemingly appointed in every major city and/or locality around the world in order to protect younger and/or less experienced warlocks from harm.

Unlike many supernatural species, they are unable to reproduce among themselves and their pregnancy always results in stillbirth due to them being crossbreeds, and are thus, sterile. Because of this, in addition to their immortality, few warlocks opt to marry, let alone adopt children to pass their surname down to. However, exceptions from these limitations are the very rare offsprings of daemon and those with angelic power such as exorcists or shadowhunters, which would protect the fetus from the demonic power, resulting in a living child known as a "whitelighter".

Nearly all of them are, to some extent, powerful magic-casters, though some might inherit more magical aptitude than others. They aren't afraid of researching, performing, and/or practicing forbidden magic, such as Dark Magic and especially witchcraft. And because of their willingness to use magic for a price, even anti-demonic factions such as the shadowhunters or hunter organizations work with warlocks, either as partners or hired specialists, to allow them to make use of the demonic magic that their beliefs prevent them from.

## Population

According to Magnus, there are roughly 100,000 warlocks in the world, with one-eighth of them being above 300-years-old. Back during the Great War, there were over a million warlocks employed in the Underworld's armies, though the majority of them were hunted down and killed soon after, either by the Vatican's exorcists or by the assassins sent out by the devil nobility due to them being "liability" to their faction and to the Netherworld.

Due to their warlocks' marks, the majority of them were abandoned - or if unfortunate enough, were killed - by their own human parents as young children. Because of this, most young warlocks are sought out by the high warlocks who are in-charge of their respective area in order to protect them from danger caused by their human parents.

## Trivia

* According to Azazel, only *Homo sapiens* can produce warlocks with daemon.
* Their hair stops growing when they stop aging.
* To magically sensitive beings, they smell like burnt matches.
* Their blood has strange effects on vampires, though what it does vary from one vampire to another.
* They are immune to the magically-binding effect of the fruits native to Faerieland.
* Warlock marks can't be hidden away with Transformation Magic.
* They prefer to use simple one-syllable last names, which possibly reflecting their mood during the choosing, such as Bane, Loss, Stain...
* It is more common for them to have a father than a mother as their demonic parent.
* Those with the same type of daimon parent may have similar warlock marks.
* Warlock marks are "manifestation of a warlock's demonic ancestry", according to Azazel.
* Most of them often pass away before reaching the 1000-years-old mark.
* Due to similarities between them, it's extremely difficult to differentiate a warlock from a disguised cambion, and vice versa.
	+ While they are most associated with warlocks, several half-devils and cambions have been recorded to possess unnatural physical features similar to that of warlock mark.