Demons

A demon is a spirit that embodies, enacts, and feeds on a negative emotion. Originally denizens of the Fade, demons long to enter our world. Why they do so is still up for debate, but it is an inescapable fact. They are compelled to exemplify and act on their defining emotion, and have no purpose beyond that. All demons were and technically still are spirits, and the change from one to the other occurs when a spirit is twisted away from their positive nature in some way, whether by a forced summoning, influence from a host, or simply prolonged exposure to a negative feeling. Their primary avenue into our world is possession, where a demon takes over an object or being on our side of the Veil. Since the Fade is an infinitely malleable place where a coherent shape is not technically necessary, demons are confused by our world and its more solid rules, and possessing part of our world helps them understand it. Magic is inherently dangerous because mages tap into the power of the Fade to perform it, which draws the attention of demons on the other side like a torch in the dark. Conversely, someone cut off from the Fade is virtually immune from possession, because they are effectively invisible in the Fade. The most common beings with no connection to the Fade are dwarves and tranquil mages, but despite common belief, both can be possessed. In the rare occasion a Fade-severed being is found by a demon, whether it is led to them or accidentally bumps into them, for lack of a better term, possession is possible. A mage taken over by a demon becomes a very dangerous force known as an Abomination. Any person possessed by a demon is typically dominated, driven insane, or both by the invasion of their psyche. Their physical form can also be changed by the possession, with expectedly horrific results. The only known way to drive a demon from a sentient being, other than just killing the person, is to enter the Fade-dreams of the host and defeat it there. While a living host is ideal, demons will seize any opportunity to possess something in our world, taking over everything from people to corpses to trees. Yes, demonic plant life is a very real danger in certain parts of our world. While possession is a constant threat, it is not the only way a demon can manifest in our world. With enough will, a demon can cross over on its own and maintain an unpossessed form, though this is not terribly common. The reason the Breach was such a considerable danger to Thedas was because it, and the smaller Fade rifts it opened, allowed demons to cross into our world whenever they pleased and in great numbers. However it gets here, a demon outside of the Fade is a threat to everything around it, as they are always aggressive in pursuing whatever their defining, destructive purpose is.

Demons are as myriad in form and strength as all of the undesirable feelings that a person’s mind can conjure. They are named after and grouped by the sentiments they embody, and demons of the same emotion do typically share a general appearance. A rage demon, when not bound by the form of a possessed being, is almost always an angry blob of lava with arms, for example. Demons have no true authority structure amongst themselves, save perhaps how powerful one is compared to another. Meanwhile, people and their need to organize everything have arranged them into a rough hierarchy. Called Brahm’s Scale, it sorts the different types of demon based on how strong they typically are. Generally speaking, the more complex the emotion, the more powerful the demon. Straightforward sins such as rage and sloth are relatively weak, fear varies wildly but is generally in the middle, while more intricate immoralities like desire and pride have far more potential. Again, this is all a very fluid system imposed on demons by people to help us understand them, and a particular rage demon can grow more powerful than your average pride demon. In my trip into the Fade, I confronted Nightmare, an enormous avatar of fear that was possibly the most powerful demon ever encountered. I’m not bragging, especially considering that my companions and I were unable to actually kill it, just giving a personal example of a demon ignoring our rules. Even the weakest demon is a dire threat to the living, however, which is why, even with the sealing of the Breach and the Rifts, we must remain vigilant against the threat constantly watching and waiting beyond the Veil.