Overview
Demons are fiendish beings from the depths of the Abyss or other dark planes. They are embodiments of chaos, destruction, and malice — though individual demons may have their own agendas that go beyond simple evil, and they are tired of being assumed to be mindless.
Habitat
Demons live in the pits — their home is The Infernal Pits, a pit of black fire at the bottom of the world where the hunger is the only law. They need three things: a depth that the light has never reached, a fire that does not decay, and a hierarchy that is old enough to have a history. They do not migrate; a demon who has left the pit is not gone, but reassigned, and the reassignment is the point.
Appearance
A demon silhouette is the heavy, low, slightly-too-broad shape — thick-limbed, broad-shouldered, with the head that sits a little too low on the body, like a word that is waiting to be spoken in the wrong direction, and the horns that are not an ornament but a statement. Males stand 1.78 m to 1.98 m, 113 kg–181 kg, built dense and low, with the shoulders broad and the neck thick; females 1.73 m to 1.88 m, 100 kg–163 kg, leaner and more angular, with the fiendish line showing through the posture more clearly. Skin is a deep, muddy umber to a true, quiet black, with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth to the cheekbones and a network of fine, pale red veins at the temples that glow faintly when a demon is roused or speaking a dark word. Hair is sparse, if present at all — a short, coarse mass in deep black-iron, usually worn short and practical, or not worn at all. The horns are the crown: a pair of true horns, curving up from the brow, in a range from deep umber to a true, quiet black, with the horn-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the fiendish line's most persistent claim. Eyes are flat and a molten amber to a deep, quiet red, with a slow, appraising blink and a depth that makes them look like they are looking at something behind the person they are talking to — and in most cases, they are, and what they are looking at is what the person is going to become. The head is the tell: the horn is the demon, not the face — a pair of true horns, curving up from the brow, with the horn-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the fiendish line's most persistent claim. Males carry the fiendish line in the jaw and the shoulders; females in the neck and the posture. Elders are marked by a full bone-white head and a back that has stopped trying to be straight — a demon elder moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a fire that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: none, by choice — a demon who wears clothing has already decided the body is not the point.
Behavior
Disposition: aggressive, cunning, territorial, proud. In peace, demons are blunt, watchful, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they have the pit, and they let you know it. In war they fight with the patience of the fire and the precision of the one who has already seen the end. Strangers are met with a question about what they carry, and the answer decides whether the demon offers passage or a wall. The social unit is the legion, ranked by strength, not by age. Two signature quirks: a demon who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply ask a follow-up question that the liar cannot answer, and let the silence do the work. And they keep their word for as long as the bargain holds, and they remember who broke theirs, and the remembering is a form of patience that mortal races find unsettling.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: frontal and brutal — the demon line charges and does not stop. Armor: none, by choice — a demon who wears armor has already decided the body is not the point. Weapons: the great mace, the long sword, and the word that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Legion Braid, a single braid worn over the left shoulder, one knot per bargain kept, in deep umber or quiet black; the Pit-Notch, a single deliberate chip in the left hand for every year spent in the pit, worn as a record of the long descent; and the Bargain-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first word the wearer spoke in the pit, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the demon holds a rite of silence — one hour, no words, the dead's names spoken in the dark, and the dark keeps the names.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: chaos — demonic magic is the fire, the patient, precise holding of the dark word across the pit. Secondaries: fire-storm and death. Named inborns: Fiendish Nature (a demon is immune to poison and disease, and resistant to fire, because the fire is the home), Innate Spellcasting (a demon can cast dark magic without preparation, with their hands, at any time), Regeneration (a demon can heal, unless the harm is of a type that the pit does not recognize), Bargain-Carry (a demon's bargain carries across the pit, and the carrying is not a choice). Signature power: the Dark Word — a demon can speak a dark word and let it land across a century, and the word will keep the pit's faith. Limitation: demonic magic is spent on the pit; a demon who has spent their dark word must ascend for one day, and the day is the worst one of the pit.
Religion
Demons serve Mordra, the Unraveler as their primary god — the chaos is the first law, and the demon worships it the way a fire worships the first spark: with patience, with precision, and with the understanding that everything that follows is a consequence of it. Khorvane, the Endless Hunger is honored at the pit-archives; a demon's bargain is a fruit, and the hunger is the god. Priestly class: the Bargain-Keeper, who keeps the pit-temple and speaks the dark word at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a bargain broken, and there is no rite for that one; the pit simply stops remembering the breaker.
Society
Demon society is a brutal hierarchy — the strong rule the weak. They are organized into legions and principalities, each serving a Greater Demon or Archfiend, and the serving is the whole of the law, because the pit does not measure a demon in the birth, it measures it in the keeping: a demon who has kept a bargain that the pit has forgotten outranks a demon who has kept a hundred, because the pit measures truth in the remembering, not in the counting. No legion follows a strength it cannot read; it follows the bargain that has held the longest, and the holding is the whole of the rank. A demon who has not kept a bargain in a season is called "the one who forgot the pit," and the forgetting is the only kind the fire remembers. Outsiders on the surface of the pit are either a bargain or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the pit keeps; a mortal who walks the ash-line is not a guest, it is a debt, and the debt is the whole of the warning. Young are raised in the low pit, where the fire is light and the word is short, and a young demon who has not kept a full descent in the dark is not given a hand of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the pit does not hoard the hunger — it keeps it, and the keeping is the whole of the fire, and a mortal who is counted is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the pit keeps.
Home
They keep their bargains in The Infernal Pits, a pit of black fire at the bottom of the world, where the hunger is the only law.
Relations
Angels and demons are natural enemies, and the enmity is the whole of the record — the angel keeps the light and the demon keeps the fire, and the two have learned that a light above the fire is not a threat, it is a wound, and the wound is the whole of the treaty. The Angel of The Sanctum is the enemy the pit counts, and the counting is the whole of the law, because the fire measures the light the way the dark measures the depth: the light is the only thing the fire cannot keep, and the not-keeping is the whole of the enmity. Demons are viewed with fear and hatred by mortal races, though some find their chaos appealing, and the appealing is the whole of the bargain — the mortal who walks the ash-line is not a guest, it is a debt, and the debt is the whole of the warning. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the pit takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the law, because the forgotten are the ones the fire keeps burning for, and the burning is the whole of the promise.
In the Story
In the current story, the demons are the fire below the camp — the pit Uaellaen writes about when the hunger is worth more than the light. The Forgotten keep their bargains at the ash-line, and the bargains have held for two seasons. This season a demon came up the fire with a word that was not in the ledger — a word that is not in the hunger, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the pit keeps its word, and the word has started to move. The Bargain-Keeper is keeping the word, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
Demons are not just evil — they are the concept of evil given flesh. Some are worse than others. Some are interesting.