SIM Appendix: Demons
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Appendix: Demons
Of all the branches of magic, demonology is the least well understood. The practice of summoning and binding demons was not only banned hundreds of years ago, after Lord Whitehall laid the foundations of modern magic, but much of the relevant knowledge was systematically destroyed or locked away. Very few magicians are even aware that demons exist, let alone how to summon demons and bend them to their will; the few that do generally believe that demons can only be used to foretell the future and little else. The handful of modern magicians who know otherwise keep it to themselves. The days of the DemonMasters are long gone.
No one knows what demons actually look like, or where they came from; nor has anyone managed to get more than a faint glimpse of their society. The demons exist outside the boundaries of time and space, living ‘above’ the known multiverse; they appear to consider themselves a higher form of life. This extradimensional nature allows them to see the majority of time and space, and parse out chains of events that most humans would have trouble realising are connected in any way. From a human point of view, they are effectively capable of seeing the future, although the mere act of looking into the future binds that future in place. This makes their precognition a very two-edged sword, not least because the demons will rarely present the whole truth and will often mislead the DemonMaster without openly lying.
The Demons appear to have a somewhat hierarchical society (although the early DemonMasters might have been mistaken, as they were familiar with similar societies) that mimics human feudalism. The greater demons have hundreds of lesser demons in their thrall and, when a DemonMaster successfully binds a greater demon to his service, he can call on the lesser demons as well. Beyond that, nothing is known of their internal politics. Some DemonMasters believed that the greater demons meddle in human affairs as part of their own power games, others believed the demons regarded the human realm as a distraction – or even a prison – and have as little to do with it as possible. The only thing that can be said for certain is that demons loathe and bitterly resent imprudent humans summoning them to do their bidding, and can be relied upon use any loopholes in the summoning to make the human pay for their crimes.
It is difficult, although not impossible, to summon a demon without knowing the demon’s name or aspect (the area of reality, such as fire, for which the demon has a particular affinity). The early DemonMasters effectually went fishing for demons who could be bound to their service, logged their names in bloodstained tomes, and used them as keys to locate other – perhaps greater – demons. Once summoned, a demon must be bound to the summoner (an act that normally requires some form of sacrifice, often the summoner’s blood or magic) and then bent to the summoner’s will; once the demon’s services are no longer required, the demon must be dismissed carefully to prevent it from breaking free and extracting vengeance before it falls back into the demonic realm. The slightest mistake in a summoning ceremony and result in utter disaster. Given the demonic tendency to mislead human magicians, even a successful ceremony can end very badly.
In theory, demons are practically omnipotent within the human realm, to the point they could act like the genies of myth, granting wishes without apparent limit. In practice, there is always a trade – magic and/or life force – that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to force a demon to do too much. The more the summoner requests from a demon, the greater the risk of accidentally creating a loophole the demon can exploit to break free and/or possess the summoner. The DemonMasters had no shortage of cautionary tales, back in the pre-Whitehall days, about magicians who asked demons for two separate spells, only to discover – too late – that the spells interacted in a manner designed to weaken the magician’s protections and render him vulnerable. Even when DemonMasters were very careful, excessive use of demon-provided spells tended to damage their minds.
A basic summoning might involve calling a demon for a prediction of the future, a piece of knowledge, or a simple once-off task. These appear simple, on the surface, but demonic mischief can make them very dangerous. Demons have been known to make predictions that are decidedly ambiguous, or display visions of the future deprived of context. One notorious demon informed his summoner, a magician-king whose name was lost long ago, that if he went to war a mighty empire would fall. He went to war and it was his empire that fell. Another told a young aristocrat that no man could kill him. He wound up being unnerved by a female magician who pointed out she was no man, then got killed by his nephew who was (at the time) still a boy. Demons might be bound to tell the truth, but they rarely tell all of it.
A more complex summoning might involve binding a greater demon permanently (at least for the lifetime of the DemonMaster) within the summoner’s wards, allowing the DemonMaster to command and control the greater demon’s servants. These relationships may appear to be master and servant, but as time goes by the DemonMaster’s control will inevitably start to slip and, if the demon is not dismissed in time, the DemonMaster will wind up possessed instead. This never lasts very long – no human body can endure the strains of possession for more than a few days at most – but the demon can do a great deal of damage before the host body gives out and dies. Demons have no qualms about torturing or killing anyone within reach (they take particular delight in violating humanity’s taboos) and, as they cannot be maddened by necromancy, can prolong their rampages by sacrificing humans in the necromantic rite. Given they also have far greater understanding of magic than any human magician, they frequently perform acts believed to be impossible.
There appear to be few limits to what a DemonMaster can do with a greater demon’s subordinate demons. Some have been tied to a specific location or object and used as guard dogs, effectively binding them in the human realm permanently until they are released. It is known for such objects (and their demonic protectors) to be discovered many years after the DemonMaster’s death, almost always to the grave misfortune of the discoverers. Others have been wrapped up within the DemonMaster’s wards and use to strengthen his defences; still others have been sent out on murderous assignations, although such missions can be costly for the original DemonMaster and, if the target has demonic protections of his own, end very badly. The two demons may destroy each other or break each other’s bindings (leaving them free to seek revenge) – or simply cancel each other out.
Despite their power, demons do have some weaknesses. Their ability to act freely within the human realm is entirely dependent on their summoner’s foolishness, and inability to understand the long-term consequences of becoming too dependent on demons. They are also bound to absolute truth – as noted above, demons can mislead but never lie – and they have to make a good-faith attempt to keep at least the verbal side of the bargain. Their ability to see the future is significantly reduced when they are bound to a specific space and time, when they are bound within wards or possessing a hapless human, and effectually useless in locations where time and space are one, such as a nexus point. This may be why they were unable to prevent Lord Whitehall from developing modern magic and effectively rendering the DemonMasters extinct.
Or, as the more paranoid magicians noted years ago, it might be all part of the plan.
