Succubi are manifestations of the sin of destructive lust, and they are the most attractive of all demons—as befits their role in seducing mortals to fall to sin. The concept of gender is fluid to a succubus, as they can adopt countless humanoid forms of any gender to aid in their goals. Most succubi have a feminine true form (incubi, which usually have a masculine true form, are a different kind of demon), but regardless of gender, a lust demon is supernaturally beautiful or handsome, but with curving horns, bat wings, sharp claws, and a sinuous tail.
When disguised as a mortal humanoid on the Material Plane, a succubus whispers into the ears of mortals, urging them to pursue their darkest and most destructive desires and pushing them into depravity, using magic only if persuasion fails. While mortals often fixate on succubi’s application of sexual lust, these demons are can easily exploit lust for power, knowledge, fame, or any other desire as easily as more carnal appetites. Their ability to infiltrate societies makes them excellent spies, assassins, and political saboteurs as well. Ultimately, the succubus enjoys all means of upending mortal culture.
When a sinful mortal soul is judged and sent on to the Abyss, it can become a deadly fiend—a demon. Demons are living incarnations of sin—be they classic sins like wrath or gluttony, or more “specialized” depravities like an obsession with torture or the act of treason or treachery. Once formed, a demon’s driving goals are twofold—the amassing of personal power, and the corruption of mortal souls to cause them to become tainted by sin. In this way demons ensure a never-ending supply of new demons to bolster their ever-growing ranks in the Abyss.
Demonic Deities
The most powerful demons are known as demon lords (the term is gender neutral in this case). Of these divinities, Lamashtu is the most powerful. Countless other demon lords exist, including Abraxas, Cyth-V’sug, Kabriri, and Zura.
The Nature of Chaos
Some say that the nature of chaos inherently precludes cooperation and subtlety, but demons are proof of the fallacy of this claim.
What Makes a Sin?
Some classify sin into seven categories—envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath. While these sins embody some of the most powerful and numerous demons, far more than seven demons exist. Any act of cruelty or destruction a mortal takes to gratify the self at others’ expense is, in effect, a sin, and any such act can spawn a demon from a soul in the afterlife.
Demonic Possession
Some demons specialize in the art of possessing creatures or objects to spread fear and chaos. In such cases a demon gains a powerful disguise with which to work its evils upon the world, a subterfuge that delights the demon.
Sinful Destruction
While they enjoy causing destruction themselves, most demons prefer to trick and tempt mortals into falling to sin of their own volition.
Demonic Locations
The sprawling, heaving, changing realm of the Abyss is the planar home of demonic life, but demons can be found anywhere the capacity to sin exists. Evil or foolish conjurers are fond of calling upon demons for advice or darker needs. When the Abyss wears through the boundaries of reality to create wound-like portals into other worlds, demons can spill over to wreak incredible havoc.
Demonic Sources
When a sinful mortal soul is consigned to the Abyss, it spends time wallowing in the mire and feeding on filth. If it survives and is not itself eaten, the soul eventually ascends into a demon, as influenced by the nature of its sin, yet most demons are themselves capable of reproduction as well. The fecundity of demonic life is perhaps the greatest—and most threatening—aspect of these dangerous fiends.
Other Demons
The Abyss may be the largest of the Outer Planes, and mortals have an equally large capacity to betray themselves, society, and the natural order of reality. With this limitless source for increasingly specialized sins, the Abyss is constantly generating new types of demons to plague reality. While the vast majority of these are swiftly destroyed and never rise again, enough survive that dozens, if not hundreds, of types of demons are known to exist beyond those listed here. The shadowy invidiak is a demon without a body, born of envious souls. The goat-faced, flame-hooved brimorak rises from the souls of arsonists. Slimy, horned blood demons spawn from assassins, boar demons from the greedy... the list goes on and on.
