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Night Demon

Night Demons are sneaky, secretive creatures with a nearly insatiable thirst for knowledge and mystery. Without undue stress, they usually act calm and collected, though upon closer examination, their behavior might sometimes be seen as eccentric or erratic. Some are claimed to have a strange fascination with death and corpses, or to even hunt cemeteries, feeding on the bodies of the deceased, or even on rotting carcasses of dead cattle. Others claim that these creatures are more akin to normal people. Scary stories shared around campfires tell of strange neighbors that take a peculiar fascination with innocent people and hunt them in their dreams or drive them mad, or even end up kidnapping them and substituting them with living puppets.

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However, every account or story around these demons has one thing in common: these creatures belong to the darkness and the night.

Those very few who are lured into a Night Demon’s inner circle are still apt to be held to unrealistically high standards of loyalty to them and their ideals (somewhat ironically, as Night Demons live lives of constant lies and treachery), tending to lead to the formation of sects around them, cabals, and secret cults that are most detrimental for the communities they infest, usually fostering a general sense of distrust, doubt, and subverting some of the most basic ethical and community norms.

Their abilities support their behavior as they are able to manipulate senses, read minds, and hunt the mind of their victims in a variety of other ways.

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With Night Demons, scholars actually refer to one of either of two different types of entities that both share an instinctive attraction towards darkness and mystery, both equally dangerous to the fabrics of society: those tainted by Astaroth, commonly called ‘Ghouls’ or ‘Graverobbers’, and those tainted by Umbra, commonly referred to as a ‘Hym’ or simply ‘Nightmare’.

Appearance

As most Demons, Night Demons hide their true form in the body of a simple Human born into anywhere within the Empire. Their behavior and (human) appearance are as varied as Humans can be, as is their choice of clothes and profession, both of which are typically influenced by their homeland, income, and/or social status. However, there are a few constants in their human form: they all appear to have black, gray, or white hair and black, purple, or gray eyes.

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The ‘true form’ of these creatures can also vary greatly: their skin appears in dark purple, dark blue, or night gray shades and they sport horns with elongated shapes.

Their eyes are either uniformly black, purple, or moonstone white.

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Especially common for Hyms, much more rarely for Ghouls, tentacle-like appendages can protrude from parts of their body such as from behind their ears, and sometimes a hairless, fleshy, tentacle-like tail extends from their back.

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Others, especially the ones connected with Astaroth, appear as full on monstrosities, with their heads having lost any semblance of human features. Instead they appear as some twisted, corrupted shape which has been described in some horrifying accounts as having the vague shape and texture of an octopus, tentacles included, with a maw crowded with hundreds of small, sharp teeth in place of a mouth.

Behavior: Ghoul

Those newborns that have been tainted by Astaroth, tend to share an innate, deeply rooted attraction towards books and academic knowledge, even more so towards knowledge that is to be kept from the masses for their own good.

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One of the most common behaviors they show is indeed the theft of manifestations of knowledge, such as books, scrolls, or tablets. It brings them great joy to know that they have not only found new knowledge to study for themselves, but that they also have taken away the knowledge from someone else, leaving trails of unsolved mysteries in their wake.

They also share an almost physical urge to conserve and preserve knowledge of all kinds, even the memories of the dead, especially those whose lives were most remarkable and filled with achievement. These Demons are indeed said to be able to talk with the bodies of the dead, to possibly discover knowledge that they might have brought with them to the tomb. This is one of the reasons why, if not attracted to live around or frequently visit places of knowledge such as libraries and taking academic professions, these Demons often take jobs that have to do with death in one way or another: this is also what caused these Demons to be called more often outside of the academic environment ‘Ghouls’ or ‘Graverobbers’.

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Graves' profanation is probably the root of most rumors about Night Demons. Graveyards often are found to have been dug up and the urns or containers where the ashes of the deceased where put to rest opened or broken, their contents partly scattered around as the Demons would feed on them.

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This fascination with death has unclear roots, save for the god from which they were born. For some, it is simply a primal urge with no intrinsic meaning. For others, it is fueled by that desire to learn from the dead what secrets they may have taken to the grave. Corpses, perhaps, are some of the most ideal companions for Night Demons, as they are unable to pass along information to those who shouldn’t learn it. Sometimes, when lacking a trusted inner circle, they compensate by sharing only with the dead.

Night Demons allow very few into their inner circles as they find most undeserving of the wealth of knowledge they’ve accumulated for one reason or another. Outside of their closest relations, however, Ghouls prefer to keep their true identity and true interests hidden. Thus, very few of them would pick a life outside of the empire where they can show their true form over a secretive life within the empire or at its outskirts.

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To misuse sacred knowledge shared by a Night Demon is one of the greatest wrongs one can do in their eyes. Not only that, but their obsession is also with the uncontrolled spreading of knowledge: as knowledge is such a precious thing to them, it should not belong to everyone, but only to few in a position to value it and understand what sort of power it can give them. Some of these Demons arrive at the point of actively persecuting people who attempt to publicly spread knowledge that is supposed to be kept from the masses, such as secrets about other demons or legendary creatures, attempting to carefully sabotage their efforts, knowing that these people are also likely knowledgeable, or even in some cases going so far as hiring mercenaries to silence them.

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Ghouls tend to live very sedentary lives in places where they can be surrounded by books and scrolls, such as libraries, or among the dead, such as an surgeon’s workshops, mortuaries, or cemeteries, preferring large inhabited centers where they have easier access to both knowledge and a good source of interesting corpses to learn from.

Under no circumstance would they choose to live with races that can not add much to their thirst for knowledge such as Beastskin or Ogroids, and similarly they would find little in these or other rural communities, save for perhaps a temporary stay for purpose of studying something ‘in the field’, or as a place from which to commute towards more interesting locations.

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Behavior: Hym (Nightmare)

Other newborns across the Empire are instead said to have been tainted by Umbra: these creatures are not only dangerous for the overall health of society and commit sins as atrocious as their other cousins, but are also a direct danger to innocent individuals. Indeed, Inquisitors have recorded over the years a series of similar cases of persons especially involved with justice or law enforcement, but also criminals and other people that have direct involvement with the use of violence. These people are often recorded as having experienced some strange symptoms, such as fatigue or nausea, which progressed into mild confusion, or difficulties with focus, attention, or comprehension. Sometimes they’d even report having visions. Finally, they would have the person degenerate into becoming an empty husk, or even catatonic, though some of the victims often ended up suicidal before what was left of their sanity finally left them.

Very differently from Ghouls though, Hyms are not interested in knowledge in the academic sense, nor they are interested in learning or experimenting. Their interest instead is in learning about other people’s personal secrets: the deeper the secret, the hotter the gossip, the more terrible the sin committed, the more interest this will generate for a Hym. They are inevitably attracted to these kinds of people, wanting to remain close to them and learn of all their most hidden secrets.

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Sometimes the Hym will be just a ‘benevolent observer’ or even befriend the source of all these secrets, even going so far as to share other secrets with them, as long as they would seem worthy of the utmost trust or even take some kind of oath. At worst these Hyms might send dreams to these ‘targets’ or ‘friends’ of theirs, making some attempt to push them towards the types of forbidden behaviors they'd most like to prey upon. Other times the Hym instead might be more malevolent and attempt to blackmail the person once it has learned their secrets, or at the very least leverage them against the person.

This kind of Night Demon finds joy not only in learning secrets, but also in fabricating them, or in making others produce them. Some even tend to speak cryptically and sometimes create puzzles or mysteries where none really exist simply for their own amusement, or to obscure otherwise easily uncovered information just for the sake of doing so.

They themselves are often inquisitive, sometimes annoyingly so, and for those not close with the Night Demon, attempts to glean information from them may seem to go in circles.

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Hyms also inherently find a certain aversion to pain and are often disturbed by witnessing it or violence. This does not mean that using torture on them or anyone else will make it any easier to forcefully extract information from these creatures, though: they almost physically can not reveal secrets unless to someone they share some kind of bond with, such as other creatures of secrecy, or fervent followers of Umbra.

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Some Hyms, especially the ones that accept their connection to Umbra often are rumored to dedicate themselves to actively purging violence and pain from the world they live in, targeting people that commit violent crimes or that inflict violence on others, actively attempting to slowly turn them mad, catatonic, or suicidal.

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Similarly to their other Night Demon cousins, Hyms also would find nothing of interest in the more simple and direct lives of Beastkin and Ogroids, festering instead in the intrigues at the courts of nobles, in merchant guilds, or other places where power and money are. They can also be found with secret cults or as espionage agents, or simply people that generate gossip and might commit sins or other taboo acts for their cultures

Indeed their urges bring them to become particularly interested in nobles, even more so if they look like potential avenues towards behaviors that might be considered taboo. But even prostitutes or heretics might draw their attention: all things that outside of large settlements in human society or manors, are found perhaps underground within Ilthir cities.

How to Play: Night Demons

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  • Try to live in large settlements, or at least visit them often, as they are your main source for either knowledge or secrets and gossip.

  • Focus on a non-violent existence following your personal objectives and living a delicate balance between submitting to your urges and keeping them in check where possible: things that will naturally contrast with the ones of the followers of The Three.

  • (Ghoul) Search for knowledge, especially if of the forbidden type. Accumulate it and share it with few.

  • (Hym) Search for personal secrets, learn about crimes, taboos being breached and people committing actions considered wrong by society

Rumors: Night Demons

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  • Some say that these creatures emerge from the darkest depths- crypts and caverns, in the dead of night to sneak into villages to feast on the brains of the innocent and unsuspecting

  • It is a running legend that no remains, human or otherwise, are safe from these creatures. There have been some cases of those near death driven to a panicked frenzy out of fear of being eaten before they have passed.

  • Some say that there are creatures in the land who can entirely replace the minds of common folk, installing puppet leaders into positions of power to further their own agenda... whatever that may be.

  • Some speak of monsters who are little more than a mass of writhing worms inside a suit of pallid clammy skin. They haunt graveyards pawing at the dirt to get to the dead below, any unfortunate enough to find these creatures would see that instead of teeth they possess a mouth of worms, hungry for dirt and flesh.

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See ⁠Demons for general details about Demons, their mechanics, origins and history.

Possible Patron Gods: Astaroth (Ghoul/Graverobber) or Umbra (Hym/Nightmare)

Possible Faith: The Three - Empire Loyalty

General Personality Traits: Calm, poised, peaceful, secretive, prefers dark colors and places

Typical Astaroth Specific Traits: Introvert, Elitist, Rational

Typical Umbra Specific Traits: Sneaky, Gossipy, Morally Corrupting

Physical Characteristics: Hair either Black, Gray, or White. Black, Grey, (very) Dark Brown, or Purple eyes.

Astaroth Specific Demonic Urges:

Accumulate and preserve (academic) Knowledge, understand the causes that lead to events or behaviors, keep knowledge for few elected

Umbra Specific Demonic Urges:

Learn secrets and gossip, about laws, conventions, and taboos being broken

Urge to keep secrets hidden

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Abilities:

  • Darkvision: can see as well in the night or in dark caves as they can during the day

  • (Ghoul) Knowledgeable: for all knowledge rolls, roll twice and take the highest result

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Weakness: Ghoul: Forced in Demon Form when refusing to learn something new

Hym: Forced in Demon Form when telling a secret about themselves or someone else.

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Other Weaknesses: Demons are asked to pick 2 out of a small list of weaknesses and must specify them at character creation. This list is private for metagaming reasons and will be shown to players during Character Creation.

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Spells:

Illusion/Self I, Illusion*/Self II, Illusion*/Self* III, Fear I, Blur Memories, Read Emotions, Read thoughts, Mind Break*, Darkness*

* Only when in Demon form

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Note: This race is for a restricted number of characters, before submitting a character, check for availability by opening a Character Creation Ticket.

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Note: Demons are High Risk characters. They may be killed more easily given their nature by certain other characters and races (e.g. by the Inquisition). Opening a ticket before a possible death however is still mandatory.

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Authors: Rashan, klt22, Maya

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