Demons, the great trespassers into our universe, are the reason why the Nephilim exist. They are the shadows that we hunt. Though our work managing and maintaining the careful balance among Downworlders and mundanes often feels like the majority of our responsibility, it is secondary. It is the work we do when we are not fighting demons. The primary task of the Shadowhunter, the mission granted us by Raziel, is to eliminate the demon scourge by returning the demons, once and for all, to the Void from whence they came.
WHAT ARE DEMONS?
The very word “demon” is problematic. Its etymology in English has nothing to do with evil spirits at all; it is used to describe these creatures only because of translation confusions in the early days of Christianity, many years before the Nephilim began. We use the word “demons” to describe the creatures we fight because Jonathan Shadowhunter used the word, based on his own religious history. Most human belief systems have some concept that represents what we call demons: Persian daevas, Hindu asuras, Japanese oni. To keep terminology uncomplicated, we refer to them as demons, as do most Nephilim.
Demons are not living beings in the sense that we usually understand. They are alien to our universe and are not sustained by the same kind of forces that sustain us. Demons do not have souls; instead, they are powered by a roiling demon energy, a vitalizing spark that maintains their form in our dimension. When demons die, this energy is separated from its physical body, and that body will be yanked quickly back into its home dimension. To human eyes, this disappearance can take many forms, depending on the species of demon. Some explode into dust, some fade from view, some crumple into themselves. In all cases, however, no remnant of the demon’s physical self remains in our world. (Warlock rituals exist that can “preserve” demonic physicality in our world, allowing one to keep, say, a vial of demon blood without its vanishing when its demon source is dispatched.)
WHAT DO DEMONS WANT WITH OUR WORLD? WHY DO THEY COME HERE?
We do not really know. Nephilim folklore says that demons are originally from our world, before they were banished (see Excerpts from A History of the Nephilim, Appendix A), so perhaps they are seeking to take it back for themselves. On the other hand, our stories also tell us that the demons were destructive and wicked from the beginning—that is why they were banished. So they may instead represent the spirit of evil in our world, in some fashion.
At an individual level, demons seem to come to our world in order to wreak havoc. Sometimes they come in search of power—power over other creatures, more powerful magic, and the like—but that power seems to have no ultimate purpose beyond its own existence, other than to wreak more havoc upon our world.
Many have argued for more philosophical origins of the demons’ hate for our world—that they hate our ability to create, for instance, which they lack. This argument is often used to explain why demons create warlocks: It is the only act of creation of which they are capable, and even that they must accomplish by stealing our own act of creation from us.
But we must, for now, throw up our hands and admit that it remains a mystery why demons come to our world. All we can say for sure is that they are here to do us violence, and that they have no interest in truces or treaties.
WHAT DO DEMONS “REALLY” LOOK LIKE? DO THEY LOOK LIKE UGLY MONSTERS EVEN WHEN IN THEIR OWN DIMENSION?
The relationship of demons’ bodies in our world to their “reality” in their own is a secret we may never discover. We believe that demons have no choice about the physical form they take in our world, but other than that, their true form is a mystery. We do not know if terms like “appearance” even apply in the Void from whence they come. One popular theory holds that when a demon travels to a dimension, a body is created for that demon that can survive in that dimension, and that this is the reason that demons are the only creatures that can move freely between worlds. This is mere conjecture, of course.
HOW DO I RECOGNIZE A DEMON IN THE WILD?
Recognizing demons, unless they are shapeshifters, is normally not difficult. Demons always take on monstrous forms in our world, and can usually be discerned by the uncanny, nauseating feeling that billows around them like a dark aura. In the rare cases of uncertainty, positive identification can be made via the demon’s violent reaction to holy items and places or via a Sensor’s violent reaction to the demon.
In addition to their general hideousness, demons often carry with them a scent of death that can be very strong. Shadowhunters asked to describe it usually reach for terms like “rotting,” “spoiled,” “brimstone,” “burning hair,” and the like. The effect can be debilitating to the unprepared Shadowhunter.
I am actually feeling kind of bad for demons here. Is that wrong?
Yes.
WHAT IS THAT DISGUSTING BLACK LIQUID THAT APPEARS WHEN YOU CUT THEM?
Like other living creatures, demons’ bodies are kept fresh by a vital fluid, but this is not the usual red blood of our world. Instead, they contain a supernatural ichor. The term “ichor” refers originally to the golden blood of angels, and comes from the ancient Greek word for the blood of their gods. Demon blood is also ichor, but as it is infused with demon energies, it is black and viscous, thinner than blood but totally opaque. Ichor is not dangerous to touch, but it is somewhat toxic to humans if it gets into the blood via a wound or other means. It is unlikely to harm any Shadowhunter who has the usual range of protective Marks, but care should be taken.
CAN DEMONS SPEAK HUMAN LANGUAGES?
Most common demons cannot speak human languages. A good number of species are, however, able to parrot human speech that they have heard. This is often a sign that a demon has been summoned rather than coming to our world on its own; the demon will be heard to repeat, often obsessively, words and phrases spoken to it by the summoner.
There are a number of demon languages—possibly an infinite number of them—but a number that we have identified and that warlocks and, more rarely, Shadowhunters interested in demon research may learn. The two most common are known to demon philologists as Cthonic and Purgatic. It is worthwhile to at least be able to recognize these two languages in their written and spoken forms, and perhaps to memorize a few frequently used phrases, such as “Hello,” “Good-bye,” “I am a Nephilim,” “In the name of Raziel I abjure thee,” “Begone, fiend,” and so on.
DO DEMONS POSSESS PEOPLE?
Despite the mundane obsession with demons taking possession of their bodies, actual demon possession is very rare and requires a very powerful Greater Demon. This is lucky, because it is one of the most powerful magics that demons possess. Usually the only way the connection between the possessor and the possessed can be broken is by killing the demon, which more often than not kills the hapless mundane victim as well. If you encounter a possession, do not try to handle the situation on your own. Do not try to negotiate with the possessed as if they are political hostages. The possessed are not merely corrupted by demonic influence but are fully controlled. They become like passengers in their own bodies, able to experience everything that the demon is doing but unable to exert any will to act independently at all. (Mercifully, the possessed usually retain no memories of their actions while inhabited.) You may restrain the victim, preferably with help from other Shadowhunters, and then you should contact the Silent Brothers and allow them to remove the subject to the Silent City, where they will perform magics that you are better off not witnessing.
WHY ARE DEMONS SO EAGER TO DESTROY US?
It’s believed that demons have an intrinsic hatred of us as a result of their envy of the life of our dimension. Theirs, as far as we can tell, is a dead dimension, a dimension devoid of life, and they desire to consume us and our world to take that which they themselves do not (or, perhaps, no longer) have. Demons are able to sense the presence of life nearby; in fact, they will often use this sense to track down their prey.
DID YOU KNOW?
One of the great unsung heroes of the Nephilim is Gregory Hans, a seventeenth-century Silent Brother who discovered the correct combination of Marks to both enhance a Nephilim’s senses and exclude the smell of demons from that enhancement. Generations of Shadowhunters thank him. (Note that under standard demonic glamour, those who are susceptible cannot smell a demon any more than they can hear or see one. All the senses, thankfully, are negated.)
HOW DO WE KILL THEM?
The most important weakness of demons is, of course, their vulnerability to angelic power and heavenly fire. Like the Downworlders they brought into being, they cannot easily be harmed by normal earthly weapons, or at least not permanently harmed. For this reason you will find even the most basic Shadowhunter weapons to be Marked to strengthen them against demons, and you will find the seraph blade (see Treasury, Chapter 1) to be the most important of your tools in combat.
In addition to being repelled by direct seraphic energy, most demons can be warded off with holy symbols of all kinds. Very powerful demons, however, such as Greater Demons, may be caused only discomfort by the presence of holy symbols, rather than actual harm, so a Shadowhunter should not depend exclusively on these symbols to protect themselves.
Like vampires, demons cannot stand the direct force of sunlight upon their bodies. Note that—just as in the case of vampires—this does not mean that demons are not active during daylight hours. They can stand our artificial lights with no ill effects. And unlike vampires, who often attempt to live undetected among mundanes, demons have no need to pretend to tolerate sunlight. It is possible to destroy a demon with light, but the Shadowhunter will need to somehow entrap the demon in a situation where sunlight cannot be escaped, which can be difficult. A seraph blade to the throat or heart is usually a more reliable attack.
Finally, one great advantage that we have in our fight against demons is that they are unable to perceive the difference between mundanes and Shadowhunters, and unable to sense the working of angelic magic. This enables us to hide from them using glamours until such time as we are ready to fight them. Demons can, however, detect the presence of other demons and Downworlders.
This section summarized for your convenience: We don’t know a thing about either of these.
THE VOID AND THE DEMON CITY OF PANDEMONIUM
Well, that is a time saver, thanks.
We know little about the Void, the home of demonkind. Many names have been used in literature to refer to the home of the demons—all mundane religious terms for Hell, and other abstract terms such as “Chaos” and “Abyss,” for example—but in modern times we have settled on “Void” as both descriptive and ecumenical, and, oddly enough, the Greater Demons who have manifested in our world in modern times have also used the term.
The geography of the Void remains a mystery to us. It often appears that demons have no real homes and are present everywhere at all times. One can, for instance, summon any demon for whom a summoning ritual is known, and all of these demons will appear reliably and in roughly the same amount of time, whatever kind of demon and wherever the summoner may be. On the other hand, certain species of demons tend to “naturally” occur in certain parts of our world—the Rakshasas of the Indian subcontinent, for example, or the Gorgons of Greece. Plenty of theories have been advanced as to why this might be, but the fact is that we do not understand why certain demons have an affinity for certain locations. The fact that some demons do have an affinity for a location is to our advantage, though. Those Shadowhunters posted in certain places will become experts in fighting particular kinds of demons and for the most part will not have to know everything about all demons but will be able to locally specialize.
One may generally assume that the number of different demons in the Void is, for all intents and purposes, infinite. At the very least, it’s believed that there are hundreds upon hundreds of millions of different types, and while Shadowhunters have fought demons for the entirety of our thousand-year history, it’s unlikely that we’ve encountered more than the tiniest percentage of them. It’s speculated that there are many demons who are incapable of manifesting themselves materially in our world at all.
A constant in our communication with those demons who can speak human language is their references to the city of Pandemonium, the supposed great nexus of demons at the center of the Void, if a void can be said to have a center. No human has, of course, ever visited that city and returned to tell the tale, so it is impossible to make any definite statements about it and what it is like, or even to say whether it can be described as a physical entity in the manner of our cities at all. About the only thing we can say about Pandemonium definitely is that it is very, very large—staggeringly larger than any of our human cities, and possibly larger and more populous than Earth. Research on Pandemonium has been limited, largely because most Nephilim consider that there are enough demons present in our world without going to find still more of them.
DEMONS VERSUS GREATER DEMONS
We do not know if there are actually “Greater Demons.”
There are specific demons that we refer to as Greater Demons, and they have some aspects in common: human-scale intelligence, personalities, names, and an inability to be permanently destroyed by us with any weapon available. We know this because of a long recorded history of Greater Demons who have been “killed,” only to return later, intact and unharmed. Void Theory tells us that the destruction of the Greater Demon’s physical body sends the Greater Demon snapping back to the spaces in the Void, where its ethereal body exists. There the Greater Demon must spend time carefully accruing power in order to rebuild its physical form.
But it’s important also to remember that this is mostly speculation. It may be the case, for instance, that no demons, Greater or otherwise, can be permanently killed by us, but since we can’t discern individuals among the demons that have subhuman intelligence, we cannot tell if a demon we believe we have killed actually returns later. Attempts have been made at various points in history to “tag” individual demons for tracking, usually with terrible results. Killing demons is difficult enough; catching a small number alive in order to tag and track them has proven impossible.
It is possible, therefore, that “Greater Demon” simply means “any demon with humanlike intelligence,” rather than the term indicating some firmer distinction between Greater Demons and regular demons. More research will be needed to discover the truth; luckily, the endless torrent of hideous un-life from beyond the Void shows no sign of slowing, and research material will likely never be in short supply.
DEMONS, DEMONS, DEMONS
Now with additional demons!
I. SOME GREATER DEMONS
LILITH
Unlike her dark consort, Sammael, Lilith is still alive and has been known to appear on Earth. Pray that you never meet her.
Lilith is known by many names, even when considering only the Jewish tradition from which most of her folklore is sourced. This does not count the many other entities in other mythological traditions that are similar in form or function and may or may not be the same demon. Lilith’s other names in Jewish folklore include: Satrina, Abito, Amizo, Izorpo, Kokos, Odam, Ita, Podo, Eilo, Patrota, Abeko, Kea, Kali, Batna, Talto, and Partash.
Jewish tradition says that for her disobedience she was punished by being made unable to bear children. Many versions of the tale paint an even more brutal picture in which Lilith actually is capable of birthing infants, but all of them die upon birth. As such she is associated with the harming and weakening of human babies, and much of our knowledge of Lilith comes from Jewish mystical tradition designed to protect newborns from Lilith’s influence, with amulets and incantations.
SAMMAEL
Apart from his foundational role in the Incursion, not much is known about Sammael. He is thought to have been the great Serpent by which humanity was tempted and fell from grace. But his physical shape is a mystery, for Sammael has not been seen on Earth in many hundreds of years.
Traditional tales state that for his crime of softening the veils between the human world and the Void, he was hunted and murdered by the archangel Michael, commander of the armies of Heaven. This story comes to us through mundane religious tradition, but is often repeated and is clearly believed by the demons of Pandemonium themselves. Since Sammael has not been seen in our world for so long a time, no rituals survive to summon him.
ABBADON
The Demon of the Abyss. His are the empty places between the worlds. His is the wind and the howling darkness. He is a nine-foot-tall rotting human skeleton.
He is a real jerk.
AZAZEL
Lieutenant of Hell and Forger of Weapons. Like most of the greatest of Greater Demons, he was an angel at one time. He is said to have taught humanity how to make weapons in the times before history, where previously weapons making had been knowledge held only by angels. This great transgression caused him to fall and become a demon. The irony of a demon being responsible for giving humanity the knowledge necessary to fight against demons is not lost on the Nephilim; we assume that it is not lost on Azazel himself either. As the Book of Enoch has it, “And the whole earth has been corrupted by the works that were taught by Azazel. To him ascribe all sin.”
HUNGER
The demon known as Hunger is an obese devil-like humanoid figure covered in hard, bony scales and a variety of chomping fang-lined mouths all over his body. Hunger is made to devour everything he encounters, usually in as messy and grotesque a fashion as possible.
MARBAS
A blue demon, half again the size of a man, covered in overlapping blue scales, with a long yellowish tail with a stinger on the end. Scarlet eyes, lizard’s features, and a flat snakelike snout.
MRS. DARK
A large creature of hard, stonelike skin, apparently female (although what gender means in the realm of demons is unclear). She is horned, with twisted limbs and clawed hands. She can also be identified by her glowing yellow eyes and her triple row of mouths lined with greenish fangs. She is of the Eidolon (see separate ).
II. SOME COMMON DEMONS
BEHEMOTH
The Behemoth is a formless monstrosity of a demon. It is roughly oblong and could be described as sluglike in its movements, but with less coherence of shape. It is large, much larger than a human, and slimy. Double rows of teeth line the length of its body. The Behemoth devours everything in its path, including people.
DRAGON
Dragon demons are the closest thing in the modern world to the ancient myths of dragons. They are large, flying, fire-breathing lizards, and are quite intelligent. They come in a variety of shapes and colors. They are formidable foes; luckily, Shadowhunters are likely to never encounter them, since they are almost extinct. They are not to be confused with Vetis demons, which are like dragons but are not Dragons.
DREVAK
Shadowhunters know well the appearance of Drevaks, weak demons in frequent use by Greater Demons or evil warlocks as spies or messengers. They are smooth, white, and larval, resembling a giant version of a mundane grub or maggot. They are blind and do their tracking by scent.
Their shapelessness and lack of intelligence does not mean they are not dangerous; instead of teeth their mouths contain poisonous spines, which can be very dangerous if they break off and stick in the skin of a victim. Normal treatments for demon venom apply here.
DU’SIEN
The Du’sien is one of the lesser-known shape-shifting, or Eidolon, demon species (see below). Its true appearance is abstract, like an irregular blob of greenish-gray jelly with a small glowing black core. They cannot mimic other creatures with the detail that many Eidolon can, and their command of human language is weak. They are thus often found disguised as “generic humans,” members of a crowd, rather than impersonating specific individuals.
EIDOLON
“Eidolon” is not the name for a specific species of demon. Rather, it is a comprehensive term for a variety of shape-shifting demon species. Shape-shifting demons come in many different original shapes, and many different sizes and strengths. Since there are dozens of these species, Shadowhunters typically use the term “Eidolon” to refer to shape-shifting demons in general. It is, in other words, usually more useful to note a demon’s shape-shifting ability than the minor details of their original form.
Eidolon demons make up the majority of demon parents of warlocks, for obvious reasons. (See the “Warlocks” section of Part II of this Bestiaire for an explanation if the reasons are not obvious to you.)
In addition to the danger posed by their nearly perfect ability to camouflage themselves, Eidolon also have a marked advantage over other demon species: When shifted into the form of a human, they are somewhat protected from the destructive light of the sun. A shifted Eidolon demon still cannot stand in direct sunlight but can endure the diffused light coming through heavy clouds, fog, rain, and so on, with only minor discomfort.
FACEMELTER
Self-explanatory.
HELLHOUND
A demonic corruption of the dog, just as many demons are corruptions of the forms of men and women. Typically hellhounds appear as vicious canines much larger than any mundane dog, with red eyes, coarse black wirelike fur, and a murderous temperament. They have a similar intelligence to mundane dogs and are used by demons for similar purposes—tracking and hunting. (Obviously there are many uses for mundane dogs, such as herding and companionship, that hellhounds are never used for, since demons are incapable of concepts such as companionship.) Like with dogs, hellhounds’ jaws are their most dangerous weapons, but unlike with dogs, their tails end in a set of spiked nail-like protrusions, similar to a mace.
HYDRA
A medium-size multiheaded demon, vicious but not intelligent. Known for its multiple heads, at least three but often many more. The Hydra can be distinguished from other multiheaded demons by its animalistic intelligence level, the presence of heads on stalks, and its blindness—the Hydra cannot see normally and relies on sound, scent, and its sheer number of large mouths to catch its prey.
IBLIS
The Iblis demon is corporeal but not of solid form. Instead it has the appearance of a figure about the size and shape of a human but made of a roiling, fast-moving black smoke. In the part of its vapor that represents its head, it looks out onto our world through yellow burning eyes.
IMP
The common Imp is a small humanoid with the characteristics of a typical Western devil—horns, forked tail, et cetera. They are not very dangerous individually but can become a problem when encountered in swarms of more than two hundred, as is occasionally reported.
DJINN
Djinn are mentioned here because they are often incorrectly believed to be demons. They are not; they are faeries.
KAPPA
A reptilian water demon covered in a protective carapace and with a protruding beak, but otherwise the size and rough shape of a human ten-year-old child. Fond of leaping from the water to drag unwitting mundanes to their deaths.
KURI
These are spider demons, large and shiny black, with eight pincer-tipped arms, and fangs extending from their eye sockets.
MOLOCH
Somewhat confusingly, the name “Moloch” refers both to a Greater Demon known as one of the most fearsome demon warriors, a being of smoke and oil, and also to a species of lesser demons (“Molochs”) that are minions and foot soldiers of the Greater Demon Moloch. Individuals of the species are man-size, dark, and made of thick roiling oil, with arms but only a formless liquid appendage instead of legs. Their primary weapon is the flames that stream from their empty eye sockets, and they are usually seen in large numbers rather than in isolation.
ONI
Human-size demons with green skin, wide mouths, and horns upon their heads.
RAHAB
These are large bipedal demons, somewhat lizardlike in appearance and movement. They are blind, with a line of teeth where their eyes should be, and a regular mouth, this one fanged and tusked, in a more usual place on their faces. They have a narrow, whiplike tail edged with razor-sharp bone. Their talons and teeth are, of course, sharp and dangerous, but their most threatening weapon is the bulb-shaped stinger on the end of their long, forked tongue.
RAUM
The Raum is an intimidating and dangerous demon, not capable of speech, but somewhat clever as an opponent nonetheless. Raums are about the size of a man but possess white, scaled skin, bulging black eyes without pupils, a perfectly circular mouth, and tentacles for arms. These tentacles are the Raum’s most dangerous weapon; they are tipped with red suckers, each of which contains a circle of tiny needlelike teeth.
RAVENER
The Ravener is a classic monstrosity: a long, squamous black body with a long domed skull like an alligator’s. Unlike on an alligator, its eyes are in an insectile cluster on the top of its head. It has a vicious, barbed whip tail and a thick, flat snout. Raveners possess sharp fanged teeth, which envenomate their prey with a deadly toxin. In time the poison will burn away all of the life of the victim, leaving only ash behind. The toxin is particularly terrible even among demon venoms, and there we are talking about a category that includes the poison of the Facemelter demon. (See “,”.)
SHAX
These demons are known for their keen sense of smell and are sometimes summoned by warlocks to use in tracking a missing person. They must be carefully controlled, however; they are brood parasites and reproduce by wounding a victim and then laying their eggs in the still-living victim’s skin.
VERMITHRALL
Most Shadowhunters will incorrectly tell you that the Vermithrall is a monstrous lumbering mass made up of thousands of writhing worms. In fact the Vermithrall are the individual worms themselves. They do, however, collect into colonies in the shape of a humanoid and attack as a unified single entity. Worse, worms separated from the main body will endeavor to rejoin it, making it very hard to permanently kill a Vermithrall.
VETIS
They are not to be confused with Dragon demons, which they somewhat resemble but are unrelated to. They are gray and scaly, with overlong serpentine arms and an elongated but humanoid body. Like Dragons, they are known for hoarding valuables; unlike Dragons, they do not have any understanding of what is valuable and what is dross, and their lairs are more closely reminiscent of large rats’ nests than treasure chambers.
MUNDANE DEMONIC CULTS
Through history there have been any number of pathetic, misguided groups of mundanes who have built small cults around the worship of a particular demon or group of demons. Most of these cults are of little interest to Nephilim and serve only to clutter and confuse demonic histories, since they are based around demons that are merely imagined or invented.
Nevertheless, a minority of these demon cults have successfully raised weak minor demons. These stories usually end with the cult improperly binding the demon and the demon immediately killing all of the cult’s members. In a small number of cases, a successful demon cult has endured for a short time, with the demon served by the cult members and asking little in return. These cults inevitably fade after a generation or two and are of little concern to us historically, but they may cause local trouble and require Shadowhunter intervention.
Mundane members of demon cults are often barely human by the time that intervention is needed. Their worshipped demon is likely to have consumed their humanity for fuel, to maintain and strengthen itself. This leaves behind mere shells of humans, their physical bodies in active decay and their souls worn down to a constant animalistic rage. This state is considered irreversible; killing these demon-degraded mundanes is considered an act of mercy and is thus within the bounds of the Law.
Cults have existed to serve Greater Demons, but there is little evidence that any of these have ever successfully summoned the subject of their worship. If they have, the likelihood is that they were immediately annihilated and no record exists of them to teach us of their folly.
THE DEMON POX
Astriola, or demon pox, is a rare but debilitating illness that affects Shadowhunters and is caused by inappropriate contact with demons. The illness is not often seen, because this kind of inappropriate contact is, luckily, not common. Mundanes are immune to the disease; it is assumed to be caused by the interaction of demon poisons with the angelic nature of Shadowhunters.
The first signs of demon pox are a shield-shaped rash on the back of the sufferer, which then spreads over the body, creating fissures in the skin. From this point the afflicted Shadowhunter will deteriorate physically, experiencing fever, chills, nausea, oozing sores, non-oozing sores, buboes, a film of black over the eyes, hair ejection, and other similar signs of distress. In time the sores and fissures cover the skin of the victim entirely, and they form a dark chrysalis within which the victim transforms, painfully and over the course of several weeks, into a demon himself. Once the demon emerges from the chrysalis, the previously existing person is in effect deceased, and the only end to the torment is to kill the demon.
In earlier times astriola was invariably lethal, and not much could be done for the sufferer but to make him comfortable and to remove him from innocents who might be harmed when his full demonic alteration took place. The progress of the disease could be slowed but not stopped, and in many cases the victim would choose not to be treated, since by and large treatment would only prolong his agony. Today there exist reliable cures that can clear up demon pox in its early stages, and the illness now causes few fatalities. It can, however, still be incurable if the sufferer reaches a certain stage of demonification before being treated. In addition, a fairly serious stigma is still associated with the disease, and its presence is considered sufficient evidence for the violation of the Law against consorting with demons. Thus those who are treated for demon pox today often receive this treatment while in the prisons of the Silent City.