Song of Demons

Song of Demons by DreamerOfThings
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Overview

The story of Shax Markov, a descendant of the Markov House, one of the only surviving Warlock houses in existence. Currently on a quest to prove himself worthy of becoming the next head of the family, rather than any of his his siblings. This rather regrettably will involve the death of said siblings at the hands of demons, and the death of a good many other people to harvest the souls necessary to summon and bind demons to his will. Shax has only recently began his quest, and a parting spell cast by his brother brought him the unexpected council of the demons of his mind...

The Cast

Non-Demons

Markov Family

Shax
Shax is trained both as a warlock (a hereditary infernal art) and as a wizard (the art of more traditional arcane power). Shax's Bloodline contains trace amounts of Demon Blood. Currently his soul will be damned to the Hells in the event of his death. Dislikes dealing with westerners. His lust for the pleasures of the flesh has long been beaten out of him by the rest of his family members.
Inventory:
Enough money to make it home, if I stick to the absolute minimum of what I need
Gaudy mask leafed in gold
Soul Capturing arm(left), various runes and marking tattoos
Original Clothing(???)
Clothing(commoner)
Clothing(nightlife&upperclass)
Map&compass
Tent
"odds and ends"
Stats: Strength-1/Finesse-2/Will-5
Classification: Human, Warlock, Wizard
Souls:
1 Greater Wrath Soul
2 Lesser Wrath Souls
1 Lesser Lust Soul
1 useless greed soul
Spells and abilities:
Can feel the tingle of magic in the air.
Demonologist: Shax can use experience to either increase the abilities of his demons, or increase his own Will. Will is earned at a rate of 1 for #=Current Will. So to get to 4 Will, you need 3 XP. Demon traits can only be increased to a certain amount, each for 1 xp. For example, Geet, an imp, can have the potency of his venom increased, causing the effects to be more pronounced, his invisibility made more effective, and his base stats increased up to 2 each. This can be done for all demons. A Warlock can only have a number of demons equal to their Will+1.
Infernal
Wards: An integral part of demonology, wards are the runes and sigils that allow demonologists to contain demons within circles and the like. A warlock, on the other hand, uses it to aid in enslaving demons.
Infernal Bolts: bolts of demonic energy that will rip away flesh, cloth and steel and kill targets instantly if they strike the heart. Otherwise, it's just very, very painful. Can be used as often as wanted.
Summon Demon(various, requires soul)
Bind Demon(various, requires wards)
Imprison Soul: Shax can imprison the souls of the recently dead within his left arm, and use them to fuel his summoning of demons, exact range unknown but seems to be short. Can apparently "taste" the souls he captures, with more sinful souls tasting better. No limit to number of souls that can be stored.
Afflicted with "Demons of the Mind", comes from a spell that one of his brothers gave him.
Arcanist: Shax is also a minor Arcanist, and can use some arcane spells. By sacrificing XP, he can "learn" spells he has seen others perform. He can have a total number of spells equal to his Will+5.
Arcane
Cone of Flame: Sends a cone of fire from Shax's hands outwards, setting things on fire. Can only do this twice before requiring rest.
Arcane Missile: Fires off a bolt of arcane energy, exploding upon contact with anything.
Read All: A passive arcane ability. Shax can read any and all forms of writing, regardless of whether he should be able to. Cannot break codes.
Languages:
Common(?)
Demon Tongue(Badly)
XP: 1
Goals:

• Become head of the Markov family by eliminating other claimants.
• Do not to die in the process
• Bend one of the seven to his will

Marcosias: Current head of the family. Has nine children total, four officialy recognized as having a claim on his position and as such participants in the Game. Has numerous succubi servants.

Caim: Eldest Brother. Killed during a war the Markov family was forced to participate in. Ironically, a holy war.

Seere: Eldest Daughter. Is currently the most powerful of the siblings, although she has only a passing interest in actually becoming the Head, or any of her other family members at that. Trained in druidic magic as well as infernal.

Amon: Brother killed by the Twins via lightning for randomly killing Faith priests.

Valefor: Second in line for the Head. Gave Shax the Voices spell. Is often considered unpredictable and not always playing with a full deck of cards.

Ipos: The youngest in line for the Head. Started her own quest for power at the same time as Shax. Little else is known.

Jacob(formerly Vassago): Disowned after he refused to participate in the Game, as well as refusing to use infernal magic. Last seen headed for the Great Forest.

Berith: Too young to participate in the Game, only 11 years old, as she was a surprise birth from one of Marchosias' many succubi servants. She's a half-demon, and is generally doted on by all the remaining members of the household, although she's especially attached to Shax, because Shax isn't either insane or completely uninterested in her.

Shax's Disowned Twin Sister(Deceased): Demon Bride of Belphegor.

Currently Controlled Demons

Geet
Shax's first demon, summoned with the soul of his disowned twin sister. He's nothing special, but most Warlocks keep their first imp, as a sort of ceremonial gesture towards a rite of passage
Stats: Strength-1/Finesse-1/Will-1
Classification: Wrath Imp

???
Wrath imp, summoned with the soul of a mercenary.
Stats: Strength-1/Finesse-1/Will-1
Classification: Wrath Imp

???
Shax's first lust imp, summoned with the soul of a mercenary.
Stats: Strength-1/Finesse-1/Will-1
Classification: Lust Imp

Irateels
Shax's first succubus, summoned with the soul of a westerner whore. Likes pride and sloth. Finds wrath annoyingly direct.
Stats: Strength-3/Finesse-3/Will-3
Classification: Succubus

Kazderath
Shax's first berserker, summoned with the soul of a mercenary. Has green eyes.
Stats: Strength-?>3/Finesse-?/Will-?
Classification: Beserker

Dismissed Demons

1 Wrath Imp

World

Regions

• Aldurai Swamplands
• West(Seems to be orientalish, a mirror switching of the norm?). Architectural style focused on curves and spheres, thin wood panels used. Customs tend to focus on silence, respect, grace and honour. Westerners view themselves are superior to easterners, look down on easterners.
• East. Architectural style, hard angles and simple wooden doors.

Cities

• Unnamed Temple-City four days travel from the dwelling of the deceased Belphegor Demon Bride
• Two Winds(Trade City) between West and East. Consists out of two districts which are distinct of and only mildly hostile towards each other, as the sound of clinking coins always pushes thoughts of violence out of people's minds. Probably has twin rulers. Eastward a week's travel from Unnamed Temple-City.
• Marbtes(technically a temple-fortress, perhaps only in name.) lies directly north of Two Winds. Most of the city has sprung up around the fortress itself after its proclaimed temple status, and therefore many of its occupants offer only lip service to the Priest-Lord that resides there. Pride and Envy tend to be found in cities like this.
• Kamd(Walled Magic City). Known for being perhaps one of the most magical cities here in the southern lands, if that's even possible, Kamd is famed for its magical college willing to teach almost any form of magic you could want(presumably not infernal though). It does have a strong priest presence, but most of those would be trainees at best. This would likely be a good place to hunt for Pride or Sloth.
• ???(Markov City) Located far to the North amidst mountains. Under the control of Houser Markov. Isolated and cold.

Monsters

To the best of Shax's knowledge, demons and undead are the only fantastical monsters present in the world currently. Sylvans do apparently not count as monsters.

Religion

Seems to have the knock on wood superstition.

The Faith

The Faith is a religion spread far and wide in the world, and is the most closely followed of all religions.

The Faith doesn't really "control" anything, at least, not in the open. Instead, they have a large number of lords that follow the Faith, and therefore provide them with support and strength. Occasionally, however, the Faith is granted a city for themselves, which come to be known as temple-cities. All that really means is that priests and followers will gather in more abundance in the area than other cities. It's not really all that difficult to get past them. Just start shouting praise to the Twins and anyone can walk in. They're kinda idiots for the most part. It's when you get the smart ones you should worry...

The Twins

They have a few titles, but are generally considered the only "gods" to exist, at least according to the Faith. the Twins full title is "The Twin Gods Whom March Across The Heavens", or something like that. They are believed to be the sun and moon, with the sun being the elder of the two by mere seconds, called Sol, and the moon being the younger, called Luna. The priests divide themselves between the two, with Luna's followers being the more militant, believing that they must guard against the users of dark magic because they are supposedly more active at night, while the followers of Sol work to spread the Faith and provide more humanitarian aid to the world. Apparently those who gain their attention in a negative way, either by killing their priests or in another way, meet unfortunate fates. Shax's brother was struck by lightning. This seems to indicate they have power of lightning and probably other weather phenomena.

The Seven Demon Princes

The seven princes are the "gods" of infernal magic users.

Planes

There exist gateways that allow travel between the planes. The only known gateway is Leviathan's stomach which leads to hell, presumably the layer of envy.

• Courts of the Seven Hells

Ruled over by the Seven Demon Princes

• Endless Heavens

The Domain of the Twins(See Religion)

• Great Forest

Controlled by the Druids, who apparently have rules that must be followed when within the forest.

• Death March

Realm of the Lord of Death

Magic

While Truenames exist they are extremely difficult to learn, unless you have consulted with The Twins, one of the Seven Princes, or someone of similar power.

There's no way to bind a human to your will. It's only possible with demons due to their magical nature.

Spells of Unknown Classification:
Spell to summon headvoices that Shax learned from his brother(why did his brother "help" him if they're in a competition to the death in the "Game"? Something smells fishy here.)

Arcane

Deals with what most would consider standard magic. Spells focus mainly on making something from nothing, or causing things to happen. It's also the most common form of magic, made famous and rather popular by it's cliched fireball spell. Practitioners of the Arcane are often referred to as Wizards and Sorcerers.

Spells:
Cone of Flame: Sends a cone of fire from Shax's hands outwards, setting things on fire. Can only do this twice before requiring rest.
Arcane Missile: Fires off a bolt of arcane energy, exploding upon contact with anything.
Read All: A passive arcane ability. Shax can read any and all forms of writing, regardless of whether he should be able to.
Fireball: Presumably creates a ball of fire that is probably lobbed at targest.

Divine

Is magic granted by following the Faith. It's often said to be the opposite of infernal magic, but in reality, the two are more similar than opposites, as both forms of magic are derived from an outside source. Priest, Clerics and Paladins are the wielders of this form of magic.

While you can gain some measure of power through mere belief, gaining any REAL strength requires that you actually get noticed by one of the Twins. And the Princes know how difficult THAT is, unless you do something extremely violent towards their believers or you can somehow gain their interest in a good way.

Skilled priests can apparently "sniff out" infernal magic users.

Spells:

Druidic

Also called natural magic, is shamanistic in its methods. Natural forces and earthly spirits are called upon to grant the user the blessings of the earth. Druids, Shamans and the Sylvans wield Druidic magic.

Spells:

Necromantic

Is aimed not so much as the raising of the dead, but rather mastery over the forces of life and death. While undead are certainly what they are most famous for, practitioners of necromancy are also skilled doctors, healers and potion masters. Universally, however, they are referred to as Necromancers. Possession and phylactery construction falls under necromancy.

Spells:
Death Bolt: Presumably the necromantic equivalent to Arcane Missiles and Infernal Bolts. Seems to be the beginner spell taught to trainees.

Infernal

Largely viewed as evil, infernal magic deals with the summoning and interacting with Demons. While the most known form of practitioners are Warlocks, often called demon worshippers for the belief that they worship demons instead of enslaving them(Shax offered up a prayer to the seven so there may be a grain of truth in this belief), Witches and Cultists also fall into this category.

Spells:
Wards: An integral part of demonology, wards are the runes and sigils that allow demonologists to contain demons within circles and the like. A warlock, on the other hand, uses it to aid in enslaving demons.
Infernal Bolts: bolts of demonic energy that will rip away flesh, cloth and steel and kill targets instantly if they strike the heart. Otherwise, it's just very, very painful. Requires demonic ancestry.
Summon Demon(various, requires soul)
Bind Demon(various, requires wards)
Imprison Soul: Shax can imprison the souls of the recently dead within his left arm, and use them to fuel his summoning of demons, exact range unknown but seems to be short. Can apparently "taste" the souls he captures, with more sinful souls tasting better. No limit to number of souls that can be stored.

Demons

Demons are broken up into seven hells, one for each of the seven deadly sins. Within each sin, demons are broken into tiers, from the lowliest imp to the seven mighty demon princes. By default demons don't really have a gender. Most demons are devoted wholeheartedly to their own sin. Demons seem capable of "smelling" the concentrations of their particular sin in a soul. The quality of the demon also determines how much a demon can influence the person they are corrupting, so a greater demon could corrupt a soul far more than an imp could. Demons don't get bored. They just get restless.

The goal of all demons is souls. They serve as food for demonkind, and all demons hunt them whenever they can. The more sin a soul has of a particular sort, the more power a demon of that sort gain from it upon consumption.

Demons will recover from injury fairly quickly and easily, given a few days to recover, faster if fed a soul. Death, however, will banish them back to the hell they spawned from, meaning they'll have to be resummoned if that particular demon is wanted. Still, if you know a demon by name, any name, then it makes it far easier to find them again to summon them.

Demon Tongue

Harsh guttural language that can apparently make humans' ears bleed.

Summoning Demons

Souls are required to use in a fashion analogous to fishing bait to entice the demon and then pull it back into the mortal realm. Summoning takes preparation, unless you want to summon blind, which can have very bad results for everyone involved, sans the demon summoned. Preparation involves drawing sigils and wards, summoning circle. Takes shax 10 minutes to prepare for summing a beserker and 5 minutes to bend it to his will. Souls cannot be used together for the purposes of summoning. A soul used to summon can be saved from being completely consumed by the demon summoned, but it will still degrade in value, and you won't always be able to summon with one.

Most Warlocks will generally keep a "lair" or other place where they sequester the demons they aren't using. While a demon is summoned to the material plane, that demon can they be called from anywhere in the world, and appear at the Warlock's side.

Dismissal of summoned demons counts as voiding the contract and sending it back to Hell, to resummon it you'd then need another soul again. A warlock's first summon must be a imp. Most Warlocks keep their first imp, as a sort of ceremonial gesture towards a rite of passage.

Soul Quality:

• Useless: Can summon imps of its sin.
• Average: Can summon imps of any sin.
• Lesser: Can summon lesser demons of its sin or imps of other sins.
• Greater: Can summons greater demons of its sin or lesser demons of other sins.

Currently Known Hierarchy of Demons:

• Imp:

Imp Base Stats: Strength-1/Finesse-1/Will-1
Imps are apparently identical across the sins except for colouration and the effects of their stings. Small, spindly looking things, the prominent features being its barbed tail, from which it can deliver a poison sting, and disproportionally large, leathery wings. About calf-height to a average height mortal(assuming Shax is of average height.) Voices are high pitched, whiny almost. Imp Stings feel almost identical to a sting from a bug. Other demons would laugh off an imp sting before killing the useless sack of meat. Imps function more as convenient tools in making other people fall into sin, causing them to become more quality souls, rather than as fighters.
-Limited Invisibility, grants a limited form of invisibility. While not completely invisible, the user become very hard to detect, especially if you aren't carefully looking for him. Can be detected through numerous low-level spells, assuming one knew what to look for.

• Lesser Demon
• Greater Demon
• Demon Lords(Don't fall under any particular Sin. Administrators of Hell)
• Demon Prince

The Seven Deadly Sins:

Pride

Can possibly be considered the most powerful sin.

• Imp:

overconfident arrogance?

• Lesser Demon:

Generally just as arrogant as those they try to corrupt further. It's justified, in a way, however, because Pride demons are the only demons that actually have the ability to master magic. Real magic. Like arcane or necromantic.

• Greater Demon:

Even more magical ability and pride than lesser demons.

Envy

The universal trait of Envy demons is the ability to copy appearances of various people(presumably also those of imp level). They work best as infiltrators and the like.

• Imp:

Incite envy?

• Lesser Demon:

Mimic: Mimics the forms of various people or objects. They can only mimic form however.

• Greater Demon:

Doppleganger: Can mimic both form and some of the abilities of the people they are impersonating. A Doppleganger impersonating a mage, for example, might be able to perform some of the mages spells, or if they were mimicking a priest, be able to wield some divine power.

Gluttony:

Among the mortals, it's power is very strong, especially because gluttony isn't limited to mere food. The need and hunger for power can be just as great as the need for sustenance, and it's easy, to get people lost in their hunger for power. Gluttony demons are difficult to restrain however, because of their own strong hunger for their own fulfilment.

• Imp:

Gluttony imps's tail sting causes mortals to grow increasingly hungry for more and more food.

• Lesser Demon:

Hungerers: Look like starved humans. Most of the time you can find them trying desperately to eat anything and everything they can, but the food never helps, and they just keep right on eating and eating. And they'll eat ANYTHING. Gluttony is also often seen as the other combat type, as opposed to Wrath, which goes for bloody carnage, Gluttony goes for slow and steady consumption.

• Greater Demon:

Feasters: Massive, engorged, putrid things. They eat even more than Hungerers, having mouths on every surface they'll fit on and a matching numbers of arms, to shovel food into those waiting mouths. Disgusting things, but necessary.

Greed

• Imp:

Incite greed?

• Lesser Demon:

Watchers: Usually act as guardsman for the Hoarders, the Greater Demons. The Watchers are pretty big, as big as beserkers, but they usually have armour on and look a bit more human then Berserkers.

• Greater Demon:

Hoarders: Look like little men that do little more than try to stockpile as much money as possible. They're weak under most circumstances, but you'll find no one better to be a treasurer. They hate losing money, and keep meticulous records of the stuff. Hoarders are also known for their ability as thieves, since they have no qualms about stealing money to make sure they have piece of gold they can find.

Lust

Demons of Lust are relatively easy to enslave, given as the lesser demons are caught up in their own lust and need for pleasure. Lust Demons are good at faking emotions. Stories say they're so good at it they even convince themselves of what they feel.

• Imp:

Lust imp's tail sting acts as a powerful aphrodisiac.

• Lesser Demon:

Strength-3/Finesse-3/Will-3
Seduction: Both genders generate a sort of pheromone which acts like a powerful attractor, causing anyone attracted to their gender to lust after them, the effects increasing in intensity as a person stays near them. The kiss of a succubus or incubus also increases the effect, their saliva containing numerous aphrodisiacs to incite further lust in the target.
Disguise: A succubus or incubus also has the ability to disguise themselves perfectly as a human, including clothing, although this stops them from using any of their magical seductions. While in human form, the demon also loses any supernatural strength, although they keep their unnatural agility and willpower.
Only demons with set gender.
Succubus(female): Can "smell" lust in a soul apparently. Almost all demons prefer using succubus like portable pleasure providers. Can fly, but not very well. Have excellent singing abilities.
Incubus(male)

• Greater Demon:

Sloth

• Imp:

Poison that lowers ones desire to do anything other than eat and sleep and live. Little else concerns whoever it affects

• Lesser Demon:

Sleepers: Take numerous forms, they generally do little more than exude auras of sheer lethargy around them.

• Greater Demon:

Servants: A bit of a conundrum, even to themselves. They are the most hardworking demons to exist. They do not take breaks. They do not falter in their service. They almost always choose to act as personal aids or servants to someone, and then proceed to basically do their job for them, allowing their target to lapse into laziness. Then, when the soul is ripe, they harvest it for feeding and move on to the next target.

Wrath

Perhaps the most famous of sins in the mortal realm. Has always had the colours of red and orange as its tell tale sign. Wrath demons are surprisingly easy to capture, but they have difficulty restraining themselves in the face of conflict.

• Imp:

Wrath imp's tail sting causes the afflicted to become increasingly violent, filled with rage and irritable, prone to violent outbursts for seemingly no reason at all, quick to anger and quicker to start a fight.

• Lesser Demon:

Bezerker: They tend to kill things violently and noticeably, with a large amount of carnage thrown into the mix. A Berserker could rip a succubus in half if it really felt the need to. Can break through "flimsy" walls.

• Greater Demon:

Rager:They are very big, at least twice the size of our a Berserker, and it generally takes a well trained priest of the Twins to even give the thing pause. Mundane weapons will have little chance of stopping it. Tend to be very temperamental and very difficult to bend to ones will.

Princes of Hell

• Pride: Lucifer, Older brother of the Twins.
• Envy: Leviathan, prefers to take a female form when human. Only known prince to live in the mortal world, holds a physical gateway to hell in it's stomach. Is known for eating pretty much whatever it can get its hands on, unless fed a truly envious soul beforehand.
• Gluttony: Beelzebub. Lord of Lies to some, Lord of Flies to others. Beelzebub is quite well known causing some of the worst famines in history just to see if gluttony would still exist in the world. It did. Then he ate the souls of those who continued gluttony just because he felt it would better serve them to be eaten as they ate. He can only be summoned by offering a truly gluttonous soul.
• Greed: Mammon
• Lust: Asmodeus
• Sloth: Belphegor
• Wrath: Satan

Witches

Also called a Demon's Bride, wedded to one of the seven princes.

Undead

Created by necromancy

Noble Houses

Noble families far to the South apparently tend to be more religious than those to the North. The Faith is probably mainly based in the south.

Markov, Warlock House

• One of the only surviving Warlock houses in existence, although that's probably because they don't go around shouting that little fact out loud(naming everyone after demon lords isn't suspicious?). Publicly, they're law abiding citizens of the Faith, and eagerly await the day that they pay their yearly tithe. Which they usually promptly steal back.
• The family holds a small territory far north, tucked into the mountains, where most others don't bother them. Very few brave the biting cold to visit the small city the Markovs call home. Still, at the same time, due to the talents they've cultivated over the years, House Markov is one of the richest and most well respected families in the east, and is limited only in that most other families find it difficult to get into contact with them for anything.
• Number and quality of demons is more important than any political power one might have.
• Family is fairly influential by virtue of being "rich beyond words".
• All Markov family members are named after one of the Demon Lords.
• The family has various odd rules here and there, and one of them happens to be offering the girl in the case of any twins to Belphegor(What happens when it's identical twins is unknown)
• Seem to beat the lust for the flesh out of their members.

Head of House Duties:
Make sure the family is successful.

Markov Succession:
The Head of the family, currently Marcosias Markov, has 4 children, Shax being the third. The "Game", as it's referred to, is a competition to become head of the House, and involves making sure all other members of the family with claim to the seat are no longer alive. The only stipulation is that a family member who wants the position of Head of the House must be a warlock, and must NEVER kill a fellow family member with his own hands. The demons, however, aren't his hands, so they can kill whomever they like.

Rembrandt

"Idiots, the lot of them, so intent as they are on making as much money as possible, then spending as much of it as possible. In recent years, it's members have been a bit more virtuous, if only because the Markovs have taken great pleasure in weeding out the more sinful of the bunch for their souls."

Immortality

There are various ways to become immortal/save ourselves from damnation.

Known methods:
Create a phylactery with necromancy.