"The Archdemon is a unique being - the nobility of the "Sura," and the most controlled by the culture of power and dominance that defines their people. Because of their unique strength, they are always at the top of society, and always at risk for destruction by others which wish to devour their Lumen to enhance themselves. This has created an atmosphere of arrogance mixed with paranoia that can be seen permeating the upper echelons of virtually every inch of Incaendium.

— from "Influence: A Look at Systems of Social Influence" by Tavit Kitelo


Overview

Within each larger, overarching race (metarace or species, as one prefers it), there are subraces - variants on a theme. Differences vary, yet each is distinct - similar within each group and differentiated from others by anything from culture to basic biology... in most cases.

Then there are the Archdemons - a species that is not a species and yet is all species. They have come to be defined, not by a unique culture or physiology, but instead by the trait that is most important to the Demons - the one thing that sets the royalty apart from the commonfolk.

Power.

History & Role

The Forging of Archdemons

Though it may be well-known (and somewhat universally utilized) now, the Status & Hierarchy system invented by the complicated minds of complicated demons was not always in place. That said, Demon society being what it is, they were always in search of a way to quantify the thing they most valued: power.

Gabriel's Notebook

I've been trying to understand the way "races" work here - I think it's more like subspecies than anything else. Like Feline and then lion and leopard and fluffy housecat? I guess that would make the Drereccas the housecats!

The thing that kept tripping me up is the Archdemons. Mostly because "siv-surasi" doesn't even sound like a subrace, it just sounds like sura feeling extra good about themselves. So, okay, I looked at some family records and some old news items, aaaaand... turns out it's more like them making themselves feel really good about themselves through, uh, selective breeding. Now, listen (I say to me): That's eugenics and it's creepy.

It's also, I guess, normal for this kind of place? Like how Egyptians married their siblings back in the old old days. (At least I'm pretty sure that's true.)

It does make me wonder how genes work here, though. I want to say I should have taken genetics before I got pitched over here, but I don't know how much it would have helped. We're talking about demons, do they even have genes? I have no idea.

Still, someone should probably talk to them about the benefits of branching out. Dating in a small pool is always awkward, you inevitably end up dating your sister's ex or something, especially if you're all immortal. Something something given infinite time something something all possibilities, blah blah.

Gabriel

The concept arose from one of the earlier attempts to codify status through an assessment of strength. At that time, many of the major families of Incaendium were assessed, judged, and ranked.

The top rank - the strongest of all the demons - were the Siv-Surasi. These families and individuals of exceptional ability were considered the most influential and respected in Incaendium.

The classification had two major effects. The first was simple: an elevation in status for those pinpointed as the most talented. The second? Those considered "archdemons" began to romantically associate primarily with one another.

Over the thousands of years that followed, this resulted in the slow but near complete merging of dozens of family lines across multiple subspecies/races - now nearly every "archdemon" is a mix of subspecies rather than a representation of any specific parent species. Furthermore, some races, for example the Tysima demons, have merged wholly or primarily into the classification of "Archdemon."

That said, there is one exception: The Drereccas. At the time of classification, few Drereccas (most notably the House of Kodester ) had been qualified for the archdemon classification. To this day, due to the obvious physical incompatibilities between the beast-like Drereccas and their more humanoid brethren, the "Archdemon" Drereccas lines remains more or less unchanged - in other words, they're still just especially powerful Drereccas.

 

Presence in Society

As the most powerful and versatile of the Demon subraces, it is to be expected that Archdemons are, by and large, the most politically and socially powerful of them as well. The majority of ruling families, and thus the majority of rulers, are Archdemons.

This is true to a lesser extent as one moves further down into lesser leadership roles as well - Archdemons are overrepresented as local leaders and officers in various militias both official and unofficial, as well as in essentially any high status position

That said, there aren't many Archdemons to go around. There are several factors in play there.

Archdemon Lore

  • Despite its origins as literally just a power classification, one can no longer be declared an archdemon simply by being extremely strong. On the other hand, one can be stripped of the classification by being excessively weak. A former Archdemon stripped of classification is considered a standard demon with mixed heritage.

  • By far the most successful practicioner of Exedis is Samael Asther. He has demolished and devoured at least 15 Archdemon Houses, while absorbing or redistributing their land. This has made him the most powerful and influential Imperator since Laelea Kanete.

  • The child of an archdemon and a non-archdemon will be either accepted as an archdemon or classified according to their other parent's heritage dependent on the ultimate assessment of their Lumen.

  • The need to shore up the family's deterrence capacity by adding to its ranks vs. the need to protect one's own position by spawning minimal rivals is a point of stress for Archdemons. How they navigate it is highly individual.

    • The Scarcity of Siv-Surasi

    For one thing, there weren't many of them in that original assessment tier to begin with. Beyond that, those who hold power are also reluctant to risk lessening their hold on it - every child spawned is another person who might eventually depose their parents, after all. And, of course, demons are only marginally concerned about legacy given that they are immortal. (They do, however, have other motivations to attempt to reproduce - see below).

    The other issue, and one far more concerning, is that Archdemons are often considered the ideal targets of Exedis.

    The Effect of Exedis

    As the strongest of the Demons, Archdemons are the most obvious target for those who wish to elevate their own potential. In most cases, this is not especially concerning - there are very few demons from other subraces that are capable of being a threat to even the lowest ranked Archdemon. They are, however, a significant danger to each other.

    Mutual deterrence is their most basic defense. Once one crosses the line, the family and allies of the victim may rise up against them sparking a larger scale conflict. However, while this does keep most threats at bay, the reality is that Demons, to some degree, thrive on chaos and conflict... making conflict avoidance an unreliable route to safety.

    This, therefore, becomes the most common motivation for archdemons to continue to have and raise children. By doing so, they create what amounts to a miniature militia - and like most organizations of this type they may compete and bicker amongst themselves, but they are inclined to protect their own against the outside.

     

    Physicality

    Bloodlines

    While the Archdemon "species" is something of a muddle of different things, there are several more prominent "lines" that have emerged. Some roughly correspond to a former subrace, as with the Tysima line having become the Laean Archdemon line, while others have begun to emerge from centuries of intrabreeding, as the more dominant traits begin to assert themselves.

    The most prominent of these lines are listed below. That said, not all Archdemons fall into any particular category; it is the subrace with the most diversity in appearance and strengths, physcical and otherwise. Furthermore, someone will typically be considered to be "of" a line if they resemble that line, even if their parents are from separate lines, because the assumption is that the person has ancestors of that group whose traits are reasserting themselves.

    It should be noted that there is no particular advantage or stigma to being of any particular Archdemon line. It's primarily more self-categorization, as Demonic culture tends to enjoy that kind of thing.

    The most relevant lines are:

    Zag'Durinth Primary Lineage: Nephilor + Maero or Gargoyle
    Tends Toward... Earth/Water elementalism, high physiological ability.
    Appearance: Blue or grey skin with white, grey or black hair.

    Known Zag'Durinth: Thaciona Sengiver (Dominus Regas of Hollow) ; Much of the House of Asther, including the late Dominus Regas of Amaya, Gorgo Asther.

    Siv-Drereccasi Primary Lineage: Literally just the Drereccas.
    Tends Toward... High general physiological abilities.
    Appearance: Like the larger subrace, they resemble cats, raccoons or other small animals,or hybrids of such.

    Known Siv-Drereccasi: The Kodesters, most notably current Dominus Regas of Ryul, Maelis Kodester.


    Kurulis

    Primary Lineage: Gallu, + Nephilor
    Tends Toward... High physical power, talent in destructive Ability Spheres.
    Appearance: Tall, muscular, sculpted appearance. Generally (but not always) gold/red/brown/green skin. Any eye or hair color.

    Known Kurulis: Kaleda Dren, Dominus Regas of Mahanaim

    Laean Primary Lineage: Tysima subrace.
    Tends Toward... High speed and agility, high magical potential.
    Appearance: They can have any skin, hair or eye color.

    Known Laean: Catlili Iz'zilith


    Verea Primary Lineage: Djinn, Cubae
    Tends Toward... High elementalism
    Appearance: Any skin/hair/eye color, but often these are correlated to their elemental tendency. Abnormally beautiful due to their Cubae heritage.

    Known Verea include: Most of the rest of the House of Asther, including Imael Asther; Troyes Vandeil.

    Droa

    Primary Lineage: Debil + Djinn, Maero or Gargoyle
    Tends Toward... Low strength and durability, high speed and agility. Illusion and creation magic; other spheres dependent on the specific family line.
    Appearance: Generally short and slight with exceptionally large eyes and smaller nose/mouth. Pointy ears. Any hair/eye/skin color.

    Known Droa Include: TBA
     

    Abilities

    As a "race" that is no race, or all races, Archdemons have no universal leaning in terms of their abilities. Instead, each individual bloodline has different tendencies... and even those tendencies are not definitive.

    Domain Spheres

    Though they are not truly deities, Archdemons can be seen as the Demonic equivalent of the Dei. That being the case, Archdemons have far stronger influence over whatever fears, vices, and general emotions they are personally associated with. For this reason, each individual Archdemon will be described in connection to that domain, and their abilities will tend to revolve around that domain.

    An easy example is Maelis Kodester, who is associated with Gluttony, thus giving rise to his unique ability to change devoured matter into body mass - an act which transforms him from what is best described as an evil kitten into the multi-storey high Black Beast of Ryul.

    This without even considering that not all Archdemons truly "fit" a specific bloodline to begin with.

    That said, it is fair to say that the average level an Archdemon will exhibit in any field will be significantly above the average for any other demon subspecies. The physically strongest Archdemon lines (Zag'durinth, for example) are, on average, significantly physically stronger than even the Nephilor or Gargoyles, for example.

    They are also far more likely to have ability in any given Ability Sphere.

    As a rule of thumb, the lower range of ability for an typical archdemon would equate to Dumen, where the average would fall around Vaham with a small handful of an most Archdemons' strongest abilities lingering around Vallus.

    Nearly every archdemon will have at least one Vallus level ability. However, even among archdemons, abilities of Vis rank are vanishingly rare.