Demon
Although mortals cannot recall a time when they were not haunted and tormented by demons, the strange truth is that demonkind is one of the youngest races to rise in the Outer Planes, for they are the direct result of the interaction between sinful mortal souls and The Abyss itself. In essence, demons are the ultimate “evolution” of sins born of mortal choice, a final scourge upon existence and a necessary price to pay for free will.
When the first sinful mortal souls were judged by The AllFather and sent on to their ultimate fates, those sent into The Abyss did not manifest as the Damned and enter the remorseless machine that is Hell, nor did they rematerialize in their living bodies on Gehenna to become prey for the daemonic host. Those who came to The Abyss manifested as larvae—wormlike creatures with pale, glistening bodies and twisted Human faces stretched over the pulpy and chitinous masses that now passed as their heads. These larvae gathered on the rims of the Abyssal rifts, and as the countless worlds of the Material Plane continued to offer up sinful souls as grist for The Abyss, vast seas of larvae began to choke the realm. It wasn’t until a now-forgotten daemon lord, one of the first Horsemen of the Apocalypse, came upon a fatal idea that true demons came into existence. This lord had long held a strange interest in the qlippoth of the deepest Abyss, and in his realm kept many as stock for experiments and investigation. Intrigued by the potency of larvae, the ancient Horseman began to conduct experiments with larvae and qlippoth—experiments that showed immediate promise. Over time, the nameless Horseman perfected his methods, and at last was able to trigger a most unholy transformation. The amalgamation of sinful soul-stuff and living matter birthed eons ago by The Abyss convulsed and transformed from the inside out, making something entirely new: the first demon.
Legends vary on the subject of who this first demon may have been. While many believe the creature born that fateful moment would eventually become Lamashtu herself, much evidence suggests otherwise. If not Lamashtu, it seems likely that this first demon has long since been slain and reworked into some strange new form by The Abyss—apocalyptic scholars and explorers believe that the first demon may still exist in some deep and undiscovered node in The Abyss or beyond, and that its reemergence into the multiverse will presage a new age of transformation in the Outer Rifts.
Yet the nature and fate of that first demon are overshadowed by a much greater event that occurred a moment after its creation. For the creation of that first demon, that first transformation of mortal soul into demonic life, did not go unseen or unknown. The Abyss itself felt the transformation, and almost as if the act were akin to plucking a load-bearing pebble from the fractured expanse of a vast dam, the transformation spread explosively. Across The Abyss, spasms of birth shuddered through the squirming seas of larvae. Waves of undulant flesh flowed over the edges of the rifts as individual larvae—their guts gorged upon Abyssal plants or flesh, filth, and decay—transformed into demons by the millions. This chain reaction filled the Outer Rifts with a violent new form of life in the span of a few heartbeats, and in an eyeblink demons became the most populous of the fiendish races.
Not every larva was fit for transformation, and while the number of lingering souls had been vast, it had not been truly infinite. Yet the demons far outnumbered the other denizens of the Outer Rifts. Qlippoth, once the masters of The Abyss, were hunted to near extinction and fled into the deepest canyons where even the demons feared to go. Countless daemonic infestations were destroyed in a matter of minutes by the demonic tide—these fiends retreated in shock to their realms on Gehenna, and for many ages, that realm was also overrun by demonic invaders. Even on the shores of Hell itself, the change had an impact, as the infernal realm suffered a rare siege that it only barely held its own against.
After the initial explosion, demonic growth quickly leveled out, albeit at an unimaginably vast population. Hell regained control of its borders. Asmodeus drove out its invaders and reclaimed the lands that had been stolen from him. The forgotten Horseman who had triggered this new age was slain and erased from memory forever—though whether by the tide of demons that rose up around his fortress or by his incensed apocalyptic kin, no one can say. Yet The Abyss itself had forever changed, and the mantle of its rule now lay firmly in the grip of the demonic horde.
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