Legend of the Daemon Ascendant

The Legend of the Daemon Ascendant is a story of a Demon who, sick of the war between demons, devils, and the forces of good, goes on a quest to spread chaos throughout the multiverse and change his fate. He is eventually able to travel to the Material Plane through a passage guarded by the god Hades and make a home in the Celestial Courts as their Fiend representative.

Summary

When the Fiends were created, the gods of darkness tasked them with ensuring that war and suffering would never cease for the mortals of the world.
After the many ages of suffering, one arch-demon grew tired of it. The possibilities mortals held were infinite, he saw: infinite potential for cruelty, yes, but also for invention and creativity and drama. Each mortal could be any of infinite things, and yet their suffering was always the same. He wanted to be a part of all that mortalkind could be.
And so he crossed from Pandemonium into Limbo, to find the spark at the heart of chaos, and to see what element therein gave mortals their infinite potential. He trekked through the ever-shifting landscape to reach the ever-churning Xhaosan Sea. There, he filled an urn with its waters, and drank deeply of it. The secrets of chaos filled his mouth and his spirit, and the urn was filled again as soon as he had emptied it.
He took the urn back across the planes, through the howling of pandemonium and the stillness of Carceri, through the eternal wars that scar the lands of Acheron, through the layered torments of the Nine Hells. As he walked, he sprinkled water from the urn. Triumphs turned to tragedies, defeats turned to victories, and the lands and skies boiled with a strange corrosion and a magic as-yet-unknown. The urn was filled again as soon as he had emptied it, for nothing chaos touches ever quite returns itself to order.
As the demon walked, he called for the gods of the lower realms. "Masters of the dark," he cried, "free me from my duties! Release my fate! Let me see more of our realms than suffering alone allows!"
The gods of darkness and despair mocked and spurned him: Set, Morigana, Loki, Gruumsh. "This is where you were made for," they said. "Your spirit is suffering, your heart is hate. This is all you will ever be." They laughed as the daemon walked, sowing his saltwater and his sulfur tears.
Only Hades, patient Hades, who knows much of compromises and passages between realms, listened to the daemon's cry. He called the daemon into his realms, took him aside with gentle hands. "The world can only be made fair for us, child, if one from our worlds can represent us in the Celestial Courts. Go through my halls and above, and light the way for possibility."
And so the daemon ascended, through black stone and shadow to the jagged and bright world above. He watched the halls of justice sitting at a Celestial's side, he sowed entropy from the waters of his urn, he roamed to wherever wild-hearted souls yearned to be free. War and madness followed him, yes, but so did invention and creativity and luck. And still to this day, when a Soul in pain lashes out towards the dark, he may well be the one to answer.

Historical Basis

This is one of the oldest myths that mentions fiends, dating back to the early Age of Audacity before the creation of the Elf or the final evolution of the Gnome. Its veracity is questionable, but some sages believe it describes the demon Crowley.
Dancamort's ancient subterranean palace, the Hall of the Daemon Ascendant, is named after this myth. Supposedly, it is the place where the arch-daemon of the story was finally allowed to pass through to the Material Plane.

Variations & Mutation

Retellings differ as to the ultimate impact of the Daemon Ascendant upon mortals and residents of other planes alike. To some, he is an unexpectedly heroic figure. To others, he is one of the sources of mortals' original sin, and an unquestionably evil figure.
A few tellings, particularly in Wood Elf poetry, gender the Daemon Ascendant as feminine, and relate the myth to the Legend of the Caorthannach, believing that the Daemon's escape and the events that led the Caorthannach to the Feywild are one and the same.

Cultural Reception

Many a Warlock has claimed to be sworn to the Daemon Ascendant. Whether they genuinely believe their patron is the subject of this myth, or whether it is a reasonably societally acceptable explanation for cavorting with fiends, depends on the warlock but is generally unclear.

Date of First Recording

approx. Y200s AUD