Demon

'Demon' is the colloquial human term for creatures who come from Hell. Hell itself is a seperate plane, with multiple names that might be more accurate than that which it is most commonly called. In general, demons share a few common characteristics.

• Demons have a natural inclination to Shadowmancy, the magic of manipulating darkness and the space between worlds.
• Demons may also practice magic that mimics elemental magics, but it is the conjuration of parallel elements from their home plane. The most common of these being hellfire.
• Demons all have a faint smell of sulfur around them.
• Generally, a demon is summoned by a witch or arcanist. This calls their 'soul' or 'essence' from their original body and they must take a human form to not be drawn back to their home plane. If their mortal shell is killed, they generally are drawn back to their home plane unless they find another host immediately.
• When a demon (or daemon) takes a host, it gradually changes to a form more physically representative of the demon who rides it.
• There exists no natural gates between Hell and Earth, however there is some draw between the energies of that plane and the energies of human magic. Human magic is the only art capable of opening such doors.
• Demons, generally, tend towards anarchic and hedonistic. Their world is highly militaristic and hierarchal, leading most demons who escape it to be less than friendly to authorities, as it goes against most of their natural inclinations.
• Unlike Faerie, demons can and do lie. The contracts they seal for peoples souls is for their magical energy, seized upon the signee's death. This is mostly the realm of demons who exist higher in the caste structure.
• Demons are loosely organized into 'Circles', not unlike the 'Choirs' of heaven- they are strictly hierarchal with the more bestial demons at the bottom, serving the generals and lords of Hell. These Circles are as often at war as they are allies, with their own complex politics.
• Most demons speak bastardizations of angelic languages, as historically angels invaded hell and are responsible for most of it's current structure. Their own languages are mostly dying, passed between families and small communities mostly with oral tradition.
• Daemons are summoned things made from the stuff of Hell. They do no actually exist until they are summoned by a human witch or arcanist, and they are shaped by the purpose and circumstance under which they are summoned. Because their connection to Hell is more tenuous, they are limited in power without their summoner. However, they also are not drawn back to Hell when their vessel dies and can more easily leap frog between hosts. They are, usually, considered to be the lowest of the low by true demons, homunculi who are more objects or animals than people.
• All demons and daemons share one characteristic.  Their eyes are always an unnatural shade of gold, polarized like a cat's.