Figures of an ancient and malevolent terror, balors reign as nightmarish generals over demonic armies, consumed with an insatiable thirst to seize power and obliterate any creatures that dare to stand in their way. Armed with a flaming whip and a longsword that resonates with the unrelenting fury of the storm, a balor’s battle prowess is driven by pure, unbridled hatred and rage. This demonic wrath fuels its very being and, in its death throes, manifests as a cataclysmic blast of fire capable of annihilating even the most indomitable of foes.
Spawned in the horrifying and boundless layers of the Abyss, demons are the very personification of chaos and evil—loathsome engines of destruction barely held in monstrous form. Void of compassion, empathy, or mercy, they exist only to annihilate, reveling in ruin and despair.
The Abyss itself gives birth to demons as grotesque extensions of its own vile essence, spontaneously forging these abominations out of decay, filth, and slaughter. Some are unique and repulsive monstrosities, while others are mere cogs in uniform hordes that bear horrifying uniformity. Other demons, like the manes, emerge from the tormented souls of mortals abandoned or cursed by the gods, eternally trapped in the nightmarish realm of the Abyss.
In the demonic world, respect is a cruel jest, earned solely through power and fear. A greater demon commands shrieking, writhing mobs of lesser demons, ruling through terror and the constant threat of obliteration. The demon’s status swells with each drop of blood spilled; the more it kills, the more grotesque and powerful it becomes.
A demon may be born a lowly manes, evolve into a dretch, and then, after an eternity of combat and survival in the Abyss, metamorphose into a terrifying vrock. Yet such elevations are rare and grim, for most demons meet their end before amassing significant power. The mightiest survivors ascend to become demon lords, their ceaseless conflicts threatening to rend the very fabric of the Abyss.
By harnessing immense and twisted magical energy, demon lords can contort lesser demons into greater, more abhorrent forms, though these vile promotions stem not from deeds but twisted whims. A demon lord might corrupt a manes into a quasit for unseen espionage, or transmogrify an army of dretches into hezrous for a macabre march against a rival. Elevations to the highest ranks are guarded secrets, as demon lords fear the creation of competitors to their dark power.
Abyssal Invasions
Throughout the endless chaos of the Abyss, demons hunger for pathways to other planes. They lust for opportunities to escape their nightmarish realm, spreading their malignant influence across existence, undoing the works of the gods, pulverizing civilizations, and reducing the cosmos to despair, ruin, and chaos.
Some of the bleakest legends in mortal history are etched in the scars left by demons unleashed upon the world. Nations, even those embroiled in the bitterest conflicts, would unite in horror to contain such an outbreak, desperate to seal off abyssal breaches before these fiends spill forth to consume all.
Signs of Corruption
Demons exude the very stain of abyssal corruption, and their mere presence warps the world into a cesspool of decay. Plants shrivel and perish where demons have tread, animals flee from sites tainted by demonic kills, and the landscape becomes fouled by a stench that never fades, by pockets of unnatural cold or scorching heat, or by looming shadows marking the haunting presence of these fiends.
Eternal Evil
Beyond the Abyss, death is but a fleeting inconvenience, a trifling matter that no demon dreads. Mortal weapons falter against these hellish beasts, and many are shielded against even the most potent magical assaults. When a rare and fortunate hero vanquishes a demon, the creature dissolves into a noxious sludge, only to reform instantly in the Abyss, its mind and essence untouched but its hatred ignited anew.
The only path to true destruction of a demon lies in hunting it within the Abyss and slaying it there.
Protected Essence
A demonic entity of significant might can safeguard its very life essence, employing forbidden rituals and abyssal metals to craft an amulet that holds a fragment of its malevolence. Should the demon’s abyssal form be destroyed, the amulet grants the power to reform at a time and place of its dark choosing.
Acquiring such a demonic amulet is fraught with peril, and the mere pursuit of it risks attracting the demon’s wrath. Possessing the amulet grants a harrowing power over the demon or inflicts excruciating agony should it resist. Destruction of the amulet condemns the demon to a year and a day trapped within the Abyss.
Demonic Cults
Despite the appalling risks, the mortal realm teems with twisted souls who hunger for demonic might. Demon lords manipulate these wretched servants, leading them into ever-greater acts of wickedness, in exchange for forbidden magic and other twisted favors. Yet demons view these mortal minions as expendable tools, to be discarded and damned to the Abyss.
Demon Summoning
Summoning a demon stands among the most perilous of acts, an endeavor feared even by those who would bargain with devils. Demons, while yearning to wreak havoc upon the Material Plane, recognize no gratitude or constraint. They rage against their confines and howl for liberation.
Those foolhardy enough to summon a demon might seek knowledge, forced servitude, or completion of a task only a being of absolute evil could undertake. Preparation becomes a matter of life and death, and seasoned summoners wield specific spells and accursed items to coerce a demon into obedience. A single mistake can unleash the demon’s unfettered fury, and the summoner becomes the first victim of its vengeful rampage.
Bound Demons
Writings such as the Book of Vile Darkness, the Black Scrolls of Ahm, and the Demonomicon of Iggwilv stand as unholy authorities on demonic lore. These accursed tomes detail horrific methods to trap a demon’s essence within the Material Plane, binding it within a weapon, idol, or ornament, and forbidding its return to the Abyss.
Objects that bind a demon are prepared with vile incantations and the blood of the innocent, radiating a palpable and loathsome evil. Handling such an object invites nightmarish dreams and wicked compulsions but grants control over the demon whose essence is imprisoned within. Destroying the object liberates the demon, which will stop at nothing to exact revenge upon its captor.
Demonic Possession
No matter the strength of its bonds, a potent demon often finds a way to escape the object that entraps it. Emerging from its unholy prison, it may possess a mortal host. At times, the demon employs stealth to conceal a successful possession. Other times, it revels in unleashing its infernal desires through its newfound form.
As the demon dwells within its host, the soul of the victim teeters on the brink of damnation, threatened to be
