Urban Fantasy: On Demons, Part 1

Disclaimer: Ooooh boy, I'm going to get some crap trying to 'define evil' here. And probably butcher so many religious concepts in the process. This is all fiction material for my Urban Fantasy game and does not represent my views on good, evil and the nature of humanity and the cosmos. *Breathe In* All right, here we go...

On Demons

Demons: the word conjure up quite a bit of imagery, from the fallen Angels of Judeo-Christianity to the creatures of other mythologies such as Rakshasa and Oni. Trying to define a 'demon' in a shameless mythological mash-up setting would seem a bit pointless or run into the problem of making one mythology more true than the other, which would creature many problems (See Supernatural on why this is a bad idea for a setting built on using as many monsters from myths as possible). So what is a demon? Fundamentally, most (but not all!) Demons are a type of Spirit and thus have the same abilities, nature and limitations.

The world is imperfect, at least in so much as it is not an utopia where all the possibilities are available to all individuals at all times. Sometimes the weather is bad and sometimes it turns into cataclysmic droughts. Sometimes you have a bad day at work (at a crappy diner) and get pissed easily and sometimes you have the worst day of your already-terrible life and you end up murdering your husband while he sleep. Sometimes you get sick and sometimes you give birth to a sickly, deformed child. The world is not kind. In fact sometimes it seems the world is out to get you. At other times, its not the forces of nature and misfortune that gets to you but the pettiness of other humans: your boss is an asshole (and you don't know it, but his wife is an even bigger bitch while his son is a drug addict) or maybe you have to deal with political tension, religious conflict and other horrible things which can escalate into civil war or genocide. Or sometimes you just meet people who want to see the world burn.

But mostly? They're just people, like you and me. We all have our problems, our inner demons. In fact you could say humanity, as a whole, has a buttload of inner demons and...maybe...sometimes they're a little more literally manifested.

Artist Unknown.

Are Demons fallen Angels who sided with Lucifer? Are they just psychic echoes of humanity's own corruption and weakness? Then it begs the question of why we have this in the first place, which might also lead one to the Problem of Evil. There's a gigantic can of worm on the how and why of demons. Of course, these assholes won't tell us: Demons lie all the time, taking a million faces and a million names. Some will claim to be from Hell and others will claim to be deposed Gods. Others will appear as radiant angel or some alien guy in a robe and tell someone he's the next Messiah as foretold by the prophecy of the planet Xurgan.

Demonic Purpose

Why do demons do this? Why do they lie and torment mankind? Because its their function. At their core, demons are a phenomena, a concept or a series of interconnected concepts. Demons represent suffering. They are the pain we inflict on ourselves and on others made manifest. There are demons of everything: Demons of the classic deadly sin (I mean, if you think about it none of the Deadly Sin are a good thing. People are quick to crap on the 'Lust' part as antiquated thinking but truth is there is nothing healthy in being a sex-crazed maniac!) but also other concepts such as bad luck, general misfortune, frustration. There are demons of rape, of murder, of genocide, of infanticide, of emotional/mental/physical abuse.

There's also Demons of other things: love, self-satisfaction, tolerance and peace. You'd think these are contradictions but it isn't. Everything in existence, every human concept, can be twisted to dark ends willingly or unwillingly. Our so-called good intentions can have massive repercussions which could ruin the lives of others. Some particularly smart demons can turn the greatest of saints into a mass murderer who like every second of it just as much as they can turn a liar, a cheater and an abuser into a sanctimonious self-righteous asshole.

Whatever a demon does cannot and will not result in any good, except maybe for the person enacting it through the demon's action and even then that person is damned. Ultimately demons are incapable of creating and growing, at least creating or growing things which nurture the good of others. Any 'good' or 'peace' they bring is done through brainwashing, manipulation and oppression. Demons can make you happy but that requires cutting away at your soul, your conscience and maybe the sides of your mouth. You'll be happy. You'll be content. There will be peace. It will only cost you....everything.