# Demons of Influence



## Androxine Vortex (Feb 8, 2012)

In my novel, it is heavily associated with Gods and Demons (and they are real and interact with humanity) I want there to be what I call the Lords of Hell. They are very powerful demons who whisper their unholy doctrines to mankind. It is they who have influence into the mortal plane and it is they who tempt and corrupt.
I want to make them each represent different emotions that would not necisarily have to be 100% evil, but they have to have a way of temptation to mortals. In other words, they represent emotions that would cause them to damn themselves. Here's what I have (and I haven't finalized any names yet)

1) Demon Lord of Sadness, Doubt, Regret, Misery
He appeals to those who feel that they can not find happiness, joy, or hope. His voice acts as a false beacon of hope and reassurance to those who's mind and spirit have been crushed with depression. Out of their misery and sadness, they find themselves desperate for joy and purpose and so sell themselves to him in hope of peace but are in turn enslaved.

2) Demon Lord of Greed, Desire, Lust, Selfishness
She calls out mortals, promising them every desire that their hearts yearn for. She tempts with all forms of pleasure but will always end in perverse and disgusting rapture. Those with hearts of gold, flesh, and wine are easily seduced.

3)Demon Lord of Logic, Sorcery, Knowledge
Magic is the lifeforce that flows throughout every living thing. Those who practice the arts of magic will be constantly tempted by him. He tempts with promise of forbidden knowledge, of greater understanding, and immortality. All in life wish to not die so he finds many of his victims simlpy searching for a means of life eternal or cure from disease. However, they foolishly damned their souls in doing so.

4)Demon Lord of Falsehood, Lies, and Deceit
Thought to be the stongest and most influential of all the Lords. She appears to mortals as though she were an angel of the mortal's patron God. Those who are devout in their faith will be able to see through this deception but those that are weak in faith will find themselves in her trap. Now consorting with a demon, believing it to be an angel, they put their trust in it fully. She corrupts with the most delicate and subtle of ways. She starts by making slight changes to the mortals faith. Her traps and lies are so expertly woven that the victim will not notice they have been decieved until hope is too late. She corrupts the foundations of their faith and in turn slowly creates cultists of darkness. 
(I plan on making the Demons have similar qualities like humans do such as a society, politics, and emotions so to add some depth I was thinking of making her despised by her demon brothers and sisters because she often masquerades as them to gain more followers)

This is all I have so far and was wondering if you could think of any other emotions or ways to be corrupted. Technically any emotion could be considered evil if used in the wrong way but what doy uo think would be the most powerful or easy to be corrupted?

(I am also working on a Lord who represents cruelty, violence, and malice at the moment)


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## sashamerideth (Feb 8, 2012)

Positive emotions like love, happiness, contentment, I would look at how to corrupt them. Love turns to obsession, contentment to laziness, happiness to mania...


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## Ghost (Feb 8, 2012)

I've got beings in my world that absorb and project human emotions. *This page at Wikipedia* was very useful for my purposes, and I think it could help you, too.


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## ThinkerX (Feb 8, 2012)

Ye olde 'seven deadly sins might work better.

Sloth, gluttony, envy, ect.


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## Evilyn (Feb 10, 2012)

I agree with ThinkerX seven sins could be interesting, you could have a female for envy who's sort of like a vengence demon - think Anya from Buffy who tempts slighted people to take vengence for their jealous obsessions. Sloth could be some huge grotesque demon...

this link might help Seven deadly sins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All in all I like your concept and think it could be really interesting.

Evi


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## The Grey Sage (Feb 10, 2012)

As I recall Full Metal Alchemist used the 7 deadly sins and turned out well...


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## Devor (Feb 10, 2012)

Androxine Vortex said:


> 1) Demon Lord of Sadness, Doubt, Regret, Misery
> 2) Demon Lord of Greed, Desire, Lust, Selfishness
> 3) Demon Lord of Logic, Sorcery, Knowledge
> 4) Demon Lord of Falsehood, Lies, and Deceit
> ...



Honestly, it feels to me a lot like you're trying to find a new remix of an old album.

From wikipedia:



> In 1589, Peter Binsfeld paired each of the deadly sins with a demon, who tempted people by means of the associated sin. According to Binsfeld's classification of demons, the pairings are as follows:
> 
> Lucifer: Pride (superbia)
> Mammon: Greed (avaritia)
> ...



But could I make a suggestion?  Drop the "demon of..." and go with a "demon that...", figuring out the original techniques the demon uses to corrupt people.

Why?  Because these things aren't simple, isolated or exclusive.  _Lust_ by one man turns into envy and wrath in those around him, corrupting an entire group of people.  Angry pillaging by a group of people might lead to sloth when they're not fighting, despair and misery in those they strike, isolation and pride in communities that weren't hit.  In my opinion, there's a system that surrounds a grievous, demon-worthy sin that infects groups of people at once. 

Sounds to me like the demon of Wrath is missing out on the chance to corrupt quite a few of the people that he leaves in his wake.


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## Androxine Vortex (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks for the responses!

@Ouroboros that page did help thank you

@Devor I know what you mean. Sometimes I think that I shouldn't make a "demon of/that" because emotions are not set in stone and just solely exclusive to that emotion or feeling alone. Any one emotion can branch out and become something else. But with that being said, I don't want to make all of the demons have all forms of temptation at their disposal because it would kind of make them all the same in a way. What really made the Divine Comedy good imo was the diversity of characters in Hell and the demons/people who lived there. Sure the people probably commited all forms of sin but they were placed there for what sin was most enslaving them in life.


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## Ghost (Feb 13, 2012)

I don't think the seven deadly sins would work better for this. As a reader, I'd expect more Christian themes if you had seven deadly sins along with demons.

Perhaps a solution to the problem of emotions affecting each other would be to have the demons affect each other as well. They could form alliances. I could easily imagine doubt and knowledge, lust and greed, or greed and deceit feeding into each other. Even better, two or more demons might all place claims on the same person. A person who strongly feels desire and greed might pledge themselves to one demon, and the other demon (or his minions) might try to sway that person into his domain.

Maybe alliances and poaching both occur. I don't think it necessary for the demons to be isolated or exclusive just because they embody or specialize in certain areas. They are demons of influence, after all.


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## Queshire (Feb 13, 2012)

I'm not sure how much this will help you, but in the Nobilis 3rd edition table top roleplaying game, the creator did an interesting thing with Hell, in it Heaven loves pure and beautiful things while Hell loves everything, no matter how disgusting or traditionally evil it is, while Heaven is only with you at your best, Hell is with you at your worst. They are linked with evil because the evil things in the world only have hell to love them. Devils may do evil, but they do it out of love.

I really like that particular interperitation, it's refreshing compared to the traditional fire and brimstone view, and I hope it helps you.


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## Androxine Vortex (Feb 14, 2012)

@Queshire
I like that too. In my setting, there was Heaven and the High Lord of Heaven declared that magic should be seperated between light and dark. But the "devil" did not wish to seperate it, he saw magic pure in its whole form and strongly believed that it should be left that way. Eventually he was cast down from Heaven due to series of conflicts and so he resides in Hell. But I want him to not jsut be "evil for the sake of being evil" I want him to feel misjuged and that he was only trying to do the right thing because in his mind, he was trying to unify all forms of magic into one understanding. His most infamous teaching is that, "The concept of good and evil is an illusion, and morality is only a barrier in your way to power. You must unshackle yourself with these false notions."

@Ouroboros
I agree. In my story, war pretty much consumes every nation and all the Gods wage war amoungst themselves for dominace (even though they are in heaven they are "good") So I find it hard to think that the Gods would care if you were a glutton or had an insatiable lust. As long as you spilled blood in their name they don't care. So that's why I want the ways that the demons can tempt you be very well, tempting and not just focused on "sin."

I want the demons to seem cruel yet organized. They can't just be squabbling over each other all the time if they want to make a difference. I like your ideas on isolation and swaying allegiances so it's just something I have to work more on and pit more thought into.


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## Queshire (Feb 14, 2012)

Ah, a bit off topic, but in my story Hell's basically Australia ^^

By which I mean Heaven shipped it's criminals and other undesirables there to keep them out of the way, eventually they gained their independence and became their own country/world, the enviroment is harsh and most of the native wildlife is trying to kill you, but it still has it's own beauty.


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## Androxine Vortex (Feb 16, 2012)

Queshire said:


> Ah, a bit off topic, but in my story Hell's basically Australia ^^
> 
> By which I mean Heaven shipped it's criminals and other undesirables there to keep them out of the way, eventually they gained their independence and became their own country/world, the enviroment is harsh and most of the native wildlife is trying to kill you, but it still has it's own beauty.



I like that. You could really make a interesting and new concept out of that idea!


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