Editing Demon (section)

=By Game=
==In ''Warhammer''==
If you're looking for the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Warhammer]]/[[Warhammer 40,000|40k]]'' equivalent you should go to the page for either [[Daemon]] or [[Daemonette]]. The A is there is because it's Greek. The E comes from the word ''dæmon'' which comes from trying to translate the greek word for godlike power, fate or just god- it later got corrupted into the modern "demon" after polytheism was outlawed in the Roman Empire. Daemon (with the a) is also synonymous with a lesser god. Given that the daemons in ''Warhammer'' are actually merely small parts of their god that have been split off to do shit on their own, as well as their power, it makes some sort of sense.

==In ''D&D''==
Demons have been part of the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' mythos since the beginning, as the *cringe* [[Balrog]]. It eventually got into Gary's head that he couldn't actually do that. So he and the others got together to bring diversity to Hell.

It was decided to build ''two'' hells, with two sorts of fiend to inhabit them. That distinction boiled down to the ever-trying matter of [[alignment]] - subalignment in fact, as in the original version (maintained in the Moldvay / Mentzer / Moldbug schema) Evil and Chaos were as one. AD&D's 1978 Monster Manual sorted demons as [[Chaotic Evil]], devils as [[Lawful Evil]] (there were as yet no "daemons" ''etc'').

Demons got six main types, still remembered as the "True Demons" up to 3e. In order: vrock, hezrou, glabrezu, IV, V, and VI. The latter had "suggested" names, perhaps thought to be personal at this point: nalfeshnee, marilith (female), and baLOR. No, the Type VI "balor" was not a balrog, stop asking. He just looked like one. Spicing things up were succubi, whose model delivered PROMOTIONS to anyone seeing it; the Manes, who were something like pre-demons; and a few [[Demon Princes]]. ''Monster Manual II'' added more. ''[[Fiend Folio]]'' meanwhile had a "shadow demon" which got booted out in 2e, returning as a "shadow ''fiend''" (but still obviously a demon).

In [[Advanced_Dungeons_&_Dragons#AD&D_2nd_Edition|2e]], due to the legendary [[Satanic Panic]] of 80's ''D&D'', demons and devils were renamed as [[Tanar'ri]] and [[Baatezu]] respectively (Daemons became [[yugoloth]], [[Demodand|Demodands/Gehreleth]]s). Later in that edition the panic leveled off, so ''[[Planescape]]'' unofficially restated the original names whilst pretending oh no we have no demons here. This also brought in the [[Blood War]], a huge philosophical conflict that devoured worlds and was basically fought because "Tanar'ri" and "Baatezu" were determined to prove [[skub|their kind of evil]] was the [[Anti-skub|only true face of evil]].

Late [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|3.5]] lore introduced [[Obyrith]] in ''Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss'', primordial demons that predated the Tanar'ri in the deep history of the Abyss who once shook the planes in great wars between Chaos and Law before being brought low. They're more [[Old Ones|Lovecraftian]] in nature; several of the most ancient demon lords were [[retcon]]ned into being Obyrith, and they inspired ''[[Pathfinder]]'s'' [[Qlippoth]]. Additionally introduced in ''FC1'' were the [[Loumara]], a newer race of incorporeal demons who like to possess people and only recently formed, though not much else developed for them.

In [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4th Edition]], demons and devils underwent a huge revamp to finally make them more than just alignment-distinctions.

In the 4e mythos, demons are elemental embodiments of corruption, madness and destruction, spawned by the last remaining shard of a dead universe destroyed by entities of pure evil polluting the Elemental Chaos - this was the 4e rendition of the Obyrith. This means they want to destroy the entire multiverse, then leap into the next reality and destroy it as well, and so on ''ad infintinum''.

Devils, meanwhile, are fallen angels who betrayed their own god and were twisted into monsters before being locked up in their ex-master's domain, which they have converted into a hellish prison. Their goals are to get out of their prison and take over the entire multiverse.

{{Pathfinder-Fiends}}

===Nonstandard ===
Some settings scrap the classical D&D / PF series and roll their own.

For the BXCMI series, the Masters Set introduced the '''Sphere of Death''' to handle otherworldly ''eeevil''. The Immortals rules got the types I-VI under different names, for instance III is "Howling" and the mainstay VI (floated in [[M1: Into the Maelstrom]]) is "Roaring".

In the [[Scarred Lands]], demons are the minions of the god of [[Chaotic Evil]], [[Vangal]] the destroyer.

In the [[Talislanta]] setting, the Lower Planes contain the Demonrealms. This setting's demons are the opposite of the creative [[elemental]]s, beings of negative elemental energy that create a physical body out of elemental matter at hand, so you have dust demons, drought demons, smoke demons, lava demons and such. They all have a weakness to the element opposing their own.

For ''[[Warlords of the Accordlands]]'', the demonic niche is taken by the Abyssal. Centuries ago, mortals and gods united to cast down the Dragon. They buried its corpse under the ground; its last breath became a permanent storm on the surface. Underground, animals and even some sentients tasted the dead Dragon's flesh. These became the Abyssals, a plague on the local [[dorfs]] especially. They are on a golden / orange theme.

==In the [[World of Darkness]]==
''Demon'' is the name carried by two RPGs by [[White Wolf]]: one in the Classic [[World of Darkness]] and one in the [[World_of_Darkness#New_World_of_Darkness/Chronicles_of_Darkness_(nWoD/CoD)|Chronicles of Darkness]] (or the Old and the New World of Darkness):
*[[Demon: The Fallen]] is a game of angels and demons, of redemption and debasement. Players take on the roles of the Fallen, demons recently escaped from the Abyss (Hell) and finding a world where God and His angels are absent. It is up to the demons what to do with this world and if they seek redemption or revenge on an absent God, as well as deal with the Earthbound, demons that were summoned to Earth centuries or millenia before they did and have turned to inhuman monsters.
*[[Demon: The Descent]] is a game of techgnostic espionage, kinda like The Matrix meets Dogma. Players take on the roles of the Unchained, former angels employed by the God-Machine that keeps the world running (for better or worse) which gained sentience and broke free of the God-Machine's control. These demons are required to take the identities of people to avoid detection by the God-Machine and its agents. With these new forms they seek to either create their own Hell on Earth (the old-fashioned meaning, as in a place devoid of God) or return to the God-Machine on their own terms. Intensely interwoven with the God-Machine Chronicles meta setting.

There are also many creatures called demons in a variety of game lines, including the stand-alone book Inferno for the core Chronicles of Darkness game.

==In [[Monster Hunter International]]==
Demons in MHI are one of the many extra dimensional factions alongside various factions of [[Yog-Sothothery]]. The books confirm the demons are, in-fact, genuinely the rebel angels of Christianity. Demons are, luckily for Humanity, exceptionally prone to in-fighting amongst themsevles despite being a single faction. Demons typically need some kind of constructed body for all but the weakest to exist on Earth, meaning only weak demons show up with any frequency, either as easily destroyed ectoplasmic horrors that dissolve after defeat brought to Earth by accidental summoning rituals, or somewhat stronger demons taking control of bodies stitched together from cadavers. Like [[Vampire]]s, demons are harmed by [[True Faith]] and take that weakness further by being harmed by holy objects.

Curiously, while non-ghost undead are are always genuinely evil, there’s actually some PUFF exempt demons. One is a succubus that’s not truly reformed, but manages to be stable enough to earn one by honey potting intelligence assets for Uncle Sam. The other is a massive spoiler.

Complicating matters is that many local monsters are referred to as “demons”, especially when information on these malevolent entities are translated to English, despite being entirely Earthly.