Editing Demon: The Fallen (section)

=== Binding of the Earthbound ===
Lucifer had indeed not been locked in the Abyss. He was sentenced to wander Earth alone forever. He did not sit idly and began to plot the resummoning of his kin, starting with his five Archdukes. The summoning was difficult, so Lucifer taught the secrets of magic to people all over the world. When he was done the peoples of the times of antiquity, unaware of one another, began five great rituals to summon their "gods". They had prepared great Reliquaries to house their gods, giving Lucifer's followers physical bodies in the world. Said objects resembled their associated Fallen in some way. All five of the Archdukes were summoned at the same time to places all over the world:

* Abaddon was first, summoned by Akkadian priests in service of Sargon of Akkad. His reliquary was an ancient tree 30' in height, carved with faces and filled with crimson vines of petrified wood.
* Asmodeus was summoned to Sumer and housed in a ebony statue run through with bits of gold, looking like a many-armed priest facing the heavens.
* Dagon was summoned by a cult located in the Indus Valley (India) put in a massive basalt slab engraved with players and later adorned with moving parts.
* Azrael was summoned by the [[necromancer]] kings of Kush (Africa) into a scarecrow built from bones, draped with gray cloth and had emeralds for eyes.
* Belial, the Great Beast, was last, summoned by the [[China|Chinese Shang Dynasty]] who treated him as greater than the [[emperor]]. His Reliquary however was small: [[Cthulhu|a foot-tall idol in the shape of a crouching half-cephalopod, half-man]].

Upon being summoned Lucifer contacted them, but to his horror realized that his Archdukes had been driven utterly insane. They scoffed him and began to expand their cults in an attempt to lord over Humanity as the Earthbound, the first of the demons. Their main objective was to harness worship, which gave them the ability to work their dark powers and remain in the world. Their reign was terrible and harsh, punishing severely and driving others into acts of greater and greater depravity. They did not enslave entire nations: instead they aimed for the highest ranking official within a nation and seducing them into their cult. Some of these cults were quite public as religions: Marduk, Nergal, Apep, Zahhak and Bastet are but a few names for these fronts. The secrets of summoning demons began to spread out, and more and more Earthbound were summoned to the world. The Lightbringer sought allies, but all rebuked them and promised Lucifer a future in which only they would rule.