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Paladin Worldbuilding: The Circle of Archdemons
🕑 Added 2022-01-13 18:17:05 +0000 UTCHi guys!
I was doing some worldbuilding and fleshing out some of the Paladin of the Sigil universe.
I'm pretty much done with my draft of book 2 and need to get book 3 fully outlined before I can do anything else. But before I can do that I want to get a little worldbuilding done, both as a bit of a mental break to help me distance myself from the content I've already written and for a bit of fun.
I usually do quite a few of these things, both for Spellheart and for Paladin. Normally though, I don't share them. This time, I am. Let me know if they're interesting enough to read and if you'd like to see more.
Today's worldbuilding session was fleshing out a group of potential villains for book 3.
The Circle of Archdemons:
The Circle of Archdemons is the second most feared organization of demons throughout the hells. Well, maybe the third, if you count the Lady of Darkness on the Seventh Layer. But she hasn't left her infernal palace since the war with the heavens was in full swing.
This is often considered the most dangerous group in all of Hell, even more so than the Prime Sins. Though the Prime Sins might individually be more powerful, they are constantly bickering amongst each other, and their ability to fight is limited. They can't afford to overextend themselves lest one of their rivals take what they hold dear. Even when the materialize in an avatar on the surface, much of their power must remain in Hell to maintain their interests and rebuild their bodies should their avatars perish.
In contrast, the Circle of Archdemons has no rivals. It is the most robust organization of Fifth Order demons, bar none. They make their headquarters on the Fifth Layer of Hell, where powerful Archdemons hold sway over vast armies and nations of lesser creatures and administrate the territories on the higher levels of Hell.
Most of the demons at this rank of power are ancient and have existed since before Hell solidified. However, there are a few crucial figures among them to be wary of, including:
Melquart, the Demon of Sacrifices. He is behind most human kidnappings on the surface, and many of the most profitable human cults operate in his service.
He was the original inventor of soul stones and why they became the one actual currency throughout Hell. No other commodity could beat the convenience or value of a soul stone, and making them is the reason Melquart needs his cultists to kidnap so many humans.
Each soul stone contains the majority of a human's soul. Initially, making one of them required sacrificing an entire human so that their soul did not dissipate and could instead be solidified into a convenient square-shaped object.
Melquart pioneered a new method of harvesting human souls though; extensive torture.
By causing a captured human unending and ceaseless suffering, he could extract the majority of their soul, leaving just enough for them to survive and heal from what little was left. A bit of rest and an environment of dense demonic aura would allow the human to eventually recover, allowing the extraction to begin all over again.
Thus, under Melquart, the extraction of human souls and refinement into soul stones became an industrial practice. Large warehouses on the third layer exist to do nothing but torture humans endlessly, extracting their souls over and over.
Eventually, these prisoners will have pumped enough Demonic Aura through their bodies that they cease to be humans and instead transform into demons. Most are entirely insane by then and are released on the surface world to cause chaos and destruction. The existence of these demons is essentially what created the human perception of demons as savage, animalistic monsters.
Another vital member of the Circle of Archdemons is Astarte, the Succubus Queen. Many female cultists come under her sway at one point or another. She has mastered control over the transformation process between humans and demons to a degree no one else has. Her talented succubi can ensure a human transforming under their care takes a form of ravishing beauty.
In fact, it's said that her skills are so excellent that her people can create demons that look almost indistinguishable from human women and that she is the secret ruler of the mortal world, puppeting thousands of human lords and kings through the ears of their beautiful wives.
Her presence is felt in Hell as well, as demons have no shortage of lust. Her succubi can quickly skyrocket in power if they're willing to extract Demonic Aura from other demons, and many of them become quite powerful. But deception and intrigue is dangerous work, and her succubi are killed more often than not.
Though, the death toll isn't enough to explain her sparse presence throughout the hells, considering there are just as many female cultists as there are male ones. Some suspect that Astarte consumes the majority of women who come to her in the hopes that she can join the ranks of the Prime Sins.
Others have seen her agents slipping outside the confines of the Sacred Seas and into the lands ruled by other pantheons of gods. Perhaps she is planning something bigger than anyone ever dared to dream before...
Another demon from the Circle of Archdemons is Taautus, the Experimenter. As far as demons go, he is something of a scholar. While he did considerable work for Melquart in the early days of refining humans into money, now, he focuses his efforts on the finer points of controlling Demonic Aura.
Originally, all the skills demons possessed were dark reflections of abilities created by the seraph. Taautus changed all of that. With dedication and perseverance, he created unique abilities that only demons could use.
The tokens of corruption, which all the Prime Sins now possess, were his original creation. Through them, he distributed many of his skills to humans on the surface and into the hands of humans.
However, his goal in this wasn't altruistic. Many of these corrupted sigil wielders were humans needing the power he offered them. Little did they know, they were just one more part of Taautus' experiments.
Bit by bit, Taautus figured out how to siphon away their souls and replace it with his own, allowing the demon access to every skill in the possession of one of his corrupted sigil wielders. While many of these abilities are quite weak, there are many others that synergize well in combination, and even the Prime Sins steer clear of this demonic scholar.
Let me know if you have anything else you'd like to hear about in the Paladin universe. I might already have something written out, or I might be interested enough in what you want to know to do a worldbuilding session on it. Comment with your own ideas!
Comments
Worlok
Another spirit is Kr’Ronzn spirit of nature. Those that worship him usually bear totems made from his animal familiars the eagle otter, and or plains Lion. Some Carry a totem of a bear as well.
Worlok
You wanted feed back for world building. Picking my brain and spitballing the names. Thinking that volcana (unoriginal I know, I just liked the name.) the goddess of fire and earthquakes. Then you have the Spider Queen of the Abyss, She is the patron Godess of the Dark Elves. She is the Fate spinner and a she is a puppeteer. Plucking the strands of fate in her web to manipulate the mortal realm. Just a few begining thoughts.
Worlok
World building ideas: From the Lands across the sacred Seas. Nymbus spirit of the winds. Still revered by sailors to some degree. Depicted as both male and female know one truly knows for sure. Crtrss (Pronounced Sertress) spirit of weather & storms also known to be fickle and flighty always depicted as female and does actually manifest as such. When she can be coaxed to do so. Sailors also hold her in high reverence and as such has a strong following among them as storms and or heavy fog is among a sailors worst fears.
Marvin
Haha, remind me of this when we start book 3!
Worlok
Darren has one ability that uses sunlight. I wonder if he has enough stored to cut a hole to free himself from being buried alive. The power said it required 1hour of sunlight and divine aura to use Darren has had many days of exposure to sun now. Wonder just how big a light beam he can produce should he so choose?
Worlok
Think Marvin has already started that track in Darren’s mind but it keeps getting put un the back burner to try as someone keeps throwing shit at them. Until Darren gets a break where he can either teach his girls to meditate properly or he is in a spot so tight he has to use his prodigious aura to keep one of his girls alive he has to enter the evolution state with them to survive. Likely he and one of his girls would be buried alive on top of a aura spring that he use as he does the evolution thus keeping them alive until his storm tendrils burrow them out.
Vitrumist
If Darren observes and learns Taautus‘s soul siphon before before he kills the Archedemon (which, let’s face it, is merely an inevitability), would it be possible for Darren to optimise it in order to not only gain access to the skills used by those connected to his sigil, but to also allow him to use his Unlimited Evolution to evolve them to higher ranks without the need for seraphs?
Worlok
A Druid would fit my post about totems or effigies as they worship nature spirits. They are a more primal power and do not reside in the heavens they exist as a literal natural force. I am thinking the seraph forced the other spiritual beings and forces aside when they came to power. Must have been a epic battle or a shuttle shift in power using sigil welders as a way to remove the unwanted spiritual lpowers from opposing the seraph.
Marvin
Hmmm, there will be a bit more of that in the actual story, but I can see if I can do something without spoilers.
Loukemia
I would be interested in more information on non-divine or non-demonic spirits. We start to hear about this from Dagmar after he was purified. For all of two seconds before he's chucked into some armor. It also mentions he was druid. So is this another path like divine spirits are to paladin?
Worlok
As for the world beyond the sacred sea. I can picture 3 main items to replace Sigils. They are in no particular order. Talismans, these holy items function as a sigil, but are tied to a particular deity. Effigies these are figurines depicting the divine or demonic being they are tied to. Effigies are usually used by witch doctors and some tribal spiritualists, finally there are totems. Totems are just about anything the bearer finds. Each totem is personal and tied to the patron of the bearer through the devotion of the bearer.
Worlok
I can hear the fearless leader now… her kitty kitty… good kitty…. 😁😁 hiss rowr.. don’t get scratched… those claws can be viscious..
Marvin
I have a worldbuilding document for cat girls somewhere in my Spellheart files. I will upload them if I can find them.
Worlok
Catgirls and dark elves…
