Fiends

Sinspawn

Fiends are wicked creatures originating in the lower planes, and within those nightmare realms, they are legion. Most appear alive and solid, but their bodies are an otherworldly fusion of flesh and spirit that seems "wrong" to mortal senses. In addition to significant violence, every fiend specializes in at least one form of physical or emotional predation. These are known as addictions.

Addictions

Fiends experience a rush of pleasure when indulging their addictions, and this goal defines them. The impulses of simple fiends are straightforward and violent. Sophisticated fiends dress up their addictions in elaborate schemes. Torture, domination, violation, theft, exploitation, and similar addictions are embodied by different types of fiends. The powers and skills of each fiend are tailored to help the creature satisfy its list of addictions.

Cultists

Fiends often create cults of mortals to serve them. Devils do this to bargain for souls to create more of their kind, while demons do it to spread chaos and destruction.

Devils

Lawful fiends are known as "devils", and most have a gargoyle-like appearance. Devils are brutal, organized, dogmatic, and clever. They strike deals and create contracts with other beings to amass power, wealth, slaves, and souls. Devils assume predictable forms with predictable powers and metamorphose into new shapes whenever promoted or demoted. They cannot corrupt other creatures with their mere presence, relying on guile and temptation. The mind of a devil is frighteningly well-ordered, and they take naturally to arcane magic and scientific disciplines like architecture or engineering. Within the lower planes, devils create vast tyrannical city-states. In the mortal world, they corrupt governments and support tyrants to promote the generation of lawful evil souls.

Demons

Chaotic fiends are known as "demons", and they assume a wide variety of forms. Demons are brutal, selfish, and impulsive. All of their addictions involve some form of consumption. They usually operate in gangs or hordes, held together by fear and self-interest. Prolonged exposure to their psychic presence can spread this demonic addiction to mortals. Demons are prone to mutation, and each has a unique set of cosmetic traits. Despite this, they can be loosely grouped into "categories" based on their shape and the addictions they embody. Within the lower planes, demons maraud or claim territory while viciously dominating and feuding against one another. In the mortal world, they engage in wanton destruction, defiling or devouring everything they touch.

Divs

Neutral fiends are known as "divs", and tend to resemble humanoids with gruesome animal traits. They also tend to operate in small groups or warbands, driven by malice and self-interest. Divs serve as untrustworthy mercenaries, honoring their agreements only so long as it suits them. They are more interested in personal gain than control or wanton destruction, and a div formed from a humanoid soul will retain some of the characteristics and memories it had in life.

Eternal Conflict

Demons refuse to accept the authority of devils, and devils find the chaos demons spread intolerable. Both hate each other, and they constantly engage in war for primacy. This conflict is not unified, but it is omnipresent. Devil warlord states are constantly under attack by hordes of demons or plotting to seize territory from demons. Divs act as mercenaries on the fringes of this conflict, or else shun it entirely to seek power and profit on other planes.

Primordialism

All fiends have sorcerous potential, but few have the intelligence or discipline to cultivate it. Intelligent fiends with addictions involving manipulation or psychological torment usually become sorcerers of modest ability. Demon lords and arch-devils are always mighty sorcerers. Divine magic is rare among fiends, but it does exist in individuals with a firm ethos of darkness and large numbers of cultists.

These forms recur across every alignment of fiend. Each appears in devilish, demonic, and div variants — distinguished by discipline, mutation, and the addictions they embody, but sharing the same essential silhouette.

Hordeling

Opportunistic predators that form mobs for safety and bring down prey by weight of numbers. Commonly press-ganged as cannon fodder, they are viewed as expendable. Old and successful hordelings are stealthy predators with a talent for backstabbing the unwary. Devil hordelings are dim-witted thugs that serve their betters enthusiastically, hoping to be recognized and promoted to higher forms. Winged demonic versions are called Furies; winged devilish versions are called Spinagons.

Warfiend

Humanoid fiends fairly common in the lower planes, serving as soldiers and marauders. Devils operate in well-organized bands and are highly disciplined, wearing armor and carrying uniform weapons. Demons are deformed horrors covered in scales or chitin, with crude but effective weapons and a berserker mentality. All warfiends share an instinct for fieldcraft — they set traps, build fortifications, forge arms and armor, construct simple siege weapons, and think tactically by nature. They are responsible for most of the ruins and fortresses in the lower planes.

Brute

Tall, horned, ogre-like fiends embodying hunger and rage. Among devils they serve as slavers and heavy infantry, carrying massive weapons. Among demons, they are hulking berserkers that feast on flesh and blood. Brutes crave combat and are famed for their lack of self-control. Old and successful specimens carry magical weapons and are covered in chitin or hellforged armor.

Gargoyle

Flying predators known for extreme patience and the ability to enter a state of suspended animation at will. While in this state they are aware of their surroundings and do not suffer mental deterioration. Among devils they serve as guardians, ambushers, and aerial scouts. Demonic gargoyles are rabid pack predators with immortal patience and the disturbing ability to wait in ambush for years. All gargoyles have stony skin and a high tolerance for physical punishment.

Tempter

Also known as Incubi or Succubi, these fiends are androgynous shapeshifters that can drain the life force of any creature they lure into an act of passion. They assume whatever form is most likely to entice onlookers. Tempters wield authority in the lower planes through intelligence and charisma, enthralling underlings with sadistic lust and clever lies. The greatest weave a warped carnival atmosphere around their lairs as both badge of honor and potent defense. Most are sorcerers of varying ability; a rare few become dark knights leading depraved, smitten followers.

Deceiver

Shapeshifters who can assume various humanoid and fiendish forms. Among devils they serve as tempters, spies, and administrators. Among demons they hide in plain sight, pretending to be other types of fiends while spreading mayhem with lies and murder. Exceptional individuals are skilled assassins.

Hound

Four-legged monsters with huge jaws, a breath weapon, and a keen sense of smell. Devilish specimens are called hellhounds, and demonic specimens are called balehounds. Most are slavering horrors that roam in packs led by a powerful alpha, killing and eating anything weaker than themselves. They tend to vary significantly in appearance.

Gremlin

Tiny, cunning fiends acting as spies, informants, and menials in the lower planes. They hold a reputation as snitches, and other fiends abuse and exploit them terribly. Devilish variants are called Imps, and demonic variants are called Quasits.

Overlord

Gigantic fiends who lead their kind, commanding hordes of underlings and wielding numerous powers. Overlords can be beautiful or monstrous depending on their nature, and each has its own unique appearance. They are judges, warlords, generals, chieftains, nobility, and more. It is rare to find more than one overlord in a single place. All overlords are highly intelligent.

Cambion

The offspring of mortals and succubi. Females are known as Alu-Fiends. Cambions occupy a strange place in the hierarchy of the lower planes. Fiends disparage their mortal heritage, but cambions are not bound by the same cosmic laws as true fiends. When two cambions breed, they produce a cambion child, and there are places where cambions band together to form clans and warlord states. Because they are half-mortal, they give live birth and must be weaned to adulthood. Devils are the most common source of cambions, actively breeding them as agents who can enter other planes freely without being summoned.

Beyond the universal forms, certain shapes are unique to demons — born of mutation, gluttony, and the chaos of the abyssal realms. They have no devilish counterpart.

Blood

Vampiric fiends and blood-drinking parasites. They are great creators of the undead, particularly oreks and skeletal monstrosities. They can manipulate the nightsong at will and are obsessed with gore and bones, building charnel pits and gruesome effigies. Most possess bat- or wolf-like traits. Old and successful specimens become potent necromancers.

Devourer

Hulking demons embodying the darkest impulses of gluttony and predation. They resemble great tauric monsters with huge fanged maws in the center of their bellies and have no devil counterpart. Devourers are feared for their ability to eat anything — including other demons — which grants them a temporary boost of strength.