Divine Blood Demons and Gods

This is a discussion of Gods and Demons in the Divine Blood setting.

Gods and Demons consider these words to be the label of their species.  It is more appropriate to say they are a label for their cultures. Each species originally went by another name that came from languages that evolved with a different vocal apparatus than the human mouth. More than anything these terms underscore the ancient decision to abandon the majority of the pre-human culture in favor of a culture revolving around humanity.  Most Demons and Gods are quite fond of humans and consider many to be family and friends, however even the most homicidal Demon or God bears some affection for human culture. (even if they plan to eliminate or subjugate humans themselves.).

The population of Demons and Gods is young by the standards of their oldest members.  Fewer than a hundred individuals are older than a million years old. Less than five thousand are older than 40,000 years old, meaning most aren't even old enough to have their own memories of a time before they had taken on terms from human language to describe themselves.  Roughly 60% of both populations is younger than two thousand years old. Fully 30% of both populations were born within the last hundred years and 10% were born in the last twenty years.  

Demonic and Divine innovation has become stagnant.  There are few engineers or scientists among them and most are content to make use of what creations have already been developed.  The majority do not see a reason to research and experiment when their Understanding can simple tell them the cause of things. They don't see a cause for inventing a device to perform a task which can be replicated by an application of their psychic abilities.  In the words of some of their oldest members they "have become races of children who have inherited their parents' tools and taken them for toys."

How powerful are the Gods and Demons?

The majority of Gods and Demons are less dangerous than a thug with several years of streetfighting under his belt.  As civilians, they rarely have the need to explore the full extent of their powers beyond a handful of practical applications and rarely have a combative mindset. They are just as likely to freeze when threatened as a human. However, while Orochi and Ashvattha exist, it is hard to kill a God or Demon, since they will often be evacuated before they can be killed by a threat.

Individually, Gods and Demons have less useful power than the average mortal, even those without psychic abilities or training.  Most of their personal power is dedicated to maintaining their physical bodies. However, due to the collective mindscapes Gods and Demons are part of, and their connections with Ashvattha and Orochi, they have access to a far greater pool of energy than most mortals.  A God or Demon is never truly alone and they are never truly unarmed and that it is there main advantage over the other species.

The basic Talent of the Gods and Demons is the Understanding, which allows them to perceive the nature of reality around them. This allows them to figure out how to perform supernatural acts that seem reality bending (things which have taken mortal channelers and shapers thousands of years of study, research and trial and error to categorize and codify into techniques and rituals). However, as said, most aren't of the mindset to consider this a weapon and are thus not really dangerous.  Also, the external power has access limits so the largest population of Demons and Gods rarely has allowed access to greater power than the average mortal psychic.

However, once you are dealing with Shadows, Eyes, Faustians, Heralds, Rakshasha, Einherjar or any such near-military or government type, you start to get into the danger zones. If you recognize a name from myths, a Demon or God is likely to be a soldier, spy, investigator or other such person used to combat.

What do Demons and Gods look like?

Demons and Gods look like whatever they want to look like, which is something that they themselves aren't always aware of beyond an intellectual level. They are not entities, they require a physical body to survive, but that body is created consistently by a combination of unconscious and subconscious manipulation of their Life-Force.  This seems impossible since a physical existence is required to produce a Life-Force in the first place. During a pregnancy this is supplied by the parent (or gestation chamber in the case of a homonculus, or artificially gestated child) carrying the child (usually, but not always in female form as Athena's growing to term within Zeus shows) a Demon or God child isn't born until their body is developed enough to create Life-Force and their consciousness is developed enough to maintain their own forms with that Life-Force.

The form a Demon or God is born with is set by the desires of one or both parents.  Most Immortals at least experiment with a new form at least once in their life though the majority will likely only make such a foray into shapeshifting once in their entire existence.  Other Gods and Demons might switch bodies several times in a day for no other reason than the fun of it.

There are two ways to look at the concept of the "true form" of a God or Demon.  One way is to say that there is no such thing.  The other is to say that the form that they are most comfortable in is that true form.  It is telling that most are not all that distinguishable from humans or some other mortal race.

There is one mark that sets the Immortals apart, however. They have very clear facial marks in whatever shape they take, human, animal or otherwise. These marks are in the color of their Life-Force, red for Demons and blue for Gods, and are individual to each Immortal. Life-changing circumstances can often cause these marks too change. In ancient days, the Demons and Gods started many traditions for tattoos which remain fairly common to modern day as a manner of camouflage that the modern generation enjoys.

Aside from that, Demons tend to be take on more athletic and wiry forms and often have noticeably sharpened canines and incisors similar to vampyrs.  Demons also allow their bodies to scar at least mildly as they find such evidence of a physically active life to be appealing (faking scars or pushing them to be more flamboyant than natural is likely to draw only contempt.).  Gods, on the other hand, prefer larger and more muscular (or at least plumper forms) and aim toward a pristine look.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is a real thing in Divine Blood. People die, become ghosts for either a few seconds or a few centuries and then they pass over.  Quite often that same soul returns as another sentient being, usually human since there are so many more humans than any other species. Death-seers are well aware of reincarnation and can occasionally see a person's past lives if that person is exceptionally connected to those previous existences.

Gods and Demons modeled their reincarnation on this natural phenomena. A God or Demon is physically changed into a child, usually about 9 months of apparent age.  All of their memories are sealed away to be reaccessed as they again reach an appropriate age.  A reincarnated God who hits age 6 will have every memory of their past lives up to age 6, once they get 10, they will have access to every past memory up to age 10.  Once the Immortal reaches 18, they have access to all of their memories.

Just because they have access to a memory does not mean that they will automatically recover it. However, if a God or Demon goes through an entire incarnation without accessing a particular memory ever, then it will become foreign to them in their next incarnation.  Like any other Immortal in their collective mindscape, they might be able to access it, but that would be like reading a book or watching a movie rather than remembering something.  Immortals consider this a sort of spiritual suicide as it can possibly have major repercussions on personality in the next incarnation (depending on the nature of the memory in question). Most will spend sometime re-assimilating all memories before they reincarnate.

Gods and Demons reincarnate on average every 400 years, though going 600 or 700 is not unheard of. The reason for this is to help clear their minds and Life-Forces of accumulated stress from the constant sensory flood of the Understanding.  Orochi and Ashvattha have diminished the barrage tremendously, as has the constant mindscape link with other Immortals, but there is still a slow decay of thought.  400 is considered a safe place to reincarnate since it usually takes a thousand years before any severe deviations in mind begin to appear in a God or Demon.

Reincarnated Gods and Demons traditionally grow up among humans to reconnect with the mortals and assimilate changes in society.  This is a large part of why Gods and Demons have grown more and more respectful of mortals as time moves on.

This reincarnation is voluntary, it requires participation from the individual in order to work, but individuals who do not reincarnate are closely watched and usually left out of important positions of power.  It should be noted that while most Demons and Gods who refuse to reincarnate become clearly more and more insane, this is not always the case.  Zeus, for example, has been active for at least 1500 years, but his brand of insanity has not seemed to inhibit his cunning at all.

It should be noted that the decay really is a decay. The Immortal's mind becomes slowly less efficient, more prone to tunnel vision, less adaptive and to take on quirks. It is not simply a matter of an Immortal thinking shorter lived beings are worthless, though that is one potential symptom.  Some Demons will grow more and more filled with rage, others will become less capable of focusing on any particular thing for more than a few seconds at a time.  Gods will become more likely to be either paralyzed by the "maybe" choice in their thought processes (see below) or else become more and more unlikely to recognize that they could be wrong.

Ancient Immortals who refuse to reincarnate also usually find their powers growing less efficient (though the growing madness makes them fail to notice that), though it is just as common for them to grow more prone to collateral damage than to become weaker.

Why are the Demons and Gods so similar?

The two species from which Gods and Demons originate both developed the Understanding, which is a fundamental understanding of the physical and metaphysical workings of the world. The Understanding comes with two other characteristics: that of being a luminous being (see the discussion above about their true form) and the existence of a shared mindscape. If anybody has evolved one of these three characteristics without the other two, those individual mutations did not survive to become a species or common variation.

The shared mindscape allows an individual to share the data they pick up from the world around them so as to at least minimize the impact of the sensory overload. In the beginning, the shared mindscape was unstable and inconsistent, resulting in shortened life-spans as the frequent distractions led to the development of harmful malformed body parts, cancers and various insanities. Staying in the mindlink too long led to a loss of individuality and the merger of people into a single group mind.  The predecessors of the Demons created a way to stabilize the mindscape without losing individuality and the physical immortality they enjoy was a side effect.  Millions of years later, the Gods stole the same process.  As such, a lot of what is true for Gods is also true for Demons and vice versa.

The other thing that makes Demons and Gods similar is humanity.  In the Divine Blood setting, while thought processes are inherited and genetic, value systems are learned.  There are far more humans in the world than Demons or Gods.  Add to that the fact that Demons and Gods spend most of their multiple childhoods among humans, this means that most have value systems very similar to human ones.  In addition, both have the ability to recruit new Demons and Gods from the human populace, being the only two races that have a reliable and safe method for changing a person's species (though even their method only works one 1% of humans, it has never killed or even harmed anyone).  Demi-Gods and Half-Demons also tend to be heavily influenced by their mortal parents in terms of thought patterns.  As such, human thought-patterns and human values have both bled into the Demon and God cultures (values more than thought processes, since those are a more physical phenomena.)

Finally, Demons and Gods have been switching sides and even interbreeding for longer than they've called themselves Demons and Gods. Former humans and defectors still outnumber half-breeds but that still means that aspects of each Immortal culture has bled into the other.  There is a growing belief that peace and even unification is inevitable, but both sides still argue and skirmish.  There are rules about communicating with the enemy (which are broken on a daily basis in all but the letter.)

Domains, Realms

Only Gods possess Domains and only Demons possess Realms. The other races cannot take this power and Half-Demons and Demi-Gods can only take this power if the other half of their make-up is the other type of Immortal.

While Domains and Realms come about through differing means than Talents, they function similarly enough that the game mechanics for a fully developed Domain or Realm to work with essentially the same systems. However, while all Gods and Demons have access to these powers, only a handful actually make much effort to develop their powers.

In both cases, Domains and Realms function as ways of helping visualize and focus the powers of Gods and Demons to do what seems from the outside to be bending the laws of reality and nature. To make it easier, they focus on a concept.  Domains usually focus on some abstract concept such as Renewal or War while Realms usually focus on a physical phenomena such as Fire or Snow. Of course, there is a Demon of Doom and there is a God of Storms, so this is clearly just a tendency.

Whatever the nature of the Domain or Realm, as long as a God or Demon can imagine a task as relating to that concept they focus around, then they can perform the task. So a Demoness of Smoke can create realistic illusions because smoke is associated with trickery through such expressions as "smoke and mirrors" and a God of Storms can start a brawl by relating the idea of a storm of violence. The Domains and Realms are less hard and fast limits and more conceptual tools to make it easier to deal with their abilities.

Most Demons and Gods rarely learn how to do more than basic tricks with their Domain or Realm.  Making combat use out of this power requires training and flexibility of thought.

 What are Orochi and Ashvattha?

For every race there is either a species (or group of species) of plant or animal which generates a lesser form of Life-Force similar to their own, or a non-living material which effectively magnifies their Life-Force.  For Demons it's snakes and for Gods it is a sort of sea weed that now only exists in the highly modified form used by Gods.  Demons call the tools they create from modified snake DNA "familiars" and Gods call the tools they create from the sea-weed "runes".

The majority of familiars appear as objects or weapons that have somewhat alien or biomechanical feel to them.  They are often symbiotic in ways that can be dangerous for races other than Demons, but they aren't truly alive and most have no minds.  The most complex take on the appearance of animals, including snakes, but just as often other animals like cats, dogs or even large horses. They stand out as they are never perfect copies and the larger animals would look like bizarre approximations of the normal animal.  These "companion" familiars are autonomous to some degree.  Some argue that they are sentient but most claim that their apparent sapience is simply an echo of the owner's own mind.

Godly runes are similar, usually appearing as bracelets, armor, clothing, weapons, toys or other things which has an odd bronze look despite clearly being wooden (or at least vegetable matter).  Unlike Demon familiars, they fit in much more easily and do not require feeding off the owner as many familiars do.  They are often specialized to performing specific tasks rather than enhancing a user's basic capabilities as Demon familiars do.  The most complex runes are "rune trees" which are modified to grow into the shape of many different kinds of trees (though oak, apple and peach trees are popular).  They are immobile, but some Gods mentally connected to one insist they pick up emotions and thoughts from them occasionally.

The primary purpose of companion familiars and rune trees are two-fold: they provide extra Vitae and Mana to the person (or people) connected to them, and they provide extra mental processing power to the same group. The most powerful and largest known of these creations are Orochi and Ashvattha. Every citizen of Yomi is connected to Orochi and every citizen of Nirvana is connected to Ashvattha. They are massive psychic tools generating Vitae and Mana on the level of a small star.  It is Orochi and Ashvattha that makes a lot of the seemingly reality bending abilities of Gods and Demons possible.

Orochi appears as a massive eight-headed serpent wrapped around the mountain at the center of Yomi.  Ashvattha is a tree easily the size of mountain that sits in the center of Nirvana. Like with smaller companions and rune trees, some believe that Orochi and Ashvattha are sentient though most Demons and Gods take them to be just highly complex tools.

Conjurations and Invocations

Every God and Demon has at least one "conjuration" which is a title through which a magus can easily refer to them in the course of calling on High Magic spells.  These can be flashy or simple as depends on the Demon or God in question.  Invocations likewise are a spellcasting mnemoic and telepathic signal used to more easily contact the desired God or Demon. Invocations to the same God or Demon might differ from spell to spell.  Spells usually start with speaking the Conjuration and then the Invocation, however, the verbal spellcasting is only a focus, it is not necessary to forge the telepathic connection necessary for High Magic.

Some example conjurations:

That Girl Who is No Warrior - Rene, Demoness of Paperwork

She Who Brooks No Rivals - Lusca Kraken, Demoness of Crushing

The Silver Traveler - Hermes, God of Messengers

The Bloody Nightmare - Morrigan, Goddess of Bloodshed

The Heavy Hammer - Thor Aesir, God of Storms

Burden of Wisdom - Vishnu, God of Wisdom

The Little Mother - Lilith, Demoness of Power

Some Gods and Demons have maintain multiple conjurations as a way of concealing who exactly powers a particular spell.  For example, Zeus has no less than twenty conjurations spread across numerous tomes and societies. Not even Nirvana is certain that it has identified all of his conjurations. This is part of why he remains free rather than consigned to Tartarous or the Abyss.  Each spell cast with one of his conjurations grants him knowledge, often useless, but just as often useful, especially since he uses a lot of long duration effects that give him peaks at long stretches of a magus's thougths and perceptions. Even those mortal magi who are aware of how twisted and dangerous Zeus is sometimes end up casting one of his spells for the simple fact that they don't realize it is his spell.

Likewise, Balor has a number of different conjurations as well.  However, as he is sealed in the Abyss, he is less capable of making use of the large variety of favors he accrues.  Especially as people die and pass on to the after life before he can call in the favors. Like Zeus's creation of spells of long duration, Balor creates a large number of small spells that individually don't amount to much of a favor as well as his more blatant and powerful spells. As such, unwise black magi might accrue a hefty debt to one of the greatest Demonic criminals known.

What is the Compact?

The Compact is a massive psychic tool of the same sort as Ashvattha and Orochi.  It is a nearly unique combination of familiar and rune.  On first glance it seems to be a grove of trees with snakes wrapped around the trunks, but in reality all the trees and snakes are the same physical entity. The same arguments of sentience regarding Orochi and Ashvattha apply to the Compact, however, while most consider Orochi and Ashvattha to be benevolent, even the Immortals that don't believe in the idea of these creations having sentience are uncomfortable delving too far in the telepathic links that lead to the Compact's processes.

The Compact is linked to every Immortal known and it's purpose is to maintain the terms of the truce between Yomi and Nirvana.  Those terms are simple, one someone dies on one side, then someone else on the other side also dies. This is why most of the skirmishes between Gods and Demons have been non-lethal with the worst results being sealing the enemy away and "losing" them. (Which many feel is arguably worse than death as it dooms the sealed Immortal to a slow decline into madness).

However, the majority of the current population of Demons and Gods have been born in the 2000 years since it was created and there have been numerous defections. As it currently stands, no one is certain what the criteria the Compact has for choosing the balancing victim. They're not sure whether it will kill a Yomian for Nirvanite or a God for a Demon. And some feel that it picks deaths that cause the truce to persist longer by either slowing down unification or preventing all out war.  The rumor is that it wants to keep itself useful and in power.

What are some differences between Demons and Gods?

Despite all the similarities, there are some definite differences between Gods and Demons.The most noticeable difference between Gods and Demons is in the nature of their Life-Force, but they are also differentiated in thought-processes and some values. Some think the thought processes affect the way their Life-Force operates. Others think the Life-Force affects the way the species thinks.  Most think that the truth is somewhere in between.

Mana is abstract, stable but slow. It takes them some effort and time for a God to shape the Mana into the shape that they want. Also, while the behavior of Mana is predictable for experts, there is a greater learning curve to it than with some other forms of Life-Force. Some Gods compare it to painting with fractals. After spending decades, centuries and millennia dealing with this facet of their nature, Gods likewise tend to operate in slow, patient manners and to think about things from unusual directions.

Vitae is fast, powerful and wild. The difficulty Demons have in wielding it is that when they start to use it, they often use too much.  This is why a lot of Demonic psychics often have spectacular visual effects when they use their powers, though the most skilled have the most subtle powers. Controlling Vitae is compared to trying to control a raging river. A lot of Demons likewise tend toward the same lines. They tend to be reckless, passionate and hard to control.

As to thought processes, contrary to human binary thought, Gods think in three states, usually "True", "False" and "Maybe."  The most noticeable result of this is that Gods can sometimes be tripped up by questions that have two possible results, like True/False questions. Depending on the wording of the question, they might be unsatisfied with either result and be stuck looking for a "maybe" answer. They tend to remain on maybe and seeking more clarification or evidence until they can choose one of the other two answers. They work their way through problems carefully until they come to an answer they are certain is correct. The assumption is this means they have trouble thinking on their feet, but it is simply a natural trend and most of the soldiers and agents of the Gods are able to work around it.

Demons, by comparison have a four-state thought process.  The most common arrangement of this is "True" "False" "Uncertain" and "Unimportant." They have less trouble with True/False questions than Gods and excel in sorting through information quickly to come to a conclusion. Their primary fault, the one they work hardest to deal with is that they, they sometimes jump to conclusions and fail to notice when a piece of data is faulty. They are very strong at thinking quickly and taking in many details on the short term, but the average Demon has difficulty dealing with the long term. Of course, it is a mistake to consider that they simply can't think far ahead. While their reputation for scheming was mostly fabricated by the Gods, they have since grown into it.

The final difference is in what values are most important to the average God and Demon.  Of course, most of them pay the same sort of lip service to these philosophies that most humans pay to their own ideals, but the ideals still inform their culture.

For Gods, duty and order are the most important things. Ideally, this is a two-way street.  The head of a House has a duty to lead their subordinates appropriately with their best interests in mind. The other members of the House have a duty to make suggestions when the course of decision appears to be moving in a faulty direction. However, there Houses where the leader considers only his own benefits and treats his family and kin as servants or even slaves. Zeus Tinnia is an example of this. There is also sometimes some concern of the difference between order and tyranny. Gods do not like to rock the boat, but they also hate when the boat rots from under them.

For Demons, the ideals are trust and independence. Demons don't think about trust in the same way humans do. For a Demon, being lied to or manipulated is not a breach of trust if it is for some good cause. They are perfectly fine with being tricked into performing some task as long as it does not betray their values or well-being. For example, faking the murder of a Demon's half-mortal child at the hands of a cult so that the Demon will tear it to pieces is easily forgivable assuming said cult was a depraved bunch of monsters.  If they were more or less harmless, however, that would be a breach of trust. Once you have a Demon's trust, you can do a lot and they will still trust you, but if you ever show yourself manipulating them to do something that they would consider terrible or to hurt them somehow, then you will never get that trust back.

What are their governments like?

 The government of Nirvana is rather feudal in nature. There are a multitude of Houses to which the vast majority of Gods and resident Demons belong. These Houses form private areas within the collective mindscape of Nirvana which allows them to better keep their own secrets from the rest of Nirvana. The Houses each answer to a leader, usually only one, who makes the decisions for how the House will operate. Houses range in size from small groups of three to seven all the way larger extended families of several hundred or even a thousand individuals.  The heads of the Houses currently answer to Vishnu, who is referred to as the High King of Nirvana. An exception to this model, in some ways, are the Eyes of Ra, who function as their own House despite most not being related and cut ties with the Houses to which they were born.  The Eyes of Ra answer only to Vishnu and act as a law enforcement force.  It is led by a council of "Seers" who are each responsible for different portions of Earth or Nirvana itself.

The government of Yomi is more directly a benevolent dictatorship under Lilith, however, that is rather simplistic. Outsiders would view Lilith as the Queen of the Demons, and many Demons will actually refer to her as such, however, truth of the matter is that the government of Yomi is based on a interweaving framework of trust. A large number of Demons follow Lilith because they trust her. Other Demons follow these Demons because of a similar trust, though their trust of Lilith may be strong, they might trust the Demons immediately under her more completely. This trend continues through the whole of the society, with Demons and resident Gods not so much taking orders from on high, but taking requests from people they trust and awareness that not performing such a request could bring trouble to many people.

The Gods in Nirvana has learned a little bit about the way the Demons operate and consider it to be an insane level of anarchy and chaos.  Similarly, Demons regard the system of Houses to be dangerously suspect and oppressive. Neither attitude is inherited. Hel Logesdottir was born in Nirvana and despite being a Demon, she thinks of things in terms of Houses and duty similar to a God despite now being a citizen of Yomi. Likewise, their are Gods that prefer to operate using the Demonic method of trust and independence. These cultural differences are the main sticking point that is making reaching a real peace difficult.

What is life like?

Nirvana is an idyllic paradise consisting of a multitude of islands within a small sea or gigantic lake.  The edge of the dimensional shard is ringed in mountains to mark the border of the artificial reality.  It is roughly the size of a larger European nation or a moderate sized US State. It was originally designed as both a refuge and a long term dwelling and was created with Ashvattha in mind. The Gods haven't been anywhere close to reaching its population limits for tens of thousands of years. Despite this, about 14% to 16% of Nirvana's citizens live on Earth.  All the buildings are runes with the common bronze color of the modified plants used by Gods to create runes. It is a very comfortable place to dwell for both humans and Gods, though it has a very cool and humid atmosphere to it.

Yomi, on the other hand, was designed before such things as Orochi and Ashvattha were invented (they stole that development from the Gods the way the Gods stole the secrets of Immortality and creating massive dimensional shards from the Demons).  While it was designed to be a refuge from planetary cataclysm for millions of years, it is much smaller than Nirvana and since the addition of Orochi, more than 90% of its space has become devoted to feeding the great snake that provides them the power to continue to match the Gods. The population of Demons and Gods that live there are packed into a narrow ring at the very far edge of the shard, with the rest of the land being made of empty, organically grown buildings which Orochi periodically eats.  The shard is well beyond it's population limits, even with more than 30% of its citizens living on Earth. Yomi has a much higher sulfur content to its atmosphere, making it uncomfortable for humans and many Gods and the buildings are all familiars grown from modified snake DNA and have a very alien appearance to them.

Implications by some Nirvanites that they would "encourage" abandoning Yomi after peace or unification is another sore point with the Demons over peace. Despite the squalor and cramped spaces they put up with in Yomi, they have an immense degree of pride and love for their home shard.

Organizations

Abyssal Guardians - The prison guards of Yomi, primarily Demons. Led by Hel Logesdottir and Lord Enma.  Hel is currently in reincarnation at age 16, so she is not yet returned to her normal place of command.

The Architects - The crafters of Nirvana, primarily Gods. For the last ten thousand years or so, precious little innovation has come out of this group.  There is little mass production, runes are mostly crafted on request specifically for the commissioner usually by a master craftsperson aided by a team of assistants.

Einherjar - The military of Nirvana, primarily Gods with a high population of Demons and Half-Demons. Their numbers are dwindling in the truce and coming peace as they move on to other tasks. Some are getting bored and wishing for the old days of constant warfare.

Elysium Providers - House Dispater and some associated allies from other Houses, led by Persephone. They handle healing and dealing with departed spirits. Most Godly Death-Seers work from Elysium.

Eyes of Ra - The law enforcement and intelligence organization of Nirvana, mostly Gods. They are the police, judges and spies of the Gods. Focus more on law enforcement than espionage. They are also responsible for the protection of reincarnated citizens of Nirvana on Earth.

The Faustians - A group of Demons that focuses on infiltrating certain aspects of human culture. This organization was born out of a frustration with being viewed as evil due to Nirvana propaganda.  Rather than fight and watch the people they try to support be targeted for destruction as "unholy demon worshippers" the Faustians took it upon themselves to approach the mortals they found to be undeserving and dangerous and trick them into destroying themselves. Faustians count a large number of mortals as full members of their organization. Since Faustians actively use trust to destroy people, even if those people are dangerous criminals, there is mixed opinions of them among other Demons.

The Forge - The Demonic crafting organization. Very little innovation has been done for thousands of years. Unlike Gods, Demonic craftsmen and women prefer to work alone. However, they also tend to not bother with mass production of familiars and approach each commission as a work of their art.

Gehenna Complex - The Demonic medical organization. Due to the limited number of Demonic healers and their limited capabilities, there are much fewer healing spells of worth among Demons. As a result, Demons still study physical medical practices such as those used by mortals. Despite the alien surroundings, a human doctor would find a Gehenna facility easy to adapt to while they'd be mostly useless in a Elysium healing facility.  Gehenna also employs the very small number of mostly untrained Demonic death-seers that survived Balor's ancient hunts or have been born since he was imprisoned.

The Heralds - More of a profession than an organization. Heralds act as the legal experts in Nirvana and also double as social workers and liaisons with the mortals. Heralds and Faustians have a number of openly secret connections with each other and represent the main focus of the powers that seek peace and unification. Like Faustians, a large number of Heralds are actually mortals of one species or another, usually human.

Rakshasha - The Yomian military.  Mostly Demons. Like the Einherjar, their numbers are dropping and their membership is growing restless.

The Shadows - Yomian law enforcement and espionage organization. As with all Yomian culture, it is a complicated mess of loyalties and a command structure is difficult to identify. Shadows are more focused on espionage against Nirvana than on enforcement of Yomian laws, as typical for Demonic appreciation of trust and independence.  They are responsible for the protection of reincarnated citizens of Yomi.

Tartarus Sentries - The prison guards of Tartarus in Nirvana.