Demonic Forms¶

"Vessel - An unpossessed creature who could hold demonic essence." — Demonlands slang (S329)

A demon has no body of its own. What it wears is a host, a living creature taken by possession, and what the host becomes, under cycles of metamorphosis, is a derivative demonic form: the hellhound, the imp, the vrock, the succubus and the hundred stranger shapes of the Demonlands. This page catalogues the hosts demons favour and the forms they grow into, with the demon-breeds known from the Fifth Age and the Earlier Ages. How the change happens is on Demonic Lifecycle. The game statistics of these creatures live in the ARCS Bestiary and under Mechanics¹; none are repeated here.

Host and derivative form¶

"A demon's choice of base form depends on the type of Host possessed" (S331). The host sets the demon's size, movement, senses and natural gifts, and above all how much essence it can hold; the derivative forms available to it follow from its kind. A mortal body shows visible corruption as the demon pushes it, and a demonic form holds many times more essence than any mortal shape (S331). Each derivative form favours some Aspects and dulls others: a Hellhound is strong in the Infernal and Maw and weak in Night and Winged; a Hellboar in the Horned and Barbed; a Hellcat in Infernal, Blade and Night; a Dretch in Barbed, Maw and Rot (S329). Demons in the Demonlands pay their masters in bodies: any vessel "larger than a human" must be presented to the Gut-Queen Gharmatha, who may claim it (S329).

Hosts by kind¶

The Fourth Age reference lists the hosts a demon may take and the forms each can become (S331):

Host kind	Example hosts	Derivative forms
Amalgamated	Swarms of birds, rats, scarabs or spiders; giant-rat and large-spider swarms	Demonic Ooze, Bone Horror, Faceless
Aquatic	Eels, large fish, fishfolk, merfolk, sharks	none listed
Avian	Hawks, eagles, falcons, owls, vultures, giant ravens, giant eagles and owls	Adze, Azazel, Lilitu, Pazuzu, Sehirim, Striga, Stymphal, Vrock
Draconic	Kobolds, draconians, drakes, dragons from young to primal	Zmey
Fae	Gnomes, sprites, dryads, satyrs, sylphs, centaurs, trolls	Dretch, Ifrit, Imp, Spined Imp, Shadowfox, Shadowling, Vila, Balor, Leshen, Pazuzu
Humanoid	Halflings, dwarves, humans, half-giants, ogres	Chort, Eurynomos, Mane, Noppera, Oni, Pisacha, Succubus
Insectoid	Large and giant spiders	Apollyi, Jorōgumo, Lamashtu, Tsuchigumo
Lothim	Hobgoblins, elves, orcs	Fomorian, Mane, Succubus
Mammalian	Cats, foxes, giant rats, dogs, boars, deer, lions, horses, elephants, moose, rhinos	Dretch, Hellcat, Hellrat, Shadowfox, Hellboar, Hellhound, Goristro, Leucrotta
Outsider	Cthul, Abol, Tyrax	none listed
Reptilian	Cobras, pythons, lizardfolk, giant snakes, crocodiles, ice serpents, naga, salamanders	Nahash, Lamia, Gorgon, Ammit

The swarms give a demon the Rot Aspect and a little of another, birds the Barbed, rats the Maw, scarabs the Winged, spiders the Night; aquatic hosts give Frost, avian and draconic Winged, fae Frost, humanoid Blade (S331). The Outsiders of the Dread, the Cthul, Abols and Tyrax, can hold a great deal of essence but become nothing else (S331). Demons in the Fifth Age rode and possessed beasts as well: Hez'Vandros kept four hellhounds as "my pets" and his devils rode hollowed rockbulls (S145); a possessed boar, rat swarm, giant spider, ogre, troll or crocodile is a demon in the plainest sense¹.

Derivative forms¶

The derivative forms are listed in the Fourth Age reference as a working catalogue, most with a line of description and some with none (S331). Those described are:

Bone Horror (amalgamated): "A collection of necrotic tissue, bone and gore assembled into a mockery of life." A demon whose host dies beside its Mortiquery may raise one from the heaped remains (S333).
Demonic Ooze (amalgamated): "A collection of rot, putrid jellies and acidic pudding merged into a shapeless being."
Faceless (amalgamated): "A collection of flesh, mouths, eyes and ears merged into a single shapeless being."
Fomorian (Lothim): "A purple skinned deformed giant that resembles an Elf."
Goristro (mammalian): "A siege demon similar to an oversized minotaur."
Leucrotta (mammalian): "Amalgamation of animals: badger head, stag legs, hyena body, lion tail."
Chort (humanoid): a demon of mischief, "often goat-horned but humanoid otherwise."
Oni (humanoid): "Horned ogres, often animal-muzzled or tusked; embodiments of wrath and punishment."
Noppera (humanoid): a faceless thing, "human form with erased features."
Pisacha (humanoid): "Flesh-devouring night demons, vaguely human but malformed."
Eurynomos (humanoid): a "daemon of decay and corpses."
Lamia (reptilian): a child-eating demoness, "sometimes depicted as snake-bodied"; Ammit (reptilian): a "crocodile-lion-hippo hybrid devourer of souls"; Nahash (reptilian): a serpent "personified as a demonic whisperer"; Zmey (draconic): "multi-headed dragon-serpents."
Jorōgumo (insectoid): "A seductive spider-woman demon" combining "illusion, predation, and web-based entrapment"; Lamashtu (insectoid): "A child-devouring demoness associated with vermin, disease, and infestation," fit for "brood-queens, corruptors of flesh, and nursery-horrors"; Tsuchigumo (insectoid): "enormous, cunning, and deeply territorial" earth-spiders; Apollyi (insectoid): "locust-demons with scorpion tails, iron bodies, and human faces."
Adze (avian): a spirit that becomes "a vampiric bird; drains vitality while the victim sleeps"; Azazel (avian): a wilderness demon with "vulture or raven aspects"; Lilitu (avian): "Winged night spirits … with owl talons and wings," embodying "lust, stillbirth, and nocturnal predation"; Sehirim (avian): "Hairy, goat-winged desert demons" of "wilderness madness"; Striga (avian): an "owl-like blood-drinking demon that steals infants"; Stymphal (avian): "bronze-beaked, man-eating birds" with "metallic plumage and acidic droppings, demonic carrion flocks"; Pazuzu (avian or fae): "the king of the wind demons," with "a bird's talons, wings, and a lion or hawk's head," bringing "storms, drought, and pestilence."
Ifrit (fae): "Fire spirits that sometimes appear as flaming birds or crows; their shadows take avian shape"; Leshen (fae): a "forest spirit twisted into antlered predator"; Vila (fae): nature spirits who, corrupted, "become storm-bringers with swan or eagle wings."

Named without description are Balor, Dretch, Hellcat, Hellboar, Hellhound, Imp, Spined Imp, Mane, Shadowfox, Shadowling, Succubus or Incubus, and Vrock (S331). Two forms sit outside the host table: the Arcanaloth, a small or medium humanoid demon with hands and a Horned bent, and the Yugoloth, a larger "veiled" humanoid demon of the Horned, Infernal and Night (S331). The reference closes with lists of bestial and serpentine hosts not yet assigned to any form (S331).

Gap

The catalogue is a designer's working list. Many forms have no description of how they appear on Terrun, and the sources never say which forms are common and which are legendary.

The lesser demons of common report¶

Some demonic forms are known by name across every age of the sources.

Hellhounds are the commonest demon a traveller will meet. The Hollowlord Hez'Vandros loosed his four on a fleeing captive, "go and eat well my pets" (S145); the wizard Valtor's household kept two (S040); the hellhounds of the Demonlands howled over a fallen wizard (S335, S338); the ruined mint of Vaal'Dunak was haunted by "rabid wolves" that were hellhounds, among them a greater hellhound and "plague spitters" (S360); and a small fire Hollow was guarded by a Fireburst Imp "& his pet Burning Hellhound" (S202). The demonologies rank the hellhound a Minor Demon (S114). In the Sulfuron squads of the Hollowlord Urk'maggo ran the brimstone hound, a "six-legged medium" dog, "black, gaunt … with six legs and yellow glowing eyes and yellowish ooze emanating from breaks in their skin" (S163).

Imps are the errand-runners of greater demons: Minor Demons, with the Lesser Imp the only named Demonling (S114). The devil Hal'Gamesh held court with twelve Frostfire Imps and two Greater Imps, Ganad and Vag'Drothos (S138); Hez'Vandros sent the small imp Nilik'Thog as a guide (S145); the Spined Imp is a fae-born form (S331); the bone demonlord Vileryth kept the "Minos Slateskin Imp" Zargath (S050); and an undead abomination in the sewers of Redallion could "vomit up Imps & Bloodworms" (S328). Among the forces of a winged demon lord were the Assassin Imp and the Assassin Imp Murder Lord (S521).

Vrocks are the avian demons' great form, "the demon's air power" (S011): four nested atop Vrock Island in the Rift (S008), two served the horned demon Thularal (S010), and a dozen fought in the Sancturi campaign (S201). The Lesser Vrock served the winged demon lord (S521). Succubi and the vrock are Legion Demons in the old ranking, beside the Barbed Devil (S114); the Balrog is the Greater Demon of that ladder, and the legions of Balrogs that Gothmog led in the Demon Wars are "imprisoned in the Abyss" (S384). A Balrog named Lord Huln ruled the village of Ulguran in the Marshford notes (S359).

Manes are both the smallest unit of sentient essence, split off whenever an essence returns to the Abyss (S019), and a humanoid or Lothim form (S331); the Sulfuron Manes were "squat fat naked bald humanoids with small nubbed horns, pointed teeth, matted yellow hair with mottled orange and yellow fur and clawed hands" (S163).

Cambions, the cyclops, the minotaur and the satyr, are the one hint the demonologies give of demonic reproduction, the offspring of Hellspawn (S114, S518). Minotaurs served the horned demon Thularal (S010), and a minotaur named Taun was set on unarmed prisoners in a Proturan arena, "literally rips people apart with its bare hands and horns" (S061). Earlier accounts make the minotaur a creation of the twilight god Tarus instead (S429).

Dretches, hellcats, hellboars and hellrats are the lesser mammalian forms (S331, S329); a demonic boar bore down on the camp of the White Fire expedition in the Demonlands (S335).

Demons of the Demonlands¶

The Fourth Age Demonlands breed forms of their own, named for the demonlords they serve. Their lords are Figures' pages; the spawn are gathered here.

The Maw-spawn of the Gorgery¶

The court of Vulgurak the Maw at the Gorgery is a city of hunger (S337, S336):

Banelings, bred in the Churning Pits of the Gut-Queen Gharmatha, "swollen Ogre demon matron with dozens of egg sacs," beside her hive of giant wasps.
Engorgers, "large Maw demonspawn with powerful bites," by the dozen, and Devourlings, "swarm-based Maw spawn, semi-sapient, partially telepathically linked," by the hundred.
Skitter-Captains, "Night/Maw ambushers who hunt in the upper tunnels."
Gloom-Worms, "eyeless eel-demons that wriggle through shadows and feed on dreams," and Sibilant Collectors, "tall thin demons that 'harvest' memories with hooked tongues," of the Gullet-Sage; the Eyeless, the security guards of the Tower of Eyes.
Slagborn Legionaries, "humanoid demons with armor fused to their flesh," and Goremelt Juggernauts, "four-armed living furnaces that turn battlefield detritus into new armaments," of the warmaster Vruskorr.
Pleasure-Harvesters, "beautiful, hollow-bodied demons who drain vitality with embraces," and Feast-Surge Parasites, "wormlike creatures injected into hosts to amplify hunger and obedience," of Lady Miarath.
Tunnel-Gnashers, "small, centipede-like maws bred to patrol the warren networks," and Chasm Droolers, "stationary demons acting as digestive pits that dissolve anything thrown in," of the great worm Uldroxx in the Underbelly.

The echoes of Daennelgin¶

Daennelgin the Many, a demon of machine origin, keeps Echo-Scribes, "weak Night demons who write events experienced by each clone, keeping a coherent timeline"; the Multipliers, "Rot/Barbed hybrids that produce living tissue Daennelgin molds into new bodies"; the Empty Ones, "soulless, hollow clone-shells waiting to be inhabited"; and the Vessels, humanoid thralls kept to hide the true source of his essence (S336). His outpost in Vaal'Dunak was guarded by a Bladereaver, "a towering, lean humanoid demon … with a plated rib-cage exposed like armor ribs, etched with faint geometric runes," hornless, "with ember-dim eyes and 4 long arms, each ending in curved, twisted white blades"; a Flamethrower, a scarred heavy demon with a blackened metal arm "and the hand … replaced by a blackened metal cap, with a small flame sprouting from it," its wings "vestigial, torn"; and a demonic Engineer, "a spindly impish demon that resembles a four-armed, yellow skinned goblin" with "four large yellow glowing eyes" (S360). Six "medium demonic vultures" nested in the chasm above (S360).

The dead of Cuoridaz and the forges of Grozzurash¶

Cuoridaz the Necrolord commands a host of the dead rather than the living: the Pale Host of wraith soldiers, Wraithborn Knights, "elite undead warriors bound by Dominion Marks," and the Pale Legion of "skeletons, revenants, shadow-elves, ghostly archers" (S336); these are described with the Undead. Grozzurash the Vile Flame's bone-smith "crafts undead colossi" and his Marrow Legion are undead giants (S336).

The forces of a winged demon lord¶

An older roster names eleven creatures in the service of an unnamed winged demon lord: the Abyssal Zealot Hunter, the Lesser Marilith, the Dread Stirge, the Abyssal Gargoyle and the Gargoyle, the Lesser Vrock, the Jachyra, the Howler Dread Hound, the Assassin Imp and its Murder Lord, and the Cthalaxx (S521). The roster is statistics only, kept under Winged Demon Lord Forces.

Gap

The sources never describe these eleven creatures in words, nor say which demon lord they served or where.

Demons of the Fifth Age¶

The Corpserot demons of Vileryth. The bone demonlord Vileryth, Lord of Corpserot, rules a Demonblight in the Rift "known for undead and flesh-eating acid/ooze" (S050). His herald Ragnazak Goreflayer and the lieutenant Voragul the Tormentor are horned demons; the bridge-keeper Gallmael is a bone demon, a "Soulgorger"; and the Rot-Wyvern is "a warped demonic wyvern capable of launching spikes covered in Corpserot Ichor" (S050). The Corpserot undead that march with them are on Undead.

The Sulfuron squads of Urk'maggo. In the Kilmarn temple complex the Hollowlord Urk'maggo, "Giant Sluglike Demon," fielded brimstone hounds, Sulfuron Manes, the Eigora, "large horned orangutan with bright orange fur, bony clawed hands," the Burning Eigora "with burnt blackened fur, burning eyes and yellow fire," and the Sulfuron Scourge, "slow moving clumpy acidic yellow puddings that burp acid" (S163).

Spore demons. The fungal demonlord Adramycos in Alghert infected the countryside with demonic spores, "orange pustules," and fielded Spore Demons and a Spore Fiend, "energy creature," as "spore bombers" (S181).

Horned, bone, shade and frost demons. The old breeds persist in Fifth Age play: a Herald of Rot, a demon of Bhaal, "channeling a green glowing wind directly into the fissure" held open by Guhvil warlocks (S006); the horned demon Thularal, imprisoned on Vrock Island with a black staff, who later turned on his rescuers with vrocks, minotaurs and a Tanarukk (S008, S010); a medium Frost Demon held in a pentagram in Valtor's summoning room and "used primarily for information" (S042); the warlock Ather's bone demon and his brother Deron's shade demon in the marshes of the Vale of Aren (S073); and "Asmodean Fire Demons" in the Underdark (S199). What these breeds are is explained under Demonic Lifecycle.

Earlier accounts¶

The oldest compendium does not catalogue forms; it says only that "a demon may be born into any body, but their natural form will quickly take over and they will develop into their true form" (S384). The seven kinds it names are those of the archdemons: Bone, Blade, Horned, Sea, Shade, Frost and Fire (S434); see Archdemons. The Sancturi-era demonologies divided natural forms by lifecycle stage, Horned, Bone, Blade, Blood, Night and Sea Demons as Hellspawn and Fire, Frost, Shadow, Lightning, Acid, Rock, Plague, Pain and Arcane Demons as Fiends (S518, S114), a scheme the Fourth Age replaces with hosts, derivative forms and Aspects.

In Play¶

Demons announce their kind before they announce themselves. Yellow ooze and a sulfur stench mean the Sulfuron breeds; a green wind, Rot; a vessel "larger than a human" walking oddly, a fresh possession. The Valyr test the air with demonsbane incense, whose "white smoke turns bright red in the presence of a demon," and track one by "a red trail in the smoke" (S335). Destroying a form is rarely the end: the essence flees to its Mortiquery, and in a Hollow the lord may remanifest the slain (S325).

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Possessed hosts and the Gorgon in the ARCS Bestiary: Demons. Legacy statistics for the Demonlands derivative forms: Demonic Forms under Mechanics. ↩↩