Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  10507
Title: a book titled "A Treatise on Demons, Devils, and Extraplanar Entities"

In a distant corner of the cosmos is a region known as the Demon Plane or
the Demon Realms. These far-flung worlds are highly magical in nature.
These consist of many distinct holdings, most of which only the name is
known, such as the Scarlet Fields, the Deadworlds, the Void and the depths
of Primordial Chaos. The varied races of sentient beings that inhabit them
are known as Demons, Devils or, in the most common dialect of Demoniac,
bloksami -- the shrouded or shadowed people. It is not known why demons
would identify themselves in this manner.

There are many breeds of demon. Most are roughly humanoid, often possessing
horns, tails or wings. Some strongly resemble animals in both form and
behavior. One major clade of smaller, weaker demons is known as imps. They
resemble small scaly or hairy humanoids with short horns. They commonly
associated with goblins and fairies, and can sometimes be found in their
company. Another common group of demons are called wraiths. These creatures
come in many forms, though all are non-corporeal. Some wraiths appear to
have once been mortals. Some religious scholars speculate that wraiths are
an evolved form of mortal souls that have departed to the Demon Plane after
death.  Similar to imps are the mephits. These beings have strong elemental
affinities. Most are diminuitive in stature, but some have grown in power
and status to reign as Demon Lords, such as Pyrenius.

Lording over the Demon Realms is a hierarchy of sinister demonic gods,
commonly known as the Demonic Pantheon. The demon gods often vie with one
another for power and territory. Sufficiently cunning and mighty demons can
amass enough influence rise through the ranks to become Archdemons and then
Demon Lords before ascending to god-hood. Demon gods can also wane in power
and lose their place in their pantheon, usually by being slain or exiled by
their fellows or even their followers.

Demons have a long history of invading other planes. Long ago, a conspiracy
arose amid the pantheon of Dentin. Several disgruntled deities made a pact
with members of the Demonic Pantheon. They sought out a place, far from the
sight of the other gods of either Pantheon, in which to meet and plot the
downfall of Dentin and the conquest of the world.

They carved out a pocket of space on the edge of the plane of shadow.
There, they began to build an army to unleash on all creation. Bloodlines
of mortals, demons and gods were crossed to create new terrors, infused
with shadow magic. The souls of men and beasts were fused together and
wreathed in shadow to create wraiths of terrifying might. The most capable
of these creations were inducted into a dark cult known as the Order of
Oblivion.

Little is known of the Order of Oblivion's structure, other than it had a
rigid hierarchy. The vast majority of its initiates were killed in the
Great Wars. It is known that there were two groups of supervisors. One
group was made almost entirely of Tolo'trids - horned, lizard-like
creatures bred from demon and human stock, mad but capable of astonishing
magic. They proved unreliable, and required strict discipline to keep them
in line. A few Tolo'trids are still loyal to the evil immortals, but most
now  follow plans of their own. The second group was known as the Dark
Knights of Oblivion. They were mostly wraiths, with squads of Dark
Legionnaires at their disposal. The presiding members of the Dark Knights
of Oblivion were given the suffix "Tal". They represented some of the
mightiest servants of the demon gods ever known, some being fully-fledged
Archdemons themselves. The Order dispersed after the Great Wars.

The demonic gods are also known to have operations active within the Field
of Fonts in Purnima, the material plane and in several of the so-called
elemental planes.

While the mighty Demonic Pantheon has a well-deserved reputation for
cruelty and conquest, most demons are indifferent to the affairs of
mortals. More than a few are willing to traffic with spellcasters in
exchange for soulstones. The life energy contained within soulstones is
highly coveted in the Demon Realms. It is believed that in the Demon Realms
the energy contained in soulstones has purposes above and beyond known uses
on the material plane. What these uses are is open to speculation.