Demon (TUAU)

"I am not the only one! I am one of millions! In places you can't even imagine! In forms you would never believe! We are hell on this earth! You'll never be safe! And you'll never be free!"

- The warlock Jeremy to the Charmed Ones on all sorts of evil beings.

Demon is a generic name for any non-human being who is mystical in nature, superhuman in power, and inclined towards acts of evil. The term demons covers a myriad of concepts and origins. Among the beings often covered as "Demons" are fallen Gods and angels, extradimensional horrors, and devils.

History
During the era in which the first single-celled organism formed on Earth, Demiurge achieved consciousness after being formed and coalesced from the Earth's biosphere. As conditions on Earth began to support life, it became aware, and wanting to know itself, the Demiurge split itself into countless aspects, each of which wanted consciousness and to manifest into new entities. These entities later become known as the "Elder Gods".

Most of the Elder Gods later degenerated into demons including:


 * Belathauzer
 * Chthon
 * Set
 * Gibborim

However, certain demons, such as Lucifer, Kazann, and Asmodeus, have other origins, such as originally being angels having fallen from Heaven after a massive failed insurrection against the Judeo-Christian God long before the dawn of humanity, or hailing from other mystical dimensions adjacent to Earth.

The Demonic Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy set out in the Underworld that defines the rank of all demonkind and those evils who are beneath them. Depending on the hierarchy, demons are usually classified into two groups: lower-level and upper-level.

Classification
There appears to be three major types of demons. Truly, the multiverse of dimensions, which encompasses Earth's universe, is populated with diverse beings of supernatural attributes. A demon may simply be any or anything that says he, she, or it is one.

Class One
The first type began to existence on earth as gods. These demons, sometimes called the Elder Gods because they were the forerunners of the more anthropomorphic gods of later ages, were closely associated with the Earth itself, and may have actually influenced the terrain of the Earth as it was forming. This class of demons includes Chthon, Set, Y'Garon, Gaea, and Belathauzer, and their numerous spawn. The Elder Gods, most of who were not humanoid in form, later degenerated into preying upon their own since humankind had not yet been born. With the coming of the first generation of new gods, the Elder Gods/demons were destroyed or if they were resourced enough, managed to flee Earth's dimension. Only the Elder God named Gaea managed to escape the degeneration process and was permitted by the new gods to exist. Geae infused her godly essence into all living things and became the goddess known as Mother Earth.

Class Two
Demons of the second type may also be fallen or degenerate gods, but they date from far later generations. These demons, also called devils, dwell in extradimensional realms generally referred to as "Hells," and to this day use human beings as pawns or subjects. This class of demons includes Mephisto, Satannish, Thog, Asmodeus, and Baphomet (all of whom, possibly, are actually the same being in different guises or manifestations). Some of these entities claim to be "Satan" (a Hebrew word meaning "adversary") in order to exploit humanity's belief in a single incarnate being of absolute evil. The "real" Satan (if such an entity exists) has not yet been seen in any account. Even those human beings who believe they are related to or influenced by Satan (Daimon Hellstorm, Satana, Ghost Rider, etc.) have actually been trafficking with some other demon posing as Satan. There exists a sub-class of messenger and servant who serve the major demonic rulers of the various "Hells." These beings derive from the same origin as their masters but are inferior in amassed power. Demons in the category include Zarathos, Ningal, Ludi, Dagoth, D'Spayre, Allatou, and veritable hordes of lesser-known creatures.

Class Three
Demons of the third types are also extradimensional in origin but are non-humanoid in form and alien in motivation. Some of these demons have happened upon Earth at some point in their existences; others have remained in their own realms awaiting discovery by dimension-travelers and sorcerers. Demons in this category include the Old Ones, ancient eldritch beings that preyed upon humanity in prehistory, the N'Garal, a race of demons who are the extradimensional spawn of one of the Elder Gods who escaped Earth's demon-purge of eons ago, and the Undying Ones, another race of demons who originated extradimensionally.

Uncertain classification
There are also a number of extradimensional mystical beings of an evil nature whose origins are so hazy that they cannot be classified as true demons or any of the previous three types. Some are rulers of their own dimensions, like Nightmare and Dormammu, and may be evil gods. Some live in interdimensional space like the Dweller in Darkness. Others are simply extradimensional monster (Dark-Crawler, Zom, Visimajoris), mortals (Tiboro, Xander, Shialmar, Shazana), or elementals (Hydron, Zephyr, Magnum).

Powers and Abilities
The individual powers that demons possessed varied from species to species, but some appeared to be common to most, if not all species:
 * Spell Casting: The power to cast spells; a "spell" being the word used to signify the means employed to carry out a magical action.
 * Potion Brewing: The power to brew and concoct potions, remedies and elixirs that have supernatural properties.
 * Channeling: The power to invoke extra forms of energy by focusing on external forces. A demon can only ever channel so much power. Going beyond that limit risks the demon disintegrating from the inside out.
 * Longevity: A large amount of demon were shown to live longer than humans, and some of them were actually immortal, living for thousands of year without aging (e.g. vampires, Vengeance demons, Mok'tagar demon, Boone).

Weaknesses

 * Exorcisms: Certain demons can be exorcised from their possessed host bodies.
 * Magic: Demons are susceptible to the powers of magic. Notably, demons can be sealed away or bound to prevent them from harming others, usually within physical boundaries with spells or objects, such as with a trapping stone.

Notes and Trivia

 * The distinction between "demon" and "god" is somewhat blurry.
 * While gods tend to be more benevolent in nature than demons, there are also evil gods. While gods tend to be objects of worship more often than demons, there are also demons that are worshiped.
 * Gods and demons alike tend to dwell upon extra dimensional worlds.
 * Gods and demons alike have greater mystical powers than normal humans beings, and have trafficked with humankind.
 * The major distinction between god and demon would appear to be that gods in general are a slightly more evolved life form than demons. Demons tend to be a parasitic form of quasi-mystical superhuman life, requiring sustenance of some sort (generally "souls" or life essences) from lesser creatures (like man) in order to live. Gods, on the other hand, who exist without preying upon lesser creatures. While most demons are born as demons, it is possible for a god to physically degenerate into a life-preying demon.
 * According to Cole Turner, upper-level demons, especially those with a human-half, bleed red and low-level demons bleed different colors.
 * It been shown several times that demons have a different sense of pain and temperature than other creatures. Troxa was oblivious to changes in temperature due to his inability to feel. Also, as a demon, Kyra was stated to be oblivious to cold and it was stated that she would no longer be oblivious to cold once she became human.
 * The offspring of upper-level demons, referred to as Demonic Children, are lured to the Ice Cream Man and his truck by the Devil's Chord (a series of notes that when sounded together specifically attract demon kids like moths to a flame). They are then sucked into the van where they will be absorbed by the Nothing, an entity that resides in the Ice Cream truck.
 * Every time a demon is vanquished, their body would become engulfed in flames and disappear in seconds. Leo Wyatt explains the reason for this is so that demons could cover their tracks after they die so their existence is not exposed. This feature is magical in nature as the body of the demon Stanley was left behind when all magic was down. However, there were exceptions to the rule as when Cole Turner killed two Triad members who didn't combust and later when he decapitated a demon minion, respectively. Considering both instances happened in the underworld, it wouldn't be necessary to have demon bodies to disappear this way.