“A rebirth, of sorts; I gazed into the very eye of destruction itself; my flesh flayed by fire, my mind torn away from the shackles of earthly desire. It is no gift; it is a great, snarling beast that claws at you, body and soul. For the select few who have the virtue to tame such a beast, and bring it to heel, it is a power beyond reckoning. To this end; I have never felt stronger.”
Demonic Energy is an extremely destructive and unilaterally malevolent essence belonging to the hellish plane of Inferno. A weaponised force that endangered the First Gigaquadrant during the War of Ages, Demonic Energy is the native force with which the Samut'angar are imbued. As an unnatural essence detached from the native essences of the Gigaquadrant, an extreme few have been able to temper the ravages of Demonic Energy to their own benefit. It is typically paired with Psionic Energy in a dichotomous axis, as it is known to be able to counteract some of Demonic Energy's effects. To some extent, Demonic Energy is anathema to every other essence due to its inhospitable and violent quality. It is revered as a sacred force in Therusism.
Origin[]
The very cosmic matter of Inferno, Demonic Energy was brought into existence by the cataclysmic creation of the realm it resides in, and is thus a creation of Angazhar. From Demonic Energy, the order of Chaos Monsters known as the Samut'angar came to be, and the entity known as Ekthrikos was the sentient remainder of the destructive energies left behind after the creation of Inferno. It is not known when or how as to Demonic Energy was first harnessed in the Gigaquadrant, though it is believed that Lord Zhuleshxi acquired a degree of power over the essence in his covenant with Angazhar. Following the disappearance of the Zhulultu, Demonic Energy as an essence all but disappeared from Gigaquadrantic memory for the best part of a billion years.
The powers of Demonic Energy were incurred during the events of the War of Ages, where Zhuleshxi spent the remainder of his power summoning the Samut'angar to the Gigaquadrant through creating infernal rifts that tore open through the Gigaquadrant following the widespread destruction of the Tigris Galaxy. For a number of years, the First Gigaquadrant was subject to the assaults of the Samut'angar, where a substantial degree of research was undertaken regarding its workings among the Samut'angar, and how to counteract them. The quelled invasion of the Samut'angar nevertheless had its influence on the Gigaquadrant, with some adherents to Angazhar, such as Hez'Kalka and his acolytes taking the power onto themselves.
Characteristics[]
Whereas most essences work in symbiosis with its users (even the more malignant types), Demonic Energy is an essence that constantly seeks to destroy and devour whatever non-Samut'angar lifeform it finds. As a result, even voluntary users of Demonic Energy are at a physical and mental struggle to harness the essence and prevent it from destroying them outright. Demonic Energy's mental afflictions cause severe unrest and an overwhelming urge to destroy living thing; often, losing one's mind is immediately followed by an uncontrolled self-destruction of the individual. Those that have managed to tame the destructive powers it wreaks on the body and mind find themselves to be extraordinarily powerful beings. Even for those who have tempered Demonic Energy to their will find that it invariably ravages the body into an unnatural and unliving state. While the most powerful users of Demonic Energy are able to control these afflictions, most Demonic Energy users appear not unlike Samut'angar themselves; their bodies appear to be erupting fire, their skin turned charcoal black and exuding an aura of terrible malice.
An extreme few have harnessed Demonic Energy to the point where the essence voluntarily imbues them with even greater power by transforming their bodies at will, unleashing what is referred to as a Demon Form. Unlike the physical afflictions that commonly befalls users, Demon Forms are fully altered states of being that have allowed the essence to overtake their body and mind without destroying it.
Relation to Psionic Energy[]
(Left to right) A demonic user facing a psionic user during the War of Ages's most intense stages.
“You see this? This open wound, festering with burning teal power right by my arm's hide - it comes from the accursed psionic energy. A thorn at the side of our masters for too long, I let this wound burn and itch into my very broken soul, I let it define me, for I know that those self-righteous warriors of Order and Balance and their petty struggle will ultimately come to an end, we have existed for eons, eons before psionics decided to rise up. We will endure, and this universe will fall.”
- - Unknown Therusist
It is largely speculated that Demonic Energy has existed since before the concept of time. It stood as a force unchallenged and unparalleled across existence, for any universe that it touched it devastated with utter cruelty and violence. The fact that Psionic Energy effectively counters demonics and viceversa is the subject of much debate among scholars, who speculate that the universe's spawning of an order-aligned essence to combat demonic energy is proof that their struggle is the manifestation of higher powers at play—a living, breathing, beating universe desperately pushing back forces that seek to effectively leave nothing but cosmic motes of dust. As such, psionic and demonic energies have had a violent history since they both began to clash. The infamous War of Ages is depicted as a definitive clash between both forces. It was thanks to this war that the practice of psionic energy was scattered to many galactic communities across the universe, and although other essences of the order or chaos types eventually joined the battle for the soul of the universe, it remained, at a fundamental level, a battle of the psionic hosts against the demonic hordes.
Gallery[]
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