Deep in the dusky gaseous clouds of the Horsehead Nebula, there exists a lone planet known as Arcadia, home to a peculiar race of people called demons. Residing in secrecy for their entire existence, the many classes of demons are in constant confli...
Long ago, Arcadia was not yet even a true planet- it was a floating sea of separate celestial landmasses. Too small to be planets of their own, yet too big to be mere space rocks. Through the pull of gravity over millions of years, these celestial bodies aligned, held together by a gravitational field and surrounded by the thick gas and dust clouds of the Horsehead Nebula. It was a world of the unseen, a place unable to be viewed or even accessed, at least by most beings.
The feathery white wings and sharp claws of the Angels, the ethereal creators of all sentient life in the universe, peeled back the haze of the nebula and discovered a tiny planet with potential for a brand new lifeform unlike any other in the universe. The first demons were a far cry from those of the present day- they were surreal beings in the shapes of various wild beasts, somewhat resembling those of animals on the planet Earth. Such creatures could never build a thriving civilization- they needed the Angels' gift of sentience. In other words, their souls.
When the beasts were given souls, they changed form. They looked more like the Angels now, with a humanoid body shape, sharp horns and claws, and long tails, but still possessed the vestigial features and abilities of their previous beastlike appearance. For some, the shreds of their former wild instincts did not leave them. The Lycans, Vibora, and Chiropterans, or the wolf, snake, and bat demons, were the first to gain their humanoid forms, and all of the other demon species are offshoots from their lineage. These three original demon races have become rather rare. But rare or not, with the bodies and minds of Angelic lifeforms, but the instincts of animals, such beings were bound to struggle from the very beginning.
Contrary to their title, demons are not inherently evil, nor were they ever intended to be. They were products of their environment, forced to cope with living in a harsh world with no sun and an array of brutal landscapes.
From barren deserts to icy wastelands, demons had to change themselves to adapt to these difficult places, long after the Angels left them. Because of their spiritual origins, they were bound to the cycles and whims of the universe's invisible machinations.
In such unforgiving places, demons resorted to their feral instincts of predator and prey, resulting in conflict, cannibalism, and distress. Those who lived in the deserts of the Wrath Ring were constantly at odds and fighting with one another, while the demons of the stark void that was the Sloth Ring were so drained of motivation and the will to live that they starved to death. On the other hand, the demons living in the Gluttony Ring were vicious cannibals whose appetites could never be satisfied. Each of Arcadia's rings had a vice, a sin to call its own.
In an attempt to bring order to the chaos, the Goetial demons created the tradition of the Sins, rulers to preside over each ring and maintain society. But this solution was not without its flaws. Wars for resources broke out between rings, and endless violence was always the result. Some demons were unable to handle such extreme stress and regressed back to their feral, beastly forms.
It seemed like Arcadia was destined to never be at peace. The demon race was left behind by their disinterested creators, abandoned to struggle in a brutal realm on their own. Demons were created by the Angels as an experiment to test how a species would survive in a world of darkness with a variety of drastically different environments, but left their creation to fend for themselves once they grew bored and moved on to another planet to colonize. Without guidance, the demon species never had a chance of thriving. Some might say they were doomed to extinction from the very beginning. A race of people trapped in the dark bubble they were born in, coping with harsh conditions, their own sinful natures, and forgotten by the universe, even by their own creators.
Demons were not beings to be feared. They were creatures to be pitied.
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