And their source
An excerpt from the ancient writings of the Kalithil Silverthorn.
Demon.
Just the word gives even the wisest a chill. It invokes nameless fears and visions of misshapen monsters in the darkness. Our fears given form. Fiends from outside the bounds of the natural order, surely.
Well, no. Or perhaps, yes and no.
The unpleasant truth is this: Demons are the things we already know, sometimes even the people we know, but changed. Twisted by forces beyond our world of Saaret.
Call them Æthereals. They are, as near as we can tell, intelligence without form. Entities of energy and thought. They have little – and in some cases, no – understanding of the physical world. They do not follow a set pattern, there is not one type of Æthereal. Some seem to be categories unto themselves, whereas others follow certain patterns that make some semblance of classification possible. And that is what brings us back to demons. There is a type, or category, or family, or possibly just a singular being – depending on who one believes – of Æthereal that derives sustenance, pleasure, or other satisfaction from corrupting the physical world. And when they do, demons arise. Such Æthereals will settle, emerge, manifest, or whatever the hel it is they do in some specific place for reasons only they know, and corruption will follow. Local life will turn monstrous. Intelligent life – if it survives the corrupting influence – tends to become what we call demons.
An Elenanorë may transform into what we call a satyr. A goblin becomes an imp. Your Tsillenar friend may twist into an Ulgar and try to kill you. The change is permanent. Once corrupted, the being they were before is lost. The demon will have a lifespan like that of its parent species. It can procreate with other demons of its kind. It is essentially, a new, corrupted race. Even if the Ætheral presence leaves our world, this corruption remains, the demons endure. They have powers unlike those granted us by the magic of the fae, powers just as corrupting as the Æthereal that gave rise to them. Fortunately, thus far, such incidents have been few, and the Æthereal – or Æthereals – responsible have not stayed for long.
One cannot negotiate with a demon. One cannot coexist with a demon. They are driven to destroy. There is no compromise. They will not honor a bargain. They will not abide by a treaty. A war with demonkind is a war for survival.
Kill or be killed.
Demons, for now, reside in the shadowy corners of the world. Few in number, disorganized, raving bands of marauders.
But what if they should come together? What if a singular, powerful demon rises among their ranks and turns them from wandering bands to an army? What if a corrupting Ætheral comes to Saaret and decides to stay for a while?
We can only pray this never comes to pass.
Note from the Archivist: This fragment comes to us from the middle Great Empire period, predating the arrival of the Ætheral Belethoth and the events of the Fall. It should be noted that Kalithil's advice here was largely ignored by the Mage King Ulthuryn, ultimately bringing about the Demontide.