Back in 1994, I was living in Tifton, broke, just started a new job, and knew no one there at all. I did have a desktop computer, and I had a lot of time on my hands. I remember the day was cold and wet. I turned my heat on when I started seeing my breath inside.
Anne Rice had done amazingly well reinventing vampires, so I decided to reinvent a monster. Which? Werewolves? I thought about it. Zombies? No. Vampires again? No, please. Mummies? For the love of Anubis, no, no, no!
Demons?
I watched the sleet pound the windows and turned up the heat. Okay, supposed Demons possessed people, but exorcism doesn’t do anything to them, and never did. Demons know there are no gods or goddesses. So far so good.
Can they die? Kinda. If they aren’t inside of a host they black out into a super cold and totally dark place. How long? Every time feels like forever, but then they are reincarnated back to earth, and they are weaker than when they left. They have to find a host, and soon, or they get black zapped again.
I needed a name. I looked around my tiny apartment and saw the box some cookware came in.
“Regal.” The Demon Regal was born.
Regal is old, over eight thousand years old. He was there in the beginning of Demons, and was there when Atlantis fell. His host was murdered, and he got zapped, but returned in good order and found a host.
He killed the Demon Barbos, who had killed him, and now the two are enemies.
Demons possess people by getting them to surrender control of their bodies and mind to the Demon. They can manipulate memories. They can control parts of the mind through memories. All humans can resist minor Demons. Some can resist stronger minor Demons, but Regal can possess any human at will and nothing can stop him.
Some Demons, like Regal are kind to their hosts, and try to make their lives better. The Demon Vodun has a team of hosts that run a Yoga studio. The most they have to do is eight hours a day of possession, or Yoga, like a regular job with full benefits. Vodun punishes disrespect harshly and ruins the lives of humans who do not hold up their end of the bargain.
The Demon Isere is the most liked Demon as far as humans go. Much younger than Regal or even Vodun, she helps her hosts live a much better life.
This is how stories are invented and evolve.
Questions?
Take Care,
Mike
Did you actually write the story/stories out? And if so, are they available?
Interesting way to perhaps end a demon: it just withers away while waiting to find a host. Could include dark humor: Demon Raymond lost his last host while the host jay-walked in NYC. Raymond fell out at the curb and for the last few weeks, kept getting kicked around by pedestrians getting to or from work or to an affair. Just as he had his last moment to find a host or else, he gets kicked down a storage drain by some kid dribbling (kicking around) a soccer ball.
Tim, I don’t have them anywhere they can be read, but you’re on the right track. Demons who get diminished (Or Diminished when the Demons speak of it) it’s pretty much like being a soccer ball. They’re stuck inside a host that’s little more than a prison cell and whatever happens to them isn’t something they can control.
The Demon Regal warns a minor Demon named Kut (he is not the Demon Kut for he’s not old enough to have that title.) Kut not only gets Diminished but he’s banished to live inside of a rattlesnake in North Dakota. He’s guarding a metal box that Kut’s human host buried many years ago. As soon as this snake dies of old age, Kut finds another, but gets no stronger. He has to wait until a Demon finds him, and decides to release him by giving him more power. This is unlikely. Other Demons can tell Regal did this to Kut, and very few want to piss Regal off.
You have put some very imaginative plots into this universe that would make it readable.