The 12 and some of their subjects
The 12 Demon Kings are the demons who rule over all demons on the extra-dimensional planes. They are not particularly affiliated with each other, but are grouped together for convenience.
The idea for the kings came as a result of needing a plot for stories involving the Courier's Guild and took inspiration from In the Court of the Crimson King as the starting point. They serve largely as auxiliary/background characters in stories focused on Erin de Gaulle.
Demon Society in General[]
Demons are creatures whose very lives are tied to their internal supply of magic, which is limited and does not replenish itself. Demon magic is very easily transferred between individuals, so for a very long time demon society was dictated by who could kill whom first and steal their magic. This was the law of most of the demon controlled planes until a very unique type of plane was discovered: elemental planes of magic.
Each of the Demon Kings has an entire elemental plane of magic at their disposal.
What is an elemental plane of magic?
It is a plane in which anything placed within it breaks down and is converted into magical energy. The size of the plane is finite (as are all planes that exist within the Nexus), so it has a maximum capacity before magic just overflows out of it. However, they are so big that someone would need to dump an entire plane made up of regular matter into it for that to happen. Living things take much longer to break down in these planes since they posses life energy/consciousness/will.
These planes are valuable because they can produce an inexhaustible amount of magic, which for a demon who's very life force is tied into their magic, is a real game changer.
The Kings each have their own color to represent themselves with and an elemental plane of magic, they all get magic from these planes, the ones who share it channel it through their bodies before it goes to their underlings/servants/followers/students/anything that has sworn allegiance to them. This channeling is where the color comes from, there's also a bit of backwash back into the planes which gives them some of that coloring as well.
How they've made it so they can't be overthrown by another demon taking away their access to these planes is a closely guarded secret that no one knows, not even some of the kings who are second and so on generation rulers know how access was passed onto them.
The Kings[]
They are referred to as "kings" but not all of them are male, nor actually have the title of king. They control the flow of magic and by extension dictate the rules for demon society.
The Crimson King[]
An old Crimson King
- Color: Red
The demon who presides over the Crimson Court are from a long line of ruling demons which predates the current demon king system. Their ancestors may have even done battle with Skathi thousands of years ago during an incident when demons attempted to harness humans as a renewable source of magic.
The Crimson line were among the first to embrace the newly proposed system so as to combat the rampage of The Lonely King.
The ruling Crimson King during Erin's story took the Black Queen for his wife, a demon of nobility from the Nexus, the black void between planes. At the time Hank, chief among the void demons, had ravaged the demon realms until the Black Queen lured him into the Crimson King's reach, where he bound Hank in a golden chain provided by Hank's own supposed ally, the Yellow Jester.
With her, he sired at least two heirs. Boss Imp and his sister's peculiar horns are seemingly a product of their mother.
The mind of the current Crimson King is long dead, eroded away by the poison of The Yellow Jester who uses the Crimson King's body like a puppet to control the flow of magic in his domains and his wife, the Black Queen, is locked away. Those devils of an ambitious bent bide their time.
Spoiler alert: After Erin's story, Boss Imp becomes the reining Crimson King.
The Fire Witch[]
- Color: Vermilion
Rules over The Ashen Hearth, a land of fire populated exclusively by creatures of fire: phoenixes, dragons, ifrit, and the Fire Witch's coven. She specializes in fire based magic to the point where the plane she rules from is entirely made of fire. Possibly a distant cousin of the Crimson line as she has her suspicions about the guild master at the Courier's Guild.
Somewhat impatient, but has a firm grip on her temper and knows when to withdraw from conversations before setting people ablaze without proper reason.
The Moribund Marquess[]
Current holder of the crystal heart
- Color: Orange
When the the King of Midnight began his conquest, his power could be felt across a multitude of the demon realms. A powerful orange warlord (described as looking like a crystal goldfish) swore to find this power and destroy it, marching out to meet him at the head of a great army. When at last the warlord saw the King, he was awed and, sensing opportunity, approached under a gesture of peace, offering himself as general of the King's army.
The King of Midnight had only just exited his realm of power, and so the warlord was the first living thing that he had seen and that had seen him, and to know that the first thing that had seen him recognized his royalty and knelt before him pleased him beyond measure. Whereas normally the blue demon's pride and disdain would have led him to refuse, his mirth led him to accept. The warlord was rewarded with power and fought as the sole ally of the King.
When the King was sealed away, the warlord uncovered the secret of his master and the other kings' power. In a bid to take over for himself, he seized his own elemental plane of magic and was quickly ripped to pieces by the other kings since he wasn't as prepared for it.
Defeated, deposed and de-boned, his flesh was feasted on, though his heart was too tough to be eaten, his skin was used as leather for the Liar's Throne, and his bones were scattered throughout the Shattered Stormfront.
It was discovered in time that any who held his heart, wore one of his bones and had sat his throne was able to command his power, but while his heart remained, it could never truly be taken. This sparked a ceaseless battle between rival demons to lay claim to the throne and the heart. Any foolish enough to believe themselves in control are called Moribund, for of course their death is soon to find them.
Demons of all color vie for the The Liar's throne, which gives the Moribund Marquess sway over the goblins, orcs, and trolls native to the stormfront and command over the magic of the realm. The current master of that place is a red demon, daughter of the Crimson King, wearing the warlord's skull.
The Wavering Mason[]
On the right
- Color: Amber
She rules over The Dazed Dreamfields and is completely engulfed in mutual love with The Somber Maestro. They are unable to physically be together for most of their time, but overcome this by co-ruling over a plane of dreams in which they see each other in their sleep.
The Dreamfields are bizarre, defying all logic, and contains the physical manifestations of anything currently being dreamed. It does not alter the dreams themselves, merely observing them like nonsensical plays. It is home to grandiose monsters, beings of whim, and heroic figures, strewn throughout lofty mountain spires, shimmering plains, wildwoods, and glittering seas.
The plane itself is subject to radical changes from its co-ruler's magic crashing against each other's like waves, bringing days of dreams and nights of nightmares.
The Yellow Jester[]
- Color: Yellow
He was among the first to embrace the king system as a means of putting an end to The Lonely King's domination of all demon kind. His forces consisted mainly of spies, informants, advisers, tacticians, and generally cunning demons with sharp wits. Yellow and Red were on the front lines together in the fight against Blue.
He makes his home in The Glittering Gallery. There are no natural Yellow demons besides The Yellow Jester, sometimes called The King in Yellow in hushed tones, so the only inhabitants of the Jester's hall are The Gilded, demons who have undergone the magical equivalent of being dipped in gold, abandoning their natural color to give themselves over to greed.
After The Lonely King was sealed within his own elemental plane of magic, The Yellow Jester took a more removed position from demon affairs to observe the changes in demon society. He became something akin to a magic broker, lending magic to those who need it for a price.
It is unknown if the current jester is the same as the one who fought against Blue, but he has effectively seized control of The Crimson King's power without anyone the wiser save for a very clever/lucky/unlucky few.
The Glutton Lord[]
- Color: Chartreuse
Leader of a cult of gluttonous followers who value food, the creation, consumption, or the becoming of above all else. They make their home upon The Loathsome Banquet where lean, starved creatures scramble for whatever crumbs they can find from The Glutton Lord's vast feasts, fighting constantly to eat or avoid being eaten.
Initiates are fed to a truly enormous beast, a beast so large that within its stomach exists a vast sea of acid. Upon this sea there are docks, boats, towns, an entire thriving society. Many are born within this beast and know nothing of the world outside, nor of their beast's master. Anyone who is able to live as food and still find ways to feed themselves are truly worthy of The Glutton Lord's attention, however only those who arrive at the top of the food chain, above even the beast they were made to reside within, are admitted to his inner circle.
He possess at least three mouths and chews with the lower most one first before food arrives in one of his upper maws, this is so he can saver it all over again.
He is fond handing out pamphlets to the uninitiated. Be careful when making an offering of food to him as he may consume the the individual making the offer as well in his over enthused state. He's very excitable in this regard.
The Rune Keeper[]
The Cryptic Skein
- Color: Green
A demon of immense knowledge. It was he who unraveled the secret to The Lonely King's power and found the way to replicate it. He has since dedicated his entire being to studying his personal elemental plane of magic, to the point where he is almost always in a state of half conversion into raw magic.
The Rune Keeper established The Cryptic Skein, a school which he presides over as headmaster; it is a mystical and confusing place, at once the body of the Runekeeper himself as well as his home. This obscure study filled with loreseekers and those devotees of thought was created to educate any demons looking to better their minds. This establishment has had a profound effect on the plane it is built upon as even demons who were once of intelligence on par with that of animals have begun to build their own civilizations only a few generations later. Whether this is a result of magic radiation or a byproduct of intentional experimentation is a hotly debated subject among the students and faculty.
The Rune Keeper himself is mostly secluded in his studies with only those who have a similar interest in elemental planes of magic, and strictly for knowledge's sake, joining him in his research. He has had to be more than just smart, but clever as well to keep out anyone seeking to use his findings for anything greater than mere mischief.
The Devout Symphony[]
It is perturbed here
- Color: Teal
A being that has often been mistaken for capital G God. It is obsessed with fastidiousness, order, and discipline. Its true appearance is unknown, as it folds its one hundred wings around its body into a completely perfect sphere. Even the slightest misplaced feather is an obscenity, a blemish of disorder. It was possibly a war machine built to coordinate the armies fighting The Lonely King.
It presides over the Immaculate Structure, which is mirrored across every dimension at least up to and including fifth dimensional space, so that it can be navigated by any being, but is nearly impossible to truly fathom, giving all viewers a quiet discomfort at the realization of the limits of their scope of perception.
As demons are beings of magic, their appearance is somewhat dependent on their strength of will. Any faults or asymmetry are thought to be lapses of concentration, and a weakness of their focus. A creature so disorganized and imperfect as a human is both fascinating and abhorrent to the Devout Symphony.
The Immaculate Structure isn't inhabited by other demons besides the Symphony. Due to the nature of its mirrored dimensions, there's only a single point in the structure where a being will exist in a single point, the exact space the Symphony occupies.
Demons find living in the Structure unsettling, and demons sworn to it don't believe themselves worthy of it. Demons who get power from one of the other kings feel particularly uncomfortable there, more so than when around other kings who aren't their master.
The Lonely King[]
- Color: Blue
Also known as the King of Midnight, the Greatest Blue Devil, and that blue bastard. He was the first demon to discover an elemental plane of magic.
Who he was, what he did, and where he came from before his ascension are all unknown. Upon discovering his plane of magic, he took it all for himself and shared it with no one.
He used his new found power to go on a rampage throughout the demon planes, draining all he came across of their magic and destroying everything else. His rampage forced demon society, which was built upon backstabbing and deceit, to change into a unified force against him.
After his secret was uncovered by he-who-would-become-Yellow's spies, and analyzed by he-who-would-become-Green, the Crimson King at the time volunteered to be the test subject in attaining a similar power. It was successful and duplicatable to an extent and the newly forged demon kings were able to successfully put and end to Blue's rampage by sealing him within his own elemental plane of magic.
Though his body broke down within this plane, his consciousness remained. He stayed trapped in this state for years until, by chance, a vampire who was seeking greater power was shown this plane by a wish corrupting well. Seizing this opportunity, The Lonely King drip fed magic from his plane to this vampire and corrupted his entire blood line with his sadistic tendencies.
Now he waits for enough of his magic to be gathered in one place outside of his plane so he can force a portal open to Earth and escape his prison.
In the act of tearing away the King's Cage, once called simply "His Place of Power", the void was revealed and black demons, at once all color and no color, came from it. The demon who would come to be known as Hank was chief among them.
The Somber Maestro[]
On the left
- Color: Indigo
He conducts The Nocture of Nightmares, a dark place of horrors.
He is plagued by bad dreams and also completely in love with The Wavering Mason who completely loves him back. He is usually only able to see her in his dreams, and those are the only dreams he has which he finds pleasant; the space where their realms collide is awash with their conflicting power.
The Center of all the realms is ostensibly controlled by the lovers, the Wavering Mason and the Somber Maestro. No other demon kings are able to surmount their hold over it, because no other two demon kings are capable of working together half so closely. It's a coveted territory, rich with dreamstuff, but its primary draw to the lovers is that it's one of the only places strong enough to withstand the force of them coming together.
The Supreme Duke of Moaning[]
- Color: Purple
A music aficionado who enjoys the finer things in life, a demon of a more modern mind, disinterested in the bickering of the old demons. He's pretty gangsta, but also chill enough to let things slide if you put on a good enough show for him. He makes his home in The Rhythmic Den, which is like a nice limo, and the road it's on leads to each club/concert/recital/etc.
He owns many custom golems for the purpose of attending as many musical events at the same time as possible.
Erin never met nor heard of him until her time with the crusaders.
The Blissful Lady[]
- Color: Magenta
She's the leader of a drug cartel. Her organization creates designer magic drugs and sells them to the demon population. Every few batches include new experimental drugs so she can observe the effects on unsuspecting consumers.
Her manufacturing facilities are located within The Sinful Sanctum and contain trees which have been heavily infused with her magic; the leaves, bark, and sap of which are all used as ingredients. There are also many tanks with fish in them which are engorged on her magic. Parts of the fish are also ingredients. The whole facility is full of things infused with her magic and is almost entirely her color.
She also sells magic in supplement form, but that's hard to get without the addictive additives.
She possesses an intense curiosity about the nature of magic's effect on the flesh and minds of living things.
Gallery[]
