Agarthan Demons

Summary
Agarthan demons are fundamentally different from their Eternian counterparts. Many expedition scientists and researchers believe it was as a result of benevolent effects from the spires. It blessed their populace with sentience, intelligence, and growth that wasn’t facilitated by cannibalism. However, even so, this did not take away their predatory instinct and adaptations for the process of natural selection.

Their bodies are, still, occultic projections created subconsciously by their soul and are very well attuned with demonic magic. They aren’t smarter than the average demon, but they’re definitely putting their minds to uses other than efficacious slaughter or surviving in a natural-selection riddled environment.

Even having been rid of the need for cannibalism, it was evident in their treatment of lesser races that they treated themselves as an apex predator. Many had feared them to the point of worship at the brim of their civilization's golden age. They still possess feral instincts and mannerisms to this day.

After the Cataclysm, the beneficial effects of the spires quickly spiralled into negative influences. Nearly all demonkind upon Agartha was converted into daemons; whom, while not bestial to be devouring one another, lost much of their sentience and innovation-- devolving into beastial creatures that wander the lands, not as intelligent as they once were.

History
Demons upon Agartha were not always ailed by the spires as they are now; the daemons that now roamed the land are the remnants of a generation of ingenuity. In the beginning, the land was populated with all sorts of races. Indigenous fae, animals, and demons alike, just like any other Eternian land. Love and war blessed and plagued it, its history lost to primordial time until...

...The spires. Whether a gift from the divine or a natural formation of some sort coming into fruition, they had begun to bless the lands with its ethereal influences. War and belligerence was converted into industrialization and innovation. The deaths of their ancestors had paved way for an era of thriving. Demons were particularly prone to the spires’ call. Their only source of sustenance before was their weaker neighbours, but with the spires, this became extinct before long. Cooperation and invention thrived in the dog-eat-dog world and soon, a demonic society ruled over all of demonkind.

What would happen, then, when other races were confronted by a united, super-intelligent species that had stopped destroying itself?

Agartha was ruled by demonkind during the periods of the spires’ boon. Other races were deemed lesser, and soon, they had begun to worship their ingenious masters. Technological advancements paved by super-intelligence coupled with the potency of the spires created a nigh-utopian civilization that had strewn across the land. Almost alien-looking structures created out of natural rock formation and architecture that was almost incapable (like floating islands or buildings) had populated Agartha.

They had their own cryptic, runic language since they were isolated from the world-- native Agarthan. These unintelligible inscriptions were etched across many of their stone facilities. Their research had developed things that were unthinkable for contemporary scientists-- even today! Instantaneous transportation and communication, devices that propelled structures of tremendous mass into the air, projectors that would be able to display three-dimensional recordings before your eyes almost as if it were real.

Even doomsday weapons and unthinkably destructive structures were created to enforce order in the lower species-- yet, they were not oppressed. They too, fed off the boon and benevolence of the technology made possible by spires. However, this rule and prosperity upon the island did not last an eternity.

The Cataclysm occurred. The entire island was devastated as once beneficial spires became malevolent. What once nurtured minds, inhibited them. Even those that had been the apex of demon intelligence were brought to listlessness and languor. The technology that had been possible with the compliance of the divine crystals fell apart. Many of their own weightless islands had collapsed into the surface, devastating the land. Even after hundreds of years, their marks are still upon the land in the form of craters.

Their weaponry misfired and malfunctioned. The lesser races had thought the calamity was upon them as they were eradicated mercilessly by both mindless daemons and technology designed to preserve them. In less than a year, the now-malevolent tune of the spires had transformed a utopia into nothing less than the rubble of what was once a paramount civilization.

Hundreds of years have passed since then, and nature has taken back what it has given to the people. Daemons inhabit the land, yet, the occasional mutation or demon still lingers-- shadows of their former selves.

Culture
The demons of yore lived a very chaotic lifestyle. After all, what would a society devoid of the need for sexual reproduction look like? Every individual lacked the much needed empathy or compassion as there was no need for love. Every sentient demonic entity thrived off of a society based on the principle, 'survival of the fittest'. Sure, there was no need to devour your neighbours anymore, but there was a need to establish superiority. To establish an efficacious organizational structure, to crush more of your enemies and assimilate more into your government; this was all done with the express purpose of a shortcut to strength.

After a century of endless warfare between all types of armies and tribes, societies and cities forged of super-intelligence... all led on by the influence of the spires, led on by greed and an insatiable hunger for growth... a number of terrifying societies were created.

And atop all of them? Glyphs and runes of the ancient society told of a higher echelon of demonic kind called ''Archon. ''They were described as demons that had transcended their physical boundaries. The most powerful of them were masters of chaos, masters of their form. With how enlightened and transcended the scope of their psych had became, they were capable of shifting their very subconscious projection of their form to whatever they so desired.

To humans, these creatures lived very one-track lifestyles. Entertainment and love were nonexistent. Friends weren't friends, instead their subordinates, peers, or superiors to be used. Every waking moment of their lives was spent fathoming some sort of way to gain an upper-hand on their rivals. This wasn't boring or mundane or repetitive; life was spent living day by day, wondering if both intellectual and martial defenses would hold. Infiltrators, witty diplomats would try and steal one's forces upon the moment one looked away. Night attacks would strike out with sheer efficiency one's most important resources or production facilities. They spent their lives bathed in warfare and competitive innovation with little rest even with the likes of their immortality and minds.

The results of all this could be seen in the ruins left behind after The Cataclysm. Many demonic facilities still possess autonomous, advanced, self-defense systems that operate even today with the power of spires and other magics powering them for many millennia to come.

The information below is completely transparent and can be used IC
The initial researchers and investigators were quick upon the island to categorize their evolutionary states in relation to their homeland's variants.

In general, it seems as though demons grow through the accumulation of demonic energies within their souls. The more energy they have, the larger they become as their form expands from the pressure of growing projected mana from their emotional cortex.

Lesser Demon
(0 - 30 RPL)

These demons, if without a unique form, are usually fledglings marked by weak, trace occultic auras. They can range from a small humanoid to a large, six-foot, yellow-skinned beast with claws and a grotesque maw. Intelligence seems to be at a minimum as they are barely sentient, but possess the ability to learn.

Mega Demon
(30 - 60 RPL)

Now evolved, the common form of these demons are large, red-skinned fauna with menacing features. They possess a strong occultic presence. They quite frequently, at this stage, become gradually smarter. Mental facilities soon mirror that of an average human adult.

Giga Demon
(60 - 120 RPL)

As a Mega Demon's occultic signature grows, their form expands into a massive, hulking creature we call a Giga-class Demon. They are still red-skinned but massive compared to their Mega-class counterparts. Their sentience and minds are slowly nurtured further from their previous state.

Elemental Demon
(120-150 RPL)

A demon that now possesses a natural element it attunes itself to. It is at this state they will also potentially master another art; this feature is only exhibited in Agarthan demons and separates them from Eternian yokai.

Kaor Demon
(150 RPL+)

This is the pinnacle of Agarthan demon evolution. They possess a terrifying occultic presence and are capable of matching if not overpowering completely the most powerful and elite of magi. Possessing large forms, they are often feared by many. It is at this state where their sentience has grown to that of a paramount super-intelligence throughout their evolutionary cycle past the elemental stage.

Archon
(200 RPL+)

Those who have ventured into ancient Agarthan culture would glean some details of demonic civilization referring to these demons as "Archon".

Archons, as described by runes and inscriptions within Agarthan ruins of yore after the Three Powers ventured into myriad dilapidated structures of eld, were demons that possessed an ability to control projection of their body by their souls. They seemed to lead the competitive super-societies created by the upper-echelon of demonkind.

Demons that have attained such forms oft take titles, for example, Archon of Tragedy or Archon of Calamity.