what should demons be

demons should be prepared

every part of a demon is meticulously planned for its objective

a demon's blood, maybe, for pumping oxygen

but you know whats even better than pumping oxygen?

turning into acid and irritating people's eyes when it evaporates

a demon has a plan for that

and for every other organ, every single thought in its pseudo-skull, no matter how small the demon is

demons should be cunning

if a demon pursues you

or if you pursue a demon

it should suddenly present a proof of your own demise, scratched onto stone, or a book, or a sign, or a person

layers upon layers of half-true symbols and logic knotted around a core of falsehood

paradoxically forcing its own conclusion into the world around it while being eaten at the roots

demons should be unknown

demons sew themselves into reality to make it harder to tell where the rest of the world ends and where they begin

they might seek to make themselves seen as a guardian spirit of a family

as a saint

a visage of a dead man or a ghost, but truly neither, rather, something more horrible

or in our modern age, a factory town's factory, belching blood and steel

demons themselves ought to become heresy to even think about

appearing organic or mechanical, or both, to throw off suspicion

planning their own false deaths and their own resurrections as easily as throwing away a pair of socks and putting another pair on

on dnd 5e

yeah - supposedly you could have all this shit in the monster manual(s)

and they do fairly well to do it

theyve got a part about demonic tomes (which drive you mad), demons returning from the nether realm (which, in dnd, is an actual place) - for a demon does not truly die; theyve also got smart demons and powerful demons and even the least demon has some of these aspects

theyve also got this horrible demon blood that seeps in thru the windows and literally becomes part of reality

but i wouldnt say that they did good by it

1. they're too setting specific. demons will always be x, y, z, and the demons from the expansion book will always be a, b, c

2. they aren't emblematic, even of themselves. the way that their entries are written sound like the way you would fight ordinary orcs ... except for the "coming back" part.

but even that doesn't happen for most of them. does it?

they already have a full list of enemies - "your society" isn't on the list, nor is "your god" or "your character" unless you choose a premade one. that is to say, demons weren't made to be the enemy of truth, or the ego, or justice, or sanity or reason, necessarily. some demon lords are, but again, those demon lords tend to cancel each-other out.

3. the lore doesn't justify itself in narrative. why are the horrible spider people demons? why is the lord of undead 3 demons in a big suit? why isn't vecna a demon?

i would note there's a small difference between "doesn't justify itself" and "room for imagination"

in dnd, its definitely the first and not the second

lolth isn't a demon and didn't become one. she was just really smelly, and got so smelly that she didn't lost her divinity became friends with demons became a demon - what gives?

meanwhile, some smelly guy died and turned into a big heaping pile of rotting flesh

and he became orcus, demon lord #9

actually these might be pretty cool