Archive Demons
Did you ever stop to wonder if the answer to the pursuit of happiness was knowledge?
Race Overview
Custom Price: 200$USD
Preconjure Price: 100$USD
Please note that all Racial Tome entries are based on Ember's personal UPG and may not reflect yours. Archive Demons, in this incarnation, are exclusive to Three Souls.
APPEARANCE
Archive Demons have a wide range of colours available to them, and can be any colour you can think of. Vibrant and contrasting skin, hair, and eye colours are considered the beauty ideal, with darker, clashing, or desaturated colours are seen as more homely, although those individuals whose colours “go together” are seen as neither unsightly or exceptionally beautiful. Many Archive Demons who lack bold colour combinations will try to enhance their appearance by wearing bold make-up colours, and tattoos that add pops of colour to a demon’s appearance are currently in fashion.
These entities range on average in height from 5’9”-6’9”, with females typically on the shorter end of the spectrum. They are ectomorphs, their bodies naturally on the leaner side, and they do not carry extra weight proportionate to the rest of their bodies. Unless someone is particularly full-bosomed, it can be difficult to tell the sexes apart due to their hourglass figures.
Archive Demons have a single set of horns with fused segments that stop at a point. These horns typically add only a few extra inches to their overall height and are covered in a thin, fleshy layer of skin. They have no tails unlike classic demons, and instead of traditionally pointed ears, these demons have stiff sections of melded cartilage with an upper ridge for their outer ears. Their faces are often narrow with high cheekbones and tapered chins, and their nails—while not quite claws—are usually pointed.
ABILITIES
Archive Demons earned their race nickname due to their destined occupation of working in the archives of The Hub. While these creatures are called demons due to their horns and pointed ears, they actually lack the common spade-tipped tail one might associate with a demon. In this way, they are perhaps more similar to a horned elf rather than a demon, and therefore are not true infernals. This makes them perfectly suitable to practitioners of all experience levels.
They are a very capable and varied race of beings who are considered responsible. While they have a reputation as being stuffy and workaholics, Archive Demons know how to party with the best of them. Being on the clock and being on your own time are two different things entirely. While no two Archive Demons are exactly the same, many show their true colours and personality once they are done their shifts and can take a break from all their record keeping and updating of documents. They are creatures of balance, steadfast and hyper focused when they are tasked with a job, yet free and open the moment the ink has been sealed, parchment rolled up, and quills put away.
Each Archive Demon will have something uniquely different to offer. Some will bring their skills and hobbies to the forefront and offer their companion an advantage in their own fields of study, or they can simply be a relatable person who can be leaned on during times of need. Friendship is all the Archive Demons really want, with some change of scenery peppered into their daily lives to make things a bit more interesting.
TEMPERAMENT
These beings often have a passion and dedication to the pursuit of knowledge - and while it doesn’t necessarily matter what kind of knowledge - they frequently make their homes close to or around libraries. They are considered the gatherers of history, capable of learning about and documenting an entire race’s history in less than a human’s decade. Fans of riddles, fables, folk tales, war stories, unsolvable puzzles, history, magic spells, alchemy, politics, astronomy, astrology, and so much more, each Archive Demon usually has a specialty that they hone in on and put all their focus into.
Other Archive Demons work as scouts who are sent out into the field to explore new worlds, meet new races, and become part of their societies so they can document all the details, then return to the hub with their findings. Due to this, most Archive Demons go through special training to learn how to be truly impartial, fair, and open-minded to other cultures, perhaps even ones that would be deemed unsavoury by human standards.
HOME WORLD OR REALM
Archive Demons are one of the few races that are actually native to the world I affectionately call The Hub. With pink skies like a perpetual sunrise and seafoam coloured grass, Archive Demon cities are clean and made of white and silver and are truly something to behold.
The Archive Demons all currently live in a building attached to the Archives. Their style of living is perhaps akin to our dorm-style of living, with 5-6 demons living together with a shared common area and individual small and quaint bedrooms they can personalize as they see fit. The Archives are located at the center of the world in a city that serves as a first point of contact for all new inhabitants and races that pass through The Hub’s portals.
Many Archive Demons are stationed at each portal to welcome and greet newcomers, inviting them into a safe world where they can begin new lives, for the small fee of a bit of information on the world they’ve come from and some details about their race if not previously known to the demons. Those in need are never rejected, and are promptly set up with lodging somewhere within the world as an act of charity and good faith.
RELIGION
Archive Demons have fluctuated between being religious and non-religious as far back as their history goes. What sparked their interest in collecting whatever fragments of information they could gather came from the fall of their own world. It is sometimes difficult to believe in higher powers when you are so keenly aware of the evils that exist. The Archive Demons reached a point where they were unable to believe that deities would allow entire populations, realms, and worlds to be lost, and their lack of belief forced their own deities to become dormant, forcing their world and the demons into a seemingly eternal slumber. It wasn’t until an outsider seeking the answers to their own lost history found The Hub and solved the puzzle of resurrecting these powerful beings. When the world was restored to its former state, the Archive Demons had no choice but to believe in the power of deities and in the importance of worship.
Currently, the Archive Demons are going through a period of intense devotion. They have six sacred deities that they worship, along with a seventh deity that is known as the “Outer Deity”, the one who restored life to their planet.
These deities include:
- Nulaeryn (new-LARR-EE•n), God/Goddess of Nature
- Esylthra (ESS-eel-TH•ra), Goddess of Magic
- Maxrin (max-RINN), God of War
- Daldis (DALL-diss), God of Knowledge
- Talsis (TALL-siss), Goddess of Death
- Alvita (all-VEE-taah), God/Goddess of Love
- Klede (KLEE•AY-day), God/Goddess of Time
These gods are mostly personified deities that walk among the Archive Demons whenever it suits them with the use of avatars. They are guaranteed to make an appearance once a year during their festival days which border the world’s New Years celebrations (typically beginning with the first floral bloom of the year). The only deity on the list that does not make their presence known on their designated festival day is Klede.
Some believe that Klede is an amorphous deity, while others believe that Klede was once a mortal, immortalized as a constellation by the same name by the Gods’ as a show of their eternal gratitude. Others believe Klede was born of the stars and descended during The Hub’s time of need, and once Klede was no longer needed, returned to their home beyond time to serve as a silent guardian. Others believe that Klede is a metaphor, or that they never existed at all. Very few Archive Demons know the actual truth, but would never admit to it, remaining tight lipped so as not to create unnecessary discourse. The worship and existence of Klede is a bit of a divisive topic among Archive Demons at this time.
SEXUALITY AND GENDER
Archive Demons recognize three genders: male, female, and genderflux. There is no emphasis on your gender needing to match with your sex among their society, so individuals may decide their gender at any time. Until any official declaration is made, all Archive Demons are considered genderflux.
Strictly homosexual or heterosexual Archive Demons, in the sense that we recognize these terms, are nearly unheard of due to their default of being genderflux. Homosexual or heterosexual among Archive Demons instead means exclusively liking the same or different genitalia from their own respectively, and are not gender specific terms within their culture.
MARRIAGE AND REPRODUCTION
The concept of marriage does exist within Archive Demon society, but they do not have elaborate ceremonies that include extended family and friends like humans do. Marriages are celebrated solely between the couple or triad that wish to seek a soul binding. These soul bindings are only done when Archive Demons feel such a strong attachment to someone that they want to continue to be reincarnated together in all their future lives.
Marriage is not required to have children, however, if an Archive Demon wants to start a family they will need to be approved for a family dorm that will allow for any children to be properly cared for and nurtured. This application and approval system allows the Archive Demon government to ensure only those with the right temperament and skills are permitted to raise a child. Archive Demons are kept on contraceptives that prevent production of ovum and sperm, and must make the choice to stop their contraceptives in order to rebuild their fertility. This ensures that an individual is serious enough about their decision to have a child, as the shift and surge in hormones can be overwhelming and unpleasant to some.
ARCHIVISTS
Archivists are the demons who work directly in the archives. They spend most of their mornings organizing, cataloging, transcribing, translating, updating, and reading records to expand their own knowledge. Their goal is to one day have the largest libraries in all the realms and worlds, and to have an extensive collection of gathered histories to serve as a universal racial tome of sorts.
Their work weeks usually consist of 7 days on, with four days off. Many Archivists love their jobs so much, they spend a lot of their time in their dormitories reading and working on personal points of interest instead of their assigned projects.
FIELD AGENTS
Archive Demons with a more bold and daring personality may find themselves seeking out jobs as field agents. Field Agents are demons with specialized training to be able to withstand wholly new environments and radically different cultures, both physically and mentally. Their training is very grueling, and demons interested in this path are required to endure psychological and physical trials that could easily make anyone buckle under the pressure. They are expected to be weapons, to stay physically fit and to be masterful in their weapons skills, to know when to act with violence, with calm authority, or remain uninvolved in order to be accepted into a society, culture, clan, or tribe.
These individuals go through sleep deprivation, starvation, drug withdrawals, poison consumption, sub zero temperatures, heat hot enough to melt flesh, and much more in order to prove their bodies, magic skills, and minds are strong enough to withstand all that may be asked of them. Not every world or realm will be hospitable towards them, be it environment or its denizens, and Archive Demons who wish to become field agents, if they are to be good at their jobs, must leave all personal bias and judgements at the door. They must become one with another’s world’s culture and do all that is expected of them in order to bring back accurate information.
Primarily, field agents are only assigned to worlds or realms that are ready to learn of or beginning to discover new life beyond their own. They show them what is possible and how to travel to other places in exchange for allowing their agents to live among them until they have developed a vast knowledge on how their society functions, and return home with this information to pass on to the archivists to add to the collection.
Field agents are almost seen as idols or local heroes, and it is not uncommon for each one to have a following of adoring fans who track their careers.
EVERYBODY ELSE
For those Archive Demons who feel they don't quite fit into either group, there is still a life beyond the Archives. The Hub is a mosaic of cultures, after all. Archive Demons can abdicate their position in the Archives, which means they are no longer under the protections of the Archives or any of the governing bodies that oversee the operations of Archivists and Field Agents. They effectively give up their Archive citizenship and try to make a life for themselves beyond the dusty tomes and scrolls, which means you might see an Archive Demon or two working at local shops in different sectors of The Hub.
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