“ He knew that if you die and lose your name-soul, then you’re a ghost, and you forget who you are. The Walker always feels sorry for ghosts. But if you lose your clan-soul, then what’s left is a demon. Think about that, Wolf boy. No clansoul, and you’re a demon. The raw power of the Nanuak, but with no clan feeling to tame it; just the rage that something’s been taken from you. That’s why they hate the living.
—The Walker to Torak and Renn, Wolf Brother, chapter 18
Demons are the spirits of deceased beings from the world who have died and lost their sense of right and wrong, known as clan feeling or clan-soul among the Clans. Their hatred of all living beings make them a great threat if they ever succeed in escaping the Otherworld, the fiery hell from which they constantly fight to escape.
Nature[]
When a living being dies, its souls are scattered and, if the the clan soul (which gives you a sense of right and wrong) is lost, then a demon is born. They are no longer tamed by clan feelings but are simply raw spirits who hate every living thing. They hunger for the light in other beings while hating it at the same time and exist only to destroy.
Demons are trapped in a fiery place known as the Otherworld, a place beneath the earth from which they constantly try to escape to wreak havoc on the world. The demons' constant fight to escape the Otherworld has weakened the skin between the world and the Otherworld and, in some places, it can be breached and the demons can escape.
Demons are hard to see and only glimpses can be caught of them. They are also shapshifter, so no one canever be sure of what they looked like. Demons can also possess living beings by entering their mouths while they sleep. Mages can also conjure demons from the Otherworld and trap them in host bodies. The power of the demon is then added to the power of its host body.
All demons are attracted to the fire-opal, from the slitherers and scurriers, the creepers and the crawlers, the roarers and the clawers, even Elementals. As light from the eye of the greatest of demons, the Great Auroch, they hunger for its power above all other things. This allows anyone who possesses the Fire Opal to control demons. Conjuring a demon and imprisoning it in a host is easier for a Mage if he possesses the Fire Opal.
Known Demons[]
- The Great Auroch: Considered the greatest of all demons, he was defeated in battle by the World Spirit at the dawn of time, before the coming of the Clans. Thrown to earth, a speck of its fire was branded in every living thing, birthing evil. The Great Auroch still rises high off the earth during the height of winter and his eye is visible in the night sky. When it reaches its highest point, it is the time when demons are strongest. The Clans call this the Demon Time, a time when demons are strongest and can escape the Otherworld from the cracks in the world and cause havoc and despair among other beings.
- The demon bear: An Elemental demon summoned by the Soul Eater Tenris who trapped it in the body of a bear. Its purpose was to find and destroy Tenris's brother, the Wolf Mage. After its creation, it was too strong to control and it ravaged the Clans for near two moons before the Wolf Mage's son, Torak, summoned the help of the World Spirit to destroy the bear.
- Tokoroth: children who are taken from their clans and imprisoned until they forget their own names before being inhabited by a demon.