On Demons and Sorcery

The hierarchy of the demonic sorcery that preys upon the human kingdoms in this book runs as follows:

Power arises from demons, who are named, and who rule and contend as rivals within the nether realms of the unseen. To affect the material world, they must first snare and bind a sorcerer. This would be a human who desired to wield power, or receive longevity, who did not balk at paying the consequences. Such a person would have enacted a ritual to open a portal, or make contact with the nether realm, and treat with a demon to acquire power. Such pacts by their nature bound the human to demonic service. The payoff would be might and immortality. In exchange, the human would enact the will of the demon, at risk of the penalty of falling to eternal torment.

A sorcerer would be closely tied to his portal, or source of contact with the nether realms. To expand his power base, he would create minions, or living subjects, bound into subservience. These would enact the work to enlarge his territory, since conquest of new ground provided the human victims that fed the demon, augmenting its powers in the nether realms.

A long-established sorcerer might have more than one human realm under minion control, to provide for the demon he served. Such sorcerers could be bred, to create more bound souls, and establish a crèche. If a crèche was large enough, and the demon powerful enough, the sorcerer’s portal could be expanded, and the actual ground of the earth be suborned into demonic service. This would create a hot contact, or permanent portal between the nether realms and the physical world, and enable the demon to deal directly in its quest to feed upon life. A hot contact would also allow a source for demonic beings to incarnate in physical form, and work the bidding of the nether realms without requiring a human sorcerer to stand in liaison. Crèches of sorcerers whose demon had claimed a hot contact could then leave their point of origin, vastly more powerful than before.

A sorcerer’s bound minion could operate within a limited range of the sorcerer. Over distance, the spell lines that fuelled them would break down by attrition. The power derived from the demon, as source, and would be channelled into the physical world through the sorcerer’s works, then be passed on to the minion by a spell line, woven through existing energy channels in the air, and the earth. A minion could augment and direct the forces running along these spun spell lines to enact the demon’s will, within a set range. He could ‘tie’ on a catspaw, or work a spell of compulsion upon an unsuspecting victim, to bind their will or otherwise move them to act in the demon’s interest. He could also create other minions; however, this required much power, and the spell line from the initial sorcerer could only channel so much available force at once. The power and talents of a minion might vary widely, and cover a range of effects, as would the characteristics of the creations, apparitions, and sendings it would spin from the sorcerer’s spell line.

A short curse, or sorcerer’s mark, differs from a spell line. This would be a pattern of geometry, laid down by demonic intent, but powered by the minion who drew it. It would be painted with white river clay, to draw the demon’s power through the earth, then mixed with a bodily fluid to wed its properties to the minion or sorcerer creating it. The fluid would link it to their being, and thus activate, or raise the mark into resonance. It would then ‘burn’, or fuel itself, off the minion’s life force, taking only enough to remain in a state of active readiness. Lacking that connection, the mark could not function, since it works independently from a spell line. A short curse requires contact with a live victim, or animal, to ‘trigger’ its effects. Proximity or contact would link the minion and the victim through the geometry, with the spirit of the latter subsequently claimed by the demon, who then can flow destructive power directly into the site where the mark was drawn. The phenomenon would last only as long as the victim’s aura holds connection to its dying flesh. Once the living spirit is consumed, the demon would lose connection to the site, which is why a short curse quickly consumes itself. If a sorcerer’s mark is grounded after triggering, the victim who becomes consumed to destruction (in forfeit), would be the minion whose connection raised the mark to resonance.

A watcher’s mark would be a demonic geometry laid into air as a passive device for listening. It would be held active by a hair, or a nail clipping, or a bit of dead skin, left behind by the minion who set it. A last note: the English word ‘sorcerer’ may originally have derived from the French, sourciers, a meaning for which was used in connation with dowsers, who were ‘finders of sources’, and has no such evil connotation as my usage of the word for the purpose of this work of fiction.