Diabolism

Diabolism, the power of a Demon, Imp or other extra-dimensional entity at your beck and call. But there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. In addition to the constant, looming, threat of a rampaging demon!

Rules

There are two ways to control a demon, and if you do not have a High Aspect as Diabolist, just an aspect, you can only summon Imps. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Bound demon

Bound demons are linked to the Diabolist usually by way of a true name or a very special contract. They tend to get passed on in the family, but the bound Demon (especially early on) is not a willing participant, and will generally rail against orders and try to intimidate the user. Should they gain a foothold, they can, and have been known to break free, and will take out their anger on the user.

Whenever a Diabolist wants to get a Bound Demon to do something, they have to coax it into doing that, either by force (costing mental strength) or by trying to appease it somehow (difficult). The advantages are that the Demon will generally not run out of power easily, as the cost is paid by the user.

See the Summoning rules for Coaxing a demon.

The problem is that when the Summoner runs out of Mental Stress, the Demon will be (temporarily) unbound. It will generally try and go for the Diabolist to try and stop them from taking control again, and so gain its freedom (and a free ticket to rampage on Earth for a bit).

Contracted demon

Contracted Demons are linked by a mutually beneficial contract, usually set up with the Summoner. Generally the Contracted Demon works exactly as a summoned creature, with its own life-force. The difference is for each scene that it is not active, it will regain a block of life-force. If it gets fully drained it will disappear for 24 hours or until the next Minor Milestone, whichever comes first.

See the Summoning rules for Calling a demon

Imp

Imps generally are willing participants, much easier to control, the longer they stay bound the more power they accrue as their growth is linked to their caller (they slowly zap part of their master's life-force). They are, however, not very powerful and very cowardly. They will never willingly go into combat. They can be used for other tasks though, just like all summoned creatures, and specifically, they can be used to suffer part of the drain of a spell. The caster is able to shift drain up to the total life-force (or less, complete control is in the caster's hands) of the Imp to it. If its life-force is drained fully, it will disappear for 24 hours (or minor milestone, whichever comes first).

Creating a Demon

Demons have personalities, aspects, etc,... just like a character. Their life-force is equal to their Threat rating which is equal to the Summoning skill (or half for an Imp). As long as they're under a Summoner's control, they share its Fate pool, and have no access to their Threat rating. Create a Demon with your GM. For a Bound Demon, the GM has the last word on Aspects, for a Contracted Demon you have the last say.

Power Source

The power of a Diabolist is unholy in nature, but generally not detectable, unless the Demon is manifesting (called upon).

Summoning

Diabolists (High Aspect) can summon lesser Demons to do their bidding, in addition to their bound or contracted Demon. Lesser demons have half their Summoning skill as Threat Rating.