Demons and The Great Sea

I have previously discussed the goddesses of The Moon, The Earth, and The Underworld in my post about the Moon World. In addition to this, I spoke of the basic structure of the worlds (resembling nested spheres) and the method through which creatures are reincarnated on these worlds though action. While I had before discussed only the world above the earth, I shall now discuss the world below the earth, and the earth itself.

Known Lands

In the South

The Earth, as known by the Church of Gaia, is dominated by The Great Sea, around which all civilization was formed. The known world is bounded on all sides by an immense desert, called the Dirge Lands, which is inhabited by all sorts of barbarians and cultists. The Dirge Lands' temperature ranges from intense heat to bitter cold, and all sorts of ruins can be found there. 

One of the more civilized residents of the Dirge Lands

On the western shores of the The Great Sea lies the many Elfin kingdoms and villages, whose wars with each other seem emphatic and arbitrary. Dwarfs find their native lands on the mountainous islands of the eastern bay. Humans find themselves confined to the arable area to the south; their Holy City, Cerulemen, where the Church of Gaia is centered, on the eastern end of their crescent territory. Other independent human settlements can be found in the arid north, as well as all around the Dirge Lands, for they have an unnatural aptitude for those inhospitable places.

One of the less civilized, subjugating a powerful demon

The human lands are rife with both demonic and angelic incursions, due to their communication with the heathen Dirge Lands; their association with the Liminal goddess, Gaia; and their multitude of gateways to the Lands Above and the Lands Below, including Muldhagha. Due to this, and their apparent barbarism, the elfin and dwarf lands fear the day when the human lands are cured of this affliction, when the Church of Gaia and the Barbars of the Dirge lands would wage war against them.

The Geograph of Cerulemen

The Lands Below and their Residents

The Underworld, known by wizards as Cthonus and by Poets as The Lands Below, is the source of all demons, devils, and their ilk. Just as The Land Above, the Lunar Sphere, the Land Below can be reached two ways: Reincarnation, where lifetimes are spent in suffering before becoming a demon; or Dungeoneering, as opposed to flight. Dungeons near The Great Sea and in the Dirge Lands occasionally naturally connect to the Underworld, though the transition is gradual. Even dungeon builders don't know if they will connect to the underworld, and it might change over time according to the alignments of cthonian stars.

The Goddess Cthon

She has been here for two aeons. She used to rule The Earth. She used to rule the Moon. Some believe she used to rule the whole thing, from the very highest sphere. Some people think she will rule the whole thing, from the very lowest sphere. Those people are heretics, for the Church teaches there is no highest sphere, nor lowest sphere. Whatever is may be, She's starting to enjoy it.

There is a pleasure in horror, at least if it is in someone else. There is a pleasure in trickery, as long as it is on someone else. There is a pleasure in pain, as long as it is with someone else. 

Messenger

Digression: Cults

Not all cults of the Dirge Lands worship Cthon. In fact, very few do. She is ruinous and self-serving, and anyone with passing contact with the church knows that. However, quite many serve her, and even more speak with her. 

There are three main categories of cults in the Dirge Lands: Cults of the New Aeon, Cults of the Dire Earth, and Cults of the Arcane Sky. Cults of the New Aeon wish to bring about a change in the divine power structure, whether to bring Cthon to be the earth goddess, to bring Gaia to be the moon goddess, or something of that sort. The Church of Gaia opposes a great majority of these movements, though a few priests support pushing Cthon to a further underworld, hopefully bringing a kinder goddess up. 

The Cults of the Dire Earth worship any one of the goddesses, not necessarily Gaia. Their distinctive characteristic is that they worship some aspect of that goddess that is not endorsed by the church. They are named as such because the largest of these cults worships Gaia in her Wrathful Form. Some leaders of the church, in times when the faith is wavering, endorse this cult, and they are occasionally employed as an inquisition or as crusaders.

The Cults of the Arcane Sky mainly study the movements of the skies on all three worlds and derive magic this. They occasionally worship the goddesses, especially Selene, but a majority are nuetral. Most of the wizards on the Great Sea are instructed in their monasteries, towers, and conclaves. Due to their neutrality, they are on friendly terms with most of the elfin and dwarf kingdoms, and the Church treats them with respect. (/digression)

Demons and Devils

Just as the angels are constructed to serve Selene and other heavenly rulers, the demons and devils (collectively fiends, or Daemons if you are a poet/wizard) are grown for Cthon and her vassals. I say grown because, unlike angels, fiends occur naturally in the underworld, but are cultivated by Cthon for certain purposes. Like a dog, Cthon has taken the archetypal fiend and created a multitude of types.

Due to the diversity of their kind, those who catalog them classify them by their traits, rather than their specific type. For instance, an imp is any fiend which is naturally very small, a lemure is any low level fiend which is naturally like an ooze, a kalke (from the tome of beasts) is any fiend which may produce a powerful magic only in a large group. These are not mutually exclusive: there may be an imp which is a kalke, or a lemure which is an imp.

These labels also can refer to a specific breed, like how "cat" can refer to a lion or tiger, but generally refers to a house cat. If speaking about the specific breed, the prefix "common" is used. For instance, the "common Imp" refers to a small, red, flying devil which hunts through temptation. Other fiends of a similar type can be named in the same way, adding descriptors as necessary.

The Common Greed Imp, also classified as a asura and daeva

Many church officials refuse to give such classification. These officials are generally found in areas that are devoid of fiendish incursion. In places where the land is more plagued, the churches will document much more, in an effort to outsmart them. These frontline churches often hire both Dire Earth cultists and Arcane Sky cultists, one to fight the fiends as they appear, the other to predict where their appearances will be.

Underworld Geography

Due to the machination of powerful infernal creatures, the underworld is unmappable on the large scale. The general appearance of explored areas in the small scale reveals a land of deep chasms containing dark forests, plateaus of  magma and dark rock, and constant rain which burns the skin (some speculate this is the comparatively holy water of the Great Sea). There are great cities where souls lie in torment, and ruling each of these cities is a dark lord. Some interesting places that seem permanent are the Abyss of the Lost, the Ocean of Leviathans, the Great City of the Palace of Cthon, and the Tower of Muldagha.

((I know you already have stats for demons and devils, stop being greedy))

Death, Fighting it, And a Magic Item

I really like +Arnold K. He is one of my first, and my favorite, bloggers. He recently did a sort-of series on death, both mechanics and lore. I really like the Lore bit, but the mechanics aren't very fleshed out, though they have some good Ideas. So I want to put forth my own rules, heavily based on his. Some thing of his I am citing are: the Seven souls, fighting death, spell-souls, and a little bit of the psychopomp roulette. You should go read all the cited posts. They are. Really good. also pretty necessary for the rest of this post

Death can look like anything he goddamn wants.

DEATH

There is one death, or at least on death in a particular area. The local one lives in Muldagha, a cave near Cerulemen, the holy city, about a weeks pilgrimage away. If you find him off duty, you can talk to him (he's nice, sporting, if a bit morbidly distracted). On duty, he's pretty silent, very focused. If you are his duty, there is only two things you can do: fight or flee.

HD: Special. Defences: Saves as cleric, special. Attacks: Rend Body, Rend Soul, Weapon (+5, 1d12+3)

• A Fighting Chance: Death, paradoxically, loves ambition. He lowers his total hit-dice to the hit-dice total of those who have died before he got there (E.G. if Adam, 2 HD, and Beatrice, 3 HD, died before death arrived, he would roll 5 hit dice to determine hitpoints). He has no it point maximum, and if anyone dies while he is there, he rolls half their HD and gains that many hit-points. 
• Rend Soul: When fighting against a disembodied soul, this will be death's main attack. The target of this attack makes a a death save, spell save, or DM's choice for the system. The DC for this save will be their highest ability score, or their own spell DC, whichever is higher. Clerics, priests, and other holy men get advantage on this save. Warlocks, cultists, and others who deal with dark powers get a disadvantage on this save. If the target has a fighting spirit, or person or cause they would die for, they receive advantage. If the opposite is true, they are nihilistic and anchorless, they recieve disadvantage. If the target fails the save, they lose one of their high souls (see This). The high souls are lost in order, so essentially you'll: first lose spellcasting (+4 magic save), then goals, then personality, then memory. These souls travel to the afterlife individually. More on that later.

  

  Who could say "Not Today" to those puppydog eyes?

• Rend Body: If a soul has avoided death for long, defeated death more than a few times, or is really just a jerk about it, Death will use Rend Body as its main attack. Target makes a Death save, or (DM's choice) save. If the target's physical scores are, in total Higher than 45, they have advantage. If their scores are below 25, they have disadvantage. If they fail, they lose one low soul (see link above), randomly (d3). The effects are this: 

1.  Lose all self-preservation, assuming you make it back to your body
2. Lose cellular function, die in 1d6 hours. Immunity to poison
3. Lose chemical interaction, die in 1d6 minutes. Immunity to transformation.

• The Dying of the Light: Death's HD, Spell DC, and AC (AC Starts at 13) is modified either in a fiboncci way, increasing each time (1st time, +1. 2nd time, +1. 3rd, +2. 4th, +3. 5th, +5), or in an additive way, each time adding the number of times to the bonus (1st, +1. 2, +3. 3rd, +6. 4th, +10. 5th, +15.), DM's choice.



"Please let us out of Stat-block Hell" "No"

• Life Saver: When cast on a creature currently fighting death, certain spells are very effective from the outside. Gentle Repose or a like anti-decay spell creates an extra-spiritual space in which the spirit can hide for the duration. The fight is essentially put on pause for a few days. No other spell can affect the spirit or their fight with death until they leave. The spirit may leave at any time, though doing so resumes their fight with death. Spare the Dying or a like stabilization spell reduces death to 3/4 his current hit points, or he saves and is only reduced to half. Revivify and other partial Resurrection spells banish death, bringing the fallen back to life, returning all Low Souls and 1 High Soul (chosen by the caster, assuming each is willing). True Resurrection does the same, but restores all souls (assuming each is willing).

Mary H. Magdalene, this is a wall of text! TL;DR: He has your collective hit dice; he removes your souls; spells and mind first, then body; he gets harder each time you beat him; and select spells hurt him.

This guy's PREPARED

What Happens After You Beat Him

Congrations! You are alive (assuming you didn't lose 3 or more souls)! Roll under Constitution to get up at 1 HP, otherwise you are unconscious and stable.

And if I did Lose a Few Souls?

I've already stated what happens if you lose your three low souls, Animal, Vegtable, and Mineral. (see Rend Body. Good news, losing those means you can't be a zombie, because you don't have the necessary components). They also affect the physical stats (Dex, Con, Str respectively), so losing these gives disadvantage on checks for those stats. High souls are more fluff, less crunch. The four high souls (Purple, Red, White, and Blue) correspond to the three mental stats + spellcasting (Int, Cha, Wis, Spells respectively) the same way the low souls do, though losing the blue soul simply means you can't cast spells. 

More interestingly, losing high souls affects your character's personality. (if you haven't read the lore post by Arnold, you really should now. everything will make more sense. please. at least read the bottom section) In 5e Terms, losing Purple removes your character's bond, losing Red removes their personality trait, losing White removes their Ideals. Blue is a bit weird. Arnold describes it as the connection to the divine, and to spellcasting. For 5e, the only character trait left is their flaws, which I guess you could do if you wanted? It gives wizards a reason for weird, and makes the next bit more interesting.

This is Bad, I Want them Back!

The closest you'll get is to replace your soul(s) with a spell. Casting the spell Imbue Living Spell (called Imbue Homunculus in the source) replaces up to 4 missing souls with a cantrip or 1st level spell the caster knows, has currently prepared, or has a scroll of. The caster can no longer cast that spell until the soul is removed, unless the spell was in a scroll, which is destroyed. This has different effects based on which souls were replaced

Don't replace TOO many

1. Replacing the blue soul replaces one of their spells with the spell they've been given, and they must always prepare it. (E.G. the warlock knows two cantrips, and has his blue soul replaced with mage hand. Hence, he knows 1 cantrip+mage hand. The wizard knows 6 level 1 spells, and can prepare 4. His blue soul was replaced with detect magic. He then only knows 5 Level 1 spells + detect magic and can only prep 3+detect magic.) If a character has no spellcasting, he can cast the spell 1/day as a spellcasting class of his choice of his level. If the spell has a duration, the caster cannot cast spells for the duration (and also loses the benefits of the other souls the spell has replaced). The spell also replaces the character's flaw. It should be thematic. If you used Mage hand as a soul, it could make you wayyyy too grabby, or maybe a charm person soul makes you insufferably pompous. Or you could just be obsessed with casting that spell.
2. Replacing the white soul changes their goals (ideals if you are playing 5e). They now hold something thematically related to the spell as something they always want and strive for. Maybe they get sleep and always strive to reduce work, or they get prestidigitation and strive to impress people.
3. Replacing the red soul changes their personality, the little things about them. They essentially act a little more like their spell superficially. Sacred flame makes them act holy, magic missile makes them act pointedly.
4. Replacing the Purple soul make it a bit interesting, as this soul is tied to memory. They now have the memories of the spell, of the ether and the place beyond, where books are before they're written. They also have memories of the inside of the magic user's head, though its incomprehensible. (if you are playing 5e, replace the bonds section with some connection to an extraplanar entity, like a ghost) Considering this was the last soul to be lost, there is likely no leftover bits of the PC. You've constructed the Ship of Theseus. Re-roll all the mental stats and choose new spells.
   
5. Replacing the animal soul changes the instincts of the character. These instincts are alien, so it'll seem a bit lolrandom. The character's understanding of what is necessary changes: they might not think food is something they need (they still do), they might think they'll die if they can't look through a telescope. It also changes some of their physical appearance. Hair, eyes, and mucous membranes (mouth, sclera, nostrils) will change color. Certain parts will go out of proportion. At this point, they should be dead, and they show it.
6. Replacing the Vegetable soul changes the physical subtly, but drastically. Their flesh may become a different material, like petals or iron (though this has no effect on AC or HP and is, in many cases, the same color as the original flesh). They may also grow horns or antlers, though this is rare. Their body, though it may appear human or humanoid, is biologically completely different. They may not even have cells. While the animal soul changes what they think they need, the vegetable soul can change what they actually need.
7. Replacing the Mineral soul is insane. The subject's subatomic particles no longer belong in the world. They can look completely human, but they might be made of neutrinos. A lot of the time, the world around them just completely rejects them. When the mineral soul is first replaced, the they must make a save or die instantly, erased from reality. They must remake this save every time they face Death, an Inevitable, or any other manifestation of universal truth and law.