Incubi

Overview

Incubi are an alluring humanoid people originally created by devils to operate within mortal society. They were designed to gain trust, recognize vulnerability, extract secrets, encourage dangerous bargains, manipulate influential individuals, and, when commanded, lure victims toward their deaths.

Those living in Ereth are no longer servants of their creators. They exist independently within the mortal world and possess the same capacity for love, loyalty, kindness, ambition, cruelty, and selfishness as anyone else. Their origins may have shaped their abilities, but they do not determine how an individual Incubus chooses to use them.

Incubi are not demons, do not naturally reside in Hell, and possess no inherent loyalty to devils.

Appearance

Incubi possess normal humanoid proportions and appear largely human at first glance. They are often unnaturally attractive, though their beauty is not uniform. Rather than sharing one idealized appearance, individual Incubi possess features that others may find unusually compelling, memorable, or difficult to ignore.

Their skin commonly carries warm tan, bronze, or olive tones, sometimes with a faint reddish undertone. Their eyes are typically dark and intense. Slightly elongated canine teeth and subtly pointed nails hint at their unnatural origin, but these traits are easily overlooked unless deliberately revealed.

Incubi have ordinary human-shaped ears. They do not possess horns, pointed ears, tails, wings, hooves, or other obvious demonic anatomy.

Perception and Influence

Incubi possess an extraordinary awareness of emotion, attraction, discomfort, desire, insecurity, and subtle changes in body language. They can often recognize what another person wants, fears, or hopes to hear long before it is spoken aloud.

This perception allows an Incubus to adapt their voice, behavior, appearance, and approach to the person before them. They may appear comforting to someone who is frightened, commanding to someone seeking direction, or captivating to someone drawn toward confidence and mystery.

Their abilities can subtly affect desire, temptation, dreams, and perception, but they do not grant complete control over another person’s mind. An Incubus cannot simply command unquestioning obedience, nor can they transform into another person. Their effectiveness relies upon observation, opportunity, psychological understanding, and the choices of the individual they are attempting to influence.

Manipulation is therefore a skill Incubi were created to learn, not an uncontrollable instinct possessed by every member of the race.

Free Will

The devils who created the first Incubi intended them to function as instruments rather than independent people. Incubi were expected to infiltrate mortal communities, form convincing attachments, and exploit those relationships whenever ordered.

Their eventual freedom proved that their creators had misunderstood them. The ability to recognize and imitate emotion also gave Incubi the ability to understand it. They could form genuine attachments, experience compassion, protect those they loved, and desire lives beyond the purposes for which they had been made.

Modern Incubi are not united by one temperament or moral alignment. Some embrace the talents inherited from their creators and use them for personal advantage. Others reject manipulation entirely, while many employ their insight as diplomats, advisers, performers, investigators, merchants, spies, or negotiators.

Reputation

Incubi remain widely misunderstood throughout Ereth. Their beauty and perceptive abilities make them objects of fascination, suspicion, and desire, while their devilish origins cause many people to assume that deception is simply their nature.

An Incubus may be distrusted even when acting honestly, particularly by those who believe that affection offered by one of their kind can never be genuine. Others actively seek them out for their charisma, discretion, or ability to understand the motives of those around them.

An Incubus can deceive with exceptional skill, but deception is still a choice. Their motives belong entirely to them.