So, demons in fantasy?
A quick (and I mean a super, uber, single) search on Google for “Demon Fantasy” doesn’t yield much: the books that flag on Amazon are all self-published Kindle novels, the covers of which have a definite romance vibe, or at the very least, that kick-ass-chick-glancing-over-one-shoulder vibe, and there’s little joy in terms of hits with viable information as to how these dark little things feature in fantasy.
But that’s probably a good thing.
Think about it: demons in their basest form are perhaps the earliest, purest form of evil out there—the original evil. The Devil, El Diablo, Beelzebub, He Who Must Not Be—sorry, wrong embodiment of evil. You get the picture. Call him what you will, and in whatever denomination; Satan’s a pretty nasty piece of work. He’s also a demon. But of course, whilst Satan might be a demon, not all demons are Satan. Hereafter, we’re not going to talk about The Devil, rather demons as, shall we say, a race of their own, the same way we’ve talked about the fae.
It’s not hard to see why writers might shy away from writing about demons. Not only do they have a pretty negative rep, but the possible dangers of clichéd villains are mounting up quicker than the national debt. Generally, you wouldn’t write about a straight, white paladin male with 2.4 children (anymore), so naturally you wouldn’t write about the single original concept of evil. It would be plain boring and present a very one-dimensional bad guy, which creates all kinds of problems in any good story.
So here’s the trick: What if we mess with those steadfast concepts of good and evil? That’s right, mess with them. You see white, you see black. See that space between both colours, between both concepts? That’s grey, and that there is your middle-ground. It’s also any writer’s most useful discovery. There is no such thing as good and evil, only people/characters and the things they do. Start playing in that grey area, and as if by magic, characters and villains alike become just like real people—and all the more readable for it.
Let’s invite our demons here, and see what happens. We might end up with the aforementioned barrage of supernatural romance—the same happened with vampires when they took to the grey—or we might end up with more humanised demons or half-demons (a similar treatment to the fae with their changelings) that feature on the sidelines of stories, or in the roles of villains. What is rare, is to see demons treated as a regular race, as elves or dwarves might be.
The Japanese are somewhat better at this, but then, anime is a whole different world of fantasy that adheres to its own rules and garners a whole new set of expectations. Some demons in anime and manga are still quintessentially evil, but others are not. Offhand, a few are classic examples of how demons aren’t always the epitome of all evil. Sebastian Michaelis, from Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) is a demon who enters into a contract with a noble human in exchange for his soul, however, they develop a closer bond than that of servant and master. Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist) sees Rin Okumura and his twin brother, Yukio, as the sons of Satan, living in the mortal world and entirely unaware of his parentage at the beginning of the story. Basically a high-school anime with fantasy and adventure themes, Ao no Exorcist is a brilliant example of how demons can be envisaged very differently.
The nature of Japanese mythology better allows it to take concepts and turn them around; oni, akuma, tenshi—all these mythological creatures have a myriad of differing interpretations and roles in different and contrasting stories, whilst Western mythology is all the more rigid. However, if you take the time to look deeply enough, and then think, it’s easy to find instances involving demons in fantasy that make you think again, or take a second look.
Dragon Age presents demons in a very textbook fashion: demons will offer mortals a truck of some kind, in order to strike a bargain, and eventually possess them. The bottom line is generally accepted that demons—spirits from the Fade—want a shiny human body in which to waltz about. Deeper than that, is that they want to experience life. There are several points throughout Dragon Age (both I, Awakening, and II, but more so in the second game) where demons are presented in not so damning lights—at least for a while. There’s a scene with a Templar who’s trapped in the illusions of a Desire demon’s spell: he’s living a happy life with a wife and children, things he does not have in life. Sure, the Warden has to waltz in and kill the demon, and winds up killing the bewitched templar too, but how much harm did it do the templar to be caught in the illusion, and didn’t he enter into it willingly in the first place? It’s a small little nugget.
What isn’t a small nugget is the concept of Justice.
In Dragon Age sprits live in the Fade. So do demons. Spirits are “good” beings, who largely ignore humans. Demons are “bad” beings who prey upon the basic human emotions of Desire, Pride, Sloth, etc (a touch cliché, but if it’s not broken, don’t fix it), and seek to make bargains with humans in order to gain power, cross to the mortal world, or otherwise scheme and plot towards their demonic plans. In point of fact: demons and spirits might well be the same things, as they come from the same place, and they might be two different “personalities” of a supernatural “spirit” being. I’m delving very deeply into the fluff here, but hey, that’s what good fluff is for.
Justice. During Dragon Age: Awakening, we meet a spirit called Justice. It’s a spirit, it does justice-y things; it’s a spirit of Justice. It’s a good spirit, not a demon. However, here’s the thing: it possesses a man. Whether this man is dead or not, is beside the point. This spirit of Justice possesses a man. Demons do that. Furthermore, when Anders, a mage, allows the spirit of Justice to partly reside within him, Anders’ anger and hatred for the Templars, and the injustices they deal mages, forcibly transforms this spirit into a spirit of Vengeance. It does bad things through Anders. It changes him. Demons do that, too.
Most of this is open for interpretation, but what further compounds my take on Dragon Age demons as being merely spirits who might be “grey” once in a while (whilst the good spirits are “white” and the bad spirits/demons “black”), is Merrill’s character in Dragon Age: II.
Merrill is a main party member. She’s also a blood mage and she’s entered into a bargain with a demon to gain power. The notion of the demon being merely a “spirit” is very strong and clear earlier in the story, until it dwindles very quickly and clumsily, as though messing with the concept of good and evil was too much to cram into a companion side-quest, and the demon Merrill has bargained with reveals himself to be just as evil as all other demons in the game. It’s a pity, really, that the seemingly original idea wasn’t taken further. Understandable, though, in such tight time confines as a video game.
Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files has no such restrictions.
Butcher’s always been good at questioning good and evil and moreover, that space in between. So good, in fact, that later in the series (from Death Masks (book eight) onwards) his depiction of demons—we’re talking true Fallen Angel demons—is very different to what even fans of the series up until that point might have expected. Instead of having an army of fell demons, bent on the destruction and enslavement of man, these Fallen Angels all have personalities and schemes of their own that do not necessarily relate to any grander plan.
Dresden has dealings with one such demon, one who actually demonstrates many personality aspects that he had not expected. The behaviour of the Fallen slowly makes Harry question what he’s previously been told about demons, and what’s he experienced himself. It’s a classic way in which Butcher messes with things and mixes ideas and concepts up: for all the Dresden Files may not always be the most original series out there, any failings that border on the overdone or the cliché are more than made up for with his constant questioning of humanity. Good and evil will always be a chewy subject and Butcher definitely gives us gum by the bucket load. At the base of the topic, the impression is given that, whether Harry likes it or not, demons don’t always adhere to the simple rules of good and evil. It is absolute genius to have a character who is unsure of the difference himself: it’s incredibly real and it makes a change from a monochrome character landscape, where evil is evil merely because it’s evil.
Demons are such an untouched area of fantasy, an area that lends itself so well to urban fantasy that it’s a wonder we don’t see more of them around. Perhaps in the same way that vampires, fae/changelings had their rotation, we’ll see demons get a look in. Personally, if writers tackle the “race” in the same way as the aforementioned races, and not as a cheap, throwaway evildoer from Villains-R-Us, then I’ll be very interested to see where it goes—if it ever happens and manages to go anywhere at all!
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