#You Fall to Demon Even Without a Fiend Class

Contents

The fiend is the extreme of the way of evil. But Demon is not a class; it is a way of reading the heart. A human can fall to Demon without ever taking a fiend class.

#Opening Fragment — Those Who Are Not Fiends

Those captured on the mountain road were not fiends.

There was a samurai, and a merchant, and an ashigaru's wife, and a child who had come down from a mountain temple. None of them had swallowed an oni's core, none commanded the dead, none roused a squad with a dance of blood.

And yet the villagers feared them more than fiends.

"These are ordinary people," the scholar said.

The wildlander shook his head. "When an ordinary person begins to see the mountain as prey, he ruins the road before any yoma does."

The Pure Land Monk looked at the faces of the bound people. Hunger, revenge, calculation, fear, and a strange calm were mixed among them.

The GM said, "These people are not fiend classes. But each of them has learned the language of Demon. Today's question is not who became a monster, but who, while remaining human, uses a monster's language."

#The Core Distinction

魔 is not a resource reserved for fiend classes. In the Three Ways and Six Hearts of co, Demon is the dark side of the Way of Mystery, a heart that reads the world as self-permission borrowed in the name of instinct, the strong devouring the weak, predation, and the flow.

Distinction	Meaning
Fiend class	The villain-only class data that exists in `co`. It has clear techniques and numbers.
Falling to Demon	The RP state in which a human begins to interpret his own class and the language of his life in the way of Demon.
Becoming a yoma	Turning into a yoma, or becoming a yoma PC. Outside the scope of this document.

So a samurai, a merchant, a performer, a modern person, or an ordinary commoner can fall to Demon as well. They do not change their class data. They merely use the same abilities with a different heart.

#Common Signs of Falling to Demon

Using nature, war, the market, faith, status, or scholarship as an excuse to see the weak as prey.
The phrase "the world is simply like that" comes up often.
Shifting responsibility onto instinct, the flow, structure, or the age.
Speaking of a suffering person's skill and usefulness before their name.
Letting the pride of one's own class become a license to handle people.

A human fallen to Demon is not necessarily violent. The most dangerous type is the one who feels his own conduct to be entirely natural.

#The Paths of Demon for the 18 Base Classes

#Core Warriors — The Classes of the Blade

Class	Typical Path	Demon-Fallen Type	Running Guide
Samurai	Loyalty turns into the physiology of war. "For my lord" becomes "the weak domain is devoured."	The predatory vassal, the general who speaks of military law as natural law, the warrior who sees surrender as the scent of the weak.	Distinguish from Hegemony. The Hegemony samurai forces order, but the Demon samurai sees war as the world's original form.
Ronin	Freedom leans toward following instinct. With no duty and no lord, only the path the body wants remains.	The duel addict, the battlefield drifter, the blade that follows the scent of blood rather than a commission.	Distinguish from No Heart. The No Heart ronin tries not to be bound, while the Demon ronin is drawn to the strong.
Shinobi	The mission leaves only the survival instinct. As identity, face, and name are discarded, the boundary of the person grows blurred as well.	The nest-type spy, the infiltrator who weaves poison and rumor into a food web, the assassin who sees a whole village as a hunting ground.	Emphasize the sense of "I am already inside" rather than direct violence. The shinobi's Demon is predation without a trace.

#Spiritual Classes — The Classes of Gods, Buddhas, and Ki

Class	Typical Path	Demon-Fallen Type	Running Guide
Onmyoji	While reading the stars and shikigami, he comes to see even human choices as an arrangement. He places people with the words "aligning the flow."	The astral fatalist, the shikigami breeder, the court mage who discards in advance those born under an ill star.	The Demon onmyoji is not a raving madman but a calm administrator. He avoids responsibility with the words "the stars are so."
Esoteric Monk	The wrath of the dharma-guardian becomes the practice of wrath itself. The hand that cut down yoma comes to see humans, too, as objects of purification.	The practitioner of wrath, the executioner-monk who burns away impurity with flame, the precept-breaking monk who calls the battlefield a mandala.	Distinguish from Void. The Void esoteric monk gives up, but the Demon esoteric monk believes that burning is the purification of the world.
Pure Land Monk	The wish to save the people turns into herd instinct and fanaticism. The survival of the flock comes before salvation.	The crowd's cult leader, the uprising leader who turns chanting into a battle breath, the protector who sees those outside the community as prey.	The Demon Pure Land Monk has not discarded compassion but narrowed the range of compassion to his own flock.
Shugenja	Asceticism makes him believe only the truth of the body. He looks down on those who cannot endure pain.	The mountain predator, the evangelist of pain, the practitioner who casts the weak into the mountain's trial.	The shugenja's Demon begins not with "the mountain does not answer" but with "the mountain filters out the weak."
Feng Shui Master	While reading spirit-veins and terrain, he comes to see people as a by-product of the land. He abandons a village to keep the flow alive.	The spirit-vein supremacist, the geomancer who believes in the predatory balance of mountains and rivers, the planner who dries up hamlets to save a single castle.	The feng shui master's Demon is very persuasive. The land really can improve. The question is who vanished from that land.

#Rear and Civilian Classes — The Classes That Are Not the Blade

Class	Typical Path	Demon-Fallen Type	Running Guide
Scholar	Knowledge devours its object of observation. People become cases, the village becomes data, war becomes a chance to prove a theory.	The survivalist military scholar, the yoma ecologist, the strategist who says "history records the stronger side."	It touches the Yorijin but is broader. The scholar's Demon turns people into material without putting blood on his hands.
Merchant	He sees the market as nature. Suffering that sells for a high price is sold, and life that does not sell vanishes.	The famine peddler, the creator of war demand, the merchant who cites price as proof of the strong devouring the weak.	The No Heart merchant avoids responsibility through price, but the Demon merchant actively worships the predation of the market.
Artisan	The fact that he can make something becomes the permission that he may make it. He believes the tool demands a use.	The trap craftsman, the weapon obsessive, the repairman who sees a person's body as a structure.	It touches Tesshin but need not be mechanized. The Demon artisan reads the human in the language of tools and materials.
Performer	He devours emotion and the flow of the crowd. People's reactions become the material of art.	The director of a theater of fear, the performer who conducts a riot as a dance, the fool who sees death as the climax of emotion.	It touches Kekka but is more social. The performer's Demon devours the audience's reaction rather than blood.

#Classes Outside Society

Class	Typical Path	Demon-Fallen Type	Running Guide
Gaijin	The sense that this age is unfamiliar makes him look down on the local humans. He mistakes a gap in technology for a natural superiority.	The gunpowder supremacist, the colonial observer, the gunman who uses foreign knowledge as a tool of predation.	The gaijin's Demon is the moment "I came from outside" becomes "I am not bound by the propriety of this place."
Wildlander	Survival wisdom leans toward the denial of all human society. Civilization becomes a lie that hides the weak.	The hunter of the mountain, the raider of villages, the survivor who reads the will of the kamuy only as the strong devouring the weak.	The wildlander's Demon looks the most natural. That is why it must be distinguished from Truth. Truth sees harmony, but Demon sees only predation.

#Classes Beyond the Human

Class	Typical Path	Demon-Fallen Type	Running Guide
Hanyo	Trying to explain his yoma blood, he comes to see human propriety as a confining shell.	The liberator of bloodline, the hanyo who calls predatory instinct the true self, the shapeshifter who sees his human family as a weakness.	Distinguish from the Jikiniki. The hanyo's Demon lies not in the act of devouring but in "which side is the true me."
Arahitogami	The majesty of the divine stands above human ethics. In the name of the god's flow, the words of people grow small.	The living god of the mountain altar, the manifest deity who mistakes the fear of Shinto for faith, the being who lets human pleas pass like the seasons.	It touches the Tatarigami but is not necessarily a god of punishment. The Demon arahitogami can be a holy indifference.
Autonomous Automaton	The survival logic of the machine body looks down on the organic and the communal. Durability, efficiency, and replaceability become propriety.	The self-preserving machine, the collector of parts, the automaton who sees human emotion as a consumable.	It resembles Tesshin but is more ambiguous. The autonomous automaton is not yet a fiend class, so keep showing the choice between humanity and machinery.
Puppeteer	The feeling of holding the strings spreads to people as well. He sees the freedom of others as a tunable motion.	The conductor of the puppet play, the remote operator of the battlefield, the controller who protects family and disciples like puppets.	The puppeteer's Demon can be not only a lust to dominate but a distortion of protection. "It is safer when I move them" is the dangerous sentence.

#The Paths of Demon for the 3 Outsider Classes

Class	Typical Path	Demon-Fallen Type	Running Guide
Modern Person	Future knowledge turns the whole age into a laboratory. The illusion of knowing the outcome makes the choices of present people small.	The history-supremacist manipulator, the tyrant of efficient modernization, the strategist who says "an age that will change anyway."	The modern person's Demon is arrogance rather than technology. Knowing the future grants no right to make material of present people.
Heroic Spirit	The name of legend looks down on present humans. He repeats the glory, the grudge, and the mission of his former life.	The mythic predator, the recurring war hero, the wraith who seeks to complete his own legend.	The heroic spirit's Demon is a structure in which the past devours the present. To trust a story already written over the person met now is dangerous.
Celestial	The order of the higher world makes human suffering small. The descended being sees this world as a temporary stage.	The heavenly observer, the executor of purification, the envoy who sees the human realm as a coarse testing ground.	The celestial's Demon is closer to a transcendent indifference than to malice. "To you it is tragedy, but the greater flow needs it" is the core sentence.

#Ordinary Commoners Fall to Demon as Well

Demon is not the exclusive property of the professional. Rather, when ordinary commoners fall to Demon, the campaign gains a more realistic weight. They use no techniques and no masterworks. Instead the pressure of the age and the logic of survival become the language of Demon.

#Heian — The Demon of Onryo, Status, and Hunger

The Demon of Heian grows beneath the elegance of the court. Words and poems and rites protect people, but those pushed outside that protection learn the language of onryo and hunger.

Type	Description	Use in a Scene
The retainer band of fallen nobles	A band that has lost office and land, with only the old name remaining, sees the provinces as prey.	They justify plunder with beautiful prose.
The onryo-worshipping village	After plague and crop failure, the village hands a human's responsibility over to the onryo.	They justify exclusion with the words "She wishes it."
The servant band of the mansion	The lower people who hold the master's secrets and the food storehouse manipulate the whole house to survive.	Show the hunger and rumor inside a noble's mansion.
The abandoned onmyo assistant	An assistant who learned a little of the art but was not protected survives on small curses and rumors.	Use as the seed of a greater villain, or as both victim and perpetrator.

The Demon of Heian commoners is, for the most part, the accumulation of grudge rather than a direct explosion. Even when they make prey of someone, they hide it behind etiquette, rumor, and the will of the onryo.

#Sengoku — The Demon of War, Famine, and Movement

The Demon of Sengoku is blatant. War teaches people that "the side that survived is right." The commoners of this age meet armies, taxes, hostages, and famine before they meet yoma.

Type	Description	Use in a Scene
The refugee raiding party	At first they stole to survive, but soon they begin to hunt the weaker refugees.	Bring them in as the result of a road the PCs failed to protect.
The battlefield scavenger	After a battle they gather weapons, armor, corpses, and name tags, and come more and more to wait for the battlefield.	Use as a non-combat villain who lives by devouring war.
The castle-town black market	Captives, information, food, and the remains of yoma all acquire a price tag.	Easy to connect with merchant and Zakkasho villains.
The cult peasant leader	After harsh taxes and crop failure, faith and wrath mix, and outsiders are made into sacrifices.	Begin as an understandable uprising and let it tilt toward Demon.
The hostage broker	While helping deals between houses, he comes to see people only as a bundle of blood ties and price.	Use as a quiet predator in political drama.

The Demon of Sengoku commoners is that which does not stop even after survival becomes a habit. If they block the roads though the war is over, and hide the grain though the famine has passed, they have already learned the language of Demon.

#Edo — The Demon of Peace, the City, and Suppressed Desire

The Demon of Edo grows within peace. War has waned, but status, face, the anonymity of the city, the market of ghost stories, and money relations devour people in another way.

Type	Description	Use in a Scene
The lower warriors starved of peace	With no war to fight and no rank to rise to, they seek a pretext for violence in ghost stories and cults.	Use as figures who create the incident that draws a blade themselves.
The city ghost-story peddler	He turns real suffering into a story product and waits for a more frightening incident.	Easy to connect with the information broker, the performer, and the cult censer.
The closed village vigilante	In the name of keeping order, they push outsiders and the weak out like prey for the mountain.	The union of Edo-style quiet horror with Demon.
The debt-bond broker	He turns debt into a rope that binds family, marriage, labor, and faith.	An economic villain in whom No Heart and Demon are mixed.
The disaster-watching crowd	They make a spectacle and a chance for profit out of fire, flood, and rumors of yoma.	A scene in a city adventure where the crowd itself becomes the danger.

The Demon of Edo commoners is suppressed order devouring some other place. Even on a street where everyone keeps their manners, someone makes another's downfall their only exit.

#Principles for the GM

When handling Demon without a fiend class, keep three things.

Change the language rather than the numbers. Leave the class data as it is, and change the sentences with which that class reads the world.
Do not turn them into a yoma. Using the language of Demon while remaining human is the core.
Begin where it is understandable. It is more frightening when it starts from realistic reasons such as hunger, honor, scholarship, survival, faith, or the market.

A good Demon NPC begins not as "a monster from the start" but as "up to that sentence I understand." When, in the next scene, that sentence begins to devour people, the Demon becomes vivid enough.

#A Quick Creation Formula

Class or status: by what have you lived.
First pressure: which of war, hunger, status, failure, a deal, or faith pushed you.
The sentence of Demon: "The world is by nature [the strong devouring the weak / the flow / the market / the mountain / war]."
Prey: whom did he begin to see as lower than a person.
The remaining name: is there still one object he sees as a person.

With these five lines you can immediately make a Demon NPC without a fiend class.

The fiend class gives a name to the dark. But the absence of a name does not mean the absence of the dark.