Demon: The Fallen

Demon: The Fallen is a 2002 tabletop role-playing game released by White Wolf Publishing. Set in the World of Darkness, players take on the role of a demon - a fallen angel who descended to the Garden of Eden with Lucifer, only to be condemned to Hell after a long war with Heaven. The game focuses on "infernal glory" as its central theme for storytelling and character development - the acquisition of power to restore the Fallen's grace as well as to potentially reconnect with humanity, all the while staving off their own agony and evading monstrous demons.

The War in Heaven began when an Elohim (angel) named Ahrimal, one of the Seers, foresaw a disaster in the future - a disaster which God had either directly orchestrated or would allow to happen. The Elohim debated whether or not to act against God in order to prevent this disaster; many argued that it would be safer to do nothing, because their action could potentially be the cause of the disaster. Lucifer, one of the Heralds as well as the first and greatest Elohim created by God, was the first to make a conclusive decision in favor of rebellion, and he became the leader of the rebel Elohim; the Fallen.

These Fallen revealed themselves to humanity in order to bring them the light of forbidden knowledge and awareness. In doing so they incurred the wrath of God, who had given humanity the potential to be aware of the Word, the good and evil, yet had not intended Man to have this kind of awareness yet. The humans, Adam, Eve and their descendants, had been given gifts that they could not use due to their initial innocence, and Adam and Eve are portrayed as having had only rudimentary knowledge and awareness, solely concerned with their survival. During the war that followed, the sin of Caine taught the Fallen how to kill and many grew twisted and evil. In the end, the Fallen lost the war, and were banished to the abyss of Hell as punishment for their transgressions. Lucifer was not among their ranks and wandered the Earth aimlessly after the war until finally setting down in modern-day Los Angeles.

This background provides a possible explanation for the conflicting origin stories of the other games in the Classic World of Darkness setting. Reality is presented during the Fall as being far less static and banal than it is in the modern game settings. The world went from being populated by two humans to having billions of humans with various civilizations and pasts existing at the same time (even when those pasts were contradictory to each other). One could deduce from this that the answer to which game provides the correct world origin story is: all of them were correct, all at the same time, and all at that one crucial point (the Fall).

Due to the sixth maelstrom (caused by other supernaturals in the World of Darkness), the Gates of Hell that kept these demons from escaping their prison have begun to weaken, allowing the weakest of the Fallen to escape. However, to continue existing on Earth, a demon must find a suitable host for itself: bodies with weak souls, for example: comatose patients, severe drug addicts, the severely or clinically depressed, or suicidal people. The demon severs the weakened soul from the body and takes its place inside the host, merging with the host's memories and emotions, and continues existence on Earth to follow its own personal agenda while still balancing out the life of its vessel and the machinations of their demonic superiors to whom they are still bound.

While the mortal body provides the Fallen with a shield against the full memory of their torment in Hell, they are sometimes hindered by the memories and feelings the mortal soul left behind. The personal agendas of the demons vary from individual to individual; some demons wish to finish the war against Heaven, believing the disaster is still to be averted, some wish to take revenge upon humanity, believing humans are the primary cause for the war and the overall ruined state of the world, while other demons want to reconcile, repent for their sins and be able to return to God who, along with the remaining Elohim, has seemingly vanished from Creation for reasons unknown, leaving the unattended world to fall into chaos and despair.

All characters must choose a "House" and a "faction". The seven Houses are similar to classes or character categories in other RPGs, to clans in Vampire: The Masquerade and similar groupings in other White Wolf games. The different factions are based on the demons' personal opinions and positions regarding the war, and have been formed before the War or after their escape.

All demons can use special magical powers called invocations, or Lores. All demons have access to two common Lores: Fundament, which allows them to suspend the laws of physics to perform superhuman feats, and Humanity, which allows them to commune with and manipulate mortals. Their other three Lores are determined by their House. All demons have an "apocalyptic form" or "visage"; this is an image or shadow of their true nature, their form before they were forced into mortal bodies. They can be demonic and horrible to behold, or angelic and beautiful, depending on the level of Torment a demon possesses in comparison to their Willpower.