History OurDemonsAreDifferent / TabletopGames

* ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' features both Devils and Demons. Devils are {{Fallen Angel}}s (the motive for their Fall differs between edition: in first and second editions, they held corruption to be the highest principle, the foundation of existence, while in third edition, they fell because they believed everything, no matter how evil, deserved love); Demons are the beings who have populated Hell since before Lucifer's Rebellion, and are [[SuperWeight on a much smaller (spiritual) scale]].

** Demons are generally somewhat expensive to summon, powerful, and potentially a hazard to their summoner. (A classic example is the [[https://scryfall.com/card/ima/96/lord-of-the-pit Lord of the Pit]], which basically turns on its controller if not regularly fed other creatures.) Most of them fall into the purview of Black on the game's color wheel, and are usually portrayed as living embodiment of Black mana; this prevents them from becoming Planeswalkers, as they cannot leave the planes whose magic they embody.

*** On Kamigawa, Oni are a particularly evil type of demon that make deals with ogres. Kamigawa is one of the few blocks to have demons without a trace of Black mana in them -- there are two oni that are mono-Red.
*** In Innistrad, demons cannot be truly destroyed, only sealed away, and their inhuman desires and urges take physical form as little devils that spawn from them and wreak havoc. Griselbrand finds out that [[spoiler:demons aren't so indestructible when up against a Planeswalker]].

*** Amonkhet is home to at least three different kinds of demons: the lanky, intelligent and frankly terrifying [[https://scryfall.com/card/akh/78/archfiend-of-ifnir winged beings]] that dwell in the Ifnir Ruins within the plane's endless desert, the less intelligent crocodilian ''[[https://scryfall.com/card/akh/79/baleful-ammit Ammits]]'' that serve the god Bontu, and a strange-looking and unremarked-upon scorpion demon known as a [[https://scryfall.com/card/akh/108/soulstinger Soulstinger]].

*** The demons of Kaldheim are essentially demonic Vikings, and were trapped by the gods in the hellish realm of Immersturm, where their violent natures drive them to war ceaselessly with one another. They reproduce by killing people -- every time a demon kills a non-demon, its victim's blood goes to a volcano in Immersturm filled with a lake of gore; once the lake rises enough, a new demon crawls out. They're divided between demons tied to Black mana, tyrants and conquerors who want to spread a realm of fear and terror over Kaldheim, and ones tied to Red mana, who just really like killing, maiming and burning things.
*** The daemogoths of Arcavios are multi-armed, multi-eyed, wingless, and seemingly rather proactive in their search for dupes to make [[DealWithTheDevil deals with]]. They are associated with Witherbloom college and as such are associated with green as well as black mana.
*** In New Capenna, demons now span all five colors of mana, the head of each crime syndicate being ruled by a demonic kingpin. Two of these factions have demons not aligned with Black at all: the Green aligned Cabaretti are socialites throwing parties you can never leave, while the [[LightIsNotGood White]] Brokers are [[EvilLawyerJoke lawyers]] specialised in DealWithTheDevil.
** There are also the Red-aligned devils, which appear much more rarely, mostly resemble small red imps, and are chaotically violent and mischievous beings whose potential to do harm is mostly limited by their lesser size and power. The devils of Innistrad are said to be the destructive urges of demons made manifest, and mostly serve their mightier masters.
*** Except on [[TheRoaringTwenties New Capenna]], where they appear as ordinary citizens in a role similar to goblins on other urbanized worlds.

*** ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'': The Maeljin Incarna are high-ranking servants of the Triatic Wyrm who reside in [[{{Hell}} Malfeas]]. The each serve one of the Urge Wyrms by spreading corruption among humans. Banes are minor spirits that serve the Triatic Wyrm and can possess living beings, thereby transforming them into fomori.

*** ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' has the Lucifuge, a Conspiracy of hunters made up entirely of [[AntiAntiChrist, the children of Hell, setting out to combat their infernal legacy]]. They can summon minor imps and call on the powers of Hell. Because a lot of ''Hunter'' is based around mortals with guns and a few tricks who don't know the full supernatural landscape, the game is ''very'' ambiguous as to what kind of demon a hunter may encounter on any given day, and is also ambiguous as to what kind of "demons" birthed the Lucifuge (though Inferno is probably a good guess).

** ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':

*** ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'': The Maeljin Incarna are high-ranking servants of the Triatic Wyrm who reside in [[{{Hell}} Malfeas]]. The each serve one of the Urge Wyrms by spreading corruption among humans. Banes are minor spirits that serve the Triatic Wyrm and can possess living beings, thereby transforming them into fomori.
*** ''TabletopGame/WorldOfDarknessInferno'': Demons are embodiments of sin, looking to spread the sin they identify with on Earth to increase their power. Some demons can possess humans, giving them access to special abilities deriving from their iconic sin, both literally and thematically. Demons dwell in Hell, a realm of sin incarnate. The ultimate origin of demons is unknown; some demons are ghosts and spirits who fell to corruption, but not all.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': Fiends ([[{{Bowdlerise}} Demons in Japan]]) have their own type, and go all over the place as a result. Almost all of them are DARK, and they vary from [[LethalJokeCharacter (often lethal)]] {{Joke Character}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Kuriboh Kuriboh]]), to [[ChessMotifs chess-based]] [[TheLegionsOfHell legions of Hell]] ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Terrorking_Archfiend Archfiend]]), to DemonicInvaders from AnotherDimension ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Reign-Beaux,_Overlord_of_Dark_World Dark World]]), to HornyDevils ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yubel Yubel]]) to {{Evil Counterpart}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Evil_Hero_Inferno_Wing Evil Heroes]]), to borderline {{Eldritch Abomination}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Raviel Raviel]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wicked_Avatar the Devil Gods]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Darkness_Neosphere Darkness Neosphere]]). It's sort of a catch-all category for things that could potentially be viewed as evil and aren't TheUndead, in which case they're Zombies (well, Undead in Japan) AlienInvaders, which are almost always Reptiles for whatever reason, or KnightTemplar, in which case they're usually Fairies (Angels in Japan).

** The baatezu, tanar'ri and yugoloths are only the ''major'' types of fiend, there's no shortage of other evil outsiders that don't belong to those hierarchies: the demodands/gehereleths that act as both prisoners and jailors of the Tarterian Depths of Carceri, tiger-headed rakshasas, {{hell hound}}s, soul-eating barghests, {{oni}}, [[HornyDevils succubi and incubi]], and so on. Fiends are capable of reproducing with mortals, resulting in winged half-fiends called cambions that are typically just as nasty as their infernal parent. Fiend-descended mortals are known as tieflings, and usually have infernal features such as glowing eyes, horned heads, cloven feet, and sinuous tails that make them subject to suspicion and prejudice, even if the tiefling isn't of evil alignment. Tieflings have been a standard playable race since the game's 4th Edition, in which they were the scions of a fallen empire that trafficked with devils.

[[invoked]]** Daemons, more commonly known as yugoloths, are NeutralEvil fiends originally from the Gray Waste of Hades, but now mostly live in the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna. Supremely self-interested, mercenary and manipulative, the yugoloths play both sides of the Blood War against each other for their own benefit. They can be reasoned with but can't be trusted to keep their word, and any contract they sign with an employer will have the stipulation that the yugoloth is free to change sides if it receives a better offer. Like demons and devils, yugoloths have a chance to summon more of their kind in an emergency, but unlike the other fiends, these "reinforcements" are not automatically allies of the summoner. Notable types of yugoloths include canoloths, eyeless guard dogs with [[OverlyLongTongue long]], spiked tongues, merrenoloths, who ply the River Styx as freelance [[TheFerryman ferrymen]], arcanoloths, jackel-headed mages and manipulators, and ultroloths, mercenary captains whose faces are [[TheBlank blank]] save for their {{hypnotic eyes}}.

** Daemons, more commonly known as yugoloths, are NeutralEvil fiends originally from the Gray Waste of Hades, but now mostly live in the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna. Supremely self-interested, mercenary and manipulative, the yugoloths play both sides of the Blood War against each other for their own benefit. They can be reasoned with but can't be trusted to keep their word, and any contract they sign with an employer will have the stipulation that the yugoloth is free to change sides if it receives a better offer. Like demons and devils, yugoloths have a chance to summon more of their kind in an emergency, but unlike the other fiends, these "reinforcements" are not automatically allies of the summoner. Notable types of yugoloths include canoloths, eyeless guard dogs with [[OverlyLongTongue long]], spiked tongues, merrenoloths, who ply the River Styx as freelance [[TheFerryman ferrymen]], arcanoloths, jackel-headed mages and manipulators, and ultroloths, mercenary captains whose faces are [[TheBlank blank]] save for their {{hypnotic eyes}}.

** Demons (properly tanar'ri) are ChaoticEvil fiends spawned by the Infinite Layers of the Abyss. They are the most monstrous, numerous and bloodthirsty of the fiends, and seek to destroy all that is good in the multiverse. Fortunately, they are also the least organized and most fractious, so the various Abyssal demon princes spend as much energy fighting each other as they do invading other planes. Demons can be "promoted" into a more powerful form (or "demoted" to a weaker one) by a patron like a demon prince, or this may occur spontaneously at the whims of the Abyss itself. In the original ''D&D'', demons were the only type of fiend, and their strongest were explicitly [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings balrogs]] until the Tolkien estate complained, prompting a rename to balor. Other demon types include vrocks, literal {{feathered fiend}}s that release damaging spore clouds in combat, mariliths, [[MultiArmedAndDangerous multi-armed]] [[SnakePeople snake women]] who serve as demonic generals, and glabrezus, dog-headed, crab-clawed brutes who feature prominently in [[EvilCounterpartRace drow]] graduation [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy "parties"]]. They are traditionally weak to ColdIron.
** Obyriths are primeval fiends who ruled the Abyss before life arose on the Material Plane, and as such are [[EldritchAbomination so horrifyingly alien in appearance]] that just being close to one is in itself a BrownNote. They were overthrown by their tanar'ri slaves eons ago, but some obyriths remain, including several demon lords. The loumara on the other hand are a comparatively young fiendish race spawned from the Abyssal layer of the Dreaming Gulf, and are characterized by lacking physical bodies and instead sowing chaos by possessing creatures and objects.
** Devils (properly baatezu) are LawfulEvil fiends that rule the Nine Hells of Baator. These are the fiends most likely to tempt mortals into a DealWithTheDevil, since every damned soul that arrives in Baator is tortured and twisted until it becomes a mindless Lemure instinctively seeking to climb the Hellish hiearchy. As such, devils are out to bring the multiverse under their tyrannical rule and "save" it from the demons' attempt to destroy it. Despite their adherence to law and vast [[CelestialBureaucracy infernal bureaucracy]], devils have no shortage of scheming and backstabbing, and Baator has seen several unsuccessful attempts by its various archdukes and archduchesses to unseat [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]], Lord of Hell. Most {{Fallen Angel}}s seem to end up in Hell, and according to legend, Asmodeus and other first-generation devils were originally angels who [[HeWhoFightsMonsters became corrupted]] from fighting against demons when the cosmos was young. Devils are traditionally weak to {{silver|HasMysticPowers}}ed weapons, and tend to look the most human of the fiends, which is not to say that the sight of a towering, fanged, scaled, winged [[BigRedDevil pit fiend]] is in any way reassuring. Other baatezu include [[TheImp imps]], who often serve as {{familiar}}s and advisors to mortals, merregons, [[FacelessGoons masked]] [[TheLegionsOfHell devilish legionnaires]], erinyes, [[AmazonBrigade female]] [[FallenAngel former angels]] turned infernal shock troops, and narzugons, [[HellishHorse nightmare]]-riding knights with lances of {{hellfire}}.

*** In New Capenna, demons now span all five colors of mana, the head of each crime syndicate being ruled by a demonic kingpin. Two of these factions have demons not aligned with Black at all: the Green aligned Cabaretti are socialites throwing parties you can never leave, while the [[LightIsNotGood White]] Brokers are [[EvilLaywerJoke lawyers]] specialised in DealWithTheDevil.

** There are also several lesser races of fiends in ''Pathfinder''. The Asura are LawfulEvil, inspired by Hindu mythology, and are created by the mistakes of gods and enjoy corrupting their servants and destroying their works. The Divs are NeutralEvil corrupted and fallen [[OurGeniesAreDifferent genies]], who enjoy destroying the great works of mortals. The {{Oni}} are fallen kami who adopt physical forms based on distorted versions of various humanoid races. The Qlippoths inhabited [[{[Hell}} The Abyss]] before demons arose and are [[EldritchAbomination incomprehensible and nightmarish]]. The Kytons are a race of torturers based on the cenobites from Fanchise/{{Hellraiser}}. The Sahkils are fallen {{Psychopomp}}s who abandoned their divine charge to become incarnations of fear. The Demodands resemble distorted caricatures of humanity, and were created by the [[OurTitansAreDifferent thanatotic titans]] as servants and worshippers. The Dorvae are cruel reptilian fiends who each believe they are the unquestioned master of existence. The Rakshasa are Hindu-inspired, and a tyrannical race born from the reincarnation of mortal conquerers and tyrants.

** It follows the example set by 2nd and 3rd Edition ''D&D'', minus the Blood War. It defines the actions of the three fiendish races by their motivations: the LawfulEvil Devils want to corrupt the minds of mortals and bring all the universe under Hell's iron law, the ChaoticEvil Demons want to corrupt the body and make all the universe their eternal playground, and the neutralEvil Daemons simply want to kill and strip the entire universe of all life and thought. Devils want dominion, Demons want destruction, and Daemons want mass extinction.

* The demons of ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'' are angels who were stripped of corporeal form and cast into the Abyss; a recent clusterfuck in the spirit world freed most of them, though some of them were summoned to Earth by mortal sorcerers, bound to inanimate objects, and eventually became {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. A demon typically needs a soulless body (e.g., someone who's brain dead, a severely catatonic mental patient, a recent murder or suicide) to retain a presence on Earth; strangely, this is actually a ''humanizing'' experience for many demons, as they get to experience what humanity's like after millennia of abuse. They still retain many of the powers they had as angels (which range from controlling flame to reshaping flesh to overseeing the dead), but can willingly tinge these powers with "Torment," which makes them more destructive and more likely to [[MindRape screw with humans]].
** Contrast this with the demons in the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness gameline ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'': In this new setting, [[DeusEstMachina God is a vast clockwork machine]] who manipulates reality according to its own hidden designs, angels are its constructed servants sent to interact with the world on a human scale, and demons are therefore the angels who gained enough self-awareness to deviate from their programming and seek individuality. Rather than trying to escape Hell, these demons are actually trying to ''create'' Hell, although their definitions of what Hell could be range from "destroying the God-Machine", "repairing the God-Machine", or even "escaping to a dimension where there is no God-Machine". Besides those techno-gnostic demons, the New World of Darkness has other entities that can fit the more traditional "demonic" roles:
*** The vice-eating malevolent beings referred to as "maejlin" in ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken''
*** The "goetic demons", embodiments of moral weakness that [[TableTopGame/MageTheAwakening mages]] can draw out from their own astral journeys
*** The parents of the Lucifuge in ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil''
*** The utterly amoral True Fae from ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', who don't gain power from human souls but can still find great sport in torturing and enslaving them

** Demons (properly tanar'ri) are ChaoticEvil fiends spawned by the Infinite Layers of the Abyss. They are the most monstrous, numerous and bloodthirsty of the fiends, and seek to destroy all that is good in the multiverse. Fortunately, they are also the least organized and most fractious, so the various Abyssal demon princes spend as much energy fighting each other as they do invading other planes. Demons can be "promoted" into a more powerful form (or "demoted" to a weaker one) by a patron like a demon prince, or this may occur spontaneously at the whims of the Abyss itself. In the original ''D&D'', demons were the only type of fiend, and their strongest were explicitly [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings balrogs]] until the Tolkien estate complained, prompting a rename to balor. Other demon types include vrocks, literal {{feathered fiend}}s that release damaging spore clouds in combat, mariliths, [[MultiArmedAndDangerous multi-armed]] [[SnakePeople snake women]] who serve as demonic generals, and glabrezus, dog-headed, crab-clawed brutes who feature prominently in [[EvilCounterpartRace drow]] graduation [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy "parties."]] They are traditionally weak to ColdIron.
*** Obyriths are primeval fiends who ruled the Abyss before life arose on the Material Plane, and as such are [[EldritchAbomination so horrifyingly alien in appearance]] that just being close to one is in itself a BrownNote. They were overthrown by their tanar'ri slaves eons ago, but some obyriths remain, including several demon lords. The loumara on the other hand are a comparatively young fiendish race spawned from the Abyssal layer of the Dreaming Gulf, and are characterized by lacking physical bodies and instead sowing chaos by possessing creatures and objects.

*** It is rumored that the Nine Hells were once inhabited by bizarre creatures known only as Ancient Baatorians, which are said to have consumed light and exhaled "anti-light," before ascending into forms of pure malicious thought well before the baatezu arrived. Traces of them can still be found in the form of unearthly sounds echoing from one cavern beneath the layer of Malbolge, or strange shapes frozen within the deepest of Cania's glaciers. Devils who investigate such anomalies tend not to return.

*** Baernaloths are thought to be the vile yet emotionless {{Precursors}} of the entire fiendish race, the progenitors of the yugoloths, demons ''and'' devils who dispassionately spread evil across early creation. This theory enjoys few adherents outside of Gehenna, naturally.

** In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', demons and devils are not a huge part of the setting. The concept of the dimension-spanning Blood War is limited to a single plane, Shavarath, where the demons, devils, and angels are all locked in constant combat. Yugoloths still presumably exist in Eberron's cosmology but are given little attention. The more important fiends are the rakshasas, who are actually native inhabitants of the world rather than extraplanar beings, and they ruled the planet for millions of years before being ousted from power by the dragons. The setting also includes two other broad categories of fiend, daelkyr ({{Humanoid Abomination}}s who are thematically closer to Cthulhu and co. than traditional demons) and quori (nightmare spirits who seek to preserve their own reality by controlling all mortal dreams, and already rule one continent through the original PathOfInspiration) which are not ''technically'' demons, but might be colloquially referred to as such.
** In ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', demons (and fiends in general) are rare and mysterious beings, which enter the setting by transposing their bodies with those of morally corrupted human beings. Once in the Land of Mists, they are unable to return home; many acquire additional powers by performing rituals in various domains. Demons are able to cross sealed domain borders freely, as their vast evil cancels out the influence of darklords in a small area around them.
** In ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'', demons, devils, and daemons exist, but they are all subservient to the gods of evil. Since the evil gods seem to prefer using their mortal servants to carry out any tasks they want done, the three fiendish races are rarely seen.

** All true demons are a type of spirit that is a part of a Yozi -- {{Eldritch Abomination}}s / dethroned Creators of the Universe. Each of the 23 Yozis has multiple souls with minds and wills of their own -- at least 12, but the most powerful among them, Malfeas [[GeniusLoci the Demon City]], has ''23''. These are called '''Third Circle Demons'''. In turn, each Third Circle Demon itself has seven souls, these are called '''Second Circle Demons'''. The Second Circle Demons can create new ''species'' of demons, which are known as '''First Circle Demons'''. The First Circle demons can range from 24 fingered harpists who use time as a harp to beetles that swim through flesh and eat poison. Oh, and shape-shifting prostitutes are in there as well (they don't want your soul either, just some flesh to make a baby with ''way'' too many parents). Oh, and the major religion of the setting considers summoning them OK as long as you know what you're doing (and are a Dragon-Blooded, mortals shouldn't reach above their station, which is genuinely good advice on demon summoning in game).
** And then there are the Infernal Exalted, who come from Solar Exalted shards warped by the aforementioned Yozis. While the Infernals start out as humans given great power with a few demonic touches and a First Circle demon's voice in their heads, they ultimately develop into something closer to a Yozi than a human. And they don't have to stay under their Yozi patron's control, either.

** In the FairyTale-inspired ''TabletopGame/GURPSThaumatologyAlchemicalBaroque'', devils are mean and malicious spirits from Hell who sometimes travel to the material world, where they manifest as "bright red humanoid figures, somewhere between six inches and two feet tall, with wings, short horns, and chittering voices", which again demonstrate various supernatural powers, and can be clever tempters, despite the fact that everyone knows how nasty they are.
** In ''TabletopGame/GURPSThaumatologyAgeOfGold'', demons tend to follow local legends and popular beliefs very closely, in behavior and appearance — which makes them extremely dangerous but sometimes also faintly ridiculous. One theory is that they are projections of the human id, which would explain why they are so heavily shaped by the popular imagination.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Infernum}}'', a D20 setting, demons are biological weapons created by Fallen Angels by crossbreeding themselves with Spawn (sort of mindless, soulless, proto-type lifeforms), then established into the nine Breeds (Artificer, Beast, Deceiver, Fiend, Hulk, Imp, Malcubus, Stalker, Slaver) by a long regime of [[{{Squick}} surgery, crossbreeding, incest and black magic]]. Realising they were expendable in the eyes of their "fathers" they rebelled, ate all of them they could catch, chased the others clear out of hell, then took the place over. They torture souls to extract a substance called 'iliaster', which is literally meat, drink and fuel to them. And these are your ''player characters''. Oh, and there's no real difference between 'demon', 'devil' and 'daemon' -- "demon" is the name of the race, whilst "devil" is a title given to demons that have performed a notable and impressive feat and "daemon" is the lowest of the noble ranks, awarded to demons that display true mastery in some art or skill.
* The RPG ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' has an incredible assortment of demons. All they have in common is that they're {{Fallen Angel}}s, and every demon is a perverted version of the angel they used to be. The exceptions are the Lilim, who are all the children of Lilith and were never angels. While all (non-Lilim) demonic Bands are indeed perverted/corrupted versions of a Choir of angels, the vast majority of "young" demons have been created in Hell. The difference in outlook of a "Hellspawn" (who never saw Heaven and just knows the propaganda of the Demon Princes) and the actual, older {{Fallen Angel}}s (who do, often painfully, remember their time in Heaven) is pointed out in one of the player character sourcebooks as important to keep in mind when roleplaying a demon. Still, even Hellspawn who never were angels in the first place can [[AscendedDemon achieve redemption and become one of the Choir that corresponds to their Band]].
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
** Demons are generally somewhat expensive to summon, powerful, and potentially a hazard to their summoner. (A classic example is the [[https://scryfall.com/card/ima/96/lord-of-the-pit Lord of the Pit]], which basically turns on its controller if not regularly fed other creatures.) Most of them fall into the purview of Black on the game's color wheel, and are usually portrayed as living embodiment of Black mana; this prevents them from becoming Planeswalkers, as they elemental nature prevents their souls from bonding to a Planeswalker spark and they cannot leave the planes whose magic they embody.
*** Most demons are the bat-winged, clawed, fanged, gigantic monster kind. However, one [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early demon]] was the flightless, half-fungus [[https://scryfall.com/card/leg/112/mold-demon Mold Demon]].
*** [[FemaleAngelMaleDemon Almost all demons are male, mirroring how almost all angels are female]], but the e-novel ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheNameless'' throws female demons back into the canon.
*** On Kamigawa, Oni are a particularly evil type of demon that make deals with ogres. Kamigawa is one of the few blocks to have demons without a trace of Black mana in them -- there are two oni that are mono-Red.
*** In Innistrad, demons cannot be truly destroyed, only sealed away, and their inhuman desires and urges take physical form as little devils that spawn from them and wreak havoc. Griselbrand finds out that [[spoiler:demons aren't so indestructible when up against a Planeswalker]].
*** Demons on Kaladesh are long extinct. However, skilled artificers can use something called the Dark Schematic to create artificial demons that hunger for [[AppliedPhlebotinum Aether]].
*** Amonkhet is home to at least three different kinds of demons: the lanky, intelligent and frankly terrifying winged beings that dwell in the Ifnir Ruins within the plane's endless desert, the less intelligent crocodilian ''Ammits'' that serve the god Bontu, and a strange-looking and unremarked-upon scorpion demon known as a Soulstinger.
*** Ixalani demons (who have appeared in card art, but [[ToylessToylineCharacter never gotten a card of their own]]) are eyeless, bat-like beings heavily associated with the god of night Aclazotz.
*** The only known demon on the plane of Ikoria is a massive, demonic sea monster.
*** The demons of Kaldheim are essentially demonic Vikings, and were trapped by the gods in the hellish realm of Immersturm, where their violent natures drive them to war ceaselessly with one another. They reproduce by killing people -- every time a demon kills a non-demon, its victim's blood goes to a volcano in Immersturm filled with a lake of gore; once the lake rises enough, a new demon crawls out. They're divided between demons tied to Black mana, tyrants and conquerors who want to spread a realm of fear and terror over Kaldheim, and ones tied to Red mana, who just really like killing, maiming and burning things.
*** The daemogoths of Arcavios are multi-armed, multi-eyed, wingless, and seemingly rather proactive in their search for dupes to make [[DealWithTheDevil deals with]]. They are associated with Witherbloom college and as such are associated with green as well as black mana.
** There are also the Red-aligned devils, which appear much more rarely, mostly resemble small red imps, and are chaotically violent and mischievous beings whose potential to do harm is mostly limited by their lesser size and power. The devils of Innistrad are said to be the destructive urges of demons made manifest, and mostly serve their mightier masters.

** Balrogs are fallen Maiar of flame, and the mightiest of all demons. They are deadly in combat and can seize and enfeeble the minds of mortals, and while their mindsets are largely impossible for basically decent people to fathom it's known that they are fiercely loyal to Morgoth and have little respect for any creature save each other and dragons. Their magic is mostly concerned with fire, detection, and summoning other evil beings.

** It follows the example set by 2nd and 3rd Edition ''D&D'', minus the Blood War. It defines the actions of the three fiendish races by their motivations: the LawfulEvil Devils want to corrupt the minds of mortals, the ChaoticEvil Demons want to corrupt the body, and the neutralEvil Daemons simply want to kill. Devils want dominion, Demons want destruction, and Daemons want mass extinction.

* Demons in ''TabletopGame/{{Reign}}'' -- although exceptionally powerful magical beings -- are of decidedly natural origin, hatching from eggs that form in the earth of the game world. They also get really freaky as they get more powerful, to the point that the most powerful can usually break off parts of themselves to act as independent agents, and are statted with the system the game uses for ''kingdoms and organizations'', rather than characters. Also, since they hatch from eggs in the ground, the world's giant fleas made of earthen materials which suck minerals out of the earth tend to be ''full'' of them.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', Demons come from Hades, Deevils come from Dyval. They don't like each other very much. There are also the Chaos Demons, the Archaic Demons of Russia, the Oni of Japan, and the Infernals of China, who are all separate groups. Technically, only denizens of Hades are "true" Demons, but in practice the term is usually applied to any supernaturally powerful intelligent species (even Deevils, who [[BerserkButton tend to become homicidal when confused for Demons]]).
* Daemons in ''TabletopGame/TheSplinter'' are more similar to malevolent elementals than traditional demons. There is also the fact that they're part of a massive VR simulation that somehow became real.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Talislanta}}'', Demons are chaotic beings associated with various elements (e.g. Aqua Demons, Frost Demons, Pyro Demons), while Devils have a complex hierarchy and are governed by a strict set of laws and customs.
* In ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'', demons are treated more like ghosts are elsewhere. They are uniquely obsessed souls who were incapable of letting go of the mortal world, and as a result their personality rots away until the obsession is all that's left. In order to fulfill the obsession (which can be anything from finishing a novel to eating painfully spicy Mexican food), they have to possess humans. They can be summoned by magick users, but while they do usually know about the occult underground to some extent, they can and will lie as much as possible in an attempt to get a body to ride. Worse, someone with a high Soul can unwittingly allow a demon to possess them any time they play with an Ouija board or even pray. Demons aren't evil, exactly, but because of their focus on fulfilling their obsession, they will only show compassion if it's convenient for their goals. They're amoral, but not necessarily ''immoral'' -- though given the need for possessing humans, morality falls by the wayside fairly quickly.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' daemons are created by the [[EldritchAbomination Chaos Gods]], who themselves are the personifications of mortal emotions in [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]]. In Warhammer the Realm of Chaos is effectively Hell, but its 40k counterpart does a few things differently.
** The Warp in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is the source of all PsychicPowers in the setting, functions as the universe's [[FasterThanLightTravel "Hyperspace"]], and is where mortal souls pass through after death on their way to the other side (no one knows anything about what is on that side). The Warp is made of "psychic energy" affected by, and possibly created from, the emotions of sentient life. Eventually, particularly strong emotions gave birth to the aforementioned [[EldritchAbomination Chaos Gods]], along with lesser daemons who act as extensions of their corresponding god's will. Daemons of a particular god will represent various aspects of its patron.
** Thankfully, daemons are unstable in the Materium, and must pass through a [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Warp rift]], be summoned via ritual, or [[DemonicPossession find a host]]. Once they have crossed into our plane of existence, however, daemons are extremely dangerous, as they tend to be empowered by literal gods or warp reality around them. The trouble is that any psyker that has not been discovered and trained to control his abilities is susceptible to sudden, involuntary DemonicPossession.
** Finally, one more way these daemons are different, is that as purely psychic beings they are extremely vulnerable to [[AntiMagic anti-psychic weaponry]] and cannot even touch [[TheSoulless blanks]]. This has allowed some factions to develop a few specialized anti-daemon countermeasures. Such weapons are rare, however, and MoreDakka is often sufficient to kill Lesser Daemons. Of course, when all else fails, there's always [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]].
* ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' has the Maeljin Incarna, who are high-ranking servants of the Triatic Wyrm who reside in [[{{Hell}} Malfeas]]. The Maeljin Incarna each serve one of the Urge Wyrms by spreading corruption among humans.
** Banes are minor spirits that serve the Triatic Wyrm. Banes can possess living beings, thereby transforming them into fomori.
* In ''World of Darkness: Inferno'' (the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness take on the subject), demons are embodiments of sin, looking to spread the sin they identify with on Earth to increase their power. Some demons can possess humans, giving them access to special abilities deriving from their iconic sin, both literally and thematically. Demons dwell in Hell, a realm of sin incarnate. The ultimate origin of demons is unknown; some demons are ghosts and spirits who fell to corruption, but not all.
** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' adds Goetic demons (the mage's own subconscious desires and inclination toward sin given spiritual form and manifested in the real world) and the demons of Pandemonium (natives of a Supernal Realm entirely unrelated to Hell).
** ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'' introduces another take. Unlike the spirits covered in ''Inferno'', these demons are former agents of the God-Machine who broke their links either by accident, deliberate achievement of free will, or "system fault." One of the stated moods of the line is "Techgnostic espionage."
* Fiends ([[{{Bowdlerise}} Demons in Japan]]), in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'', have their own type, and go all over the place as a result. Almost all of them are DARK, and they vary from [[LethalJokeCharacter (often lethal)]] {{Joke Character}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Kuriboh Kuriboh]]), to [[ChessMotifs chess-based]] [[TheLegionsOfHell legions of Hell]] ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Terrorking_Archfiend Archfiend]]), to DemonicInvaders from AnotherDimension ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Reign-Beaux,_Overlord_of_Dark_World Dark World]]), to HornyDevils ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yubel Yubel]]) to {{Evil Counterpart}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Evil_Hero_Inferno_Wing Evil Heroes]]), to borderline {{Eldritch Abomination}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Raviel Raviel]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wicked_Avatar the Devil Gods]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Darkness_Neosphere Darkness Neosphere]]). It's sort of a catch-all category for things that could potentially be viewed as evil and aren't TheUndead, in which case they're Zombies (well, Undead in Japan) AlienInvaders, which are almost always Reptiles for whatever reason, or KnightTemplar, in which case they're usually Fairies (Angels in Japan).

** Contrast this with the demons in the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness gameline ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'': In this new setting, [[DeusEstMachina God is a vast clockwork machine]] who manipulates reality according to its own hidden designs, angels are its constructed servants sent to interact with the world on a human scale, and demons are therefore the angels who gained enough self-awareness to deviate from their programming and seek individuality. Rather than trying to escape Hell, these demons are actually trying to ''create'' Hell, although their definitions of what Hell could be range from "destroying the God-Machine", "repairing the God-Machine", or even "escaping to a dimension where there is no God-Machine".

* The demons of ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'' are angels who were stripped of corporeal form and cast into the Abyss; a recent clusterfuck in the spirit world freed most of them, though some of them were summoned to Earth by mortal sorcerers, bound to inanimate objects, and eventually became {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. A demon typically needs a soulless body (e.g., someone who's brain dead, a severely catatonic mental patient, a recent murder or suicide) to retain a presence on Earth; strangely, this is actually a ''humanizing'' experience for many demons, as they get to experience what humanity's like after millennia of abuse. They still retain many of the powers they had as angels (which range from controlling flame to reshaping flesh to overseeing the dead), but can willingly tinge these powers with "Torment," which makes them more destructive and more likely to [[MindRape screw with humans]].

* Fiends ([[{{Bowdlerise}} Demons in Japan]]), in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'', have their own type, and go all over the place as a result. Almost all of them are DARK, and they vary from [[LethalJokeCharacter (often lethal)]] {{Joke Character}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Kuriboh Kuriboh]]), to [[ChessMotifs chess-based]] [[TheLegionsOfHell legions of Hell]] ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Terrorking_Archfiend Archfiend]]), to DemonicInvaders from AnotherDimension ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Reign-Beaux,_Overlord_of_Dark_World Dark World]]), to HornyDevils ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yubel Yubel]]) to {{Evil Counterpart}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Evil_Hero_Inferno_Wing Evil Heroes]]), to borderline {{Eldritch Abomination}}s ([[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Raviel Raviel]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wicked_Avatar the Devil Gods]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Darkness_Neosphere Darkness Neosphere]]). It's sort of a catch-all category for things that could potentially be viewed as evil and aren't TheUndead, in which case they're Zombies (well, Undead in Japan) AlienInvaders, which are almost always Reptiles for whatever reason, or KnightTemplar, in which case they're usually Fairies (Angels in Japan).

*** [[FemaleAngelMaleDemon Almost all demons are male, mirroring how almost all angels are female]], but the e-novel ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheNameless'' throws female demons back into the canon.

** Demons are generally somewhat expensive to summon, powerful, and potentially a hazard to their summoner. (A classic example is the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=394034 Lord of the Pit]], which basically turns on its controller if not regularly fed other creatures.) Most of them fall into the purview of black on the game's color wheel.
*** There isn't that much fluff as to where they come from, except in the Kamigawa block, where Oni are a particularly evil type of demon that make deals with ogres. Kamigawa is one of the few blocks to have demons without a trace of black mana in them - there are two oni that are mono-red.
*** Outside Kamigawa, most demons are the bat-winged, clawed, fanged, gigantic monster kind. However, one [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early demon]] was the flightless, half-fungus [[http://magiccards.info/lg/en/26.html Mold Demon.]]

*** The e-novel ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheNameless'' throws female demons back into the canon.

** There's also the Red-aligned devils, which are essentially Internet trolls with far more means to do damage. In an inversion of the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' system, Demons are LawfulEvil or NeutralEvil, while devils are ChaoticEvil.