Raising Up What you Can't Put Down

There are three channels to binding demons, and they correspond to the three essential forms: magic, word, and matter. They are generally used in combination with each other.

The demonic form, void, is on the right.

Magical bindings are the works of powerful magic users or the will of prophets and the Most High. Spells can summon a demon of a specific rank, but not a particular demon. So you can learn a spell called “summon marquis demon.” There are also more specific spells like “hold summoned demon” or “demoniokinesis.” Finally, a cleric’s ability to rebuke can be used to move their summoned demons like a marionette.

Word bindings, or “nominal science” in the parlance of high-level practitioners, is the work of powerful rhetors. It implies the use of precisely-formed circles, invocations, and arguments. The ritual for summoning each demon is different, and requires writing out their name or an epithet with clarifications that trap them in Borgian. So if you summon the demon Valefor, you might write “Summon-bound-and-amenable, Thief-Friend-who-shall-not-catch-me-in-traps-nor-exploit-weak-points.” This sentence is written in the circle, and it is unclear the precise formulation that is required for success to all but the most erudite scholars of the nominal science. You must also speak an invocation inviting the demon, naming it unambiguously and describing its domain. The formulation is not important but it requires specific knowledge of the demon in question. Finally, you must bargain with it to secure its services, an apparition of the demon arriving in the circle to bargain.

Material bindings are the works of anyone clever enough to bring them into play. They imply the construction of vessels that cause echoes or feedback, or somehow generating strong material pressure in the form of weight, force, pressure, and the like. Strong pressure is likely beyond most people’s means, but should be kept in mind in case someone somehow manages to Rube Goldberg their way into a superpowered press.

A demon has a power score determined by its rank. It also has a set number of domains, as well as the potential for other abilities. Strength, dexterity, and such generally hover around 9+their rank. Demons cannot be harmed except by holy items and iron. Typically, they possess a host or act as shades unless they are manifested, which requires a ritual they must teach to their followers. Rituals for low-ranked demons might be simple, like sewing together five hands and having a maiden sleep with them under her pillow without noticing, or tying two people together and draining their blood from their heels and drinking the blood.

Each time a summoner uses a demon for a non-trivial task, have them roll a number of d6s commensurate with the task, limited by the power of the demon. Reroll 1s. Each 1 rolled is considered a failure, and the command will be imperfectly executed. If two 1s are rolled, the demon may also take an action that is not explicitly against its master but is wicked. If three or more 1s are rolled, the demon is free from the summoner. If the bindings are not re-applied, it will do as it wills. If three or more 6s are rolled, you gain a permanent demonic boon with some kind of physical manifestation.

Table 1: Example Commensurate Tasks (and max power by rank)

1. (Worm) An action that an unskilled human could do in an day.
2. (Cruciamentus) An action that a skilled human could do in a day.
3. (magus) The revelation of lore; tutelage, an action that requires not only skill but specialization within a field.
4. (minor power) An action that a mob of unskilled humans could do in a score days.
5. (count) An action that a guild of skilled humans could do in forty days.
6. (marquis) A minor physical miracle that no number of people could do.
7. (duke) A miracle that no number of people could do.
8. (prince) A major physical miracle that no number of people could do.
9. (king) A wish.
10. (president) d10% of immanentizing the fraud-eschaton over the next week.

The maximum power cannot exceed 4 if the demon has not manifested. Roll one fewer die if the task is strongly associated with one of the demon’s domains.