Daemonigraphia
Title: Daemonigraphia, AKA The Daemon Text or Book of Demons
Origin: scenario "With Malice Aforethought"
Contents
Description
A mostly typical witch-hunting manual of 16th or 17th century Puritan origin, printed in archaic English on brittle yellowed pages contained in a small, antique volume bound in decaying leather. Though most of the advice on identifying, apprehending, prosecuting, executing, and exorcising witches and demons is fairly conventional for this sort of volume, and in many cases based on false conjecture or sheer fantasy, this particular tome does contain a little actual Mythos content pertaining to cosmic Daemons, including techniques for identifying disguised daemons, and a spell to cancel the spell that creates and maintains their masks.
Original English Edition
- author: (unknown)
- Language: Archaic English
- Number of known copies (if rare): (unknown; a small number of volumes were printed and distributed in the late 17th Century in or around Salem, Massachusetts, consequent with the Witch Trials)
- Last known location of surviving copies: (unknown; at least one may be found in the rare book collection at the Orne Library in Arkham, Massachusetts)
Physical Description: A small, antique volume in decaying leather covers with brittle pages written in archaic English; stamped onto the spine is the title, Daemonigraphia.
General Content: A fairly typical witch-hunter's manual of the sort popular in certain circles of colonial and especially Puritan America, mostly general advice on identifying witches and demons, and signs of the works of witchcraft and daemonic activity. Much of this sort of information was passed down and distributed by word-of-mouth, and is repeated with slight variations from volume to volume of this sort, supplemented with original research and invention, and such is the case of this book: most of the content is unremarkable to anyone accustomed to reading texts of this sort, with the exception of one genuine Mythos spell, "Unmask Daemon"; much of the original demon-hunting and exorcism advice is likewise genuine and effective, having been obtained by instruction of investigators who have actually faced demons of cosmic origin.
Crunch
Spells:
- Sanity Loss: -1d2 Sanity
- Mythos Knowledge: 1 point
- Occult Knowledge: ?
- spell: "Unmask Daemon"
Quotes
Ye world is home to Demons and Evil Spirites of many and divers kines, but by ye Grace of God ye faithful are seldom given to see any Daemon in its true Aspect. Daemons walk upon men, it is true, only by ye cunning practise of disguise, at which they are most adept, appearing in sundrie false faces, passing undetected in ye Village and Country, in ye Citie and University, &c; even in ye Towne Square and in Court, even at times in ye Pulpit do such Creatures masquerade, deceiving ye unwary by mimicking ye habit of Authority, else surely theyre hideous mien would stir ye wrath of God and man.
Onlie by deception can ye Daemon work his powere over men, in his true forme he is weak; a spirit of pettie evil and chaos, easily moved. The face of evil is unmistakable when seen, and the Faithfulle are quick to banish it from themselves, but when conscealed it moveth freelie among men and worketh its evil without fear of just reproache.
To recognise a daemon in disguise can be most difficult, for powerful indeed is the evil Magick that createth and mainteyneth the false face of virtue. But to spy out the impostors among men is the perpetual duty of ye Faithful, and it is in to this right and necessary End that this volume most humbly tends, making pleyn, it is hoped, by ye Grace of God, ye pleasing Shapes in which daemons hide theyr true Natures, by what charms, and amulets, and words, and deeds, and tokens, &c. they mantyn theyr illusions, and the ways in which ye Faithful may unmask them.
— scenario "With Malice Aforethought"
HOW TO FORCE A DAEMON TO REVEAL ITS TRUE FORM
Mighty Daemons there are whose powere is great even in theyre true shapes, for whom th use of a disguise is of no benefit; Devils such as these seldom straye from theyr infernal homes, and when they appeare to men they have no feare of being seen for what they are. Ye weaker Demon who prayeth upon the soules of man must go as a man, and relieth upon ye Power of his disguise to ensure his saftie, being undetected, unassailable; when his false face is discovered and his true shape made plein, the lesser Daemon hath no power over ye Faithful, who rise up to drive him out and banish him from theyre sight to his dark Home, to which plase ye Daemon most willingly goeth when his evil intents are made an ende.
Ye witche, ye warlocke, and ye person conversant with ye practices of Magick, by his kinship with Daemons can frequentlie detect the disguise that fooleth the virtuous, and by his black arts can reveal the creature its true shape without the assistence of his neighbors. Ye Faithful unschooledin such divelish practise may suspect the Daemon by outwarde signs, by ye Charms he reciteth, ye Amulets he weareth, his secretive Nature and effects, and all other signs personal and public, and tending as we have seen to his discoverie, and to unmask the Daemon he may succeed, but he may not act alone. Ye Faithful assemble in a group, as many as can be brought together in one place, but of a single mind and Will, to disvoer ye Daemon, assisting each the other, and in this way combinin theyre strength and grace to best achieve their ende.
Here followes the rite to compel a Daemon to unmask, to be performed in the night air at St. John's Eve, Lammastide, ye Eve of All Souls, &c., by a Congregation as large as can be consecrated to ye Taske. Ye Daemon discovered is most discomyted, and ye ronyon wil fight what it cannot flee; ye Faithful need not fear it for ye Creature exposed can be cast out and destroyed, succumbing no only in Spirit but in flesh to ye righteous attacks of ye Virtuous.
— scenario "With Malice Aforethought"
Appearances
- Fiction: scenario "With Malice Aforethought"
