To Tom
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TennyoCeres84
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To Tom
Among your fellow incubi and succubi rebels, is there a succubus named Clarimonde? If so, what's her story?
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IamLEAM1983
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As Tom
"You do realize that asking me to recall a single one of my sisters is like asking an ant to differentiate a drone from another, don't you? Asmodeus doesn't exactly initiate speaking terms with his offspring, much less his concubines or suitors of the moment. The place I recognized as a seraglio works on the same principle as Melmoth's tower - a segment of Hell draped in visual and thematic elements that reduce the Lower Plane's intrinsic nature to something the souls that make it there can comprehend - however unpleasant that might be. By that, I mean that there's a lot of us. It's for that reason that I mentioned Aislinn's friends Named me - with a capital N. Before meeting them, I was just another drone, albeit one that had broken Asmodeus' desired pattern long ago.
Although, I suppose there's not just my knowledge to consult, is there? The flashes of Quint's old life are usually more distracting than helpful, but - yes, I do remember him coming across a name like that in one of his research trips to the Institute. That was long before the lack of hairs or the liver that's in permanent shutdown and the resulting wonderful shade of piss-yellow skin, of course. Let's see...
Ah. I forget you players are extra-planar beings able to recall past iterations of this universe, which is where you would've gotten Clarimonde's name from. Well, from what I can hazily recall, our Clarimonde is a Seducer, not a succubus. The nomenclature might hint at something similar and there is a little bit of your average libido in a Seducer's job - but nothing like I have to experience. I could sleep with the entire world that I'd still want more, while Seducers are still quite capable of forming long-term relationships without needing long-term mental conditioning.
I'd call Seducers Hell's angels, no pun or reference intended. Teacher demons typically take care of the more pedagogical approaches; Seducers are the long-term assistants and psychotherapists of the Infernal City. New arrivals are referred to them when their Descent proved to be extremely traumatic, or when their own perception of their life's course lets them think they've been unjustly treated. Not every Damned soul comes here understanding what they did wrong, and even the most well-meaning of persons can piss it all away later in life. That kind of shock causes sorrow, and Teachers aren't too good at manifesting empathy. The Seducers, however, are.
The Infernal City's mission statement involves their trying to develop a conscious, thorough and professional understanding of Damnation. What the Pit wantonly revels in, the City tries to gird and control. To understand and equitably apportion. The Seducers are Pandemonium's head researchers, in a sense, and their research material grows every single day.
As for Clarimonde specifically - I'd call her Pandemonium's head researcher in the field of crimes of passion, to keep it simple. She understands how love can kill or blind someone to the point of murder seeming like a reasonable course of action. Since empathy is a two-way street, the one part where her racial tag rings true is in her ability to capture the hearts of men. So, she tends to travel Upstairs to seek out men or women who have wronged their spouse and sealed their ticket to Hell, and then attempts to obtain a mortal alias that's strong enough to let her interview them.
Being on the humane side of things, she tends to use her powers of seduction to lead mortals away from harm, whenever possible. Whether that means keeping someone out of harm's way with her beguiling presence or distracting a would-be killer with the appearance of desperate infatuation, she does whatever gets the job done.
Someone else once asked me what the difference was between Seducers and Asmodeus' spawn. I remember replying that Seducers are the product of someone who understands mortal love - and who especially understands how it can make things go wrong. My people, however? I'll freely admit that we're a piss-poor imitation of what Clarimonde's own brothers and sisters can accomplish. We're slaves to our baser instincts and so rarely manage to reason at a higher level. If Clarimonde ever were to meet me, she'd pity me for spending thousands of years ignoring the fact that there's more to couple dynamics than bending your significant other over some table and relieving yourself of your urges...
Nevermind, of course, how incubi are supposedly never able to hack it, as it were - and how I actually managed it. What seems so obvious to you or to the Seducers felt like I'd forced myself to use a part of my brain that hadn't ever been designed for the purpose of caring for others."
Although, I suppose there's not just my knowledge to consult, is there? The flashes of Quint's old life are usually more distracting than helpful, but - yes, I do remember him coming across a name like that in one of his research trips to the Institute. That was long before the lack of hairs or the liver that's in permanent shutdown and the resulting wonderful shade of piss-yellow skin, of course. Let's see...
Ah. I forget you players are extra-planar beings able to recall past iterations of this universe, which is where you would've gotten Clarimonde's name from. Well, from what I can hazily recall, our Clarimonde is a Seducer, not a succubus. The nomenclature might hint at something similar and there is a little bit of your average libido in a Seducer's job - but nothing like I have to experience. I could sleep with the entire world that I'd still want more, while Seducers are still quite capable of forming long-term relationships without needing long-term mental conditioning.
I'd call Seducers Hell's angels, no pun or reference intended. Teacher demons typically take care of the more pedagogical approaches; Seducers are the long-term assistants and psychotherapists of the Infernal City. New arrivals are referred to them when their Descent proved to be extremely traumatic, or when their own perception of their life's course lets them think they've been unjustly treated. Not every Damned soul comes here understanding what they did wrong, and even the most well-meaning of persons can piss it all away later in life. That kind of shock causes sorrow, and Teachers aren't too good at manifesting empathy. The Seducers, however, are.
The Infernal City's mission statement involves their trying to develop a conscious, thorough and professional understanding of Damnation. What the Pit wantonly revels in, the City tries to gird and control. To understand and equitably apportion. The Seducers are Pandemonium's head researchers, in a sense, and their research material grows every single day.
As for Clarimonde specifically - I'd call her Pandemonium's head researcher in the field of crimes of passion, to keep it simple. She understands how love can kill or blind someone to the point of murder seeming like a reasonable course of action. Since empathy is a two-way street, the one part where her racial tag rings true is in her ability to capture the hearts of men. So, she tends to travel Upstairs to seek out men or women who have wronged their spouse and sealed their ticket to Hell, and then attempts to obtain a mortal alias that's strong enough to let her interview them.
Being on the humane side of things, she tends to use her powers of seduction to lead mortals away from harm, whenever possible. Whether that means keeping someone out of harm's way with her beguiling presence or distracting a would-be killer with the appearance of desperate infatuation, she does whatever gets the job done.
Someone else once asked me what the difference was between Seducers and Asmodeus' spawn. I remember replying that Seducers are the product of someone who understands mortal love - and who especially understands how it can make things go wrong. My people, however? I'll freely admit that we're a piss-poor imitation of what Clarimonde's own brothers and sisters can accomplish. We're slaves to our baser instincts and so rarely manage to reason at a higher level. If Clarimonde ever were to meet me, she'd pity me for spending thousands of years ignoring the fact that there's more to couple dynamics than bending your significant other over some table and relieving yourself of your urges...
Nevermind, of course, how incubi are supposedly never able to hack it, as it were - and how I actually managed it. What seems so obvious to you or to the Seducers felt like I'd forced myself to use a part of my brain that hadn't ever been designed for the purpose of caring for others."