Demon: the Fallen - Defiler Lores - Lore and Visage of Longing

In this episode we're taking a look at one of the Lores of the Fifth House, the Lore of Longing, which allows a Defiler understanding and influence over another's emotions, the heightening of senses, elevating someone's interest or desire to the point of obsession and, finally, expanding their consciousness.
The descriptions of each dot/evocation and apocalyptic form features are read from the Core Rulebook, which you can find right here: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
The lore, purpose and history of the House before the Fall are collected from these books here:
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
While the ideas behind this Lore are solid, and the mechanics are good enough overall, some Evocations could have used more versatile effect parameters and attention to detail.
Enjoy!

[@Warforged644]

Looking forward to this video since I found this channel, and not disappointed! Thank you!

[@theoldcountry]

Whooohooo! I'm super happy to hear! 😌

[@Starborne398]

Thank you again for your work! ❤️

[@edmoody2920]

Imagine a Defileler with the path of Longing on social media

[@theoldcountry]

Well, I think there's 2 big ways this can go. Either the Defiler is so much more intriguing and amazing in the flesh, because they rely on the evocations quite a bit, or, they are an excellent trend-setter and manipulator even without the evocations, due to their unique insight into desire 😁 (probably depending on Legacy background) We can imagine the second type Defiler can easily start all kinds of trends, they make even the most harmful of products sell like hot cakes, and have millions of followers, thousands of which can be rallied for whatever purpose the Defiler has - protests, riots, collecting trash to help the environment etc. Given how social media, by its very nature, polarizes and amplifies desires (not just because of targeted ads or ad-like content), and given how much distraction there is on the internet, I can even see how this entire medium might've been created by a Defiler, swimming in VR oceans, where imagination is the only limit. Sure, can be used for sharing valuable things as well, knowledge and such, but the deeper you dive into the web, the darker things get...

[@MrSerfer11]

Great video!! I was waiting for new demon evocation!

[@theoldcountry]

Yeah, even though I'm working on more Vampy stuff these days, I won't forget about Demon 🥰 Slow and steady until all Lores are covered 😌

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

I adore the motivation this lore provides for defilers. The idea that they are so offended at humanity's inability to appreciate the world they made is just.... Aaaaa god demon is so good

[@theoldcountry]

The signature Defiler character from the novel trilogy detests humanity's disconnection from that initial paradisial world with endless passion, and she detests the fact that mortals can't even begin to comprehend the heights of artistic expression or even the sensory quality/complexity the world originally had. There's this scene I remember very well where she eats a burger. Now, personally, I love burgers, but the character's view of what that burger is and how it came to be... was so visceral and vulgar. It put me off of burgers for a while 🤣 And it's crazy because the Defiler, Sabriel, is perfectly aware of all of that, but the host's urges just overpower that perception, so the character both enjoys and despises everything around her, including herself. Yup, Demon is amazing 🥰

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

@@theoldcountry Its kinda funny how many Defilers probably joined so humanity could be released from its primal innocence. The kind of innocence that meant Adam would rather eat a bird than watch as angels put on a weeks long art piece for him. And yet no matter how long its been, we've just gone from eating random quails to eating cows

[@jackmalin2528]

Its a real shame this one does not work on demons

[@theoldcountry]

Quite so, though, I imagine if it did, Defilers would rule the world 😋 At least the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Evocations also work on the Fallen, so that's nice. Well, demon targets get a resistance roll on the 3rd one, but hey, still solid, especially given that the Defiler rolls at reduced difficulty when assuming the Apocalyptic Form 🥰(because it's an Intuition based roll)

[@jackmalin2528]

@@theoldcountry U sore about 3 and 5? they have the word mortal in the system explanation

[@theoldcountry]

@@jackmalin2528 Good observation! The 5th one only works on mortals, it seems 😉 Huh, kinda weird that the Defiler can't at least enhance their own traits using this, but it also kinda makes sense. Yeah, it's the ambiguous phrasing again. I mean, they use the word "subject" 2 times, and then they say "mortal's Mental or Social", and then they say "target". But given the lore behind the Evocation, it makes sense it only works on mortals. 👍 The 3rd one, however, does have a "Demons can resist the effects of this evocation" clause and that also makes sense with the lore, given that it was used as a weapon against Loyalists during the war. Oh, and it just occurred to me, this is another indicator of the fact that it affects the idea of perception, the translation and interpretation of the senses, because other Celestials didn't have mortal bodies, made of flesh and bone at that point in the timeline - they were spirits. And still, their perception was warped and they were sung into a state of confusion 😁