Demon, Socothbenoth

The Book of Fiends

Designed  By Aaron Loeb, Erik Mona, Chris Pramas, and Robert J. Schwalb

Patron of the Tents and Tabernacles of the Daughters

Layer: The Cathedral Thelemic
Areas of Concern: Sexual perversion, prostitutes, taboos, exploration
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Pleasure, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Whip

Devotees of the demon prince Socothbenoth follow a philosophy that urges exploration and exploitation of sexual taboos as the truest manifestation of natural law. According to their increasingly popular views, that which feels good is good, simply because nature wills it so – no sexual fetish can be wrong if it brings pleasure to the person indulging in it. Taboos, as strictly mortal inventions, are to be cast away as blights on the face of nature, an almighty force that governs even the gods themselves. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,”  according to Socothbenoth’s lurid litany. While his followers generally value the consent of their partners (perhaps  to make their beliefs more attractive to would-be fellows), Socothbenoth himself has no such pretensions. As patron of prostitutes and perversion, the demon prince occasionally gives his followers a push in the direction of sublime pleasures that involve crimes such as murder and molestation. Boiled to its core, Socothbenoth’s teachings praise the ecstasy of his followers. Everyone else is just so much flesh.

Socothbenoth appears as a handsome, rakish human man with long brown hair and pure white skin. A pair of donkey ears (replete with piercings) jut straight up from the sides of his head, and his face seems perpetually marked by a knowing, seductive smirk. The demon prince prefers to dress lightly in riding boots and leather pants, eschewing shirts to show off the six immense barbells piercing his chest horizontally in a single vertical row. His long, rounded fingernails seem manicured specifically to tease, and an abnormally long tongue occasionally slips out from between his lips, giving him the appearance of a salacious snake. Socothbenoth is known by many names, including Succor-Beloth and Succorbenoth. Nocticula, the sultry Princess of Moonlight, spends a great deal of time at Socothbenoth’s side. The demon prince knows her both as a sister and as a lover’ together the two push the limits of depravity in private while presenting a unified, powerful alliance to their numerous enemies.

A peaceful idyll of sparse forest makes up the bulk of Socothbenoth’s private Abyssal demesne. Mockingbirds trill innocuous songs as they flutter from tree to tree, stretching their colorful wings in the welcoming light of a warm sun. Small clearings mark the woodland here and there, their soft beds of flowers giving comfort to young lovers fumbling at each other’s clothes. No demons inhabit this outer landscape, and souls and the living alike dwell together in a handful of towns scattered throughout the layer. A towering edifice dominates the center of the forest, giving a name to the whole domain “the Cathedral Thelemic. Decked out with the iconography of dozens of good-aligned religions, the so-called “Church of Free Will” is home to thousands of entrapped souls whose attempts to slake their sexual thirst in life consigned them to an eternity in the Abyss. Under the tutelage of a ‘priesthood’ made up of succubi and incubi, and under the gaze of impassive stone angels, the souls spend every minute of every day indulging in the most prurient proclivities imaginable. No distinction is made between dominant and submissive, violator and violated. The souls have until multiversal oblivion to work out their kinks, and in the eternity of the Cathedral Thelemic, everyone assumes every role eventually.

Socothbenoth’s followers are difficult to classify. Most view their faith as an intensely personal matter, often because they first discovered hints of the demon prince’s agenda scribbled in the margins of surreptitiously purchased books of erotic poetry or collections of pornographic woodcuts. Streetwalkers turn to Socothbenoth as a compassionate and approving father figure who views them not just as children, but as prophets of a new age of unbridled expressionism and limitless pleasures. Prostitutes frequently turn to allied thaumaturges, whose curative spells ease their sacred mission. Enlightened followers spread the word of the Patron of the Tents and Tabernacles of the Daughters, enticing new members to the movement with fetching pouts and nimble tongues. Nature, they claim, honors their indulgences, giving pleasure in return. Socothbenothans (sometimes for fear of reprisal after death) honor the infallibility of natural law above the decrees of the gods, disdaining any who would place morality in the way of sexual fulfillment.

Obedience

To regain his spells, a thaumaturge in service to Socothbenoth must achieve sexual release, either alone or with a partner. Thereafter, he must defile a page torn from the religious canon of a lawful good deity, fold it into an occult symbol, and thrust it into a hermetically prepared fire. At the end of the hour-long ritual, the thaumaturge’s complement of spells is replenished.