T'akrin

T'akrin is the demon beast-lord of fire and deception. Like all three demons like her, her existence keeps the balance of magic and the physical world in check - if she were to die or all three demonhosts were to die in the same day, the world would literally split apart.

T'akrin is too large to be able to live on Nskanetis - there is not enough of anything to keep her alive for more than a few months. As a result, she has to take a host to survive - like all demons, she does not 'possess' a host, but rather lives inside them and drains their energy - an astral parasite, if you will.

Unlike the other demons, T'akrin has a habit of torturing her hosts out of boredom. She will, with no warning, drain the host until they're nearly dead, cause them to become dangerously sick, prey on weaknesses in the body and damage them further, pick at their fears, and even nearly kill them herself and leave them barely breathing for a while. There is no reason other than pure sadism for this, it is not punishment and no 'good behavior' can stop her from doing it. However, she does mentally torment hosts when they perform actions that she does not approve of.

She also forces hosts to only be able to eat their own former species or similar species (for example, a human host could still consume the flesh of other humanoids such as werewolves and arakanth). Liquids are the only exception to this, they can consume any liquid without issue. Anything else will cause the host to both burst into flame and experience a massive energy drain. Considering that most of T'akrin's hosts are humanoid and also need to feed multiple times a day to keep the demon alive, this tends to earn them a reputation as the most dangerous of all demonhosts.

Like all demonhosts, hosts of T'akrin are sterile, though because this is controlled by the demon, she can take this away if it would torment the host. Hosts also tend to become hypersexual, though this seems more of a side effect and will not be controlled by T'akrin herself. The overall behavior of the host tends to become spontaneous and chaotic, though they show little signs of adopting any other parts of the demon's personality in most cases.

Appearance and Classic Depictions in Nskanetis
T'akrin is a black dragon with white fur covering most of her body, sans her arms, wings, and tail. She has a flame-red mane down her neck (similar to a male lion's) and eyes all over her body (on her palms, in the middle of her chest, on her tongue, in the webbing of her wings, and clustered all over her face.). Her tail splits into multiple, different blades, all suited for a different kind of disembowelment. Those who have not seen her or an accurate description tend to depict her mane as actual fire and/or depict her overall build as much leaner than she actually is. Eye and tongue exaggerations are not uncommon in art.

There is a myth that T'akrin cannot close her mouth without it being bound shut, as either her jaw is broken or she needs to see from the eye on her tongue. This is untrue. There is another myth that only certain eyes can actually see, and the others are blind. (the eye on the chest is typically the 'seeing' eye, though there are other versions, such as the tongue being the only seeing eye, all but the eye clusters, all but the most normal eye in the cluster, or all but the ones exposed to the most stress, such as the ones on her wings and tongue) This has not actually been tested and may hold some truth.

Posession of a Host
The ritual to infuse T'akrin in a body involves inscribing three symbols (pictured in the image to the left, to the right of T'akrin and above the demonhost) on a host's body with a blade of silver, steel, or "liquid diamond", a rare metal not native to Nskanetis. (the host will become ill or even die upon exposure to these metals after the possession is complete) After the soul of T'akrin is infused into the host, they will begin a slow, painful transformation in which they grow wings, a tail, and several spikes. A metallic bulb will form on their forehead, if this is damaged, the host's connection with T'akrin will be severed or damaged and the host may die. (It has been theorized that this contains T'akrin's essence and is what links the host's mind to hers) The scars inflicted in the ritual are permanent and tend to be extremely bright, as if they're always fresh or infected.

T'akrin's preferred human hosts are young, sheltered children just hitting puberty with names that haven't been heard of in ages. All demons have preference in ages, physical appearancess, and/or names of hosts, but no one is entirely sure why. In T'akrin's case, she may actually be attempting to make a confusing time for said children a thousand times more horrifying and painful.

T'akrin has also been known to possess family pets when a human host cannot be found fast enough. She will slowly cause the animal to misbehave more and more often until it attacks its owners at random. Animal hosts typically look more like their old selves than human counterparts and are often visited, treated, and fed by people living in Rayauk as to not arouse suspicion from the owner. T'akrin will keep the host until it dies unless a suitable humanoid has been found, in which case she will kill the animal host without warning.

When a host is fatally injured, their bodily fluids will turn a shade between blue and black, thus signaling that the host is dead or dying. The metallic bulb on the head will begin to fall out, but will remain attached and loose to the skull unless it is removed. A dead host will retain their wings, tail, and other mutations, although T'akrin's soul will flee the body and the demon herself will respawn at Rayauk.

Impact on the World
T'akrin is considered to be one of the most dangerous creatures on Aeli due to her chaotic nature and how deadly she forces her hosts to be. Furthermore, her shrine tends to forcibly convert, attack, or enslave outsiders that stray too close to it. The entire country of Rayauk is one enormous, deadly block between Alirhi and Myris, keeping residents of either from crossing without a way to travel via air or sea. Rayauk is completely undeveloped, save for the massive T'akrin shrine in the center, and is also completely barren, stripped to the dirt of its resources. Crossing it is like walking across a snakepit and encountering a host is at least a 50 percent chance of death, depending on what they intend to do to you.