A-Z Blogging challenge

P is for Pandemony

Pandemony is the religious practice of worshipping a series of interdimensional beings popularly referred to as demons. As pandemony is often equated with the dark, fringe interpretation given to it by nefarious, crazed cults or unscrupulous demon summoners, it is maligned and forbidden in many civilized places, forcing even moderated practitioners to go underground, and is regularly subjected to merciless persecution by the Alkatholic Church.

Pandemonists defend their beliefs by stating that the beings they worship are not fundamentally evil, but rather are above the narrow confines of mortal morality, existing in an enlightened state where good and evil are meaningless. They interpret the negative qualities most commonly associated with demons as a part of the natural cycle of existence and thus amoral. Without death there can be life, without sorrow no happiness, and only by embracing these aspects can one truly appreciate one's existence. Nevertheless the majority of people condemn all forms of demon worship, fearful that any kind of pandemony, no matter how nuanced, will eventually inexorably devolve into dark ritualism.

Many so-called demons are the object of worship, but a select few of them, associated with important spheres of influence which these beings are said to dominate in their own realm, are awarded special reverence. These include:

Ashkalos Haltumex, force of  destruction, depicted as a minotaur;

Axzgra, scion of forgotten and forbidden knowledge, depicted as a murky body of water;

Barune, master of decay and the forgotten dead, depicted as a giant hand of ice;

Gaoss, quintessence of doom and oaths foresworn, depicted as a burning old woman in chains;

Hel Carcass, paragon of violence, depicted as a pale, beautiful naked woman;

Quintigal Rapt, totem of fears and phobias, depicted as a small child with three opaque eyes;

Radas Morkaidan, epitome of pain and sorrow, depicted as an emaciated, disemboweled man;

Senburon, exemplar of deceit and treachery, depicted as an anthropomorphized snake;

Vereculus, slave of lust and murder, described as a disembodied voice;

Vuus, patroness of disease and pestilence, depicted as a skeleton with the lower body of a giant centipede;

More so than any other beings that are frequently worshipped, these demons take an active interest in the affairs of mortals, rewarding their champions and punishing those who have displeased them in some way.