#desire demons

[monstersmashorpass]

SMASH OR PASS: Desire Demons, Dragon Age: Origins

Desire Demons

Smash (and/or date/smooch/etc)

Pass (not my type)

Voting ended onSep 29, 2025

[butchofthewilds]

Desire demons are so weird to me. Like, spirits’ whole deal is that they center themselves around a feeling or concept (or sometimes, are forced to do so by mortals’ perceptions), and try to embody that as best they can (and this is an active effort, as we see from DAA Justice’s dialogue and certain dialogue paths with Valor in DAO’s mage origins), and sometimes they involve themselves with mortals (whether consensually or not) in order to do so. Like, a rage demon (apparently a extremely unusually powerful one, given that it had been worshipped by the Avvar for a while, and also that it is quite strong and rage demons are usually kind of chumps) possessed Scout Grandin in the Jaws of Hakkon DLC in order to avenge Jace, thus both enflaming Grandin’s rage and acting as/embodying rage (something about rage keeping him from dying always made me think a little of Vivienne’s quote about how rage can keep you going when everything else is gone, or something along those lines). But desire demons…don’t really seem to do that? Like, they definitely manipulate people’s desires to get what they want, but they don’t seem to particularly stoke them, or actually try to accomplish them (like, the demon that possessed poor Connor Guerrin definitely didn’t do anything Connor wanted!). I wonder if that has to do with the nature of desire—that desire is fundamentally unfulfilled, because the minute you achieve or receive something, you cease desiring it…Or if this is simpler than I’m making it and I’m missing something?

[dragonageconfessions]

CONFESSION:

Not to be obvious or anything, but I want desire demons to come back. For reasons

[crossdressingdeath]

See, now I'm thinking about desire demons again, and like... aside from the fact that yeah the desire demon design just in general isn't all that sexy (please... more creative fanservice than just shoving naked boobs at the camera...), there's no actual reason for them to look like that? And it actually weakens their overall effect as creatures that manipulate humans using their desires. I'm bored so I'm actually going to go down the list of notable desire demons as listed on the wiki to see what they actually offer, and spoiler alert: most of them... aren't actually offering sex, or if they are it's as one part or one option of what they're offering, not the whole thing. So, starting from the top (and leaving out Yevena and Vereveel from Broken Circle, Xebenkeck from Forbidden Knowledge, Hanker from Kind of Want and the unnamed desire demon from Malcolm's Will since none of those offer anything in particular other than a fight):

The desire demon in Arl of Redcliffe offered Connor the power to save his father, and if the Warden negotiates with her she offers the secrets of blood magic, the love of those around them (mechanically is a +20 approval boost for one companion, which seems like a waste given how easy it is to gain approval in DAO but whatever), something to increase their talents (mechanically a tome that gives an additional talent/spell), or sex. So sex isn't off the table, but since it's the only option on the list with no actual benefit to the player I imagine most people don't go for that one, except maybe for roleplay reasons (I'm sure some people's Wardens—and I say this with zero judgement, if someone wants to play a total asshole then I just hope they have fun with it—are the sort that would absolutely choose to bang a desire demon in exchange for a small child's freedom). ...Actually I might make a poll about that, I'm kind of curious what options people go for now.

The desire demon in Broken Circle who ensorcelled that Templar offered him a family life and happiness, although it's unclear if she asked him or just did it for her own reasons. It's a little hard to judge the exact details of the arrangement since he's completely under her control, but it seems like a safe bet that if sex is involved in the deal it's as a part of the "happy family life" illusion, not as the main draw.

It's a little unclear what Kitty offered Amalia, but it seems to have been friendship of some sort? Although it's also possible that there was no actual bargain involved and Kitty was just being nice so that Amalia would come back often enough to give Kitty the chance to get free and then possess her, which is her ultimate goal. When dealing with the Warden Kitty offers a nice staff in exchange for letting her take Amalia (side note, did not know you can get a staff out of Kitty (hehehehehehehe- sorry, I'm very mature I promise) by trading Amalia for it). So overall no offers of sex in this one.

Moving on to DA2, Allure from the Exiled Prince DLC offered Lady Harimann power in exchange for feeding on her husband, son and daughter and offers the same to Hawke and co if they let her go, and while there is some element of sex in the feeding (Lord Harimann, anyone?), Flora just gets drunk in the cellar and yells at thin air and Brett starts trying to turn people into statues by covering them in molten gold, so again it's not an automatically sexual thing.

Caress in Night Terrors does offer Aveline an illusion of Wesley, but that's more about her failed desire to save and protect him than any physical desire for him and (based on the wiki, I've never brought Aveline on this quest myself) Caress's aim in using him seems to be more getting Aveline to turn on Hawke by blaming them and their family for his death. Meanwhile she offers Isabela a ship and crew, feeding off her desire to be a proper captain again, which is a decidedly non-sexual deal to offer a character who the game sexualizes as constantly as it does Isabela. So again, no sexual offers in sight here.

And of course Imshael, the only male desire demon we see (other than Herren if we count him) and for what I'm sure are totally unrelated reasons the only one wearing actual clothes. Very slick, Bioware. Not. In TME he offers to let Michel influence the dreams of men in exchange for him sacrificing someone as a host for Imshael, and in DAI he offers the Inquisitor riches, power or virgins in exchange for his life and freedom, but if you ask for virgins he... doesn't have any (or if Cole is in the party he could find one but admits you probably wouldn't like the result) and gives you a rune instead. So much like in Arl of Redcliffe sex is presented as an option he's willing to make a deal for (and I'm sure the fact that he's offering to find people for you to have sex with instead of offering to have sex with you himself has nothing to do with him being the only male desire demon, see previous point re Bioware's slickness or lack thereof), but it's not the only choice on the list.

So out of the eleven major desire demons we've had run-ins with, five don't offer any deals that we know of (Xebenkeck at least probably did based on her age and power but we have no real details on what they were so she doesn't count), three offer deals with no sexual component, one offers a deal that ends with a sexual component for the demon's sake that does not involve the deal-maker (since Lord Harimann doesn't seem to have made any deal with Allure, she's just feeding on him, whatever that entails), and two offer sex in exchange for getting their way but also offer other options in case the protagonist would prefer something a little more useful than getting laid. So that's 3/11—27.27%—that offer deals involving sex in some way, or a little over a quarter. So if most of the deals we see desire demons make don't involve sex, why is their design so obviously supposed to be seen as sexy? It would actually make more sense for them to try to look like normal people, because the name of the game for a desire demon is manipulation. If you see a purple topless demon lady with nipple piercings, you are immediately going to be on your guard! That's suspicious! Why are you going to willingly make a deal with this thing! Bioware got so fixated on the idea of sexy demon ladies that they missed the bit where their desire demons don't work in a way where that design makes sense for them! Not only are the desire demons blatantly designed the way they are because Bioware wanted to shake some boobs at the camera, it actually weakens them as enemies because creatures that work largely through manipulation would not want to immediately look suspicious.

[schattengerissen]

Something Something Sunday

Thanks to the ever-talented @oftachancer for the tag!

Been mainly working on original stuff lately while I figure out plotting for my fic, so instead of a wip, here's Chapter 6 (it's a very short chapter) of my finished fic A Night on the Town. It has action! Witty dialogue! Desire demons! And can be read as a stand-alone if you don't want to commit to the entire series.

------------------------ I had been having a perfectly good if somewhat odd dream — Dorian and I were living somewhere warm and seemed to be in the midst of opening a nug-breeding business with Leliana — when it took a nasty turn. I heard a horrible banging noise and turned to see some ghastly-looking child in the corner of the room repeatedly smashing two rocks together as it grinned at me with rot-blackened teeth. There was blood dripping down its chin.

I woke with a start and had a small moment of panic when the noise continued until it dawned on me that someone was banging on our door. Altruistic soul that I am, I found Dorian’s shoulder under the blankets and shook it until he made a complainy noise.

“Dorian. Someone’s at the door.”

He said, “Mnh.”

The banging paused and started again.

I pulled at the covers, trying to get further underneath them. “They won’t bloody stop.”

“Kill them for us, would you?” Dorian mumbled.

Because killing them would have involved getting out of bed, I shouted, “Andraste’s tits, go away!” My voice sounded raspy and unused and my nose was stuffed.

The banging stopped.

Dorian mumbled, “Thank you,” and we went back to sleep. --------------------

Tagging @dafan7711, @shield-maiden-of-sherwood, @rachelleofalltrades, @johaeryslavellan and anyone who’s got something they’d like to share.

[samsimmiesda2mods]

Clothed Desire Demon By Makacha

The mod puts some clothes on the desire demon.

DOWNLOAD

[schattengerissen]

“Desire demons are a different sort of beast than the ones we’ve been fighting,” Dorian said. “As their name implies, their first tactic isn’t to attempt to turn you into a scattered rendition of your component parts.” -- from A Night on the Town

Or read the series! The Contours of Shadows on AO3

[schattengerissen]

"What do you call a group of desire demons?” Dorian mused. “A wanting? A yearning?” -- From A Night on the Town