Some spoilers & HC thoughts regarding Nightbane’s Soul Magic reflection, Lilith, and other things !
First and foremost, his reflection sounds like it’s based off Rhythm Zero by Marina Abramović which, to be brief, she placed 72 objects on a table for her audience to use on her, and she did nothing until the end of the performance to allow them to do anything they wanted. At first, people put rose petals on her and posed her arms, but they soon cut up her clothes, stuck thorns into her, loaded a real gun and placed it to her forehead etc.
Nightbane, 16 years prior to current events, manipulated a playwright to create a performance art of a doll to become famous. The doll was at first taken care of by the audience, her skin was rubbed with honey because she was “sweet” and other simple things, but audience members started to abuse her, stabbing and cutting her and destroying her. The doll, at the end of the performance, said she would do everything harmful that they did to her to all the audience members and slaughtered everyone to absorb the darkest parts of their souls. Then, Nightbane made the playwright sacrifice himself to give the doll his soul as well to create a baby. Nightbane was disgusted by the fact the baby, made of all the evil and sin of humans, was still an unspoiled, pure, and innocent thing so he crushed/killed it to try again.
Nightbane (and by extension Desire) planned Ashley and Lilith’s descent from the beginning. Lilith being 16 years old and Nightbane telling the Player he created a baby 16 years ago isn’t exactly subtle. I personally HC the scar on Ashley’s face was caused by either the baby being destroyed and remade, or that its residue, so to speak, of all the bad things the people did to the “doll” before she was sacrificed to make Ashley.
Thus, Nightbane is also technically her father/creator, which adds an additional layer to his servitude to Lilith (and his reflection lines insisting he will some day serve the perfect master)
Now, I think that’s up to speed regarding spoilers. Here’s some additional thoughts and headcanons I have about it:
In his references to his “Master” (Desire) and Lilith (the girl, her, etc) in the captions of Desire Magic (awakened Soul Magic) he seems to have a different attitude between them. In his reflection, he hated how pure and innocent the baby was that he created so much he threw up and smashed it. But on the other hand, the way he talks about fulfilling anything Lilith desires sounds more genuine, even to the point he almost romanticizes being in her shadow and guiding her towards a fairytale. It could very well be, however, that it’s just a predator spider wrapping a caterpillar in a false cocoon if you don’t mind my metaphor. Especially as he seems to be asking Desire permission to devour Lilith’s soul/heart. There’s a certain protective nature he has when he talks about Lilith, which canonically I think is just a predator being possessive of prey, but I prefer to headcanon it as being a protective father-figure.
I do really like the subtle inference that he could potentially betray Desire for Lilith or his own demonic impulses, however. Additionally, his Soul Magic captions warn that he calls all his prey “master” which makes me wonder if he thinks of Desire more like his prey since that seems to be how he exclusively refers to her (although there is the possibility that it’s just Paper’s way of keeping Desire’s existence a secret until later).
Personally, as much as I think canonically he’s just a demon who wants to eat Lilith’s soul, I do really enjoy the softer father/daughter dynamic potential they could have. Nightbane, according to his Intel, had a home in Starheaven but moved out (obviously to stay in the palace with Lilith). If you want the more horrific aspect, it was likely he was stalking Ashley all these years in Starheaven, corrupting perhaps every circumstance that would make her hate humanity and force her to make a pact with him. If you prefer the more fatherly side of things, perhaps it was to watch over her, protect her, guide her, and when she finally had enough, he would offer her his power to get her revenge.
Honestly I just *clenches fist* love the father/daughter dynamic, of Nightbane never telling Lilith that he created her, keeping it to himself, but continues to watch over her and give her anything she desires, no matter what, is proud of the queen she’s made herself to be, how intelligent her performance is, and perhaps how strong her styling power is — a HC I have is that people love her not because she’s a good manipulator but bc she has insanely strong styling power in the way Vulture, Qin Yi, and Mercury can manipulate people’s perceptions.
I’m only in Global server, so please don’t give me any further spoilers !
