Daemon, Iniquidaemon
"Funky Leopard" © Allison Theus, accessed at her ArtStation here
[Presented in the spirit of the times.]
Daemon, Iniquidaemon CR 12 NE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature resembles a leopard, but its anatomy does not follow either biology or sanity. It has six limbs, the middle pair of which are elongated and fold against the beast’s side, and all are tipped with eagle-like, grasping talons. It has five jaws that open radially, which part to reveal muscular tongues tipped with meat hooks. Its eyes glimmer with cruel, appraising intelligence.
The iniquidaemon is the daemon of ideology. It delights in fanning the flames of self-destructive ideas that leave communities fractured and lives ruined, using honeyed words and magic to convince people to turn on each other. Countries besieged by an iniquidaemon are noted for the presence of mutilated, faceless bodies, as well as the insistent and continued denial of its members that a similar fate could ever happen to them. The iniquidaemon’s presence may even be well known, but its supernatural abilities leave most people thinking of the presence of a face-eating leopard monster as completely mundane.
An iniquidaemon prefers to have other creatures fight for it most of the time. They stoke hatred and dissent to create angry mobs, turn protectors against those they would protect, and make rulers contemptuous of their subjects and subjects apathetic to their rulers’ cruelties. They often disseminate disinformation in disguise, assuming the appearance of a public figure in order to spread lies and propaganda. Against a party of adventurers, iniquidaemons turn allies into enemies with their spell-like abilities, disrupting squad tactics easily. When they decide to start getting their claws dirty, they behave much like the big cats they resemble, pouncing and clawing at a single target. Their grotesque mouths and tongues tug at the soul as much as they do flesh, and creatures who succumb to their maw have their souls sent to Abaddon to be hunted and devoured by other daemons.
Iniquidaemons do not trust each other, knowing the treachery and deceit that accompanies their every thought and deed, but are excellent at ingratiating themselves to other daemons. They often ally with yagnodaemons and cavillodaemons, the three working together as a unit to impose idiotic cruelty onto a realm and crush anyone who fights back. They may work for the cults of all four Horsemen, and many harbingers as well, although their true allegiance usually lies elsewhere. Most iniquidaemons are loyal only to themselves and to Caracalla, their creator, who shaped them with the goal of spreading the gospel of profit above all.