Article 10: Succubi
During the Angelic Protectorate's schism, a number of the different castes rebelled in ways that reflected upon the differences inherent in their particular Divine subrace. For the diminutive Cherubs, this very often boiled down to their appearance. Though they were granted command over vehicles of varying sizes, their short stature and childlike features still led them to be treated as though they were completely innocent children, particularly during their dealings with non-Divine. While some heretic-aligned Divine learned to use this to their advantage in dealings with others, still more were simply sick of not being taken as seriously as they wanted, and thus devised ways to magically age themselves. A very scant few went for older, more wizened looks, but most aged themselves to what would be considered the prime ages of attractiveness, their late teens and early twenties. These modifications on their own would be enough to distinguish them from non-heretic Cherubs, but as new edicts swung harder against them, their alterations became more extreme and attention-grabbing. By the time they were rounded up along with all the other rebelling Divine, some of them had so altered their looks that the only hints that they were still technically Cherubs were their tiny wings and tendency to still use them to hover off the ground slightly. When the Cherubs were sent through the Teleporter, they were among the later castes sent through and with a few exceptions, one of the most heavily altered, perhaps due to their tendency to be among the most already magically changed.
At least, that's how the AP history describes how the Succubi came to be. Of course, to hear the Succubi tell the stories themselves, there's some details that were left out. Foremost among them was the motivation for the changes. While a part of it was simply to break the rules, their history says that the actual reason that so many of them made themselves so attractive wasn't to just have attention from anyone--it was that they all wanted to experience love. Love, at least romantic love for a single person, was disallowed among the AP castes, with the reason given being that all Divine are meant to love everyone in the galaxy equally. In aging themselves, the former Cherubs say that they gained the ability to fall in love, and all did so, then made further alterations to try and win over their new romantic interests. How many of them succeeded is a matter that's hotly contested, but in the years leading up to the banishing of the heretics, there were a number of "celestial" children born--half-angels born to Human, Elven, or other non-divine mothers. While these bloodlines have in the generations since been heavily diluted, there is still the occasional non-Divine person who can still access their ability to use The Light, which is considered an anomaly among the AP since the ones who technically gave them this ability have lost that connection to the Purity source in the middle of the galaxy.
Succubi are a subrace of Devilings, and have a few features that are common among them and separate them from your average devil or demon. While they tend to have horns and tails that are on average smaller than those your normal Demon might have, they make up for it with their massive, leathery wings and the addition of a smaller pair of wings on the top of their head. These wings can be utilized for full flight with enough exercise, but most Succubi rarely use them for anything more intensive than hovering. All natural Succubi are female. Succubi tend to have vibrant, sometimes multicolored hair, skin, and eyes, and possess a pair of abilities that separate them from the other Devilings. The first of these is a supernatural level of beauty. Some are more demure in their appearance, but most are incredibly curvaceous and have a natural predilection towards showiness and high fashion. This ability also includes powerful pheromones that they can exude when in pursuit of a male for whatever ends they might have. Their second ability is the power to siphon mental energy from a target, usually male as well. This energy can be used to fuel spells, which lends Succubi towards becoming powerful sages and spellcasters. If you expect to face off against a Succubi, you may want to avoid doing it while male.
A common belief held between all Devilings is that removal from The Light caused by the banishment allowed the deepest desire of each caste to be fulfilled, albeit in a manner that cost them something that they held dear. For the Devils, this came to pass in their ability to magically enforce contracts filling their desire to get the truth out of others but at the expense of others no longer believing them to be trustworthy. For the Gremlins, their wish to work on other ships was granted by removing their extradimensional sight but still allowing them to internally visualize in such a fashion, leading them to create fantastic devices that could do nearly anything but which they couldn't truly fully understand. For the Succubi, however, this belief has what may be the strongest proof yet, as they were given bodies so alluring that few men could resist them, but burdened them with the knowledge that no one taken in such a way would ever truly love them the way they loved their partners back on the Angelic Protectorate homeworlds. It's a commonly-held belief that this curse has been passed down to subsequent generations of Succubi, with the added torment that they have no idea who in the galaxy their true love could be.
On the subject of love, there are some interesting facts about Succubi that are tied to their hypersexualized nature. For one, even though they now are burdened with slightly longer than Human lifespans, Succubi do not age past their prime. From their (relatively early and incredibly quick-onsetting) puberty onward, they maintain the appearance and fertility of a gorgeous barely-adult woman, only dying of natural causes because other Demons do. For another, even though Succubi can bear male children, they are still usually raised as female because at some point in the years directly following puberty they will become a female Succubus. This happens regardless of the father's race, and has on more than one occasion been the source of conflict when a "male" Succubus child has been raised without knowledge of their mother, as until their shift they will have an appearance much like their father's. Such a shift can happen overnight, or it can be drawn out over the course of a few days or even weeks in extreme circumstances. Thanks to this and the fact that even many of the original Succubi were originally male, a number of Succubi attempt to search for ways to return to their male state. Simple gender change spells don't even work on Succubi, though their appearance can be made to look more masculine, and even those that undergo expensive race change spells often find themselves returned to their old Succubi selves through odd magical circumstances. For those and ones who wish to find a way to regain their masculinity while retaining their race, it's known that it's possible, and those who have done it call themselves Incubi, but the specifics of the transformation are unknown save that all of them say that the process costs them their remote chance of ever finding true love. There are rumors that attempts made to transition to an Incubus that fail end up transforming the poor Succubus into some sort of "Second stage lust demoness", though the specifics of what that entails are even less known.
