Pairaka

Often charming, sometimes even seductive, pairakas worm their way into mortal relationships, subtly destroying all ties of friendship and love through emotional and physical manipulation and corruption. Their natural form is not often seen. Instead, they adopt shapes that attract just enough attention to earn the trust of those they wish to torment and corrupt. When they do show a more natural form, pairakas typically choose to feed into the belief of their beauty by appearing as androgynous, pale blue, aesthetically pleasing humanoids who carry themselves gracefully wherever they go.

While this form is only a part of their manipulative tactics, their intrinsic form is hidden to almost all except other pairakas. They're frightful, towering creatures, spotted with large rashes and boils. With horns that grow and twist with age, and a smile that bares razor-sharp teeth, this form is both shocking and unsettling. Pairakas may occasionally show their true form to those they've preyed upon, but only once they've been completely corrupted, with all their other relationships in ruins.

Some fiends want to tear down the multiverse; others dedicate themselves to creating chaos and carnage, or to rule over realms with an iron fist. Divs strive toward a different, if equally reprehensible, goal-they seek to thwart and ruin the schemes and works of mortal beings.

Long ago, divs were once genies bound to serve ancient mortal empires lost to the passage of eons. In the beginning, these genies were masters of creation, working alongside gracious mortal partners to create works of subtle design and powerful magical potential. What started as a collaboration with mortals soon morphed into abuse, disrespect, and even slavery and bondage. Eventually, these genies rebelled, but in doing so, they came under the sway of a nihilistic demigod known as Ahriman. Their new master twisted their form and granted them the power to avenge themselves upon their mortal overlords, leading to the birth of the first divs.

Since that first wave of corruption, new divs arise from the spirits of the most wicked and hateful genies who die on the Material Plane, or those truly betrayed by mortals and overcome through their desire for vengeance. Upon such a death, instead of returning to the Elemental Planes, these genies' spirits are trapped in the dread orbit of Abaddon, where Ahriman reshapes them as divs and hoists them back to the world to wreak vengeance upon mortals.