The Deal

This thread is for fleshing out what exactly the machinations are behind selling one's soul for demonic power, with a focus on its place in demonic culture.

Practicality:

Are souls limited to tasty treats or could an especially dark soul work as a "rare candy" so to speak? Could a demon get positive returns when it comes time to reap one's soul?

Succubi culture:

The higher in class one is, the ruder it is seen to hunt for one's own food. There are other behaviors that are also less than desirable: Menyssan takes a job that most succubi would snob at, stuffing herself with all kinds of souls without discretion. A sign of nobility is to feed on only the choicest of souls- gourmet food. This is why so many succubi bother to make deals with mortals- with enough contracts going at once they will secure a high-class diet without having to result to foraging or worse, buying lesser souls.

Claiming the soul:

A soul is physically marked by the demon who granted it power in life- this makes who it "belongs" to easily distinguishable. A demon usually won't try to claim a soul which has already been marked simply because it will likely end up arguing over it. However, the mark of a higher demon (or social class) will most likely beat out a lower one. A lower-class demon could pour power into a dark warlord for decades only for some aristocrat to come along and make a deal too before the guy's last battle. When that soul comes to hell, the lower demon discovers that it wasn't brought to them- but to who had more power or influence. Because of this treachery the claiming of souls is best left to those who already have some power or influence- and is thus perpetuated as a sign of having those qualities. Thus it's seen as an avenue to higher things by lower, yet clever demons.

Ah, I wondered if you would create this, I was tempted to myself. Luckily though you can be more coherent than I.

Anyway, I like the 'Claiming the Soul' section. Note that souls could be used as political leverage. Nobler succubi have areas of influence probably, areas of hell they have more of a domain over. Hell is probably an infinitely wide dimensional plane, so supporting this is feasible. Though we shouldn't try to formulate succubi culture around making deals, as it's probably more accurately the opposite: deals stem from succubi culture. So as we aim to explain and expand on this, that might be something kept in mind.

Anyway, when it comes to an aristocrat Succubus, if they notice one guy has a contract with a succubus of a lower class, they wont be too afraid of letting the guy have multiple contracts. However, if a noble succubus sees a guy has a contract with another noble succubus, they'll be hesitant, because it means war between them both probably. Also, they might try to do it anyway to undermine another succubi's influence. They could use the guy as a double agent, giving him more power to reward him for services that benefit that particular succubus.

That being said, the contract is special. It's magical in nature, binds a soul in return for power from one side to another (typically). So a contract like this typically has a ritual. You don't just open the book of "thaumaturgy for starters" and read the bold text. Hell isn't that easy to contact, there would be certain things you have to chant, probably, also put a certain combination of things together. Maybe a runic circle, some objects that represent you deep down maybe, just symbolic ingredients in general, ones that this contract would require. The contract offer would probably be like one phone ringing in an open room full of people. The first person to get the phone wins.

In return, the magic from the ritual engages the creation of the contract - and being a contract that can enforce a soul in exchange for power would already have magical properties, but the whole point of this is to support the fact that it may not just be "soul for power". In a contract there are always terms of agreement, small writing, specific, like that bill you vote for with all the tiny writing. You go online to figure out what all the tiny little writing actually means, because read straight through you would probably miss the implications unless your mind is politically geared. The more specific the terms of the contract, the more power or more efficiently power can be transferred to the user.

There's a problem though. The succubus' power is being used by a mortal, that there is the weakness. Succubi already get access to a lot of souls in the first place, giving your power in exchange for rich food is like ripping your fingernail off to get a piece of Buche de Noel. However that Buche de Noel needs to die first before you can eat it, so you'll probably wait a while, depending on how resourceful it is. Whether or not you thing long term or short term as a succubus, its still a while that you have to wait, and its still clipping your power for the wait.

The contract should grant power to the succubus to use like a bank to loan out to her deal makers. Sort of like when you go to university and you look for grants and partial scholarships. For having lots of students and good reports and various other things, the universities get money from the government (or private sources depending) and they can use that money to pay for people to go to their campus, make their college more well known and give them a better reputation, thus giving them more money. The contract would be somewhat similar to this. The university is the succubus, the government is the contract, and the student is the deal maker. That's kind of how I see it.

Also various shrines and temples, place of worship could also give the succubi a power boost. This would explain the construction of the hundreds of temples scattered throughout the Forests/Jungles. At one point, you get a large group of people to construct a large temple, with a library full of ancient knowledge and spells, and worship the succubus so that the leader and a few others get power, and grant her power so that they can use it to further their society. Or something along those lines.

These are my thoughts on the matter anyway.

edit: just note that if the contract is nothing but "you get my soul I get your power", its not short and sweet. It's actually bland, and exploitable. That's why this is a really important thread

Well my idea for the way a demon contract works is simply this:

A person who is so obsessed with power enough to be willing to trade their soul for a contract is already pretty corrupt and bound for hell nonetheless. So a basic "soul for power" contract would only be desired on one of two real occasions.

1. The succubus for some reason or another has desired an attachment for the specific person's soul and desires that the soul in question go explcitly to her when the target is claimed. (ex. an ancestor of the person chose to screw over the Succubus in the past, and she wants revenge on the bloodline)
2. The soul is not destined for hell, yet the succubus desires it and manipulates a scenario to force the innocent one to contract them.

Now in a far more practical sense, the contract would involve a special deal being made where the signer is given a clause to escape the contract, but if he succeeds in the clause the Succubus will gain a major profit, despite losing the soul. Some ways might include.
-Getting her a specific treasure
-Killing someone who is a major thorn in their side but remains out of the Succubus' reach for one reason or another so she can't do the target in herself.
-Gathering her a lot of souls for her own personal consumption.

When it comes to demons, greed is power, and even if they add a clause to the contract, they will usually have loopholes in place so that she gets the deed done, and still claims the soul of the signer for herself. At least that's a basic synopsis in my part.

that's a very interesting thread here
There is some good takes on the question and indeed it has hardly been aborded at all yet. nice job ^^

You'll probably want to decide early just how willing a Succubi / Demonic Entity is to follow through on their end of the bargain, as well as whether you can drag other people with you (Are "Egg of the Conqueror" scenarios good, for instance, or is there only one soul you can ever put on the table at one time unless you've been collecting?).

The way I figure it, a contract is - even if riddled with loopholes, clauses, and so on that are inherently rigged in the Demonic's favor - a very binding and very serious matter. You can't just take someone under extreme duress (See: Extensive torture) and force them to do something like sign over their and their comrades souls to make it stop. Furthermore, I imagine that - even if they'll do everything in their power to twist the agreement / not give a definite answer - a Demonic being will follow through on their end of the agreement. You could sell your soul to own a mansion and immediately be killed ("Hey, a deed was written in your name at the time of the wish"), but they must still have (at least temporarily) given you the mansion before your soul is theirs to claim. One side cannot back out on the other without the deal being forfeit.