Episode 103: Demonspawn

Written By Karl White

Nearly every civilization has told stories of visitors in the night. Seductive figures appearing sometimes in dreams. Unseen presences lingering at the periphery of sleep. Or the physical embodiment of a lover vanishing with the dawn, leaving behind confusion, obsession, or terror.

From the demonologies of medieval Europe, to the folklore of the ancient world, these entities appeared under countless names. Yet despite the differences in culture, geography, or belief, the descriptions remain remarkably consistent. They’re known as Incubi and Succubi, demons who prey upon body, and soul.

Masters of temptation, these demons walk unnoticed among us, seeking to exploit our deepest desires and weaknesses. Unlike the vast majority of demonkind, Incubi and Succubi possess the rare ability to produce offspring with humans, creating progenies forever marked by the infernal. A way for the Dark to have instruments in the mortal realm to carry out their evil designs. 

Known as Demonspawn, these children are divided into two distinct bloodlines: those descended from Succubi, and those descended from Incubi.

Flesh-bound - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

A Succubus, the female version of the demon, produces children that are commonly known as the Flesh-Bound, for the corruption within them manifests primarily through the body. At birth they appear entirely human, and many live for years without realizing their true nature. As they mature, however, subtle abnormalities emerge. Most develop extraordinary physical strength, recover from injury with unnatural speed, and possess an instinctive ability to alter aspects of their appearance. For some, this remains little more than an unconscious gift. For others, it evolves into complete shapeshifting.

A Flesh-Bound’s demonic inheritance becomes more pronounced with age. Hair, eyes, teeth, and bone structure may gradually change, reflecting the darkness hidden beneath the surface. As they get older they’re prone to powerful emotional extremes, particularly rage and violence, for unlike true demons, Flesh-Bounds possess the ability to kill human beings directly. Some spend their lives resisting these impulses, while others easily succumb. As a result, Succubus children are often employed by the forces of darkness as infiltrators and assassins, spreading terror through direct brutal action and fear.

Historical examples of Flesh-bounds are mostly figures who find themselves thrust into positions of power. They become overbearing rulers, bringing about wars and great suffering. Roman Emperor Caracalla, French knight Gilles de Rais, Soviet politician Lavrentiy Beria, and Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, were all Flesh-Bound Demonspawns. 

But there are others who keep their true nature hidden. Stalking the shadows of history in search of more intimate horrors. A significant number of spree and serial killers are Flesh-Bounds, using their human disguises and their shapeshifting abilities to remain above suspicion. 

Dr. Thorne hunting as Jack the Ripper - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

One such example was Dr. Gideon Thorne. In the late 1880s, Thorne was a respected London surgeon who devoted countless hours to charitable work in overcrowded parish medical clinics including the Whitechapel Union Infirmary. To the public, he was regarded as a healer. By night however he became something altogether different. Better known to history as Jack the Ripper, Thorne altered his appearance repeatedly, assuming multiple identities during his murders, leaving investigators to pursue an endless trail of dead-end suspects. 

Spirit-bound - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

The descendants of Incubi are known as the Spirit-Bound, for their corruption manifests not through flesh, but spirit. Though outwardly human, many exhibit extraordinary mental and supernatural gifts from an astonishingly young age. Cases of newborns capable of speech, children possessing impossible knowledge of the past and present, extrasensory perception, and even telepathic ability, have long been associated with this bloodline. As adolescence begins, these gifts intensify, drawing them ever closer to the unseen of the world. But as they mature, the power begins to consume their being, driving many to the point of compulsion, obsession, and even the brink of madness. 

The pubescent shift Spirit-Bounds go through is as much chemical as it is physical, for their souls are marked by Brimstone...the primordial substance from which Hell and its inhabitants are formed.

It’s not merely matter, nor energy, but a corruptive essence. Every demon possesses Brimstone within its being, and every Demonspawn inherits a trace amount through their infernal lineage. But the way in which Spirit-Bounds synthesize the compound, it grows with their honed abilities, creating a pure form of dark power -- which other dark entities feed on. Meaning demons gain great power from consuming a Spirit-Bounds soul. 

Their bodies are living repositories of power waiting to be harvested. For this reason, descendants of Incubi are regarded not as soldiers in the Dark’s war, but as fuel for it. Many Spirit-Bound kids disappear under mysterious circumstances during adolescence, while others are created with the sole-purpose to one day become sacrifices in rituals meant to strengthen demonic forces.

A brief aside, where Brimstone is an element of Hell, Asterion is its antithesis from the celestial realm of Aeturno. One is a substance of corruption. The other, a substance of Creation itself. And when Brimstone and Asterion meet, one unravels the other. The Seraphblade, Kharos, wields weapons forged from Asterion specifically to oppose Brimstone. Sacred relics such as the Rhongomyniad and the Sword of Saint Michael were fashioned with traces of Asterion, created specifically to be uniquely lethal to demonic beings.

Legends and lore of Spirit-Bounds have existed throughout history. Stories of mysterious “half-breeds” or “fatherless” seers appear in cultures throughout the world. The Oracle of Delphi, Nostradamus, Mother Shipton, and Merlin were all Cambions. Interestingly enough, Merlin, a fighter for the Light, is credited with creating the Rhongomyniad as an atonement for his demonic roots.   

Merlin, the Spirit-Bound - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

In the 1980s, an epidemic was quietly unfolding across the United States. A baby-boom of sorts. 

Hospitals and birth records reflected an unusual pattern, with growing numbers of unwed women giving birth after encounters with a man they scarcely knew. Their descriptions were strikingly similar. A dark-haired drifter. Charming. Handsome. Someone they shared only a single night with before he vanished without a trace.

The phenomenon echoed another wave of mysterious pregnancies that swept across the nation years earlier, stretching from coast to coast. Yet in those earlier cases, the mothers often couldn’t describe the father at all. Many insisted there’d been no man to remember. Only a dark stranger who visited them in a dream before they awoke inexplicably pregnant. Those who claimed such immaculate conceptions born from sleep were dismissed, ridiculed, or simply not believed.

The truth, however, was far less mysterious than it appeared, as it was the work of the demon Kasson, Having ascended to the rank of Incubus, he was methodically carrying out a hidden purpose to fulfill a secret destiny.

After orchestrating the Procession that was enacted in 1945, and quietly maneuvering other pieces into place for the Dark’s next advance towards war, Kasson gained enough infernal power to attain status of the Seventh State. Being recalled to the Underworld and reborn an Incubus, he possessed abilities unlike any he’d wielded before. But power alone was not enough. To cultivate those gifts, he’d have to return to Earth. And like all demons crossing from planes into the mortal realm, he couldn’t come of his own accord. Someone would first have to summon him.

That moment arrived in 1978 in the small town of Cedar Park, Texas. An eighteen-year-old community college student named Dusty stumbled upon a copy of De Diabolo, a diluted and diminished iteration of the Book of Amar. Hoping to place a petty curse upon a young woman who’d rejected him, he unknowingly performed the ritual that conjured Kasson back into the world. The demon emerged in a crude and primal form, newly reborn and forced to slowly grow into both his physical appearance and the terrifying powers that accompanied it.

Dusty conjures Kasson - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

But upon seeing the horrifyingly unformed creature in front of him, Dusty cowered...

DUSTY: Wwwhat are you?

KASSON: I’m a voice in the dark, a moving shadow, the sound under the bed, the thing that goes bump in the night...and I’ve come to leave my mark upon this world.

And with that, Kasson's true work began.

At first, he appeared only in dreams. Then stepped into bedrooms, transforming himself into the embodiment of the Boogeyman, terrorizing the women of the Austin suburbs. Before long, the nightmare spread to Houston, Beaumont, and countless communities beyond.

As time passed, Kasson's earthly form evolved alongside his growing power. The grotesque creature that’d lurked in the darkness gave way to an impossibly handsome stranger, making his hunt infinitely easier as he quietly sowed the seeds of the Dark's design wherever he went.   

TO BE CONTINUED…