Zealot Minister

I find myself deeply sickened by this so-called "natural" demonic law. There is nothing natural about their system, even if the rest of the demon hordes are willing to roll over to flash their bloated bellies. The Demon Kings NEED the rest of us to bow before their profane forms and offer our flesh up to their altars and they will always call it nature. No. I will no longer play their games. WE, will no longer play their games.

— Unnamed Zealot Minister

Zealots and their kin are considered among the greatest heretics among the demon world. The wholehearted revulsion these demons express towards the systems of power all other demons consider absolute and infallible law have turned their very species into pariahs by every other species of true demon. Some more bestial species exhibit an increased hostility towards these demons as well, reacting to their presence with violent abject disgust. No matter how tarnished their reputation has become, the zealots have stuck to their values and continue to shake up the rest of the demonic world.

To do this they engage in yet another great heresy against the laws of the demon world; growing more powerful. The zealot minister is a prime example of this, as a normal zealot can become its larger counterpart through a complicated process that involves forming contracts with mortals and performing arcane experiments on other lesser demons. Once an aspiring zealot has accrued a vast wealth of knowledge, it offers its form to its fellow cultists to partake in a warping ritual. The result of several agonizing days of transforming as the zealot minister.

Just as their smaller counterpart prefers to hide its form beneath an ominous cloak, the zealot minister hides most of its features using the same article of clothing. The robes it had once worn as a lesser demon have grown with it due to the ritual, ensuring its cloak continues to fit around its fattened form. Underneath its robes, these demons have flabby pale skin and thick three-fingered hands adorned with long claws. The zealot minister possesses a head somewhere between a naked mole rat and a lamprey with a prominent mouth. Thin dry patches of fur adorn the demons otherwise bare flesh of the demon among splotchy rashes and swollen blisters. The most unusual feature boasted by this species is the enormous serpentine tongue which can always be seen hanging from their open maws. These monstrous tongues stick out far enough to poke out from the hood of their robes and act like a slimy trunk of the demon.

Compared to their lesser relative, the minister is a hulking beast standing over twice the height of the typical zealot. This assists in their outward appearance as creatures with total authority and hints towards the cruel and savage behaviors these demons tend to exhibit. They also pair their large size and intimidating presence with larger weaponry such as oversized meat cleavers and rusty axes compared to the daggers or machetes wielded by the smaller zealots.

Leaders of Demonic Rebellion

The role of a zealot minister among their group of reject species is one of authority that undermines the systems of power utilized by the higher ranks of demons. Despite the unusual shape of their mouths and the size of their tongues, these demons have a reputation of being smooth talkers and passionate speakers who lead their flocks with rousing speeches. They act as the head of villages and communes populated by their smaller counterpart along with mortals who had also joined their cause. One minister will hold domain over a single location, and in these small settlements the biggest building is always saved for this species.

Zealot encampments tend to have a central area adorned with a stone altar where the minister spreads the message and read the prepared parables it has written. The minster's home contains an office where it writes the many remarks which it uses to rouse the hearts of its fellow sinners. These main areas are also used to strategize and plan formations which adds further importance to the speeches ministers give there.

Though they harbor a passion for their cause, this species has little care or love for the lesser species and especially for the mortals serving them. Such an indifference towards their subordinates is universal among the species, even for instances who had once been zealots. Regardless, the zealot minister makes an effort to convince the lesser demons among it that they are all members of a honorable cause meant to shatter the very core of the demon world and restructure the lives of their fellow low-ranking species.

Ministers love to describe their works as wise and complex works of philosophy and the reactions they receive from their servants upon presenting these writings may convince many of such sentiments. However, actually engaging with the works of a zealot minister tends to sound like nonsense to mortal creatures not yet under the control of a zealot sect. This is a symptom of the potent tribalism that exists among the zealots and other species of sinners. They have been kicked out from the rest of the system, tucked underneath the demonic equivalent of wild animals, which has created a culture centered around tight-knit isolationist communes.

It is said that once you join their cause, the words of the great ministers make more sense than anything else in life. Of course, this is a symptom of the contracts.

The Fall from Grace

For quite some time, the zealots were considered another species of demons within the Third Rank of the demonic hierarchy. The zealot was considered a species of demon synonymous with the term unremarkable like the grunt. It was believed these smaller demons were primitive in nature and only felt compelled to build villages because of a species that just happened to look similar to them. As for the sudden appearance of a new species of demon, the ministers were chalked up to a sudden cataclysm that directed a boost in energy to the zealots.

It was in fact this lack of respect for the zealot species as a whole that allowed them to start forming contracts with mortals only to be caught due to future heresies performed by these rebels. While the basic zealots acted as a recruitment force among the mortal worlds, the ministers played their assigned role as Rank Four demons. Given an upgrade, regardless of how small it was, allowed the zealot minister to control demons below them and even command small armies. The ministers would become so widespread and influential that some would be sent to colonized worlds to act as underlings for the Counts, Earls, or Marquises stationed there.

Things would take a drastic turn upon the discovery of another creation of the zealots; the Imperial Grunt. The idea that a group of demons toiled for such a long time to change and boost what is still considered among the most uniform and subservient demon species of all time shook the higher ranks. This called for an investigation into the nature of these strange little communes which unveiled the causes of the larger more magically potent relative to the primitive zealots.

Punishment was swift and brutal as the Demon Kings themselves feared the actions of these demons could lead to total collapse. Fearing such chaos, the Demon Kings unanimously agreed to place both the zealot and the transformed zealot minister into the first rank. Now considered filth in the demon world, the zealot minister has become far less common and tend to hide within the dark corners of the world along with their flocks.

There with their faithful servants they will wait, hidden in the shadows, for the opportune moment to strike.