Little Horns
"If a devil comes smiling with horns too small for his kind, do not speak your desire aloud, he’ll take your words as consent to take everything you have."
Little Horns is a paradox wrapped in infernal grinning silk. A Fiend, of tremendous age, cunning, and cruelty, he stands as one of the most feared manipulators in all history. Where Vile conquered with armies and law writ into flesh, Little Horns conquers with promises and parchment, weaving contracts so intricate that even veteran Warlocks struggle to glimpse the iron beneath the honey. His true name is unknown, his aliases are many, his intentions are never benevolent. He is the whisper at the end of hope, the hand extended in the dark when a mortal stands one breath from ruin, offering salvation at a cost measured not in coin, but in autonomy, oaths, and years taken for himself. To his fellow Devils, he is a pariah, a living loophole, a creature who turns pact-craft into something surgical and cruel. To mortals, he is nightmare dressed as charity. To the The Knights of All-Faith, he is a wicked specter whose influence must be killed at the root. To his warlocks, he is master, jailor, and indulgent tyrant. There are a thousand warnings across The Folklands, but the oldest remains the simplest. Beware a devil with horns too small, moustache too neat, and smile too patient. He asks only what you want, and takes everything else.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Little Horns maintains the immaculate appearance of a creature who has never once allowed the world to touch him uninvited. Slight of frame by devil standards yet coiled with wiry strength, he moves with the precision of a seasoned duelist and the poise of a nobleman who has slit throats across a hundred courts. His health appears impeccable, an immortal perfection crafted through pact-magic, stolen vitality, and rituals whose documentation has long since been burned.
Body Features
At first glance he appears almost delicate, lean limbs, graceful posture, skin the color of cooled magma. The horns that earned him his name are indeed small, sharp crescents no longer than a finger’s length, protruding from his auburn brow with a slight forward tilt. Devils whisper that they were once larger, broken down intentionally to disarm expectations. His tail is long and whip-thin , the tip reminiscent of a quill-nib.
Facial Features
His face is sharply elegant, high cheekbones, narrow jawline, and eyes like oil-lit lanterns, amber pupils ringed in hellish crimson. A meticulously groomed, thin moustache curls upward in an ever-smirking flourish, so iconic it is considered his seal as much as his signature. His eyebrows arch with predatory amusement, and his smile is the sort that promises mercy he does not possess.
Identifying Characteristics
- Twin stunted horns, polished like obsidian glass.
- A moustache so fine it seems impossible to exist amid ash and ruin.
- Pact-scars hiding beneath tailored clothing, dark, curling sigils etched over centuries of deals.
- Amber eyes that glow brighter when sensing vulnerability in a mortal’s voice.
Physical quirks
He rarely blinks. His tail sways gently during conversation, tapping in rhythmic patterns that match the cadence of infernal legal cant. When drawing a contract, his fingers tremble not with nervousness, but anticipation. And when someone lies to him, one ear twitches ever so slightly, he claims the gesture is subconscious, but nothing about him is accidental.
Special abilities
- Pact-Mastery: Little Horns is the foremost living expert on infernal contracts. He can turn spoken wishes into binding law, reshape reality through consent alone, and weave clauses that echo across generations.
- Skilled Spellblade: While he rarely displays it, preferring to solve his problems diplomatically, Little Horns has shown proficiency in weaving magick and martial prowess quite effectively; One reported instance using telekinesis to pull a carpet from beneath a man into the path of his blade after Little Horns was challenged by the man in question for crimes against his family. Little Horns was likely guilty of this, yet as-usual suffered no inconvenience.
- Shapeshifting: A talent rumored to have been stolen from the Changelings after deceiving one of their kind into his service; Used to shift his appearance subtly, never fully disguising himself, but softening or sharpening features to better tempt a target.
- Sovereign Persuasion: His voice carries magickal weight; bargains spoken within earshot take on momentum, tugging on the soul like a tide.
Apparel & Accessories
Little Horns dresses impeccably in long, tailored coats woven of soot-silk, trimmed with infernal gold. His gloves, thin and black, are etched with runic filigree, each fingertip capped with faintly glowing sigils used to brand contracts into parchment or flesh. Around his neck hangs a chain of miniature keys, each key belonging to a contract vault, a sealed promise, or a soul he has yet to claim.
Specialized Equipment
- The Quill of the Second Tongue: A living quill that writes in infernal script even when dipped in mortal blood or spilled ink. It never dulls.
- The Ledger of Lost Causes: His spellbook and contract-book combined; its pages shift and reorder themselves based on the clauses he is actively enforcing.
- The Gentleman’s Blade: A thin rapier forged from a man's spine. It inflicts wounds that never close unless Little Horns says to and possesses anti-magick properties thgat allow it to destroy runes or pierce magickal barriers.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Little Horns predates much of modern Devil society. Thrice as-much for our realm who was a stranger to him, his kind, and his world for millennia. Rumor holds he was once a lesser advocate in the infernal courts of The Hells before Vile’s rise and eventual conquest of Gaiatia, a minor legalist who saw pacts as chess rather than battle. When Vile unified the Devils, Little Horns refused to bend the knee, choosing instead to serve as advisor, then as saboteur, then as traitor three times over. He survived the Fall through deception, survived the Schism through mobility, and has survived every century since by remaining indispensable to mortals too desperate to refuse his aid. Where Vile sought to dominate the world through force, Little Horns prefers to own it through signatures, leverage, and quiet ruin. He had no care for who won Vile's war, but he oh-so adored the billions of new folk and cultures to learn to twist and break. Now his warlocks span continents, each bound in deals so complex or ancient even the brightest minds alive today cannot fully decode them.
Gender Identity
Devils shape roles as they please. Little Horns adopts a masculine affectation but uses gender as ornamentation, a mask he shifts as needed to embody charm, authority, or seduction.
Sexuality
His appetites are indulgent and predatory. He seduces who he can and takes who he can't; Intimacy is simply another battlefield on which to secure advantage. He never feigns affection, he simply repurposes it.
Education
A scholar of infernal jurisprudence, he studied under arch-fiends whose names are legally forbidden to speak. He learned mortal contract law by listening to kings argue with tax collectors. His education spans three worlds and countless souls.
Employment
He is an unlicensed solicitor of damnation. A broker of wishes. A collector of debt. His “employment” is temptation, and his salary is obedience.
Accomplishments & Achievements
- Subverted a dozen royal bloodlines through debt clauses alone.
- Built the infamous “Warlock’s Court,” a hidden conclave of indentured spellblades who serve him like trained dogs, or else.
- Survived Vile’s rise, fall, and legacy while openly defying him, yet was never subdued despite Vile's immense reach and hatred for Little Horns' schemes.
Failures & Embarrassments
Only one is known, a mortal child once tricked him into granting a wish without receiving consent in return. Since then, he has hunted the child’s descendants relentlessly, not for vengeance, but to correct the legal imbalance at the root of his pride.
Mental Trauma
Behind his smile lies the fear of meaninglessness. Devils of war earn glory. Devils of law burn history into their bones. But Devils of persuasion risk being forgotten. Little Horns fears oblivion more than death, and in that fear lies his endless need to bind others to him.
Intellectual Characteristics
He is analytic, meticulous, and clinically observant. He hears weaknesses in tone the way smiths hear flaws in steel. His mind is a ledger, his memory, an archive of vulnerabilities.
Morality & Philosophy
Guile is sacred. Desires are liabilities. Freedom is an illusion. Mortals ruin themselves best when handed the tools to do so.
Taboos
He considers two things abhorrent:
- Breaking a contract, even one forged in deception.
- Giving a gift freely, every exchange must cost something.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To acquire influence through debt, desire, and dependency. He desires no throne, no army, no divine seat, only leverage. Power that cannot be toppled by blade or god, but only by the very mortals who willingly surrendered it.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Savvies:
- Master manipulator.
- Fluent in dozens of mortal dialects.
- Expert duelist.
- Peerless contract-crafter.
- Impossibly charming.
- Cannot comprehend altruism.
- Poor at tactics requiring brute force.
- Incapable of long-term loyalty.
- Terrible at cooperative work.
- Utterly baffled by smallfolk subtlety.
Likes & Dislikes
Virtues & Personality perks
He is honest. Completely, disturbingly honest, he will tell you what you will lose, even as you fail to believe him. He honors every contract to the letter. He appreciates artistry in negotiation and respects cleverness when it beats him.
Vices & Personality flaws
He cannot refuse a bargain. He indulges in his many vices with gluttonous abandon but especially enjoys Alcohol. His arrogance borders on incestuous pride. He cannot stand being outmaneuvered and will rewrite entire generations of destiny to win a petty argument.
Personality Quirks
- Twirls his moustache when thinking.
- Counts heartbeats during negotiations.
- Pauses mid-sentence when someone lies.
- Leans closer when someone whispers their desires.
Hygiene
Immaculate. Always. Not a fleck of soot. Not a wrinkle. Not a loose thread. His self-care regimen borders on ritual obsession.
Representation & Legacy
Little Horns exists in nursery rhymes as a warning. His silhouette appears in old broadsheets and wanted posters. Cultists adore him. Scholars fear him. The Arcane Coalition devotes entire archives to him. He has shaped the destinies of hundreds of families, and entire regions have been swallowed by the silent machinery of his debt.
Social
Reign
His dominion is invisible, threads stretched across nations tied to desperate signatures.
Contacts & Relations
The Knights of All-Faith (Primary enemy).
His Warlocks (Bound servants, some willing, none happy).
Family Ties
Unknown. He disowned any infernal lineage that might hold him accountable. Some whisper he was born of a pact rather than a womb.
Religious Views
He treats gods as competitors. Their worshippers as opportunities. Their laws as laughable.
Social Aptitude
Impossibly charming, disturbingly charismatic. He thrives in salons, thronerooms, gambling dens, funerals, and war councils, anywhere desperation ferments.
Mannerisms
- Often adjusts his outfit mid-conversation.
- Turns pages with only one finger.
- Sighs dramatically when folk try to negotiate.
Hobbies & Pets
Little Horns keeps no true pets, save for the indentured servants he has mad of his victims. He occasionally travels with a cat whose body flickers like burning parchment, a creature he claims is “on loan from a friend,” though whether that friend is another devil or a broken contract is unclear. Beyond that, he prefers familiars that serve a purpose, ink-feeding mites that maintain his ledgers, whisper-moths that carry messages, and a single quill-spider that sleeps inside his coat and mends documents with silk-fine script. As for hobbies, Little Horns indulges in pastimes that blur the line between leisure and manipulation. He collects signatures the way nobles collect art, admires rare inks distilled from poisonous flowers, and spends long evenings orchestrating “friendly debates” that spiral into ruin for the unprepared. He enjoys perfecting new contract clauses the way a painter refines a brushstroke, and he treats negotiation as both sport and meditation. On rare nights, when he believes no one watches, he can be found humming old infernal legal hymns, ancient melodies from a time before pacts became weapons.
Speech
Little Horns speaks with a voice honed like a razor wrapped in velvet, smooth and buttery at first, warming the listener into ease before that gravel-slick undertone emerges, the sound of law snapping shut like a trap. His words are measured, every syllable chosen with precision born of centuries of pactcraft, each phrase layered with a faint resonance of formal Infernic buried beneath whatever local accent he adopts for the moment. He greets others with a bow so slight it could be courtesy or mockery, his tone soft as if offering benedictions even when delivering insults that land like poisoned honey. When he leans closer, always at the exact moment a soul begins to waver, he murmurs his favored reassurances, “Let’s put it in writing.” Or, with a smile sharpened at the edges, “A simple signature.” And when he senses the desire beneath a mortal’s ribs, he whispers, “You know what you want, darling,” in that deceptively gentle cadence that has undone kingdoms. His farewells are never elaborate, he departs with the same calm finality as a guillotine’s fall. Why make a show of leaving when he already has you, and can come back at his leisure to bleed you of anything else you can offer him?
Wealth & Financial state
Little Horns possesses vaults filled with gold, rights, names, lands, future children, the final words of dying kings. Wealth beyond typical measure.
Honorary & Occupational Titles
- The Gentleman Devil.
- The Laughing Barrister.
- Lord of Loopholes.
- Master of Masters.
Age
Unknown, but certainly older than most Devils, possibly one of the first Fiends ever born.
Children
Gender
Male.
Eyes
Amber-gold, slit-pupiled, gleaming with predatory warmth.
Hair
What hair he has is a deep chestnut color.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Faded crimson.
Height
6 foot.
Weight
Uncannily light for his density.
Quotes & Catchphrases
- “Let’s not lie to one another. ”
- “A signature is a key, and I am fond of locked doors.”
- “I never take what isn’t offered. You simply offer too much.”
- “If my horns were larger, you’d run before I spoke. This way, we can talk.”
Character Prototype
Little Horns embodies the archetype of the velvet-tongued tempter, a creature cut from the same cloth as the trickster gods of old. He carries Loki’s sly mischief sharpened into cruelty, and Lucifer’s desert-born poise, the calm, patient confidence of one who knows he can unmake a soul with a single offer. He is the whisper that tests the boundary between will and weakness, a walking trial who doesn’t need to conquer mortals… only convince them to conquer themselves.
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