Daemons

The Daemons (業魔, Gouma; literally meaning "Karmic Demon"), are a sub-species of creatures in Tales of RWBY series created by Monty Oum and Yoshiharu Gotanda. They are an alternate type of creatures only humans changes into when effected by the Daemonblight from the Scarlet Night event. One factor which effects the if the output of a being is set to remain or become a daemon is malevolence, the darkness in a being's heart and is often seen as a dark shade of purple in the form of bubbles or a gas being emitted of humans.

Like Malakhim, daemons do not have a set form. Some appear as completely scarier humanoid versions and others appear as their original form before becoming one, as well as retaining their sense of reason. There are humans who have not become daemons but have the like of their powers residing within them.

This causes those with visible changes to be shunned by the outside society and leaving them to be tormented or thrown into prison such as Titania, specifically built for the capture of paranormal creatures, like daemons and other monsters.

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 * —About Daemons.

Description
Humans, affected by the daemonblight turn into more humanoid form of monsters called "daemons". While there are daemon-turned humans go berserk, others retain their sense of reason. In actuality, daemonblight does not exist, being a term coined by the Abbey since anyone can become a daemon if malevolence, otherwise known as the impurity or darkness within a human heart, overflows them. If such information got to the public, it would result in mass panic and hysteria, as well as mass transformations into daemons. A tragic incident from several millennia prior to the events of the story resulted in humans being able to see daemons. There exist various species of daemons, such as war daemons (夜叉, yasha).

According to the malak Zui Fuu, who resides in The Heavenly Steppes, the existence of such malevolent creatures are the result of a curse that was imposed upon humans and malakhim, spirits who left the heavenly realm to live side by side with humans, by the spirits who remained in the heavenly realm to ensure that coexistence would never happen.

Etymology

 * Daemon derives from the Latin daemon, meaning "guardian spirit", or the Ancient Greek δαίμων ‎(daímōn) meaning "protective spirit", or more ecclesiastically, "evil spirit".