Before starting Grrl Power, I had a nebulous concept of succubi being solitary predators, or having their own little fiefdoms, or being the wizard or seer or whatever for a lord of some sort where they’d have access to a stock of partners, willing or otherwise to keep them well fed with tantric energy.

But the more I develop Dabbler’s backstory and think about Demon society, I think it’s really funny that they might have a formalized education system. Even when those classes could entail things your typical human might find abhorrent. And not just for succubi, but for all demons, like you basically have something identifiable as pretty much regular school up to about high school, then there’s a year or two of what amounts to vocational schooling, mostly depending on race, but not so strictly that a succubus couldn’t go to Pit Lord business management school, a Balor could go to Quaistling messenger school, but that would obviously be super weird. Or a Glabrezu could just become a chef. They don’t have to do demon finishing school necessarily, but it would be like meeting a guy named Kiff Smarmington who didn’t attend an Ivy League college. Just… unsettling.

Presumably, demons went through their own Iron Age and Dark Age and all that stuff, where demonic warlords swept across lands, and some phases where the favored currency was the suffering of other races, and that’s the impression many other races have of them to this day. It’s like American car manufacturers shaking off 30 years of second-rate products while German and Japanese manufacturers just dunked all over them. It takes a long time for people to get past stuff like that.

But now they have a modern society concerned more with commerce than conquering. Actually more than modern, since they are a starfaring race. Sure, their soccer riots are exponentially more violent, and the CEO sitting behind the desk might have a flaming skull for a head, but they have a relatively civilized, if somewhat feudal, culture. Just… try not to pick a fight with anyone if you can avoid it, because that Marilith bartender might just be able to summon 6 flaming swords.

The first draft of this page had Decollete coming down with the Succubus version of Mono as an excuse for missing “tentacle week.” I spent some time trying to think of a funny sounding disease name, then realized that necessarily, Succubi are really and magically disease resistant. It’s not like they can’t ever get sick, but venereal disease is unheard of among them. Curiously succubi are pretty much a risk-free partner, in terms of disease and pregnancy anyway. (Succubi choose if and when to get pregnant.) The whole draining your life energy thing is another matter. They obviously don’t have to drain someone to fatal levels, but you should definitely plan to take the next day off work. Probably hydrate too. Get those electrolytes back up.

Oh and in case you were wondering, Decollete cast a translation spell. She figured not everyone spoke Tentaclese.

Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.