Writing Notes for Succubi

This article collects writing/worldbuilding notes on the Succubus.

I’ll repeat a disclaimer from the Writing Notes for Vampires article: these notes are more of a reference or suggestion and not a set of rules on how to write/worldbuild succubi. Just because succubi don’t match the notes here exactly doesn’t mean they’re bad. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a right/wrong way of doing things.
Assuming that the conditions are the same, then succubi will manifest in the same way.
Until I bother to separate that disclaimer, I recommend just reading the opening text from there and just applying the same ideas here.

Seeing as I think that the Writing Notes for Vampires article was a success – from my point of view, it was fun to write and hopefully fun (and useful) to read – I decided to make this one as well, since I can talk about succubi forever for some unknown reason.

I think a general rule of thumb is that if you have vampires and succubi in the same setting, you should just make succubi vampires…or a sub-species of vampires. Unless you can differentiate them properly.

In general, succubi are similar to vampires in a few ways, but diverge in a few other ways. Where they overlap is their need for humans – vampires need human blood and succubi need…semen.

However, they also diverge in the fact succubi are not inherently dangerous. Unless they literally drain life-force, you don’t have to worry about having sex with a succubus. Vampires are a different story because they still need to bite you and they can drink too much.
This actually suggests that succubi may have a lower incentive to hide than vampires…since they could just openly be like “I need sex to survive, honey~”.

Though I’m working from the following assumptions: succubi need to have sex with humans to survive;^A;B) succubi are exclusively female; succubi birth succubi;^C) they have horns and wings but they can be hidden.
There are fewer of these assumptions than with vampires, which means there is less that could be speculated.
I’m also not assuming that succubi are immortal, though that is something that could be considered. If they’re immortal, they’d end up resembling vampires in attitude, but if they’re not then they’ll look radically different. Once (or if) I reorganize this article, I will try to remember to bring up these distinctions.

I will try anyhow!

Mesopotamia is a pretty obvious choice for an origin point of the succubi, since that’s where the earliest myths originate and there’s a connection to temple prostitutes.

This is the most obvious origin-point and the one I’d favor. Though I can’t think of any other origin points.

It’s also possible that succubi could just exist openly in Mesopotamia.

This is the other possibility for an origin point, which I’m pointing out because I feel some connection could be made between Christianity being all ‘no’ towards sex and the rise of the Succubus. That is when the Succubus was most feared after all.

On the surface, I’m betting this is a completely bizarre connection but hear me out. I had read once (probably on Wikipedia) that the Black Death helped to ruin the image of brothels. Because people started linking sex/prostitutes to disease.

Thus a connection could be made here. But, if that connection is made, that means that Succubi are related to disease in some way. What that could mean is anyone’s guess.

I’m bringing this up as an origin point because I think it sounds interesting.

Whether succubi would prioritize maintaining secrecy from humanity or not is a big question mark. It depends heavily on whether sex with a succubus is fatal or not.
If it’s fatal, then they would maintain absolute secrecy. But if it’s not, then they don’t really have a huge incentive to remain secret. For the sake of this, I’m going to assume that sex with a succubus isn’t inherently fatal, but can be if they choose so.

With that assumption in hand…I think that succubi wouldn’t keep their existence secret at first, but would gradually adopt the position until they’re considered a myth in the modern day. This would also vary by region.
In the earliest days, it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but with the advent of the Abrahamic Religions…they’d have a problem. At this point they’d start to favor secrecy from humanity, to avoid being called demons and killed.

But it’s possible that they’d maintain an open status in Africa (assuming they go there) and possibly in India and East Asia (assuming they go there too). Even then, I think they’d gradually move to prioritizing secrecy.

Unlike with vampires, I don’t think succubi would establish their own states and cities. I do think that succubi would establish support networks to help each-other out, but that’s about it. And how organized (or disorganized) or hierarchical these organizations would be is not something that I can talk about confidently.

I think it’s very likely (and this is one of the few things I feel confident about) that succubi would present themselves as goddesses/divine…but how they go about that can vary.

For example, I find it likely that succubi in Egypt will associate themselves with Isis…and succubi in Christian areas might associate themselves with angels. It really depends on the context.

When it comes to the modern succubus…I’ll briefly go off-topic to explain something. Vampires (particularly in Masquerade and to a lesser extent in Requiem) of the female variety are often depicted as alt-girls, punks, goths, sluts, party-girls and so on. But when I decided to treat their worldbuilding seriously, I found that most female vampires would be nothing like that at all. Then I started wondering what kind of conditions would actually guarantee that kind of behavior. Turns out, the succubi kinda resemble that, but in a strange way.

The average succubus would fall into one of three categories: the party-girl, the high-end escort and the adorable housewife. Of those, I think the party-girl would be the most common type, with the adorable housewife in a close second.

These kinds of succubi would spend most of their time hanging out in nightclubs, bars, cafes and what have you. They’d adopt the aesthetic usually associated with party-girls/sluts/‘easy’-girls and so on. So think tattoos, maybe dyed hair, sexy clothing (not necessarily skimpy, just sexy), some piercings and so on. This is specifically to attract the kind of guy who will pump-and-dump or won’t mind getting…whatever the opposite is?
They’ll also act very flirty and seductive. Maybe even a bit dim.

Now, to be clear, just because they look and act like this doesn’t mean the majority of them are actually like this. To a succubus, this is an effective means of getting fed. It attracts a certain type of guy and doesn’t require that they engage in more long-term relationship stuff. They don’t have to care whether he calls them back, because they got everything they need from him already (semen).
It’s entirely possible that most of them don’t even look/act like this most of the time and only do so when they’re getting hungry. So the average succubus like this might just be the stereotype of the demure office worker who is polite and quiet in office hours who becomes an animal the second she’s out the door.
Though another thing is that these ones in particular might lean most heavily on secrecy and might not even like fame.

That also means that succubi might have a natural talent for acting, or they learn to get very good at acting just to attract a meal.

Something else to keep in mind is that they may sometimes fail to ‘eat’ for longer than they anticipated, so these succubi could be seen as the lower-classes as well. The type who are desperate for any meal and, thus, are likely to go out and do morally dubious things if it comes to it.

A variation of the party-girl, but one that is a bit different and possibly more genuine.

I imagine that this position would attract succubi who want to live a more glamorous life. So the aesthetic here is more faux-aristocratic…or, like, ageha gyaru. They’re all about that fancy-looking life, where they’re rich and deal with rich clients as well.

These kinds would probably be looked down on by…all the other succubi that exist and, in turn, these kinds would see themselves as the nobility of the succubus world. It’s possible most of the wealth is going to be concentrated here.

They’d probably be more genuine/honest and not have to act as much, because they aren’t prioritizing getting fed at all costs like the party-girls: they legitimately like the high-end lifestyle.

I think that porn star succubi would be concentrated here as well. Party-girl succubi might do pornography occasionally (or gradually drift into it), but the High-End Escort type would find the fame and money attractive.

This position would be the envy of all the party-girls: because it’s a consistent source of food.

The housewife succubus is one that attracts a man, marries him…and then just feeds off of him. Forever.

It would be harder to attain, seeing as these succubi would have to jump thru (in their eyes) multiple hoops just to get it…but it’s worth it, as they no longer have to go around hunting for their next meal. He’s literally right there, whenever they want him.

This one would also be attractive to succubi with morals, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they’d be all-in on good Christian morality. Like, succubi would not care about pre-marital sex because it’s literally their food. But remaining loyal? That might go down well with them.

I think they’d be super protective of their husbands, though that might not always guarantee their own fidelity (it’s about eating to them, after all).

Assuming that succubi can still carry diseases (STDs and otherwise), some of them might be far more dangerous than others.

Actually, assuming a Contemporary Fantasy world, it’s possible succubi might figure out STDs earlier than the rest of the world…I’d say the mid-19th century is the most reasonable.
Though even if they aren’t sure what specifically is wrong, it wouldn’t take them long to put two-and-two together to notice some people who sleep with certain succubi end up dying of disease.

The dream aspect of succubi looks like it’s been mostly forgotten. At least that’s the way it looks to me when considering most depictions of succubi. I could be catastrophically wrong on this front, considering that as I’m writing this, I already remembered that Konosuba explicitly shows Succubi as have dream-related powers.

It’s just kinda assumed the succubi are master seductresses that are capable of mind-blowing sex…but, let’s actually think about that for a minute.
Succubi are supernatural beings with magical abilities…so, why should they be good at the sex thing?
For all we know, succubi could just use their abilities to make their victims think that they’re mind-blowing sexy seductresses when, in reality, succubi are less experienced than nuns in the matters of sex. They probably know penetration (assuming that’s the only way they can get life juice) but that might be the limit. There really isn’t any reason they need to train to be good at sex. Combined with the dream thing…yeah, it just seems reasonable to assume they’re all completely hopeless.

This has a lot of potentially hilarious worldbuilding potential.