Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- lb:wnotes:succubus [2025-09-27 11:20:31] – ninjasr
+++ lb:wnotes:succubus [2026-01-07 11:32:58] (current) – [Milk] Added the section. ninjasr
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Writing Notes for Succubi ======
-This article collects writing/worldbuilding notes on the [[lb:succubus]]. It's still a work-in-progress since I'm thinking it all thru.
+<div vstack>
+<div sheet bordered caution>
+<div header>Work-in-progress</div>
+This article is still a work-in progress as I'm still in the middle of thinking all of this thru.\\
+It's mostly a collection of thoughts that I'll re-organize at some point.
+</div>
+</div>
+This article collects writing/worldbuilding notes on the [[lb:succubus]].
-I'll repeat a disclaimer from the [[lb:wnotes: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 a right/wrong way of doing things.\\
+I'll repeat a disclaimer from the [[lb:wnotes: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.
@@ Line 9: / Line 16: @@
 {{tag>worldbuilding}}
+===== General Worldbuilding =====
+==== Other Supernaturals ====
+=== Vampires ===
+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.
 ===== Contemporary Fantasy Worldbuilding =====
 //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~".
+This actually suggests that succubi may have a lower incentive to hide than vampires...since they //could// just openly be like <q>"I need sex to survive, honey~"</q>.
 Though I'm working from the following assumptions: succubi need to have sex with humans to survive;((:fn:>How often they need to have sex is another question entirely. I would guess that the average would be once a week, with no sex for 2-3 weeks being dangerous and a month or two potentially fatal. Though that's a guesstimate.))((:fn:>Why they need sex is another. An assumption made in Japan (for //some reason//) is that succubi explicitly eat semen. Though a less sementical explanation is that they drain life force. One of those implies sex with a succubus is dangerous and the other does not. The assumption I'm working off of here is that succubi don't //eat// semen, but //do// require semen; that is, whatever they need out of sex is tied to semen, but not necessarily semen itself. Though I guess that's a distinction without a difference because even if they don't need to eat semen itself, they need to eat the semen to get to what they want.\\ I //do// realize that this is all very awkward to read, but I'll try to remain ambiguous on this point.)) succubi are exclusively female; succubi birth succubi;((:fn:>On this last point, if they don't birth humans in turn then they are a parasitic species that may end up extinct if nobody's careful.)) they have horns and wings but they can be hidden.\\
@@ Line 24: / Line 35: @@
 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.
+This is the most obvious origin-point and the one I'd favor. <del>Though I can’t think of any other origin points.</del>
 It's also possible that succubi could just exist openly in Mesopotamia.
+=== Rise of Christianity ===
+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 <q>‘no’</q> towards sex and the rise of the Succubus. That //is// when the Succubus was most feared after all.
+=== Black Death ===
+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.
 ==== Secrecy? ====
 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.\\
@@ Line 34: / Line 53: @@
 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.
+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.\\
+Why have an open status in those places? These places don't have as big of a religious incentive as Europe and the Middle-East to push against the succubus. However, I think that they'd gradually move towards secrecy anyway, because anti-sex //stuff// was still rising in all those places.
+The only place that the above wouldn't immediately apply (that I can think of) is **Japan**. The reason being that Japan didn't really become as 'prudish' and anti-sex as the rest of the world (even their next-door neighbor of China) though it's not known (to me) exactly why this is. My guess is that it was because Japan managed to avoid any significant plague, like the Black Death, which meant that they didn't gain a negative association with it. Though this is also ambiguous, because I can't be true that Japan wasn't anti-sex in the same way as (for example) China.
 ==== Succubus Society ====
 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.
@@ Line 41: / Line 63: @@
 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.
+The big problem here is sex. Sex might make it difficult to come off as divine in many parts of the world (like angels). Though if succubi can grant dreams/nightmares, then they could just brush the sex under the rug...hoping most people don't notice.
 ==== Modern Succubi ====
 When it comes to the modern succubus...I'll briefly go off-topic to explain something. Vampires (particularly in //[[lb:wod|Masquerade]]// and to a lesser extent in //[[lb:cod|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.
@@ Line 77: / Line 101: @@
 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).
 ===== Miscellaneous Worldbuilding =====
+==== Adultery ====
+Recently, I was reading the [[lb:cod:daeva.clanbook]] clanbook and it filled me with some inspiration, so I might actually finally get to fixing up and redoing this article sometime in the near future.
+Anyway, in the Daeva clanbook there's a moment where a Sire tells his 'child' that the best targets (who you can rely on over and over again) are those that have partners and are looking to cheat. The reasoning being that they'll be desperate, think the grass is greener and so on and so forth. This got me thinking whether Succubi would think like this as well.\\
+It may be shocking to read but, as a relative //good boy//, I didn't actually consider this outside of assuming it would be a bad idea.
+So what do I think after thinking about it? I think that succubi (and, by extension, vampires as well) would actually avoid creating adulterous relationships.
+The big reason why is because it //could// attract attention towards them, which is a mighty big risk. It's an entirely unnecessary risk too, since you can nab a boyfriend/husband instead for the exact same benefits, just without the risk.\\
+It doesn't even make sense for the 'party girl' types, because building a stable relationship (the big goal) on top of an adulterous one is a recipe for disaster. For reference to those...considering it (of the supernatural only of course) should remember something very important: if this person is willing to cheat on their //current// partner, why would they not consider cheating on //you too//?
+Whether they know/realize this is another thing entirely. I'd guess that most of them would figure it out pretty fast though. Either someone told them (and they believed them) or they figured it out thru trial and error.
 ==== Disease ====
 Assuming that succubi can still carry diseases (STDs and otherwise), some of them might be far more dangerous than others.
@@ Line 85: / Line 121: @@
 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 [[playground:Konosuba]] explicitly shows Succubi as have dream-related powers.
+==== Milk ====
+<div vstack>
+<div sheet bordered piled>
+<blockquote>
+There's semen in the fridge, love ♡.((:fn:>What should be written on a note, to be placed by your bed, to trick a succubus into thinking that that glass of milk in the fridge is, in fact, semen.))
+</blockquote>
+Ninjasr, 2024-06-26
+</div>
+</div>
+The connection between milk and semen is well-known and well-understood by scholars. How that relates to succubi, however, is another matter entirely.
+I had read somewhere (and need to verify it) that you could prevent yourself from a succubus attack by placing some milk next to your bed. The succubus would mistake that for semen and drink it instead. I have no idea how that makes any sense, but it's silly enough that it could be integrated into world-building.\\
+That's the explanation for the quote above. I thought that it might be more efficient to place a note next to the bed instead, pointing the succubus to the fridge. But I realize now that that doesn't make a lot of sense unless you have a glass of milk pre-prepared.
+Japan sometimes makes the connection more explicit. There was a manga I read once where succubi could explicitly drink milk instead, and it was just as sustainable for them.((:fn:>Unfortunately that manga ended up just becoming a story about a god-like cow that can eat anything.))
+So some connection between milk and succubi wouldn't be //that// strange, though some justification might be needed. Maybe breast milk? I've said too much.
 ==== Sexy? ====