D&D breaks down demons as Chaotic Evil and devils as Lawful Evil, but outside of D&D, what are the differences between the two?

Do any other RPGs separate Demons from Devils?

From a myth perspective, is there any difference?

Of course it varies depending upon the source. Many have devils above demons in a hierarchy. Some have devil as singular, demons as plural. In some, all devils are demons but not all demons are devils, again hinting at the hierarchal relationship.

I think the most differentiating characteristics consistently held--and you will find this in D&D as well--is that on the whole, demons are more brutish while devils are more cunning.

To my limited knowledge, the devil was always only a singular figure prior to DnD, and that all media portraying devils as a race of being is derivitive of DnD.

As for demons, they have pretty much always been the gods of enemy cultures that are not our gods, so they must be demonic bad guys.

Devils predates D&D, I think. Look at the Jersey Devil (and the hockey team). Blue devils are some sort of sports team as well.

I do think it was mostly interchangeable, but I think devils are always evil, while demons are not always so, sometimes more like goblins. Maxwell's Demon, for instance.

OTOH, I have seen (outside of D&D) that devils are fallen angels, while demons were either always evil or just beings from other religions.

And as mentioned, there is a difference in personality. Devilish grin for instance means charming in a vaguely sinister or sleazy way, while demonic generally means brutal.

What is the difference between a saint and a demi-god?

Sorry - I mistakenly thought this was about gaming.

The two words have different etymologies.

Demon, or Daemon (Latin) or Daimon (Greek) generally refers to an evil spirit although in the Greek context can actually refer to an inner genius.

Devil, which is a later derivation from the Latin Diabolos, means to slander or attack (pertaining to a false god figure), and is generally more associated with a singular Satan figure.

In D&D terms there is obviously a distinction between Devils/Demons based on Alignment, although I like to interpret the Lawful Evil aspects to suggest that there is only really one Devil who rules over the other servitors through brutal coercion and obedience. The Demons on the other hand have no power structure beyond might makes right.

As per popular (local) knowledge, there's only one Devil, and Demons serves him.

Otherwise, 0.

Quote from: JeremyR;872664What is the difference between a saint and a demi-god?

You're ratified as a saint after death, you're born a demi-god.

In Witch Hunter, Devils are either angels that fell to earth with Lucifer or who have otherwise aligned themselves directly with the Adversary (Lucifer, Satan, old Nick, etc.). Daemons are ancient entities, perhaps even presaging the whole biblical conflict, that are independent agents. The might be evil, and thereby serve the ends of the adversary (though on their own terms), or perhaps neutral in the whole conflict.  Some might even seem benign or helpful if it serves their purposes.

So devils are interested in corruption and turning one to the service of the Adversary, while a daemon is in it for itself.

Tom

Quote from: Christopher Brady;872702As per popular (local) knowledge, there's only one Devil, and Demons serves him.

  This is the general consensus of Catholic theology; the Fourth Lateran Council speaks of "the Devil and the other demons", and both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the latest edition of Denzinger (a standard reference work containing official theological documents) have indices that include "Demons" as plural and "Devil" as singular. However, the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia does mention that the term "devils" can also be used as a synonym for "demons".

In Indo-Iranian religion, the ahuras are good and the daevas are bad but a little ways away in vedic religion the devas are the good guys and the asuras are the malevolent ones.  Deva and divinity share a common root related to shining or brilliance.  Deus, Zeus, theos, dios and a bunch of other words related to god or spirit share the this root.  Asura has been connected with rulership or lordship in early Ural language.  You'll see similar words spread even into proto-norse languages where the gods are called aesr and nsuras.

Devil comes originally from the Greek for accuser or slanderer (diábolos) while demon means a spirit or divine power.  There's no implication of evil at all.  In fact the word for happiness is eudaimonia, which literally means good spiritedness.

One religion's good spirit is another's malicious one and the words often connect with a variety of religious concepts.  Things also get muddled as people borrow concepts and make mistakes with holy texts.  For example the fall of Lucifer in Christianity is based on a text in Isaiah that's actually about the fall of a king of Babylon.  Then you add in some later works that claim to be by Enoch which spend a lot of time developing a pantheon of angels and demons and the Greco-Roman gods related to Venus (heōsphoros or light bringer) get connected with diabolus as Christianity spreads through the Roman empire.  

The Epistle of Jude in the Bible even directly quotes from this falsely attributed Book of Enoch.   The early Christian church was aware of the Book of Enoch and believed it was authentic.  To this day Orthodox Christians invoke some of the Angels from the Book of Enoch, so it's had a lasting influence.  The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches still have the book as an official part of their Bibles.

In my games set in my setting The Enshrouded Lands, devils are fallen angels, and demons are fallen pagan spirits. Devils are more likely to be physically very similar to attractive humans; demons might well be monstrous in appearance.

I think it's far too hasty to say the singular devil is *the* answer. Even if that's how it's conceived of in one religion--hell, even if that's how it's conceived of in every religion, that's still an ass-ton of devils, plural, if each religion potentially has its own devil.

Quote from: Lunamancer;872752I think it's far too hasty to say the singular devil is *the* answer. Even if that's how it's conceived of in one religion--hell, even if that's how it's conceived of in every religion, that's still an ass-ton of devils, plural, if each religion potentially has its own devil.

"The devil" is an invention of monotheistic religions that preach that other spirituality is wrong. The devil is in fact associated with not believing in Christianity or Islam, the two religions that use the devil, as a way to vilify others with a neat supernatural label. Hence you find many early Christian dramas where the bad, evil and misled people are all being led astray by their religion's devil.

Judaism shares roots with those religions but doesn't do the devil thing.

As was pointed out earlier, while demons in Christianity are similarly like minor servants of their devil, they're generally also vilified and lumped in with the "everything not Christianity is evil and part of anti-Christianity, personified and perhaps actively led astray by the Chrisitan anti-Christian devil and his demons." The devil is of course also Lucifer, the fallen angel, or in Islam some fallen djinn or something.

Meanwhile, for most of the rest of spiritual humanity, including in its origins, there are "spirits" and "spirit" in general, which may have positive or negative qualities, but are allowed personality and non-binary morality. Before the binary religions, spirits tend to be more just aspects of the spiritual universe and not the "not Christian therefore evil" that claims that the only thing going on is all about its religion.

So, the D&D devil & demons are all very distinctly Christian-derived, and don't really map to other religions well at all except perhaps to Islam. Except from inside a Christian or Islamic perspective, in which case they'll do their usual thing of insisting everything is pre-invented by their God and so fits neatly into their black-and-white moralizing cosmology.

Quote from: JeremyR;872664Devils predates D&D, I think.

So does our calendar, I hope.