Cacodemon
A
cacodemon (or
cacodaemon) is an evil
spirit or
demon. The opposite of a cacodemon is an
agathodaemon or
eudaemon, a good spirit or
angel. Cacodemon comes from the
Greek kakodaimon, meaning "bad spirit" or "bad demon" (
daimon being a neutral term in Greek).
In
psychology, cacodemonia (or
cacodemomania) is a form of
insanity in which the patient believes that they are possessed by an evil spirit.
The first known occurrence of the word
cacodemon is from the
16th century; it possibly originated around the creation of the
Enochian constructed language.
 |
A Cacodemon menaces the player in Doom. |
* In the first edition of the
fantasy role-playing game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,
"Cacodemon" is a seventh level
wizard spell. It was used to summon a type IV, V, or VI
demon to the
player character's location in the game world. The spell was omitted from the early versions of the second edition of the game, and was later revised in the
Planescape product line, in which it could summon a variety of powerful
tanar'ri or
baatezu. In
Baldur's Gate 2 the equivalent spell is called
"Cacofiend". The spell was eventually phased out in the third edition of the
Dungeons & Dragons game in favor of a more comprehensive creature-summoning spell.
* Cacodemons are also an enemy in the
Doom series of
computer games developed by
id software.
**
*
Kelley Armstrong's
Otherworld novels feature cacodemons and eudemons, some of which have produced semi-human offspring; in this context eudemons are not so much "good" as "non-chaotic".
*
