"Daemon. Shadow Priests" by Isabelle L Davis

Species: N'ir'a'nsha aka. Shadow Priests
Class: greater daemon.
Role: Dark clerics. On the mortal plane they take the roles of cardinals and up in the priesthoods of the dark gods.

N'ir'a'nsha are a race of daemons dedicated to serving the dark gods. On rare occassions they will also work with the more powerful of the Daemon Princes such as Ahriman (Izael) but they consider only true deities to be worthy of their devout servitude.

These unwholesome creatures can be found at the rotten heart of almost all of the cults following the dark gods and are sent up from the underworlds to oversee matters on the mortal plane as well as being a kind of 'badge of honour' to show the cult they're taken seriously by their deity. They generally oversee how the organisation is run and perform complex rituals, important sacrifices and torture for information gathering where necessary. They take a particular (and not a little perverse) delight in putting sharp inplements to soft mortal flesh.

Surprisingly they are almost dainty in their mannerims and bearing, ever delicate and meticulous in whatever tasks they undertake. They smell strongly of rot and so often adorn their long, horizontally growing horns with miniature insense bearing censors along with little bells the tinkling of which they find pleasing. If their horns grow too long they have trouble getting through doors.

Despite the above, shadow priests should be taken very seriously. They posses fearsome magical abilities, granted by the powers they serve and can easily summon lesser daemons from their home plane of existance (greater daemons generally require some kind of ritual to be brought up).

Shadow Priests are dreadful creatures to behold, thier emaciated bodies covered in what at first appear as twitching open sores. On close insepction these turn out to be eyes and mouths in all sorts of places where they shouldn't be on any wholesome creatures. Thankfully they generally choose to cover themselves in long dark ceremonial robes however even when covered these extra mouths constantly whisper the name and praises of whatever dark god a parituclar N'ir'a'nsha might serve in a chorus maddening to any observer. On the mortal plane they rarely stray from their shrines and temples unless some kind of pilgramage is called for (in which case they'll generally summon a kuralex to ride)