One can easily look at the horrific visages of the Chained and wonder how anyone would fall to their clutches beyond extreme force. And while subjugation and violence is indeed part of their toolkit, it is not everything. The Chained and their Gods are old, and patient, compared to that of mortals at least. Their only concern is to break out of Utopia and destroy the Prime Gods. The demons have a timeline that far exceeds that of any mortal lifespan. So they do not need to work with extreme short-term measures like violence to achieve their ends. The demons can be insidious.
Take for example a young man, one day he is brutally beaten by someone stronger than him. But the young man’s spirit is not broken. He trains and becomes stronger, wishing to enact justice on the man that savaged him, and so nothing like that can ever happen again, a noble goal. But the Chained are ever vigilant for their moment. When the young man goes to confront his attacker again, he sees that his attacker is with a loved one, a girlfriend, sister, it does not matter. A demon of Brazzik, the Chained God of Vengeance, Violence, and Destruction sees its opportunity. It whispers into the young man’s ears, flaming his humiliation and desire to see his attacker pay. The young man’s spirit may have not broken, but it is weak. He commits an act of worship to Brazzik, killing both of them. In return, the demon grants him a sliver of his power, granting the young man increased strength and speed. A connection is made.
The young man is not damned yet, but he is well on the pathway. The demon can now whisper more, and the young man is now fully aware of the reward system in play. The young man, at first, thinks not much of it, merely content with his new power. But eventually the demon will start to take it away just as easily. The young man is given another choice. At this point, all the Chained can do is take away what it gave. But the young man’s spirit fails again, he does not want to feel powerless like before. To get that rush again, the young man commits another act of savagery and then another. With each act of worship the Chained gives him more power, and strengthens the leash it has over the mortal. The demon can now fully communicate with the mortal, and it does not want the human to seek help from others, in a sudden realization of how far down the path he has gone. It wants him isolated. So with each slice of power the demon will mutate its victim, nothing too obvious at first, maybe a patch of white fur up on the arm, or the sharpening of some teeth. But more will come later.
The demon will then tell the human to find others like him, to induct them in the ways of Brazzik. At this current juncture, the human is still mostly in control of his mind, but the command is hard to disobey. So the young man does as told, the Chained, of course, rewarding the human with each added convert, and punishing with pain with each failure. Soon enough, a Chained cultist cell is formed.
As things progress, the demon will either let the human continue his work, if he remains useful. Or if not, the Chained will compel the human to complete the ritual required to allow it to fully possess the human and bring its physical form into the material world. If that happens, the demon will give the human a clarity of mind he has not felt in likely years. The demon will show with glee the future that awaits the human, his soul ripped apart for food, and that everything he did was for nothing in the end. The demon will do this while puppeting the body of the human against his will, often relinquishing control of the human’s mouth, so he can fruitlessly beg for mercy from the most merciless being out there.
The forces of the most vile do not show their true face when they do not want to. You will only see a demon’s full nature when it believes it has power over you. Do not trust in their whispers. All roads lead to your soul being ripped apart for their consumption in the end.