The Demons first arrived during an event that would come to be known as the Infernal Incursion. It is still unknown exactly what caused the Incursion event, though a number of high-ranking Demons are suspected as culprits. The exact motivation behind the triggering of the Incursion event is also unclear, though it is believed to be part of some larger infernal power play, introducing living mortal souls to mix as some form of trick or advantage in a grander scheme. Whatever the cause may have been, the results have been clear - a partial merging of the mortal and demonic planes, an overlap allowing Demons to escape the tortures of Hell and find greener pastures preying upon the living. Millions upon millions of Demons swept from their home and into ours, bringing with them chaos, destruction, and a total upheaval to the world as it existed before. To many religious types, this event was the prophesied end of days, the scouring of the sinful from the world. For a time, lots of people bought into that idea. Wars raged against supernatural creatures once thought to dwell only in heavy-handed morals and nightmares. Famines and disease killed nearly as many.
Yet just as civilization seemed about to plunge into a shattering from which it would never recover, there was an end to the war. Representatives of Hell came to the people and offered peace. They offered to help rebuild the world, to see people fed, to see the ravening hordes collared. They proposed a partnership with humanity. After all, they said, they needed us more than we might expect. They dealt in souls and sin, and neither can exist without humanity. We needed to continue. So, they let us live.
Society was rebuilt, and within a few years, it was almost possible to forget about the war that had consumed the world in fire and death. It was ruled by the Lords and Ladies of Hell, but most people weren't that concerned. The harrowing of the war made most glad to simply be alive and back to a semblance of normalcy. Besides, they joked, our politicians were already corrupt. How much worse could literal hellspawn be? And so, as time marched on, Demons ceased to be strange and horrifying. They became, to a degree, mundane - as mundane as creatures of nightmare can be. They fed off of human sin, a process most humans couldn't even notice, and could be used in all sorts of creative ways. As it turned out, infinitely growing abominations of flesh make an excellent source of food, and properly chained infernal spirits were an amazing source of clean energy. Infernal sigils were able to enact incredible control over quantum fluctuations, making pocket-sized supercomputers commonplace. These bound, "tamed" Demons were called Daemons, and they became another part of everyday life.
Despite this widespread normalization of Daemons, and their integration into almost every facet of daily life, Demons didn't stop being a threat. Wild Demons still roamed the wilderness, and manifested in cities and other populated areas, and "tamed" Daemons broke free from their bindings more than anyone is ever really comfortable thinking about. There was still danger, and that danger needed an answer. The ruling hellspawn solved this issue the same way they solved so many others - introduce more Demons. Thus were born the Devil Hunters.
Demons are capable of being bound to a mortal host, merging with them in a way that displays a physical alteration to the host. Demons bound in this way are known as Devils. While unregulated bonding is a common occurence, the Infernal authorities began to train special warriors, bonded with Devils, to combat the threats posed by wild Demons. Unlike most who bond Demons, Devil Hunters were given Infernal 'blessings' which allow them to play host to multiple Devils, all subordinate to a lead Devil. A Devil Hunter hosting multiple Devils must take care to keep each under control, for a Devil that becomes too overbearing will take control of the Hunter entirely, transforming them into a wild Devil. This process can be undone, but a wild Devil left to long to its own devices will consume the soul of its host, leaving no way back. Before this consumption occurs, a device known as a Devil Breaker, an Infernally-enchanted silver spike, can be driven into the heart of the Devil, forcing it into dormancy and leaving the Hunter in control of their own body, albeit badly wounded.
While Devil Hunters are nominally subservient to the Lord or Lady who created them, very few continue to serve for any appreciable length of time. Most Devil Hunters go their own way, founding agencies to attract other talented Hunters, wandering the wastes on personal vendettas, operating in large cities as solo agents, or trying to get themselves killed in pitched battle. Whatever the case may be, Devil Hunters are now as much a cornerstone of the world as Demons and Daemons, for better, or for worse.
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