Cryptic

Cryptics are one of the Factions in Demon: The Fallen. Fallen who are Cryptics spend their time unraveling and examining God's creations to see if there are any answers they can use to their advantage. Some instead use the information to look for answers as to exactly how powerful God really is.

Houses that tend to have Cryptics as members include the Neberu, and to a lesser extent the Annunaki and Halaku.

They don’t like the thoughtless flailing and nihilism of the Raveners. To them, their fury achieves nothing. The Reconcilers are the inverse and too idealistic, but at least they ask questions. Both of these Factions suffer from the have a tendency to be constantly negative. Their statements lack coherence, yet they act as if they are the only ones deserving of sympathy. The Luciferians and Faustians, are the greater of the Cryptic rivals. They blindly following the ideologies that came before, the ones that ultimately failed them and the rest of the Fallen, rarely stopping to ask what their goals should be.

Goals

The Cryptics have the most vague goals of the Fallen, which serves as both an advantage and a disadvantage. While they do not have the restraining philosophies and goals that hold back the Faustians and Luciferans, it also makes them extremely disorganized as a group and limits their overall effectiveness.

Cryptics seek information on the nature of existence for a variety of purposes. Some actively work towards analyzing and picking apart what went wrong and wish to be restored to their former power. Others may want the knowledge to challenge God, either directly or indirectly. Still, a few Cryptics seek information on existence simply because it is there.

Organization

Their lack of a clear goal makes the Cryptics the most diverse of the Factions; those disillusioned by the ideals of the other Factions or lacking a clear ideal at all gravitate towards the Cryptics.

One of the few things that the Cryptics have organized are the catalogue of the Fallen, the Scelestinomicon, and the catalogue of the Earthbound, the Crucianomicon. These tomes contain every scrap of information the Cryptics can gather on their fellow demons from current location to True Names. Constantly updated and revised, the catalogues are invaluable resources to the Cryptics and give the Faction some power and respect among the others that they would otherwise lack.

The closest Fallen to a leader the Cryptics have is the renowned Neberu Ahrimal, who had the original visions of humanity's downfall. However, he takes the role reluctantly and would rather be left to his own studies than serve as the rallying point for a set of fallen beliefs. Behind the scenes, the real controlling force of the Cryptics is the Annunaki Gipontel, who aims to keep both the Cryptics and his own house running smoothly by staying objective and willing to share his knowledge with all interested parties.

References

• DTF: Demon: The Fallen Rulebook, p. 113 -114
• DTF: Demon Storytellers Companion, p. 25 -27
• DTF: Houses of the Fallen, p. 77