With Lucifer risen, this child grows strong. Soon, he will do more than just make a few toys come to life—something that will draw the demons to him. The demons will find this child. Lucifer will twist this boy to his purpose. And then, with a word, this child will destroy the Host of Heaven.”
Cambions are the crossbred offspring of a human and a Demon. They are considered the inherent counterparts of the Nephilim.
A half-demon was a being who was part human and part demon, usually the child of a demon and a human. Although not all the parents of cambions are known, most seem to result from the pairing of a male demon and a female human.
Even though some demons had a tendancy to impregnate humans with their spawn or create new demons by infecting humans (Haxil Beasts, Skilosh Demons and so on), the offspring wouldn’t count as half-demons but rather as the species of their demonic parent since these were simply cases of parasitism.
Many known cambions look like humans, and either have no characteristics of their demonic relatives (horns, hooves, claws, tails, and other traits) or can change between human and demon forms. Some of them, however, do not look entirely human. The Groosalugg has unusual looking eyes, Sara has strange looking ears, and Nash and Pearl each have an “elfish” look to them.
Apparently the same mystical rules apply to cambions as demons. Vampires can not enter a human’s home without an invitation but this does not apply to demons. For example, Angel could enter the homes of Billy and Connor without being invited. In an episode Lorne gives the Hotel Hyperion the same magic as his bar, which is designed to prevent violence by demons. Connor is surprised when he realizes that this magic also wards off his attacks.
While many cambions decide to do good, there are also some that are as evil as any pure demon. However, it is unclear whether their demonic origin predisposed them to evil, because most evil acting half-demons actually had human motives.
Creation
The Cambion is a stillborn that shows no sign of life outside of being alive, meaning that the child has no pulse and no breath. This continues until the child is about seven years old, where it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate one from a human. A Cambion is usually devilishly cunning, and angelically beautiful, able to persuade even the most strong-hearted individual to do his or her bidding. Most Cambions have evil tendencies due to their demon parents. Due to its inability to create or nurture life, the method of the creation of a Cambion is necessarily protracted.
A maternal demon will have sexual relations with a human male and by doing so acquire a sample of his sperm. This she will then pass on to a paternal demon. The father will, in his turn, transfer the sperm to a human female and thus impregnate her.
To create a cambion a succubus must extract the semen of a man in his sleep, and then pass on the sperm to an incubus, which then transfers the semen to a sleeping woman, who becomes pregnant. In the process the demonic aspects of the incubus and succubus transfer onto the child that is produced.
The cambion child is typically sickly and bad-behaved, and often times malformed in some manner. According to traditional beliefs cambions tended to live shortened lives. Cambions may have been a pre-scientific explanation for birth defects and infant illnesses and mortality.
In literature and modern fantasy cambions are often shown as half-human, half-devil creatures with fiendish powers.
Society
Cambions are not numerous enough to form a separate society, so almost all of them either ally themselves with humans or with demons, depending on which species they feel they belong to. Although Nash and Pearl were convinced that half-demons are an evolution of demons and humans alike. Humans looked at them as modern but weak, while demons considered them strong but archaic. In truth, they have benefited from both sides as cambions.
Humans and demons have responded to cambions in a range of different ways. The Scourge chase cambions when they find them, however notably they also they considered normal demons to be tainted with humanity. The Groosalugg in Pylea undertook very dangerous quests because his society saw his human appearance as a great shame. Billy’s family feared him because of his special powers; while his being cambions may have played a role in their fear he was also very malicious.
By contrast, Cordelia did not seem to have a problem with Doyle being a cambions after she had figured it out (at that time she was herself still a human being). Also, Rieff’s mother was accepted as one of their members by the Lister Clan. The Fraser Gang has Mal Fraser as their accepted leader, although he is a half-demon and the others are full demons. When Nina finds out that Leo is a cambions, she is horrified at first. However, at this point she had already recognized that there were also benign demons, and therefore quickly accepted him.
Appearance
All Cambions are almost supernaturally attractive, taking after their infernal parent. However, at birth, most Cambions show no signs of life (having no pulse, and not requiring to breathe). After the age of seven, they seem more human.
Cambions take after the traits of their infernal parent. For some, this means inheriting physical deformity, though for most, it bestows the offspring with a striking beauty. And at birth, most Cambions show little to no signs of life (having no pulse, and not requiring to breathe).
Fortunately, after the age of seven, signs of life become much more apparent (and if they are born with physical deformity, it will recede), making it easier for a young Cambion to pass for an ordinary human and blend into society.
And in only the rarest cases do Cambions take on noticeable traits which might give away their infernal heritage. Perhaps their ears might be pointed, perhaps they sprout wings, perhaps horns.
Usually, these are small or minute enough that the Cambion may hide or disguise them, if they so desired.
Behavior
Cambions are somewhat different from their other half-demon relatives. In addition to their innate cunning, they are often spoiled by adoring parents and other loved ones.
Almost definitely a result of their infernal heritage, Cambions tend to develop particularly dominating urges, and can be not only controlling and manipulative, but also jealous, spiteful and vindictive.
Not to mention, many become rather talented at masking insidious tendencies under a facade of politeness and manners that most fail to see through, until it is too late for anything to be done about it.
Most adapt to various social settings with remarkable guile and grace.
Powers & Abilities
“The demons will find this child. Lucifer will twist this boy to his purpose, and then, with a word, this “child” will destroy the Host of Heaven.”
Their demonic/fallen angelic heritage gives them many supernatural powers.
- Life-Force Absorption – As half-succubus, Andie exhibited her Succubus powers. That effect is her ability to drain others of energy when she either kisses them or is intimate with them. This is manifested when the green veins on her spread out and, at least twice in the series, cross over to the body of the person she is in contact with. One prime example of this are the black veins which formed across Charlie’s face during one such event and over Brett’s face in another. It has not been seen that she has the ability, generally seen in Succubi, to make her form appear to be different than her true appearance. She does not have and indication of having horns or a tail either. In addition, there seems to be no ability to control others emotionally or otherwise. Their victim loses that energy and depending on how long they are intimate with the Cambion results in them feeling sick, passing out, or, in the worse case death. As they feed, the black and green veins on their body transfer to the person they are feeding on, eventually covering their body completely. When the feeding ends, the veins disappear once the Cambion breaks contact with them. As well, the veins reduce upon the Cambion’s skin to the point where they are barely noticeable
- Persuasion – The ability to convince the strongest of mortals to do their bidding. It allows the user to control another person by speaking unresistible commands. The victims are unable to disobey; the seemingly cogent commandment is far too compelling.
- Stealth/Cloaking – Jesse is hidden from both angels and demons unless he wants to be found.
- Exorcism – Jesse is able to exorcise a demon simply by verbally commanding the demon to leave their host. This was proven when Jesse once commanded, “Get out of her.” thus removing a demon from Julia Wright’s body.
- Teleportation – Jesse can teleport anywhere on Earth at a thought. When Jesse goes upstairs to “say goodbye to his parents,” he vanishes, and he has not since been seen on the show.
- Geokinesis – Jesse causes a minor earthquake when he becomes angry.
- Potentially Near Omnipotent– As have high potentials of nigh-omnipotent, Jesse is able to achieve anything through thought or literation. He grows in strength exponentially with Lucifer risen. Castiel claims that Jesse can destroy the Host of Heaven “with a word.”
- Reality Warping – Jesse is able to bend reality to his own thoughts and wishes even without his consciously being aware of it. For example, his belief in urban legends causes them to manifest in reality and when he is convinced that he was wrong they cease to be true.
- Conjuration – Jesse can create things just by believing in them.
- Superhuman Strength – They can overpower human victims with ease.
- Superhuman Speed – They can move faster than the eye can see, able to appear and disappear in an instant.
- Superhuman Agility – Cambions possess amazing agility. They can climb up walls and jump off buildings without hurting themselves. They also have greater reflexes than humans.
- Superhuman Stamina – They can fight and make love vigorously without tire.
- Healing Factor – They fully heal from most wounds, including stabs and gunshots.
- Longevity – Cambions have a slower aging process and while they will die eventually, a Cambion can live up to five hundred years, although most of them never make it that far, considering how often they’re hunted.
Weaknesses
- Sunlight – When the sun is at the highest point in the sky Cambions as weak as a mundane human, similar to vampires. Even their skills of persuasion don’t work as well.
- Cold Temperatures – The cold makes their bodies, powers, and minds incredibly sluggish and renders them useless.
- Hallowed Places – Neither can they cross hallowed ground or a blessed building.
- Angels – Angels are powerful enough to kill a cambion.
- Magic – Cambions are susceptible to the powers of magic.
- Pentagram – Once they cross into the circle, they are affected strongly by the pentagram – unless the sigil is damaged and a line is broken. Because cambions are half human, they can leave the trap, but it slows them down considerably. The more demonic they are in nature, the more resistance they feel. Demon hunters typically put these up all over their homes.
Notes
- A member of the Scourge stated that vampires don’t feed on demon blood when he saw Angel with Doyle. It can be speculated that vampires cannot use the blood of cambions as food either, but at least Marissa tried to bite Connor.
- Cordelia Chase, who was originally a pure human, was transformed into a cambions by the Powers That Be.
- The family of Tara claimed that the women in their family were partly demonic. But it soon became clear that this was just a lie to control women in the family. In fact, they were quite horrified when they saw a real demon.
- Ruby Monahan’s parents told Spike that their daughter was a half-demon and the daughter of a Sadecki demon so he went to the Mosaic Wellness Center to free her. But actually it was just a prepared trap because they wanted revenge on Spike.
- Cambions have appeared very often in the series or the comics of Angel but rarely of Buffy.
Sources:
https://unnaturalworld.fandom.com/wiki/Cambions
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/Cambion
https://writinginmargins.weebly.com/home/the-history-of-the-cambion
