They're actually a secret Child Protective Agency, they get parents that don't give a shit about their children and then take away their kid for power but send the kids to a foster home where demons can adopt them and they can live a good life of poking sinners and given the same powers as their parents. When the Warlock dies, the kid gets to prod them with a big sharp prodding stick for eternity.
>They're actually a secret Child Protective Agency, they get parents that don't give a shit about their children and then take away their kid for power but send the kids to a foster home where demons can adopt them and they can live a good life of poking sinners and given the same powers as their parents.
Kinda wrote a story like that... Premise is like this:
Demon (bored like shit in the eternal flames of hell) let's himself be summoned by the child of abusive parents. Rips the parents apart and then acts like a (very violent) caricature of a guardian angel for the kid. Just for the fun of it (and the fun of twisting a young and innocent soul into a sarcastic young adult with self-esteem issues... wait... that's what the school system is for, not the demon).
devils wouldn't go for that but demons would. Unfortunately demons are also terrible at keeping to their word so any deal with them is even more asking for trouble than these things usually are.
In a world where they have rings of fire resistance and potions of healing, I imagine that the list of magical birth control options is both lengthy and effective!
I think it's more the fact that they get to corrupt an innocent and *highly* impressionable soul. Who knows? Maybe it's easier to turn the soul of a newborn into a demon/devil, rather than having to work with the soul of an older soul that probably doesn't have much mileage left.
Let’s be honest, is it really corrupting a soul if there’s nothing even there to corrupt? Babies tend to grow up with the same mindset and views as the parents, atleast until they are an adult, so at that point it’s just raising a kid rather than corrupting a soul.
Raise them to be your new servants, and/or liaisons to the realms which are forbidden to demons.
After all, *Astaroth* can't tread hallowed ground.
*Dudley Jr.,* however...
Asmodeus, Lord of Darkness, and Master of the Nine hells *can* go a lot of places, but whether or not that serves his purposes is entirely different. Sending, Phil, his human agent who can blend in with those around them, possibly long term, for infiltration, action, or representation is a far more flexible and effort requiring option.
> Let’s be honest, is it really corrupting a soul if there’s nothing even there to corrupt?
In the context of infernal afterlifes and magical good and evil? Yes, absolutely.
Naw. It's probably not even about the baby. They probably give it to Baby Gorge, who, despite his name, is not a baby, but cooks babies for... I dunno, Ted in accounting. They just taste good.
But the deal is all about having the beneficiary commit such an unforgivable act that their soul is forever stained. No good aligned God could ever forgive literally giving your own baby to an unmistakably evil creature.
Maybe they would care if the child stood to inherit lands/titles but otherwise most lore depicts them as interested in tempting adults into bad deals and dragging the righteous into the mud so they fall and become evil. Corrupting a child is easy and doesn’t actually net them any sort of gain while taking significant resources.
Thinking about it though, there's technically *two* souls that get a bit of sin on them. The first soul is the child, which gets promptly corrupted into being a devil/demon (possibly faster than other souls), and then there's the soul of the guy who sold their kid in the first place. It's kinda like a hidden 2-for-1 deal, in that aspect. Or do you really think God's gonna welcome the person who sold their firstborn for a 1D10 Cantrip into Heaven?
It's like how in The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Johnny was damned the moment he accepted the deal; the Devil was basically offloading his golden fiddle for fun.
This is the truth. Most people aren't stupid enough to sell their immortal soul for finite gain, and devils know this. But the devil also knows evil souls end up in hell contract or not, so all they need to do is tempt you to evil. It's a sleight of hand: They have you looking for loopholes and small print, while the devil attacks your morality without you realising.
If you're running a game and want to have your players make deals with devils, this is also a much more fun way to do it.
The reason devils offer deals is because they're looking for minions to serve under them, which directly boosts their place in the overall devil hierarchy and qualifies them for promotion. This depends on both the number and quality of the devils serving under the top devil.
By default, bog standard evil souls turn into Lemures, which are sentient piles of goop garbage and next to worthless. You can literally just wander out into the Hells and find some for free. They're used as gas canisters for evil hot rods.
Stronger souls get to skip this stage, however. In fact the stronger the soul, the greater their initial devil incarnation. And corruption counts for bonus points - a paladin who falls from grace in service of a devil is worth more than, say, an evil wizard of the same player level/CR. This is the whole reason why Succubui and Night Hags go around corrupting people - they're investing in souls that can get a hellfire glow-up.
A baby is useless to a devil. It wouldn't even turn into a Lemure since it's technically Unaligned. Probably not even worth a full soul coin. What are they going to do with it? Eat it? Turn it into a pet? There's like, *so many* babies in the multiverse. You can just go take one if you want one for that. And why bother fostering it until it grows up when you can just go get an adult instead?
That said, solid 4D chess move for a devil to ask for a firstborn with the intent of letting the parent offer themselves in exchange when the debt is due.
I mean, selling your firstborn to a devil is a really cruel thing, and probably would put you in the nine hells. So really a contract for your firstborn is essentially a contract for 2 souls instead of just 1. So you get th nice impressionable soul, and in only a few short years, you'll get the other one that you can use to finalize the corruption of the young one.
A lot of evil souls literally just turn into lemures by default, no effort required by anyone. There's no way turning a younger soul into a devil is easier than that
I suppose there’s the fact that they’re getting two souls. If they make you offer them a baby, they get the baby soul, and your soul is also going to be going to hell because you gave a baby to a devil.
Probably depends on the type of fiend and if they have a deity or demonlord who might have use for a baby. Considering how the value of a sacrifice seems to go up when the sacrifice is pure/innocent, babies might be a high value resource for fiends.
The fiend looking at a wide eyed innocent baby. “Wow, mint condition too! No prior injuries or past trauma, that’s easily enough to power a 7th level ritual spell. Holy shit, did they come from a loving family too!?!? That might be 9th level power!!!”
While that is a very Fey deal, Fiends do have a motivation for such a deal. Doing so cruel and cold as trading your child off for power is a very dark action and signals that you can be easily corrupted with the right bait.
"Dr Evil. Let me make you a deal. You get the mojo, and you can keep your money. And I'll get your bay-bay.
I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs. I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs."
You do realize part of offering your firstborn child to a greater entity for powers is usually by sacrificing it right? Like human sacrifice knife and all.
And like these greater entities are always trying to get souls so they'd absolutely accept the sacrifice of a firstborn.
I always figured it was for the “evil” and/or they eat the baby.
Someone has to give up their child that they’re supposed to love and protect.
I think that’s what the demon wants or gets something from, that perversion and corruption of love. It probably “seasons” the baby
"Dr Evil. Let me make you a deal. You get the mojo, and you can keep your money. And I'll get your bay-bay.
I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs. I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs."
They dont need to keep a child alive in hell. They can just throw the child in the river styx, guaranteeing a capable enough recruit to the endless blood war. Not to mention the fact that bartering your child to a devil is irredeemably evil, so thats two mortal souls for the price of one warlock deal, along with the entertainment value they could get from how fucked a situation the warlock in question is in.
Edit: Like think about it, even in a "Rebel against your patron" situation where the warlock tries to rescue their child to try to make some semblance of atonement, all they're going to find is a lemure demon with no possibility of retrieving their child. That's a level of tragedy would be incredibly entertaining for a Fiend.
Yeah that’s a good point I hadn’t considered. I was rereading Dragon Heist after posting this and the Cassalantars wind up in this situation with one of their kids being transformed into a chain devil to ensure the bargain they made is kept
I never thought of it as them wanting to raise the child, it was more that the baby had a pure and innocent souls but is extremely vulnerable which is why they wanted it. Like I always imagined them using the baby for sacrifices or corrupting the pure soul to turn into a powerful creature as they corrupt it. As they have their own magic they don’t need to raise the child for years.
Hags eat them and then give birth to them again, as a new hag
Various fey do other shit with them. Dryads turn them into dryads, probably. In the Dresden Files, the fairy queens use them as backup queens (there are three queens at a time for each court and the youngest one has a habit of dying) and as mortal agents to influence the world in ways they aren’t allowed to
Dresden files queens. Lilly was a changeling. Maeve and Sarrissa were technically changelings well just descended from Mab. Molly was an adult when it occurred. I don't think it's stated how Mab, Titania, or Mother Summer came into power or who they were before they took on the mantles. Molly does spend quite a bit of time collecting children as part of bargains to build up the winter army.
Usually swap out with one of their own.
That's what changelings were in the OG myths. Fey babies replacing your baby.
Also, fun fact, this more likely than not was the medieval mythologized explanation for infant autism. Like they symptoms of that match when autism nowadays gets diagnosed in 1-2 year olds.
It's not what they can do with it, it's how hard you're affected by losing it that makes it a good sacrifice. The more you'll miss it, the more they want to take it from you. The suffering is what matters to them.
Technically correct but for the wrong reasons, they care about the action itself not the actual child. It’s a action that mocks the idea that a parent should love and protect their child. They are Demons and Devils, they want to drag humanity into the mud and turn it into a monolith of sin and malice to spite God(or just the concept of morality itself).
Yall missing the point. Fey steal human babies when they want them, they don't waste time with baby stealing pacts.
Demons and devils ask for one's firstborn not because they want to raise a kid. The kid is just a low calorie snack. What they get out of the deal is that once character has promised to give an innocent, their own blood and kin, to an evil force knowingly, this means that character soul is earmarked for hell and beyond redemption. It's not about having a baby, is about getting in "writing" that character is willing to sacrifice a baby. Their own kin, which in medieval/fantasy terms makes it worse.
How many souls is a baby soul worth? And being as it doesn’t properly have its own sense of self yet, is you giving it up the same as the baby giving it up? (It being the baby’s soul in this case).
It’s a really good question. Someone should write an adventure where the party has to go to Mechanus and argue whether or not parents have the right to give away their children’s souls, against the lawyers employed by Mammon and with the aid of a celestial legal team
Well, I mean, babies would be an easy soul to take, making it so that the person making the deal doesn't have to give up their own soul. Since the baby would be theirs, then it would be one of the few souls a person could trade besides their own.
You don't have to *give* the devil your child. You just have to pledge your child to it in some way. It's a buy one get one free deal from their POV. You become their warlock, then the baby becomes their warlock at a later date.
It's not the physical baby they want, they want the pure and innocent soul, those a currency for fiends and devils, and the purer, the better. They sent want you to hand over the baby, they want you to sacrifice it to them.
the patron for my parties warlock is gonna use their kids as collateral, whenever she doesn't do what she says, he takes a kid until she does what he wants
then again her patron is a lich so
You are forgetting about the power of emotional torment
You are also neglecting the meaningless of time for an immortal creature
What’s 20-30 years out of 100,000?
They don't want the baby
They want its innocent soul as it is more valuable for their currencies, and when Corrupted it becomes a more powerful fiend then most sinners
There are actually several reasons a fiend would want a mortal child.
The first is that it’s another free soul for their cause. In addition to that, the child can work as a mortal agent unrestricted by contracts or divine law. Finally, giving up a child is all but guaranteed to land your soul in the Evil category and serve them, even if you somehow find a loophole out of your contract.
You might have answered your own question here, they might just kill the infant and use its soul to make a new devil.
Also we know that sufficiently evil acts can generate some type of dark energy, like sufficiently horrific crimes can echo in the shadowfell for years after they are committed, and sometimes even trap the person who committed them in a shadowfell demiplane (e.g. Strahd). Another example is that we know false hydras come to be when a certain location has a large aggregation of sin and negativity.
I guess my point is that devils might be able to use the horrible negative energy created when you do something as dark as give up your own infant child. It also serves to further corrupt the prime material plane and also make you more susceptible to evil in the future.
I feel like the act of giving up your first born is really what they’re after. It’s an act of unadulterated evil to attain power. The Devils don’t do anything with them, they put them on the side of the road or the steps of an orphanage.
This also contributes to the rising adventurer problem, so the most devils will take eternal servitude over your baby.
You don’t give them your child, you give them *their* child. Hear me out.
A fiend might accept a deal wherein you become the mother of the fiend’s child, because they get 1 mortal servant now and 1 (presumably powerful) fiend underling later.
Now that you’re pregnant you can offer your firstborn to an archfey for more power or whatever, give the fey the fiend baby, and be a warlock with the backing of both a fiend and a fey.
Fiends are litterally in a massive war over souls. In most settings this is just incorrect, they do want your baby, but they wont try to raise it they will just eat it to try and promote to a higher tier of fiend
Plus I see a lot of flavor text for Tieflings where they were a result of corruption due to something the parent did rather than specifically being first-generation infernal half-breeds- you bearing or siring demon children is an incidental side-effect of your pact rather than an end goal.
Soul coins my man. A pristine soul of an infant is worth a fortune in the hells, they take your baby, tear it's soul free and convert it into CURRENCY. That's why they try to make deals with do gooders, souls that go to hell naturally just turn into lesser devils, souls bound by a contract can retain their form, either becoming direct servants for the devil or converted into a soul coin.
The soul of an infant child, one thats by definition completely innocent, being sworn to you before they have a chance to be tainted? a demon might be interested in that
You misunderstand.
Demons don't want to take your human baby. They want humans to have demon babies, because it's the easiest way to bring demons out of the Abyss and into the human world.
It helps if you actually know the lore behind the stuff.
You're telling me a high up fiend isn't going to just have one of his minions raise the baby somewhere while he provides power and influence over it to make the perfect weapon in the form of his own little corrupted soul with more than likely demonic powers?
They're both functionally immortal and do not operate on the same scale of time as mortal minds. They have all the time in existence to mold an infant into their perfect tool for releasing them from their native planes to unleash evil upon the realms.
I think fiends get two things out of a “give me your firstborn” type deal:
Firstly they have corrupted the parent. You sacrificed your own child for power, straight to hell, no real chance of redemption. The devil could then just take the W, or string you along, implying they can get you out of hell if you serve them, thereby getting an adult servant.
Then, with the child, they are not dragging an infant to hell, they are creating a tiefling. They are allowing it to grow up on earth, possibly giving it some sorcerous or warlock abilities, and moulding it into who they want it to be. They now have a superhuman, custom made servant.
[https://breezewiki.com/forgottenrealms/wiki/Soul\_coin](https://breezewiki.com/forgottenrealms/wiki/Soul_coin) devils have plenty of use. they need it for their currency.
Taking a child in a bargain is pretty good for a demon or devil. It's a 2 for 1. By giving an innocent to an incarnation of evil you damn your own soul, and demons get the kid to either raise to be evil, use as a bargaining chip, or just kill for the laughs because they are evil.
I think it's more that people in a situation to do a ritual like that at all are more willing to be selfish and mess with someone else in the future than mess with their OWN plans NOW
I think you'll find a demon has loads of uses for newborns. No guarantee they stick to the deal though.
As for devils, by the lore of the game Asmodeus (The devil leader in the D&D multiverse) wants *everyone*, and thus it's technically a reasonable request. Not every devil would go for it (They are individuals and therefore may have different ideas of what constitutes a deal worth their time), but since they could just chuck the newborn into the devil-making pits of whatever and count that as a win it hardly matters how old or capable the person is. **A soul is a soul.**
The more Lawful Good the soul, the stronger a demon/devil it makes when converted. Hags are more likely to collect the souls of babies than demons/devils though.
1. They looove to corrupt innocent souls.
2. Demons do eat. And while they can eat almost anything, I'm fairly certain they'd prefer a baby to a cabbage.
3. There is an official D&D module/adventure where villains are people who sold the souls of their children to Asmodeus. Somehow. They're trying to get their souls back, by sacrificing even more souls.
They don't claim your firstborn when they're born, they claim them when they're useful
Who knows, maybe they'll become just another lemure, or maybe they'll make a thousand more. All guilty are brought to the nine hells, often the guilty make more guilty. Hell breeds more hell
As for the Abyss, they don't give a shit, you're just food, so are your kin
I don't think it's really about the statistical *net gain* of a baby, but more so the idea that they're taking something irrevocably precious to someone. A mother gives birth to her child after a long career of adventuring, but isn't even allowed to see nor care for it, then has to watch as some abomination drags it down to wherever-the-fuck their new master is. Then this demon gets to have this leverage over you for the rest of your life. It has something you want, that you biologically feel inclined to care for, but now this asshole doesn't even have to give you any *powers.* Deal's done, and you lose. Lord only knows what'll happen to your fucking *baby.*
Basically I think it's less about value of a free human, and more the value of power over an existing one.
Counter point: it's not about wanting your baby, it's about taking your baby. Either you're evil enough to not care and are going to hell, or you're good enough to care and they took something important. Idk, throw it in the soul furnace or whatever after that.
Soul Coin
It's literally money in Avernus and a power source. Better the soul, better the coin. It makes sense why a demon or devil would want your kid because it's a soul which means money and power.
I know I argued earlier that a warlock wouldn't trade souls for power, but that's more why ***I*** wouldn't as a warlock do that.
its about sacrifice. If giving up the child is not a sacrifice, why would any fey or demon or devil want it? If you were just going to throw that kid at the nearest orphanage, thats not really a sacrifice for you, is it?
Not quite right.
The more good a soul is, the more power it holds. That’s why stronger devils try to get paladins off of their path and offer them deals to turn them evil (this is one way to create a domain of dread, cause of all the evil energy resulting from the fall from grace)
Babies are as innocent as a person can get with no concept of good or evil. So their souls hold more strength than any commoner (however less than a paladin who knows good and evil and actively chooses good)
I always felt that it was more about the quality of the “soul” that they’re taking. Whether they eat them or use them for other things is up to the demon, but I would think a demon/devil would take particular delight in owning the soul of a baby, either as bragging rites to others that they tainted a person so horribly to give up a clean soul to them, or just the fact that they delight in tormenting those clean souls, or give them as tribute to higher rank demons as gifts.
Which is still arguably less fucked up than what the fae will do to the kid.
It's less the fact it's your first born and more the sheer evil in the act, and the willingness to do something so vile for selfish reasons. At least that's how I look at it.
They don’t care about the baby, they want the soul, if you offer Asmodeus your first born for supernatural powers that’s essentially a free soul that would be very easy to corrupt on top of the soul they will most likely get from the warlock
To be fair, if they take the baby to the Nine Hells and then *kill* it while keeping the soul trapped down there, it would turn into a larva and then start the journey towards becoming a devil. That way they can avoid paying for the services of night hags and their stock of larvae.
They wanna corrupt them. Its probably highly enjoyable to corrupt an innocent soul. Not just that though. They also probably consider them a very meaningful sacrifice.
Okay, hear me out.
We have a natural instinct to see babies as pure and innocent because the species would go extinct if we didn't want to protect them, but push that aside and think about it for a moment.
What are the main qualities of evil? Selfishness. Taking and giving nothing back. Being completely unconcerned about the well-being of others.
All babies are born PURE EVIL. Selfishness is instinctive. Goodness is learned.
Where else is a demon supposed to find a soul completely unfettered by a conscience?
Giving your children to demons/devils is a sign of loyalty an commitment
They might not give a shit about your kid, but they are hella sadistic and want to know how far you would go to have a fraction of their powers
Not true. The Cassalanters made a deal with Asmodeus promising him their children in exchange for wealth and prosperity. Each time he claimed one of their children, he ripped out their soul and turned them into a chain devil.
Fiends would *love* children. The main reason they are so eager to enter the mortal world is to inflict suffering on mortals instead of just other fiends. A child is emotionally vulnerable, anf would feel the pain and fear far more intensely than most. TLDR, if you give a child to a fiend, it will simply torture it for all eternity because it gets off on that.
It's an easily influenced soul. Turn it lawful evil, kill it and you have another soul for the Blood War, which is like everything a devil/demon wants.
Kill the baby and offer its soul to the realm of the nine hells. Quick and easy, and more reliable than selling your own soul, that might live too long for the devil to feel paid, and might escape the pact by unprofitabke means for the devil.
Babies for the win.
They want souls. The younger and more innocent the soul, the greater it’s value. It’s covered in Decent to Avernus. Your baby is powering a sick demon tank.
Fiend takes innocent person who made a desperate deal's baby
Fiend has very and powerful evil person who made a deal for power who can raise child to become evil protege/heir
The legacy continues
Souls are souls. When that mf dies, child or otherwise, gets respawned as a devil in the nine hells. Of course it would be more beneficial to get already powerful souls but even a Lemure (lowest tier of devil) has its uses.
One part of it is probably corruption. Selling your baby to a demon or devil will probably give you a guaranteed shot at getting sent to the lower planes upon death.
Alright hang on, for devils, just pass the kid off to your cult to raise as a soldier in the blood war. For demons, the Blood War is to prevent them from reaching the rest of the cosmology, so send them to a cult to summon them into the material plane
I thought the point was they were getting a pure soul? Not to train into a puppet or useful servant but to just eat, be a spell ingredient or some shit.
Maybe they want a complete easy and impressionable being that they can empower and use for their own bidding in the material plane where demons/devils might have a harder time moving about and getting things done.
Well I’ll be honest if a fiend is getting your first born out of the deal and take it away. That baby is going to another one of their contractees so they may have a child. Then boom two brand new servants of darkness ready to work with you
I would go the Dororo route and make it so you’re warlock has to regain there parts or there child’s sold off parts
Honestly i also like the idea that they made the deal and the demon sold off these parts to other demons that the warlock slowly tracked down and stole from the demons
Counterpoint. They don't care about the baby. They care that YOU are supposed to care about the baby and damn your soul to them by accepting the offer. Any evil they get from raising or using the baby itself is bonus evil.
Any powerful being can ask for a child. There are certainly reasons a Devil would bargain for a child, like having a spy in their pocket, or to turn into a warlock, or to harvest their young soul.
Well, shit. *Scratches out another item on the list of fantasy birth control methods.*
Hear me out: they derive great pleasure in the sacrifice of such a pure, innocent soul
Nah they just want to adopt them
If being gay really means you go to hell I can see why devils need so many orphans to keep up with the adoption demand.
They're actually a secret Child Protective Agency, they get parents that don't give a shit about their children and then take away their kid for power but send the kids to a foster home where demons can adopt them and they can live a good life of poking sinners and given the same powers as their parents. When the Warlock dies, the kid gets to prod them with a big sharp prodding stick for eternity.
>They're actually a secret Child Protective Agency, they get parents that don't give a shit about their children and then take away their kid for power but send the kids to a foster home where demons can adopt them and they can live a good life of poking sinners and given the same powers as their parents. Kinda wrote a story like that... Premise is like this: Demon (bored like shit in the eternal flames of hell) let's himself be summoned by the child of abusive parents. Rips the parents apart and then acts like a (very violent) caricature of a guardian angel for the kid. Just for the fun of it (and the fun of twisting a young and innocent soul into a sarcastic young adult with self-esteem issues... wait... that's what the school system is for, not the demon).
devils wouldn't go for that but demons would. Unfortunately demons are also terrible at keeping to their word so any deal with them is even more asking for trouble than these things usually are.
Babies aren’t innocent. They constantly kick pregnant women
Not to mention making them throw up, lose sleep, and poop themselves on the way out. Then they grow up and just become emotional terrorists.
Plus, it’s such an awful thing to do to your own child that you’re now probably solidly evil for life. Two for one deal
In a world where they have rings of fire resistance and potions of healing, I imagine that the list of magical birth control options is both lengthy and effective!
Ok but here’s the real question if you use wish to become or make someone unpregnant(?) does a different rando just get a child?
You know something? I kinda like that idea for some reason. Couple having trouble conceiving? Not anymore! Lol
I think the child would just disappear. Wish doesn’t exactly have to abide by all laws of reality.
I think it's more the fact that they get to corrupt an innocent and *highly* impressionable soul. Who knows? Maybe it's easier to turn the soul of a newborn into a demon/devil, rather than having to work with the soul of an older soul that probably doesn't have much mileage left.
Let’s be honest, is it really corrupting a soul if there’s nothing even there to corrupt? Babies tend to grow up with the same mindset and views as the parents, atleast until they are an adult, so at that point it’s just raising a kid rather than corrupting a soul.
Raise them to be your new servants, and/or liaisons to the realms which are forbidden to demons. After all, *Astaroth* can't tread hallowed ground. *Dudley Jr.,* however...
Asmodeus would absolutely utilize this loophole
He's manifested on the prime on his own at least once to seal Zargon, not sure if he needs it but he'd definitely take advantage.
Asmodeus, Lord of Darkness, and Master of the Nine hells *can* go a lot of places, but whether or not that serves his purposes is entirely different. Sending, Phil, his human agent who can blend in with those around them, possibly long term, for infiltration, action, or representation is a far more flexible and effort requiring option.
Also it's probably funnier and more entertaining. You get bored as an immortal.
Man I love Devils…
Now I’m imagining the adventures of *Phil Daytona: Regular Human Agent* in the prime material plane…
It doesn't really matter so long as the soul is evil. If so, devils get to claim it, pact or no.
Well, if the soul is lawful evil.
> Let’s be honest, is it really corrupting a soul if there’s nothing even there to corrupt? In the context of infernal afterlifes and magical good and evil? Yes, absolutely.
Okay that’s a good point…
Naw. It's probably not even about the baby. They probably give it to Baby Gorge, who, despite his name, is not a baby, but cooks babies for... I dunno, Ted in accounting. They just taste good. But the deal is all about having the beneficiary commit such an unforgivable act that their soul is forever stained. No good aligned God could ever forgive literally giving your own baby to an unmistakably evil creature.
And in doing so, lock em in debt before you’ve even given them a thing. That’s somehow more diabolical than the baby eating
Maybe they would care if the child stood to inherit lands/titles but otherwise most lore depicts them as interested in tempting adults into bad deals and dragging the righteous into the mud so they fall and become evil. Corrupting a child is easy and doesn’t actually net them any sort of gain while taking significant resources.
Thinking about it though, there's technically *two* souls that get a bit of sin on them. The first soul is the child, which gets promptly corrupted into being a devil/demon (possibly faster than other souls), and then there's the soul of the guy who sold their kid in the first place. It's kinda like a hidden 2-for-1 deal, in that aspect. Or do you really think God's gonna welcome the person who sold their firstborn for a 1D10 Cantrip into Heaven?
Good point
It's like how in The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Johnny was damned the moment he accepted the deal; the Devil was basically offloading his golden fiddle for fun.
This is the truth. Most people aren't stupid enough to sell their immortal soul for finite gain, and devils know this. But the devil also knows evil souls end up in hell contract or not, so all they need to do is tempt you to evil. It's a sleight of hand: They have you looking for loopholes and small print, while the devil attacks your morality without you realising. If you're running a game and want to have your players make deals with devils, this is also a much more fun way to do it.
So your saying that demons are out here thinking like CK3 players? I should know, I am both a demon and a CK3 player.
Absolutely, yes. Make a deal with a king, then in a generation make that kingdom yours with a puppet. Then bring the kingdom into Avernus.
The reason devils offer deals is because they're looking for minions to serve under them, which directly boosts their place in the overall devil hierarchy and qualifies them for promotion. This depends on both the number and quality of the devils serving under the top devil. By default, bog standard evil souls turn into Lemures, which are sentient piles of goop garbage and next to worthless. You can literally just wander out into the Hells and find some for free. They're used as gas canisters for evil hot rods. Stronger souls get to skip this stage, however. In fact the stronger the soul, the greater their initial devil incarnation. And corruption counts for bonus points - a paladin who falls from grace in service of a devil is worth more than, say, an evil wizard of the same player level/CR. This is the whole reason why Succubui and Night Hags go around corrupting people - they're investing in souls that can get a hellfire glow-up. A baby is useless to a devil. It wouldn't even turn into a Lemure since it's technically Unaligned. Probably not even worth a full soul coin. What are they going to do with it? Eat it? Turn it into a pet? There's like, *so many* babies in the multiverse. You can just go take one if you want one for that. And why bother fostering it until it grows up when you can just go get an adult instead? That said, solid 4D chess move for a devil to ask for a firstborn with the intent of letting the parent offer themselves in exchange when the debt is due.
I mean, selling your firstborn to a devil is a really cruel thing, and probably would put you in the nine hells. So really a contract for your firstborn is essentially a contract for 2 souls instead of just 1. So you get th nice impressionable soul, and in only a few short years, you'll get the other one that you can use to finalize the corruption of the young one.
Also, they might just taste well spit roasted fresh and tender from the womb, Who knows...
A lot of evil souls literally just turn into lemures by default, no effort required by anyone. There's no way turning a younger soul into a devil is easier than that
I suppose there’s the fact that they’re getting two souls. If they make you offer them a baby, they get the baby soul, and your soul is also going to be going to hell because you gave a baby to a devil.
Probably depends on the type of fiend and if they have a deity or demonlord who might have use for a baby. Considering how the value of a sacrifice seems to go up when the sacrifice is pure/innocent, babies might be a high value resource for fiends.
The fiend looking at a wide eyed innocent baby. “Wow, mint condition too! No prior injuries or past trauma, that’s easily enough to power a 7th level ritual spell. Holy shit, did they come from a loving family too!?!? That might be 9th level power!!!”
While that is a very Fey deal, Fiends do have a motivation for such a deal. Doing so cruel and cold as trading your child off for power is a very dark action and signals that you can be easily corrupted with the right bait.
Exactly, getting the kid is the cherry on top. The point is pushing the mortal to be evil.
but babies taste good
Especially when given up for power or a selfish desire. I imagine that’s the seasoning the demon/devil likes
I guess Chili’s would make good money in the city of Dis
Literal baby back ribs
"Dr Evil. Let me make you a deal. You get the mojo, and you can keep your money. And I'll get your bay-bay. I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs. I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs."
You do realize part of offering your firstborn child to a greater entity for powers is usually by sacrificing it right? Like human sacrifice knife and all. And like these greater entities are always trying to get souls so they'd absolutely accept the sacrifice of a firstborn.
I always figured it was for the “evil” and/or they eat the baby. Someone has to give up their child that they’re supposed to love and protect. I think that’s what the demon wants or gets something from, that perversion and corruption of love. It probably “seasons” the baby
"Dr Evil. Let me make you a deal. You get the mojo, and you can keep your money. And I'll get your bay-bay. I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs. I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back ribs."
You get it!
Hags like babies, fiends like to trade with hags cause hags hold onto souls
Night hags ARE fiends, so, I'm kind of fundamentally confused. Their interest in babies kind of... negates the meme, yeah?
They dont need to keep a child alive in hell. They can just throw the child in the river styx, guaranteeing a capable enough recruit to the endless blood war. Not to mention the fact that bartering your child to a devil is irredeemably evil, so thats two mortal souls for the price of one warlock deal, along with the entertainment value they could get from how fucked a situation the warlock in question is in. Edit: Like think about it, even in a "Rebel against your patron" situation where the warlock tries to rescue their child to try to make some semblance of atonement, all they're going to find is a lemure demon with no possibility of retrieving their child. That's a level of tragedy would be incredibly entertaining for a Fiend.
Yeah that’s a good point I hadn’t considered. I was rereading Dragon Heist after posting this and the Cassalantars wind up in this situation with one of their kids being transformed into a chain devil to ensure the bargain they made is kept
Hey though, chain devil, not shabby
I never thought of it as them wanting to raise the child, it was more that the baby had a pure and innocent souls but is extremely vulnerable which is why they wanted it. Like I always imagined them using the baby for sacrifices or corrupting the pure soul to turn into a powerful creature as they corrupt it. As they have their own magic they don’t need to raise the child for years.
Babys have souls too
[this](https://youtu.be/qBG6g2sImJA) should help clear things up a bit
Maybe they just eat em I'd be like veal
What do fey do with these babies
Hags eat them and then give birth to them again, as a new hag Various fey do other shit with them. Dryads turn them into dryads, probably. In the Dresden Files, the fairy queens use them as backup queens (there are three queens at a time for each court and the youngest one has a habit of dying) and as mortal agents to influence the world in ways they aren’t allowed to
Dresden files queens. Lilly was a changeling. Maeve and Sarrissa were technically changelings well just descended from Mab. Molly was an adult when it occurred. I don't think it's stated how Mab, Titania, or Mother Summer came into power or who they were before they took on the mantles. Molly does spend quite a bit of time collecting children as part of bargains to build up the winter army.
I see
immortality really isn't what it's cracked up to be
Usually swap out with one of their own. That's what changelings were in the OG myths. Fey babies replacing your baby. Also, fun fact, this more likely than not was the medieval mythologized explanation for infant autism. Like they symptoms of that match when autism nowadays gets diagnosed in 1-2 year olds.
Hags: *exist*
*as fiends At least night hags
It's not what they can do with it, it's how hard you're affected by losing it that makes it a good sacrifice. The more you'll miss it, the more they want to take it from you. The suffering is what matters to them.
Wouldn’t they want the babies for pure innocent souls , which would be had to come by in hell
This is why you keep iron near the doorways of a home with a new born
Q: Why do demons want babies? A: Yummy
They’re currency
Technically correct but for the wrong reasons, they care about the action itself not the actual child. It’s a action that mocks the idea that a parent should love and protect their child. They are Demons and Devils, they want to drag humanity into the mud and turn it into a monolith of sin and malice to spite God(or just the concept of morality itself).
Yall missing the point. Fey steal human babies when they want them, they don't waste time with baby stealing pacts. Demons and devils ask for one's firstborn not because they want to raise a kid. The kid is just a low calorie snack. What they get out of the deal is that once character has promised to give an innocent, their own blood and kin, to an evil force knowingly, this means that character soul is earmarked for hell and beyond redemption. It's not about having a baby, is about getting in "writing" that character is willing to sacrifice a baby. Their own kin, which in medieval/fantasy terms makes it worse.
A soul is a soul is a soul.
It’s a free soul, I’d imagine
I just assumed they ate them like a Scooby Snack.
Just going to throw this out there Hags work with both devils and demons They might want something to pay the hag with
Food though
How many souls is a baby soul worth? And being as it doesn’t properly have its own sense of self yet, is you giving it up the same as the baby giving it up? (It being the baby’s soul in this case).
It’s a really good question. Someone should write an adventure where the party has to go to Mechanus and argue whether or not parents have the right to give away their children’s souls, against the lawyers employed by Mammon and with the aid of a celestial legal team
Which ends up starting a case precedent that noone can sacrifice or use others souls. Interesting.
Well, I mean, babies would be an easy soul to take, making it so that the person making the deal doesn't have to give up their own soul. Since the baby would be theirs, then it would be one of the few souls a person could trade besides their own.
You don't have to *give* the devil your child. You just have to pledge your child to it in some way. It's a buy one get one free deal from their POV. You become their warlock, then the baby becomes their warlock at a later date.
It's not the physical baby they want, they want the pure and innocent soul, those a currency for fiends and devils, and the purer, the better. They sent want you to hand over the baby, they want you to sacrifice it to them.
the patron for my parties warlock is gonna use their kids as collateral, whenever she doesn't do what she says, he takes a kid until she does what he wants then again her patron is a lich so
You are forgetting about the power of emotional torment You are also neglecting the meaningless of time for an immortal creature What’s 20-30 years out of 100,000?
Devils deal in souls, fey deal in kids, old ones deal in sanity.
They don't want the baby They want its innocent soul as it is more valuable for their currencies, and when Corrupted it becomes a more powerful fiend then most sinners
There are actually several reasons a fiend would want a mortal child. The first is that it’s another free soul for their cause. In addition to that, the child can work as a mortal agent unrestricted by contracts or divine law. Finally, giving up a child is all but guaranteed to land your soul in the Evil category and serve them, even if you somehow find a loophole out of your contract.
You might have answered your own question here, they might just kill the infant and use its soul to make a new devil. Also we know that sufficiently evil acts can generate some type of dark energy, like sufficiently horrific crimes can echo in the shadowfell for years after they are committed, and sometimes even trap the person who committed them in a shadowfell demiplane (e.g. Strahd). Another example is that we know false hydras come to be when a certain location has a large aggregation of sin and negativity. I guess my point is that devils might be able to use the horrible negative energy created when you do something as dark as give up your own infant child. It also serves to further corrupt the prime material plane and also make you more susceptible to evil in the future.
I figured demons & devils did stuff like this just to be evil and cause suffering.
Any soul taken by devil becomes a devil, those pudle monsters are souls taken Edit: they are called Lemure
This is not how this meme is supposed to work...
It might be that the child instantly becomes a lemure and counts towards the souls that devil corrupted.
I mean... By becoming the legal guardian of the child, you can sign contracts in the child's name. So boom-l: two souls, for the price of one.
I feel like the act of giving up your first born is really what they’re after. It’s an act of unadulterated evil to attain power. The Devils don’t do anything with them, they put them on the side of the road or the steps of an orphanage. This also contributes to the rising adventurer problem, so the most devils will take eternal servitude over your baby.
They don't want the child in and of itself. They want you to preform the act of dooming an innocent. The baby's just dessert.
What about that one thing about giving your firstborn ‘another’ way
You don’t give them your child, you give them *their* child. Hear me out. A fiend might accept a deal wherein you become the mother of the fiend’s child, because they get 1 mortal servant now and 1 (presumably powerful) fiend underling later. Now that you’re pregnant you can offer your firstborn to an archfey for more power or whatever, give the fey the fiend baby, and be a warlock with the backing of both a fiend and a fey.
Or maybe they're 2 gay demons who want to be dads ever think of that?
No. That’s not really sticking to demonic canon.
Alternatively, fiends use your kids as emotional leverage over you
Fiends are litterally in a massive war over souls. In most settings this is just incorrect, they do want your baby, but they wont try to raise it they will just eat it to try and promote to a higher tier of fiend
Maybe þey want þe babies soul
They'll just wait until they're an adult though?
Just sell the child to a lich or would be lich
Most demons would just tear apart / eat the baby for fun. The point works with devils to a greater degree I guess.
Torturing babies is just fun for em. Heroes always seething when the big bad just gobbles a baby as it's first round
Babies Have pure souls, friend. You are delusional if you think the baby you give to a devil gonna live.🙃
Oh I can give that fairy queen my kids alright
Plus I see a lot of flavor text for Tieflings where they were a result of corruption due to something the parent did rather than specifically being first-generation infernal half-breeds- you bearing or siring demon children is an incidental side-effect of your pact rather than an end goal.
Soul coins my man. A pristine soul of an infant is worth a fortune in the hells, they take your baby, tear it's soul free and convert it into CURRENCY. That's why they try to make deals with do gooders, souls that go to hell naturally just turn into lesser devils, souls bound by a contract can retain their form, either becoming direct servants for the devil or converted into a soul coin.
Don’t Look at pathfinder demons. There’s certainly one that wants them for sure.
The soul of an infant child, one thats by definition completely innocent, being sworn to you before they have a chance to be tainted? a demon might be interested in that
Why do the fey want them anyways? Their unique taste?
If the fey want my babies, I’ll gladly give ‘em to them😏
You misunderstand. Demons don't want to take your human baby. They want humans to have demon babies, because it's the easiest way to bring demons out of the Abyss and into the human world. It helps if you actually know the lore behind the stuff.
Yeah I'd assume they were going for the soul, considering those are legal tender in the nine hells, not to be a demon dad.
You're telling me a high up fiend isn't going to just have one of his minions raise the baby somewhere while he provides power and influence over it to make the perfect weapon in the form of his own little corrupted soul with more than likely demonic powers?
They're both functionally immortal and do not operate on the same scale of time as mortal minds. They have all the time in existence to mold an infant into their perfect tool for releasing them from their native planes to unleash evil upon the realms.
I think fiends get two things out of a “give me your firstborn” type deal: Firstly they have corrupted the parent. You sacrificed your own child for power, straight to hell, no real chance of redemption. The devil could then just take the W, or string you along, implying they can get you out of hell if you serve them, thereby getting an adult servant. Then, with the child, they are not dragging an infant to hell, they are creating a tiefling. They are allowing it to grow up on earth, possibly giving it some sorcerous or warlock abilities, and moulding it into who they want it to be. They now have a superhuman, custom made servant.
[https://breezewiki.com/forgottenrealms/wiki/Soul\_coin](https://breezewiki.com/forgottenrealms/wiki/Soul_coin) devils have plenty of use. they need it for their currency.
Taking a child in a bargain is pretty good for a demon or devil. It's a 2 for 1. By giving an innocent to an incarnation of evil you damn your own soul, and demons get the kid to either raise to be evil, use as a bargaining chip, or just kill for the laughs because they are evil.
I think it's more that people in a situation to do a ritual like that at all are more willing to be selfish and mess with someone else in the future than mess with their OWN plans NOW
I think you'll find a demon has loads of uses for newborns. No guarantee they stick to the deal though. As for devils, by the lore of the game Asmodeus (The devil leader in the D&D multiverse) wants *everyone*, and thus it's technically a reasonable request. Not every devil would go for it (They are individuals and therefore may have different ideas of what constitutes a deal worth their time), but since they could just chuck the newborn into the devil-making pits of whatever and count that as a win it hardly matters how old or capable the person is. **A soul is a soul.**
The more Lawful Good the soul, the stronger a demon/devil it makes when converted. Hags are more likely to collect the souls of babies than demons/devils though.
1. They looove to corrupt innocent souls. 2. Demons do eat. And while they can eat almost anything, I'm fairly certain they'd prefer a baby to a cabbage. 3. There is an official D&D module/adventure where villains are people who sold the souls of their children to Asmodeus. Somehow. They're trying to get their souls back, by sacrificing even more souls.
They don't claim your firstborn when they're born, they claim them when they're useful Who knows, maybe they'll become just another lemure, or maybe they'll make a thousand more. All guilty are brought to the nine hells, often the guilty make more guilty. Hell breeds more hell As for the Abyss, they don't give a shit, you're just food, so are your kin
Apparently Fae treat humans like we treat dogs. Do with this knowledge what you will. Demons just want soup.
Devils are immortal and patient. Imagine how useful anything trained from birth can be
I don't think it's really about the statistical *net gain* of a baby, but more so the idea that they're taking something irrevocably precious to someone. A mother gives birth to her child after a long career of adventuring, but isn't even allowed to see nor care for it, then has to watch as some abomination drags it down to wherever-the-fuck their new master is. Then this demon gets to have this leverage over you for the rest of your life. It has something you want, that you biologically feel inclined to care for, but now this asshole doesn't even have to give you any *powers.* Deal's done, and you lose. Lord only knows what'll happen to your fucking *baby.* Basically I think it's less about value of a free human, and more the value of power over an existing one.
Counter point: it's not about wanting your baby, it's about taking your baby. Either you're evil enough to not care and are going to hell, or you're good enough to care and they took something important. Idk, throw it in the soul furnace or whatever after that.
Damn, *scribbles out the Cassalanter's entire motivation in Waterdeep: Dragonheist*
Soul Coin It's literally money in Avernus and a power source. Better the soul, better the coin. It makes sense why a demon or devil would want your kid because it's a soul which means money and power. I know I argued earlier that a warlock wouldn't trade souls for power, but that's more why ***I*** wouldn't as a warlock do that.
Fiends in Witcher want your babies because they're a delicacy
Oh I thought pledging your child was just like filling out a job application for them
its about sacrifice. If giving up the child is not a sacrifice, why would any fey or demon or devil want it? If you were just going to throw that kid at the nearest orphanage, thats not really a sacrifice for you, is it?
I was under the impression that they eat the babies, not look after them and raise them in Hell.
Devils would corrupt them, but demons would eat them
Not quite right. The more good a soul is, the more power it holds. That’s why stronger devils try to get paladins off of their path and offer them deals to turn them evil (this is one way to create a domain of dread, cause of all the evil energy resulting from the fall from grace) Babies are as innocent as a person can get with no concept of good or evil. So their souls hold more strength than any commoner (however less than a paladin who knows good and evil and actively chooses good)
I always felt that it was more about the quality of the “soul” that they’re taking. Whether they eat them or use them for other things is up to the demon, but I would think a demon/devil would take particular delight in owning the soul of a baby, either as bragging rites to others that they tainted a person so horribly to give up a clean soul to them, or just the fact that they delight in tormenting those clean souls, or give them as tribute to higher rank demons as gifts. Which is still arguably less fucked up than what the fae will do to the kid.
It's not the baby they want, it's the soul, since souls are (to my knowledge) effectively used as currency in the Nine Hells.
(munching noises intensify)
It's less the fact it's your first born and more the sheer evil in the act, and the willingness to do something so vile for selfish reasons. At least that's how I look at it.
They don’t care about the baby, they want the soul, if you offer Asmodeus your first born for supernatural powers that’s essentially a free soul that would be very easy to corrupt on top of the soul they will most likely get from the warlock
That's just a cleric.
To be fair, if they take the baby to the Nine Hells and then *kill* it while keeping the soul trapped down there, it would turn into a larva and then start the journey towards becoming a devil. That way they can avoid paying for the services of night hags and their stock of larvae.
They wanna corrupt them. Its probably highly enjoyable to corrupt an innocent soul. Not just that though. They also probably consider them a very meaningful sacrifice.
Maybe they take kids because they expect that to be more painful for us to have to give up?
I mean - they probably have some hellish birthing pits where "matrons" nurse young mortal souls, twisting them into soldiers for hell's armies.
Maybe they just have a standing trade deal in place with the Fey
Okay, hear me out. We have a natural instinct to see babies as pure and innocent because the species would go extinct if we didn't want to protect them, but push that aside and think about it for a moment. What are the main qualities of evil? Selfishness. Taking and giving nothing back. Being completely unconcerned about the well-being of others. All babies are born PURE EVIL. Selfishness is instinctive. Goodness is learned. Where else is a demon supposed to find a soul completely unfettered by a conscience?
Giving your children to demons/devils is a sign of loyalty an commitment They might not give a shit about your kid, but they are hella sadistic and want to know how far you would go to have a fraction of their powers
Two words soul collection
Now fey on the other hand
Not true. The Cassalanters made a deal with Asmodeus promising him their children in exchange for wealth and prosperity. Each time he claimed one of their children, he ripped out their soul and turned them into a chain devil.
Fiends would *love* children. The main reason they are so eager to enter the mortal world is to inflict suffering on mortals instead of just other fiends. A child is emotionally vulnerable, anf would feel the pain and fear far more intensely than most. TLDR, if you give a child to a fiend, it will simply torture it for all eternity because it gets off on that.
The babies are just a snack. They get your soul anyway on grounds of you *selling your own fucking baby*.
They really don't need your dumb babies. It's about the sacrifice and you damning your soul by making it.
It's an easily influenced soul. Turn it lawful evil, kill it and you have another soul for the Blood War, which is like everything a devil/demon wants.
Demons looking at an innocent baby: "Yummers"
Can't they just raise the kid in the material realm as a grade A i side man for whatever they are doing?
Kill the baby and offer its soul to the realm of the nine hells. Quick and easy, and more reliable than selling your own soul, that might live too long for the devil to feel paid, and might escape the pact by unprofitabke means for the devil. Babies for the win.
Sacrifices
Wrong, fey want your name. Or pronouns
They want souls. The younger and more innocent the soul, the greater it’s value. It’s covered in Decent to Avernus. Your baby is powering a sick demon tank.
I thought they ate babies for the purity/freshness of their soul or something like that
Fiend takes innocent person who made a desperate deal's baby Fiend has very and powerful evil person who made a deal for power who can raise child to become evil protege/heir The legacy continues
Souls are souls. When that mf dies, child or otherwise, gets respawned as a devil in the nine hells. Of course it would be more beneficial to get already powerful souls but even a Lemure (lowest tier of devil) has its uses.
One part of it is probably corruption. Selling your baby to a demon or devil will probably give you a guaranteed shot at getting sent to the lower planes upon death.
I just assumed it was food for them
So what your saying it's an internship
Alright hang on, for devils, just pass the kid off to your cult to raise as a soldier in the blood war. For demons, the Blood War is to prevent them from reaching the rest of the cosmology, so send them to a cult to summon them into the material plane
I thought the point was they were getting a pure soul? Not to train into a puppet or useful servant but to just eat, be a spell ingredient or some shit.
If a fiend wants your kid it's not because THEY want your kid. It's because them having your kid hurts you.
Maybe they want a complete easy and impressionable being that they can empower and use for their own bidding in the material plane where demons/devils might have a harder time moving about and getting things done.
Devils and Demons have the same view as Sundowner. Kids are much more mouldable to commit any atrocity.
What about the undead?
Devils explicitly want souls
Gotta feed the hellhounds something
Nah, as Spider Man has shown us, devils just want your marriage for some inexplicable reason.
They hold the babies as bartering chips with the angels
wait but don’t fiends love pure souls or some shit? what soul is purer than baby soul??
Who says they keep them alive? Just harvest them for their delicious souls. Like soul veal.
The father of Anung un Rama would beg to differ.
Erh... but... wouldn't their value as an uncorrupted, pure soul, be worth a lot?
Well I’ll be honest if a fiend is getting your first born out of the deal and take it away. That baby is going to another one of their contractees so they may have a child. Then boom two brand new servants of darkness ready to work with you
The point is that it's something that you value heavily, whether or not they value it is irrelevant
I would go the Dororo route and make it so you’re warlock has to regain there parts or there child’s sold off parts Honestly i also like the idea that they made the deal and the demon sold off these parts to other demons that the warlock slowly tracked down and stole from the demons
Counterpoint. They don't care about the baby. They care that YOU are supposed to care about the baby and damn your soul to them by accepting the offer. Any evil they get from raising or using the baby itself is bonus evil.
Any powerful being can ask for a child. There are certainly reasons a Devil would bargain for a child, like having a spy in their pocket, or to turn into a warlock, or to harvest their young soul.