Demon Lord

''This article is about the pinnacle of Monsters. For the Council of Demon Lords, see Octagram. For the Race of Spiritual Lifeforms, see Daemon Lord''

Demon Lord (魔王) is a term used in two different fashions, either as a Monster class or as a social position. In general, it refers to the strongest or highest-ranking among Monsters, however, that is not an absolute rule.

Demon Lord Seed
Demon Lord Seed (魔王種) refers to individuals who have met the necessary qualifications to be able to undergo the Harvest Festival and become Demon Lords. In terms of pure Magicules alone, they are at least Special A, with an EP of at least 200,000 being required as one of the qualifications.

True Demon Lord
True Demon Lord (真なる魔王) – sometimes reffered to as Awakened Demon Lord (覚醒魔王) – is a term created to distinguish those who call themselves a Demon Lord and those who have undergone the Harvest Festival and become actual Demon Lords.

Harvest Festival
The Harvest Festival (魔王ヘの進化) occurs once all the requirements to become a Demon Lord are met by a Demon Lord Seed. The World Language will confirm the user's intent to become a Demon Lord and the "Initiation" will start.

Known Demon Lord Seeds
Those who are known to be Demon Lord Seeds by the time of Rumbling of Heaven and Earth.

Known True Demon Lords
Those who are known to be True Demon Lords by the time of Rumbling of Heaven and Earth.

Self-Proclaimed Demon Lord
Self-proclaimed Demon Lord (自称の魔王) refers to any individual that proclaims themselves as such. There are no restrictions to this and even non-monsters can claim to be Demon Lords. However, this usually has grave consequences depending on the individual's strength.

If the Lord in question is only at the level of a high-level Majin or even only at Hazard-class, one of the officially recognized Demon Lords will quickly destroy them by either sending their own subordinates to deal with it or attacking themselves, swiftly eliminating the self-proclaimed Demon Lord. Alternatively, the Lord might even die to armies or adventurers sent from the humans before the Demon Lords act.

However, if the individual in question is truly at Demon Lord-level (Seed or True Demon Lord), then they might be able to fend off or even kill the attacker. If that occurs, rather than being enraged at the newcomer, the other Demon Lords will instead usually view this as a display of strength and invite the newcomer to take the place of the attacker as an official Demon Lord.

There are no concrete examples of self-proclaimed Demon Lords that have been killed. However, two known Demon Lords became recognized through killing their attackers - Leon Cromwell, who killed The Curse Lord 200 years before Rimuru reincarnated, and Rimuru Tempest, who killed Clayman at the Walpurgis Banquet. In both cases, the Demon Lord Council recognized their strength, allowing them to use the title of Demon Lord and join the Council.

Regardless of the result, nobody remains a self-proclaimed Demon Lord for long.

Recognized Demon Lord
Recognized Demon Lord (認められの魔王) refers to self-proclaimed Demon Lords who have been officially recognized by the established Demon Lords. This can be achieved in two different ways:
 * 1) Getting nominated by other Demon Lords to join their ranks and receiving majority approval.
 * 2) Self-proclaiming to be a Demon Lord and then proving one's strength by defeating a recognized Lord.

Once a Demon Lord is recognized, that Lord also becomes a member of the Demon Lord Council and can vote on issues brought up by the council.

Demon Lord Council
Founded by Guy Crimson, the Demon Lord council is an organization containing all the recognized Demon Lords. The number of members and the name of the council has changed multiple times throughout the council's history, but at some point the maximum number of members was capped at ten and the name "Ten Great Demon Lords" was established. However, the organization was again restructured during a Walpurgis Banquet, and the resulting organization was labeled as Octagram by the "newbie" Rimuru Tempest due to only having eight members.

The only condition required to join the council is to become a recognized Demon Lord. Anyone who joins is automatically considered at least Disaster-class by humanity just for being a recognized member of the Demon Lord council, regardless of actual power. However, it's nigh impossible for anyone other than Ramiris to join the council without being at least at Demon Lord-level of power. After the restructuring, the Octagram has even higher standards since every member is already at least at the level of a True Demon Lord in power.

Ancient Demon Lord
Among the Demon Lords that are part of the Demon Lord Council exist "generations" of Demon Lords, with the ones that were its very first members having the title Ancient Demon Lord (最古の魔王).

Ex-Demon Lord
Ex-Demon Lords (元魔王) are individuals who are no longer considered part of the Demon Lord Council. These individuals are often Recognized Demon Lords who either willingly give up their positions or are defeated or slain by a Self-Proclaimed Demon Lord. Once a Demon Lord is defeated, they will no longer be considered as one, and their status will be transferred to their opponent.

Trivia

 * The Walpurgis Banquet is effectively a glorified tea party according to its members. However, because of the immense power and reputation of those attending, most of humanity views a Banquet as a bad omen for the future.
 * Very rarely do Ex-Demon Lords survive, and if they do, they are removed from the Demon Lord Council nonetheless. The surviving Ex-Demon Lord can still regain their seat by challenging an existing Demon Lord and defeating them.
 * Guy Crimson is the de-facto leader of the Demon Lord Council due to his unrivaled strength.
 * As the Curse Lord Kazalim, Kagali held a great deal of political power over the Demon Lord Council by bringing in Clayman, Carrion and Frey altogether into their ranks. How exactly she was intending to use this to her advantage is unknown, but she never had the chance to fully utilize its potential since she was defeated later on.

pt-br:Lorde Demônio Владыка демонов

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