The Church demonized succubi as sex-crazed women who could kill a man with a touch. In reality, a succubus is the most in-control magical creature. They are taught from the beginning that they must be in control of their abilities at all times. A succubus who has just come into her powers has a small amount of leeway in gaining that control, but after an amount of time she is expected to be able to control herself. Even then, a succubus' control is a delicate balance between pleasure and pain.
Very rarely, a succubus is pushed so far beyond her limit of control that she goes insane and turns siren. Humans never actually encountered sirens, and many of the myths surrounding sirens were actually mermaid related. A siren is a succubus who has lost all control of her powers. The siren is the true creature behind the darker myths about succubi. She can suck the life from a man in a single kiss, though they prefer to have intercourse and take the life energy that way. A siren's power has the ability to rip a person to shreds, tearing limb from torso, at a thought. Sirens, when they occur, are killed as quickly as possible; usually by another woman.
On the opposite side of the coin from a succubus is the incubus. Incubi are the male offspring of demons and mermaids. Unlike nymphs, mermaids can have either male or female offspring. The mermaids also have the ability to choose what their child is in terms of species. A mermaid impregnated by a demon can choose to have a mermaid child, whether that child is male or female. In the event that the mermaid chooses to not have a mermaid child, she can only hope that the pregnancy results in a male who might be an incubus. They do not have the power to choose the gender of the child, so a female child will be taken back to the mermaid pod to be raised by another mermaid.
However, just because the mermaid chooses not to birth a mermaid does not mean that a male child will be an incubus. The mermaid can choose to have a male demon child instead. No one is certain how this is possible, but it does happen.
In the event that an incubus is born, he is raised by his father in much the same way as the succubus. He is taught what his powers will be and how to control them, and at eighteen he is initiated into sex. Unlike a succubus, who is virtually powerless until she reaches maturity around the age of twenty, an incubus is born able to display magical abilities similar to those of a normal male demon. The incubus, though, is the perfect balance to a succubus' power.
A normal succubus has a constant struggle of balancing her powers with her desire to take the life energy from men. The incubus is the perfect source of sexual energy for the succubus in that she cannot drain him sexually. Demons are more suited to giving up this sexual energy than a human male is, so it is more difficult for a succubus to kill them in the way that they can kill humans. But the succubus cannot kill an incubus that is bound to her as a mate.
Succubi bind demons or incubi to them within a year of reaching maturity. Before the Takeover, succubi would be kept with several demons until she took one of them as her mate. If she did not take a mate within a year, it was understood that she would never take a mate. These weaker succubi almost never turned siren, and were not a danger to the general populace. Stronger succubi would bind a mate to her that complimented her powers. This binding would assist her in keeping the temptation of her powers in check.
The binding of a mate is only done by the succubus. No demon can bind himself to her as a mate. However, there are spells that can bind demons to a succubus to a lesser extent. Life-bond spells are the most common, and they bind the lives of the two together. A life-bond spell does not form a tangible connection between the subjects, but if a demon performs a life-bond spell on a succubus and that succubus turns siren, he can commit suicide to stop her. It is extreme, but often the only way to stop a succubus once she has turned siren. The life-bond spell binds the lives of the together so completely that one cannot live if the other dies.
In recent times, it has been very rare for a succubus to bond with a mate and even rarer for a demon to perform a life-bond spell with a succubus. There hasn't been an incubus born in nearly five hundred years, and the last one died as a result of a life-bond spell more than three hundred years ago. He was not bound as a mate to the succubus because he was born after she had already reached maturity, and there wasn't another succubus born before he died.
It is said that a succubus always breeds true, just like the nymphs she descends from. So, a succubus will always produce a female child who will mature as a succubus. This child is stronger than the mother, but cannot exceed the father's magical prowess. No one is sure why this is the way of it, but it is.
Second generation succubi were once common. This is believed to be the reason that incubi were more common, as second generation succubi were more likely to turn siren. The second generation succubi had a more tenuous hold on her powers, and so needed the balance that an incubus gave her in the mated bond. In the instance that a succubus gives birth, she is expected to teach that child everything she will need to know in preparation for her eighteenth birthday. In more recent times, second generation succubi have been all but unheard of. Because of this, the need for incubi has declined and the existing succubi would be less likely to know just how to train their daughters.
Very recently, the councils have begun to mandate the sterilization of all succubi to prevent the birth of a second generation. The reasoning behind this is the lack of incubi to be bound as a mate to control her. These sterilizations are done with a spell developed after modifying a long-term contraception spell, and are painless. Several succubi, in an attempt to evade the sterilization spell, attempted to leave the nymph communities before their eighteenth birthdays. They were believed to have all been captured and sterilized.
