Better to reign in hell…

Some demons have been hanging around in the hereafter for a very, very long time. It makes sense to assume that there’s one who’s been hanging around a lot longer than any of the others, just as it makes sense to find the world’s oldest living person and put them in the record books. But you won’t find the oldest demon in existence in any record book – he isn’t much inclined to draw attention to himself.
The very first people to become demons tended to be the leaders of the prehistoric sacrificial cults, and when they passed on and then tried to come back to the mortal world with knowledge of beyond the veil they were promptly shut up by the Cruel Ones. The First was also a high priest of one of these early cults, but unlike his predecessors he was smart enough to keep quiet about the secrets of the afterlife. He didn’t want to go there himself. He wanted to destroy it and replace it with something more sensible.
Over the course of a few centuries spent biding his time and learning the ins and outs of possessing living people, the First made a few key conclusions. Most significantly, he’d concluded that personal rather than universal re-incarnation was the way forward for the cosmos. Sure, people coming back in the bodies of newborn infants might not remember a whole lot about their previous lives, but he was confident they’d instinctively remember the lessons they’d learned and avoid making old mistakes the second, third, fourth or fifth time around. If everyone got an endless amount of lifetimes to really get their acts together, then it wouldn’t be too long before you got total universal enlightenment. To make the idea work, though, the First needed lots and lots of people who wanted a second chance. Lots and lots more demons, in other words.
There were two big problems that the First had to solve. First, he had to figure out a way of coming back in a baby’s body, and then he had to work out how to stop souls of the deceased from going beyond the veil so that he could teach them the same trick. Another big problem, as far as he was concerned, was that he would surely lose all of his skills, memories and powers as they would hardly fit into a newborn brain, but he eventually figured out how to store all of those bits of himself on the astral plane so that his reborn self, guided by various signs, portents and dreams, could get them all back later. Then, probably some time in antiquity when Judeo-Christian notions about salvation and damnation were becoming widespread, he hit on the idea of Faustian bargains. After many centuries of careful practice, the First developed the ability to fulfil peoples’ wildest dreams in exchange for their souls, so that when they died they went to him instead of the great hereafter.
All fine and good, but it was hardly a quick process and the First knew that he would never manage to pull down the walls of reality with the (relatively) minuscule number of souls that he’d managed to ‘save’ and teach his tricks to. It was intensely time-consuming, requiring a good century or so to teach a demonic apprentice how to bargain for souls and achieve re-incarnation, and there was always the risk of discovery by the Invisible Clergy, the First and Last Man and, of course, the Cruel Ones. Powerful as the First is, neither he not his acolytes stand a chance against them.
The First needs a plan, and he needs one soon. He has no idea what’ll happen when the Clergy fills up and the universe ends, so he has to get everyone signed up for his re-incarnation deal as quickly as possible. In the absence of a good plan, he might decide that he’s got nothing to lose by trying something wild, desperate and spectacular.
Metaphysical Concerns…
Who can say what the possible outcomes of the First’s curious crusade might be? He could be the ultimate servant of entropy, in spite of his sincere belief otherwise: perhaps the Cruel Ones are serving Order and sustaining the cosmos by taking the souls of the dead beyond the veil. By increasing the number of demons in the universe, he could be achieving nothing more than a disastrous build-up of entropy that could lead to the final and utter end of everything. This would be the ultimate irony, given that it’s the last thing he wants…
Moreover, given the First’s modus operandi of “saving” souls to bring about nirvana, it’s always conceivable that he might have played rather a big role in the evolution of some important religious beliefs in the world. Exactly how big a role you can decide for yourself.

Stats.
Personality: Take a quick look at Paradise Lost for the general idea. The First is the ultimate revolutionary, utterly sincere in his belief that he’s bringing sanity to a mad, bad universe. He may be one of the very first proponents of the notion of the end justifying the means. For instance, he’s been known to place a very low value on human life, and has killed countless numbers over the millennia in the belief that he’s done them a favour.
Obsession: Saving humanity through the cycle of death and rebirth.

Rage Stimulus: The First really hates it when people refuse to go along with what he says, in spite of his best attempts at charming, persuading, enlightening, manipulating or lying to them.
Fear Stimulus: (Unnatural) The Cruel Ones.
Noble Stimulus: Second chances. Anyone can make a mistake. Everyone deserves a chance to put it right.

There isn’t much point in discussing the First’s stats and skills. His Body and Speed stats are the same as his host body’s if he’s possessing someone, or 66 apiece if he’s properly reincarnated. In either case, he can use just about every possible Body and Speed skill at the maximum value allowed by his stats. As for Mind, Soul and their related skills, suffice it to say that he’s only going to screw things up if he fumbles. There are, of course, some rather remarkable things he can do which merit some special attention.

Thanatomancy: The First was one of the school’s very earliest practitioners, if not the one who started it in the first place. Either way, he’s incredibly good at it.

Possession: The First could, if he really wanted, possess, control and destroy the soul of virtually anyone. But there’s a 33% chance that the Cruel Ones will notice, so he prefers to allow clueless mystics to summon him. On these occasions he rarely, if ever, gives his summoners any clues that he’s anything other than a common or garden departed spirit.

Reincarnation: By possessing either a man or a woman at just the right moment, the First can provide the spark that creates a human embryo. His consciousness slips into the newly conceived child, while the rest of him goes dormant on the astral plane. He’s then born 9 months later and has to go through the whole process of childhood, puberty and adolescence all over again. But every time he falls asleep his mind drifts back to the astral plane and he remembers a little bit more about who and what he really is. In game terms he gets something like 1 experience point every time he sleeps until he’s at full strength again, which is usually around the time he’s 21.
There are drawbacks, of course. First, he’s no more immune to disease, injury and death than anyone else. If he dies before he gets a chance to develop much self-awareness, i.e. before he can reach his 3rd birthday or thereabouts, there’s a good chance he won’t ever come back. Second, although it’s very well protected, it’s just possible that his inert astral self can be found and harmed. For instance, a Dipsomancer using Astral Stumble could find it, and then it would be easy prey for nasty spells like Ghost Vintage and Soul Sipping. But then, using Soul Sipping on the most powerful demon in the universe could have strange and unexpected consequences for the Dipsomancer.

Faustian Bargain: This is a bit more straightforward. The First simply contacts a person and does anything within his power that’s asked of him. A contract is then signed in blood, and the person’s soul goes to the First when he dies, rather than to the Cruel Ones.

Rituals: It’s pretty safe to assume that the First knows just about every ritual that still works. He has no power to create new ones.

”Pandemonium: The First has managed to acquire a cosy little Otherspace for himself. By all accounts it looks like a very drab classical-style temple from the outside, while inside it’s an impossibly large, sprawling labyrinth of chambers, stairways, courtyards, corridors, cloisters and balconies. It’s done out in a baffling mish-mash of architectural styles, but the same gloomy, austere atmosphere permeates the entire place. The layout has a bizarre habit of re-arranging itself, and only the First seems to know how to get around the place. Interestingly, demons have an effective physical presence in this realm, but it’s not an exciting place to hang around in. The First didn’t create his realm: he came by it on his early astral wanderings, and he thinks it might be the ghost of a place, or a ruin from a forgotten universe. But even he can’t say for sure.

Second Sight: Having spent a Major Charge to attain it, the First has the power to see, hear and communicate with astral entities as naturally and easily as with corporeal ones. He can also communicate telepathically with the minds of the living when he’s in his natural, incorporeal state.