E is for Eodemon

Eodemons are another "new" race of demons I am working on.  Eodemons are the "Dawn Demons" or Proto Demons.  These are the demons that were already old and evil and sulking in the Hells.  Unlike the "devils" that were once good and then fell or "demons" that are relatively new to the scene, the Protodemons were old and evil. Their motivations are often alien to mortals and other demons.  Their numbers are few, but each one is extremely powerful.  Many are worshiped as gods, or at least, dark gods.

These are not to be confused with the Eudaemons, or beneficial demons.  Also many believe that Lilith herself is an Eodemon, but this is something she denies.  Also some scholars use the more archaic form Eolim to describe these demons.  Not to be confused with Elohim, which are also servants of Good.

For my take on these demons I am taking really, really old myths.  The one that everyone knows is Pazuzu.
How do you know him?  He was the demon in The Exorcist.

Only five Eodemons are being detailed. There maybe more, but they have thankfully remained unknown.  As a group they are more powerful than the Baalseraph, but are too independent and chaotic to work to the same ends.

While I am connecting the Baalserasph Lords with the Deadly Sins, I see the Eodemons as representing a classical element.

Dagon: Lord of the depths. This Eodemon combines the worst aspects of fish, octopi, sharks and strangely mankind.  Like most Eodemons his form constantly shifts and rearranges itself to suit his need, environment or whim.  One constant is his large, dead looking eyes. Always described as the “eyes of a fish” or a “drowned man”.
His element is Water.

Leviathan: It is supposed that this is the oldest of all the Eodemons.  Leviathan is so ancient that even other demons seem in awe of “his” age and power.  It assumed that it is a he though there is no evidence to suggest either way. Leviathan exists only for one purpose; to feed.  Leviathan can be found in the Astral realms devouring entire worlds.
"He" represents the Fifth Element of Quintessence.

Pazuzu: The Lord of the East Wind is a demon of the skies. He appears to be a well proportioned athletic male human with bronzed skin. His head is a bizarre combination of human, dragon and hawk.  His double set of wings could indicate a semi-divine nature but Lord Pazuzu denies such things.  Lord Pazuzu says a lot actually, he is the most active Eodemon in the affairs of mortals.
He represents the element Air.

Tiamat: The Queen of Monsters and Primal Chaos.  Tiamat was once a primal goddess of creation. But she desired only to destroy.  She was cast out and was already old in the hells when the Baalseraph arrived.  Evil Dragons and evil monsters still revere her as their queen and goddess.
She represents the element Water.

Tsathogga: This great demon appears as some sort of titanic frog-like monster.  It appears to be at least 50’ long or as much as 75’. There is a vague humanness about this this demon, but it’s countenance is one of an evil frog. It’s mouth is filled with rows of sharp, shark-like teeth the length of a grown man’s  arm.  It’s body is covered in open sores where oozes pour out.   Tsathogga does not bother to attack mere humans and will summon 4-9 (1d6+3) Demodands loyal only to him. Tsathogga, when he does attack, will use his tongue to attack the nearest opponent.  Human cultists worship Tsathogga, but the Demon Lord cares little for humanity.
The Lord of Toads represents the element Earth (I know, not a great fit).

So a nice collection of different myths here.

Help a Brother Out? (aka D is for Dragon Age...)

Not really a D post.

I am though looking for some help.

I would love to get my hands on a Dragon Age Morrigan action figure.

I have checked all the normal places and I am coming up blank.

Now I am NOT looking for someone to give me one!  I want to BUY one.
I am trying to find a place where I don't have to pay $120-$200 for one.  I am even fine with opened.

If you know of anyone selling one that would be fantastic.

Thanks!

D is for Demogorgon and Demodand

Demogorgon

Reminds me of Eldritch Wizardry's cover

Every D&D players knows about Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons.  He made his appearance in Eldritch Wizardry and has been in every monster book since.  His popularity is second only to Orcus.
In 4e his story gets expanded to include this little treat, he has two head because his head gets split in two by a good god.  The two halve regenerate into two seperate heads. Cool, and creepy.  At the same time I was working on my own version of Demogorgon for Unisystem.  You can click to read it, I think it is worth the read to be honest.  I even considered reposting it for today, but that seemed like cheating.

As interesting as his official background is and even the one I created is, Demogorgon has a much more interesting history. The first time I met him outside of D&D was in Milton's Paradise Lost.

And by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name of Demogorgon.
- Milton, Paradise Lost.

He meets Lucifer in a void area that isn't Hell but a place where Chaos and Night rule.  Sounds like the Abyss to me.

Another version of Demogorgon comes from writers Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski in their Menagerie series.  This Demogorgon is more like my Leviathan or even Galactus. The series is on going (in theory) so we have not seen the heroes face off against the Demogorgon yet.  I am looking forward to it.

If I were to redo Demogorgon I'd keep most of the background I created, but maybe make him more monstrous, maybe something like a two-headed dragon, only really freaking huge.  Something like the Tarrasque is now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

And not to forget The Temple of Demogorgon.

Demodands
These guys are bastard children of demondom.  Not demons, not devils not even daemons. They appeared first in the Monster Manual II for AD&D and seem to based on the Deodands of Jack Vance or even the classical use of the term.
For my uses these are demons that have been put together from the dead scraps of other demons.  So even among demons they are reviled and despised.
No idea if I'll do three different sub races or not.  But I like the idea of them being put together from scraps of other demons.

Petty Gods

I sent my submission over to Greg Gorgonmilk for his resurrected Petty Gods project.

I can't wait for you all to meet Nox, the Goddess of Near Darkness and her minions Syla and the Fyre Fae.

White Dwarf Wednesday #59

White Dwarf #59 comes to us from November 1984.  We have one of my favorite WD covers. It is vaguely reminiscent of the Dragon #114 cover, though it predates that cover by 2 years.  I saw the Dragon one first. In any case this is still a great cover.

Ian Livingstone starts off with talking about some more changes coming to WD.  Most notable for the magazine and for my retrospectives here is the change to Fiend Factory.  Up until now the monsters have been D&D/AD&D, now they are opening it up to other systems like RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu.

Up first is a story, the Mad God's Omelette, a play on the Micheal Moorcock book The Mad God's Amulet.  I typically don't read the fiction in magazines.

Open Box has some Call of Cthulhu products, Glozel est Authentique!, Curse of the Chthonians and The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island.  Stephen Kyle gives them 5/10, 9/10 and 7/10 respectively.

James Bond is also represented as well with For Your Information and the Gamesmaster Pack.  Bob Neville  is a bit disappointed with these giving them only a 3/10 and 4/10 respectively. Also reviewed by Phil Masters is the game based on Larry Niven's Ringworld. He likes the game mostly but finds some rather critical errors with it and gives it a 6/10 saying is lacks the depth it should have had.

We get the AD&D version of the Ninja, which is really just a re-skinned Assassin.  Not a bad idea mind you, and there are some new and noteworthy add ons, but after all this build up I was looking for something more.  I thought I had remembered this class prior to this review, but I think it must have been another ninja class and not the one in OA.

A bit on cults in Modern RPGS is next, a followup from last issue. Some neat little cults and odd religions to add to any game.

A Car Wars article on double-decker buses.

Graeme Davis has a great article on Magic Item production for AD&D.  The article is bit reminiscent of the magic item creation found in 3.x (some 16 years later).

Hour of the Tiger is an introductory adventure for Ninja characters for AD&D or Bushido.   The adventure itself looks good and is very detailed. A good introduction for ninja characters.

We also get a RuneQuest scenario dealing with a traveling caravan.  Reading it over I wish I had it back in the 2nd ed days when I was playing with gypsies in Ravenloft.

Table Top Heroes discusses brushing techniques.

Starbase discusses and intelligence agency that Travelers players can work for or against.
RuneRites discusses pit fighting.

Fiend Folio covers AD&D stats (has to be stated now) of Reavers, the evil foes of Death Knights. There are only 6 and interestingly enough for me and this month is that all the Reavers are named after demon lords.

Treasure Chest details more uses of classic spells.
Newsboard doesn't have much. Some pictures. No new product rumors.

Despite the size of the issue, there seems to be only a little actual content.


Looking for my A to Z post? Scroll down or click here.

C is for Cimeris

A full half of the demons I have researched start with the letter A or B.  No joking.  I have never figured that out really, but check out the various demonologies out there.  There are a few left of the other letters though.

For C we have Cimeris. Also known as Kimaris, Cimeies, Cimejes, Cimeries, and Tuvries  he is one of the more popular demons, appearing in the Ars Goetia,  Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, even in  Aleister Crowley's and Anton LeVey's works.

NAME: Marquis Cimeris
Symbol: See next
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 120'
Armor Class: 0
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 158 hp (17 HD)
Attacks: Two-handed sword
Damage: 1d10
Save: F17
MORALE: 10
Hoard Class:
XP: 8,550

Cimeries is a great marquesse and a strong, ruling in the parts of Aphrica [Africa]; he teacheth perfectlie grammar, logicke, and rhetorike, he discovereth treasures and things hidden, he bringeth to passe, that a man shall seeme with expedition to be turned into a soldier, he rideth upon a great blacke horsse, and ruleth twentie legions.
- John Weyer, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum

Cimeries appears as a strong human male astride a large black house.  He wields a huge two-handed sword that he carries into battle, which is often.  He commands 20 legions (each legion of demons is 6,660 demons) that follow him to battle.  He can be summoned by human generals, but his price is the decimation (sacrificing 1/10) of all the General's own troops.  These men must be killed by the summoner himself.
Cimeries may also be summoned by a lone magic-user to learn the secrets of grammar, logic and rhetoric.

Not Cimeris, but close enough.

White Dwarf Wednesday will be posted later today.

B is for Baalseraph

Eldritch Witchery is my next book coming out.  It is for the Spellcraft & Swordplay game and covers some of the same ground that my last book, The Witch, did for Basic D&D.
One of the special features though of Eldritch Witchery is the inclusion of Demons and Devils much like the original (and inspiration) Eldritch Wizardry did for Original D&D back in 1976.

With my book I wanted to capture everything eldritch about the witch class.  So unlike some of my other books, this book also has a Warlock class.  It is also different from my Basic D&D book "The Witch".  Though all three classes together would make a nice full picture of the witch as she has appeared through out the history of RPGs.
Plus this book is designed to be used with the Spellcraft & Swordplay game.  It *can* be used with OD&D/S&W, but you would need to modify some things a touch.

But the biggest draw for both books is the inclusion of Demons.

 

When writing about demons, devils and the hells for D&D it is very hard to break out of the Gygaxian classifications of who is what and what is what.  A look at the history of the Succubus in D&D reveals that. So I had to make a conscious effort to break it.  I did and everything is now a "Demon".  There are many different types of demons though.

The Baalseraph are powerful demons that were once the forces of good.  They fought against their brethren and masters, becoming twisted and evil.  They were cast down into the pits (which we call Hell) and there they subjugated the demonic races already living there.

To non-gamers: The Baalseraph are the fallen Angels and gods from various myths.
To gamers: The Baalseraph are the unique "Ruling" class of devils.

In EW demons, devils and other creatures were put together and resorted in to Calabim, Eodemons, Lillim and Shedim.  The Baalseraph rule over the Shedim (Demons of Rage) with an iron fist.  They have alliances with the Lillim (Demons of Seduction) and the Eodemons (Proto-demons) and fight against the legions of Calabim (Demons of Destruction).

The rulers of the Baalseraph are Astaroth, Asmoday, Baalberith,  Beelzebub, Gressil, Sonneillon and Verrine.  I am also working up backgrounds and stats for Belial, Mammon, Mephistopheles, Moloch, and Dispater.  Once I have them all plotted and stated out I want to have seven Princes, each in charge of other courts and representing one of the Deadly Sins; somthing I have discussed before.  Belial, Moloch and Baalberith I have used before in my Ghosts of Albion games, so coming up with something brand new for them will be key.

Hopefully I can get this all sorted out this month!