Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Serge" data-source="post: 174638" data-attributes="member: 4049">Although I can't speak for others, I can say that's not the case for me (not that you're directing your comments in my direction).  My position for Asmodeus as "The Adversary" is based upon a number of premises. First, it's always been my attitude, since 1ed, that Lawful positions attempt to give rational arguments to moral behavior.  Typically Chaos doesn't care, and Neutral just is (or maintains a balance); Lawful, however, needs to have a center and an explanation.  Lawful evil, then, should have an ultimate representation in theory that strives to promote Law and Evil simultaneously.  Asmodeus would fit this bill.  He is The Adversary because he rationalizes Evil and actively pursues it not for its own sake alone, but because he wants to rule.  Demogorgon sows evil and pain because he's a huge bully and he can get away with it.  Anthraxus is evil because he just is evil.  Asmodeus would have a thousand and one rational arguments for why he does it beyond ruling the Cosmos.  THAT makes him The Adversary.  Supreme?  No.  The most dangerous?  Probably.  The only threat?  Definitely not.Second, Asmodeus rules over an ENTIRE plane of existance.  Not a realm, not a layer, but an entire plane.  This would mean, in my assessment, that he is far more powerful than an Intermediate or Greater god in order to hang on to that power.  On the other hand, he is trapped.  Yes, this does resemble Judeao-Christian thought, but so what?  A lot of D&D is reflective of Dark Age Europe or Middle-Earth (at least until recently) from which many traditional ideas of Satan spring (which are dead wrong... Satan is not, according to a strict reading of the Bible, trapped... but that's another discussion for another day).  Furthermore, Satan is not the only deity/god-like entity to be trapped in myth.  The Titans were trapped as well.  I think this entrapment gives his character more weight and intrigue since a lot of questions could be raised as to why he's trapped, who put him there, and how is he trying to get out.As for my campaign, Asmodeus has a presence, albeit a minor one.  I have my own pantheon of gods with BBEG in it.  They concentrate on my world and only get involved in extra-planar stuff on occassion.  Asmodeus, on the other hand, transcends one world.  Even with the new set-up offered by Manual of the Planes, there are ways for creatures to move from one reality to another but the Planes themselves remain essentially the same.  The Nine Hells that exists in FR cosmology exists in Greyhawk's and exists in mine.  Asmodeus exists in all of them as well (unless FR decides to write him out... which would make little sense).</blockquote>

Verification