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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Serge" data-source="post: 435259" data-attributes="member: 4049">In my myth, Zariel and Mammon will both be creations of Asmodeus, singular Devils similar to Infernals but not quite as powerful.  You'll have to wait until I get around to writing her before you get more <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />You are quite astute.  Yes, the Lords of the Nine do indeed suffer terribly.  The nature of evil is to suffer... and to make others suffer as well.  Evil is emptiness and nothingness... negation.  The purest Evil, Neutral Evil, recognizes this, which is why it is built upon lies, hopelessness, and a disregard to for anything but itself (and sometimes not even that).  Chaotic Evil revils in the suffering aspect of Evil, seeking to rip, and tear, and crush every and anything for no real reason or rationale; it is carnal and physical for the most part, a warped example of the elements and matter.  However, Lawful Evil seeks to give meaning and direction to this nothingness, to this emptiness.  There is an attempt to rationalize it, to explain it, and to support it.  It is the Ideal gone bad.The Lords of the Nine are all a part of this.  In their pursuit of rationalizing Evil, they each fall victim to the nonsense in which they're involved.  In many ways, the Devils as I see them in D&D (quite frankly, one of the few ways I think one can see them) are similar to the meaningless pursuit of power engaged by Satan in Paradise Lost.  They know full good and well that what they do is meaningless... but if they can drag others down the same terrible path they have long since lost themselves in, they are happy because it almost seems as if some meaning has been attained.  For this reason, each Lord is very clearly defined as representing some horrible mirror image of something good and just.  Bel is the reflection of fitness and fighting for something worth-while... except he actually fights an endless battle that purports to define something that is actually empty: evil.Dispater is the reflection of honest business practices, truthfulness, and meaningful enterprise... in truth, he is a paranoid being who seeks to force others to accomplish meaningless tasks while he alone benefits from their work.I could go on, but I don't want to bore you.  But, yes, there is a direction and theme in how I've created these beings.  There will be one for the Demon Princes and all other Cosmic entities and Archetypes.Well, if by weak you mean those who are unable to find any and every means within a Lawful framework to get things done, then yes.  Geryon was thrown out because he actually trusted something utterly, entirely, and unrepently evil.  His trust in anathema in Hell.  Mephistopheles, however, never trusted his Dukes and Pit Fiends; indeed, he knew they were up to no good.  But, he didn't have the clout in his own layer to deal with them.  Thus, he used his own plight, conspiracy and subterfuge, to destroy his enemies in the same manner they hoped to destroy him.  He made the Law work to his benefit.Asmodeus used The Reckoning to remind others of and to reinforce the status quo.  The status quo and tradition are tantamount of Law, good, evil, or neutral.  It also reinforced the fact that he is the totality (or at least should be IMO) of LE.  He used every element of LE to come out not only on top, but in an even better position than before.  Again, Asmodeus' existance almost seems to qualify meaning in Evil.Your last quote is quite accurate given the fact that LE attempts to give a rationale to Evil, attempts to qualify and legitimize it.  But, it's clearly twisted from the virtue accorded to LG.Thanks!</blockquote>

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