Biblical Monsters?

[galaga88]

Found these nasty critters in the book of Revelations, the horde of locusts unleashed from the bottomless pit under the command of Abaddon upon the sounding of the fifth trump.

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

So they're giant locust, with barding and breastplates, human heads with the hair of women, the teeth of lions, and wings. Anybody seen any art of these creepy things? I could see some players getting weirded out by a pack of these things. (In service to a Celestial no less!)

 

[Green Knight]

(In service to a Celestial no less!)

After reading the whole thing, I don't think they're in service to a Celestial.

Revelation, Chapter 9

9:1
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

9:2
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

9:3
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

9:4
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

9:5
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

9:6
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

9:7
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

9:8
And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9:9
And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

9:10
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

9:11
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Those things came out of hell, and their king is "the angel of the bottomless pit". And last I checked, God and angels can't exactly go around ordering the minions of hell around. The only part that implies that they do follow a celestial is this:

9:4
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

IMO, I see that as a more of "Keep your hands off my stuff and my people or face the consequences". Doesn't seem implausible to me. I'm no theologian, but isn't the only way the devil was able to screw with Job was because God allowed him to do so? Could be the same deal here.

Eh, what the hell do I know? I agree with you, though, that those would make some pretty wicked monsters in a D&D game. Possibly some new form of Demon (Tanar'ri) or Devil (Baatezu).

 

[Scarab]

Here is a good page about who Abaddon is.

And yes, it sounds a lot like God struck a deal with Abaddon -- "You get fifteen minutes of fame here on Earth, but you can only eat the humans."

His connection with the depths of the ocean also gave me a very neat idea for my Scarred Lands campaign.

 

[Nightstorm]

Revelations? Oh goody!

The Green Knight has it right. Satan gets to screw with people in this moment because they are to hurt only the people with OUT the seal of god on thier foreheads. Revelations has alot of strange beasts like these. Read the describtion of the anitchrist! Though one must realise that the author wasnt speaking in a literal manner. All that describtion represents something.( some kind of aircraft used to kill people? )But the best ones are in the old testament. Such ones as Leviathen, Behemouth and the Nephilem (sp?)

 

[LostSoul]

I'd say that the "description" isn't literal at all. It describes the traits these creatures possess in the metaphorical sense. (That's my take on it; the creature they describe sounds stoopid to me.)

Off the top of my head, this is what I'd do with it:

locusts - a plague, disease, hordes
like unto horses - strong, obdient, warriors
crowns - kings, wisdom, intelligence
gold - wealth, vanity
hair of women - vanity, lust
teeth of lions - deadly in combat
breastplates of iron - hard to hurt
sound of their wings - intimidating
tails like unto scorpions - poison, pain

I'd combine all these traits and put something together that way. But to each his own.

 

[A2Z]

Armies of the Abyss has a write up of Abaddon/Apollyon as well as his Locust Demon servants. There's also a lot of other demon lords from various sources. It makes for a pretty good read at the very least. I'm not sure how accurate the lore is but it's a good start anyway.

 

[Leopold]

they sound like those manscorpion lion mixes...what the hell are they called...heads the shape of a man with barbed tails and body of lions..not chimera...arrgghh!!!

 

[Lady Dragon]

I've heard it suggested that the creature described as locust don't sound that different from say helicopters.or more likely something that will come out in the future that is even more fantastic looking.

But picture it from John's point of veiw having been given these visions 2000 years ago how else would he describe modern technology.A helicopter would have looked like a monster to him and it does somewhat behave like a locust and have a scorpian like tail and breastplates of iron(steel,but he didn't know waht steel was back in the bronze age)And it wings are very loud sorta like the chariots.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I think Elijah summoned celestial dire bears to eat the children that were teasing him.

 

[Tonguez]

Re: Re: Biblical Monsters?

And last I checked, God and angels can't exactly go around ordering the minions of hell around.

Um actually GOD can go and order the minions of hell around - he is GOD Master of Everything.
Remember in biblical theology the minions of hell (including Satan) are all fallen angels - the first created sons of GOD and thus in the biblical schema GOD has absolute authority over them and all creation.

It is often neglected but worth noting that Satan is the enemy of Man (as confirmed in GOD and Satans dealings in Job and a few other scripture "I have put animosity between you and the man") thus it was the Son of MAN who came to defeat Satan as the enemy of Man (GOD is too powerful to have enemies - he afterall is GOD)