Dragon 337: Will the real Zuggtmoy please stand up?

[Shade]

Or the BoVD. Heck, is it too much of a stretch to go from Lichloved to Fungilingus?

 

[StupidSmurf]

Exactly. Zuggy will always be a stench ridden mega mushroom of death to me.

Yeah, she may not be much to look at but she really grows on you after a while!

:::waterfowls and diahrrea:::

 

[James Jacobs]

My theory as to why Zuggtmoy looks the way she does:

Most tanar'ri are humanoid in shape (even if in some cases they have tentacles and two heads and forked tails). Juiblex, alkilith demons, and a few others are the exceptions to the general rule. Why is this? If demons are embodiments of chaos, why do so many of them share such a similar shape? The answer must be the same reason why so many deities are anthropomorphic—they are reflections of humanity (and all the other humanoid races). Zuggtmoy's upper humanoid torso is as much a mockery of humanity as it is anything else. It's more visceral to see deformity in a shape you know than in a shape you don't know, since there's no frame of reference for the unknown shape.

When you move into non-tanar'ri demons, you start to see a lot more diversity in their shapes. It just so happens that most of the non-tanar'ri in the Monster Manual happen to look like spiders...

 

[Grover Cleaveland]

I haven't seen or read much about Zuggtmoy, but as far as I'm concerned, if you rule fungis, and are made out of fungis, you should look like fungis.

I kinda thought she might look like a giant sporebat, which is a sort of fungal creature that can be scary. Toadstools aren't so scary, though.

I like her new look. Fungi can look like just about anything, especially in the Abyss.

 

[BOZ]

there was nothing scary about her old appearance - just funny looking, really.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Is Zuggie tanarri? I've never really been clear on the difference between tanarri and non-tanarri demons, having happily skipped the whole 2E "they're not demons (wink, nudge)" era.

 

[Shemeska]

Is Zuggie tanarri? I've never really been clear on the difference between tanarri and non-tanarri demons, having happily skipped the whole 2E "they're not demons (wink, nudge)" era.

Presumably so.

Tanar'ri are just the vastly most prominant 'race' (for lack of a better term) within the Abyss, joined by a common general heirarchy of types, and a common origin. Once they reach beyond Balor status and become rulers of domains or entire layers of the Abyss they tend to assume a unique shape. I'm not aware of any of them that aren't actually risen up from the ranks of the Tanar'ri unless they were deities who carved out a layer of the plane of their own (Ie Lolth, the made Derro god whatshisname, Mershaulk, etc)

You missed out on the best of the Abyss by skipping the 2e material IMHO. They got some awesome treatment.

 

[Shemeska]

there was nothing scary about her old appearance - just funny looking, really.

Alot of the really old, original illustrations of various archfiends didn't come off as scary or evil, just funny looking. Baphomet and Demogorgon being noted exceptions, they scared the hell out of me as a little kid (I also thought I'd go to hell at the time if I played the game, but that's another issue entirely).

 

[Alzrius]

Is Zuggie tanarri?

She has the tanar'ri subtype, so yes.

 

[Pure Puppet]

Her followers, in all honesty. Don't forget that the Thrall of Zuggtmoy PrC specifies that those who take levels in it have not one, but two, erotic dreams of Zuggtmoy. Apparently they're the kind of people who get turned on by toadstools.

It's probably a bad thing that I can see where they're coming from, isn't it?

No, no, scratch that. It's DEFINETLY a bad thing.