Hordes of the Abyss: Q&A

[Rystil Arden]

That's more Lamashtu's thing; she's mentioned briefly here and there in Fiendish Codex and in the Pazuzu installment of the Demonomicon Dragon articles. At one point, Lamashtu was going to appear in the Demon Lord chapter also, but I cut her early on when it became apaprent that there wouldn't be space for her. I'm sure she'll see the light of day in print somewhere down the line, though...

But yeah. Pazuzu (and Graz'zt and Malcanthet, for that matter) certainly has a fair number of lilitu minions working for him.

Ah yes, that was the mythological Lamashtu's shtick as well--lots of ancients seemed to share some sort of 'L' initialled she-demon for this purpose. Lamia too, among the Greeks.

In any case, considering that I created a unique templated succubus in my game to perform similar functions, I would say that it definitely fills a fun vacant niche in the demonic hierarchy.

 

[Ripzerai]

Kardum / Lord of the Balors / Balor, Fire / 21: The Sixth Pyre

Oh! Ha!

It's an anagram for Marduk. He Zagygged a Gygaxism!

(Marduk was the Lord of Fire Demons, and one of the six Monarchs of Demonium, in the later Gord the Rogue books).

 

[Rystil Arden]

Oh! Ha!

It's an anagram for Marduk. He Zagygged a Gygaxism!

(Marduk was the Lord of Fire Demons, and one of the six Monarchs of Demonium, in the later Gord the Rogue books).

Well, it's Marduk scrambled, but not exactly backwards Now we just need Enlil, An, and Ea. And maybe Kingu to go with our Tiamat.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

The excerpts are great, although as Nightfall says, the picture of Yeenoghu in the BovD is better.

Wow -- that demon lord appendix is pretty impressive too.

When is the book officially coming out? We normally get them in the UK in the same week now.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh! Ha!

It's an anagram for Marduk. He Zagygged a Gygaxism!

(Marduk was the Lord of Fire Demons, and one of the six Monarchs of Demonium, in the later Gord the Rogue books).

Hmm... Marduk is a god from Babylonian mythology; the one who tore Tiamat in two to form the earth and the sea, if I'm not mistaken.

I wonder why Gary chose to use that name as a demon lord? It's an unusual leap from the source material.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Hmm... Marduk is a god from Babylonian mythology; the one who tore Tiamat in two to form the earth and the sea, if I'm not mistaken.

I wonder why Gary chose to use that name as a demon lord? It's an unusual leap from the source material.

Yup, Marduk defeated the chaos dragons Tiamat and Kingu in the Enuma Elish, replacing the primal female chaos of nature with the strict regimented rule of the masculine. Thus, quite curious that Tia makes her home in Baator and backwards-Marduk in the Abyss.

 

[Ripzerai]

I'm sure that's why the authors and editors of Hordes of the Abyss felt obliged to anagrammize Marduk and eliminate Ereshkigal and Nergal - because a lot of people have trouble with the idea of unrelated demon lords sharing names with Babylonian deities they have little or nothing in common with.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I'm sure that's why the authors and editors of Hordes of the Abyss felt obliged to anagrammize Marduk and eliminate Ereshkigal and Nergal - because a lot of people have trouble with the idea of unrelated demon lords sharing names with Babylonian deities they have little or nothing in common with.

Maybe, but I think it's cool to include mythological references, and at least Nergal and Ereshkigal were decently close to their mythological equivalents (and Tia is admittedly closer than Bahamut to her original source, since Bahamut is Behemoth, the hippo monster from Judeo-Christian mythology). And we do get to keep other fun Mesopotamian demons and gods like Pazuzu, Lamashtu, and Lilitu

 

[Ripzerai]

Nergal and Ereshkigal were decently close to their mythological equivalents

The demon Ereshkigal was male according to the MMII (and according to traditional demonology, which also turned the goddesses Astarte [who became Astaroth] and Eurynome into male demons). The "Nergel" who appeared in the Gord the Rogue series was pretty different from the god, too. The tradition of badly misinterpreting mythology for the purposes of demonology is many centuries old.

Erik Mona's original demon article might show some context. Or might not. It's worth linking to anyway.

 

[Rystil Arden]

The demon Ereshkigal was male according to the MMII (and according to traditional demonology, which also turned the goddesses Astarte [who became Astaroth] and Eurynome into male demons). The "Nergel" who appeared in the Gord the Rogue series was pretty different from the god, too. The tradition of badly misinterpreting mythology for the purposes of demonology is many centuries old.

Erik Mona's original demon article might show some context. Or might not. It's worth linking to anyway.

Still closer than turning a destructive rampaging hippo into a noble platinum dragon though I think the inclusion in the Untheric pantheon may have been the reason that some of the Mesopotamian refugees were not included while others were. I knew about Astarte and Astaroth, but the fact that they made Eurynome into a demon is news to me. We are talking about the okeanid titaness Eurynome who ruled Olympus with Ophion pre-Kronos, right? What did poor Eurynome do to them? Or is it just the old saying, "The enemy of Eurynome is your friend."