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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 2898474" data-attributes="member: 1757">Someone just needs to shoot this entire "canon" thing in the head and be done with. Canon is a problematic enough concept when applied to collections of academia beyond the religious; it's a game, people. Moreover, there have been at least four takes on the demon lords (far more on the archdevils), so AFAICT, "canon" just means picking whatever previous take you like and trying to claim that it's somehow "authoritative."As for the idea: It's what I do on a slightly amped-up basis. My Abyss is a chaotic soup of internecine conflict in which the (nominally) stronger, cleverer, or luckier fiends beat out their weaker, stupider, or less fortunate rivals to claw their way to the top... perhaps for milennia, perhaps mere days or weeks. Thrown into the mix are ambitious mortals, divine beings, and creatures ranging from orc hero-deities to dragons. Some "lesser" demons may have sufficient power to challenge their theoretical betters; unlike the strict hierarchy of the Nine Hells, in which cornugons clearly sit below pit fiends below Dukes of Hell, a powerful balor (like Ter-Soth) may have his own layer, or may be the servant of a mightier demon (in this case, Demogorgon) even while lesser balors have their own domains. A powerful balor (say, an advanced type with some class levels) might be a greater terror in battle even than some self-proclaimed "lords" or "princes."In my Hells, OTOH, there's a strict pecking order, but the divisions between power levels are still relatively fine, specifically because I like some jockeying for position. A powerful archdevil like Armaros or Gargoth could probably defeat one of the Lords of the Nine in single combat; it's only politics that keeps them down. It's one reason why I'm not so fond of archfiends being on par with deities in power. I like the idea that they're more like extraplanar analogues of prime plane rulers, with the same competencies and concerns.</blockquote>

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