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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6126523" data-attributes="member: 6696971">  Precisely.  He drove them fully  from his nation once upon a time.  He drove them out of his neighbors'  lands, ultimately conquering those lands and bringing them into his  fold.  However, the wanton vice, hedonism and lechery of his people have  slowly brought the demonic influence back over time and the size of his empire will  have become too unwieldy for him to monitor every corner.  It became  clear to him that no matter how many demons he exorcises, banishes or  destroys, another (or more) is ready to take its place.  The course of this and the general emotional/mental attrition of  constantly looking for (and finding) wolves in sheeps clothing took its  toll.  Given these things, he slowly decided that the more effective  route was to improve his intelligence network by recruiting his enemies' enemies and by using the carrot approach of  Mark of Justice (which reigns them in) and allowing them to stay as long  as they are subservient rather than the outright banishment via  Adjure.   Mind you, this backstory  campaign to carve out this antagonist took place many decades before the  PC's campaign.  By this time, he has an enormous spy network in place  throughout the empire (which he has been slowly losing control of) and  brokered deals with many higher powers in the Abyss.  His intelligence network is deep,  but its a network wrought of Abyssal double agents in the prime world  (that he has cowed) and extra-planar powers allied against his enemies.    Again, its a "you either die a  hero or live long enough to become the villain" motif.  In this case,  sort of a John Adams being aghast at something akin to the Alien and  Sedition Acts before having executive power, and then enacting it while  in power.  Or Thomas Jefferson being unabashedly against unchecked executive power and then unilaterally engaging in the Barbary Wars and using unprecedented (obviously the nation was young at that point though) power while office.  Being a leader of a country or of a revolution is a hard thing.  Theory often bends to practicality as the situation on the ground changes.  I  was going to use this backstory and extrapolate the society and the Paladin as a World Controller Mustapha Mond in Huxley's Brave New World but there is not enough passion in that society nor enough "punch" in that "villain" for a D&D campaign.  Great hero turned imperialist autocrat turned Abyssal Red Dragon riding Demonlord is much more genre relevant and fun!What about a horde of spies <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  "Horde" as in a descriptor for a vast swath/legion of something; in this case informants or an entire intelligence network...not as mass of bodies; eg swarm.    I was referring to the generic term "divination" and not the actual  ritual itself; eg he uses an intelligence network to "divine" the agenda and movements of enemy combatants/agents/cultists.    The scribe/chronicler is a  loyal servant, believes in the Paladin's vision, quest/destiny and helped facilitate his legend.  He willingly takes the plunge down the rabbit hole with him.  However, he never serves as council but basically serves the role of  Joseph Goebbels for the Third Reich; Minister of Propaganda.  He will be extremely aged at the time of the campaign and will only be color; not someone for the PCs to actually wage combat against. The Paladin will  have lost the service of his loyal steed; the Celestial Silver Dragon.  In its stead will be an Abyssal Red Dragon; a red lady  whispering in his ear much like Stannis Baratheon because there are no original ideas and I'm a thief just like everyone else.  And again, what is more fitting as a climactic battle to end a game than a rumble against a Red Dragon riding Demonlord in the Abyss?</blockquote>

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