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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6381128" data-attributes="member: 22779">And that's fantastic.&nbsp; At least I think that's fantastic.&nbsp; Why does Grazz't have to be a single vision of the creature?&nbsp; I guess my question is, is the defining characteristic of Grazz't that he's a demon lord that lives in such and such a plane in the Abyss, or is the defining characteristic of Grazz't his personality and behaviour.&nbsp; I'd argue the latter.&nbsp; Changing him into an Oni from the South to fit within a given setting better because the setting doesn't have an Abyss, makes the material more versatile.I mean heck, Tiamat can be a god, a demon or just a big honking dragon.&nbsp; She's the Queen of the Abyss in Dragonlance.&nbsp; How is that any different than making Graz'zt an Oni of the South?&nbsp; You are banking on the previous associations (big honking dragon, queen of dragons, lives in the abyss) to make the connections to the new setting (Queen of the Abyss, Goddess of evil dragons, countered by Paldine (a reflavored Bahumut).The more tightly you link flavour to a particular element the less flexible that element becomes.&nbsp; Why do all yugoloth have to be mercenaries in the Blood War?&nbsp; Why does every daemon write-up have to reference their place in the Blood War.&nbsp; I'm with KM on this.&nbsp; Let's not have a default cosmology, but rather present a number of sample cosmologies and let individual tables sort it out, exactly the same way we do for every other part of the game.&nbsp; Why does every D&amp;D setting have to be linked to the Great Wheel even when it doesn't fit for that setting?&nbsp; And because they're linked to the Great Wheel, they become linked to Planescape because Planescape basically absorbed the Great Wheel setting.&nbsp; Why on earth would a demon in Ravenloft possibly give the slightest toss about the Blood War?&nbsp; Or in Eberron?&nbsp; The value in the game of a Glabrezu, for example, isn't it's position in the Blood War but that it's a tempter demon, out to grant Monkey's Paw style wishes to bad people.&nbsp; If there is no Blood War then why does the Abyss need armies?&nbsp; And, if there are no abyssal armies, then maybe we can change a Marilyth from general to something that likes to set itself up as a god to local peoples.&nbsp; So on and so forth.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 6381128, member: 22779"] And that's fantastic. At least I think that's fantastic. Why does Grazz't have to be a single vision of the creature? I guess my question is, is the defining characteristic of Grazz't that he's a demon lord that lives in such and such a plane in the Abyss, or is the defining characteristic of Grazz't his personality and behaviour. I'd argue the latter. Changing him into an Oni from the South to fit within a given setting better because the setting doesn't have an Abyss, makes the material more versatile. I mean heck, Tiamat can be a god, a demon or just a big honking dragon. She's the Queen of the Abyss in Dragonlance. How is that any different than making Graz'zt an Oni of the South? You are banking on the previous associations (big honking dragon, queen of dragons, lives in the abyss) to make the connections to the new setting (Queen of the Abyss, Goddess of evil dragons, countered by Paldine (a reflavored Bahumut). The more tightly you link flavour to a particular element the less flexible that element becomes. Why do all yugoloth have to be mercenaries in the Blood War? Why does every daemon write-up have to reference their place in the Blood War. I'm with KM on this. Let's not have a default cosmology, but rather present a number of sample cosmologies and let individual tables sort it out, exactly the same way we do for every other part of the game. Why does every D&D setting have to be linked to the Great Wheel even when it doesn't fit for that setting? And because they're linked to the Great Wheel, they become linked to Planescape because Planescape basically absorbed the Great Wheel setting. Why on earth would a demon in Ravenloft possibly give the slightest toss about the Blood War? Or in Eberron? The value in the game of a Glabrezu, for example, isn't it's position in the Blood War but that it's a tempter demon, out to grant Monkey's Paw style wishes to bad people. If there is no Blood War then why does the Abyss need armies? And, if there are no abyssal armies, then maybe we can change a Marilyth from general to something that likes to set itself up as a god to local peoples. So on and so forth. [/QUOTE]

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