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<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8405764" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>Since there's no actual canon reasons, all we can do is homebrew solutions to them. </p><p></p><p></p><p>No, because their war involves supremacy between goblins and orcs, both of which are Material Plane creatures. Even if a lot of their fighting takes place on the outer planes in Acheron or whatever, the basis is the Material.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'd say it's less "cancels out their ability to focus on other things like the Material Plane" and more "they have no need to be interested in other things."</p><p></p><p>Take this as a given: gods either need or want prayer. Whether it's food for them, the divine equivalent of Likes, or something else entirely. To get prayer, they want living mortals to be their worshipers.</p><p></p><p>But arch-fiends <em>don't </em>need or want prayer. What they want is <em>souls</em>, which are food, a power source, and a currency all in one. Fiends don't need worshipers to get souls, because evil mortals who die go to the lower planes anyway, no matter who they worshiped in life. Now sure, a person worships an evil god, they're probably going to instead show up as a petitioner in that god's realm (although in my mind, an evil god would probably not accept the souls of worshipers who were evil but who failed to actually follow the god's portfolio--Bane wouldn't want a worshiper who spent his life murdering puppies for fun but who shied away from war). But imagine some dude who worshiped Tyr but went too heavy-handed and his "justice" turned into torturous revenge. Tyr would likely kick him out to the lower planes. Unless he becomes undead, his soul goes to the lower planes and becomes a larva. It then gets rounded up by a night hag or something and stuck with a bunch of other larva in a cattle yard, and then, eventually, sold to whatever entity decided to buy it--which could be a devil, demon, yugoloth, or anything else that has a use for damned souls.</p><p></p><p>Arch-fiends <em>also </em>get worshipers. This is a bonus because it both gives them a mortal agent who can increase the amount of evil in the world (thus ensuring more souls), <em>and </em>when the worshiper dies, they're likely to then show up in the fiend's domain--which means they manifest as a devil or demon. Even a lemure or nuppirubo is more useful than a larva in the archfiend's fight against the other archfiends, and some worshipers will end up as Type II or III fiends instead. <em>But</em>, these worshipers are not essential in the way they are for gods. They're just icing. Arch-fiends get the cake automatically, where gods have to <em>work </em>to get it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Maybe, maybe not. I have no idea what the arch-fiends did before the Blood War was invented for Planescape. But let's say that the Blood War was never invented. No Lawful fiends vs. Chaotic fiends. The arch-things would likely <em>still </em>be focused on the outer planes instead of the Material. They would be fighting other arch-fiends, if only for territory, resources, or to settle grudges. They'd just be more likely to be fighting other fiends of their own type. There would be probably more attacks on or by celestials. With the Blood War, angels are content to ignore demons and devils as long as they're killing each other and not other beings; without the Blood War, they'd have more work on their hands.</p><p></p><p>So <em>this, </em>combined with their lack of need for living worshipers, means that arch-fiends <em>still </em>don't have any reason to hit the Material Plane.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8405764, member: 6915329"] Since there's no actual canon reasons, all we can do is homebrew solutions to them. No, because their war involves supremacy between goblins and orcs, both of which are Material Plane creatures. Even if a lot of their fighting takes place on the outer planes in Acheron or whatever, the basis is the Material. I'd say it's less "cancels out their ability to focus on other things like the Material Plane" and more "they have no need to be interested in other things." Take this as a given: gods either need or want prayer. Whether it's food for them, the divine equivalent of Likes, or something else entirely. To get prayer, they want living mortals to be their worshipers. But arch-fiends [I]don't [/I]need or want prayer. What they want is [I]souls[/I], which are food, a power source, and a currency all in one. Fiends don't need worshipers to get souls, because evil mortals who die go to the lower planes anyway, no matter who they worshiped in life. Now sure, a person worships an evil god, they're probably going to instead show up as a petitioner in that god's realm (although in my mind, an evil god would probably not accept the souls of worshipers who were evil but who failed to actually follow the god's portfolio--Bane wouldn't want a worshiper who spent his life murdering puppies for fun but who shied away from war). But imagine some dude who worshiped Tyr but went too heavy-handed and his "justice" turned into torturous revenge. Tyr would likely kick him out to the lower planes. Unless he becomes undead, his soul goes to the lower planes and becomes a larva. It then gets rounded up by a night hag or something and stuck with a bunch of other larva in a cattle yard, and then, eventually, sold to whatever entity decided to buy it--which could be a devil, demon, yugoloth, or anything else that has a use for damned souls. Arch-fiends [I]also [/I]get worshipers. This is a bonus because it both gives them a mortal agent who can increase the amount of evil in the world (thus ensuring more souls), [I]and [/I]when the worshiper dies, they're likely to then show up in the fiend's domain--which means they manifest as a devil or demon. Even a lemure or nuppirubo is more useful than a larva in the archfiend's fight against the other archfiends, and some worshipers will end up as Type II or III fiends instead. [I]But[/I], these worshipers are not essential in the way they are for gods. They're just icing. Arch-fiends get the cake automatically, where gods have to [I]work [/I]to get it. Maybe, maybe not. I have no idea what the arch-fiends did before the Blood War was invented for Planescape. But let's say that the Blood War was never invented. No Lawful fiends vs. Chaotic fiends. The arch-things would likely [I]still [/I]be focused on the outer planes instead of the Material. They would be fighting other arch-fiends, if only for territory, resources, or to settle grudges. They'd just be more likely to be fighting other fiends of their own type. There would be probably more attacks on or by celestials. With the Blood War, angels are content to ignore demons and devils as long as they're killing each other and not other beings; without the Blood War, they'd have more work on their hands. So [I]this, [/I]combined with their lack of need for living worshipers, means that arch-fiends [I]still [/I]don't have any reason to hit the Material Plane. [/QUOTE]
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