D&D General Who gives demons/devils their (true) name?

[DemoMonkey]

Who gives demons/devils their (true) name?​

Evil Bag of Scrabble Tiles.

 

[GMMichael]

There's a scribe sitting in one of the lower halls of Olympus. His job is to write down everything (!) on a never-ending scroll. A truename is how one is identified on that scroll.

 

[cbwjm]

I remember reading something somewhere, I think in 2e, where their true name changes as they advance through the hierarchy. Not sure how they gained their initial name though.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Hiya!


That would be the Dungeon Master. You know, the "unseen and unknowable force of all of everything".
In fact, in my BECMI/BX/DD games (all of them) the whole "Immortal" path thing, where there are the "old ones" outside of even the regular Immortals...has an "outside of even the old ones". That outside is our actual reality with you, the DM, sitting at your table scribbling notes about how "The fetching young laundry maid is actually a 'reformed lich' that uses Shapechange every day".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

All hail the DungeonMaster!

 

[GreyLord]

Well you see when a mommy Demon and a Daddy Demon (or Devil) love each other very much...there comes a little baby Demon (or Devil).

Sometimes it's just a really powerful Human Mommy or Daddy with another Outsider that love each other very much...

Unfortunately, these Mommies and Daddies have some very weird ideas for what makes an astounding little baby name...

Just ask Graz'zt about it. He was mercilessly teased when he was in grade 1 and it continued until one day he started jumping all around like a little blue guy and tried to call himself Nightcrawler instead. After a brief stint with other kids he finally started to grow out of it in High School and then the REAL craziness began...

 

[Iry]

Probably given to them by Asmodeus. The process of becoming a lemure is absolutely horrendous, and intentionally scrubs away your mortal identity so you can properly conform. The number of Devils that come out of the process with their John Smith name intact can probably be counted on one hand. It's slightly more likely with direct promotions of extremely powerful or evil people, but even then the direct promote probably gets a true name assigned to them, only making them vulnerable as John Smith for a couple of decades before their identity transitions completely.

 

[Umbran]

So, demons and devils have a true name, and possibly a common name. Who gives these names to them?

Their names are not given to them. Their names are them. Asking them who gives them their name is like asking who gave you your skeleton - it is an innate element of your being, not separate from your creation.

Demons and devils are what is left of humanoids after they die, right?

Each setting has its own cosmology. In many game worlds, both the celestials and infernals predate humanoids.

 

[jgsugden]

It is just their common name in binary.

The origins of True Name appear to be a myth about Isis and Ra in Egyptian mythology. It was just a secret name there, it seems, as he seemingly had a lot of names and this was the real one while the others were lesser names.

It is up to the DM to decide, but there are some Forgotten Realms lore covering it that are a little inconsistent: True name

I like the naming convention in the FR. A weird vaguely messed up Latin name followed by a descriptive title, like "Bynalaxthus the Reticent".

 

[Mallus]

God.

Next question!

 

[Tonguez]

Um, who said demons are the remnants of dead humanoids? I’ve not heard the theory and think it makes absolutely no sense in a world that also has ghosts and undead.

Devils and Demons appear to be spirit beings born from Infernal stuff of Hell.

Anyway as to Names, the Alchemist have shown that the gross matter of Things and their quintessential energy is Things is of equivalent nature and able to be harnessed in potions or through the raw manipulation of magic.

What the alchemist and the wizards fail to tell us though is that in the flow nature from Matter to Energy and back again, there is an imperceptible vibration, a tone unheard by mortal ears but which forms the underlying Song of Creation

and each Form within the Song, each being, each intention, each thought, each of these has its own vibrant tone, its own True Name that can be drawn, altered and released as a new song