Who is Older: Dragons or Demons?

[Aurumvorax]

It's interesting to note that in OD&D, dragons were slightly longer lived than humans. A very old dragon was at least 100 years. Eventually dragons became fetishized and each edition saw their power increase and they were given spells and turned into this mighty overlords instead of the fearsome breath weapon lizards they originally were.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

According to

In Faces of Evil: The Fiends, it does seem to be a trend that the more powerful fiends are certainly older.

Depending on race, there are various minimums of time at each stage/form. For example, a Gelgugon must serve flawlessly for 777 years before promotion to pit fiend. However since an Erinyes can be directly promoted to pit fiend, it does not mean that all pit fiends spent 777 years as a Gelgugon.

Yugoloths, on the other hand, have a surprisingly more rigid promotional heirarchy. They go in order from lowest form to highest without skipping any forms and spend "at least a few centuries and often a millenium" in each form.



So all in all, powerful fiends are older than dragons. Dretches, lemures, etc may well be younger...or they could be older and just never promoted.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

A proper lich does not reveal her age.

 

[Aeolius]

The flumphs say they are both whippersnappers.

Liches often trade with hags, to obtain larvae (Hades Petitioners). One can assume that a lich maintains their unnatural existence through the absorption of these creatures. Plus, doesn't everyone want to scream "Drain her essence!!" from time to time?

 

[Dausuul]

Eventually dragons became fetishized and each edition saw their power increase and they were given spells and turned into this mighty overlords instead of the fearsome breath weapon lizards they originally were.

Well, they are the only monster to be named in the title of the game itself. As such, there's some justification for making them into the ultimate foe.