Why all the demon love?

[Glyfair]

Right now we seem to be in some sort of fiendish focus with the WotC books, and Paizo's Demonomicon series. However, beyond the one WotC book, all of the loving seems to be focused on the demons, with the devils getting very little attention (Paizo has no equivalent series for devils, for example). I'm curious why.

I have never been a huge fan of planar adventures. In fact, I've been turned off them in recent years for various reasons that aren't relevant to this topic. However, I always found the politics and layout of the hells to be more interesting than the Abyss.

Looking back, in the old days the devils certainly seemed to be dominant. The Abyss had Lolth and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. However, Hell had the Dragon "Politics of Hell" articles and Judges Guild's Inferno (one of the few JG products that always goes for a high price in auctions).

Now we have a surfeit of demons. Two of Paizo's three adventure paths tie into demons directly. They also have the aformentioned Demoninomicon articles.

Why the shift of attentions?

 

[Aeric]

If I had to guess (and since I'm no expert, guessing is all I've got), I would say that demons are more popular than devils because demons are more iconic. Just as LG is seen as the epitome of goodness, so is CE seen as the epitome of evil. Plus demons are cooler. A lot of devils just seem like cheap copies of demons (erinyes and pit fiends come to mind). The term "demon" also sees a lot more use in fantasy literature, while "devil" has a Judeo-Christian connotation. All of this is, of course, opinion and conjecture on my part.

 

[Agamon]

Darn, I thought this thread had more to do with succubi....

 

[hong]

As long as it has tentacles, it's all good.

 

[Nightfall]

Darn, I thought this thread had more to do with succubi....

You weren't the only one thinking that Ag.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Because devils are boring! They're absolutely predictable, predictable to a fault. Devils get one page each of tactics and how they act in different circumstances. Demons are unpredictable, you can only list how they acted in former occasions and try to find a common theme (which of course doesn't exist).

In short: They're like ninjas*: Always surprising you, never showing you their cards (half the time, they don't have cards, but dice, anyway).


*but a lot weaker, of course. They aspire to become ninjas. When a balor further rises in power, he is turned into a ninja. That's why there's no books about devils: Whenever someone starts to write about them, a Balor Ninja appears and goes shinobi on their asses. The Fiendish Codex II was written by a ninja-demon, consisting solely of disparaging remarks about the Baatezu. It is very telling that many devil cultists took the book at face value and thought it properly depicted those "awesome devil dudes"

 

[Kae'Yoss]

As long as it has tentacles, it's all good.

Don't you mean hentacles?

 

[sckeener]

Hmmm...because many players would rather rule in the Abyss than serve in Hell?

half kidding...

Seriously, I think there is a bit of baggage with Devils, that there isn't with Demons. Dealing with a demon seems easier than dealing with the Devil.

 

[Razz]

Seriously, I would like to see Devils get more spotlight. I am tired of demons. It's getting way too cliche and Devils would actually be something...I dunno...NEW for once!

Of course, I'd love to see, more than any of those two, adventures dealing with YUGOLOTHS!

 

[RedFox]

I want a stereogram guide to the Far Realm.

...what?