Dunamin said:
Interesting ways to relate fiends, Krust. I like it!
Do the thematical ties of specific devils to sins in Christianity originate from somewhere when these fiends were written up in D&D, or is that your own conceptualization?
Well in certain occult classifications (Psellus)
Demons are given six classifications: Aerial, Terrestrial (Subterranean), Terrestrial (Sylvan), Aqueous, Igneus and Heliophobe (basically Night Demon). Interestingly, 4E described the Shadow and Feywild planes as where they put all the dark and all the shiny stuff respectively.
Therefore we could hypothesize:
Aerial - Vrock - Pazuzu - Air
Aqueus - Hezrou - Demogorgon - Water
Terrestrial (Subterranean) - Glabrezu - Zuggtmoy - Earth
Terrestrial (Sylvan) - Marilith (though I might have initially said Succubus) - Graz'zt - Feywild
Igneus - Balor - Kardum - Fire
Heliophobe - Nalfeshnee (or Nabassu) - Orcus - Shadow Plane
Now is that a perfect fit or what.
I'm thinking there would be minor (Heroic Tier), major (Paragon Tier) and True (Epic Tier) Demons. So you might have: Skullvym (Minor), Wastrilith (Major), Myrmixicus (True) Water Demons or Zovvut (Minor), Nabassu (Major), Nalfeshnee (True) Night Demons.
Of course you could always look to represent Para-Elemental (Juiblex for Ooze etc.) and Quasi-Elemental planes in a similar fashion.
The
Obyrith could be some sort of Far Realm-Demon Crossbreed. Whilst the
Yugoloths could be some sort of Shadow Plane-Demon Crossbreed (Their negative plane links is what makes them disease ridden?).
Half-demons would be the Prime Crossbreed, but I am not sure where the
Loumara would fit in that but probably as some sort of Astral crossbreed, with the
Fomorians already ruling the FeyWild as the Fey-Demon crossbreed.
As regards
Devils, in occult lore the terms demon and devil are often interchangeable. However, those named beings in D&D known as Archdevils are sometimes linked with the seven sins.
Lucifer - Pride (Unlikely that WotC will include Lucifer in D&D of course)
Mammon - Avarice
Asmodeus - Lust
Satan - Anger (Again, unlikely Satan will be mentioned in D&D)
Beelzebub - Gluttony
Leviathan - Envy
Belphegor - Sloth
To bring that more into line with D&D you could have:
Asmodeus - Pride
Mephisto - Envy
Beelzebul - Gluttony?
Geryon - Wrath
Belial - Lust
Mammon - Avarice
Dispater - Sloth?
Again I think its a small step to transpose the sins onto stock devils again with the three tiered approach: Least Devil (Heroic), Lesser Devil (Paragon) and Greater Devil (Epic).
Perhaps: Succubus (Least), Erinyes (Lesser) and Paeliriyon (Greater) as Devils of Lust, or Bearded (Least), Malebranche (Lesser) and Pit Fiend (Greater) as Devils of Wrath.