- TIMISCHBURG: The most "plain" of the settings; designed as a place to run my alt.D&D game, FANTASY HACK, so it's the most D&D-like of the settings. That said, many of the D&D vanilla fantasy races (like elfs, dwarfs, etc.) are optional modules that feature rather dimly in the setting; it's definitely a humano-centric setting more in the vein of some classic sword & sorcery type settings than D&Dish per se. But it includes the option of being more D&Dish by making some of the vanilla fantasy races available and providing a place in which they can be from.
- DARK•HERITAGE: more diverged from D&D per se; it is now a very specific kind of "Old World colonies on a New World"—the Hyborian model of familiar races and countries, but with a geography that is more Colonial North America and a setting that almost verges on Mongo sometimes. Except less alien and more dinosaurian, or something.
- AD ASTRA: the space opera setting. Although it's got a lot of attention here, this post doesn't affect this setting much, if at all.
All of these settings have eschewed the typical pantheon of pseudo-mythological gods, or at least, it doesn't include them as "true religion"—Christianity takes that place, as it should. That doesn't mean that there aren't powerful entities that may bear some resemblances to mythological entities can't exist, merely that they aren't "gods". They are powerful monsters or beings, certainly, however. This is actually not unlike their appearances in the Dresden novels. Mab and Titania have so appeared, as have (in more cameo form) Odin and Pluto, so far. But Christianity is obviously real in the Dresden universe too; it features fallen angels that possess the pieces of silver of Judas, an archangel or two have made cameo appearances, and the power of the faith of characters like Michael Carpenter.
Of course, in Dresden, it's not necessarily clear that being a Christian is "better" than having faith in... whatever. Harry has faith in "his magic" and currently none of the Knights of the Cross are Christian. That isn't true in my settings, where "activating" any power of faith (which is much more subtle than anything that, say, the cleric class will likely do) requires you to have faith in doctrines and concepts that are true, not just in anything. Faith isn't a power in its own right, it's powerful because your faith is rooted in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the only thing in which you can correctly have faith.
Anyway, this post isn't really about that. It's about demon lords and other powerful "outsider" antagonistic entities. As I said in the link, and this is equally true for DARK•HERITAGE and for TIMISCHBURG, my approach here is less like that of D&D exactly and more like that of Lovecraft. This doesn't mean specifically that Cthulhu, Hastur, Tsathoggua, Azathoth, Shug-Niggurath and Nyarlathotep are villains in my settings, but that I've taken a similar approach. What exactly is that approach, you may ask?
At its heart, Lovecraft's "Yog-Sothothery" was the esoteric mentioning of several names across many stories, even by various authors, in such a way that it created the illusion of some commonality. With very few exceptions ("Call of Cthulhu" itself being one, and The DreamQuest of Unknown Kadath being one as well) these guys don't ever really take an active role in anything, nor do they appear in person except in extremely rare circumstances. They do, however, have a "mythological" role in things; they are worshiped as idols, they are supposed to be the creators of various monstrous races (such as Tsathoggua created the Voormis, etc.)—altogether, they have a role more like many of the gods of the Warhammer setting, like the four chaos gods, Gork and Mork or the Horned Rat, than they do like D&D demon lords exactly. They're very much more in the background than anyone like Graz'zt or Orcus ever is in D&D. You'll never fight them. They will never be statted. The chances that I'd ever even consider one of them making a personal appearance (other than in a legendary flashback, or something) are probably very close to zero.
(On the other hand, if I ever get around to developing the FALLEN SONS setting, which I've only ever mentioned briefly as a high concept so far, it'll feature them prominently. But they'll be downgraded to threats that are within the scope of very high level PCs, and will serve more like daemonic mobster capos or something. But that's a totally different high concept that will have little in common with the other ones mentioned here.)
I see the demon-lords as chthonian entities that are leftovers from the War in Heaven, or perhaps who wandered the early creation before the creation of the sun, trying to thwart the designs of creation, prior to the Garden of Eden. Today, they find themselves locked out of creation mostly—like Cthulhu, buried under the sea and dormant, or like Azathoth, locked deep in outer space, or like Hastur, trapped on an alien planet far away. Their vile creations may wander the world still, and cults may be dedicated to them. In fact, both of those are absolutely true, and will feature as major antagonists in any campaign I run or story I write. But the demon-lords themselves, as the Old Ones in Yog-Sothothery, cannot act directly "until the stars are right." This will be like the Civil War in Heaven 2.0, except raging across the face of the world, and the souls of the righteous and the wicked both will side with either God Himself or the Evil One. The old world will pass away in a Ragnarokian apocalypse, but will ultimately be remade (or maybe resurrected), cleansed of evil as a reward for the Righteous who will live therein as a Heaven or Pleasaunce.
So, who are these chthonian entities, then, and what can we expect from them? Here's a partial list. Because I'm treating them as if they were Yog-Sothothery, this isn't concrete, nor is it meant to be complete. There could be all kinds of other ones lurking in the background.
- Chernovog (sometimes spelled Zernebock)—The Black Pharaoh. Patron God of Baal Hamazi, and said to resemble a tall, handsome, supremely evil kemling, with obsidian-black skin, a crown of six-inch horns ringing his head, glowing red eyes and a wicked smirk. Real life literature and folklore antecedents: Krampus, Zwarte Piet, The Black Man of the Woods (from Salem witch trial fame), Graz'zt and Nyarlathotep's own Black Pharaoh avatar.
- Dagon—This one is the most similar to the D&D version of the character. Almost exactly the same, as a matter of fact. And why not, since D&D Dagon borrows so heavily from Lovecraftian Dagon? I think of him as not terribly unlike Cthulhu himself, combined with the Kraken of Clash of the Titans fame. Probably the newer movie, because although it's rather stupid, it does have better visuals, at least.
- Charon—literally the King in Yellow. I'm not quite sure why The King in Yellow got associated with Hastur in the Yog-Sothothery literature, but in my case, it's Charon. He's a combination of the King in Yellow of the Robert Chambers story fame, the Greek god that poled a barge across the River Styx, and the Grim Reaper.
- Tarush—The God of Undeath, who has fallen from the sky and now resides in hibernation (or in a coma) in a buried crater underneath the city of Grozavest. Because of his presence, it is always night in Grozavest, an astronomical implausibility surely, yet it happens nonetheless. Although the Royal Heresiarchs of Nizrekh are more powerful undead than most "modern" vampires or liches, the curse of vampirism seems to have spread from the spot where Tarush fell.
- Cernunnos—imagine an anthropomorphic baboon or mandrill, but the size and muscular build of King Kong, with gigantic stag antlers and a long prehensile rat-like tail with a stinger on the end. Cernunnos is the god, especially, of the orcs, the thurses, and the ettens, who are all said to be his creation. What exactly am I going to do with orcs, anyway? I'm giving serious thought to giving them the appearance of new Planet of the Apes style apes rather than gray or green-skinned savages or even Lord of the Rings movies style orcs. I may not even call them orcs anymore to represent this split, but I'm not sure about that. I may, in fact, want to reskin the entire goblinoid groups into intelligent (albeit savage) monkeys and apes of some sort; goblins being baboons, orcs being anthropomorphic chimps, and thurses being the biggest, "gorilla" types.
The below are, at the moment, less detailed, but they should be obvious, more or less, based on either their mythological or their literary antecedent, since they are not creations of mine.
- Ishtar
- Surtur
- Perun
- Veles
- Azathoth
- Yog-Sothoth
- Shub-Niggurath
- Tsathoggua
Although Cernunnos has some aspects in common with part of Demogorgon's "portfolio" and Tarush does as well with Orcus, they aren't really very good analogs to them per se, nor are they necessarily meant to be, exactly.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as referenced in the Book of Revelations play a role, or at least provide a framework for some of the most significant of the demon-lords in my settings:
- "And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." This is Chernavog; perhaps the least destructive of the bunch, since he represents "Conquest" more than any other concept. However, he is the patron of the kemlings, not of any human population, to which he is at best contemptuous. If he ever had any care for humanity, he has since turned his back on them and represents the conquest of humans. But at least he doesn't want to exterminate them, so I guess that's something...
- "And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." This is Perun, who also has some commonality with Khorne—a savage killer who revels in violence for its own sake. I'm considering also combining Perun with Surtur, or maybe just using the latter name. (Better yet, attempting to find an Anglo-Saxon equivalent: Sweart, or something.)
- "And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." Culsans, the Judge and associated with famine—not mentioned above, but would have some similarities to Nurgle/Nergal. Maybe I should officially adopt the name Nergal and focus more on the famine aspect? The mythological Nergal was also a god of the desert, the burning sun, and the underworld—also associated with famine. In Warhammer, of course, he's more associated with plague, but among the actual Four Horsemen, the first is the one that has plaguy connotations.
- "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Charon, but also combined with The King in Yellow. Orcus would actually be Hell here—a nod to his actual mythological roots among the Romans. This doesn't mean that he would be the same as the D&D Orcus. But there's not really any reason that he doesn't have to be. I think of Tarush as maybe being the Hell that followed the Fourth Horseman, who has since fallen to the earth.
Well; I don't really have a D&D like Demogorgon anymore, although Cernunnos kind of fills some of his savage nature role. But here's a picture of him anyway. I don't know why he's full of lava and his heads don't look like baboons, but it's still cool.
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