2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Demiplane of Dread

2021-06-15T18:22:05Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Richemulot 5e */

{{NeedsImages}}
'''The Demiplane of Dread''' is a unique [[Demiplane]] - or, perhaps more accurately, a series of interlinked demiplanes - within the [[Great Wheel]] cosmology of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. This is the actual "world" in which the campaign setting of [[Ravenloft]] is based, and so the name is often used when trying to describe the "Ravenloft world".

The precise origins of the Demiplane of Dread are lost to history. Its creators are enigmatic beings known only as "The Dark Powers", who maintain and defend their creation with mighty magic and jealous zeal. It's believed they have some kind of mutual non-aggression pact with the various gods of the Great Wheel, but nothing canon is ever defined. It is believed to lie where the [[Ethereal Plane]] meets the [[Plane of Shadow]], but is able to manifest portals absolutely ''everywhere'', even in places normally restricted to planar portals, such as [[Dark Sun|Athas]] or the [[Phlogiston]]. Such portals usually appear as banks of fog or mist, but will adapt themselves to other sight-obscuring phenomena - and are usually one-way. Getting ''in'' is easy, but getting '''out'''? Canonically you won't be able to leave unless the Dark Powers will it, short of using artifact-level items like the dreaded Rift Spanner which just so happens to be the kind of item that could turn you into a [[Darklord]] just from getting it to work properly.

Aaand then came 3.5 which opened a doorway into the [[World Serpent Inn]], breaking the whole point of this prison plane. Here it's a failsafe for DMs when their parties reach their 16th birthday and are sick of Goth. Its doorway on the Demiplane's side of things changes every night. Mind you, even back in AD&D, portals '''out''' of the Demiplane of Dread were explicitly a thing and even listed in major [[splatbook]]s like the Domains of Dread - for example, the Isle of Lament in Lamordia houses one such portal, so you can leave just by going there, if you can sneak past Adam.

==Planar Traits==
The Demiplane of Dread's creators have molded the reality of this world into a new fashion, forcibly imposing the rules of [[Gothic Horror]] on the setting. There are many ways that this molding manifests, but some of the more overt include the following:
* [[Necromancer|Necromancy]] spells are empowered and rendered more dangerous; spells like Animate Dead will call up more creatures than the caster may be able to control, whilst spells that instantly kill their victims usually cause such victims to arise spontaneously as the [[undead]] - and often as ones quite pissed off at their killer. Certain non-necromancy, non-instant-kill spells even have a chance of doing this, such as Disintegrate turning a completely disintegrated victim into an incorporeal undead! Using any necromancy spell provokes a powers check unless it's purely defensive, doesn't affect undead, and doesn't manipulate life force; that list of "safe" spells is quite narrow.
* [[Diviner|Divination]] spells are pretty much worthless; spells that detect moral alignment invariably fail, spells aimed at detecting monstrous species either are unreliable (Detect Undead) or flatly won't work (using True Seeing to look for natural shapechangers), spells that revolve around mental contact risk driving you mad if you accidentally use them on certain inhuman creatures, and in general you can't trust the result of divination spells because the normal awareness of when such a spell has failed doesn't occur in the Demiplane of Dread. Oh, and Scrying type spells create a visible sensory apparatus that can alert your target that you're scrying on them, which can even serve as a conduit for things like gaze attacks. There's a practical reason for this; horrific things aren't quite as scary if you know their true nature too early, and so this element was put in to keep from having the DM tip their hands too soon and ruin the scare.
* [[Conjurer|Conjuration]] allows entities from other planes to be summoned, but they won't be able to return home when the spell expires. Obviously, quite a few of them will be ''very'' upset with their summoner because of this. Even before they figure this out, the binding aspects of conjuration spells are weaker in the Demiplane of Dread, giving summoned creatures a chance to escape its bonds the moment it arrives.
* [[Abjurer|Abjuration]] spells that banish creatures to another plane do not work. Rather, they ''appear'' to work but just toss the target somewhere else within the demiplane.
* [[Illusionist|Illusion]] spells that manipulate shadows are 20% more powerful, but the caster risks losing control of it when the spell ends, releasing a free-willed [[shadow]].
* Spells that directly interfere with the fabric of a Domain, such as manipulating weather, can often attract the attention of the resident [[Darklord]], and who might be able to subvert or negate these same spells if they have related powers.
* Teleportation spells are restricted; each domain is treated like its own separate plane of existence. High-level teleportation spells can overcome this if the border is not closed. Nothing can teleport out of a closed domain or the Demiplane entirely.
* Curses are empowered, and even non-spellcasters can potentially lay deadly or deforming curses on people if their rage or grief is intense enough to catch the notice of the [[Dark Powers]].
* The [[Dark Powers]] are watching everybody and seem to enjoy turning people into monsters that reflect their own evil deeds. When a creature performs some evil act, which range from casting necromantic spells to premeditated murder, the Dark Powers [[Powers Check|might notice]] and start the process. The changes are subtle or even helpful at first, allowing the victim to more easily perform his evil acts, which lures the victim into more evil, gaining more attention and transformation, until he is completely transformed into a monster or even a [[darklord]] of his own domain.
* Intelligent undead, like vampires, can tell if their minds are being read and can choose which thoughts they will project. Depending on the circumstances, this may be a false image passing them off as human or an up-close look at the most evil parts of their minds meant to drive the would-be mind reader insane.
* 5th edition's overhaul of the lore drops most of the above rules but adds some new ones. If you die in the Demiplane of Dread your soul does not move into the afterlife and is trapped there until it is eventually reincarnated. People who are resurrected after being dead for over 24 hour discover this and are traumatized by the experience.
* Also in 5th edition, Darklords can sense when somebody in their domain is trying to cast spells that contact beings on other planes and can make themselves the target of the spell.

==Mapping the Demiplane==
Geo-physically, the Demiplane of Dread consists of various bubbles of reality, ranging in size from a single room to full-fledged countries, all floating in a sea of ephemeral mist; each of these reality bubbles (called "Domains") is typically centered around a [[Darklord]], a villain whose evil caught the eyes of the Dark Powers and so they responded by imprisoning them within the Demiplane. 3rd edition's unpublished [[splatbook]] "[[Van Richten's Guide]] to the Mists" introduced the concept of ''Oubliettes'', which are basically prototype or abandoned Domains that don't contain a Darklord. A Domain may exist on its own (an "Island of Terror") or be physically coterminous with one or more more other domains, forming what is called a "Cluster". The largest and oldest Cluster in the Demiplane is called "The Core", and this is basically Ground Zero for the setting.

Traveling between Domains is a little tricky to describe. If two Domains are coterminous, you can simply walk between them, as if they were normal lands. If you want to get to a Domain that ''isn't'' coterminous, then you have to just walk into the Mists and hope you'll end up where you want to go. Certain spots are known to have what are essentially portals that can link different Domains together, in that traveling from these spots (which may require unique triggers before they kick in) will usually end you up in a specific Domain; known as "Mistways", these portals can be either one way or two way, and vary in reliability (aka, how likely you are to end up at the intended destination instead of fuck-knows-where) from "guaranteed" to "you rolls the dice, you takes your chances".

Traveling between Domains is made more complicated by the fact that most [[Darklord]]s have a power called "Closing the Borders," which causes the borders of their Domain to become enveloped in a barrier of some sort unique to that Darklord that prevents escape in some fashion - some are non-lethal, most will kill you if you try. A rare few can be circumvented by the right esoteric circumstances (for example, [[undead]] or [[construct]]s can safely walk through poisonous borders like that of Barovia, because they're fundamentally immune to poison), but in general this is the ultimate [[Railroading]] tool the DM has to keep you from just saying "fuck this" and leaving the domain.

Precisely why the Dark Powers collect these [[Darklord]]s is unknown, and theories abound; the Demiplane of Dread has been described as a prison, a gathering place for evil, a grand study into the nature of evil, a unique kind of Hell, or even a Purgatory by various fans.

Another great mystery is the nature of its native population. Some Domains were physically taken from their homeworlds, but most are described as "copies" rather than direct abductions of land. This then leaves players wondering: are the locals actually "real", or are they merely soulless simulacra - props in the grand theater of Gothic Horror tales that the Dark Powers are conducting? Nothing concrete has ever been given. This isn't entirely consistent however, with other originals becoming ruins (Like Kalidnay) or vanishing entirely (like Har’Akir).

===The Core===
As mentioned above, this is the "core" of Ravenloft, the sole normal-style continent where the bulk of the game focuses on. Think of it as something akin to the Sword Coast of the [[Forgotten Realms]], or Ansalon in [[Dragonlance]]. The precise layout has changed over Ravenloft's life, usually as a result of [[Advancing the Storyline]] - most prominently, it changed massively after the [[Grand Conjunction]], and then changed a little during both the [[Grim Harvest]] and the shift from 2e to 3e.

The Core is made up of the following Domains.

=====Barovia=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Mountains
::Motif: Blatant Dracula Knockoff
::[[Darklord]]: [[Strahd von Zarovich]]

This is the oldest domain in Ravenloft, the literal heart of the Demiplane of Dread. It's ruled by Strahd, and is basically Dracula in D&D. It is also home to the titular [[Castle Ravenloft]], Strahd's humble abode. This domain has been visited in literally ''every single edition'' of D&D after BECMI; even 4th edition, the only edition without an adaptation of I6 to its titles, has the adventure "Fair Barovia" in [[Dungeon Magazine]] #207, which has the party exploring Barovia and completing assorted side-quests.

=====Borca=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Mountains
::Motif: Poisoners, Italy under the Borgia Family
::[[Darklord]]: Ivana Boritsi

Originally, Borca was ruled by the Darklord Camille Boritsi, and was half its present size, sharing borders with the near-identical domain of Dorvini. Ivana poisoned her mother because her mom seduced her boyfriend, and during the Grand Conjunction, her domain and that of her cousin Ivan Dilisnya merged together due to their great similarities.

=====Darkon=====
::Cultural Level: Dark Age to Chivalric
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills, Plains, Mountains & Swamps
::Motif: Generic [[Dark Fantasy]]
::[[Darklord]]: Azalin

Darkon is notable as the most overtly fantastical realm in the Demiplane of Dread, with a relatively huge population of [[demihuman]]s that sees humans going from the usual 90+% population merit to only 75% as well as the greatest amount of local toleration for arcane magic.

If one spends a month in the realm they lose their memories until they leave the domain, thinking they've always been from Darkon. Unfortunately, the new state from having lost memories convinces one to never leave unless forced to.

=====Dementlieu=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Plains
::Motif: Renaissance France/Victorian England
::[[Darklord]]: Dominic D'Honaire

Though not as overtly modeled on London as the domain of Paridon, Dementlieu definitely taps into the Gothic Urban Horror motif, as is made clear by the way it is home to myriad mystical mind-manipulators and the character Alanik Ray, who is basically Sherlock Holmes if he was an [[elf]]. It's considered the "cultural heart" of the Core.

=====Falkovnia=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Plains
::Motif: Military Horror, Fascism, Urban Squalor
::[[Darklord]]: Vlad Drakov

Slap together Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, paint it up in the most shit-awful and miserable stereotypes of Dark Ages Europe, and have the place be run by a man who melds Hitler with Vlad the Impaler and is so bloodthirsty they'd both be disgusted by him. Falkovnia is outright called the biggest shithole in the Demiplane of Dread.

=====Forlorn=====
::Cultural Level: Iron Age
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
::Motif: Dreary Scotland with a dash of Brak Man Morn
::[[Darklord]]: Tristen ApBlanc

A vaguely Scottish Celtic themed domain that nobody gives a shit about because there's nothing in it but killer plants, giant bugs, and [[goblyn]]s. 3e tried to fix this by adding a small population of native humans, but the overall domain is still a monster-infested backwoods, so nobody fucking cares. As for its resident asshole, ApBlanc is a [[vampyre]] by day, and a ghost by night, proving once and for all that the Dark Powers do, indeed, have a sense of humor.

=====Hazlan=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Hills, Mountains & Plains
::Motif: Dark Fantasy meets Yellow Peril
::[[Darklord]]: Hazlik

Essentially a tiny sliver of [[Thay]] transplanted into the Demiplane of Dread, where a tiny minutia (the Mulan ethnicity) rules over and brutally represses a far vaster majority (the Rashemani). One of only two places so absolutely shit that [[The Lawgiver]] is actually worshipped here.

=====Invidia=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
::Motif: Lethally Impulsive Stupidity
::[[Darklord]]: Gabrielle Aderre

A land of passionate, hot-blooded and constantly feuding individuals, including mercenary armies, ogres, giants, and wolfweres. The [[Vistani]] are executed on sight here, and as such, its hunter-mercenaries are on the collective shit-list of both Strahd von Zerovich and Ivan Dilisnya.

=====Kartakass=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
::Motif: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
::[[Darklord]]: Meistersinger Harkon Lukas

A rural backwoods inhabited by proud, cocky, music-loving foresters who are quite happy with the way things are, thank you. They are totally oblivious to the population of [[wolfwere]]s hiding amongst them.

=====Keening=====
::Cultural Level: None (formerly Chivalric)
::Landscape: Temperate Mountains (Bleached of Life)
::Motif: Endless Grief
::[[Darklord]]: Tristessa the Banshee

A cursed and forsaken realm, with a population consisting solely of its mad, grief-stricken [[banshee]] [[darklord]], her court of half-insane [[undead]] [[fey]], and a village of [[skeleton]]s that constantly mime out the actions of their last day.

=====Lamordia=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
::Motif: Mad Science ala Frankenstein
::[[Darklord]]: Dr. Mordenheim & Adam

A stuffy, tempest-lashed domain that prides itself on its scientific acumen and its staunch rationalistic beliefs, totally denying the fantastical nature of the world around them.

=====Mordent=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Plains & Swamps
::Motif: Ghost-Haunted Rural Britain/Scotland
::[[Darklord]]: Lord Wilfred Godefroy

It's basically the setting for every ghost-related Gothic Horror novel ever written. High concentration of both incorporeal undead and mist creatures in a land dotted by small villages sheltering the living. Is also full of ancient ruined manors, decaying coats of arms and dying or dead noble families, furthering that neo-Britain impression by casting it as the decaying remnants of a once-mighty civilization. The false history implies they share a mutual background with Borca, perhaps having originated from the same nameless fantasy world.

=====Necropolis=====
::Cultural Level: Iron Age
::Landscape: Temperate Settled Area
::Motif: City of the Dead
::[[Darklord]]: Death

Once a bustling metropolis in Darkon called Il Aluk, the place was destroyed and turned into a city of sapient undead creatures protected behind a mystical veil that kills and reanimates any living humanoids that enter. This was caused by Azalin achieving an epic-level fuck up with his magic. Generally considered the worst domain in the Core because you can't go in there without being transformed into an [[undead]], which in AD&D came with associated rules that, in the grand tradition of [[Ravenloft]], utterly fucked you over pretty much from the get-go. Its Darklord, "Death", is an uber-powerful ghost with hyper-lethal abilities that was created from a clone of Azalin and which has gone absolutely insane, believing itself to be the literal spirit of death.

=====Nova Vaasa=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
::Motif: Russia under Peter the Great
::[[Darklord]]: Sir Tristen Hiregaard/Malken

A horse-filled steppeland dominated by sweeping grassy plains and crushing urban poverty and squalor, presided over by a mixture of corrupt aristocrats and Lawful Good types who view "law" as more important than "good". This is the ''other'' domain shitty enough to have [[The Lawgiver]] as the state religion, and is such a hellhole that ''Barovians'' look down on its people as backward hicks.

=====Richemulot=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Plains
::Motif: Wererat Land
::[[Darklord]]: Jacqueline Renier

A pseudo-French domain distinguished mostly by being the largest breeding ground of [[wererat]]s in the entire demiplane. The name is literally French for "Rich Mouse", which pretty much gives the game away from the start if you know the language..

=====The Shadow Rift=====
::Cultural Level: Unknowable
::Landscape: Eternally Dark Mysical
::Motif: Dark Faerie Tales
::[[Darklord]]: Gwydion the Shadow Fiend

This is the homeland of the [[Shadow Fey]], and as such no mortals know anything about the place. The court is found at the bottom of a chasm filled with mist, protecting it from the sun, as well as erasing anything stupid enough to try penetrating so deeply into said-mist. In classic Faerie fashion, time works differently here, with a fortnight outside equaling a year ''inside.''

=====Sithicus=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
::Motif: Declining [[Elf]] Kingdom
::[[Darklord]]: Inza Kulchevitch

The only domain in the Core that has a [[demihuman]] majority population, this was formerly the domain of [[Lord Soth]], and is thus loosely based on the [[Dragonlance]] setting. May or may not contain vampire [[kender]].

=====Tepest=====
::Cultural Level: Early Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
::Motif: Grim Faerie Tales Europe meets Salem Witch Trials
::[[Darklord]]: The Sisters Mindefisk

Hands down one of the most primitive and worthless backwaters in the Core, Tepest's trio of [[hag]] [[darklord]]s are practically non-entities in their own land, with the focus instead being on how the ignorant superstitious peasantry are falling increasingly under the sway of a self-righteous inquisition of self-proclaimed [[fey]]-hunters and [[witch]]-burners. The sisters ''do'' fan the flames of said-group so they can harvest the bodies of anyone condemned, but mostly stick to hiding in their cottage.

=====Valachan=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Hills
::Motif: African Savages
::[[Darklord]]: Baron Urik von Kharkov (replaced by Chakuna in 5e)

A rugged wilderness inhabited by dusky-skinned foresters who take pride in their absolute ignorance when it comes to book-learning or anything not related to the practicalities of forest-work, to the point they even look down upon their own priests. Befittingly, this leaves them too ignorant to realize they are being eaten alive by a hidden population of [[nosferatu]] and [[werepanther]]s.

=====Verbrek=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills & Swamps
::Motif: Werewolf Country
::[[Darklord]]: Alfred Timothy

The obligatory [[werewolf]] domain, to contrast the Dracula and Frankenstein ones. Everybody here knows the wilderness (as embodied by the werewolves) is at their door, and live accordingly. This domain was originally called '''Arkandale''' and was run by Alfred's father, Nathan, until he lost the Dark Powers' interest by actually making peace with his lot in life and coming to enjoy being a riverboating casino owner, even if it did mean no longer being able to hunt on the land.

[[Quoth the Raven]] #1 offers an alternative take on the domain where Nathan reclaims it after Alfred's werewolf supremacist cult causes a deadly famine and then civil war amongst the local lycanthropes, which leads to it being renamed Arkandale once more.

===The Seas===
The Core is surrounded by two seas; the Nocturnal Sea and the Sea of Sorrows, which are technically their own unique Clusters that just so happen to adjoin the Core. Because of this, they're put in their own specific sections.

====The Sea of Sorrows====
::[[Darklord]]: Captain Pieter van Riese

This is the Western Sea of the Core, a cold, stormy, mist- (and Mist-)haunted expanse of water populated by various islands, representing the scattered domains of lesser Darklords. Its own "true" Darklord is Captain Pieter van Riese; a [[ghost]] based on the legendary Flying Dutchman who has perhaps the greatest freedom of any Darklord in Ravenloft - he can even leave his ship to go on land and enter other domains! This is because his curse is to ''never'' be able to find his own way, but instead to only be able to take others to where they want to go.

=====Carcharodon Isle=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Temperate Hills
::Motif: <s>Ladyhawke</s> Parted Lovers
::[[Darklord]]: Alison Marjory and Sean Mako

An island cursed with two darklords; a fisherman turned [[wereshark]] and a [[merfolk|mermaid]]-turned-human turned [[seawolf]], whose curses prevent them from ever meeting in their human forms. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Souls.

=====Markovia=====
::Cultural Level: Stone Age
::Landscape: Warm Forests, Hills & Mountains
::Motif: The Island of Dr. Moreau
::[[Darklord]]: Dr. Markov

It's literally just the Island of Dr Moreau in D&D. That's it. Originally part of the Core, but was moved out to the Sea of Sorrows as a result of the [[Grand Conjunction]]. Nothing here except the [[Darklord]], his [[Broken One]] minions, and a small temple of priests dedicated to guarding a powerful evil artifact that would be of great interest to the Darklord.

=====Blaustein=====
::Cultural Level: Early Medieval
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Bluebeard

A small island consisting of a castle and a single village, whose population are fanatically loyal to the blue-bearded master of the castle above.

=====Demise=====
::Cultural Level: Stone Age
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Althea

A rocky island made from a mostly cooled volcano, this is basically a glorified dungeon that serves as the prison of the [[medusa]] Althea. Fans have tried to expand this by adding the ghost of her murdered [[maedar]] husband (arguably a much better candidate for the darklord) and her maedar son, who hates both of his crazy parents and wants off this godsforsaken rock.

=====Dominia=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Insanity and Institutional Abuse
::[[Darklord]]: Dr. Daclaud Heinfroth

A small island that houses the most famous (if not only) insane asylum in all of the Core. A pity it's actually a nest of cerebral vampires, ruled over a crazed psychiatrist determined to push the studies of inflicting madness and terror to their absolute limit.

=====Ghastria=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Stezen D'Polarno

A surprisingly grim and colorless place which grows abundant food that, mysteriously, holds no taste when consumed.

====The Nocturnal Sea====
::[[Darklord]]: Meredoth

The cold and dismal Eastern Sea of the Core, which only emerged from the Mists after the events of the [[Grand Conjunction]], ruled over by Meredoth, an epic-level [[Necromancer]] from Glantri in [[Mystara]]. Although strongly associated with ''Graben Island'', which is where "his" people live, Meredoth can actually travel the Sea at will, and in fact lairs himself on the wintery isle of ''Todstein''. Like the Sea of Sorrows, there are plenty of other domains scattered around the Nocturnal Sea ruled over by their own lords.

=====Isle of the Ravens=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: The Lady of Ravens

A deserted island home only to its darklord, an insane but powerful sorceress from a [[Gormentghast]]ian family, and her legions of raven and [[fey]] servants. Whilst it was first mentioned in official media, appearing in brief summary in the writeup of the Nocturnal Sea in the Domains of Dread revised campaign setting, it was fans who fleshed it out; the Isle of the Ravens first received a writeup in the [[Books of S|Book of Sacrifices]], before later being revisited in [[Quoth the Raven]] #13.

=====L'ile de la Tempete=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Captain Alain Monette

A rocky and treacherous island whose lighthouse serves only to lure sailors to their doom upon its shores.

=====Liffe=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Baron Evensong or Assorted Demilords

A surprisingly large and fertile island, with one of the biggest and most welcoming populations of any island-domains in the Nocturnal Sea. Originally ruled by Baron Evensong, although the fanmade Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer downgraded him to one of a cluster of different super-minor darklords.

=====Locknar Cove=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Cold, eroded hills and thick, old growth forest
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

A quiet, humble island of fisherfolk that lies off the combined shorelines of Darkon and Nova Vassa, close to the isle of Liffe. Hidden at its core like a toad in a stone, the ghost of an avaricious pirate who valued wealth beyond his own life guards a vast treasure hoard. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sacrifices.

===The Clusters===
====The Amber Wastes====
::Motif: Dark Fantasy [[Egypt]]

It's Gothic Horror Egypt in D&D. What more is there to say? Its constituent domains are ''Har'Akir'', ''Sebua'', and ''Pharazia''.

=====Har'Akir=====
::Cultural Level: Bronze Age
::Landscape: Desert and Badlands
::Motif: Mummy Horror Movies
::[[Darklord]]: Anhtepot

''Har'Akir'' is a tiny little village of Egyptian peasants who live next to a tomb housing the [[darklord]] Ankhtepot, a pharaoh who blasphemed against the gods and was condemned to both eternity as a [[mummy]] and to be trapped in obscurity with only a single village of humble peasants to "lord over".

=====Sebua=====
::Cultural Level: Bronze Age Darklord, Stone Age natives
::Landscape: Desert Wasteland
::Motif: Mummy Horror meets Ghost Horror
::[[Darklord]]: Tiyet

''Sebua'' consists of an abandoned Egyptian manor next to an oasis haunted by both a tribe of feral children, who inhabit the nearby ruins of a fallen city, and the [[darklord]] Tiyet, a unique female [[mummy]] who appears as a gorgeous woman... save for her insatiable hunger for human hearts.

=====Pharazia=====
::Cultural Level: Early Medieval
::Landscape: Deserts, Oases, Rivers
::Motif: Arabian Nights Horror meets Religious Fundamentalism
::[[Darklord]]: Diamabel
''Pharazia'' is a pseudo-Arabian city-state ruled over by its [[darklord]] Diamabel; a moralistic fanatic who led a campaign of genocidal terror in life, when felled by an arrow he arose as the shining [[angel]] he always wanted to become... only to find he transformed into a hideous [[undead]] version of himself at night.

====The Burning Peaks====
::Motif: [[Dark Fantasy]]

A two-domain cluster made up of ''Cavitus'', the realm of [[Vecna]], and ''Tovag'', the realm of [[Kas]].

=====Cavitus=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Negative Energy-Infused Wasteland
::Motif: Cartoonish [[Necromancer]]-Ruled Hellhole
::[[Darklord]]: [[Vecna]]

=====Tovag=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Mountains, Scrub Pine Forests
::Motif: [[Vampire]]s, War Horror
::[[Darklord]]: [[Kas]]

====The Frozen Reaches====
::Motif: Dark Fantasy Russia

It's basically the frozen wintery hell that everybody imagines that Russia is transplanted into D&D. Its constituent domains are ''Sanguinia'' and ''Vorostokov'',

=====Sanguina=====
::Cultural Level: Early Medieval
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Prince Ladislav Mircea

Sanguina is an Early Medieval Russian kingdom ruled over by Prince Ladislav Mircea, a self-centered [[alchemist]] who accidentally transformed himself into a [[mutant]] [[vampire]], possibly a [[Vrykolaka]], that feeds on the Four Humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile) in an effort to save himself from a deadly plague.

=====Vorostokov=====
::Cultural Level: Dark Ages
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Boyar Gregor Zolnik

Vorostokov is a frigid Dark Ages wasteland of villages and forests trapped in a perpetual winter, ruled over by the [[Loup du Noir]] Boyar Gregor Zolnik.

====The Shadowlands====
::Motif: Medieval Dark Fantasy

Intimately tied to a single world, the Shadowlands are made up of three domains that all tie to one long story of corruption; ''Avonleigh'', ''Nidala'', and ''Shadowborn Manor''.

=====Avonleigh=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Morgoroth the Black

Avonleigh is a monster-haunted forest ruled over by the [[darklord]] Morgoroth the Black, a [[planeswalker]] [[wizard]] who traveled to the homeland of the three domains and ended up destroying the not!Arthurian court there through accident. He is now trapped as a ephemeral shade unless the enchanted mirror that trapped him in this state is reassembled in his former mansion home.

=====Shadowborn Manor=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Ebonbane

Shadowborn Manor is a manor other than Morgoroth's that is the resting place of Ebonbane, a raging fiend trapped in a sword, which is itself trapped in a crystal sarcophagus. Ebonbane is so dangerous that Morgoroth actually uses his magic to assist in keeping the damn thing locked up.

=====Nidala=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Elena Faith-Hold

Nidala is the only actually populated domain, and is ruled over by the self-righteous fanatical fallen [[paladin]] Elena Faith-Hold.

====The Verduous Lands====
::Motif: Tropical Dark Fantasy

The hot and humid hellholes, full of deadly predators and equally deadly plants. For some reason the moon is never seen here.

=====Saragoss=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Draga Saltbiter

Saragoss is an oceanic domain; a vast entangling sargassum patch full of wrecked ships crawling with [[ghoul]]s and cannibal [[pirate]]s above and [[sahuagin]] and [[shark]]s below, with a self-loathing [[wereshark]] [[pirate]] and [[cleric]] of [[Umberlee]] for a [[darklord]].

=====The Wildlands=====
::Cultural Level: Dark Ages
::Landscape: Tropical Jungles and Swamps
::Motif: Twisted Animal Fables
::[[Darklord]]: King Crocodile

The Wildlands are basically [[grimdark]] Jungle Book; a tropical jungle full of asshole talking animals ruled over by the monstrous King Crocodile.

=====Sri Raji=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Rain forests, hills, and mountains
::Motif: Dark Fantasy India / Sri Lanka
::[[Darklord]]: Maharaja Arijani

''Formerly'' an Island of Terror, Sri Raji is a domain in the Verduous Lands cluster ruled by the [[Rakshasa]] Maharaja Arijani. The Verduous Lands cluster does not have a moon with potentially interesting consequences for lycanthropes having some part of the lunar cycle as their trigger condition. Equally, there should be no tides. Most of the human inhabitants of Sri Raji congregate in three cities, each located surprisingly close to the domain border. A fourth city, Mahakala, is less populated and commonly referred to as "accursed". It's basically Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but with more [[rakshasa]]s, [[beastfolk]] and giant insects.

====Zherisia====
::Motif: Urban Dark Fantasy

Differentiating itself from other clusters, Zherisia is composed of the city domain of ''Paridon'' and ''Timor'', a former Island of Terror now transformed into the sewers underneath Paridon.

=====Paridon=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Urban
::Motif: Gothic-Era Urban Horror
::[[Darklord]]:Sodo

Paridon is a sprawling London-esque city infested with a uniquely powerful strain of [[doppelganger]]s, whose [[darklord]] is a many-cursed psychotic doppelganger named Sodo.

=====Timor=====
::Cultural Level: Stone Age
::Landscape: Underground Tunnels
::Motif: Monsters From Below
::[[Darklord]]: The Marikith Queen

Timor is a dripping hive of tunnels infested by xenomorph expies called Marikith.

====Republica de Neuva Aragona====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Tropical Jungle Islands

A two-domain cluster made up of neighboring isles in a tropical ocean known to its inhabitants as Mar de Lagrimas (the Sea of Tears), both themed after the Spanish colonies of South America. Unusually, the two domains are historically linked; both were connected to the same history involving the "native" colonists rising up against the rule of the motherland of Aragona and fighting for their indepence, which led to the two primary land-masses - the island of '''Resistencia''' and the mainland of '''Maconda''' each gaining a [[Darklord]] out of that initial struggle. It appears in the 2001 issue of the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]].

=====Resistencia=====
Resistencia is haunted by the [[ghost]] of Don Santiago de Quijada y Alvarez, the leader of the failed army sent by the motherland to quash the independence revolution.

=====Maconda=====
Maconda, on the other hand, is led openly and in darkness by the man who led the independence revolution: the [[wereananconda]] President-General Martin Jose Maconda.

====Colonies of the Holy Empire====
An unusual [[netbook]] cluster in that it's not technically presented ''as'' a cluster. The Colonies of the Holy Empire are a collective of domains that all draw from the same homeworld, a pastiche of Central/South America and its invasion by the Spanish Conquistadors, which appeared in the [[Books of S]] [[netbook]]s. Despite this shared origin, they are not presented as being geographically linked in the usual way of a cluster. ''Mictlan'' appeared in the Book of Shadows, whilst ''Igid Rabi-i'' and ''Cumbre de Oro'' both appeared in the Book of Sacrifices.

=====Mictlan=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Tropical Jungle
::[[Darklord]]: Commander Hernando Mouriros

A pastiche of the [[Aztec]] empire, the invasion of an army from a mysterious Chivalric realm has destabilize the realm and caused it to begin falling apart into civil war. And all the while, the invaders, cursed to never die unless they can conquer all of Mictlan, press on desperately in an attempt to end their long and bloody campaign.

=====Igid Rabi-i=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric, Classical or Dark Ages, depending on region
::[[Darklord]]: Arcapatos Miguel Agustin

A deeply spiritual domain wracked with internal conflict, for its leader is a priest who cares nothing for the realm, and everything for chasing a "holy relic" that evades his every attempt to grasp it.

=====Cumbre de Oro=====
::Cultural Level: Savage (Iron Age ruins, Medieval Avaricios)
::[[Darklord]]: Anibal Coronado

A cursed city of vast riches, a pastiche of El Dorado, haunted by the undead remnants of an explorer's party that gave their lives to find those riches and still refused to stop searching for wealth. This domain is actually a part of the larger Mictlan domain.

===The Islands of Terror===
=====Arlington Farm=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance decayed to Dark Ages
::Landscape: Single large wheat & corn farm
::Motif: Killer Scarecrows
::[[Darklord]]: Henry Arlington

The cursed farm of a farmer so obsessed with the success of his land that he not only killed to acquire it, but he began performing blood rites to ensure its success, murdering people and hiding their bodies in his scarecrows. Eventually, his cursed creations turned on him and turned him into one of them. This netbook canon domain debuted in the 2001 issue of the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]].

=====Bluetspur=====
::Cultural Level: Dark Age
::Landscape: Temperate hills, plains, and mountains
::Motif: [[Yog-Sothothery]]
::[[Darklord]]: The [[Illithid]] God-Brain

Meaning "Blood Trail" in German, it's a desolate wasteland with nightly, violent electrical storms on the surface. Beneath the surface lie the maddening and sprawling cities of illithids and their tortured and experimented slaves. This is also the home of the infamous Vampiric Mind Flayers, a creature that is technically indestructible in AD&D.

=====Callista=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Flooded Islets
::Motif: Gothic Vienna
::[[Darklord]]: Rafe Ungard

A once large island that has been reduced to tiny islets by intense flooding, peopled with a passionately chivalric (in the sense of "women are sacred and must be protected") people who claim to be the ''true'' [[Vistani]], ignorant of the fact that they are actually the cursed reincarnations of the true Vistani seen elsewhere in the Misty Realms. Because only 20% of their children are girls, they are overwhelmingly, patronizingly chivalric, and will sooner die than hurt women. The realm is also home to a large population of [[Paka]], who believe it to be a defiled holy site and hate the Callistans passionately. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Davion=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Shifts
::Motif: Dueling Psyches
::[[Darklord]]: Davion the Mad

A twisting realm that was created when a miscast Wish spell merged the mindscapes of the wizard Davion and his three hirelings - the male [[mage]] Ausgustus, the male [[fighter]] Boromar, and the female [[cleric]] of [[Loviatar]] Narana - into a single unit, leaving them struggling for dominion.

=====The Eternal Torture=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Decaying Sailing Ship
::Motif: [[Ghoul]] Ship
::[[Darklord]]: Miles Havelocke

The cursed ship of Miles Havelocke, a mutineer who led his crew to commit cannibalism upon the loyal members of the crew. Now a crew of [[ghast]]s, they endlessly search for land, attacking and feeding upon any unlucky ships they encounter as their passage leads them to the Nocturnal Sea, the Sea of Sorrows, and the oceans off all other domains, but never to the land they desperately wish to reach. This netbook canon domain debuted in the 2001 issue of the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]].

=====Farelle=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate Woodlands
::Motif: Acceptance of Self
::[[Darklord]]: Jark Karn, The Jackal Who Would Not Be A Coward

An island splinter of the Wildlands, inhabited by a burgeoning population who are genuinely warm, welcoming and thriving. A pity that this is the manifestation of the darklord's curse. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sacrifices.

=====G'Henna=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Cold and temperate hills, plains, mountains, and deserts
::Motif: Corrupt [[Theocracy]]
::[[Darklord]]: Yagno Petrovna

Here a starving population works the fields to produce food to be sacrificed for the god [[Zhakata]]. Unfortunately the god doesn't exist and priests of the god eat the offerings, while the farmers starve themselves waiting for a god that will never come.

=====The House of Lament=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Mansion
::Motif: Haunted/Evil House
::[[Darklord]]: The House Itself

The House of Lament is a cursed structure that is simultaneous domain and darklord; a haunted structure that demands the sacrifice of human souls in an effort to quell its inescapable loneliness.

=====I'Cath=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Temperate Forest
::Motif: [[Oriental Adventures|Chinese Ghost Stories]]
::[[Darklord]]: Tsien Chiang

A tiny Island of Terror inhabited only by its Darklord and her four daughters - the three evil daughters Hate, Spite and Scream, all of whom are variant Con-tinh (evil spirit women), and the benevolent, tormented good daughter Nightingale. Her domain is similar to Forlorn in that it's basically a glorified dungeon, with literally nothing to do except show up and defeat the Darklord or die trying, except it's [[Oriental Adventures|Chinese]], not Scottish. Tsien Chiang is a misandrist [[necromancer]] from [[Kara-tur]], based on an ''incredibly'' minor character from the [[Forgotten Realms]] lore. She can also transform into an evil [[Treant]].

=====Immerabt=====
::Cultural Level: Late Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate & Cold Plains, Mountains and Aquatic
::Motif: When Death Becomes Relief
::[[Darklord]]: Dr. Dorothy Hemphyll

An incredibly advanced domain whose scientific prowess can challenge that of Lamordia's, especially in medical sciences. It bulges with life to the point of being overrun with it, and yet death is a mercy that all too few can find, especially under the watchful eye of the Healer's Guild. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Incitatus=====
::Cultural Level: Classical reduced to Stone Age
::Landscape: Desolate, Lifeless City and rural surroundings
::Motif: Scientific Hubris Brings Apocalypse
::[[Darklord]]: Ahasveros

The lifeless remains of what was once a great scientific civilization, one that destroyed itself attempting to harness the power of the sea to annihilate an enemy nation with an artificially created tidal wave. Now, all that remains is the reclusive ghostly remains of the scientist who created that tidal wave, and destroyed his own people with it. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Kalidnay=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Desert
::Motif: [[Dark Sun|Athas]]
::[[Darklord]]: Thakok-An

The city and lands surrounding Kalidnay in Athas, which are nothing but ruins within [[Dark Sun]]'s setting proper. Its inhabitants actually prefer the Demiplane of Dread to actually living in Athas. Just let that sink in.

=====Karss=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Massive Prison in the middle of nowhere
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Warden Jonar Tamh

Formerly the Great Prison of the [[Harmonium]], an experiment in reformation-focused incarceration launched by the Hardheads on the faction's homeworld of Ortho, the warden's descent into cruelty and draconian punishments in defiance of the experiment's focus led to its being ripped from Ortho and stranded in the Mists. This netbook canon domain debuted in the 2001 issue of the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]].

=====Kislova=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Mountainous Grasslands
::Motif: Futility of Power Behind the Throne
::[[Darklord]]: Baroness Ilsabet Obour

A domain adapted from the Ravenloft novel "Baroness of Blood", ruled over by a malevolent [[alchemist]] turned pain-eating monster. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Souls.

=====The Lost Wizard's Tower=====
::Cultural Level: Savage, vestiges of Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate Forest & Hills
::Motif: Obsessive Love
::[[Darklord]]: [[Jinx]]

Once, there was a cat; a [[familiar]] to a powerful [[alchemist]] and [[transmuter]] named Margaret Landsdale. Then she grew overbold with her experiments and tested a formula on her familiar in order to enhance his intelligence. It worked all too well; now, Jinx could think as well as any human... and get jealous. That jealousy led to her death, and now it leads to the death of any arcane spellcaster whom Jinx tries to take as her replacement. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Miseria=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Temperate hills, forests, caves
::Motif: Ghostly Hauntings
::[[Darklord]]: Cassandre Desesprits

A rugged and inhospitable land whose people struggle to survive and put food on the tables, all whilst dealing with the vast legions of ghosts that haunt the realm. And nobody suspects that a humble barmaid with a heart full of spite and selfishness is the ultimate cause for their damnation. This netbook canon domain debuted in the 2001 issue of the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]].

=====The Nightmare Lands=====
::Cultural Level: None
::Landscape: Ever-Changing
::Motif: Nightmares
::[[Darklord]]: The Nightmare Man and his Nightmare Court

A strange realm that exists halfway between the Demiplane of Dread and the [[Plane of Dreams]], ruled over by Darklord-like figures who live to visit mortals with nightmares and ultimately draw them into complete insanity.

=====The Northlands=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric declined to Medieval, Early Medieval declined to Dark Ages
::Landscape: Temperate forests, hills, mountains, plains, swamps
::Motif: [[Vikings]]
::[[Darklord]]: Jarl Gravstein Hansen

A land patterned after the ancient Norse lands, where one Jarl's selfishness is causing the decline of everything his people had worked for. This netbook canon domain debuted in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002, and was revisited in its 2003 issue.

=====Nosos=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: Polluted Hellscape
::Motif: Rampant Pollution, Capitalism Gone Wrong
::[[Darklord]]: Malus Sceleris

A hellish polluted pit of a domain, where disease runs rampant amidst mountains of filth and sewerage in a sky clouded with fumes, smoke and gas.

=====Nzari=====
::Cultural Level: Stone Age, Renaissance in Mr. Klein's camp
::Landscape: Tropical Rainforest
::Motif: Darkest Africa
::[[Darklord]]: Gatwe and Mr. Klein.

A domain inspired by the Darkest Africa tropes in general and the novel Heart of Darkness in particular. A land of cannibalistic natives, jungle monsters, and a brutal overlord who thinks of himself as the civilizing force, begging the question: "who is the real savage?" This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2003.

=====Odiare=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate settled area
::Motif: Twisted Pinocchio
::[[Darklord]]: Maligno

Island from [[Masque of the Red Death|Gothic Earth's]] Italy, populated by children and the [[carrionette]]s who killed the adults that used to live here. Naturally, all the kiddos are quite concerned about what'll happen when they're old enough to be labeled an adult.

=====Olympus=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Temeprate Forest & Hills, Cold Mountains, Warm Aquatic
::Motif: Greek Mythology
::[[Darklord]]: Hercules

A pastiche of mythological Greece, ruled over by a pantheon of Living Gods - fallen heroes who have taken the identities of the Greek Deities as their own. And the once shining hope against those cruel, petty deities is in fact the worst of them all. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====The Raging Tears=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Single Rotting Ship
::Motif: Ghost Ship
::[[Darklord]]: Urdogen "The Red"

The cursed vessel of a long-forgotten pirate from [[Forgotten Realms|Faerun]], whose restless soul is condemned to wander the seas forever and never attain the power he once knew as the feared pirate king of the Inner Sea of Faerun. Whilst the ghost ship can be found in any sea in the Demiplane, or even sometimes beyond, its physical remains lie in the Sea of Sorrows, and must be found if one would put Urdogen to his long-cheated fate. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sorrows.

=====Rokushima Táiyoo=====
::Cultural Level: Dark Ages
::Landscape: Archipelago with forests, hills, and mountains
::Motif: Dark Fantasy Japan
::[[Darklord]]: Haki Shinpi

Four islands surrounded by a poisonous salt water ocean. Each island's ruler hates the others, whilst the Darklord (their father) is forced to watch as they tear apart his dreams of unity and peace. It's also the home of the [[Akikage]] (ghost ninjas), [[Hebi-no-Onna]]s (snake women), and [[Kizoku]] (vampiric womanizers). Despite a Dark Ages cultural level, it's interested in the gunpowder weapons of Dementlieu and Darkon. Fun fact: the ''Anesthesia'' spell is popular here, as its use allows the dying to face death with a clear mind, and thus die with honor.

Strangely, the capitals of the four warring brothers have the Japanese names of various real world countries: Beikoku (米国, United States of America), Eikoku (英国, England), Chuugoka (corruption of 中国, China), and Roshiya (Literally just Russia said funny). As long as it sounds Japanese! Sadly, that's more than can be said for the Dark Lord's name...

=====Romagna=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Mild Plains and Forests
::Motif: Eternal Love
::[[Darklord]]: Serenissa D'Aubliet

A peaceful and gentle agricultural domain that seems free of the darkness of other, grimmer realms. But its shadows still linger, in the form of a spectral darklord who, whilst powerless to affect the natives, has no such restrictions against preying on visitors. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sorrows.

=====Saarkaath=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Temperate Mountains, Forest
::Motif: Blood Purity
::[[Darklord]]: Hakaan na Uruk

A realm of [[half-orc]]s turned inwards into a brutal and pointless butchery, where the inhabitants try to claim "purity" of either [[human]] or [[orc]]ish heritage despite all being mixed race. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sacrifices.

=====San Bartolome=====
::Cultural Level: Middle Ages
::Landscape: Warm, Rugged, Mountainous
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Isabel de Sargas

A theocratic tropical paradise that is obsessed with the need to attain spiritual purification through righteous behavior and serial reincarnation. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sacrifices.

=====Scaena=====
::Cultural Level: Renaissance
::Landscape: The inside of a theater
::Motif: Mad Artistry
::[[Darklord]]: Lemot Sediam Juste

The personal theatre of Lemot Sediam Juste, who went insane and murdered his entire cast of actors, then burned down the theatre with himself in it, all because he couldn't accept that he was only good at writing comedies and he was a fucking terrible author of tragedies. Now it wanders the Misty Realms, luring in victims to serve as cast and audience alike, all ultimately to meet destruction.

=====Seradan=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Temeprate Forests, Hills
::Motif: [[Stupid Nuetral]]
::[[Darklord]]: Geren Horstadt

A domain from which all of the metaphorical life has been sapped; a dull and colorless place of dull and colorless people, its inhabitants almostly aggressively average, sluggish and dreamy in their actions. All the better to torment its darklord. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Secrets.

=====Souragne=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Tropical Swamps
::Motif: Southern Gothic
::[[Darklord]]: Anton Misroi

It's basically the Ravenloft version of the Antebellum South as a whole and New Orleans in particular.

=====Staunton Bluffs=====
::Cultural Level: Middle Ages
::Landscape: Cold Prairies and Forests
::Motif: Cowardice and treachery
::[[Darklord]]: Sir Torrence Bleysmith

A small realm of prairies, overseen by the mad, bitter ghost of the man who caused the downfall of the people who once dwelled here.

=====Stonewall=====
::Cultural Level: Civalric
::Landscape: Temperate Forests & Mountains
::Motif: Puritan Intolerance
::[[Darklord]]: Bethany Stone

Once a small town near Salem, Massachusetts in the real world - or at least its Gothic Earth analogue, Stonewall has been ripped from its moorings and cast into the myths thanks to the machinations of its darklord; a woman so self-righteous and hateful that she killed her own daughter to carry on her moral crusade. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Tower of the Phantom Lover=====
::Cultural Level: NA
::Landscape: Tower over underground labyrinth
::Motif: Sexual Predation
::[[Darklord]]: The Phantom Lover

The mysterious hideaway of the malevolent spirit known as the Phantom Lover, who seeks to seduce and then slaughter women pining for lost love.

=====Tsuu-y-Teke=====
::Cultural Level: Stone Age
::Landscape: Warm Deserts, Hills & Mountains
::Motif: Desert Country Native American Mythology
::[[Darklord]]: Heresa Heri, The Vulture King

A domain inspired by the myths of desert-dwelling Native American cultures. A realm of seemingly eternal day, haunted by a malevolent vulture-spirit who once tried to steal all the lights of day and night for himself. Netbook canon. First appeared in the [[Books of S|Book of Shadows]] for 2e, then was updated to 3e in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Vechor=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Warm Forests, Hills & Swamps
::Motif: Insanity Made Real
::[[Darklord]]: Easan the Mad

A vaguely India-esque domain ruled over by an insane [[elf]] [[wizard]] who has the power to reshape the surroundings based on his current mad whim.

=====Vin'Ejal=====
::Cultural Level: Medieval
::Landscape: Arctic Coastal Mountain
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Benada Nameless

A frigid island that drifts in an icy sea, whose people struggle to survive in the face of the eternal winter and the packs of [[seawolf|seawolves]] haunting their rich seas, haunted by a most unusual darklord; a [[yuan-ti]]-blooded [[weresnake]]! Netbook canon domain from the Book of Souls.

=====Vulnara=====
::Cultural Level: Late Chivalric to Renaissance
::Landscape: Temperate Forests, Hills, Mountains
::Motif: All-Consuming Bitterness
::[[Darklord]]: Kasselheim Blightlyng

A realm of unusually somber and technology-focused [[gnome]]s and [[svirfneblin]], shaped by the prejudices of a bitter, self-loathing, humor-hating gnomish [[vampire]] cursed with failing senses and growing madness. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

=====Vultharesk=====
::Cultural Level: Dark Ages, Renaissance on the Godwyn Estate
::Landscape: Cold Mountains
::Motif: Moral Guardianship
::[[Darklord]]: Sir Trevor Godwyn, "The Mirror Man"

A strict, almost puritanical domain obsessed with the necessities of survival and averse to all things that are not "right" or "proper". But this attitude is not born out of morals or self-righteousness, but fear, for they are haunted by an ever-present spirit who will punish those that fails to live up to his strict sense of decency. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Shadows.

=====Wayward on the Bone Sands=====
::Cultural Level: Chivalric
::Landscape: Barren Desert
::Motif: Cannibalism, Killer Kids
::[[Darklord]]: Caleb Wicks

A cursed desert village of former humans turned into [[quevari]] after being seduced into genocide against (and cannibalism of) their [[gnome]] neighbors by the malicious child cannibal Caleb Wicks. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Secrets.

=====Whal=====
::Cultural Level: Renaisssance
::Landscape: Cold Forested Hills
::Motif: Moby Dick
::[[Darklord]]: Captain Jacobi Robertsonn

A sturdy, practical domain dedicated to the hunting of fish, seals and whales... no mean feat when your land is home to the demiplane's largest congregation of [[wereorca]]s. Netbook canon domain from the Book of Sorrows.

=====The Winding Road=====
::Cultural Level: Nonexistent
::Landscape: Random road
::Motif: Random Encounter
::[[Darklord]]: The Headless Horseman

Hands down one of the worst Domains in classical Ravenloft, the Winding Road is a glorified random encounter in which the party is suddenly attacked by the Headless Horseman, a powerful [[undead]] warrior mounted on horseback. Who is he? Well, there's three stories about where he came from. The first one is that he was an innocent man executed by Drakov's men. The second one is that he was a man who chopped off his own head rather than be killed by one of Strahd's men. And the third is that he was a bard who failed to entertain Ivana Boritsi as she bathed, so she chopped off his head and mixed his blood into her bathwater. If you think that none of those sound like a Darklord's backstory, you're not wrong. Oh, and you also have to fight the undead severed heads that precede and then follow the Horseman's run-by attack, which includes several [[medusa]] heads.

=====Yatehcaa=====
::Cultural Level: Iron Age
::Landscape: Mountains, High Desert
::Motif: Native American Mythology
::[[Darklord]]: Coyote

A domain based on certain Native American myths, where the people live simple, happy lives, whilst trying to avoid the attentions of the malicious trickster and fallen hero-deity Coyote. This netbook canon domain can be found in the [[Undead Sea Scrolls]] 2002.

==Cyre?==
In [[Eberron]], the nation of Cyre was destroyed in the Day of Mourning, leaving only the [[Mournland]] behind. That Cyre became a Demiplane of Dread is perhaps the most common theory on the origin of the Mournland within the fandom, as it checks all the boxes for explanations.
*The Mournland stops at Cyre’s artificial, political, borders and thus had to be caused by some intelligent actor. The Dark Powers certainly count. It also explains why it stops so exactly at the water that the docks were left behind.
*The Mournland’s border is a wall of “dead-gray mist”. The link is obvious. In 4th Edition, this dead-gray mist supernaturally drains people of hope.
*The Forge of War states that Dannel ir'Wynarn insistence that the crown of Galifar belonged to her was the only thing keeping the Last War going, making her prime Darklord material.
*Dark Sun material describes Kalidnay as having been destroyed by "unknown disaster" that left it only "a jumble of ruins". The ruins in the Mournland are described being "moved", "rearranged", "turned 90 degrees", or "found miles from where war-era maps say they should be", which certainly can be described as a "jumble". The one adventure that travels to the ruined city (DSM2) mentions several structures remain intact, and many appear to be ruins purely because they're centuries old, which fits the multiple Mournland adventures with surviving structures, and several people seem to have died suddenly in a way that their body was intact. (While some of the Mournland's signature features are absent, all outside descriptions of Kalidnay are centuries after the fact while all descriptions of the Mournland are 0-4 years after its creation.)

None of this will ever be confirmed, and it’s unlikely to be anti-confirmed, as the truth of the Mourning is one of Eberron’s mysteries that exists to have no answer but what the [[Dungeon Master]] gives them. The setting's creator has however concurred it's a good option if one wanted some bit of Eberron in Ravenloft.

The theory received a bit of a nod in 5th edition with the reveal of a new Domain of Dread that is a fragment of Cyre that was taken by the mists on the Day of Mourning.

==4th Edition: Islands of Terror==
In the [[World Axis]], the idea of the Demiplane of Dread being its own independent universe was basically dropped. The idea, however, remained in the form of the ''Domains of Dread''; regions in the [[Shadowfell]] created in response to great evils in the Material World, essentially mimicking the Islands of Terror format of the Demiplane, but with one major difference: these Domains are still part of the Shadowfell as a whole. As a result, if you can find the rite or secret or whatever it is that grants you passage, then you can flee the Domain through its misty veil and into the wider Shadowfell... which isn't necessarily that much of an improvement, but hey.

The idea of the Core is complete absent in 4th edition. Perhaps, if [[Ravenloft]] had been revived in this setting, the Core would have instead become more of a cursed but otherwise normal world, similar to and yet separate from the Domains of Dread seen in the Shadowfell. We'll never know.

The 4e Domains of Dread consist of the following:

=====Sunderheart=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Half-ruined city on a cliff's edge at the edge of a swampy river dela
::Motif: Diabolist Grand Guignol
::[[Darklord]]: Ivania Dreygu and Vorno "The Ghoul" Kahnebor

Originally the [[Bael Turath]] city of Harrack Unarth, Sunderheart's doom came when it came under the control of the lovers Ivania Dreygu and Vorno Kahnebor, the [[Nentir Vale]] version of Romeo and Juliet... if Romeo and Juliet were debauched hedonistic [[tiefling]]s who engaged in rape, murder and cannibalism and who massacred their entire families so they could be together. Eventually, Vorno became so vile that even Ivania grew sick of him, so she murdered him by feeding him a servant girl whom she had fed with a deadly poison. Then she woke up in Sunderheart with her [[ghoul]]ified [[undead]] lover fused to her back like a monstrous parasitic twin. Now she rules by day over the half of the city still inhabited by the living, and Vorno the Ghoul rules over the undead-haunted ruins at night.

=====Graefmotte=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Dense Pine Forest, Mountains
::Motif: Starvation
::[[Darklord]]: Lord Durven Graef

When the [[Yeenoghu]]-worshipping hordes of the White Ruin threatened the empire of Nerath in the [[Nentir Vale]], Lord Graef was the ruler of a minor frontier province who had already lost two of his three children. Desperate to preserve his family legacy, he was determined that his final son, Geoffery Graef, would not answer King Elidyr's call to take up arms against the horde. When his son disagreed, they fought, and Lord Graef accidentally killed his son by causing him to fall and fatally strike his head. Which was when the [[gnoll]] warbands fell upon Graefmotte. Lord Graef led the fighting over the night, and was near-mortally wounded; disemboweled and with an arm bitten off, nobody expected him to cling to life for a day and a night... never mind for his wounds to fully heal. Ever since then, Graefmotte has been a land cursed, where its people face a slow, withering death by starvation, or a quick, bloody one at the jaws of the maddened gnolls and starvation-spawned [[ghoul]]s that haunt the ever-shifting forest.

=====Monadhan=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: Tropical Rainforest
::Motif: Treachery
::[[Darklord]]: Arantor

During the war between [[Bael Turath]] and [[Arkhosia]], the [[Metallic Dragon#Silver Dragon|Silver Dragon]] Arantor and his daughter mrissa were called upon to destroy a remote Turathi military outpost, almost hidden within thick tropical rainforest, whose isolation and surroundings made it virtually unreachable by ground-based forces. But after they hit their target, they realized that their intel had been faulty; this was no military camp, it was a refugee center for Turathi civilians! Father and daughter quarreled over what to do, with Imrissa wanting to return to Arkhosia and take responsibility for their crimes, whilst the glory-hound Arantor insisted they conceal it and protect their reputations. The argument grew so heated that Arantor slew his daughter, and then, stricken by guilt, he massacred the survivors of his first attack before becoming a plague upon the Turathi until his death. Which was when he awoke as a [[dracolich]] in a cavern deep below a twisted reflection of Monadhan, which has now become a gathering point for traitors. The greater the betrayal, and the more pathetic the reason, the more likely the perpetrator is to find a place within Monadhan - whether by being swallowed by the Mists, or by awakening there alive and whole after dying for their misdeeds. As a result, Monadhan is now an oubliette for treacherous scum from across time and space.

=====The Endless Road=====
::Cultural Level: Classical
::Landscape: An endless road winding through forests, hills and plains
::Motif: You can't escape your sins
::[[Darklord]]: Eli van Hassen

The tiny little roadside town of Tranquility was a peaceful place, until the day a four-headed [[hydra]] lurched from the fens and began plaguing the people. When a wandering [[adventurer]] known only as "The Horseman" arrived and slew the beast, the people celebrated. But the town's ruler, Eli van Hassen, a man forever plagued by resentment and inferiority over his provincial abode, resented the hero's fame. He forced his daughter to slander the man, accusing him of rape, and whipped the people of Tranquility into a frenzied mob who executed their savior despite his former protests. Now Eli and his daughter inhabit a fortified mansion that sits on the side of a great road, which stretches on to infinity; unless the Road decides to let you go, which it can do to anywhere in the [[Multiverse]], you can walk forever and never leave. Of course, that risks attack by the undead remains of the Headless Horseman, who wants revenge on the van Hassens, but will happily settle for anyone else he can get his hands on.

=====Timbergorge=====
::Cultural Level: Iron Age
::Landscape: Dense confider forest
::Motif: Nature's Savagery
::[[Darklord]]: Silvermaw

When a naive [[treant]] allowed [[human]]s to settle in the planeshifting forest that was an [[archfey]]'s garden under his care, he was horrified when they began to create a fire to keep them warm as they slept. But when he attacked in an effort to quench the flames, he burned himself and then set the forest ablaze, leaving it to burn as he focused on slaying the human interlopers. For this, his master cut the garden away and banished it to the [[Shadowfell]]. Here, the tribal humans have become a pack of werewolves, endlessly hunting and being hunted by the mad, wounded treant, who has coated his mouth with molten silver so that he may better rend and bite his foes; hence his name "Silvermaw".

==5th Edition: The Alternate Continuity==
In February 2021, it was announced across the internet that the Demiplane of Dread would at last make an official return as a D&D setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] in the form of [[Van Richten's Guide]] to [[Ravenloft]]. But it also openly announced that the 30 domains of dread that would be debuting in the book would include a mixture of brand new domains, classic domains, and revamped/reimagined takes on old domains - something that immediately began raising hackles amongst the Ravenloft fandom, who tend towards the [[grognard]]ier side of the fence. Why did they do this? Was it because the last version of Ravenloft-as-setting was done by [[White Wolf]] and there were legal entanglements preventing [[Wizards of the Coast]] from reusing their inventions? Was it because a lot of Ravenloft classic lore was actually kind of stupid and in desperate need of revamping? Was it because of [[SJW]]s? (probably a little considering some of the weirder changes made) Some combination thereof? The world may never know.

Either way, the 5e version of the Demiplane of Dread thusly has its own unique take on the different Domains, which this section will try to break down for comparison's sake.

5th edition no longer has the Core although a few Clusters still exist, but are now treated as single domains, and also changes the rules for traveling between domains. If the borders of a domain are not closed, entering the mists on the borders only takes you to another domain if you get a lucky roll, and usually you will end up back in the domain where you started or just wander the mists going nowhere. And even if you do get lucky it is up to the DM to decide where to drop you. You can choose what domain you want to go to and bypass this roll by carrying a mist talisman, which is an item related in some way to that domain or at least that domain's theme, and each domain has a few possible items you can use as a talisman for it. If you have the Mist Walker dark gift, you can travel to any domain that you know the name of without a talisman, but at the cost of not being able to stay in one place for too long.

===Detailed Domains===
These domains have received descriptions a few pages long.

=====Barovia 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

It's literally just Barovia as seen in [[Curse of Strahd]]. The only major change is that now the Dark Powers have started to get creative and may have Tatyana reincarnate as someone unexpected to mess with Strahd.

=====Bluetspur 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape: Utterly alien
::Motif: Alien Horror, amnesia
::[[Darklord]]: The God-Brain

Aside from some slight tweaks to the backstory of the God-Brain and a shift in focus to more of an "alien abductions/unspeakable alien experiments" motif, Bluetspur is basically unchanged.

=====Borca 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Outside of the changes to the [[Darklord]]s, there's nothing new here.

=====[[The Carnival]] 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

No longer a wandering point of light, [[The Carnival]] is now a free-floating island of terror, with the role of [[Darklord]] being shared between Isolde and Nepenthe, a cursed sword she carries. The backstory has also been changed extensively, involving a counterpart to the Carnival run by [[shadar-kai]]. The Carnival is also haunted by the ''Litwick Market'', a black market of malicious fey with a grudge against the Carnival who invariably show up once the Carnival settles down and start making trouble. Also, the Twisting is no longer a thing.

=====Darkon 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: The end of the world
::[[Darklord]]: Azalin Rex, currently MIA

The first "continuation" domain, Azalin went missing during an event called the Hour of Ascension and now Darkon is falling apart, slowly being dissolved by the Mists. The domain has become split into four islands. During the day the mists can be crossed as normal, but during the night anything covered by the mists disappears and the mists swallow a little bit more of the land in tiny steps or in huge floods. As was the case during the original [[Grim Harvest|Shrouded Years]], a number of demilords are trying and failing to hold it together. Collectively known as The Inheritors, they consist of the vampire Alcio Metus (sister to the late Baron Metus), Cardinna Artazas and the Necrichor of Darcalus Rex, and Madame Talisveri Eris. The only clue about where Azalin went is a strange glowing object called the King's Tear which appeared floating over Darkon at the same time that he vanished.

=====Dementlieu 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Masquerade and imposter syndrome
::[[Darklord]]: Saidra d'Honaire

Completely rewritten, Dementlieu is now an impoverished city where everybody tries desperately to pretend they are richer and more important than they actually are, lest they be disintegrated by its new [[Darklord]]; Saidra d'Honaire. Also has a Masque of the Red Death thing going on, making it a bit like Sanguinia.

=====Falkovnia 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Zombie Apocalypse
::[[Darklord]]: Vladeska Drakov

Completely rewritten, Falkovnia is no longer the "war horror" domain, but instead a zombie apocalypse domain, where new [[Darklord]] Vladeska Drakov struggles to keep the living alive in the face of monthly sieges by massive armies of the [[Walking Dead]]. Maybe they didn't want [[/pol/]] fanboying the original Vlad?

=====Har'Akir 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Completely rewritten, Har'Akir is now a sprawling, heavily populated land where [[necrocracy|the living bow to a mummified aristocracy]] and Ankhtepot actually wishes for death.

=====Haz'lan 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Wild magic, environmental destruction, magic-based classism
::[[Darklord]]: Hazlik

This retconned version of the domain has dropped the Mulans vs. Rashemani racism of the past and is now being devastated by a series of arcane apocalypses. [[Darklord]] Hazlik now suffers a combination of his old curse and Azalin's curse.

=====I'Cath 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Denial of reality
::[[Darklord]]: Tsien Chiang

Completely rewritten, I'Cath has gone from a glorified [[Oriental Adventures]] [[dungeon]] to a crumbling city where the population is largely trapped in an eternal slumber, forced to constantly work at building and rebuilding a dream-version of I'Cath at the behest of [[Darklord]] Tsien Chiang, who can never be satisfied with what she has. When the inhabitants wake, they must scavenge for food in a city constantly being rebuilt by Tsien Chian's armies of [[Jiangshi]], who will not harm a sleeper, but will happily tear an awake mortal limb from limb.

=====Kalakeri=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: War-torn nation, faction mechanics
::[[Darklord]]: Ramya Vasavadan

New domain, although it's intended to take the place of the old domain of Sri Raji, which is mentioned as an alternative name for it. This India-themed domain is locked in an eternal civil war between its [[Darklord]], Ramya Vasavadan, and her two [[fiend]]ish siblings; Arijani the [[Rakshasa]] and Reeva the [[Arcanaloth]].

=====Kartakass 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Show business, predatory business practices, werewolves
::[[Darklord]]: Harkon Lukas

Largely unchanged, save for the revisions to [[Darklord|Harkon Lukas']] story and the replacement of [[wolfwere]]s with [[Loup-garou]].

=====Lamordia 5e=====
::Cultural Level: Steampunk
::Landscape: Arctic
::Motif: Mad science, biting cold, implicit kaiju
::[[Darklord]]: Viktra Mordenheim

Basically unchanged, save for a new emphasis on an arctic climate and the tweaks to its [[Darklord]], replacing Viktor Mordenheim and Adam with Viktra Mordenheim and Elise. The darklord curse has been given a twist, too: Viktra succeeded where Victor would perpetually fail-- but she cannot duplicate her success and the living (golem-like) Elise shuns her and hides in the wilderness. Also, the whalers operating out of Ludendorf may or may not be hunting creatures [[Kraken|more fearsome than actual whales]], and it's heavily implied that there may be a radioactive kaiju hibernating under the mountain range not-so-subtly named "The Sleeping Beast".

=====Mordent 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Ghosts and haunted houses
::[[Darklord]]:

The only change here is to [[Darklord|Wilfred Godefroy's]] curse and backstory, which now involves the famous Alchemist's Apparatus first introduced to [[Ravenloft]] lore in [[I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill]].

=====Richemulot 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Pandemic, wererats
::[[Darklord]]: Jacqueline Renier

Retconned into a plague-stricken nation barely avoiding crumbling into total ruination through the machinations of [[Darklord|Jacqueline Renier]], who's also responsible for the plagues in the first place as she's a one-percenter who despises the middle-class and people who aren't wererats.

=====Tepest 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Wickerman/Midsommar type of stories
::[[Darklord]]: Lorinda Mindefisk

Sitting somewhere between continuation and retcon, Tepest has lost its anti-fey inquisition and is now focused on its [[Darklord]]; Lorinda Mindefisk, who imprisoned her sisters in a cauldron because they refused to let her have a child.

=====Valachan 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape: Jungle
::Motif: The deadliest game
::[[Darklord]]: Chakuna

Similarly to Tepest, Valachan is supposed to be a continuation of its former self, although there's a lot of retcons to the lore. Since [[Darklord|Baron Urik von Kharkov]] was slain by Chakuna, the jungles have turned hungry, rendering the realm a land where everything is out for blood and those appetites are barely kept in check by regular ceremonial blood sacrifices known as the Trial of Hearts.

===Summarized Domains===
These domains only received a short block of text about them. Several of them are completely new domains and so are intended to just be ideas for Dungeon Masters to build on.

=====Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail=====
::Cultural Level: Dungeonpunk
::Landscape: A magical train traveling through the Mists
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: The Last Passenger

The first ever [[Eberron]] Domain of Dread. On the day that Cyre was destroyed by the Mourning, a train was about to carry a bunch of refugees who saw the disaster coming out of Cyre, but the train's departure was delayed by a mysterious VIP who threw hundreds of the train's passengers out to make room for their self and their retinue and to be sure nobody on the train would learn their identity, and so the train departed too late. The train was taken into the mists when the Mourning hit where it became a mobile domain constantly running from the Mourning which the passengers think is still chasing them. The passengers still haven't noticed that the Mourning already killed them.

=====Forlorn 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Unchanged, save for a few details about its Darklord's history.

=====Ghastria 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Unchanged, save for a few details about its Darklord's history.

=====G'henna 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Unchanged, save for a few details about its Darklord's history.

=====Invidia 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Rewritten; Gabrielle Aderre is now the [[Darklord]], constantly dabbling in black magic and conjuring all manner of outsiders to try and ensure that her beloved (and implicitly possessed) son Malocchio will have the best of futures.

=====Keening 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Now has a living population who live in terror of its [[banshee]] [[Darklord]]. They fear the Darklord so much that they have actually destroyed their own sense of hearing to protect themselves.

=====Klorr=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape: Surreal environment
::Motif: Impending Doom
::[[Darklord]]: Klorr

New domain mentioned in brief, a series of shattered islands floating through a misty netherworld, swirling around a blazing giant eye, where one island is obliterated every hour only for another to take its place.

=====Markovia 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape: Tropical island
::Motif: Flowers for Algernon syndrome, furries
::[[Darklord]]: Dr. Frantisek Markov

Rewritten into a mixture of Dr. Moreau and Dr. Jekyll.

=====The Nightmare Lands 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Nightmares
::[[Darklord]]: The Nightmare Court

Largely unchanged, save for the new origin of the Nightmare Court as multiple personas birthed from the mind of a powerful but monstrous [[psion]]icist who tries to run from the crimes of her past and deny that they ever existed.

=====Niranjan=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape: Island monastery
::Motif: [[Path of Inspiration]]
::[[Darklord]]: Sarthak

New domain mentioned in brief, tied to Kalakeri, ruled over by a corrupted [[Metallic Dragon|Brass Dragon]] who poses as a ''sadhu'' to lure victims into sacrificing their worldly goods for his hoard before he consumes their souls and replaces it with an obedient shadow.

=====Nova Vaasa 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]: Myar Hiregaard

Rewritten; now less Russian and more Mongolian, with a female [[Darklord]] named Myar Hiregaard who united the warring tribes of her homelands, only to turn them against each other once more when she grew bored with peacetime.

=====Odaire 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Unchanged, save for the minor detail that Maligno ''changed'' his name to that from his original, less ridiculous name of ''Figlio''.

=====The Rider's Bridge=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Yet another reinterpretation of the Headless Horseman, this time as a [[dullahan]] who shows up at important bridges in domain-specific forms and attacks anyone who tries to cross. Successfully crossing the bridge may transport you to a different domain.

=====Risibilos 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Parody
::[[Darklord]]: Doerdon

A super-minor domain originally mentioned in brief as part of the infamously terrible "Book of Crypts" anthology. Rewritten into a domain-hopping music hall, where the [[Iron Warriors|humorless]] former-king Doerdon is now condemned to an agonizing eternity as an entertainer, with a sentient ventriloquist dummy in the likeness of Strahd von Zarovich as his partner in comedy. Needless to say, don't be surprised if your DM brings a Strahd muppet to the table.

=====Scaena 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:
Unchanged from its original lore.

=====Sea of Sorrows 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

The Darklord is now Pietra van Rise, a vicious female [[pirate]] turned ghost or sea zombie (it's not clear which). Mention is also made of Blaustein (now ruled by the ghosts of Bluebeard's wives), Dominia (the patients are all avatars of Dr. Heinfroth), the Isle of the Ravens (unchanged), and the new domains of The Lighthouse, which features, well, a lighthouse, and Vigilant's Bluff, where an undead paladin offers refuge so long as you respect his faith.

=====The Shadowlands 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Unchanged.

=====Souragne 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Still Southern Gothic New Orleans, but Anton's got a new backstory as a sadistic prison warden and has been downgraded in terms of power.

=====Staunton Bluffs 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

Largely identical, except the former [[darklord]] is now a good guy and his crime has been given to his retconned sister, Teresa Bleysmith.

=====Tovag 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif:
::[[Darklord]]:

No longer connected to Cavitus, [[Kas]] now fixates on finding [[Vecna]] and resuming their ancient battle.

=====Vhage Agency=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape: An office building
::Motif: Insanity, Film Noir
::[[Darklord]]: Flimira Vhage

A new domain in the form of a detective agency ruled over by Flimira Vhage, who remains unaware that literally the entire agency only exists in her own broken mind. Oh, and it literally looks like an old [[noir]] film brought to life, complete with everything inside being in different shades of monotone gray.

=====Zherisia 5e=====
::Cultural Level:
::Landscape:
::Motif: Serial killings
::[[Darklord]]: Sodo

The elaborate dread [[doppelganger]] society has been wiped out. Now there's just a starving city descending into madness and a single ancient doppelganger trying to preserve its existence through cannibalism. The sewers that used to be called Timor still exist but the marikiths have been replaced with [[Carrion Stalker]]s.

==Notable Non-Darklords==
* [[Van Richten]]
* [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]
* [[Jander Sunstar]]
* [[Alanik Ray]]
* [[Larissa Snowmane]]
* [[Vistani]]

{{Planescape-Cosmology}}
[[Category:Ravenloft]]

Transmuter

2021-06-15T06:29:26Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* 5th Edition's Arcane Tradition */

{{dnd-stub}}

A '''Transmuter''' is a form of Specialist [[Wizard]] in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These guys specialize in the school of ''Transmutation'', the magical altering of physical substances and general shapeshifting shenanigans.

==5th Edition's Arcane Tradition==
'''Transmuters''' have a lot of fairly fluffy traits. Minor Alchemy (level 2) lets them temporarily transmuted a sample of of wood, stone, iron, copper or silver into one of the other elements on that little list. Transmuter's Stone (level 6) lets them spend 8 hours to create a magical stone. Whoever holds it gains a bonus chosen by the transmuter when making it; darkvision, +10 to speed whilst unencumbered, proficiency in Constitution saving throws, or resistance to one of five elemental damages (fire, ice, acid, lightning, thunder). Shapechanger (level 10) lets a transmuter turn into a Challenge Rating 1 or weaker Beast type creature whenever they want, plus they gain the Polymorph spell for free. Finally, at level 14, Master Transmuter allows them to destroy a created Transmuter's Stone to enact one of the following effects: transform one object into another object, completely heal (restore to full health + remove all curses, diseases and poisons) one creature, cast a free Raise Dead spell, or decrease a target's apparent age by 3D10 years.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Gamer Slang]] [[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Classes]]

Tiamat

2021-06-15T05:47:15Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Depictions */

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Tiamat
|Symbol = [[File:Tiamat Symbol.jpg|200px]] Five chromatic dragon heads in a circle, or a dragon head with five claw marks
|Aliases = The Avaricious, Bane of Bahamut, Hecate, Creator of Evil Dragonkind, the Chromatic Dragon, the Dark Lady, the Dragon Queen, Nemesis of the Gods, Queen of Chaos, Queen of Evil Dragonkind, the Undying Queen
|Alignment = Lawful Evil / Chaotic Evil (depending on edition)
|Divine Rank = Lesser God
|Pantheon = Dawn War, Draconic, Faerûn
|Portfolio = Evil Dragons, Wealth, Greed, Vengeance
|Domains = '''3E:''' Evil, Law, Scalykind, Tyranny '''4E:''' Tyranny, Vengeance '''5E:''' Trickery, War
|Home Plane = '''[[Great Wheel]]:''' ''Azharul''; Tiamat's Lair, Avernus, [[Baator]] '''[[World Axis]]:''' Banehold; ''Azharul'', Tytherion, [[Astral Sea]]
|Worshippers = Evil Dragons, Treasure Hunters, Tyrants, The Vengeful, The Avaricious, Merchants, Dragonborn
|Favoured Weapon = ''Dragon head'' (Heavy pick)
}}
[[File:Dragon 344 cover.jpg|thumb|left]]
'''Tiamat''' was the goddess of seawater and one of the two primordial gods in Mesopotamian mythology, the other being her husband Apsu, god of freshwater. The other gods were the result of these two fucking literally 24/7. In fact, the two tried to kill the other gods since the kids' constant partying distracted them from fucking eachother, so the kids killed them and fashioned the world from their corpses.

In [[Dungeons and Dragons]], Tiamat, also known as the Polychromatic Dragon and the Mother of Dragonkind, is the goddess of [[Chromatic Dragon]]s , and as such is a centerpiece of the lore.

==Genesis==
Precisely where Tiamat comes from depends on the cosmology you're using.

In the [[Great Wheel]], Tiamat was one of the first dragons created by [[Io]], the overgod of the [[Dragon Gods]], being spawned at the same time as her brother, [[Bahamut]] (who for whatever reason is stuck with only one head). The two took an instant hatred to each other, which is understandable as they're literally polar opposites in terms of morality, and have battled ceaselessly for dominance over dragonkind across the [[multiverse]] ever since.

In the [[World Axis]], she was created alongside her "brother" [[Bahamut]] when the Primordial Erek-Hus slew [[Io]], the Father of Dragons, by chopping him in half lengthways with one stroke of a mountain-sized [[adamantine]] axe. Rising from the corpse of her "father", she and Bahamut destroyed the Primordial, before turning on each other. This is why the two are such polar opposites in this continuity; each is an embodiment of one half of the diverse personality traits of Io. Where Bahamut represents the nobility and sense of justice his father had, Tiamat represents his other characteristics: avarice, pride, arrogance, and the raw power to get away with it.

Unlike her brother and father, Tiamat has five heads, with each head being of a different color (White, Black, Green, Blue, and Red). She has the abilities of all of the [[Chromatic Dragon]]s, with each head able to use its associated breath weapon, on top of her immense physical size and a massive, sting-tipped tail, like that of a [[wyvern]].

==Domain==
She is a vain, greedy, lustful and arrogant goddess, expressing what would be extreme hubris if she weren't already a god. Though she is a paragon of dragon strengths, she shows few of their weaknesses; she is not impatient, nor overconfident (when dealing with other gods). Her primary concern is the propagation and well-being of chromatic dragons as a whole, ensuring her children become owners of the world. She believes this goal necessarily requires overthrowing the rule of Bahamut and establishing supremacy over metallic dragonkind. Like [[Anonymous]], Tiamat never forgets and does not forgive. Although she is not adverse to occasionally burning a village to the ground for the lulz, Tiamat is not exactly an up-front goddess; she is a long-term plotter and schemer, carefully manipulating others in [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] plots that are so subtle and so long-reaching that an enemy would likely find themselves unprepared even if they had foreknowledge of what she had planned years in advance, making her a deity of [[Just as planned]].

==Dwelling==
In the [[Great Wheel]], Tiamat rules over a dominion called ''Azharul'', a swathe of territory found within Avernus, the first layer of [[Baator]] (at least in 5e. prior to that edition she ruled Avernus itself as the lowest Archdevil). Nobody is quite sure why [[Asmodeus]] puts up with her there, but she remains there, and has even created a race of humanoid [[dragon]]-like fiends called [[Abishai]] to aid her in administering to the place.

In the [[World Axis]], Tiamat lives in the [[Astral Sea|astral domain]] of [[Tytherion]], a realm shared with [[Zehir]], God of Murder. Her realm in this shared dominion, still called ''Azharul'', is located in the ravines and hewn out in the rock of Tytherion. Why the goddess of dragons lives underground and the lord of serpents in the highest reaches of the domain is the story of how Tiamat set up her realm. After her defeat at the hands of Bahamut, Tiamat took a liking to Tytherion and set up shop there, chasing Zehir's followers to their bastions and temples, large buildings build above ground, leaving Tiamat with the rest. Though they wage no open war, Tiamat is constantly scheming against Zehir, planning on claiming the domain for herself one day. The [[splatbook]] on the [[Astral Sea]] even admits that both Zehir and Tiamat would be way happier if they just traded which halves of the dominion they inhabit, but they're too greedy and [[Stupid Evil]] to ever think of doing that.

==Servants==
Tiamat's first and foremost servants are the chromatic dragons. About 95% of them serve their goddess in some way. Those who prefer a different deity have a grim fate waiting for them: in the depths of her lair behind a pair of 100' adamantine doors Tiamat has a collection of the souls of those chromatics sworn to other deities, locked up for eternity. Tiamat has recently begun to create the Spawn of Tiamat in notable numbers, who are born from the eggs of dragons instead of the regular wyrmlings, or from two Spawn of the same kind mating. Dragons who sire the Spawn of Tiamat consider it a good omen and a sign of Tiamat's favor to [[grimdark|have part-dragon monsters born instead of their own children born from their eggs]]. These are divided into five groups, based on their color: the Blackspawn who consist of strong raiders (and one type looking like [[Lolth|spiders]] for some reason), the Bluespawn who are mostly unintelligent beasts of war, the Greenspawn who are small(ish) ambushers who work best in forest and swamp environments, the Redspawn who are the Spawn's primary source of magic (fire magic of course), and the Whitespawn who gather in large numbers and excel at fighting in cold environments and clan warfare.

Aside from the Chromatics and Spawn, Tiamat counts a notable number of humanoids amongst her servants, mainly [[Dragonborn]] and other part-dragons, such as [[spellscale]]s, [[dragon-kin]] and [[half-dragon]]s, and [[Human|Humans]]. Most [[Kobold]]s worship individual dragons as gods, but the smarter ones who know about Tiamat might turn a tribe to her worship instead. The Queen of Chromatic Dragons demands reverence, homage, supplication, and tribute from her subjects. As a divine dragon, her hoard is believed to be worth ''trillions''.

The [[World Axis]] version of Tiamat is particularly focused on her non-draconic worshippers, since all gods of note in that cosmology pursue a broader faith. She is considered the Goddess of Wrath and Greed, and as such appeals to anyone who wants loot or revenge. The [[dragonborn]] of [[Arkhosia]], despite their reverence for [[Io]], had decidedly less positive feelings for Tiamat; her worship was mostly kept at arms length, with the empire officially throwing its faith behind worship of [[Bahamut]] and the Arkhosian Imperial Church (a trinity of [[Kord]], [[Ioun]] and [[Erathis]]). The closest thing to an open worship of Tiamat was the fledgling faith known as the Temple of Io's Children, which worshipped Bahamut and Tiamat side by side as twin incarnations of Io's will, downplaying the moral extremes of both gods and presenting them as polar opposites that point to a middle way, neither good nor evil but striving toward a draconic ideal.

Another thing of note is that Tiamat "likes" to "give audience" to mortals in her "inner sanctum". In other words, Tiamat [[Monstergirl|likes her some non-divine dick]]. Most of the time this means she fucks a chromatic that impressed her, but she's also known to have courted [[Catastrophic Dragon|catastrophic]], [[Metallic Dragon|metallic]], [[Planar Dragon|planar]] and [[Linnorm|scourge]] [[dragon]]s. Amongst her current fuckbuddies is a Dragonborn, though it's not mentioned if she takes her human shape before [[Furry|having sex with humanoids]]. The climactic adventure for [[Scales of War]] also reveals that, at least in the [[World Axis]], she constantly experiments in producing true godly spawn, and as a result [[/d/|keeps a harem of enormously pregnant female chromatics]], though it's unclear if these merely serve as brood mothers for the eggs that Tiamat conceives with her male lovers, or if she is somehow experimenting with impregnating them herself.

==Depictions==
* In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Tiamat first appears as a unique boss-monster in the [[Greyhawk]] setting. Later, she has the first layer of the Nine Hells assigned to her as her 'home plane,' giving her Outsider status and the ability to avoid permanent death.
* In the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, she was powerful enough to kick the shit out of both the [[DM|Dungeon Master]] and Venger, the show's main antagonist, giving you a general grasp of how goddamned powerful she is.
* When she feels the need to deal with mortals, she typically assumes the form of an exquisitely beautiful dark-haired human sorceress.
* In the [[Dragonlance]] setting, the goddess of evil stuff "[[Takhisis]]" uses a Tiamat form as her avatar and is essentially a slightly tweaked version of her.
* In AD&D 2nd edition, the [[Forgotten Realms]] campaign setting has a religion dedicated to her.
* In D&D 3rd edition, she's pretty much still the same, though she favors her natural, five-headed form.
** Her cult and an avatar appear in [[Red Hand of Doom]]. Pretty much all the dragon themed books have evil dragon stuff related to her.
* [[Eberron]] has a vastly different Tiamat. Tiamat is not a true god but [[Rakshasa|a demon overlord]] that was imprisoned long ago. She has the ability to corrupt dragons, especially chromatic ones, and provide a "blessing" that imbues servants [[Half-Dragon|with draconic might]]. Her minions, like those of the other overlords, are attempting to free her. If they succeeded it would be dark times for Khorvaire, not merely because of Tiamat herself but because the dragon armies will go full scorched earth to contain or destroy her (and if you're unlucky, they'll do this just because of the possibility).
* In D&D 4th edition, she is no longer considered a unique type of dragon, but always referred to as a goddess who happens to have a draconic primary avatar.
* In [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]], her cult in the Forgotten Realms attempts to bring her back to Faerun from the Nine Hells, which is the focus of the first major storyline, "Tyranny of Dragons". If your players ''really'' fuck up, the cult could even succeed. In a lot of ways this version is like the Dragonlance Takhisis, because if she actually succeeds and returns to Faerun, the first thing she does is eat all the Cult of the Dragon cultists and humiliate their leader Severin, who brought her back - despite them worshipping her - just because she feels like being a dick, again.
** She managed to act surprisingly affable in the ''Descent into Avernus'' adventure. Since the Holy City of Elturel has been bound by infernal chains, the players will need something with serious punch to destroy them. Turns out that infernal iron, forged in the very fires of Hell itself, is ''nothing'' compared to a god. Surprisingly, her only demand is that the players stick around to witness her power. Of course, she '''hates''' Zariel, who commands that level at the time.

==Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil?==
Tiamat's listed alignment in official publications has alternated between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil multiple times. In 5th edition alone Tiamat is initially listed as Lawful Evil in the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, Chaotic Evil in The Rise of Tiamat, is referred to in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes as "a force of Chaos bound to a place of Law", and again listed as Lawful Evil in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount.

A possible explanation is that, as a being with five heads, Tiamat may have multiple personalities of different alignment and goals.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Tiamat 1e.jpg
TiamatDragon.png|Tiamat, Queen of the Chromatic Dragons, and about to fuck your shit up
Tiamat.jpg|Tiamat's humanoid form
Tiamat Deities and Demigods.jpg
Tiamat MM4 3e.jpg
Tiamat Dungeon 175.jpg
Tiamat_actionfigure.jpg|With kung-fu action grip
</gallery>

{{D&D-Nonhuman-Deities}}
{{D&D4e-Deities}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}
[[Category:Awesome]]

Asmodeus

2021-06-15T05:38:53Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* 2e */

[[File:Asmodeus.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Asmodeus, the King of Hell. Note the firebred [[hellhound]] and, yes, the Ruby Rod.]]
{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Asmodeus
|Symbol = [[File:Asmodeus symbol transparent.png|200px]]
|Alignment = Lawful Evil
|Divine Rank = Debatable (see below)
|Pantheon = Openly [[Archdevil]]s; Ancient Brethren secretly
|Portfolio = Being Satan
|Domains = '''4E:''' Knowledge, Torment, Tyranny '''5E:''' Knowledge, Order, Trickery '''PF:''' Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery
|Home Plane = The Nine Hells of [[Baator]] (currently imprisoned), the primordial soup of creation (former)
|Worshippers = Slavers, tyrants, bureaucrats, Satanists
|Favoured Weapon = Mace (shaped after his Ruby Rod)
}}
'''Asmodeus''' is THE evil god AND an [[Archdevil]] in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. He is the absolute ruler of [[Baator|the Nine Hells]], stationed squarely in its infernal core of Nessus. His daughter [[Glasya]] is one of the commanders in charge of a "lower" level.

=Fluff=
Asmodeus was introduced in [[AD&D]] 1st edition. In the [[Monster Manual]], no less! His domain was detailed in ''Dragon'' magazine. It's mostly stayed the same since.

Asmodeus was part of the Creation War. After defeating the Primordials, the evil gods set out to kill each other over who would take over the Universe while the good and neutral ones tried to stop them. Asmodeus was able to get a large number of angels to side with him and led a rebellion against the heavens. He was struck down and landed on Baator, which originally had ''seven'' Hells but he made two more just for shits and giggles. There he set up his kingdom of hate.

Asmodeus takes on the form of a boring, run-of-the-mill Halloween devil. Oh, except for being 13 feet tall. He has impossibly high charisma and can only really be damaged with Holy items. Typically, he's a patient schemer who can wait epochs for his plans to resolve, but during the rare times he doesn't use stars forming and dying to time himself, he uses guile rather than force... usually. His Ruby Rod has a lot of at-will spells that he can use, and he can alter lesser beings. ...Yes. It's called the Ruby Rod. The Ruby Rod of Asmodeus. It's been around since forever, and, yes, it looks exactly how you think it looks. Some of his followers even carry similar Ruby Rods, but they are far inferior in length, girth, and potency to his.

''This has been an obvious dick joke. We now return you to your original article already in progress.''

===2e===
The book Guide to Hell gave us a completely new view of Asmodeus. At the dawn of creation, beings of Law began to rise up from the primordial soup. The mightiest of these were Ahriman and [[Jazirian]]. Jazirian was a feathered and winged serpent, while Ahriman was scaled and forked of tongue. They bit down onto each other's tails and together began to create Law in the chaos. The first thing that they created was the Unity of Rings: everything keeps happening over and over again. This place, the first ring, became known as the [[Outlands]]. When it was defined the other planes fell in around it, thus creating the [[Planescape|Outer Planes]].

Next up after this was to honor their three aspects: Law, Good and Evil. From this came the Rule of Three, stressing the importance of the number three in all things. Finally there needed to be a third rule: the Center of the Universe. This is where it started to go wrong: while the Outlands would have been the obvious choice, Jazirian pushed for [[Celestia|heaven]], while Ahriman pushed for [[Baator|hell]]. The two began to pull and struggle at and with one another, until they eventually [[rip and tear|tore each other apart]]. Jazirian flew up to the heavens: each drop of blood she spilled from her severed tail tip turned into a fully-formed [[couatl]]. The wingless Ahriman though began to fall: he in fact fell so hard that upon hitting the seventh layer of hell, he fell ''through'' and in his crash created two new layers. Where his blood hit the ground, Pit Fiends sprung up. Ahriman got stuck in his pit, unable to leave.

[[File:Jazirian_and_Ahriman.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Jazirian and Ahriman, busy creating the three rules of the multiverse.]]
In their struggle the two serpents had lost much of their power, and began to nurse themselves back to health. In this time, the other gods overtook them, banded together and began to colonize the [[plane]]s. So, Ahriman began to hatch a new plot. He took the guise of Asmodeus, a near-power just short of being a god: the arch-devil and the lord of evil. But he is more than that: more potent than even the gods and not dependent on the adoration of mortals. He is trying to get into power by ways of three plans: the [[Blood War]], the Politics of Nobility, and Armageddon.

Asmodeus fakes that the Blood War is of great importance to him: he sees it as little more than a series of skirmishes that turned into a full-blown war. But by staying at war with the [[Tanar'ri]] he makes the upper powers think that if one of them were to win, they would flood out to the rest of the planes and create a massive war that would end all life. Thus, they continue to let the fiends fight amongst themselves. The second plan, the Politics of Nobility is more or less the same thing but internal: by keeping the devils occupied with struggling with one another they won't have the resources to fight Asmodeus and his plots.

The third one is a far more sinister plot: those who die without believing in anything. Since only the believers can go to an afterlife, those who do not believe are instead sent elsewhere, namely Nessus. But instead of becoming petitioners here and starting out as [[Baatezu|Lemures]], they become chow for Asmodeus. The process of being eaten by a primordial serpent takes centuries, [[grimdark|during which the petitioners remain fully aware as they are devoured, feeling nothing but excruciating pain for centuries.]] Being destroyed in such a way completely undoes the soul in question, so it cannot be brought back in any way. Every soul devoured this way heals Ahriman's wounds a bit more, and when he has fully healed Ahriman will break free of his prison and cast the multiverse back into the primordial chaos it came from. Nobody, not even Jazirian would be able to stop him, and he would remake the universe to his liking. And this is a Bad Thing. The lore of Asmodeus eating the souls of atheists has not really been continued out of this book as athiests currently just go to the afterlife that matches their alignment or the wall of the faithless in the forgotten realms.

===[[3.5e]]===
In 3.5 Asmodeus got a new backstory and became a magnificent bastard of massive proportions. In the beginning there were only the [[Obyrith]]s and their spawn the [[Tanar'ri]], but the newborn universe didn't like this and so spat out good-aligned beings of Order™ to fight them. Asmodeus was one of these, and decided that to truly defeat the demons, they would have to know them, and that in order to do that, they would have to become like them. Thus he became the first Lawful Evil being (don't ask us how Chaotic Good came to be). In the ancient days the Gods were troubled by mortals because they would do bad things over and over again. Asmodeus, one of the smartest people ever, pointed out it was because there were no repercussions for doing so, and so invented "Punishment" which took the form of a rod with which to strike the guilty. The Gods liked the idea and so Asmodeus and his followers went about punishing mortals that did wrong all over the heavenly realms. Well the Gods of Good that they served got disturbed by this; sure there were results and mortals were being less of a collection of dicks because of it, but they didn't like evil souls being tortured in their herb gardens. Asmodeus had a solution. He wrote up a giant contract that would make him and his followers separate from the Gods, give him his own realm (a little one-layerer called Baator), and he and his followers would get energy from those they punish, leaving the Gods free from having to manage the thing. It was such a good idea that all the Gods signed it. When Asmodeus and his followers arrived at the dirt hovel plane after imprisoning its former ruler [[Zargon]], they thought he had gone mad. Then he explained the rest of his plan.

A few millennia later, the Gods started to notice something was up with the number of souls they were getting. Investigating, they found that Asmodeus had been a productive bastard. 9 layers of hellscape, legions of devils, and innumerable tortured evil souls. Except some of those souls had been bought or corrupted by Asmodeus and his followers.

St. Cuthbert the God of Retribution drew forth his mace and shouted "You fiend! You are only supposed to punish the wicked, not tempt them into acts of evil!" Asmodeus smiled, held out the contract alongside a novelty oversized magnifying glass, and said (verbatim) "Read the fine print."

In this edition we see why Asmodeus re-installed Levistus to his former position as leader of the 5th layer of hell ''without'' freeing him from his iceberg prison and more importantly, not providing the traditional promotion makeover. That being
* Everyone would scratch their heads about Levistus having a high ranking job, you know, with the whole 'killing the leader's true waifu' thing, instead of scratching their heads about a Hag (and not a devil) being the ruler of Malbolge.
* Since Levistus having the gig of leader of 5th layer was just a distraction, he wasn't granted the promotion upgrade. The nine hells have better use for divine energy than that. Also why let a treacherous bastard out of the ice? And of course maintaining the punishments would attract attention to the strange situation that Levistus was in.
Why was the ruler of Malbolge a hag? To have a disposable regent keeping a seat warm for ruling a layer of hell until he thought his daughter would handle the job right.

===[[4e]]===
Talking about Asmodeus in 4e gets complicated, for a very simple reason: there are ''two'' of him in that edition. One is native to the [[Nentir Vale]] setting, the "core" of 4e, who is functionally a brand new individual in terms of lore, and the other is native to the [[Forgotten Realms]], and is supposed to be the same one who's been plaguing the Realms from the very beginning of D&D, resulting in the need to "build on from" his lore from at least 3rd edition.

The Asmodeus of the Nentir Vale was once the most powerful [[archangel]] of a goodly god, but during the [[Dawn War]], he became convinced that his master was holding back the forces of the gods with his "virtuousness" and that harsher, more ruthless behavior was required to win. This may have something to do with his claiming a shard of the Seed of Evil from the [[Abyss]], something that also sparked the [[Blood War]] of the [[World Axis]]. He spread his beliefs amongst his fellow [[angel]]s like a poison, swaying them until they were able to rise up en masse and murder their former master. So thoroughly did Asmodeus obliterate even the memory of his former master that only the fact of his prior existence remains in the world today, resulting in this god being called only "He Who Was". Filled with paranoia that if his old master's name is ever rediscovered, the god could be brought back, Asmodeus stops at nothing to scour for any clues he might have missed.

Did this Asmodeus get what he wanted? Well... yes, and no. It is hinted his taking charge of his old master's troops actually did help boost the gods in their war effort, and he was accepted amongst the gods... right up until they realized his treacherous rat-bastadry and ambition wasn't sated yet, at which point they backed off. Plus, He Who Was cursed Asmodeus and all his followers as he died, transforming [[Baator]] into the current hellhole that it is, warping them into their present devilish forms, and forcibly binding them in Baator as an inescapable prison until Asmodeus figured out a loophole or two.

Incidentally, this is what defines the devils of the Nentir Vale setting; whilst any angel can serve an evil god and still be considered an angel, devils are ''fallen'' angels, marked by a divine curse for their treachery and deicide.

As a god, Nentir Vale Asmodeus has the portfolio of Power, Domination and Tyranny, and his associated [[Cleric Domain]]s in "Divine Power" are Civilization and Tyranny. His three commandments are:
* Seek power over others.
* Repay evil with evil, and exploit the kindness of others.
* Show neither pity nor compassion for those caught underfoot on your rise to power; the weak do not deserve compassion.

Aside from killing He Who Was and creating the devils, and possibly orphaning [[human]]ity - some believe He Who Was used to be humanity's patron god, but then again, others claim that humanity's patron was a different god who was murdered by [[Zehir]] - the most notable influence that Asmodeus has in the [[Nentir Vale]] is being the creator of the [[tiefling]]s. Long story short, the nobles of the waning [[human]] empire of [[Bael Turath]] made diabolic pacts with Asmodeus for the survival of their empire, transforming them all irrevocably into the first tieflings. Even though Bael Turath fell in a mutual-kill with the empire of [[Arkhosia]], scattering tieflings and [[dragonborn]] alike across the world and breeding a strong distaste for their former master in many tieflings, the heirs to Bael Turath are still stereotyped as Asmodeans by default in the present.

As for the Asmodeus of the [[Forgotten Realms]]...

Basically, this version profited hugely from the [[Spellplague]], seizing advantage of the death of [[Mystra]] to murder & consume one of her divine underlings, [[Azuth]]. This not only propelled him to godhood, but allowed him to tap into the [[Spellplague]] just long enough to reshape the very structure of the planes themselves, forcing the [[World Tree]] into the [[World Axis]] and decisively ending the distraction of the [[Blood War]]. At least, he ''claims'' reshaping the multiverse was his doing; he may just be lying. The lord of all devils does that, you know.

Also, he supposedly used his new power to "claim" all of the tieflings in the Realms, mutating them into their 4e canon forms as a side-effect of marking them.

===[[Pathfinder]]===
{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Asmodeus (Pathfinder)
|Symbol = [[File:Asmodeus symbol.jpg|200px]]<center>Red Pentagram</center>
|Aliases = The Archfiend, Dark Prince, The First, God-Fiend, King of Hell, Lord of Darkness, Lord of Hell, Lord of the Pit, Master of Witches, Prince of Darkness, Prince of Devils, Prince of Hell, Prince of Law, Ruler of Hell
|Alignment = Lawful Evil
|Divine Rank = God
|Portfolio = Tyranny, Slavery, Pride, Contracts
|Domains = Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery, Arcane, Ash, Deception, Devil, Divine, Legislation, Smoke
|Home Plane = The Catafalque, Nessus, Hell
|Worshippers = Slavers, bureaucrats, tyrants
|Servitors = Basileus, Hesperians
|Favoured Weapon = Mace
}}
Like in 4e, Asmodeus is a God, though rather than a Devil who worked his way up, he was either a God from the start, or one of the oldest ascended [[Outsiders]], and is one of the biggest players among the Gods. The [[Book of the Damned]] claims him to be one of a pair of primordial first gods with his brother [[Ihys]], until the two had a falling out on the matter of law vs chaos, gathered allies among younger beings, and in the first act of deific treachery, Ihys was slain by Asmodeus. He then gathered his celestial followers and marched them to Hell, a far more empty place back then, and took it over, sculpting one of his [[Archdevils]], [[Mephistopheles]], out of the plane itself in his image. The 'primordial first gods' story could be BS, other accounts paint him as an ascended Celestial, but he's old enough regardless that only the later conflict and Hell parts can be confirmed by the other Gods.

As the god of tyranny, hierarchy, and order, he places law as paramount and is surprisingly easy to deal with for an evil, at least if you yourself are a god. Even the younger and more hot-head good gods have consulted him on occasion. Most famously, when [[Rovagug]] the Rough Beast went to war with all the other gods, the [[Empyreal]] Lord [[Sarenrae]] forced it into a prison in the center of [[Golarion]] and Asmodeus provided the key, locking it away hopefully forever, but making his position to the Gods indispensable. Aside from typical evil nuts, his worshipers include lawyers and other legal professionals.

Asmodeus believes the entire multiverse will move past this whole 'free will' thing and fall under his tyranny eventually, but as such an ancient being he is willing to be supremely patient about it, make deals with everyone, and wait for the inevitable.

He's sexist, but primarily regarding outsiders as what a damned mortal soul looked like in life has no effect on what devil it can become. Unlike outsiders such as [[Angel]]s, who have male and female individuals of the same type, male and female devils are effectively separate species, or at least life phases. [[Erinyes]], the most common female devil, are factually one of the weaker types of devils.

<gallery>
Asmodeus ISG 2.png
Asmodeus ISG 1.jpg
Asmodeus priest ISG.png|A worshipper of Asmodeus
Asmodeus temple ISG.png|A temple of Asmodeus
</gallery>

===[[5e]]===
In Fifth Edition, things are hazy. The forced re-organization of the Planes back into the old Great Wheel means that the Blood War restarted without Asmodeus wanting it to, but he's technically still a true God. Azuth, the god he ate, is now back as well, and Azzy is now weaker for it. In addition, he has now been noted to have in fact been controlling the cults of several other Archdevils all along, including his lesser rival and Fallen Angel, Mephistopheles. His raw power has diminished, but he has a new plot, one which is actually working. He has started to open legit churches in [[Forgotten Realms|Toril]], and possibly other worlds. By explaining in clear detail to sinners that they will be tortured for all eternity if they're captured by any form of fiend (including Mezzoloths or worse, Tana'ri) or if they go to the Hells without some form of leg up, they just tell the sinners outright that worshiping Asmodeus will let them start partway up the fiendish hierarchy in Petitioner form... which is ''absolutely true''. That annoys the Good churches to no end because it's enough to get some desperate old sinners to throw their lot in with Asmodeus right away. To others who aren't ready to sell themselves to him, the churches instead offer services to people who want to conceal things, apologize for their lesser crimes but can't do it elsewhere, or otherwise cover up sins, which may actually absolve those sinners under some circumstances... or just give them a sense that they can escape all their problems through prayer, and thus encourage them to misbehave more. Asmodeus has actually been able to get several Waterdhavian nobles to buy his Holy Symbols and '''wear them around,''' which even fiends which became Gods before he did like Orcus never managed.

That said, he's still nowhere near as strong as he was when Mystra was dead and Azuth was in his belly, and the fact that he now has to defend against attacks from every direction thanks to the planar shifts (from Carceri not so much, but from the Abyss, you bet) means he's far less free to act covertly, even if his open worship is drawing in souls at a shocking rate. For now, he's collecting cards to his hand, and only time or a new edition will tell what he does next.

In ''The Trial of Asmodeus'' (a bit of "Paradise Lost"-esque fluff), angels put out a warrant for Azzy's arrest and he's offended. So, he writes up a contract that says "you're lawful good, I'm lawful evil, let's take it up with a being of [[Lawful Stupid|Pure Law]], Primus, leader of the [[modron|modrons]]," and the angels (after reading the fine print) sign the contract. When they went before Primus, Asmodeus defended himself with four points:

1. He and his devils and swayed mortals towards evil, yes, but they never violated a contract and it was always a clear deal. No fine print here.

2. The souls collected go on to serve to beat back the demonic legions of the Abyss in the [[Blood War]].

3. Asmodeus was following the laws of the Nine Hells in collecting souls.

4. Mortals who refused a devil's offer were left alone.

Primus then heard the angels' testimony. Weeks went by and Primus's patience wore thin (yes, the incarnation of [[Lawful Stupid]]'s patience wore thin) and he said only a few more angels would be allowed to speak. The angels fought over who would be allowed to speak; [[Just as Planned|Asmodeus smiled]].

Primus failed to deliver a definitive verdict, but he did give Asmodeus the ''Ruby Rod''. The ''Ruby Rod'' guarantees Azzy's adherence to the law, grants his devils the ability to make deals for souls, and punishes any devil who breaks a deal.

=Followers=
Yeah, anyone lawful evil basically. There are a few who worship other beings, but most of them go to this guy. He's ''very'' convincing. They're all gonna go to Hell. And while he might promise you something nice once you get there, read the fine print. It ain't worth it.

{{D&D-Greyhawk-Deities}}
{{D&D5e-FR-Deities}}
{{D&D4e-Deities}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}
{{Pathfinder-Deities}}
{{D&D-Archdevils}}

Asmodeus

2021-06-15T05:36:18Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* 2e */

[[File:Asmodeus.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Asmodeus, the King of Hell. Note the firebred [[hellhound]] and, yes, the Ruby Rod.]]
{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Asmodeus
|Symbol = [[File:Asmodeus symbol transparent.png|200px]]
|Alignment = Lawful Evil
|Divine Rank = Debatable (see below)
|Pantheon = Openly [[Archdevil]]s; Ancient Brethren secretly
|Portfolio = Being Satan
|Domains = '''4E:''' Knowledge, Torment, Tyranny '''5E:''' Knowledge, Order, Trickery '''PF:''' Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery
|Home Plane = The Nine Hells of [[Baator]] (currently imprisoned), the primordial soup of creation (former)
|Worshippers = Slavers, tyrants, bureaucrats, Satanists
|Favoured Weapon = Mace (shaped after his Ruby Rod)
}}
'''Asmodeus''' is THE evil god AND an [[Archdevil]] in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. He is the absolute ruler of [[Baator|the Nine Hells]], stationed squarely in its infernal core of Nessus. His daughter [[Glasya]] is one of the commanders in charge of a "lower" level.

=Fluff=
Asmodeus was introduced in [[AD&D]] 1st edition. In the [[Monster Manual]], no less! His domain was detailed in ''Dragon'' magazine. It's mostly stayed the same since.

Asmodeus was part of the Creation War. After defeating the Primordials, the evil gods set out to kill each other over who would take over the Universe while the good and neutral ones tried to stop them. Asmodeus was able to get a large number of angels to side with him and led a rebellion against the heavens. He was struck down and landed on Baator, which originally had ''seven'' Hells but he made two more just for shits and giggles. There he set up his kingdom of hate.

Asmodeus takes on the form of a boring, run-of-the-mill Halloween devil. Oh, except for being 13 feet tall. He has impossibly high charisma and can only really be damaged with Holy items. Typically, he's a patient schemer who can wait epochs for his plans to resolve, but during the rare times he doesn't use stars forming and dying to time himself, he uses guile rather than force... usually. His Ruby Rod has a lot of at-will spells that he can use, and he can alter lesser beings. ...Yes. It's called the Ruby Rod. The Ruby Rod of Asmodeus. It's been around since forever, and, yes, it looks exactly how you think it looks. Some of his followers even carry similar Ruby Rods, but they are far inferior in length, girth, and potency to his.

''This has been an obvious dick joke. We now return you to your original article already in progress.''

===2e===
The book Guide to Hell gave us a completely new view of Asmodeus. At the dawn of creation, beings of Law began to rise up from the primordial soup. The mightiest of these were Ahriman and [[Jazirian]]. Jazirian was a feathered and winged serpent, while Ahriman was scaled and forked of tongue. They bit down onto each other's tails and together began to create Law in the chaos. The first thing that they created was the Unity of Rings: everything keeps happening over and over again. This place, the first ring, became known as the [[Outlands]]. When it was defined the other planes fell in around it, thus creating the [[Planescape|Outer Planes]].

Next up after this was to honor their three aspects: Law, Good and Evil. From this came the Rule of Three, stressing the importance of the number three in all things. Finally there needed to be a third rule: the Center of the Universe. This is where it started to go wrong: while the Outlands would have been the obvious choice, Jazirian pushed for [[Celestia|heaven]], while Ahriman pushed for [[Baator|hell]]. The two began to pull and struggle at and with one another, until they eventually [[rip and tear|tore each other apart]]. Jazirian flew up to the heavens: each drop of blood she spilled from her severed tail tip turned into a fully-formed [[couatl]]. The wingless Ahriman though began to fall: he in fact fell so hard that upon hitting the seventh layer of hell, he fell ''through'' and in his crash created two new layers. Where his blood hit the ground, Pit Fiends sprung up. Ahriman got stuck in his pit, unable to leave.

[[File:Jazirian_and_Ahriman.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Jazirian and Ahriman, busy creating the three rules of the multiverse.]]
In their struggle the two serpents had lost much of their power, and began to nurse themselves back to health. In this time, the other gods overtook them, banded together and began to colonize the [[plane]]s. So, Ahriman began to hatch a new plot. He took the guise of Asmodeus, a near-power just short of being a god: the arch-devil and the lord of evil. But he is more than that: more potent than even the gods and not dependent on the adoration of mortals. He is trying to get into power by ways of three plans: the [[Blood War]], the Politics of Nobility, and Armageddon.

Asmodeus fakes that the Blood War is of great importance to him: he sees it as little more than a series of skirmishes that turned into a full-blown war. But by staying at war with the [[Tanar'ri]] he makes the upper powers think that if one of them were to win, they would flood out to the rest of the planes and create a massive war that would end all life. Thus, they continue to let the fiends fight amongst themselves. The second plan, the Politics of Nobility is more or less the same thing but internal: by keeping the devils occupied with struggling with one another they won't have the resources to fight Asmodeus and his plots.

The third one is a far more sinister plot. Those who die without believing in anything. Since only the believers can go to an afterlife, those who do not believe are instead send elsewhere, namely Nessus. But instead of becoming petitioners here and starting out as [[Baatezu|Lemures]], they become chow for Asmodeus. The process of being eaten by a primordial serpent takes centuries, [[grimdark|during which the petitioners remain fully aware as they are devoured, feeling nothing but excruciating pain for centuries.]] Being destroyed in such a way completley undoes the soul in question and cannot be brought back in any way. Every soul devoured this way heals Ahriman's wounds a bit more, and when he has fully healed Ahriman will break free of his prison and cast the multiverse back into the primordial chaos it came from. Nobody, not even Jazirian would be able to stop him, and he would remake the universe to his liking. And this is a Bad Thing. The lore of asmodeus eating the souls of atheists has not really been continued out of this book as athiests just go to the afterlife that matches their alignment or the wall of the faithless in the forgotten realms.

===[[3.5e]]===
In 3.5 Asmodeus got a new backstory and became a magnificent bastard of massive proportions. In the beginning there were only the [[Obyrith]]s and their spawn the [[Tanar'ri]], but the newborn universe didn't like this and so spat out good-aligned beings of Order™ to fight them. Asmodeus was one of these, and decided that to truly defeat the demons, they would have to know them, and that in order to do that, they would have to become like them. Thus he became the first Lawful Evil being (don't ask us how Chaotic Good came to be). In the ancient days the Gods were troubled by mortals because they would do bad things over and over again. Asmodeus, one of the smartest people ever, pointed out it was because there were no repercussions for doing so, and so invented "Punishment" which took the form of a rod with which to strike the guilty. The Gods liked the idea and so Asmodeus and his followers went about punishing mortals that did wrong all over the heavenly realms. Well the Gods of Good that they served got disturbed by this; sure there were results and mortals were being less of a collection of dicks because of it, but they didn't like evil souls being tortured in their herb gardens. Asmodeus had a solution. He wrote up a giant contract that would make him and his followers separate from the Gods, give him his own realm (a little one-layerer called Baator), and he and his followers would get energy from those they punish, leaving the Gods free from having to manage the thing. It was such a good idea that all the Gods signed it. When Asmodeus and his followers arrived at the dirt hovel plane after imprisoning its former ruler [[Zargon]], they thought he had gone mad. Then he explained the rest of his plan.

A few millennia later, the Gods started to notice something was up with the number of souls they were getting. Investigating, they found that Asmodeus had been a productive bastard. 9 layers of hellscape, legions of devils, and innumerable tortured evil souls. Except some of those souls had been bought or corrupted by Asmodeus and his followers.

St. Cuthbert the God of Retribution drew forth his mace and shouted "You fiend! You are only supposed to punish the wicked, not tempt them into acts of evil!" Asmodeus smiled, held out the contract alongside a novelty oversized magnifying glass, and said (verbatim) "Read the fine print."

In this edition we see why Asmodeus re-installed Levistus to his former position as leader of the 5th layer of hell ''without'' freeing him from his iceberg prison and more importantly, not providing the traditional promotion makeover. That being
* Everyone would scratch their heads about Levistus having a high ranking job, you know, with the whole 'killing the leader's true waifu' thing, instead of scratching their heads about a Hag (and not a devil) being the ruler of Malbolge.
* Since Levistus having the gig of leader of 5th layer was just a distraction, he wasn't granted the promotion upgrade. The nine hells have better use for divine energy than that. Also why let a treacherous bastard out of the ice? And of course maintaining the punishments would attract attention to the strange situation that Levistus was in.
Why was the ruler of Malbolge a hag? To have a disposable regent keeping a seat warm for ruling a layer of hell until he thought his daughter would handle the job right.

===[[4e]]===
Talking about Asmodeus in 4e gets complicated, for a very simple reason: there are ''two'' of him in that edition. One is native to the [[Nentir Vale]] setting, the "core" of 4e, who is functionally a brand new individual in terms of lore, and the other is native to the [[Forgotten Realms]], and is supposed to be the same one who's been plaguing the Realms from the very beginning of D&D, resulting in the need to "build on from" his lore from at least 3rd edition.

The Asmodeus of the Nentir Vale was once the most powerful [[archangel]] of a goodly god, but during the [[Dawn War]], he became convinced that his master was holding back the forces of the gods with his "virtuousness" and that harsher, more ruthless behavior was required to win. This may have something to do with his claiming a shard of the Seed of Evil from the [[Abyss]], something that also sparked the [[Blood War]] of the [[World Axis]]. He spread his beliefs amongst his fellow [[angel]]s like a poison, swaying them until they were able to rise up en masse and murder their former master. So thoroughly did Asmodeus obliterate even the memory of his former master that only the fact of his prior existence remains in the world today, resulting in this god being called only "He Who Was". Filled with paranoia that if his old master's name is ever rediscovered, the god could be brought back, Asmodeus stops at nothing to scour for any clues he might have missed.

Did this Asmodeus get what he wanted? Well... yes, and no. It is hinted his taking charge of his old master's troops actually did help boost the gods in their war effort, and he was accepted amongst the gods... right up until they realized his treacherous rat-bastadry and ambition wasn't sated yet, at which point they backed off. Plus, He Who Was cursed Asmodeus and all his followers as he died, transforming [[Baator]] into the current hellhole that it is, warping them into their present devilish forms, and forcibly binding them in Baator as an inescapable prison until Asmodeus figured out a loophole or two.

Incidentally, this is what defines the devils of the Nentir Vale setting; whilst any angel can serve an evil god and still be considered an angel, devils are ''fallen'' angels, marked by a divine curse for their treachery and deicide.

As a god, Nentir Vale Asmodeus has the portfolio of Power, Domination and Tyranny, and his associated [[Cleric Domain]]s in "Divine Power" are Civilization and Tyranny. His three commandments are:
* Seek power over others.
* Repay evil with evil, and exploit the kindness of others.
* Show neither pity nor compassion for those caught underfoot on your rise to power; the weak do not deserve compassion.

Aside from killing He Who Was and creating the devils, and possibly orphaning [[human]]ity - some believe He Who Was used to be humanity's patron god, but then again, others claim that humanity's patron was a different god who was murdered by [[Zehir]] - the most notable influence that Asmodeus has in the [[Nentir Vale]] is being the creator of the [[tiefling]]s. Long story short, the nobles of the waning [[human]] empire of [[Bael Turath]] made diabolic pacts with Asmodeus for the survival of their empire, transforming them all irrevocably into the first tieflings. Even though Bael Turath fell in a mutual-kill with the empire of [[Arkhosia]], scattering tieflings and [[dragonborn]] alike across the world and breeding a strong distaste for their former master in many tieflings, the heirs to Bael Turath are still stereotyped as Asmodeans by default in the present.

As for the Asmodeus of the [[Forgotten Realms]]...

Basically, this version profited hugely from the [[Spellplague]], seizing advantage of the death of [[Mystra]] to murder & consume one of her divine underlings, [[Azuth]]. This not only propelled him to godhood, but allowed him to tap into the [[Spellplague]] just long enough to reshape the very structure of the planes themselves, forcing the [[World Tree]] into the [[World Axis]] and decisively ending the distraction of the [[Blood War]]. At least, he ''claims'' reshaping the multiverse was his doing; he may just be lying. The lord of all devils does that, you know.

Also, he supposedly used his new power to "claim" all of the tieflings in the Realms, mutating them into their 4e canon forms as a side-effect of marking them.

===[[Pathfinder]]===
{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Asmodeus (Pathfinder)
|Symbol = [[File:Asmodeus symbol.jpg|200px]]<center>Red Pentagram</center>
|Aliases = The Archfiend, Dark Prince, The First, God-Fiend, King of Hell, Lord of Darkness, Lord of Hell, Lord of the Pit, Master of Witches, Prince of Darkness, Prince of Devils, Prince of Hell, Prince of Law, Ruler of Hell
|Alignment = Lawful Evil
|Divine Rank = God
|Portfolio = Tyranny, Slavery, Pride, Contracts
|Domains = Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery, Arcane, Ash, Deception, Devil, Divine, Legislation, Smoke
|Home Plane = The Catafalque, Nessus, Hell
|Worshippers = Slavers, bureaucrats, tyrants
|Servitors = Basileus, Hesperians
|Favoured Weapon = Mace
}}
Like in 4e, Asmodeus is a God, though rather than a Devil who worked his way up, he was either a God from the start, or one of the oldest ascended [[Outsiders]], and is one of the biggest players among the Gods. The [[Book of the Damned]] claims him to be one of a pair of primordial first gods with his brother [[Ihys]], until the two had a falling out on the matter of law vs chaos, gathered allies among younger beings, and in the first act of deific treachery, Ihys was slain by Asmodeus. He then gathered his celestial followers and marched them to Hell, a far more empty place back then, and took it over, sculpting one of his [[Archdevils]], [[Mephistopheles]], out of the plane itself in his image. The 'primordial first gods' story could be BS, other accounts paint him as an ascended Celestial, but he's old enough regardless that only the later conflict and Hell parts can be confirmed by the other Gods.

As the god of tyranny, hierarchy, and order, he places law as paramount and is surprisingly easy to deal with for an evil, at least if you yourself are a god. Even the younger and more hot-head good gods have consulted him on occasion. Most famously, when [[Rovagug]] the Rough Beast went to war with all the other gods, the [[Empyreal]] Lord [[Sarenrae]] forced it into a prison in the center of [[Golarion]] and Asmodeus provided the key, locking it away hopefully forever, but making his position to the Gods indispensable. Aside from typical evil nuts, his worshipers include lawyers and other legal professionals.

Asmodeus believes the entire multiverse will move past this whole 'free will' thing and fall under his tyranny eventually, but as such an ancient being he is willing to be supremely patient about it, make deals with everyone, and wait for the inevitable.

He's sexist, but primarily regarding outsiders as what a damned mortal soul looked like in life has no effect on what devil it can become. Unlike outsiders such as [[Angel]]s, who have male and female individuals of the same type, male and female devils are effectively separate species, or at least life phases. [[Erinyes]], the most common female devil, are factually one of the weaker types of devils.

<gallery>
Asmodeus ISG 2.png
Asmodeus ISG 1.jpg
Asmodeus priest ISG.png|A worshipper of Asmodeus
Asmodeus temple ISG.png|A temple of Asmodeus
</gallery>

===[[5e]]===
In Fifth Edition, things are hazy. The forced re-organization of the Planes back into the old Great Wheel means that the Blood War restarted without Asmodeus wanting it to, but he's technically still a true God. Azuth, the god he ate, is now back as well, and Azzy is now weaker for it. In addition, he has now been noted to have in fact been controlling the cults of several other Archdevils all along, including his lesser rival and Fallen Angel, Mephistopheles. His raw power has diminished, but he has a new plot, one which is actually working. He has started to open legit churches in [[Forgotten Realms|Toril]], and possibly other worlds. By explaining in clear detail to sinners that they will be tortured for all eternity if they're captured by any form of fiend (including Mezzoloths or worse, Tana'ri) or if they go to the Hells without some form of leg up, they just tell the sinners outright that worshiping Asmodeus will let them start partway up the fiendish hierarchy in Petitioner form... which is ''absolutely true''. That annoys the Good churches to no end because it's enough to get some desperate old sinners to throw their lot in with Asmodeus right away. To others who aren't ready to sell themselves to him, the churches instead offer services to people who want to conceal things, apologize for their lesser crimes but can't do it elsewhere, or otherwise cover up sins, which may actually absolve those sinners under some circumstances... or just give them a sense that they can escape all their problems through prayer, and thus encourage them to misbehave more. Asmodeus has actually been able to get several Waterdhavian nobles to buy his Holy Symbols and '''wear them around,''' which even fiends which became Gods before he did like Orcus never managed.

That said, he's still nowhere near as strong as he was when Mystra was dead and Azuth was in his belly, and the fact that he now has to defend against attacks from every direction thanks to the planar shifts (from Carceri not so much, but from the Abyss, you bet) means he's far less free to act covertly, even if his open worship is drawing in souls at a shocking rate. For now, he's collecting cards to his hand, and only time or a new edition will tell what he does next.

In ''The Trial of Asmodeus'' (a bit of "Paradise Lost"-esque fluff), angels put out a warrant for Azzy's arrest and he's offended. So, he writes up a contract that says "you're lawful good, I'm lawful evil, let's take it up with a being of [[Lawful Stupid|Pure Law]], Primus, leader of the [[modron|modrons]]," and the angels (after reading the fine print) sign the contract. When they went before Primus, Asmodeus defended himself with four points:

1. He and his devils and swayed mortals towards evil, yes, but they never violated a contract and it was always a clear deal. No fine print here.

2. The souls collected go on to serve to beat back the demonic legions of the Abyss in the [[Blood War]].

3. Asmodeus was following the laws of the Nine Hells in collecting souls.

4. Mortals who refused a devil's offer were left alone.

Primus then heard the angels' testimony. Weeks went by and Primus's patience wore thin (yes, the incarnation of [[Lawful Stupid]]'s patience wore thin) and he said only a few more angels would be allowed to speak. The angels fought over who would be allowed to speak; [[Just as Planned|Asmodeus smiled]].

Primus failed to deliver a definitive verdict, but he did give Asmodeus the ''Ruby Rod''. The ''Ruby Rod'' guarantees Azzy's adherence to the law, grants his devils the ability to make deals for souls, and punishes any devil who breaks a deal.

=Followers=
Yeah, anyone lawful evil basically. There are a few who worship other beings, but most of them go to this guy. He's ''very'' convincing. They're all gonna go to Hell. And while he might promise you something nice once you get there, read the fine print. It ain't worth it.

{{D&D-Greyhawk-Deities}}
{{D&D5e-FR-Deities}}
{{D&D4e-Deities}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}
{{Pathfinder-Deities}}
{{D&D-Archdevils}}

Rubric Terminators

2021-06-15T03:20:40Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Why did they get Rubric'd? */

[[File:99120102066_ThousandSonsTerminators02.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Try and call us a walking dustbin again! Come and just fucking try it!]]

Rubric Terminators. Rubric. [[Terminator]]s. Have you read the Horus Heresy novels, noticed that the [[Thousand Sons]] have these sweet ass, psychic, foreshadowingly stoic Scarab Occult Terminators, and you ever wonder what happened to them? Apparently, the Thousand Sons still had them all this time, but [[Magnus]] had stuck them into the bottom of the pantry to save them for a rainy day. War Zone Fenris was that rainy day.

While the anti-Rubric Marines group are probably groaning at the moment, they're actually pretty good. You'd probably expect the 2+/4++ saves, Fearless, and AP3 combi-bolters, what you weren't expecting was the '''lack''' of Slow and Purposeful, one of Rubric Marines' chief weaknesses just gone and resulting in the odd scenario of Tactical Dreadnought armoured Marines being faster than regular Power Armoured Marines. You probably weren't expecting the Aspiring Sorcerer to keep the good stuff and be upgraded to ML2 (which means the option to roll a power on a second psychic discipline), and ''2 wounds''. They also have weapons options for a shorter-ranged [[Hellfyre Missile Rack]] that shoots kraks, and AP3 [[Heavy Warpflamer]], or that odd [[Soulreaper Cannon]] mentioned above.

However, they still share in the Rubric Marines other traditional weaknesses. No combi-weapons and no AP2 power weapons means that they're still anti-MEQ specialists with limited options for countering cover, TEQs, and walkers. And with a minimum of 5 guys, the're still not a cheap option. The lack of options to negate cover saves is a particular issue as the targets you'd want to use them against the most; MEQs and Necrons, are almost certainly going to have cover saves (and inferno bolts do nothing about RP rolls or the FNP of Slaaneshi, Nurglite, Iron Warriors, and Iron Hands marines or the added toughness of Nurglites) and they are very pricey for the rather mediocre firepower per model they bring to the table. The AP3 heavy warpflamer is nice for roasting cover camping marines but it will require deep striking them to point blank range to get the most use out of and you still have to pay for the other terminators. However with two wounds they're pretty good at soaking up large volumes of fire thanks to their [[Power armour#Scarab Occult Pattern Terminator Armour|Rubric Terminator Armour]]; requiring an average of 38-39 lasgun shots to kill and with their invulnerable saves and their two wounds they can tank plasma fire decently well; requiring roughly eight shots from guardsmen to kill and if you can get Endurance on them from some source they can be amazingly resilient to the point of nigh invulnerability. In conclusion their firepower is overall quite mediocre but their durability is top class among TEQs; though against the likes of meltaguns and lascannons they aren't anymore resilient than any other T4 model with a 4++ save.

For some reason even though the Forge World 30k line shows them in Cataphractii, in 40k they're in Tartaros.

====Why did they get Rubric'd?====
You may have noticed the Scarab Occult was originally composed of the legion's best and most disciplined psykers. So, if Ahriman's Rubric transformed astartes who had little to no psychic abilities into dusty power armors, why did most of the Scarab Occult also get the Rubric treatment?

Because the Rubric affected everyone but the most ''powerful'' psykers. Meaning that only a few of these guys managed to power through it, while the rest turned to dust because they just weren't powerful enough.

That and Tzeentch likes ambition. These guys were automatons in all but name, who loyally served Magnus and...that's it really. Tzeentch no likey.
{{Thousand Sons}}

Rubric Marines

2021-06-15T03:15:29Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Lore */

{{heresy}}[[File:Thousand_Sons_Marine_by_Clint_Langley.JPG|350px|thumb|right|The last thing many unfortunate MEQs ever see.]]
{{Topquote|Immortality is a terrible curse.|Simone de Beauvoir}}

{{Topquote|And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.|T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land}}

'''Rubric Marines''' - the cursed automatons of the [[Thousand Sons]], and one of the two toughest infantry units that are available to the [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitor Legions]], right alongside their [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] rivals, the [[Plague Marines]]. They serve a similar tactical role in that they're absolutely tough as balls, but whereas the Plague Marines, owing to their diseased bulk, can resist large volumes of anti-infantry fire, the Rubric Marines, protected by dark sorcery, will shrug off even the most powerful hits from anti-tank weapons.

They've been known to get pre-5th Edition [[Necron]] players to rage-quit.

==Lore==
The Rubric Marines were once basic Marines in the Thousand Sons. Due to <s>[[Emperor|someone's]] fuck-up</s> [[Tzeentch]][[Tales of Eldrad Ulthuan, the Dick|’s tampering]] with their [[gene-seed]], the legion as a whole suffered horrifying, [[AIDS|increasingly-debilitating mutations]]. For a time [[Magnus]] managed to stop this shit by striking a bargain with Tzeentch (for which he lost his eye BTW), but this worked only until the start of the [[Horus Heresy]]. This generally sucked, since it meant that increasingly, members of the legion were turning into [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]]. [[Tzeentch]], in the Chaos God's proud tradition of not giving a fuck, left the Sons to work out their own solution to the problem, likely so he'd have some entertainment over the weekend.

At some point, trying to help fix this little mutation epidemic, a Sorcerer called [[Ahzek Ahriman]] used the knowledge he took from the Book of Magnus (which he was a bearer of), to find a way of curing his legion. He crafted a way to undo the mutations plaguing the legion, and cast an incredibly powerful spell called the [[FAIL|Rubric of Ahriman]]. The spell was successful in stopping the mutation, but only really amongst the command staff - [[Grimdark|every psyker in the legion who was not powerful enough (virtually all of the Thousand Sons were psykers according to recent fluff) was reduced to dust and trapped as bound spirits within their sealed power armor for eternity]] (or at least until the armor was destroyed). Suffice to say, Magnus was [[rage|really pissed off]] and wanted to blow Ahriman up with mind-bullets, but Tzeentch asked him not to because that ''was'' some pretty epic douchebaggery. So Magnus kicked him out of the Thousand Sons, instead.

What a ''[[Eldrad|dick]]''. Interestingly, in recent fluff it is implicated that Lucius may have altered the Book of Magnus after making Haathor Maat his bitch. He gained his trust by showing him (as he was starting to succumb to the flesh change) how to reverse the mutations simply by pumping them all into worthless mortals so he would not become that which is not to be named. So it may well be that Lucius' dabblings with the Book of Magnus and changing it resulted in the Rubric to fail. For whom or why he did it only he knows. Or he was a temporary agent of Tzeentch at the time (JUST AS PLANNED).

A huge part of Ahriman's initial post-Heresy activities was trying to reverse the effects of the Rubric by, somewhat counter-intuitively, performing the Rubric again but doing it right this time. To this end, he created a new Rubric, and broke through to the Planet of the Sorcerers in order to perform it. Due to a huge amount of [[Just As Planned]] dickery from a number of parties, it didn't work. With the exception of one marine who was returned (sans any personal memory) to a full normal body. Rather than being declarative proof that the Rubric can be reversed, it seemed to be a concession on the part of Tzeentch to give Ahriman a little hope and string him along for more [[troll|giggles]] further down the line.

Since the Rubric of Ahriman, the Thousand Sons have lost many of the Rubiks Cube Marines, but they still manage to keep their numbers at nearly a thousand. Two main theories that they either perform a scaled-down version of the Rubric on other marines, or reanimate fallen ones by pulling their souls out of the Warp and putting them into repaired/new sets of armour (The latter theory has been confirmed by Phil Kelly, but he also mentioned that the Black Legion uses the former version to make their own rubric marines). Or both. Whichever is creepier is up to you to decide. Additionally, the dust containing the essence of the Rubric Marine can be recovered and be put into a new set of armor, effectively resurrecting them. It's ironic, as the fluff states, they were turned from a legion of scholars and book lovers, into mindless, walking power armors that <s>can't even think!</s>. They can think, its just that they've lost all hope and purpose in life. Reduced from scholars to beings who can't even feel, they let the days slip into millennia. Only battle barely reminds them of what it was to be alive, and they fight accordingly. So [[grimdark]].

They're also central to [[Thousand Son and Guardswoman|this tomfoolery]], so props for that.

In the Gathering Storm II, it's revealed [[Yvraine]] can REVERSE the rubric. She does in a bid for Ahriman to save her, so she won't be driven mad by Tzeentch. This has an emotional effect on him, but the sneaky Eldar blows a hole in the webway, and all the un-rubric'ed marines get sucked into the warp. This [[troll]]ing of the poor Ahriman (who goes into nerd rage so hard even [[Khorne]] approves) is so great that [[Cegorach]] decides to lend his support to Ynnead. What a bunch of dicks.

==On The Tabletop==
[[File:99120102063_RubicMarines02.jpg|400px|right|thumb|During the ten millennia, [[Magnus|Rudolph]] had been trying to tinker and unfuck the disaster that was [[Ahriman|Ahriman's Rubric.]] Finally he had succeeded in making them somewhat useful again. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Rubric 2.4, a vast upgrade to previous installation of Rubric 1.1]]
Rubric Marines aren't quite as good at ignoring the sustained fire of 40 Shoota Boyz as their counterparts, the Plague Marines are, but unlike them they can ignore a direct Battle Cannon shot, since Rubrics possess a phenomenally-dickish 4++ invulnerable save. Even better, Rubric Marines pack Inferno Bolts, which means their [[Inferno Bolter]]s are AP2. Suffice to say, they can carve through a squad of [[MEQ]] effortlessly, and, prior to their massive Tomb Kings in Space update, fielding one squad of intelligently-managed Rubric Marines essentially guaranteed victory against a typical [[Necron]] player (or current-gen [[Tyranid]] player; [[Skub|thanks a fucking ''bunch'']], [[Robin Cruddace|Cruddace]]). They're also led by a Sorcerer, who gives them access to one psy power (typically something like Bolt of Change, so the squad can pop transports). The Sorcerer's [[Inferno Bolt Pistol]] also has Inferno Bolts.

Rubrics are cursed with Slow and Purposeful, and unlike the other aligned Chaos Marines, do not have close combat weapons or bolt pistols. At a glance, this makes them a very easy-to-target melee weak-spot, but in practice, this isn't quite true; they still have their beefy-as-shit 3+/4++ saves, and the Sorcerer's Force Weapon means that no MC worth their shit will get anywhere near them. What they ''are'' vulnerable to is being [[Tarpit]]ted, due to their relatively lackluster number of attacks and immense focus on shooting to take advantage of their juicy AP 3 Bolter shots. Note that while they lack grenades and thus hit last if they (counter)charge into cover, they still have a marine statline for close-combat and a 4+ invuln save besides, so seeing these guys win a fight with a squad of Banshees isn't as absurd as you might think.

They also don't have grenades, so charging through a cover or blowing tanks with krak-grenades might be a problem, and even more so if they got caught in melee with AV11+ walker, since they're fearless and cannot choose to run away.

Rubrics benefit heavily from having a [[Rhino Transport]]. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified [[50 Copper and Ludi'drizz't|Tzeentchian drive-by shooting]], before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch.

=== Mainstream opinion ===
Sweet [[Emperor|Jesus]], the edition update from 5th to 6th and 7th was ''not'' kind to these guys.

While Rubrics were always a finicky option, one that had to be balanced carefully to be used to maximum effect, 6th and 7th wound up indirectly killing their potential on the battlefield by giving them way more competitive options and relegating them to a much more limited tactical control. Their AP3 Bolters and 3+/4++ saves, while once rather impressive, no longer have anywhere near the threat level they used to have, and with other armies getting major edition updates, the Rubrics were facing an uphill fight - especially since changes to the rules made Feel No Pain considerably stronger (ergo pushing [[Nurgle|Plague Marines]] even further ahead of their old Tzeentchian rivals. The changes to Sorcerer rules and Force weapons were even worse - taking a unit that was legitimately a threat to one that struggles hard for a place in a meta with dozens of options. Even within chaos a player could grab a baseline squad with two plasma guns and have better numbers (though none of the backup save) as part of the bargain!

But the cruelest cut - came with 6th edition's addition of the ability to go to ground. This meant absolutely any unit could gain a cover save, basically anywhere, and cover is one of the few things that, Psy Powers aside, the unit just has no ability to deal with, and since the Sorcerer was usually angling for Bolt of Change to kill transports, that's a pretty glaring vulnerability for a unit with a very specific tactical role.

Worse, errata made it so Sorcerers had to take powers randomly with rolls as opposed to choosing them, which seriously cut down on the strategic elements of using this unit, since you no longer had the utility of that lone bit of choice giving you the option to use the squad more tactically based on said choice. Their weapons were also given Soul Blaze, a sub-par ability that really struggled in earlier editions, further weakening their role on the battlefield.

So no more instant kills from the force weapon, mediocre-at-best weapon ability in sorcerer, can't choose psy powers anymore and has to randomize, squad still same drawbacks, in a world that gives everyone cover saves and pushes vehicles harder than ever before. They were also [[Finecast]], because ''fuck you.''

This combination of factors took what was previously a fairly effective unit against MEQs, holding terrain, and terrorizing medium infantry - and completely demolished its tactical role, turning it into an inefficient unit that struggled for any relevance against a backdrop of other chaos units doing the same thing better. With factions that were previously terrified of this unit no longer really having to even worry about it, Rubrics fell into a steep decline, and within a year and a half of the edition update, even players who lived and breathed Thousand Sons stopped using them, and the unit essentially tapered off, unused by even its most ardent fans.

===So Then "Wrath Of Magnus" Came Along...===
Rubric Marines got a rules update along with the general Tzeentchian overhaul in the new Chaos supplement that was part of the War Zone Fenris pack. While not too much has changed about the roles and rules for the Sons, they are a somewhat better unit than before. Rubric Marines now have weapons options, which is a refreshing change. They have access to AP4 flamers with Soul Blaze (and contrary to popular opinion, Soul Blaze isn't bad, it's just not great), so they have something to counter cover but at the cost of range (and still no Overwatch). They also have access to a S5 AP3 Assault Cannon, which is actually pretty cool. Also the new Discipline of Tzeentch makes the Sorcerer less likely to be unuseful, although the new discipline can be prone to random rolls and [[Chaos Daemons|'''FUN''']]. Where they really shine is their their new formations, which gives bonuses to manifesting and casting powers or rerolling saves. On top of all that, they have slick new models.

This all rounds out to a unit that's okay-ish, on paper. Rubric Marines are still an expensive unit that fills out a considerably specific role in the army, and while they've been given a degree of flexibility, they still more or less have the same strengths and weaknesses. The key to using them is still managing them intelligently (even knowing when to leave them at home), keeping them to their strong points, and synergizing them with the rest of the army.

=== 8th Edition===
Once unusable, these guys have become pretty good (but overcosted). They have their usual loadout of [[Inferno Bolter|Inferno Boltguns]], which they can replace with [[Warpflamer]]s for maximum hurt in overwatch, and the Aspiring Sorcerer can take any force weapon and a [[Warpflame Pistol]] to help them if they get in melee. For every 10 models, one Rubric can take a [[Soulreaper Cannon]] or a [[Heavy Warpflamer]]. The Sorcerer now knows one power from the Change Discipline and Smite, which does 1 or d3 mortal wounds rather than the normal d3/d6. However, the best part is their "All is Dust" rule, which gives them +1 to saves (including invulnerable saves) if the attack does 1 damage, giving them a 2+ save against small arms fire. Thousand Sons and Grey Knights are the only armies who can still spam smite, but you should be very careful doing it with regular Rubric squads because if you peril their sorcerer may explode, killing himself and taking along with some unlucky mooks from any nearby units, friend or foe so you might start a chain reaction (as well as preventing the squad from casting any more powers if they survive).
{{Thousand Sons}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}

Rubric Marines

2021-06-15T03:14:34Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Lore */

{{heresy}}[[File:Thousand_Sons_Marine_by_Clint_Langley.JPG|350px|thumb|right|The last thing many unfortunate MEQs ever see.]]
{{Topquote|Immortality is a terrible curse.|Simone de Beauvoir}}

{{Topquote|And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.|T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land}}

'''Rubric Marines''' - the cursed automatons of the [[Thousand Sons]], and one of the two toughest infantry units that are available to the [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitor Legions]], right alongside their [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] rivals, the [[Plague Marines]]. They serve a similar tactical role in that they're absolutely tough as balls, but whereas the Plague Marines, owing to their diseased bulk, can resist large volumes of anti-infantry fire, the Rubric Marines, protected by dark sorcery, will shrug off even the most powerful hits from anti-tank weapons.

They've been known to get pre-5th Edition [[Necron]] players to rage-quit.

==Lore==
The Rubric Marines were once basic Marines in the Thousand Sons. Due to <s>[[Emperor|someone's]] fuck-up</s> [[Tzeentch]][[Tales of Eldrad Ulthuan, the Dick|’s tampering]] with their [[gene-seed]], the legion as a whole suffered horrifying, [[AIDS|increasingly-debilitating mutations]]. For a time [[Magnus]] managed to stop this shit by striking a bargain with Tzeentch (for which he lost his eye BTW), but this worked only until the start of the [[Horus Heresy]]. This generally sucked, since it meant that increasingly, members of the legion were turning into [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]]. [[Tzeentch]], in the Chaos God's proud tradition of not giving a fuck, left the Sons to work out their own solution to the problem, likely so he'd have some entertainment over the weekend.

At some point, trying to help fix this little mutation epidemic, a Sorcerer called [[Ahzek Ahriman]] used the knowledge he took from the Book of Magnus (which he was a bearer of), to find a way of curing his legion. He crafted a way to undo the mutations plaguing the legion, and cast an incredibly powerful spell called the [[FAIL|Rubric of Ahriman]]. The spell was successful in stopping the mutation, but only really amongst the command staff - [[Grimdark|every psyker in the legion who was not powerful enough (virtually all of the Thousand Sons were psykers according to recent fluff) was reduced to dust and trapped as bound spirits within their sealed power armor for eternity]] (or at least until the armor was destroyed). Suffice to say, Magnus was [[rage|really pissed off]] and wanted to blow Ahriman up with mind-bullets, but Tzeentch asked him not to because that ''was'' some pretty epic douchebaggery. So Magnus kicked him out of the Thousand Sons, instead.

What a ''[[Eldrad|dick]]''. Interestingly, in recent fluff it is implicated that Lucius may have altered the Book of Magnus after making Haathor Maat his bitch. He gained his trust by showing him (as he was starting to succumb to the flesh change) how to reverse the mutations simply by pumping them all into worthless mortals so he would not become that which is not to be named. So it may well be that Lucius' dabblings with the Book of Magnus and changing it resulted in the Rubric to fail. For whom or why he did it only he knows. Or he was a temporary agent of Tzeentch at the time (JUST AS PLANNED).

A huge part of Ahriman's initial post-Heresy activities was trying to reverse the effects of the Rubric by, somewhat counter-intuitively, performing the Rubric again but doing it right this time. To this end, he created a new Rubric, and broke through to the Planet of the Sorcerers in order to perform it. Due to a huge amount of [[Just As Planned]] dickery from a number of parties, it didn't work. With the exception of one marine who was returned (sans any personal memory) to a full normal body. Rather than being declarative proof that the Rubric can be reversed, it seemed to be a concession on the part of Tzeentch to give Ahriman a little hope and string him along for more [[troll|giggles]] further down the line.

Since the Rubric of Ahriman, the Thousand Sons have lost many of the Rubiks Cube Marines, but they still manage to keep their numbers at nearly a thousand. Two main theories that they either perform the scaled-down version of Rubric on other marines, or reanimate fallen ones by pulling their souls out of Warp and putting them into repaired/new sets of armour (The latter theory has been confirmed by Phil Kelly, but he also mentioned that the Black Legion uses the former version to make their own rubric marines). Or both. Whichever is creepier is up to you to decide. Additionally, the dust containing the essence of the Rubric Marine can be recovered and be put into a new set of armor, effectively resurrecting them. It's ironic, as the fluff states, they were turned from a legion of scholars and book lovers, into mindless, walking power armors that <s>can't even think!</s>. They can think, its just that they've lost all hope and purpose in life. Reduced from scholars to beings who can't even feel, they let the days slip into millennia. Only battle barely reminds them of what it was to be alive, and they fight accordingly. So [[grimdark]].

They're also central to [[Thousand Son and Guardswoman|this tomfoolery]], so props for that.

In the Gathering Storm II, it's revealed [[Yvraine]] can REVERSE the rubric. She does in a bid for Ahriman to save her, so she won't be driven mad by Tzeentch. This has an emotional effect on him, but the sneaky Eldar blows a hole in the webway, and all the un-rubric'ed marines get sucked into the warp. This [[troll]]ing of the poor Ahriman (who goes into nerd rage so hard even [[Khorne]] approves) is so great that [[Cegorach]] decides to lend his support to Ynnead. What a bunch of dicks.

==On The Tabletop==
[[File:99120102063_RubicMarines02.jpg|400px|right|thumb|During the ten millennia, [[Magnus|Rudolph]] had been trying to tinker and unfuck the disaster that was [[Ahriman|Ahriman's Rubric.]] Finally he had succeeded in making them somewhat useful again. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Rubric 2.4, a vast upgrade to previous installation of Rubric 1.1]]
Rubric Marines aren't quite as good at ignoring the sustained fire of 40 Shoota Boyz as their counterparts, the Plague Marines are, but unlike them they can ignore a direct Battle Cannon shot, since Rubrics possess a phenomenally-dickish 4++ invulnerable save. Even better, Rubric Marines pack Inferno Bolts, which means their [[Inferno Bolter]]s are AP2. Suffice to say, they can carve through a squad of [[MEQ]] effortlessly, and, prior to their massive Tomb Kings in Space update, fielding one squad of intelligently-managed Rubric Marines essentially guaranteed victory against a typical [[Necron]] player (or current-gen [[Tyranid]] player; [[Skub|thanks a fucking ''bunch'']], [[Robin Cruddace|Cruddace]]). They're also led by a Sorcerer, who gives them access to one psy power (typically something like Bolt of Change, so the squad can pop transports). The Sorcerer's [[Inferno Bolt Pistol]] also has Inferno Bolts.

Rubrics are cursed with Slow and Purposeful, and unlike the other aligned Chaos Marines, do not have close combat weapons or bolt pistols. At a glance, this makes them a very easy-to-target melee weak-spot, but in practice, this isn't quite true; they still have their beefy-as-shit 3+/4++ saves, and the Sorcerer's Force Weapon means that no MC worth their shit will get anywhere near them. What they ''are'' vulnerable to is being [[Tarpit]]ted, due to their relatively lackluster number of attacks and immense focus on shooting to take advantage of their juicy AP 3 Bolter shots. Note that while they lack grenades and thus hit last if they (counter)charge into cover, they still have a marine statline for close-combat and a 4+ invuln save besides, so seeing these guys win a fight with a squad of Banshees isn't as absurd as you might think.

They also don't have grenades, so charging through a cover or blowing tanks with krak-grenades might be a problem, and even more so if they got caught in melee with AV11+ walker, since they're fearless and cannot choose to run away.

Rubrics benefit heavily from having a [[Rhino Transport]]. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified [[50 Copper and Ludi'drizz't|Tzeentchian drive-by shooting]], before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch.

=== Mainstream opinion ===
Sweet [[Emperor|Jesus]], the edition update from 5th to 6th and 7th was ''not'' kind to these guys.

While Rubrics were always a finicky option, one that had to be balanced carefully to be used to maximum effect, 6th and 7th wound up indirectly killing their potential on the battlefield by giving them way more competitive options and relegating them to a much more limited tactical control. Their AP3 Bolters and 3+/4++ saves, while once rather impressive, no longer have anywhere near the threat level they used to have, and with other armies getting major edition updates, the Rubrics were facing an uphill fight - especially since changes to the rules made Feel No Pain considerably stronger (ergo pushing [[Nurgle|Plague Marines]] even further ahead of their old Tzeentchian rivals. The changes to Sorcerer rules and Force weapons were even worse - taking a unit that was legitimately a threat to one that struggles hard for a place in a meta with dozens of options. Even within chaos a player could grab a baseline squad with two plasma guns and have better numbers (though none of the backup save) as part of the bargain!

But the cruelest cut - came with 6th edition's addition of the ability to go to ground. This meant absolutely any unit could gain a cover save, basically anywhere, and cover is one of the few things that, Psy Powers aside, the unit just has no ability to deal with, and since the Sorcerer was usually angling for Bolt of Change to kill transports, that's a pretty glaring vulnerability for a unit with a very specific tactical role.

Worse, errata made it so Sorcerers had to take powers randomly with rolls as opposed to choosing them, which seriously cut down on the strategic elements of using this unit, since you no longer had the utility of that lone bit of choice giving you the option to use the squad more tactically based on said choice. Their weapons were also given Soul Blaze, a sub-par ability that really struggled in earlier editions, further weakening their role on the battlefield.

So no more instant kills from the force weapon, mediocre-at-best weapon ability in sorcerer, can't choose psy powers anymore and has to randomize, squad still same drawbacks, in a world that gives everyone cover saves and pushes vehicles harder than ever before. They were also [[Finecast]], because ''fuck you.''

This combination of factors took what was previously a fairly effective unit against MEQs, holding terrain, and terrorizing medium infantry - and completely demolished its tactical role, turning it into an inefficient unit that struggled for any relevance against a backdrop of other chaos units doing the same thing better. With factions that were previously terrified of this unit no longer really having to even worry about it, Rubrics fell into a steep decline, and within a year and a half of the edition update, even players who lived and breathed Thousand Sons stopped using them, and the unit essentially tapered off, unused by even its most ardent fans.

===So Then "Wrath Of Magnus" Came Along...===
Rubric Marines got a rules update along with the general Tzeentchian overhaul in the new Chaos supplement that was part of the War Zone Fenris pack. While not too much has changed about the roles and rules for the Sons, they are a somewhat better unit than before. Rubric Marines now have weapons options, which is a refreshing change. They have access to AP4 flamers with Soul Blaze (and contrary to popular opinion, Soul Blaze isn't bad, it's just not great), so they have something to counter cover but at the cost of range (and still no Overwatch). They also have access to a S5 AP3 Assault Cannon, which is actually pretty cool. Also the new Discipline of Tzeentch makes the Sorcerer less likely to be unuseful, although the new discipline can be prone to random rolls and [[Chaos Daemons|'''FUN''']]. Where they really shine is their their new formations, which gives bonuses to manifesting and casting powers or rerolling saves. On top of all that, they have slick new models.

This all rounds out to a unit that's okay-ish, on paper. Rubric Marines are still an expensive unit that fills out a considerably specific role in the army, and while they've been given a degree of flexibility, they still more or less have the same strengths and weaknesses. The key to using them is still managing them intelligently (even knowing when to leave them at home), keeping them to their strong points, and synergizing them with the rest of the army.

=== 8th Edition===
Once unusable, these guys have become pretty good (but overcosted). They have their usual loadout of [[Inferno Bolter|Inferno Boltguns]], which they can replace with [[Warpflamer]]s for maximum hurt in overwatch, and the Aspiring Sorcerer can take any force weapon and a [[Warpflame Pistol]] to help them if they get in melee. For every 10 models, one Rubric can take a [[Soulreaper Cannon]] or a [[Heavy Warpflamer]]. The Sorcerer now knows one power from the Change Discipline and Smite, which does 1 or d3 mortal wounds rather than the normal d3/d6. However, the best part is their "All is Dust" rule, which gives them +1 to saves (including invulnerable saves) if the attack does 1 damage, giving them a 2+ save against small arms fire. Thousand Sons and Grey Knights are the only armies who can still spam smite, but you should be very careful doing it with regular Rubric squads because if you peril their sorcerer may explode, killing himself and taking along with some unlucky mooks from any nearby units, friend or foe so you might start a chain reaction (as well as preventing the squad from casting any more powers if they survive).
{{Thousand Sons}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}

Rubric Marines

2021-06-15T03:13:02Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Lore */

{{heresy}}[[File:Thousand_Sons_Marine_by_Clint_Langley.JPG|350px|thumb|right|The last thing many unfortunate MEQs ever see.]]
{{Topquote|Immortality is a terrible curse.|Simone de Beauvoir}}

{{Topquote|And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.|T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land}}

'''Rubric Marines''' - the cursed automatons of the [[Thousand Sons]], and one of the two toughest infantry units that are available to the [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitor Legions]], right alongside their [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] rivals, the [[Plague Marines]]. They serve a similar tactical role in that they're absolutely tough as balls, but whereas the Plague Marines, owing to their diseased bulk, can resist large volumes of anti-infantry fire, the Rubric Marines, protected by dark sorcery, will shrug off even the most powerful hits from anti-tank weapons.

They've been known to get pre-5th Edition [[Necron]] players to rage-quit.

==Lore==
The Rubric Marines were once basic Marines in the Thousand Sons. Due to <s>[[Emperor|someone's]] fuck-up</s> [[Tzeentch]][[Tales of Eldrad Ulthuan, the Dick|’s tampering]] with their [[gene-seed]], the legion as a whole suffered horrifying, [[AIDS|increasingly-debilitating mutations]]. For a time [[Magnus]] managed to stop this shit by striking a bargain with Tzeentch (for which he lost his eye BTW), but this worked only until the start of the [[Horus Heresy]]. This generally sucked, since it meant that increasingly, members of the legion were turning into [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]]. [[Tzeentch]], in the Chaos God's proud tradition of not giving a fuck, left the Sons to work out their own solution to the problem, likely so he'd have some entertainment over the weekend.

At some point, trying to help fix this little mutation epidemic, a Sorcerer called [[Ahzek Ahriman]] used the knowledge he took from the Book of Magnus (which he was a bearer of), to find a way of curing his legion. He crafted a way to undo the mutations plaguing the legion, and cast an incredibly powerful spell called the [[FAIL|Rubric of Ahriman]]. The spell was successful in stopping the mutation, but only really amongst the command staff - [[Grimdark|every psyker in the legion who was not powerful enough (virtually all of the Thousand Sons were psykers according to recent fluff) was reduced to dust and trapped as bound spirits within their sealed power armor for eternity]] (or at least until the armor was destroyed). Suffice to say, Magnus was [[rage|really pissed off]] and wanted to blow Ahriman up with mind-bullets, but Tzeentch asked him not to because that ''was'' some pretty epic douchebaggery. So Magnus kicked him out of the Thousand Sons, instead.

What a ''[[Eldrad|dick]]''. Interestingly, in recent fluff it is implicated that Lucius may have altered the Book of Magnus after making Haathor Maat his bitch. He gained his trust by showing him (as he was starting to succumb to the flesh change) how to reverse the mutations simply by pumping them all into worthless mortals so he would not become that which is not to be named. So it may well be that Lucius' dabblings with the Book of Magnus and changing it resulted in the Rubric to fail. For whom or why he did it only he knows. Or he was a temporary agent of Tzeentch at the time (JUST AS PLANNED)

A huge part of Ahriman's initial post-Heresy activities was trying to reverse the effects of the Rubric by, somewhat counter-intuitively, performing the Rubric again but doing it right this time. To this end, he created a new Rubric, and broke through to the Planet of the Sorcerers in order to perform it. Due to a huge amount of [[Just As Planned]] dickery from a number of parties, it didn't work. With the exception of one marine who was returned (sans any personal memory) to a full normal body. Rather than being declarative proof that the Rubric can be reversed, it seemed to be a concession on the part of Tzeentch to give Ahriman a little hope and string him along for more [[troll|giggles]] further down the line.

Since the Rubric of Ahriman, the Thousand Sons have lost many of the Rubiks Cube Marines, but they still manage to keep their numbers at nearly a thousand. Two main theories that they either perform the scaled-down version of Rubric on other marines, or reanimate fallen ones by pulling their souls out of Warp and putting them into repaired/new sets of armour (The latter theory has been confirmed by Phil Kelly, but he also mentioned that the Black Legion uses the former version to make their own rubric marines). Or both. Whichever is creepier is up to you to decide. Additionally, the dust containing the essence of the Rubric Marine can be recovered and be put into a new set of armor, effectively resurrecting them. It's ironic, as the fluff states, they were turned from a legion of scholars and book lovers, into mindless, walking power armors that <s>can't even think!</s>. They can think, its just that they've lost all hope and purpose in life. Reduced from scholars to beings who can't even feel, they let the days slip into millennia. Only battle barely reminds them of what it was to be alive, and they fight accordingly. So [[grimdark]].

They're also central to [[Thousand Son and Guardswoman|this tomfoolery]], so props for that.

In the Gathering Storm II, it's revealed [[Yvraine]] can REVERSE the rubric. She does in a bid for Ahriman to save her, so she won't be driven mad by Tzeentch. This has an emotional effect on him, but the sneaky Eldar blows a hole in the webway, and all the un-rubric'ed marines get sucked into the warp. This [[troll]]ing of the poor Ahriman (who goes into nerd rage so hard even [[Khorne]] approves) is so great that [[Cegorach]] decides to lend his support to Ynnead. What a bunch of dicks.

==On The Tabletop==
[[File:99120102063_RubicMarines02.jpg|400px|right|thumb|During the ten millennia, [[Magnus|Rudolph]] had been trying to tinker and unfuck the disaster that was [[Ahriman|Ahriman's Rubric.]] Finally he had succeeded in making them somewhat useful again. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Rubric 2.4, a vast upgrade to previous installation of Rubric 1.1]]
Rubric Marines aren't quite as good at ignoring the sustained fire of 40 Shoota Boyz as their counterparts, the Plague Marines are, but unlike them they can ignore a direct Battle Cannon shot, since Rubrics possess a phenomenally-dickish 4++ invulnerable save. Even better, Rubric Marines pack Inferno Bolts, which means their [[Inferno Bolter]]s are AP2. Suffice to say, they can carve through a squad of [[MEQ]] effortlessly, and, prior to their massive Tomb Kings in Space update, fielding one squad of intelligently-managed Rubric Marines essentially guaranteed victory against a typical [[Necron]] player (or current-gen [[Tyranid]] player; [[Skub|thanks a fucking ''bunch'']], [[Robin Cruddace|Cruddace]]). They're also led by a Sorcerer, who gives them access to one psy power (typically something like Bolt of Change, so the squad can pop transports). The Sorcerer's [[Inferno Bolt Pistol]] also has Inferno Bolts.

Rubrics are cursed with Slow and Purposeful, and unlike the other aligned Chaos Marines, do not have close combat weapons or bolt pistols. At a glance, this makes them a very easy-to-target melee weak-spot, but in practice, this isn't quite true; they still have their beefy-as-shit 3+/4++ saves, and the Sorcerer's Force Weapon means that no MC worth their shit will get anywhere near them. What they ''are'' vulnerable to is being [[Tarpit]]ted, due to their relatively lackluster number of attacks and immense focus on shooting to take advantage of their juicy AP 3 Bolter shots. Note that while they lack grenades and thus hit last if they (counter)charge into cover, they still have a marine statline for close-combat and a 4+ invuln save besides, so seeing these guys win a fight with a squad of Banshees isn't as absurd as you might think.

They also don't have grenades, so charging through a cover or blowing tanks with krak-grenades might be a problem, and even more so if they got caught in melee with AV11+ walker, since they're fearless and cannot choose to run away.

Rubrics benefit heavily from having a [[Rhino Transport]]. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified [[50 Copper and Ludi'drizz't|Tzeentchian drive-by shooting]], before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch.

=== Mainstream opinion ===
Sweet [[Emperor|Jesus]], the edition update from 5th to 6th and 7th was ''not'' kind to these guys.

While Rubrics were always a finicky option, one that had to be balanced carefully to be used to maximum effect, 6th and 7th wound up indirectly killing their potential on the battlefield by giving them way more competitive options and relegating them to a much more limited tactical control. Their AP3 Bolters and 3+/4++ saves, while once rather impressive, no longer have anywhere near the threat level they used to have, and with other armies getting major edition updates, the Rubrics were facing an uphill fight - especially since changes to the rules made Feel No Pain considerably stronger (ergo pushing [[Nurgle|Plague Marines]] even further ahead of their old Tzeentchian rivals. The changes to Sorcerer rules and Force weapons were even worse - taking a unit that was legitimately a threat to one that struggles hard for a place in a meta with dozens of options. Even within chaos a player could grab a baseline squad with two plasma guns and have better numbers (though none of the backup save) as part of the bargain!

But the cruelest cut - came with 6th edition's addition of the ability to go to ground. This meant absolutely any unit could gain a cover save, basically anywhere, and cover is one of the few things that, Psy Powers aside, the unit just has no ability to deal with, and since the Sorcerer was usually angling for Bolt of Change to kill transports, that's a pretty glaring vulnerability for a unit with a very specific tactical role.

Worse, errata made it so Sorcerers had to take powers randomly with rolls as opposed to choosing them, which seriously cut down on the strategic elements of using this unit, since you no longer had the utility of that lone bit of choice giving you the option to use the squad more tactically based on said choice. Their weapons were also given Soul Blaze, a sub-par ability that really struggled in earlier editions, further weakening their role on the battlefield.

So no more instant kills from the force weapon, mediocre-at-best weapon ability in sorcerer, can't choose psy powers anymore and has to randomize, squad still same drawbacks, in a world that gives everyone cover saves and pushes vehicles harder than ever before. They were also [[Finecast]], because ''fuck you.''

This combination of factors took what was previously a fairly effective unit against MEQs, holding terrain, and terrorizing medium infantry - and completely demolished its tactical role, turning it into an inefficient unit that struggled for any relevance against a backdrop of other chaos units doing the same thing better. With factions that were previously terrified of this unit no longer really having to even worry about it, Rubrics fell into a steep decline, and within a year and a half of the edition update, even players who lived and breathed Thousand Sons stopped using them, and the unit essentially tapered off, unused by even its most ardent fans.

===So Then "Wrath Of Magnus" Came Along...===
Rubric Marines got a rules update along with the general Tzeentchian overhaul in the new Chaos supplement that was part of the War Zone Fenris pack. While not too much has changed about the roles and rules for the Sons, they are a somewhat better unit than before. Rubric Marines now have weapons options, which is a refreshing change. They have access to AP4 flamers with Soul Blaze (and contrary to popular opinion, Soul Blaze isn't bad, it's just not great), so they have something to counter cover but at the cost of range (and still no Overwatch). They also have access to a S5 AP3 Assault Cannon, which is actually pretty cool. Also the new Discipline of Tzeentch makes the Sorcerer less likely to be unuseful, although the new discipline can be prone to random rolls and [[Chaos Daemons|'''FUN''']]. Where they really shine is their their new formations, which gives bonuses to manifesting and casting powers or rerolling saves. On top of all that, they have slick new models.

This all rounds out to a unit that's okay-ish, on paper. Rubric Marines are still an expensive unit that fills out a considerably specific role in the army, and while they've been given a degree of flexibility, they still more or less have the same strengths and weaknesses. The key to using them is still managing them intelligently (even knowing when to leave them at home), keeping them to their strong points, and synergizing them with the rest of the army.

=== 8th Edition===
Once unusable, these guys have become pretty good (but overcosted). They have their usual loadout of [[Inferno Bolter|Inferno Boltguns]], which they can replace with [[Warpflamer]]s for maximum hurt in overwatch, and the Aspiring Sorcerer can take any force weapon and a [[Warpflame Pistol]] to help them if they get in melee. For every 10 models, one Rubric can take a [[Soulreaper Cannon]] or a [[Heavy Warpflamer]]. The Sorcerer now knows one power from the Change Discipline and Smite, which does 1 or d3 mortal wounds rather than the normal d3/d6. However, the best part is their "All is Dust" rule, which gives them +1 to saves (including invulnerable saves) if the attack does 1 damage, giving them a 2+ save against small arms fire. Thousand Sons and Grey Knights are the only armies who can still spam smite, but you should be very careful doing it with regular Rubric squads because if you peril their sorcerer may explode, killing himself and taking along with some unlucky mooks from any nearby units, friend or foe so you might start a chain reaction (as well as preventing the squad from casting any more powers if they survive).
{{Thousand Sons}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}

Rubric Marines

2021-06-15T03:12:22Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Lore */

{{heresy}}[[File:Thousand_Sons_Marine_by_Clint_Langley.JPG|350px|thumb|right|The last thing many unfortunate MEQs ever see.]]
{{Topquote|Immortality is a terrible curse.|Simone de Beauvoir}}

{{Topquote|And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.|T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land}}

'''Rubric Marines''' - the cursed automatons of the [[Thousand Sons]], and one of the two toughest infantry units that are available to the [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitor Legions]], right alongside their [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] rivals, the [[Plague Marines]]. They serve a similar tactical role in that they're absolutely tough as balls, but whereas the Plague Marines, owing to their diseased bulk, can resist large volumes of anti-infantry fire, the Rubric Marines, protected by dark sorcery, will shrug off even the most powerful hits from anti-tank weapons.

They've been known to get pre-5th Edition [[Necron]] players to rage-quit.

==Lore==
The Rubric Marines were once basic Marines in the Thousand Sons. Due to <s>[[Emperor|someone's]] fuck-up</s> [[Tzeentch]][[Tales of Eldrad Ulthuan, the Dick|’s tampering]] with their [[gene-seed]], the legion as a whole suffered horrifying, [[AIDS|increasingly-debilitating mutations]]. For a time [[Magnus]] managed to stop this shit by striking a bargain with Tzeentch (for which he lost his eye BTW), but this worked only until the start of the [[Horus Heresy]]. This generally sucked, since it meant that increasingly, members of the legion were turning into [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]]. [[Tzeentch]], in the Chaos God's proud tradition of not giving a fuck, left the Sons to work out their own solution to the problem, likely so he'd have some entertainment over the weekend.

At some point, trying to help fix this little mutation epidemic, a Sorcerer called [[Ahzek Ahriman]] used the knowledge he took from the Book of Magnus (which he was a bearer of), to find a way of curing his legion. He crafted a way to undo the mutations plaguing the legion, and cast an incredibly powerful spell called the [[FAIL|Rubric of Ahriman]]. The spell was successful in stopping the mutation, but only really amongst the command staff - [[Grimdark|every psyker in the legion who was not powerful enough (virtually all of the Thousand Sons were psykers according to recent fluff) was reduced to dust and trapped as bound spirits within their sealed power armor for eternity]] (or at least until the armor was destroyed). Suffice to say, Magnus was [[rage|really pissed off]] and wanted to blow Ahriman up with mind-bullets, but Tzeentch asked him not to because that ''was'' some pretty epic douchebaggery. So Magnus kicked him out of the Thousand Sons, instead.

What a ''[[Eldrad|dick]]''. Interestingly, in recent fluff it is implicated that Lucius may have altered the Book of Magnus after making Haathor Maat his bitch. He gained his trust by showing him (as he was starting to succumb to the flesh change) how to reverse the mutations simply by pumping them all into worthless mortals so he would not become that which is not to be named. So it may well be that Lucius' dabblings with the Book of Magnus and changing it resulted in the Rubric to fail. For whom or why he did it only he knows. Or he was a temporary agent of Tzeentch at the time (JUST AS PLANNED)

A huge part of Ahriman's initial post heresy activities was trying to reverse the effects of the Rubric by, somewhat counter-intuitively, performing the Rubric again but doing it right this time. To this end, he created a new Rubric, and broke through to the Planet of the Sorcerers in order to perform it. Due to a huge amount of [[Just As Planned]] dickery from a number of parties, it didn't work. With the exception of one marine who was returned (sans any personal memory) to a full normal body. Rather than being declarative proof that the Rubric can be reversed, it seemed to be a concession on the part of Tzeentch to give Ahriman a little hope and string him along for more [[troll|giggles]] further down the line.

Since the Rubric of Ahriman, the Thousand Sons have lost many of the Rubiks Cube Marines, but they still manage to keep their numbers at nearly a thousand. Two main theories that they either perform the scaled-down version of Rubric on other marines, or reanimate fallen ones by pulling their souls out of Warp and putting them into repaired/new sets of armour (The latter theory has been confirmed by Phil Kelly, but he also mentioned that the Black Legion uses the former version to make their own rubric marines). Or both. Whichever is creepier is up to you to decide. Additionally, the dust containing the essence of the Rubric Marine can be recovered and be put into a new set of armor, effectively resurrecting them. It's ironic, as the fluff states, they were turned from a legion of scholars and book lovers, into mindless, walking power armors that <s>can't even think!</s>. They can think, its just that they've lost all hope and purpose in life. Reduced from scholars to beings who can't even feel, they let the days slip into millennia. Only battle barely reminds them of what it was to be alive, and they fight accordingly. So [[grimdark]].

They're also central to [[Thousand Son and Guardswoman|this tomfoolery]], so props for that.

In the Gathering Storm II, it's revealed [[Yvraine]] can REVERSE the rubric. She does in a bid for Ahriman to save her, so she won't be driven mad by Tzeentch. This has an emotional effect on him, but the sneaky Eldar blows a hole in the webway, and all the un-rubric'ed marines get sucked into the warp. This [[troll]]ing of the poor Ahriman (who goes into nerd rage so hard even [[Khorne]] approves) is so great that [[Cegorach]] decides to lend his support to Ynnead. What a bunch of dicks.

==On The Tabletop==
[[File:99120102063_RubicMarines02.jpg|400px|right|thumb|During the ten millennia, [[Magnus|Rudolph]] had been trying to tinker and unfuck the disaster that was [[Ahriman|Ahriman's Rubric.]] Finally he had succeeded in making them somewhat useful again. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Rubric 2.4, a vast upgrade to previous installation of Rubric 1.1]]
Rubric Marines aren't quite as good at ignoring the sustained fire of 40 Shoota Boyz as their counterparts, the Plague Marines are, but unlike them they can ignore a direct Battle Cannon shot, since Rubrics possess a phenomenally-dickish 4++ invulnerable save. Even better, Rubric Marines pack Inferno Bolts, which means their [[Inferno Bolter]]s are AP2. Suffice to say, they can carve through a squad of [[MEQ]] effortlessly, and, prior to their massive Tomb Kings in Space update, fielding one squad of intelligently-managed Rubric Marines essentially guaranteed victory against a typical [[Necron]] player (or current-gen [[Tyranid]] player; [[Skub|thanks a fucking ''bunch'']], [[Robin Cruddace|Cruddace]]). They're also led by a Sorcerer, who gives them access to one psy power (typically something like Bolt of Change, so the squad can pop transports). The Sorcerer's [[Inferno Bolt Pistol]] also has Inferno Bolts.

Rubrics are cursed with Slow and Purposeful, and unlike the other aligned Chaos Marines, do not have close combat weapons or bolt pistols. At a glance, this makes them a very easy-to-target melee weak-spot, but in practice, this isn't quite true; they still have their beefy-as-shit 3+/4++ saves, and the Sorcerer's Force Weapon means that no MC worth their shit will get anywhere near them. What they ''are'' vulnerable to is being [[Tarpit]]ted, due to their relatively lackluster number of attacks and immense focus on shooting to take advantage of their juicy AP 3 Bolter shots. Note that while they lack grenades and thus hit last if they (counter)charge into cover, they still have a marine statline for close-combat and a 4+ invuln save besides, so seeing these guys win a fight with a squad of Banshees isn't as absurd as you might think.

They also don't have grenades, so charging through a cover or blowing tanks with krak-grenades might be a problem, and even more so if they got caught in melee with AV11+ walker, since they're fearless and cannot choose to run away.

Rubrics benefit heavily from having a [[Rhino Transport]]. Not because they need the survivability (they're tougher than the vehicle they're in, to be frank), but because the mobility they get is such an enormous boon. Take full advantage of their ability to shoot out of their transport, and use it in glorified [[50 Copper and Ludi'drizz't|Tzeentchian drive-by shooting]], before disembarking in rapid fire range and warpfire-blasting a bitch.

=== Mainstream opinion ===
Sweet [[Emperor|Jesus]], the edition update from 5th to 6th and 7th was ''not'' kind to these guys.

While Rubrics were always a finicky option, one that had to be balanced carefully to be used to maximum effect, 6th and 7th wound up indirectly killing their potential on the battlefield by giving them way more competitive options and relegating them to a much more limited tactical control. Their AP3 Bolters and 3+/4++ saves, while once rather impressive, no longer have anywhere near the threat level they used to have, and with other armies getting major edition updates, the Rubrics were facing an uphill fight - especially since changes to the rules made Feel No Pain considerably stronger (ergo pushing [[Nurgle|Plague Marines]] even further ahead of their old Tzeentchian rivals. The changes to Sorcerer rules and Force weapons were even worse - taking a unit that was legitimately a threat to one that struggles hard for a place in a meta with dozens of options. Even within chaos a player could grab a baseline squad with two plasma guns and have better numbers (though none of the backup save) as part of the bargain!

But the cruelest cut - came with 6th edition's addition of the ability to go to ground. This meant absolutely any unit could gain a cover save, basically anywhere, and cover is one of the few things that, Psy Powers aside, the unit just has no ability to deal with, and since the Sorcerer was usually angling for Bolt of Change to kill transports, that's a pretty glaring vulnerability for a unit with a very specific tactical role.

Worse, errata made it so Sorcerers had to take powers randomly with rolls as opposed to choosing them, which seriously cut down on the strategic elements of using this unit, since you no longer had the utility of that lone bit of choice giving you the option to use the squad more tactically based on said choice. Their weapons were also given Soul Blaze, a sub-par ability that really struggled in earlier editions, further weakening their role on the battlefield.

So no more instant kills from the force weapon, mediocre-at-best weapon ability in sorcerer, can't choose psy powers anymore and has to randomize, squad still same drawbacks, in a world that gives everyone cover saves and pushes vehicles harder than ever before. They were also [[Finecast]], because ''fuck you.''

This combination of factors took what was previously a fairly effective unit against MEQs, holding terrain, and terrorizing medium infantry - and completely demolished its tactical role, turning it into an inefficient unit that struggled for any relevance against a backdrop of other chaos units doing the same thing better. With factions that were previously terrified of this unit no longer really having to even worry about it, Rubrics fell into a steep decline, and within a year and a half of the edition update, even players who lived and breathed Thousand Sons stopped using them, and the unit essentially tapered off, unused by even its most ardent fans.

===So Then "Wrath Of Magnus" Came Along...===
Rubric Marines got a rules update along with the general Tzeentchian overhaul in the new Chaos supplement that was part of the War Zone Fenris pack. While not too much has changed about the roles and rules for the Sons, they are a somewhat better unit than before. Rubric Marines now have weapons options, which is a refreshing change. They have access to AP4 flamers with Soul Blaze (and contrary to popular opinion, Soul Blaze isn't bad, it's just not great), so they have something to counter cover but at the cost of range (and still no Overwatch). They also have access to a S5 AP3 Assault Cannon, which is actually pretty cool. Also the new Discipline of Tzeentch makes the Sorcerer less likely to be unuseful, although the new discipline can be prone to random rolls and [[Chaos Daemons|'''FUN''']]. Where they really shine is their their new formations, which gives bonuses to manifesting and casting powers or rerolling saves. On top of all that, they have slick new models.

This all rounds out to a unit that's okay-ish, on paper. Rubric Marines are still an expensive unit that fills out a considerably specific role in the army, and while they've been given a degree of flexibility, they still more or less have the same strengths and weaknesses. The key to using them is still managing them intelligently (even knowing when to leave them at home), keeping them to their strong points, and synergizing them with the rest of the army.

=== 8th Edition===
Once unusable, these guys have become pretty good (but overcosted). They have their usual loadout of [[Inferno Bolter|Inferno Boltguns]], which they can replace with [[Warpflamer]]s for maximum hurt in overwatch, and the Aspiring Sorcerer can take any force weapon and a [[Warpflame Pistol]] to help them if they get in melee. For every 10 models, one Rubric can take a [[Soulreaper Cannon]] or a [[Heavy Warpflamer]]. The Sorcerer now knows one power from the Change Discipline and Smite, which does 1 or d3 mortal wounds rather than the normal d3/d6. However, the best part is their "All is Dust" rule, which gives them +1 to saves (including invulnerable saves) if the attack does 1 damage, giving them a 2+ save against small arms fire. Thousand Sons and Grey Knights are the only armies who can still spam smite, but you should be very careful doing it with regular Rubric squads because if you peril their sorcerer may explode, killing himself and taking along with some unlucky mooks from any nearby units, friend or foe so you might start a chain reaction (as well as preventing the squad from casting any more powers if they survive).
{{Thousand Sons}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}

Warforged

2021-06-15T03:02:59Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Eberron Warforged */

[[Image:Warforged lance.jpg|thumb|right]]

'''Warforged''' are a race of "living constructs" native to the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign setting of [[Eberron]]. What's a living construct? Mechanically, they're an excuse to play a robot in a fantasy campaign without having to deal with level adjustment. Fundamentally, warforged are [[golem]]s, but they differ from their more mainstream counterparts in the fact that they are actually sentient creatures, created by magically coagulating and blending metal, stone, and wood in a vat. This means that warforged are far smarter than standard golems, and lack certain golem weaknesses, like not being able to benefit from healing magic... though they ''also'' have a lot of weaknesses that normal golems wouldn't; being a ''living'' construct means having the equivalent of vital organs, and thus being able to bleed out if you prod them with a sharp enough stick.

==Eberron Warforged==
As detailed in ''Races of Eberron'', all warforged share a common facial design, with a hinged jaw and crystal eyes embedded beneath a reinforced brow ridge with a sigil, called a "ghulra", engraved into the center of the forehead which "are as individual as human fingerprints". [[Dragon Magazine]] #352 claims some Warforged have cubical heads (which it has an illustration of), blank heads, demon heads, skull heads or cyclops heads on top of some variety in torso shape and aesthetic accents (all of which is presented in a random appearance table).

Warforged were the ultimate creations of House Cannith, the House of the [[Dragonmark]] of Making. During the chaos of the Last War (aka "[[Dungeonpunk]] [[World War I]]"), House Cannith used strange [[artificer]] magic brought back from [[Xen'drik]] to churn out enormous legions of artificial soldiers - essentially a cheaper, mass produced version of the common golem that wasn't as morally uncertain as just using the [[undead]] and didn't need to eat or sleep and don't become fatigued. This came back to bite them when the war ended and people found out that warforged were actually sentient creatures, with individual personalities and full consciousnesses. As slavery isn't exactly kosher in Khorvaire, House Cannith was forced to turn them loose... now they're trying to figure out just what to do with themselves, especially because the special buildings that make them have officially been all shut down, so they can't "breed" like the organic races around them - which they fear is a deliberate ploy to slowly grind them into extinction.

One of the big bads of the setting is the Lord of Blades, a high-level warforged who wants to unite all of the warforged under his banner and genocide all the squishy races of the world, so he's basically goddamn Ultron Hitler. He is believed to have one of the few creation forges that remain active; however, either from damage and/or being in the [[Mournland]], it's churning out "mutant" warforged and/or Psiforged.

Warforged-Meatbag relations are strained in most of the world. Their ability to work without sleep or breaks while not caring about the heat of the factories is causing a lot of [[meme|terk er jerbs]] among the squishies, but their lack of history and support structure makes them vulnerable to exploitative practices and low wages humanoids wised up to long ago (though to be fair it's not like they'd have much to ''spend'' their money on to begin with when you think about it). Some Cannith outposts are alleged to hold Warforged in effective slavery by keeping them unaware of their legal freedom. They are also viewed as inherently dangerous, as a warforged with the [[Adamantine]] body feat is very difficult to damage by conventional means and they're never ''quite'' sure the tin can ''won't'' go on a rampage...

==Nentir Vale Warforged==
One of the good things about the [[Nentir Vale]] setting was that A: as a new setting, it could develop in its own way, and B: it wasn't afraid to tinker with racial backstories to justify the addition of races originating from other settings, like [[thri-kreen]] and [[mul]]s. Thus, Dragon Magazine #364 debuted the article "Playing Warforged", all about the Warforged of the Points of Light.

In the Nentir Vale world, warforged were born of the empire of Nerath, under the wisdom of King Eothyr III. A visionary man, King Eothyr founded the Society of Imperial Artificers, an organization of learned arcanists, and set them the goal of creating an adaptive artificial being - one that could autonomously learn and adapt, but which didn't require the imprisonment of an immortal spirit or an elemental to serve as the spark of its sentience.

The Society labored on this task for many years, working tirelessly to succeed. Sadly, King Eothyr died only a short period before they succeeded. When his son, Prince Elidyr, ascended the throne, he told the Society they had to make some changes: rumblings of unrest suggested that war was coming, and he had no need for his father's Utopian vision of a sentient construct. He needed soldiers, and he told the Society that their artificial lifeform was to fill that need.

This prompted an ideological split within the Society: some were appalled at the idea of turning these artificial beings, naive and innocent, into living weapons and fodder for the wars of man. These rogues took copies of their notes and left. Still, it wasn't enough to stop progress; the Society created their first creation forge, and soon the first of their constructs, the warforged, walked the earth. And just in time - a massive force of demon-worshipping savage humanoids launched itself against Nerath.

Warforged went on to prove significant to Nerath's battle. The empire's own treasury paid for the formation of legions of artificial soldiers, whilst nobles were offered the chance to eschew battlefield duties by paying for warforged soldiers to take the place of their men. Even some of the rogues succumbed to patriotism or pragmatism and used their private creation forges to support the war effort. The warforged weren't numerous enough to prevent the loss of King Elidyr, his heirs, and many of the most influential leaders of Nerath, sadly.

Regardless, their strength and sacrifices kept Nerath from being totally annihilated; even though the former empire crumbled into a series of independent city-states after decades of factional war and territorial squabbling, the slaughter could have been far worse. In fact, warforged continued to play a role in the fighting, and still do today. The Society of Imperial Artificers still exists today, turning out warforged troopers for profit. Some creation forges still remain in the hands of other artificers, churning out new warforged for their own ideological reasons. There's at least one creation forge that remains in the hands of a band of warforged veterans, ensuring the race has some control over its destiny. And those are just the known ones.

A sidebar addresses other possible ways of incorporating warforged into your campaign. For example, they could be an ancient race of self-propagating people, or an experiment in immortality that didn't quite work. They could be exoskeletons for some limbless species of sapients, perhaps constructed by human, dwarven or other "tinker race" allies. They might be a race of human-like beings that convert themselves into artificial creatures at certain age, or implant themselves into armored exoskeletons as part of their maturation cycle. Or your warforged could be unique; some wizard's special experiment that has either escaped or been loaned to the party by their patron.

== Undead Warforged ==
There's a brief mention of undead Warforged in the Mournland in a 3E book. They appear to be rusting and decaying. Mechanically, zombie or skeleton Warforged are pretty indistinguishable from other undead player races since most of what makes a Warforged interesting mechanically is attached to the subtype they lose. In the end you just have a zombie with composite plating. Still, you can't deny that something like a rusty robo-lich is a pretty cool mental image.

==PC Stats==
===3e===
::Attributes: +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Construct (Living Construct Subtype): You're essentially a construct that has a [[Constitution]] score and lacks the extreme immunities of normal constructs (Crits, mind-control, nonlethal damage, etc.) but retain immunity to poisons and fatigue. Healing is also only half as effective on you and can only be fully healed by a mechanic.
::Medium Size
::Speed: 30'
::Composite Plating: +2 armor bonus, 5% spell failure, cannot wear armor, but can be enchanted directly and have docent slots instead
::Light Fortification: 25% chance to negate critical hits or sneak attacks
::Slam: Unarmed attacks deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage
::Automatic Languages: Common, Bonus Languages: None
::Favored Class: Fighter

Mechanically, while they do come with penalties to two mental stats, built-in spell-failure chance, and half-healing from spells, they also come with a ''shitload'' of immunities and some fun robo-feats no one else gets.

The ''Eberron Campaign Setting'' and ''Races of Eberron'' have several Warforged-only feats and [[Prestige Class]]es that take advantage of their mechanical nature. The ___ Body series are level 1 only feats that increase (or delete) your inherent armor by making it made of adamantine, mithral, or ironwood and increasing the AC it gives you. Ironwood has the unique property of not being made of metal, meaning that it does not interfere with Druid spellcasting, and is designed specifically for warforged druids (which are still a stupid idea because warforged take a -2 penalty to wisdom, the druid's [[god stat]], but whatever). Second Slam and Jaws of Death make Warforged capable natural attackers.

Warforged Juggernaut makes a warforged a bit more like a proper golem, sacrificing squishy goodies like the ability to benefit from healing spells in exchange for golem-like immunities and goodies. Reforged is a prestige class that does the exact opposite, gaining natural healing and some improved wisdom and social skills. The final level tosses away everything good about being a Warforged for ''nothing'' and makes it one of the few prestige classes where getting the levels level drained away and replaced with nothing will actually make you stronger. The art does give us a Warforged pimp though. Renegade Master can't be taken by Warforged and is an attempt by squishies to make themselves more like Warforged. Spellcarved Soldier is a gish class that doesn't advance spellcasting and instead gives a bunch of mediocre bonuses you can only have one of active.

Warforged [[Artificer]] racial substution levels allow a Warforged to focus more on augmenting their own body and gain the ability to make magic weapons into familiars. There's also Warforged Fighter and Paladin substitution levels, but they're trash.

''Monster Manual 3'' introduces the Warforged Scout and Warforged Charger variant races. The scouts are similar to normal Warforged, but are slower and smaller, and have less strength and constitution. There is absolutely no good reason to play as one. The Charger is the exact opposite, sporting +10 Strength and +10 Constitution among other benefits, allowing you to tear shit up as a robot version of King Kong.

===4E===
::Ability scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence or +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares.
::Vision: Normal
::Languages: Common
::Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Intimidate.
::Living Construct: You are a living construct. You do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. You never make Endurance checks to resist the effect of starvation, thirst, or suffocation. All other conditions and effects affect you normally.
::Unsleeping Watcher: You do not sleep and instead enter a state of inactivity for 4 hours to gain the benefits of an extended rest. While in this state, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
::Warforged Mind: You have a +1 racial bonus to your Will.
::Warforged Resilience: You have a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against ongoing damage. Also, when you make a death saving throw, you can take the better result of your die roll or 10.
::Warforged Resolve: Encounter minor Racial. You gain 3+1/2 level THP (And 3+1/2 level HP when bloodied) and can make a saving throw.

This statline makes Warforged ideal for a great many roles, including frontliners like [[Fighter]]s or [[Barbarian]]s and Supporters, most especially the [[Artificer]] (which was also introduced in the Eberron Campaign Setting). In regards of feats, the majority of them fall under one of two groups: Those that improve the racial power, and those that synergize with alchemical item powers and drive in how much warforged artificers work.

They also possess two [[Paragon Path]]s, Warforged Juggernaut and Warforged Lifeseeker, and are the only race with a PP set on emulating them, the Self-Forged.

===5e===
[[5e|Fifth Edition]] is rather peculiar to talk about for warforged because there are three very different statlines to use for warforged: The original stats from the Eberron [[Unearthed Arcana]], the stats from Keith Baker's ''Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron'', and Wizards' own official ''Eberron: Rising from the Last War''.

====Unearthed Arcana====
::Ability Scores: Str +1; Con +1
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 ft.
::Composite Plating: +1 to Armor Class.
::Living Construct: Even though you were constructed, you are a living creature. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
::Languages: Common and one other language of your choice.

This particular statline, while unremarkable, does give them the well-renowned durability of being a living robot, ideal for Fighters and Barbarians, though other classes can definitely find benefits.

====Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron====
The ''WGE'' stats, however, give a much grander means to build Warforged PCs, mainly by giving three different frames to work from. All warforged, however, maintain the following abilities:
::Ability Scores: All Warforged have Con +1
::Size: Medium
::Warforged Resilience: Immunities everywhere: You cant go to sleep or be fatigued and you get advantage on poison resistance checks with resistance to poison.
::Sentry's Rest: When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours of it in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn't render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.
::Integrated Protection: At the end of a long rest, you can choose between three different forms of armor to wear. But in exchange, you gain no benefit from wearing armor, not even magical benefits.
:::Darkwood Core: Counts as unarmored. AC 11 + Dex Mod + Proficiency Mod (If proficient in light armor)
:::Composite Plating: Requires proficiency in medium armor. AC 13 + Dex Mod (Max 2) + Proficiency Mod
:::Heavy Plating: Requires proficiency in heavy armor and gives disadvantage on stealth checks. AC 16 + Proficiency Mod
::Languages: Common

'''Envoy'''
::Ability Scores: Choose any two +1
::Speed: 30 ft.
::Specialized Design: You gain one skill proficiency of your choice, one tool proficiency of your choice, and fluency in one language of your choice.
::Integrated Tool: Choose one tool you're proficient with. This tool is integrated into your body, and you double your proficiency bonus for any ability checks you make with it. You must have your hands free to use this integrated tool.

'''Juggernaut'''
::Ability Scores: Str +2
::Speed: 30 ft.
::Iron Fists: Your unarmed strike deals 1d4 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage
::Powerful Build: You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift

'''Skirmisher'''
::Ability Scores: Dex +2
::Speed: 35 ft.
::Graceful: You are proficient in Acrobatics
::Light Step: When you are traveling alone for an extended period of time (one hour or more), you can move stealthily at a normal pace.

This all makes the new version of Warforged at an incredibly powerful and possibly OP tier for a race, least of all because of the variety. Really, all classes have an ideal subrace to work with with a possible second if you feel up for it. The real breaking feature is the plating. There are no other races, let alone other means period to get AC as high as a warforged's (not counting a [[tortle]] hiding in his shell). For comparison, A Warforged fighter with Heavy Plating already sits at a comfy AC 18 at level 1, a score inaccessible by comparable fighters since the only non-magical armor available is the absurdly-expensive plate armor and a starting fighter is stuck with AC 16 chain mail (or 17 if they sank all 200 starting gold into a suit of splint armor and no weapons). Even non-heavy armor users can't compete, as an elf rogue with maxed-out dex (Let's say 20 due to a good roll) and studded leather can only reach AC 17. By Level 10, that heavy Warforged is now at AC 20, a level only attainable by magical +2 plate armor with no other recourse to match such a thing, and that gap grows ever wider as the levels pass.

Also, the internal balance is shot. Setting aside any and all questions of which stats are best (even though everyone and their dog knows [[Dexterity]] blows most other stats out of the water this edition), Skirmisher gets a speed boost, a useful skill, and a situational power that is at least thematic and flavorful, Envoy is basically a variant human who doesn't get to pick his free feat but gets a beast of a feat-equivalent in exchange, and Juggernaut is, while propped up by the race’s powerful chassis, a comical example of exactly how overvalued natural weapons and Powerful Build are in every race designed this edition.

However, the specific wording of Integrated Protection somewhat balances the AC issue, gaining no benifits from wearing armor extends to magical effects on armor as well, so while you do max out at 22 AC with integrated protection you get no use out of magic armor such as Armor of Invulnerability or any form of resistance armor.

tl;dr WGE Warforged require some extremely generous magic item-gifting and perhaps a means to control the scaling AC (Maybe banning the proficiency bonus altogether from the non-darkwood ones? Maybe halving Proficiency Bonus to AC?), which is on-brand for ‘’Eberron’’ but a bit at odds with 5E's philosophy of miserly magical item-gifting.

====Eberron: Rising from the Last War====
::Ability Scores: Con +2, choose any +1
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 ft
::Warforged Resilience: Immunities everywhere: You cant go to sleep or be fatigued and you get advantage on poison resistance checks with resistance to poison.
::Sentry's Rest: When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours of it in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn't render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.
::Integrated Protection: All Warforged add +1 to AC. This can stack to any other armor that they have proficiency in, which they can integrate with over the span of 1 hour. Once integrated, this armor cannot be forcibly removed.
::Specialized Design: Gain proficiency in one skill and one set of tools.
::Languages: Common + one other

This version of the statline acts more like an improvement to the Eberron UA version's versatility than any nerfing of the WGE version. As one can see, this version can play more nicely with comparative builds without looking like the far-and-away superior choice and doesn't trigger the ire of anyone who follows 5E's limited item-gifting. Though that comes at the cost of improving any class' central stat beyond that +1, the proficiencies and armor bonus are capable of offsetting that weakness. And yes, subraces were removed.

But alas, they once again have the short end of the stick, as Tasha's Caldron of Everything came out with a new rule where [[What|''Everyone'' can move around ''both'' of their ability bonuses]].

==See Also==
*[[Gearforged]]
*[[Beeforged]]
*[[Rood]]
*[[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]

==Gallery==
{{SectionalPromotions}}
<gallery>
Image:Warforged artificer.jpg|Artificer.
Image:Warforged lance.jpg|Will stab a bitch.
Image:Warforged pimp.jpg|Pimpin ain't easy.
Image:Warforged reforged.jpg|Reforged.
Image:Female Warforged.jpg|Robots have no -4 STR.
Image:Lesbian warforged.jpg|Watch out for splinters.
Image:Doorforgedmouthfuck.jpg|Forged for war, and mouth fucking.
Image:Shanky.png|How it's done.
Image:Warforged_Bard.png|Warforged bards play heavy metal, techno, and love to rock out. Too bad they have a tin ear.
Image:Warforged Breach Warden.jpg
Image:Warforged Adventurers.png
Image:Tumblr mzilaryv2j1t89rtno1 1280.jpg
</gallery>

{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
[[Category:Eberron]]

Tanar'ri

2021-06-15T01:48:47Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Generic and Unclassified Demons */

[[File:Tanarri party.jpg|thumb|Those tanar'ri sure know how to throw a party.]]
'''Tanar'ri''' are the [[Alignment|chaotic evil]] supernatural badguys, in [[2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons]]. After TSR got their new CEO [[Lorraine Williams]] and [[Gary Gygax]] left in disgust, Williams said "no more [[demon]]s, or any of that junk". In [[3e]], WotC returned to the use of the word "demon", but kept the term "Tanar'ri" as a subtype of demon. Since "Tanar'ri" [[Open_Gaming_License#Parts_of_D.26D_that_are_not_Open_Game_Content|is a registered trademark]], you will not find this demon subtype in [[Open Gaming License]] materials like the D20SRD.

They are the archetypical chaotic evil outsiders, seeking to destroy all order and plunge creation into mad, violent chaos in different ways. They are one of the two major factions in the ideological [[Blood War]], the other being their lawful evil counterparts, the [[baatezu]], or devils.

''Fiendish Codex II - Tyrants Of The Nine Hells'' states that Devils call all demons Tanar'ri for short, which is strange considering that in the same book it says that in the devils' language "only one correct way exists to construct any given statement in Infernal." and "Devils, except when in disguise, they find the urge to correct errors in spoken or written Infernal nearly impossible to resist." This may be a hint as to the origin of Lorraine Williams, since she also reportedly insisted on using the term "Tanar'ri" instead of "demon."

In 5th edition, D&D seems to have completely dropped the term Tanar'ri (as well as [[Obyrith]] and [[Loumara]]), and now classifies all demons as just "demons".

==Types of Tanar'ri==
There are many types of Tanar'ri, one more terrible than the next. There is something of a degree of power that seperates the various demons, but this is not absolute. There are five categories that divide them however, and each group is more powerful than the ones below it.

Tanar'ri can ascend to a new form if they believe they have what it takes to do so (mainly based on how deadly it is) and can prove this to those around them. While ascending step by step though the ranks is the most common way to do this, particularly powerful or intelligent Tanar'ri can skip one or more forms.

Note that some of the demons in this list have not been officially classified and so we are just guessing which group they belong to.

===Least Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Mane]]s''': The lowest of the Tanar'ri and barely worth the name, Manes are a source of food and cannon fodder, herded at the enemy to tire them before the main forces strike. This is what a mortal becomes if they end up in the Abyss when they die, or depending on edition, the first form they take upon being promoted from Maggots, which are the forms that all petitioners take in the [[Lower Planes]].
<gallery>
Mane 1e.jpg
Mane 2e.gif
Mane.jpg
Mane 3e.jpg
Mane 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Dretch]]es''': Barely above the Manes, the Dretches are real Tanar'ri, albeit the lowest in rank. They suck up to the more powerful members of their race (pretty much all of them), and are treated as such in reply.
<gallery>
Dretch S4.png
Dretch 1e.jpg
Dretch 2e.gif
Dretch 3e.jpg
Dretch 4e.jpg
Dretch 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Rutterkin]]''': Vicious and despised by all other Tanar'ri, the Rutterkin are the preferred targets of higher-ranking demons for harassment, torture and murder. In return a Rutterkin will attack anything that they think they can kill without much risk to them.
<gallery>
Rutterkin S4.jpg
Rutterkin MM2 1e.jpg
Rutterkin ayy.png
Rutterkin 2e.jpg
Rutterkin 3e.jpg
Mane Rutterkin Barlgura.jpg
Rutterkin 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Gadacro]]''': A small sneaky demon that likes to blind enemies.
<gallery>
Gadacro.jpg
</gallery>

===Lesser Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Alu-fiend]]s''': The female child of a Succubus and a mortal, Alu-fiends can only be born into their rank. They are not physically powerful but they are powerful spellcasters and physically attractive, which makes them useful to the high-ups in the Abyss.
<gallery>
Alu-demon S4.png
Alu-fiend.gif
Aliisza.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Cambion]]s''': The opposite of their Alu-fiend sisters, Cambions are the children of a Tanar'ri and a female mortal. A major Cambion is born when the father is a Lesser or Greater Tanar'ri, while a True Tanar'ri sires a Baron or Marquise Cambion, who are significanlty more powerful than their lesser kin.
<gallery>
File:Cambion 1e.jpg
File:Cambion 2e.png
File:Cambion 3e.png
File:Cambion 4e.jpg
File:Cambion.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Armanite]]s''': The [[centaur]]s and [[bariaur]]s of the Abyss. They band together as mercenary groups and hire themselves out to whoever pays the most.
<gallery>
File:Armanite 2e.gif
File:Armanite 4e.jpg
File:armanite 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Maurezhi]]''': These Tanar'ri have the strange ability to gain the memories and experiences of whoever they eat. They can only be created by Abyssal Lords for specific missions, but can grow to new forms as usual.
<gallery>
File:Maurezhi 2e.png
File:Maurezhi 3e.jpg
File:Maurezhi 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Succubus]]''': You know them, you love them.
**'''[[Incubus]]''': The male version
<gallery>
5e Cubi.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Barlgura]]''' (also spelled Bar-Lgura): Gorilla-like (Orangutan-like in AD&D) Tanar'ri trained in guerilla warfare (yes, they really went for that pun), they are brutish, dumb, slow of mind and can casually rip your arm off. They get very annoyed when you call them "bar-igura", so please don't refer to them with sans-serif font. Pathfinder also has an orange gorilla demon, called a "baregara". Someone at Paizo must like to live dangerously.
<gallery>
Barlgura S4.png
Barlgura 1e.jpg
Barlgura 2.jpg
Barlgura 2e.gif
Barlgura 3e.jpg
Barlgura.jpg
Barlgura 4e.jpg
Barlgura 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Bulezau]]''': Rocking a traditional Satan-esque look, the Bulezau are powerful, elite soldiers who want nothing less than to murder all their enemies within sight.
<gallery>
File:Bulezau 2e.png
File:Bulezau 3e.jpg
File:Bulezau 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Jovoc]]''': A small black humanoid with red three-fingered claws. Whenever one of them is damaged, non-Tanar'ri creatures within 30 feet also take damage, and they also heal from their injuries very quickly.
<gallery>
File:Jovoc.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Solamith]]''': A large obese demon with a transparent stomach filled with the faces of the other demons and petitioners it has eaten. Their flesh is explosive, and they fight by tearing off pieces of their flesh and throwing them like bombs.
<gallery>
File:Solamith 1.jpg
File:Solamith 3e.jpg
File:Solamith 4e.jpg
File:Solamith 2.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Uridezu]]''': Cowardly rat people with a paralyzing bite, command over rats, and the ability to teleport between planes, but not during combat. They enjoy serving under a master, but because other demons abuse them they often are found serving mortal masters on the material plane.
<gallery>
File:Uridezu 2e.png
File:Uridezu 3e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Artaaglith]]''': Ram-like demons that serve [[Orcus]]. Were introduced in the [[Ghostwalk]] book.
<gallery>
Artaaglith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''Skurchur''': Introduced in [[Dragon Magazine]] #333. They like to disguise themselves as gnomes and halfings and worm their way into royal courts as advisors. They give rulers bad advice that will lead to suffering and chaos.
<gallery>
Skurchur Dragon 333.png
</gallery>

===Greater Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Nabassu]]''': Gargoyle-shaped things serving as the heralds of the Abyss, seducing humanoids to the service of the Abyss.
<gallery>
Nabassu 1e.png
Nabassu 2e.png
Nabassu 3e.jpg
Nabassu 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Chasme]]''': Huge fly-like things that seek out deserters of the [[Blood War]]. They mostly stay out of the affairs of others to carry out their duties.
<gallery>
Chasme S4 2.png
Chasme S4 1.png
Chasme 1e.jpg
Chasme 2e.gif
Chasme fight OHG.jpg
Chasme 3e.png
Chasme 4e.jpg
Chasme 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Babau]]''': The recruiters for the [[Blood War]]. Or rather than recruiting they press-gang other demons to fight. If they don't meet their quotas however they have to fight themselves.
<gallery>
Babau 1e.png
Babau 2e.gif
Babau 3e.jpg
Babau 4e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Goristro]]''': 20' [[Minotaur|bullmen]] that serve as living siege engines to topple walls and crush enemies below their feet. Mentioned in the second Monster Manual which forgot to write them up, so they had to be written up in ''Dragon'' instead.
<gallery>
Goristro 2e.gif
Goristro 3e.jpg
Goristro 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Palrethee]]''': Demons who attempted to become balors and failed become palrethees as punishiment. To further the humiliation, they often end up as subordinates to balors. They are emaciated humanoids with bony wings whose bodies are constantly on fire.
<gallery>
Palrethee.jpg
Palrethee 3e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Arrow Demon]]''': A grey skinned humanoid with four arms that can wield two longbows at the same time.
<gallery>
Arrow Demon.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Cerebrilith]]''': A large hunchbacked demon with an oversized protruding spine which its brain visibly extends into. They have psionic abilities.
<gallery>
Cerebrilith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Adaru]]''': A millipede with a man's face that is able to charm other tanar'ri and constantly produces a cloud around itself that is poisonous to non-evil creatures and strengthens evil creatures
<gallery>
Adaru 3e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Lilitu]]''': A promoted form of a Succubus that infiltrates and corrupts churches by pretending to be [[cleric]]s. They lose their wings but gain four tentacles with poison stingers. They have several of the abilities as a cleric. They are vulnerable to divine magic, but good spells and good magic items treat them as if they were good. By hugging a humanoid, they can place a magical tattoo on them for 24 hours that charges them with chaotic energy and allows the lilitu to communicate with and observe them.
<gallery>
Lilitu.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Kastighur]]''': Huge demons that act as the hunters and jailers of the abyss.
<gallery>
Kastighur.jpg
</gallery>
*'''Turagathshnee''': Servitors of demon lord [[Turaglas]] introduced alongside him in Dragon #312.
<gallery>
turagathshnee Dragon 312.jpg
</gallery>

===True Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Vrock]]''': Humanoid vultures that serve as elite soldiers in the [[Blood War]]. Not sure why they are listed as true tanar'ri, as they are actually weaker than several of the demons in both the lesser and greater classes.
<gallery>
Vrock 1e.jpg
Vrock 2e.gif
Vrock 3e.jpg
Vrock 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Hezrou]]''': Frog-shaped Tanar'ri possess a cool, sharp intellect that allows them to perform their duties in the [[Blood War]] with precision and dedication.
<gallery>
Hezrou 1e.jpg
Hezrou 2e.png
Hezrou Babau Dretch 3e.jpg
Hezrou 3e.png
Hezrou 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Glabrezu]]''': The primary summoning material, they are skilled at tempting their summoners and giving them plenty of gifts of power, only to withdraw said power at the worst possible moment to get them killed and pulled into the Abyss.
<gallery>
Glabrezu 1e.jpg
Glabrezu 2e.gif
Glabrezu Vrock 3e.jpg
Glabrezu Evistro Barlgura 4e.jpg
Glabrezu 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Alkilith]]''': The Type III.5 Demon, if you will. Oozes that can corrupt anything and anyone with a mere touch. They don't fight in the Blood War, mainly for practical reasons on account of them being oozes. If they stretch themselves around a doorway or window, they can create a portal to the Abyss.
<gallery>
Alkilith 2e.png
Alkilith 3e.jpg
Alkilith 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Nalfeshnee]]''': The pig-ape judges of the Abyss. All petitioners that enter the Abyss pass by a Nalfeshnee who judges them based on their lives and appoints them a new form. At least sometimes: other times they hand out forms at random. They also determine who gets to be in charge of the armies and who gets to be promoted, demoted or removed from (as in: destroyed) its ranks.
<gallery>
Nalfeshnee 1e.jpg
Nalfeshnee 2e.gif
Gabberslug.jpg
Nalfeshnee Quasit Succubus.jpg
Nalfeshnee 3e summon.jpg
Nalfeshnee 4e.jpg
Nalfeshnee 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Marilith]]''': [[Lamia|Attractive women with the lower body of a snake]] and six arms, they are the tacticians of the Abyss. They have keen minds, anticipate what the forces of Law are going to do and act upon it, much to the rage of the Baatezu who cannot understand the plots of the Marilith.
<gallery>
Marilith 1e.jpg
Marilith MM 2e.png
Marilith 2e.jpeg
3e Marilith.jpg
5e Marilith.jpg
Marilith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Balor]]''': The dreaded kings of the Abyss, Balors are the most powerful of the Tanar'ri aside from [[Demon Prince]]s and the rarely seen Klurichirs and Myrmyxicuses, serving as lords, generals and leaders, inspiring and threatening others into fighting for the cause. A mix of passion and reason, they are as intelligent and sharp as they are evil and chaotic. These are ''exactly'' the same as the [[Bloodthirster]] of Warhammer, right down to the flaming whips and being literally made evil and chaos (or [[Chaos]]) with the sole difference being that they use swords instead of axes. They like to eat doggies and beat up Pit Fiends in their spare time.
<gallery>
Balor 1e.jpg
Balor 2e.png
Balor 3e.jpg
Balor 4e.jpg
Balor Demonomicon.jpg
Balor 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Klurichir]]''': The most powerful type of Tanar'ri besides [[Demon Prince]]s. All other tanar'ri including balors are terrified of them. They have skin the color of a frostbitten corpse, four arms, black spines covering their neck and back, red wings, a face like a cross between a orc and a mule, and a giant second mouth with a huge pair of extremely sharp mandibles on their abdomen. They are the elite generals of the most powerful [[Demon Prince]]s and they usually only appear when their master wants to be absolutely sure that an important mission will be completed.
<gallery>
Klurichir 3e.png
Klurichir 4e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Myrmyxicus]]''': Another Tanar'ri that beats the Balor in power. They rule over the oceans of the Abyss. It looks like an giant eel with a reptile skull for a face, six goat horns, four arms, six tentacles around its waist, and a lamprey-mouth on the end of its tail.
<gallery>
Myrmyxicus Wastrilith Skulvyn.jpg|A myrmyxicus with a wastrilith and a skulvyn.
</gallery>
*'''[[Jarilith]]''': Demonic lions that like to hunt other demons.
<gallery>
Jarilith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Kelvezu]]''': The infiltrators and assassins of the abyss. Aside from the pink skin and poisonous fingernails, they appear almost exactly like a short human.
<gallery>
Kelvezu.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Sorrowsworn]]''': Demons that appear in places where many people have suffered loss. They have an aura that causes feelings of loss in those around them. They read the minds of their enemies and use that to determine the best way to torment them by reminding them of things that cause them to feel more loss. A sorrowsworn demon is a large but skinny grey-skinned humanoid with black wings and a constantly frowning face. 4th Edition retconned their fluff, making them natives of the [[Shadowfell]] and not demons.
<gallery>
Sorrowsworn.jpg
Sorrowsworn 4e.jpg
</gallery>

===Guardian Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Molydeus]]''': The only Tanar'ri within this rank, a Molydeus stands outside of the ranks of the other Tanar'ri. Each demon prince has but one, who acts as their 2nd in command. Each one wears a special amulet around it's neck containing some of it's lord's Demon essence, acting as a sort of demonic Phylactery.
<gallery>
Molydeus 2e.jpg
Molydeus 3e.jpg
Molydeus 4e.jpg
</gallery>

===Ex Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Shadow Fiend]]''': The [[Fiend Folio]] Shadow Demon was summarily taken off the Tanar'ri list because TSR were too lazy to give it a made up name like "Penumbrilith", and "shadow tanar'ri" just sounded too lazy. It slunk back by way of Ravenloft, MC Appendix; then Planescape of course. It was still Chaotic Evil, and still hung out at the Abyss.
<gallery>
Shadow Demon 1e.png
Shadowfiend MC Ravenloft.jpg
Shadow fiend DoD.jpg
Shadow Demon 2e.gif
Shadow fiend DoD2.jpg
Shadow Demon 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Blood Fiend]]''': A demon that became a vampire-like undead.
<gallery>
File:Blood fiend.jpg
</gallery>

===Generic and Unclassified Demons===
During second edition, demons were renamed Tanar'ri. When third edition was released, it was retconned so only some demons are considered Tanar'ri, with the rest being [[Loumara]] or [[Obyrith]] plus a few random demons that don't fit into any of the three. [[Dragon Magazine]] Issue #359 groups some of these demons into Servitors, demons created by gods like the yochlol, The Created, demons artificially created by less powerful beings like the quasit (even if the abyss has started forming them spontaneously like other demons), and Beasts, the abyss's equivalent of animals like the skulvyn. Additionally, during fourth and fifth edition several new demons were added and were never categorized. This list does not include monsters that were only demons in 4th edition, such as the various types of [[Yugoloth]]s. We will list these demons here because we don't have anywhere else to put them. This list is probably incomplete.

* '''[[Abyssal Drake]]''': A failed attempt to create flying mounts for demon lords by breeding demons with dragons and wyverns. Their breath deals fire and unholy damage at the same time.
<gallery>
Abyssal drake.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Eviscerator]]''': Dumb four armed demons that fight by grabbing enemies and tearing their guts open.
<gallery>
Eviscerator 4e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Maw]]''': A demon consisting of a [[Xorn|giant vertical mouth with three eyes and several short clawed arms]]. In 5th edition it is said that their mouth leads directly to the belly of [[Yeenoghu]].
<gallery>
Maw 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Scavenger]]''': A quadrupedal demon with a vertical mouth. These demons are individually very weak, but they are extremely dangerous to summon because they can multiply extremely fast if there are no other demons keeping their numbers in check, and they can form portals to the abyss when a large number of them are gathered in one place.
<gallery>
Abyssal scavenger.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Skulker]]''': Sneaky but weak demons. Looks very similar to the Abyssal Scavenger, probably because the scavenger recycled the design.
* '''[[Abyssal Ravager]]''': A demonic hyena with a scorpion tail. In fifth edition this demon was combined with the [[Shoosuva]].
<gallery>
File:Ravager maw skulker.jpg|An abyssal ravager, maw, and skulker.
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Rotfiend]]''': Undead demons with psychic powers made of demon and devil flesh stitched together.
<gallery>
Abyssal rotfiend.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Wretch]]''': A victim killed by a Rutterkin or a Sybriex in 5th edition may rise as an abyssal wretch.
* '''[[Abyssal Wurm]]''': Two-headed half-centipede half-dragons born from [[Tiamat]] screwing a demon lord called Kothok. They are used for guarding portals in and out of the abyss.
<gallery>
Abyssal wurm.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Ash-Wrought Soulburner]]''' Fiery demons that once were [[Efreet]]i. They suck the heat out of living creatures.
<gallery>
Ashwrought soulburner.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Bebilith]]''': Giant spiders that hunt other demons.
<gallery>
Bebilith 2e.png
Bebilith 3e.jpg
Bebilith 4e.jpg
Bebilith PF 2e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Blood Demon]]''': Not to be confused with the blood fiend. These mysterious demons are [[Slime|oozes]] made of blood that randomly appear in the abyss in swarms before vanishing again. One theory is that they are the remains of an [[Obyrith]] lord killed by [[Tharizdun]] that are trying to reform.
<gallery>
Blood demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Bloodseep Demon]]''': Another four armed demon. They can spray blood from their body that heals other demons and is poisonous to other creatures.
<gallery>
Bloodseep demon 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Bonegouge Assassin]]''': Shadowy skeletons with big claws. These demons are believed to have been created by [[Orcus]] by transforming mortal assassins.
<gallery>
Bonegouge assassin.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Clockwork Horror]]''': Demonic constructs, usually resembling spiders. And they can multiply. They killed the demon lord that created them and swarmed across the abyss before the demon lord [[Haagenti]] managed to get control over them. They likely would have wiped out all organic life if he hadn't.
<gallery>
Clockwork horror 2e.png
Clockwork horror 3e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Consumptive Parasite]]''': Small demons that attack in massive swarms. They were once [[Slaad]] tadpoles corrupted by the abyss.
<gallery>
Consumptive parasite.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Deathdrinker]]''': Extremely arrogant demons with an aura that harms the living and heals undead.
<gallery>
Deathdrinker 3e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Demon Spawn]]''': The taint of the abyss sometimes causes mortals to give birth to demons. Evil spellcasters and [[Hag]]s can also create them on purpose with dark magic. They resemble their humanoid parents but with scary deformities.
<gallery>
Demon spawn.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Dust Demon]]''' Dust demons are formed from tribes of [[Djinn]]i who were transformed by the abyss into insane masses of living wind and debris. A single dust demon is actually made up of many smaller dust wisps which are each the corrupted soul of a Djinn. Theoretically it might be possible to transform a Dust Demon back into the Djinni it used to be by capturing a single wisp from it and healing it of its madness, then allowing it to return to the dust demon.
* '''[[Evanissu]]''' (City Corruptor): These demon appear in corrupt cities and work to make them even worse them though a campaign of murder and terror, leading a gang of criminals and other urban monsters.
<gallery>
City corruptor.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Evistro]]''' (Carnage Demon): Muscular demons with bright red skin. They become stronger when groups of them are close together, but they also have a tendency to attack their allies during combat.
<gallery>
Evistro.jpg
Evistro 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Ferrolith]]''': A [[Succubus]] that [[Wat|fell into a pool of molten iron]]. They gained iron-hard skin but lost their beauty.
<gallery>
Ferrolith.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Fire Demon]]''' [[Awesome|Skeletal demons who are constantly on fire.]] Comes in lesser and standard forms.
<gallery>
Fire demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Guardian Demon]]''': These tentacled monstrosities get their name from the fact that they are easy to magically bind into service as a guardians. They come in two varieties, the weaker Abominations, and the powerful Soul Drinkers.
<gallery>
Guardian demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Ghour]]''': Another [[Minotaur]]-like demon engineered by [[Baphomet]]. Weaker than goristros but still powerful.
<gallery>
Ghour.jpg
Ghour attack.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Gnaw Demon]]''': Small annoying demons that are always eating and can teleport.
<gallery>
Gnaw demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Haures]]''': Undead demons with the upper body of a minotaur and the lower body of a giant spider, created by [[Orcus]] from the bodies of fallen Goristros.
<gallery>
Haures.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Immolith]]''': An undead demon skeleton that is also on fire.
<gallery>
Immolith 4e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Jarrlak]]''': Icy horrors who kidnap people and encase them in ice while keeping them alive so they slowly die over decades in an icy torment.
<gallery>
Jarrlak.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Malgodemon]]''': A large and scary looking but not very smart demon that serves smarter creatures as thugs. They are extremely greedy and can be easily bribed into turning on their current master. Oddly, this creature is named similarly to the other demons that were [[Yugoloth]]s or daemons in editions other than 4th, and it is associated with [[Raavasta]], which is 4th edition's version of the arcanaloth, but there doesn't seem to be a yugoloth or daemon version of the malgodemon in other editions, unless it is in an obscure source.
<gallery>
Malgodemon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Mahataa]]''': Blind but very powerful demons made of mud.
<gallery>
Mahataa.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Mavawhan]]''': Icy demons whose claws contain a venom that turns victims into ice.
<gallery>
Mavawhan.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Nashrou]]''': Alien-looking demons with four legs and six arms, but no head, just a cluster of eyes where their twisted limbs all connect. They are surprisingly weak and can be instantly killed by hitting them in the right place.
<gallery>
Nashrou 3e.webp
</gallery>
* '''[[Needle Demon]]''': Spiky demons that mind control people into thinking their allies have betrayed them.
* '''[[Neldrazu]]''': Yet another four armed demon. At least these ones look a little different. They have pincers on all four arms instead of hands and four eyes and a single tentacle on the back of their head. They ambush enemies while they are in combat with other demons and teleport away with the enemy to separate them from their group.
<gallery>
Neldrazu Needle demon Nycademon 4e.png|Neldrazu, Needle Demon and Nycademon/[[Yugoloth|Nycaloth]]. The artist apparently made a mistake because the Neldrazu should be the same size as the Needle demon, not the Nycaloth.
</gallery>
* '''[[Kazrith]]''': A powerful eel-like aquatic demon. They can also rapidly travel underground using acid to melt through the ground.
<gallery>
Kazrith Rupture demon.png|A Kazrith and a Rupture Demon
</gallery>
* '''[[Pod Demon]]''': A large green slimy hulk that produces smaller minions from the pimples on its body that it uses as living weapons.
<gallery>
Pod demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Quarrak]]''': These small goblin-like demons are actually very powerful for their size. All quarraks have a twin they are constantly fighting with when they are not fighting together against other creatures. If one dies the other will die a few days later.
<gallery>
Quarrak.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Quasit]]''': The chaotic version of an [[Imp]].
<gallery>
File:Quasit 1e.jpg
File:Quasit 2e.png
File:Quasit 3e.png
File:Quasit 4e.jpg
File:Quasit-5e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Rageborn]]''': Ape-like demons who serve [[Kostchtchie]]
<gallery>
Rageborn Demonomicon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Retriever]]''': Technically not a demon, but actually a powerful construct resembling a giant spider created by demons. In 5th edition they are creations of [[Drow]] instead of demons.
<gallery>
Retriever 1e.png
Retriever FF 2e.jpg
Retriever 2e.png
Retriever 3e.jpg
Retriever 4e.png
Retriever 5e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Ruin Demon]]''': Demon-shaped swarms of flies with human faces that consume all other organic creatures except for plants.
<gallery>
Ruin demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Runespiral Demon]]''': A demon that wears a rune covered shell on its back like a hermit crab. Their are multiple types of Runespiral demon but the most common ones shoot lightning.
<gallery>
Runespiral demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Rupture Demon]]''': Tentacled blobs of darkness that sacrifice themselves to restrain enemies so stronger demons can kill them. When a rupture demon dies they also release an explosion of goo and tentacles that heals and boosts the power of another demon.
<gallery>
Kazrith Rupture demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Shoosuva]]''': An obscure undead hyena monster that only appeared in magazines until it got to a appear in a book for the first time in 5th edition. Now instead of an undead, it is a demon hyena that serves [[Yeenoghu]], given only to [[gnoll]]s who have earned his favor. Looks like a giant hyena with a scorpion's tail.
<gallery>
File:Shoosuva 1e.png
File:Shoosuva 3e.png
File:Shoosuva 5e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Scion of Zuggtmoy]]''': Fungus-infested skeletal demons made of demons and mortals transformed by being buried alive in [[Zuggtmoy]]'s Gardens of Rot, or by being infected with the spores of another Scion.
<gallery>
Scion of zuggtmoy.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Seszrath]]''': An undead demon formed from many corpses fused together. It is a huge hulking creature with octopuses for hands, the feet of an elephant, a huge lamprey mouth on its belly, and a small head.
<gallery>
Seszrath.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Shaadee]]''': An undead demon formed from the soul of a mortal spellcaster who swore themselves to a demon lord in life and their master forced them to continue serving in death.
<gallery>
Shaadee.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Skulvyn]]''': A lesser aquatic demon with an aura that slows down other creatures around it, resembling a lizard with webbed feet and four tails.
<gallery>
Myrmyxicus Wastrilith Skulvyn.jpg
Skulvyn.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Spawn of Juiblex]]''': These [[Slime|ooze]] demons are formed from pieces of [[Juiblex]] and so they resemble smaller copies of him.
<gallery>
Spawn of juiblex.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Tomb Demon]]''': A serpentine demon with a pair of bony arms. The first Tomb demons spawned from the battlefield where [[Orcus]] and his army battled and defeated the demon lord Sylbarax and his army who used to be servants of the snake god [[Zehir]].
<gallery>
Tomb demon eva widermann.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Voracalith]]''': The most gluttonous of all demon. They resemble humanoids with four long tentacles with stingers on the ends growing from their back.
<gallery>
Voracalith.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Whisper Demon]]''': Ghostly demons who try to drive mortals into committing suicide. They could turn those who died around them into [[Allip]]s under their control.
<gallery>
Whisper demon 3e.webp
</gallery>
* '''[[Writhing Crag]]''': Evil [[Roper|tentacled boulders]] that were once some elemental earth creatures such as [[Xorn]]s.
<gallery>
Soulburner Crag Parasite.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Wastrilith]]''': Another eel-like aquatic demon.
<gallery>
Wastrilith 2e.gif
Myrmyxicus Wastrilith Skulvyn.jpg
Wastrilith 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Wendigo]]''': A demon that possesses a person who has committed the sin of [[Cannibalism]] and transforms them into a monster.
<gallery>
Wendigo Demonomicon.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Yochlol]]''': The handmaidens of [[Lolth]], the Yochlol are shapeshifters who can freely change between their [[drow]] form, a spider form or that of [[slime|a great mass of yellow ooze with a single staring eye]]. They enjoy Lolth's protection from other demons and act like it, but they'll get brutally murdered if another demon thinks it can get away with it.
<gallery>
File:Yochlol 1e.png
File:Yochlol 2e.png
File:Yochlol 3e.jpg
File:Yochlol 4e.jpg
File:Yochlol 5e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Zovvut]]''': Muscular demons with massive claws, feathered wings, and three eyes. Probably created by [[Orcus]]. It can heal itself by draining life from those who look into its eyes. Victims who are killed this way rise as [[wight]]s. In 4th edition, Zovvuts were redesigned to be prettier and they were retconned into being fallen angels of [[Tharizdun]].
<gallery>
Jovoc Palrethee Zovvut 3e.jpg
Zuvvut 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Zythar]]''': Powerful demons resembling a humanoid flame wearing armor.
<gallery>
Zythar.jpg
</gallery>

==Demon Lords==
The first amongst the demons, the lords of the Tanar'ri (more commonly known as Demon Lords) are some of the most powerful, dangerous, cunning and deadly beings in existence. They attained their position by strength of arms and cleverness (mostly the former) to rule over their servants. Those who wish to challenge their lords are quickly struck down as an example and to keep the other minions in line. The most powerful of the demon lords are the [[Demon Prince]]s.

{{D&D-Outsiders}}

Tanar'ri

2021-06-15T01:47:32Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B: /* Generic and Unclassified Demons */

[[File:Tanarri party.jpg|thumb|Those tanar'ri sure know how to throw a party.]]
'''Tanar'ri''' are the [[Alignment|chaotic evil]] supernatural badguys, in [[2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons]]. After TSR got their new CEO [[Lorraine Williams]] and [[Gary Gygax]] left in disgust, Williams said "no more [[demon]]s, or any of that junk". In [[3e]], WotC returned to the use of the word "demon", but kept the term "Tanar'ri" as a subtype of demon. Since "Tanar'ri" [[Open_Gaming_License#Parts_of_D.26D_that_are_not_Open_Game_Content|is a registered trademark]], you will not find this demon subtype in [[Open Gaming License]] materials like the D20SRD.

They are the archetypical chaotic evil outsiders, seeking to destroy all order and plunge creation into mad, violent chaos in different ways. They are one of the two major factions in the ideological [[Blood War]], the other being their lawful evil counterparts, the [[baatezu]], or devils.

''Fiendish Codex II - Tyrants Of The Nine Hells'' states that Devils call all demons Tanar'ri for short, which is strange considering that in the same book it says that in the devils' language "only one correct way exists to construct any given statement in Infernal." and "Devils, except when in disguise, they find the urge to correct errors in spoken or written Infernal nearly impossible to resist." This may be a hint as to the origin of Lorraine Williams, since she also reportedly insisted on using the term "Tanar'ri" instead of "demon."

In 5th edition, D&D seems to have completely dropped the term Tanar'ri (as well as [[Obyrith]] and [[Loumara]]), and now classifies all demons as just "demons".

==Types of Tanar'ri==
There are many types of Tanar'ri, one more terrible than the next. There is something of a degree of power that seperates the various demons, but this is not absolute. There are five categories that divide them however, and each group is more powerful than the ones below it.

Tanar'ri can ascend to a new form if they believe they have what it takes to do so (mainly based on how deadly it is) and can prove this to those around them. While ascending step by step though the ranks is the most common way to do this, particularly powerful or intelligent Tanar'ri can skip one or more forms.

Note that some of the demons in this list have not been officially classified and so we are just guessing which group they belong to.

===Least Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Mane]]s''': The lowest of the Tanar'ri and barely worth the name, Manes are a source of food and cannon fodder, herded at the enemy to tire them before the main forces strike. This is what a mortal becomes if they end up in the Abyss when they die, or depending on edition, the first form they take upon being promoted from Maggots, which are the forms that all petitioners take in the [[Lower Planes]].
<gallery>
Mane 1e.jpg
Mane 2e.gif
Mane.jpg
Mane 3e.jpg
Mane 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Dretch]]es''': Barely above the Manes, the Dretches are real Tanar'ri, albeit the lowest in rank. They suck up to the more powerful members of their race (pretty much all of them), and are treated as such in reply.
<gallery>
Dretch S4.png
Dretch 1e.jpg
Dretch 2e.gif
Dretch 3e.jpg
Dretch 4e.jpg
Dretch 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Rutterkin]]''': Vicious and despised by all other Tanar'ri, the Rutterkin are the preferred targets of higher-ranking demons for harassment, torture and murder. In return a Rutterkin will attack anything that they think they can kill without much risk to them.
<gallery>
Rutterkin S4.jpg
Rutterkin MM2 1e.jpg
Rutterkin ayy.png
Rutterkin 2e.jpg
Rutterkin 3e.jpg
Mane Rutterkin Barlgura.jpg
Rutterkin 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Gadacro]]''': A small sneaky demon that likes to blind enemies.
<gallery>
Gadacro.jpg
</gallery>

===Lesser Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Alu-fiend]]s''': The female child of a Succubus and a mortal, Alu-fiends can only be born into their rank. They are not physically powerful but they are powerful spellcasters and physically attractive, which makes them useful to the high-ups in the Abyss.
<gallery>
Alu-demon S4.png
Alu-fiend.gif
Aliisza.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Cambion]]s''': The opposite of their Alu-fiend sisters, Cambions are the children of a Tanar'ri and a female mortal. A major Cambion is born when the father is a Lesser or Greater Tanar'ri, while a True Tanar'ri sires a Baron or Marquise Cambion, who are significanlty more powerful than their lesser kin.
<gallery>
File:Cambion 1e.jpg
File:Cambion 2e.png
File:Cambion 3e.png
File:Cambion 4e.jpg
File:Cambion.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Armanite]]s''': The [[centaur]]s and [[bariaur]]s of the Abyss. They band together as mercenary groups and hire themselves out to whoever pays the most.
<gallery>
File:Armanite 2e.gif
File:Armanite 4e.jpg
File:armanite 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Maurezhi]]''': These Tanar'ri have the strange ability to gain the memories and experiences of whoever they eat. They can only be created by Abyssal Lords for specific missions, but can grow to new forms as usual.
<gallery>
File:Maurezhi 2e.png
File:Maurezhi 3e.jpg
File:Maurezhi 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Succubus]]''': You know them, you love them.
**'''[[Incubus]]''': The male version
<gallery>
5e Cubi.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Barlgura]]''' (also spelled Bar-Lgura): Gorilla-like (Orangutan-like in AD&D) Tanar'ri trained in guerilla warfare (yes, they really went for that pun), they are brutish, dumb, slow of mind and can casually rip your arm off. They get very annoyed when you call them "bar-igura", so please don't refer to them with sans-serif font. Pathfinder also has an orange gorilla demon, called a "baregara". Someone at Paizo must like to live dangerously.
<gallery>
Barlgura S4.png
Barlgura 1e.jpg
Barlgura 2.jpg
Barlgura 2e.gif
Barlgura 3e.jpg
Barlgura.jpg
Barlgura 4e.jpg
Barlgura 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Bulezau]]''': Rocking a traditional Satan-esque look, the Bulezau are powerful, elite soldiers who want nothing less than to murder all their enemies within sight.
<gallery>
File:Bulezau 2e.png
File:Bulezau 3e.jpg
File:Bulezau 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Jovoc]]''': A small black humanoid with red three-fingered claws. Whenever one of them is damaged, non-Tanar'ri creatures within 30 feet also take damage, and they also heal from their injuries very quickly.
<gallery>
File:Jovoc.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Solamith]]''': A large obese demon with a transparent stomach filled with the faces of the other demons and petitioners it has eaten. Their flesh is explosive, and they fight by tearing off pieces of their flesh and throwing them like bombs.
<gallery>
File:Solamith 1.jpg
File:Solamith 3e.jpg
File:Solamith 4e.jpg
File:Solamith 2.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Uridezu]]''': Cowardly rat people with a paralyzing bite, command over rats, and the ability to teleport between planes, but not during combat. They enjoy serving under a master, but because other demons abuse them they often are found serving mortal masters on the material plane.
<gallery>
File:Uridezu 2e.png
File:Uridezu 3e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Artaaglith]]''': Ram-like demons that serve [[Orcus]]. Were introduced in the [[Ghostwalk]] book.
<gallery>
Artaaglith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''Skurchur''': Introduced in [[Dragon Magazine]] #333. They like to disguise themselves as gnomes and halfings and worm their way into royal courts as advisors. They give rulers bad advice that will lead to suffering and chaos.
<gallery>
Skurchur Dragon 333.png
</gallery>

===Greater Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Nabassu]]''': Gargoyle-shaped things serving as the heralds of the Abyss, seducing humanoids to the service of the Abyss.
<gallery>
Nabassu 1e.png
Nabassu 2e.png
Nabassu 3e.jpg
Nabassu 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Chasme]]''': Huge fly-like things that seek out deserters of the [[Blood War]]. They mostly stay out of the affairs of others to carry out their duties.
<gallery>
Chasme S4 2.png
Chasme S4 1.png
Chasme 1e.jpg
Chasme 2e.gif
Chasme fight OHG.jpg
Chasme 3e.png
Chasme 4e.jpg
Chasme 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Babau]]''': The recruiters for the [[Blood War]]. Or rather than recruiting they press-gang other demons to fight. If they don't meet their quotas however they have to fight themselves.
<gallery>
Babau 1e.png
Babau 2e.gif
Babau 3e.jpg
Babau 4e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Goristro]]''': 20' [[Minotaur|bullmen]] that serve as living siege engines to topple walls and crush enemies below their feet. Mentioned in the second Monster Manual which forgot to write them up, so they had to be written up in ''Dragon'' instead.
<gallery>
Goristro 2e.gif
Goristro 3e.jpg
Goristro 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Palrethee]]''': Demons who attempted to become balors and failed become palrethees as punishiment. To further the humiliation, they often end up as subordinates to balors. They are emaciated humanoids with bony wings whose bodies are constantly on fire.
<gallery>
Palrethee.jpg
Palrethee 3e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Arrow Demon]]''': A grey skinned humanoid with four arms that can wield two longbows at the same time.
<gallery>
Arrow Demon.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Cerebrilith]]''': A large hunchbacked demon with an oversized protruding spine which its brain visibly extends into. They have psionic abilities.
<gallery>
Cerebrilith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Adaru]]''': A millipede with a man's face that is able to charm other tanar'ri and constantly produces a cloud around itself that is poisonous to non-evil creatures and strengthens evil creatures
<gallery>
Adaru 3e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Lilitu]]''': A promoted form of a Succubus that infiltrates and corrupts churches by pretending to be [[cleric]]s. They lose their wings but gain four tentacles with poison stingers. They have several of the abilities as a cleric. They are vulnerable to divine magic, but good spells and good magic items treat them as if they were good. By hugging a humanoid, they can place a magical tattoo on them for 24 hours that charges them with chaotic energy and allows the lilitu to communicate with and observe them.
<gallery>
Lilitu.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Kastighur]]''': Huge demons that act as the hunters and jailers of the abyss.
<gallery>
Kastighur.jpg
</gallery>
*'''Turagathshnee''': Servitors of demon lord [[Turaglas]] introduced alongside him in Dragon #312.
<gallery>
turagathshnee Dragon 312.jpg
</gallery>

===True Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Vrock]]''': Humanoid vultures that serve as elite soldiers in the [[Blood War]]. Not sure why they are listed as true tanar'ri, as they are actually weaker than several of the demons in both the lesser and greater classes.
<gallery>
Vrock 1e.jpg
Vrock 2e.gif
Vrock 3e.jpg
Vrock 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Hezrou]]''': Frog-shaped Tanar'ri possess a cool, sharp intellect that allows them to perform their duties in the [[Blood War]] with precision and dedication.
<gallery>
Hezrou 1e.jpg
Hezrou 2e.png
Hezrou Babau Dretch 3e.jpg
Hezrou 3e.png
Hezrou 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Glabrezu]]''': The primary summoning material, they are skilled at tempting their summoners and giving them plenty of gifts of power, only to withdraw said power at the worst possible moment to get them killed and pulled into the Abyss.
<gallery>
Glabrezu 1e.jpg
Glabrezu 2e.gif
Glabrezu Vrock 3e.jpg
Glabrezu Evistro Barlgura 4e.jpg
Glabrezu 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Alkilith]]''': The Type III.5 Demon, if you will. Oozes that can corrupt anything and anyone with a mere touch. They don't fight in the Blood War, mainly for practical reasons on account of them being oozes. If they stretch themselves around a doorway or window, they can create a portal to the Abyss.
<gallery>
Alkilith 2e.png
Alkilith 3e.jpg
Alkilith 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Nalfeshnee]]''': The pig-ape judges of the Abyss. All petitioners that enter the Abyss pass by a Nalfeshnee who judges them based on their lives and appoints them a new form. At least sometimes: other times they hand out forms at random. They also determine who gets to be in charge of the armies and who gets to be promoted, demoted or removed from (as in: destroyed) its ranks.
<gallery>
Nalfeshnee 1e.jpg
Nalfeshnee 2e.gif
Gabberslug.jpg
Nalfeshnee Quasit Succubus.jpg
Nalfeshnee 3e summon.jpg
Nalfeshnee 4e.jpg
Nalfeshnee 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Marilith]]''': [[Lamia|Attractive women with the lower body of a snake]] and six arms, they are the tacticians of the Abyss. They have keen minds, anticipate what the forces of Law are going to do and act upon it, much to the rage of the Baatezu who cannot understand the plots of the Marilith.
<gallery>
Marilith 1e.jpg
Marilith MM 2e.png
Marilith 2e.jpeg
3e Marilith.jpg
5e Marilith.jpg
Marilith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Balor]]''': The dreaded kings of the Abyss, Balors are the most powerful of the Tanar'ri aside from [[Demon Prince]]s and the rarely seen Klurichirs and Myrmyxicuses, serving as lords, generals and leaders, inspiring and threatening others into fighting for the cause. A mix of passion and reason, they are as intelligent and sharp as they are evil and chaotic. These are ''exactly'' the same as the [[Bloodthirster]] of Warhammer, right down to the flaming whips and being literally made evil and chaos (or [[Chaos]]) with the sole difference being that they use swords instead of axes. They like to eat doggies and beat up Pit Fiends in their spare time.
<gallery>
Balor 1e.jpg
Balor 2e.png
Balor 3e.jpg
Balor 4e.jpg
Balor Demonomicon.jpg
Balor 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Klurichir]]''': The most powerful type of Tanar'ri besides [[Demon Prince]]s. All other tanar'ri including balors are terrified of them. They have skin the color of a frostbitten corpse, four arms, black spines covering their neck and back, red wings, a face like a cross between a orc and a mule, and a giant second mouth with a huge pair of extremely sharp mandibles on their abdomen. They are the elite generals of the most powerful [[Demon Prince]]s and they usually only appear when their master wants to be absolutely sure that an important mission will be completed.
<gallery>
Klurichir 3e.png
Klurichir 4e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Myrmyxicus]]''': Another Tanar'ri that beats the Balor in power. They rule over the oceans of the Abyss. It looks like an giant eel with a reptile skull for a face, six goat horns, four arms, six tentacles around its waist, and a lamprey-mouth on the end of its tail.
<gallery>
Myrmyxicus Wastrilith Skulvyn.jpg|A myrmyxicus with a wastrilith and a skulvyn.
</gallery>
*'''[[Jarilith]]''': Demonic lions that like to hunt other demons.
<gallery>
Jarilith.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Kelvezu]]''': The infiltrators and assassins of the abyss. Aside from the pink skin and poisonous fingernails, they appear almost exactly like a short human.
<gallery>
Kelvezu.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Sorrowsworn]]''': Demons that appear in places where many people have suffered loss. They have an aura that causes feelings of loss in those around them. They read the minds of their enemies and use that to determine the best way to torment them by reminding them of things that cause them to feel more loss. A sorrowsworn demon is a large but skinny grey-skinned humanoid with black wings and a constantly frowning face. 4th Edition retconned their fluff, making them natives of the [[Shadowfell]] and not demons.
<gallery>
Sorrowsworn.jpg
Sorrowsworn 4e.jpg
</gallery>

===Guardian Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Molydeus]]''': The only Tanar'ri within this rank, a Molydeus stands outside of the ranks of the other Tanar'ri. Each demon prince has but one, who acts as their 2nd in command. Each one wears a special amulet around it's neck containing some of it's lord's Demon essence, acting as a sort of demonic Phylactery.
<gallery>
Molydeus 2e.jpg
Molydeus 3e.jpg
Molydeus 4e.jpg
</gallery>

===Ex Tanar'ri===
*'''[[Shadow Fiend]]''': The [[Fiend Folio]] Shadow Demon was summarily taken off the Tanar'ri list because TSR were too lazy to give it a made up name like "Penumbrilith", and "shadow tanar'ri" just sounded too lazy. It slunk back by way of Ravenloft, MC Appendix; then Planescape of course. It was still Chaotic Evil, and still hung out at the Abyss.
<gallery>
Shadow Demon 1e.png
Shadowfiend MC Ravenloft.jpg
Shadow fiend DoD.jpg
Shadow Demon 2e.gif
Shadow fiend DoD2.jpg
Shadow Demon 5e.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Blood Fiend]]''': A demon that became a vampire-like undead.
<gallery>
File:Blood fiend.jpg
</gallery>

===Generic and Unclassified Demons===
During second edition, demons were renamed Tanar'ri. When third edition was released, it was retconned so only some demons are considered Tanar'ri, with the rest being [[Loumara]] or [[Obyrith]] plus a few random demons that don't fit into any of the three. [[Dragon Magazine]] Issue #359 groups some of these demons into Servitors, demons created by gods like the yochlol, The Created, demons artificially created by less powerful beings like the quasit (even if the abyss has started forming them spontaneously like other demons), and Beasts, the abyss's equivalent of animals like the skulvyn. Additionally, during fourth and fifth edition several new demons were added and were never categorized. This list does not include monsters that were only demons in 4th edition, such as the various types of [[Yugoloth]]s. We will list these demons here because we don't have anywhere else to put them. This list is probably incomplete.

* '''[[Abyssal Drake]]''': A failed attempt to create flying mounts for demon lords by breeding demons with dragons and wyverns. Their breath deals fire and unholy damage at the same time.
<gallery>
Abyssal drake.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Eviscerator]]''': Dumb four armed demons that fight by grabbing enemies and tearing their guts open.
<gallery>
Eviscerator 4e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Maw]]''': A demon consisting of a [[Xorn|giant vertical mouth with three eyes and several short clawed arms]]. In 5th edition it is said that their mouth leads directly to the belly of [[Yeenoghu]].
<gallery>
Maw 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Scavenger]]''': A quadrupedal demon with a vertical mouth. These demons are individually very weak, but they are extremely dangerous to summon because they can multiply extremely fast if there are no other demons keeping their numbers in check, and they can form portals to the abyss when a large number of them are gathered in one place.
<gallery>
Abyssal scavenger.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Skulker]]''': Sneaky but weak demons. Looks very similar to the Abyssal Scavenger, probably because the scavenger recycled the design.
* '''[[Abyssal Ravager]]''': A demonic hyena with a scorpion tail. In fifth edition this demon was combined with the [[Shoosuva]].
<gallery>
File:Ravager maw skulker.jpg|An abyssal ravager, maw, and skulker.
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Rotfiend]]''': Undead demons with psychic powers made of demon and devil flesh stitched together.
<gallery>
Abyssal rotfiend.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Abyssal Wretch]]''': A victim killed by a Rutterkin or a Sybriex in 5th edition may rise as an abyssal wretch.
* '''[[Abyssal Wurm]]''': Two-headed half-centipede half-dragons born from [[Tiamat]] screwing a demon lord called Kothok. They are used for guarding portals in and out of the abyss.
<gallery>
Abyssal wurm.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Ash-Wrought Soulburner]]''' Fiery demons that once were [[Efreet]]i. They suck the heat out of living creatures.
<gallery>
Ashwrought soulburner.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Bebilith]]''': Giant spiders that hunt other demons.
<gallery>
Bebilith 2e.png
Bebilith 3e.jpg
Bebilith 4e.jpg
Bebilith PF 2e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Blood Demon]]''': Not to be confused with the blood fiend. These mysterious demons are [[Slime|oozes]] made of blood that randomly appear in the abyss in swarms before vanishing again. One theory is that they are the remains of an [[Obyrith]] lord killed by [[Tharizdun]] that are trying to reform.
<gallery>
Blood demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Bloodseep Demon]]''': Another four armed demon. They can spray blood from their body that heals other demons and is poisonous to other creatures.
<gallery>
Bloodseep demon 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Bonegouge Assassin]]''': Shadowy skeletons with big claws. These demons are believed to have been created by [[Orcus]] by transforming mortal assassins.
<gallery>
Bonegouge assassin.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Clockwork Horror]]''': Demonic constructs, usually resembling spiders. And they can multiply. They killed the demon lord that created them and swarmed across the abyss before the demon lord [[Haagenti]] managed to get control over them. They likely would have wiped out all organic life if he hadn't.
<gallery>
Clockwork horror 2e.png
Clockwork horror 3e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Consumptive Parasite]]''': Small demons that attack in massive swarms. They were once [[Slaad]] tadpoles corrupted by the abyss.
<gallery>
Consumptive parasite.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Deathdrinker]]''': Extremely arrogant demons with an aura that harms the living and heals undead.
<gallery>
Deathdrinker 3e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Demon Spawn]]''': The taint of the abyss sometimes causes mortals to give birth to demons. Evil spellcasters and [[Hag]]s can also create them on purpose with dark magic. They resemble their humanoid parents but with scary deformities.
<gallery>
Demon spawn.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Dust Demon]]''' Dust demons are formed from tribes of [[Djinn]]i who were transformed by the abyss into insane masses of living wind and debris. A single dust demon is actually made up of many smaller dust wisps which are each the corrupted soul of a Djinn. Theoretically it might be possible to transform a Dust Demon back into the Djinni it used to be by capturing a single wisp from it and healing it of its madness, then allowing it to return to the dust demon.
* '''[[Evanissu]]''' (City Corruptor): These demon appear in corrupt cities and work to make them even worse them though a campaign of murder and terror, leading a gang of criminals and other urban monsters.
<gallery>
City corruptor.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Evistro]]''' (Carnage Demon): Muscular demons with bright red skin. They become stronger when groups of them are close together, but they also have a tendency to attack their allies during combat.
<gallery>
Evistro.jpg
Evistro 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Ferrolith]]''': A [[Succubus]] that [[Wat|fell into a pool of molten iron]]. They gained iron-hard skin but lost their beauty.
<gallery>
Ferrolith.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Fire Demon]]''' Skeletal demons who are constantly on fire. Comes in lesser and standard forms.
<gallery>
Fire demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Guardian Demon]]''': These tentacled monstrosities get their name from the fact that they are easy to magically bind into service as a guardians. They come in two varieties, the weaker Abominations, and the powerful Soul Drinkers.
<gallery>
Guardian demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Ghour]]''': Another [[Minotaur]]-like demon engineered by [[Baphomet]]. Weaker than goristros but still powerful.
<gallery>
Ghour.jpg
Ghour attack.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Gnaw Demon]]''': Small annoying demons that are always eating and can teleport.
<gallery>
Gnaw demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Haures]]''': Undead demons with the upper body of a minotaur and the lower body of a giant spider, created by [[Orcus]] from the bodies of fallen Goristros.
<gallery>
Haures.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Immolith]]''': An undead demon skeleton that is also on fire.
<gallery>
Immolith 4e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Jarrlak]]''': Icy horrors who kidnap people and encase them in ice while keeping them alive so they slowly die over decades in an icy torment.
<gallery>
Jarrlak.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Malgodemon]]''': A large and scary looking but not very smart demon that serves smarter creatures as thugs. They are extremely greedy and can be easily bribed into turning on their current master. Oddly, this creature is named similarly to the other demons that were [[Yugoloth]]s or daemons in editions other than 4th, and it is associated with [[Raavasta]], which is 4th edition's version of the arcanaloth, but there doesn't seem to be a yugoloth or daemon version of the malgodemon in other editions, unless it is in an obscure source.
<gallery>
Malgodemon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Mahataa]]''': Blind but very powerful demons made of mud.
<gallery>
Mahataa.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Mavawhan]]''': Icy demons whose claws contain a venom that turns victims into ice.
<gallery>
Mavawhan.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Nashrou]]''': Alien-looking demons with four legs and six arms, but no head, just a cluster of eyes where their twisted limbs all connect. They are surprisingly weak and can be instantly killed by hitting them in the right place.
<gallery>
Nashrou 3e.webp
</gallery>
* '''[[Needle Demon]]''': Spiky demons that mind control people into thinking their allies have betrayed them.
* '''[[Neldrazu]]''': Yet another four armed demon. At least these ones look a little different. They have pincers on all four arms instead of hands and four eyes and a single tentacle on the back of their head. They ambush enemies while they are in combat with other demons and teleport away with the enemy to separate them from their group.
<gallery>
Neldrazu Needle demon Nycademon 4e.png|Neldrazu, Needle Demon and Nycademon/[[Yugoloth|Nycaloth]]. The artist apparently made a mistake because the Neldrazu should be the same size as the Needle demon, not the Nycaloth.
</gallery>
* '''[[Kazrith]]''': A powerful eel-like aquatic demon. They can also rapidly travel underground using acid to melt through the ground.
<gallery>
Kazrith Rupture demon.png|A Kazrith and a Rupture Demon
</gallery>
* '''[[Pod Demon]]''': A large green slimy hulk that produces smaller minions from the pimples on its body that it uses as living weapons.
<gallery>
Pod demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Quarrak]]''': These small goblin-like demons are actually very powerful for their size. All quarraks have a twin they are constantly fighting with when they are not fighting together against other creatures. If one dies the other will die a few days later.
<gallery>
Quarrak.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Quasit]]''': The chaotic version of an [[Imp]].
<gallery>
File:Quasit 1e.jpg
File:Quasit 2e.png
File:Quasit 3e.png
File:Quasit 4e.jpg
File:Quasit-5e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Rageborn]]''': Ape-like demons who serve [[Kostchtchie]]
<gallery>
Rageborn Demonomicon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Retriever]]''': Technically not a demon, but actually a powerful construct resembling a giant spider created by demons. In 5th edition they are creations of [[Drow]] instead of demons.
<gallery>
Retriever 1e.png
Retriever FF 2e.jpg
Retriever 2e.png
Retriever 3e.jpg
Retriever 4e.png
Retriever 5e.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Ruin Demon]]''': Demon-shaped swarms of flies with human faces that consume all other organic creatures except for plants.
<gallery>
Ruin demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Runespiral Demon]]''': A demon that wears a rune covered shell on its back like a hermit crab. Their are multiple types of Runespiral demon but the most common ones shoot lightning.
<gallery>
Runespiral demon.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Rupture Demon]]''': Tentacled blobs of darkness that sacrifice themselves to restrain enemies so stronger demons can kill them. When a rupture demon dies they also release an explosion of goo and tentacles that heals and boosts the power of another demon.
<gallery>
Kazrith Rupture demon.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Shoosuva]]''': An obscure undead hyena monster that only appeared in magazines until it got to a appear in a book for the first time in 5th edition. Now instead of an undead, it is a demon hyena that serves [[Yeenoghu]], given only to [[gnoll]]s who have earned his favor. Looks like a giant hyena with a scorpion's tail.
<gallery>
File:Shoosuva 1e.png
File:Shoosuva 3e.png
File:Shoosuva 5e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Scion of Zuggtmoy]]''': Fungus-infested skeletal demons made of demons and mortals transformed by being buried alive in [[Zuggtmoy]]'s Gardens of Rot, or by being infected with the spores of another Scion.
<gallery>
Scion of zuggtmoy.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Seszrath]]''': An undead demon formed from many corpses fused together. It is a huge hulking creature with octopuses for hands, the feet of an elephant, a huge lamprey mouth on its belly, and a small head.
<gallery>
Seszrath.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Shaadee]]''': An undead demon formed from the soul of a mortal spellcaster who swore themselves to a demon lord in life and their master forced them to continue serving in death.
<gallery>
Shaadee.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Skulvyn]]''': A lesser aquatic demon with an aura that slows down other creatures around it, resembling a lizard with webbed feet and four tails.
<gallery>
Myrmyxicus Wastrilith Skulvyn.jpg
Skulvyn.png
</gallery>
* '''[[Spawn of Juiblex]]''': These [[Slime|ooze]] demons are formed from pieces of [[Juiblex]] and so they resemble smaller copies of him.
<gallery>
Spawn of juiblex.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Tomb Demon]]''': A serpentine demon with a pair of bony arms. The first Tomb demons spawned from the battlefield where [[Orcus]] and his army battled and defeated the demon lord Sylbarax and his army who used to be servants of the snake god [[Zehir]].
<gallery>
Tomb demon eva widermann.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Voracalith]]''': The most gluttonous of all demon. They resemble humanoids with four long tentacles with stingers on the ends growing from their back.
<gallery>
Voracalith.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Whisper Demon]]''': Ghostly demons who try to drive mortals into committing suicide. They could turn those who died around them into [[Allip]]s under their control.
<gallery>
Whisper demon 3e.webp
</gallery>
* '''[[Writhing Crag]]''': Evil [[Roper|tentacled boulders]] that were once some elemental earth creatures such as [[Xorn]]s.
<gallery>
Soulburner Crag Parasite.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Wastrilith]]''': Another eel-like aquatic demon.
<gallery>
Wastrilith 2e.gif
Myrmyxicus Wastrilith Skulvyn.jpg
Wastrilith 5e.png
</gallery>
*'''[[Wendigo]]''': A demon that possesses a person who has committed the sin of [[Cannibalism]] and transforms them into a monster.
<gallery>
Wendigo Demonomicon.jpg
</gallery>
*'''[[Yochlol]]''': The handmaidens of [[Lolth]], the Yochlol are shapeshifters who can freely change between their [[drow]] form, a spider form or that of [[slime|a great mass of yellow ooze with a single staring eye]]. They enjoy Lolth's protection from other demons and act like it, but they'll get brutally murdered if another demon thinks it can get away with it.
<gallery>
File:Yochlol 1e.png
File:Yochlol 2e.png
File:Yochlol 3e.jpg
File:Yochlol 4e.jpg
File:Yochlol 5e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Zovvut]]''': Muscular demons with massive claws, feathered wings, and three eyes. Probably created by [[Orcus]]. It can heal itself by draining life from those who look into its eyes. Victims who are killed this way rise as [[wight]]s. In 4th edition, Zovvuts were redesigned to be prettier and they were retconned into being fallen angels of [[Tharizdun]].
<gallery>
Jovoc Palrethee Zovvut 3e.jpg
Zuvvut 4e.jpg
</gallery>
* '''[[Zythar]]''': Powerful demons resembling a humanoid flame wearing armor.
<gallery>
Zythar.jpg
</gallery>

==Demon Lords==
The first amongst the demons, the lords of the Tanar'ri (more commonly known as Demon Lords) are some of the most powerful, dangerous, cunning and deadly beings in existence. They attained their position by strength of arms and cleverness (mostly the former) to rule over their servants. Those who wish to challenge their lords are quickly struck down as an example and to keep the other minions in line. The most powerful of the demon lords are the [[Demon Prince]]s.

{{D&D-Outsiders}}

METAL

2021-06-15T01:07:52Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B:

'''METAL''' refers to aspects of RPG, or its artwork, featuring in the best 1970s ''Metal Hurlant'' French tradition.

Here we expect spiky, bloodstained armor; [[Berserk|swords far too large for any reasonable biped to swing]]; towers made of prisoners chained together; and Cenobites from the Order of the Gash.

==METAL Product==
* ''[[Hellbound: The Blood War]]''
* [[Warhammer 40,000]]
* [[Coenobite]]
* [[Kyton]]
* ''Iuz the Evil''
* The Worldwound in Golarion
* most of The [[Abyss]]
* maybe a third of [[Baator]]
* [[Acheron]]

[[Category:Meme]]

Hexmark Destroyer

2021-06-15T00:38:31Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B:

{{Awesome}}
[[File:Hexmark_Destroyer.jpg|240px|right|thumb| A new sheriff is in town.]]
The <strike>Hexmark Destroyer</strike> '''Glock-topus''' is the proverbial and literal lovechild between a [[Deathmark]], a [[Necron Destroyer|Destroyer]] and a [[Awesome|six-armed Western gunslinger.]] These bad brotherfuckers are armed with six [[Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol|Enmitic Disintegrator Pistols]] to proverbially fuck shit up [[Awesome|whilst looking cool at doing it.]]

Hexmark Destroyers are six-armed Necron Deathmarks who are part of the Destroyer Cult and want nothing more than to kill everything around them. In battle, they burst from their dimensional oubliettes, and the Destroyers' corrupted engrams aid them in targeting and dispatching nearby enemies in a hail of enmitic disintegrator fire.

Seeing as how they are Deathmarks who had fallen to the Destroyer curse, the Hexmark Destroyer takes the Deathmarks’ propensity for surprise attacks to epic levels.

==The Hexmark is not a Plasma-gun Terminator==

You'd think with a design this cool and a model this hyped up by the community, it couldn't be complete trash. And yet.

The Hexmark has a solid frame, pristine 2+ ballistic skill and rerolls on your 1s for good measure. Even in melee he isn't bad with 3+ weapon skill and 4 attacks. Here's the thing: '''his weapon is trash'''. Sadly, our boy is the proof that you cannot in fact give the ultimate gunslinger terrible guns and have him perform.

With him, you get [[Enmitic Weapons|6 pistols which are each S6 AP-1 and 1 lonely damage]]. Since he doesn't have a melee weapon either, his hits are gonna be S5 AP-0 damage 1 as well. His rule of getting an extra shot off if he kills a model is cute, but seldom going to come into play against MEQs. And Necrons just don't have problems dealing with hordes with their basic units.

Hitting things is not the issue with him, it's that his best case damage against low toughness, low save models is relatively alright. But against Primaris? Hell, against the 2 Wound Firstborn? [[Derp|He averages less than two wounds.]] This is for a model which cannot be taken in squads and takes up the extremely valuable elite slot (incredibly crowded in 9th edition). Hopefully he can get improvements in future erratas.

* '''Counter point''': Sure he isn't going to earn his points back very well against marines but marines aren't really his target anyway. His targets are squishy stuff like guardsmen, dire avengers/guardians and fire warriors. Otherwise the Hexmark's fate will very much depend on the ebbs and flows of the meta, and he could become a valuable source of buffs and damage in some lists (being a character means he can dispense Command Protocols as long as a Noble is on the table).

A little quick math notes that against marines you're looking at about one marine dead per shooting phase. If the marines try to charge him, he's killing another one in overwatch (bs 2+ with rerolls), and surviving the initial fight phase unless they're extra killy. His melee won't do much, but he will then get to shoot again (pistols in melee!). By this point he's up to three-ish marines. Against most line MEQs, this isn't points-efficient... But you're not sending him at 'most MEQs'. You're supporting Flayed Ones or Deathmarks on a flank to kill Devastators (against whom three models is absolutely points-efficient), or drop a Command Squad while contesting an objective, or mowing down some unfortunate Eldar that assumed the backfield was safe. If you look at this guy as a deep-striking meltagun squad, you're likely going to be disappointed. But if you're looking for a sudden distraction carnifex with an actual answer to melee, especially against 1w models? You could do a lot worse for 75 points.

If you really want to lean on the guy, bring friends. Deathmarks, Flayed Ones, Ophidian Destroyers, hell even Monoliths can deep strike, and every single thing there is a bigger and more immediate threat than the Hexmark. Put him and a cheap group of flayed ones near somebody's fragile fire support and watch them squirm.

Just don't compare him to the Kelermorph, who does exactly what the Hexmark does but is way better at it. GW...

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
File:Ko8q8jld8ri51.jpg|"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living. I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live."

File:Texas Ranger with a Big Guass on His Hip.jpg| “Big Gauss on his hiiiiiiiiiip”

</gallery>

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Necrons]]

{{Necrons-Forces}}

Enmitic Weapons

2021-06-15T00:37:16Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B:

Enmitic Weapons are a new type of [[Necron]] weapons. What these things are, we have no fucking clue as the word Enmitic does not exist in the English language. The closest we could get is that it may be spawned from the word 'enigmatic', which essentially means "mysterious".....[[Derp|which basically tells us nothing about these guns.]] 'Enmity' is also a word, meaning "The quality of being an enemy", something with enmity could be described as 'Enmitic'. [[Herp|This also tells us precisely nothing about these guns.]] From the 9th Ed Necron Codex, Enmitic Weapons creates pulses which when hit causes the victims atoms to be repelled from each other violently. Functionally the same as Necron [[Gauss]] weapons (both are disintegration rays) but more explosive. Imagine something akin to the District 9 microwave gun. <s>Still have no idea why its called Enmitic however.</s> They obviously turn friendly and connected atoms into terrible enemies. And two enemy atoms in close proximity get so mad that they shoot off in opposite directions in order to avoid each other. Genius GW strikes again

== Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol ==
[[File:Hexamark_Enmitic_Pistol.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol]]
The small kid brother of the family.

The Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol(s) are the main weapons of the gunslinger extraordinaire, the [[Hexmark Destroyer]]. The Destroyer [[MOAR DAKKA|holds SIX of these bad boys]], allowing the Destroyer to go guns blazing like something out of an old Western. Nevertheless, as a pistol, its range ain't impressive, although its effective firing range is the same as the much larger Enmitic Annhilator. So pound for pound, it has a faster fire rate than its big bro.

Rules wise, the Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol is an 18" Pistol 1 weapon. Pretty long range for a pistol. It is S6 and AP-1, allowing it to punch straight through MEQs (Trust us, with the buffed Primaris Marines, that is a ''good thing'') whilst dealing 1 damage per shot. Whilst that 1 damage may not sound like a lot, do take note that the Hexmark Destroyer has, and I shall repeat, '''SIX''' of these damned things. <s>Six shots equal bye bye Primaris Marines</s> Sadly you're averaging one dead Marine per turn, two dead Marines on a really good roll, and even then only if your [[exploding dice]] are equally good.
{{Clear}}

== Enmitic Annihilator ==

[[File:Enmitic_Annhilator.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Enmitic Annihilator]]

The Enmitic Annihilator is a type of Necron weapon used by Skorpekh Lords.

It is the only known ranged weapon of the Skorpekh Lord and is considered as the [[Plasma Cannon]] of the family. Despite this, the sheer UNIT of the Skorpekh Lord makes the weapon appear and function more like [[Powergamer|''a pistol'']]. Despite this, it falls short of the horde beatstick known as the Enmitic Exterminator, so it is treated more as a support weapon than the primary gun.

Crunchwise, despite its size, it's got shortish range at 18", but 2d3, S6, AP-1 Blast shots are a nice starting point to give the lord just enough shooting power to take the edge off whatever he's about to puree with that giant claw of his. This thing deals with horde armies, especially tarpitters, so if you wanna trim the ensuing meat wave into manageable meat chunks, this is the gun for you.
{{Clear}}

== Enmitic Exterminator ==
[[File:Enmitic_Exterminator.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Enmitic Exterminator]]
Enmitic Exterminator is a type of Necron weapon used by Lokhust Destroyers and are the big proverbial fuckstick of the family. Looking like a giant brick filled with a bundle of glowing PCP pipes. This [[Dakka|six-barrelled FUCK OFF cannon]] is used to completely [[Anal circumference|assrape]] whoever pissed off the local Overlord in the morning.

On the tabletop, the Enmitic Exterminator is your primary anti-infantry weapon for your Lokhust Heavy Destroyer. A 36" Heavy 3D3 weapon. This heavy sone-of-a-gun is a S7, AP-1 ''Blast'' weapon that deals 1 damage per shot. Horde armies are gonna melt and MEQs are going to <s>cry bitter tears as a single blast wipes half the squad from the face of the earth</s> duck for cover as this thing pumps out the damage the Hexmark Destroyer only wishes he could. With the beefed-up Primaris in 9th Ed, you ''NEED'' it.
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Necrons]]

[[Category: Weapons]]

[[Category: Warhammer Weapons]]

{{40k-Necron-Weapons}}

Enmitic Weapons

2021-06-15T00:35:57Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B:

Enmitic Weapons are a new type of [[Necron]] weapons. What these things are, we have no fucking clue as the word Enmitic does not exist in the English language. The closest we could get is that it may be spawned from the word 'enigmatic', which essentially means "mysterious".....[[Derp|which basically tells us nothing about these guns.]] 'Enmity' is also a word, meaning "The quality of being an enemy", something with enmity could be described as 'Enmitic'. [[Herp|This also tells us precisely nothing about these guns.]] From the 9th Ed Necron Codex, Enmitic Weapons creates pulses which when hit causes the victims atoms to be repelled from each other violently. Functionally the same as Necron [[Gauss]] weapons (both are disintegration rays) but more explosive. Imagine something akin to the District 9 microwave gun. <s>Still have no idea why its called Enmitic however.</s> They obviously turn friendly and connected atoms into terrible enemies. And two enemy atoms in close proximity gets so mad that they turn the other way in order to avoid each other. Genius GW strikes again

== Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol ==
[[File:Hexamark_Enmitic_Pistol.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol]]
The small kid brother of the family.

The Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol(s) are the main weapons of the gunslinger extraordinaire, the [[Hexmark Destroyer]]. The Destroyer [[MOAR DAKKA|holds SIX of these bad boys]], allowing the Destroyer to go guns blazing like something out of an old Western. Nevertheless, as a pistol, its range ain't impressive, although its effective firing range is the same as the much larger Enmitic Annhilator. So pound for pound, it has a faster fire rate than its big bro.

Rules wise, the Enmitic Disintegrator Pistol is an 18" Pistol 1 weapon. Pretty long range for a pistol. It is S6 and AP-1, allowing it to punch straight through MEQs (Trust us, with the buffed Primaris Marines, that is a ''good thing'') whilst dealing 1 damage per shot. Whilst that 1 damage may not sound like a lot, do take note that the Hexmark Destroyer has, and I shall repeat, '''SIX''' of these damned things. <s>Six shots equal bye bye Primaris Marines</s> Sadly you're averaging one dead Marine per turn, two dead Marines on a really good roll, and even then only if your [[exploding dice]] are equally good.
{{Clear}}

== Enmitic Annihilator ==

[[File:Enmitic_Annhilator.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Enmitic Annihilator]]

The Enmitic Annihilator is a type of Necron weapon used by Skorpekh Lords.

It is the only known ranged weapon of the Skorpekh Lord and is considered as the [[Plasma Cannon]] of the family. Despite this, the sheer UNIT of the Skorpekh Lord makes the weapon appear and function more like [[Powergamer|''a pistol'']]. Despite this, it falls short of the horde beatstick known as the Enmitic Exterminator, so it is treated more as a support weapon than the primary gun.

Crunchwise, despite its size, it's got shortish range at 18", but 2d3, S6, AP-1 Blast shots are a nice starting point to give the lord just enough shooting power to take the edge off whatever he's about to puree with that giant claw of his. This thing deals with horde armies, especially tarpitters, so if you wanna trim the ensuing meat wave into manageable meat chunks, this is the gun for you.
{{Clear}}

== Enmitic Exterminator ==
[[File:Enmitic_Exterminator.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Enmitic Exterminator]]
Enmitic Exterminator is a type of Necron weapon used by Lokhust Destroyers and are the big proverbial fuckstick of the family. Looking like a giant brick filled with a bundle of glowing PCP pipes. This [[Dakka|six-barrelled FUCK OFF cannon]] is used to completely [[Anal circumference|assrape]] whoever pissed off the local Overlord in the morning.

On the tabletop, the Enmitic Exterminator is your primary anti-infantry weapon for your Lokhust Heavy Destroyer. A 36" Heavy 3D3 weapon. This heavy sone-of-a-gun is a S7, AP-1 ''Blast'' weapon that deals 1 damage per shot. Horde armies are gonna melt and MEQs are going to <s>cry bitter tears as a single blast wipes half the squad from the face of the earth</s> duck for cover as this thing pumps out the damage the Hexmark Destroyer only wishes he could. With the beefed-up Primaris in 9th Ed, you ''NEED'' it.
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Necrons]]

[[Category: Weapons]]

[[Category: Warhammer Weapons]]

{{40k-Necron-Weapons}}

Gremishka

2021-06-14T23:00:33Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B:

{{dnd-stub}}
{{NeedsImages}}

'''Gremishkas''' are wicked, spiteful, lizard-monkey-rat-things that infest the dark corners of the [[Demiplane of Dread]], especially the magocratic realm of Hazlan. They come into being when rookie spellcasters try (and fail) to create life, creating these bastards instead. Gremishkas have an appetite for magical stuff such as spellbooks, spell components, and familiars, and love to troll the mages that gave them life. Despite their strong connection to magic, the use of it in their proximity can have unpredictable results, either healing them, bouncing off of them and hitting someone else, or, worst of all, causing the gremishka to explode into scaly chunks. These chunks then regenerate into fully grown duplicates of the original gremishka, and immediately form a swarm that is almost immune to spells of 3rd level and lower! In short, these [[Ravenloft]] beasties are basically expies of the titular monsters from the movie [[Gremlin]]s.

[[Category: Monsters]] [[Category: Ravenloft]]

Gremishka

2021-06-14T22:55:47Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:D873:4375:23D9:388B:

{{dnd-stub}}
{{NeedsImages}}

'''Gremishkas''' are wicked, spiteful, lizard-monkey-rat-things that infest the dark corners of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]. They come into being when rookie spellcasters try (and fail) to create life, creating these bastards instead. Gremishkas have an appetite for magical stuff such as spellbooks, spell components, and familiars, and love to troll the mages that gave them life. Despite their strong connection to magic, the use of it in their proximity can have unpredictable results, either healing them, bouncing off of them and hitting someone else, or, worst of all, causing the gremishka to explode into scaly chunks. These chunks then regenerate into fully grown duplicates of the original gremishka, and immediately form a swarm that is almost immune to spells of 3rd level and lower! In short, these [[Ravenloft]] beasties are basically expies of the titular monsters from the movie [[Gremlin]]s.

[[Category: Monsters]] [[Category: Ravenloft]]