Forgotten Realms: How old are demons/devils/PHB races?

[The Shadowdove]

Hey forum-lurkers,

Just how old are demons and devils compared to phb races in FR?

How much older are the various PHB races than one another for that matter?

Thanks!

[Unoriginal]

Not sure if it's relevant to the FR lore, but the PHB implies all the species in the PHB were created at the same time.

As for the devils/demons, well, I don't think when they appeared is ever mentioned (or if it's even possible to say, given how time works in the planes).

[Lombra]

The generic lore of demons and devils relates them to the birth of their respective planes of existance, so way older than any living creature. I think that in comparison to our world, it would be something like dinosaur extinction ÷ nowadays, but you are free to choose yourself for an homebrew campaign.

[Khrysaes]

I am pretty sure there is a book titled grand history of the realms or some such from 3rd edition, so it is only a 110 years off or so.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:History

is a good resource, having the history start about 36500 years ago.

[Naanomi]

A trickier question than you think, given that almost none of the PHB races were likely created on the plane of Forgotten Realms... but rather they were imported from other worlds by actions of the Gods, old magical empires, and planar portals.

Fiends have existed in some form since the beginning of the Outer Planes; so for the overwhelming majority of history (but not since the moment of creation of the Great Wheel cosmology).

The current races of Fiends, however, were not the originals. Originally, Baernoloth (proto-fiends in the 'evil part' of the great wheel that would later become the Grey Wastes) experimented with making new types of fiends, and produced the Ancient Baatorians (LE), Obyriths (CE), and Yugoloth (NE) before fading into the background of planar events.

The Ancient Baatorians almost all disappeared from the universe before Asmodeus (probably) moved into Baator and had a hand in creating the modern Baatezu sometime before or during the Great War between Law and Chaos. In the middle of the Great War of Law and Chaos, Obyrith's created the modern form of demon (Tanar'ri) from mortal souls and were ultimately (for the most part) overthrown by them just after the war's 'end'.

Mortal races existed at this time, including several that you are familiar with (Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, probably Dwarves) but none were the 'main races' on the Prime Material Plane (or elsewhere) until much later. Some proto-race on the Prime probably helped spread them around (the 'true ancestors'); along with the various racial pantheons of Gods.

The origin of the Dragonborn in all of this is a bit of a mystery (since 4e, where the modern Dragonborn came from, didn't follow any semblance of planar history and didn't take place on the great wheel anyways); and humans didn't appear to exist at this time (the origins of humans is a bit of a mystery, maybe being created by a now dead god but more likely being the result of breeding between two other now-faded prime material races)

But... long story short... demons and devils existed *way* before any of the races on the Prime, but the modern form of Demons (and possibly Devils) are about the same age as many of the mortal Prime races. The Prime races themselves existed before Abeir-Toril, and were imported there at various points in time, making the question a bit moot from a Forgotten Realms only perspective anyways.

[Unoriginal]

A trickier question than you think, given that almost none of the PHB races were likely created on the plane of Forgotten Realms... but rather they were imported from other worlds by actions of the Gods, old magical empires, and planar portals.

Fiends have existed in some form since the beginning of the Outer Planes; so for the overwhelming majority of history (but not since the moment of creation of the Great Wheel cosmology).

The current races of Fiends, however, were not the originals. Originally, Baernoloth (proto-fiends in the 'evil part' of the great wheel that would later become the Grey Wastes) experimented with making new types of fiends, and produced the Ancient Baatorians (LE), Obyriths (CE), and Yugoloth (NE) before fading into the background of planar events.

The Ancient Baatorians almost all disappeared from the universe before Asmodeus (probably) moved into Baator and had a hand in creating the modern Baatezu sometime before or during the Great War between Law and Chaos. In the middle of the Great War of Law and Chaos, Obyrith's created the modern form of demon (Tanar'ri) from mortal souls and were ultimately (for the most part) overthrown by them just after the war's 'end'.

Mortal races existed at this time, including several that you are familiar with (Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, probably Dwarves) but none were the 'main races' on the Prime Material Plane (or elsewhere) until much later. Some proto-race on the Prime probably helped spread them around (the 'true ancestors'); along with the various racial pantheons of Gods.

The origin of the Dragonborn in all of this is a bit of a mystery (since 4e, where the modern Dragonborn came from, didn't follow any semblance of planar history and didn't take place on the great wheel anyways); and humans didn't appear to exist at this time (the origins of humans is a bit of a mystery, maybe being created by a now dead god but more likely being the result of breeding between two other now-faded prime material races)

But... long story short... demons and devils existed *way* before any of the races on the Prime, but the modern form of Demons (and possibly Devils) are about the same age as many of the mortal Prime races. The Prime races themselves existed before Abeir-Toril, and were imported there at various points in time, making the question a bit moot from a Forgotten Realms only perspective anyways.

It should be noted that 5e significantly changed some of the parts of this lore.

For exemple, it is said humans were created by the gods along the other humanoids, the Yugoloths were created under Asmodeus's order way after the Devils and the Demons, and the gods had a war with other entities (which they won) before they could have dominion of the world and could put their creations on it.

[Naanomi]

It should be noted that 5e significantly changed some of the parts of this lore.

For exemple, it is said humans were created by the gods along the other humanoids, the Yugoloths were created under Asmodeus's order way after the Devils and the Demons, and the gods had a war with other entities (which they won) before they could have dominion of the world and could put their creations on it.
Yes true. That was all 2e/3.x history there. Though the ‘Gods war against other beings’ could be a reference to either 4e’s Primordeals or 1Es Draeden