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Guinea Anubis
2008-10-08, 07:09 AM
So I am running a home brewed game and had to make some stuff up about the 9 he**s real fast lastnight and messed things up a little and need some help in fixing it.

To give you a little background, my PCs are trying to stop a Tiefling from using a sword to kill the last in the family line of 7 hero's that used there own blood line to seal a powerful demon in the sword.

Now Here is where I messed up a little. I told them/let them find out that the sword hold's one of the 9 demon princes, I made an opps by showing them a pic of a balor and saying "one of these but a little bigger, badder, and meaner. They have gone to great lengths to find out more information, So I again let them find out more information and told them that each of the 9 rules 1 ring of He** under Orcus. My players told me that they want to research the name off all 9 He**s and all 9 princes to see if they can get any information that could help them.

So getting some notes together for the next game night I see I messed up things a little by switching Demons and Devils. So since this is a home brewed world I was just going to go with it. The question is now how can I run with this will out messing things up more since some of the stuff in the PHD make references to this stuff.

Eldritch_Ent
2008-10-08, 07:15 AM
First off, if you don' watch your language, Gosh will Darn you to Heck.

Second off, an easy fix would be to just switch Demons and Devils. There are LOTS of Demon princes to choose from- you can find them in the fiend folios. Like Beelzebub, the minotaur king, and, umm, the Nightshroud... the... One demon queen who wears veils because her real appearence makes the universe divide by zero.

Asbestos
2008-10-08, 09:45 AM
Yeah, just swap the populations of the Hells and the Abyss, should be fine. You could keep the other leaders of the Nine Hells in place... and just swap Asmodeus for Orcus perhaps? That might make things easier.

Inyssius Tor
2008-10-08, 09:51 AM
Tip: the word "hell" has been considered socially acceptable for, what, two hundred years now?

Second: yeah, you've got the standard cosmology pretty mixed up there. You can always change this stuff in your own game, of course, and it looks like you don't have any other choice now, but this is how it is in the books:

For information on the Nine Hells, which are (in the standard cosmology) ruled by Asmodeus, try wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baator). Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_the_Nine_Hells)'s a load of poorly-written information about the Lords of the Nine Hells, and here (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4art/20061208a) are some pictures to go along with that. That's all 3.X edition stuff, but it should still be applicable.

Then there's the Abyss, which isn't much like the Nine Hells. It's totally chaotic, more-or-less infinite, and has no one set ruler. It's divided up into a near-infinite number of domains, and each domain (except for a few of them; I think the spider god Lolth rules one) is controlled by a Demon Prince--corrupted primordial creatures of the same kind that created the universe long ago. The demon princes are always fighting for power, so their hierarchy's kind of fluid, but at the moment the top two Demon Princes are Demogorgon (http://wizards.com/dnd/images/fc1_gallery/98446.jpg) (who I don't know much about) and Orcus. Orcus (http://wizards.com/dnd/images/fc1_gallery/98462.jpg) is crazy powerful, but doesn't actually hang out in the Abyss much anymore. He spends his time in the Shadowfell, which is pretty much the Land of the Dead, ruling over a kingdom of various undead things and trying to usurp power from the Raven Queen, 4e's goddess of death. Other Demon Princes include Yeenoghu, Demon Prince of Gnolls (http://wizards.com/files/364_Demonomicon.pdf); Juiblex (http://wizards.com/dnd/images/fc1_gallery/98453.jpg); Baphomet (http://wizards.com/dnd/images/fc1_gallery/98440.jpg), worshipped by minotaurs; and Grazzt (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dramp/20081003) (scroll down to find him).

For a ludicrous amount of additional information, look for the Fiendish Codex I and the Fiendish Codex II. They're really excellent books, even if they were written for 3.X edition.

Yakk
2008-10-08, 09:55 AM
Ok, let's steal the core 4e cosmology as backstory.

There is the shard of chaos, the devils who rose up and killed a god, and demons are corrupted elementals (and orcus is a corrupted primodeal).

During the primodeal war, after it seemed as if the Gods where certain to win, the Angels of one God rose up and slew him, claiming the power of Godhood for themselves. The other Gods where aghast -- but they could not afford to turn their might on this newly forged God.

Instead, they trapped him in the 9 hells. With a contract. Asmodeus could not leave the 9 hells by his own power, but the Gods could not enter while Asmodeus existed. Similar bonds trapped every other Devil, none able to leave their domain without the power being supplied externally.

This distracting caused a setback in the war against the Primordial. But, in the end, the Gods where victorious. The Primordial where beaten back.

However, one of them -- Orcus -- a Primordial corrupted by the shard of chaos was driven into Hell by the battle. There, Orcus turned on the Devils.

The Battle was long, but Orcus defeated Asmodeus -- at least enough to take the crown of Hell -- and has since built up Hell in an attempt to break free and destroy all that the Gods had wrought.

Asmodeus was defeated, but Orcus needed him alive to keep the other Gods out of his redoubt. So Asmodeus is chained in eternal pain -- and conspiring against Orcus.

Orcus captured and corrupted elementals to produce demon lieutenants. The Devils are mostly aghast, but are bound to obey the sovereign of hell so long as he carries the scepter.

This, naturally, only applies to direct orders, and explicit attacks.

So the Devils are still seeking deals with beings outside of Hell, to gain access to the rest of existence. They are being lorded over by Demons under the Demon-Prince Orcus, who is attempting to build an army forged out of the souls of the damned, corrupted elementals, and enslaved Devils, in order to bring the war back to the Gods. The Devils don't really want much of this (well, some -- they wouldn't mind the Gods falling, but they sort of like reality, and don't want it turned into a void).

Some of the Princes of the 9 hells are the old Devils, others are Demons brought in by Orcus.

Naturally, the players shouldn't get this information. They get constradictory information -- some say that Orcus is the Sovereign of Hell, others say Asmodeus is. Some say that Hell is full of Demons and Devils that used to be Angels, others say that Demons and Devils are completely different beings. Information on the princes of hell is extremely sketchy -- the servants of the Gods consider Hell-knowledge to be dangerous, as it leads to Hell-bargains, which weaken the prison that the Devils are in and let them touch the world.

It is said that uttering the true name of a Prince of Hell while holding the bloody and still-beating heart of male and female virgin in each hand will summon the Prince to you, and while the hearts still beat the Prince cannot harm you.

It is said that the Devils will offer riches beyond your imagination, but every deal will turn against you.

It is said that knowing the name of a Prince of Hell gives that Prince the ability to see through your eyes. Speaking the name of a Prince of Hell means that the Prince can possess you for 1 heartbeat a year for the rest of your life. Writing the name of a Prince of Hell means that you are no longer able to oppose the actions of that Prince in this world.

Inyssius Tor
2008-10-08, 04:06 PM
Oh, that's nice. I might change that to imply that Orcus intended to enter Hell, but other than that your story is one cosmological twist I may well actually use.