Archfiends names

[de-trick]

I was looking up names and It showed up the Archfiends names, wow i get why some churchy people think D&D is evil and so on.

[Starsinger]

That's why the archfiends were given those names.

[The_Chilli_God]

Not just archfiends.
Half of Celestia's lords are taken from certain historic texts, and almost all of the planes themselves can be easily attributed to mythology.

But yeah, archfiends do get most of the love.

[Xuincherguixe]

I don't really know my history, but for awhile didn't they have a lot of the names of things as different, so the religious types would lay off them a bit?

I don't know if archfiend names came before or after they decided to stop worrying quite so much about them.

I don't really mind it so much.

[Xefas]

I was looking up names and It showed up the Archfiends names, wow i get why some churchy people think D&D is evil and so on.

Actually, I think its more because of the players using arcane magic and the fact that it asserts the idea that multiple gods not only exist, but are capable of inacting crazy stuff right in the open in front of everybody.

Really, I can't see the use of a demonic name for a bad guy convincing any intelligent people that the game is evil. I mean, the Bible uses demonic names for bad guys...by the same logic, that would make Christianity evil.

[Xuincherguixe]

Not logical at all. But not too many logical people are going to get bent out of shape about a game like D&D to begin with.

[AslanCross]

I don't get it either, and I'm a practicing Christian myself. The names used for the archfiends (mostly the Devils) are taken from Christian lore, but they're presented as evil, scheming creatures--as they should be. I don't see anything remotely resembling devil worship at all.

D&D in general takes from the lore of a lot of cultures. It borrows heavily not only from European lore--there's a lot of Middle-Eastern and Asian influence as well. Sometimes, those are mixed up a bit.

Take Book of Exalted Deeds, for example. The Asura is presented there as a chaotic good creature that is very similar to an angel, just that it has fiery wings and talons for feet. However, in Indian lore, Asura is more commonly translated as "demon." In fact, last I checked the Rakshasa were an Asura sub-race. The Asura king Ravana was the villain in one of India's most important epics: The Ramayana. Of course the concept of a demon in the Ramayana is not the same as the Christian concept: Asuras can be good (Ravana's brother was), while Christian demons were once angels who fell from grace. Still, I found it strange that Asuras were presented as generally good outsiders.

[Illiterate Scribe]

The reason for the whole good/bad Asura thing confusion arises from Zoroastrianism; in that, Asuras are good, whereas Devas are bad - the opposite of Hinduism.

[AslanCross]

Ah, yes, forgot about that part. I also forgot that the BoED says that it borrows from Christian, Gnostic and Zoroastrian traditions rather than Hindu.

[ranger89]

I agree that most logical people would not have a problem with D&D but someone's faith typically has absolutely nothing to do with logic. And I don't mean that in an offensive way. By its definition, Faith is belief based on the absence of proof.

I'm sure others have seen this infamous article but for those who haven't, here's one writer's reasons why D&D is evil.

Hmm... I bet the writer would have made a great Cleric.

[InaVegt]

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[Quietus]

See, that article lost me here :

On top of that, the second issue is that the materials themselves, in many cases, contain authentic magical rituals.

Now, I admit, I've never played before 3.0 - did they actually describe the rituals for each spell and such? Because as far as we know, each individual spell includes "Verbal and somatic components", which means you somehow need to move your hands and speak some words. That's kinda like saying you make a car by "Welding some parts together".

Even assuming the rest of what he says is correct, that's a major hit to his argument - it's based on the idea of D&D instructing people on how to do these things, when really it's just abstracting them into a balancing feature of the game.

[Fawsto]

Church fears RPG because Church neva played RPG.

BTW, I've got a friend who happens to be a priest and plays RPG, he never had anything against RPG 'cause he knows what happens during the gameplay.

Naming Archdevils and Archdemons like Baal, Archmond, etc, is mere fantasy. Take a good look on Vile Darkness and you'll get what I say.

[Starsinger]

I don't really know my history, but for awhile didn't they have a lot of the names of things as different, so the religious types would lay off them a bit?

That's where names like Cornugon and Glaabezaru come from, the nonsensical rubbish most fiends have for names, besides their common name like Chain Devil or Succubus.

See, that article lost me here :



Now, I admit, I've never played before 3.0 - did they actually describe the rituals for each spell and such? Because as far as we know, each individual spell includes "Verbal and somatic components", which means you somehow need to move your hands and speak some words. That's kinda like saying you make a car by "Welding some parts together".

Even assuming the rest of what he says is correct, that's a major hit to his argument - it's based on the idea of D&D instructing people on how to do these things, when really it's just abstracting them into a balancing feature of the game.

Most of the things chick press publishes are insane overreactions.