To Tom
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TennyoCeres84
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To Tom
Who are the Princes in Hell? I know there's Leonard and Azorthagal, but they're still some missing faces. And where do they fall, in regard to their approach to mortals as well as the fight against the Others?
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IamLEAM1983
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As Tom
"The Princes are a loose assembly of Named demons, the first among the Fallen. Some have taken to supporting Pandemonium, such as Ahriman, but most of them are mired in endless political and personal disputes, a characteristic of the strong egoes required to survive in the Pit. Among the Princes are the Vices, the polar opposites of the angels representing the Seven Heavenly Virtues.
Ahriman is a Prince, but not a Vice. Operating in Pandemonium, most grimoires designate him as The Penitent One. He guides Lucifer's brood on the path of enlightenment and seeds wisdom in the minds of the souls that land in the Infernal City. The Teachers follow his will and the Seducers soothe aching hearts under his orders. Sorrow needs to be expunged, if penitence is to take place, and you can't have a clear head if the existential angst caused by your own recent damnation is weighing you down. Azorthagal and Belial are of the Pit, but they represent minor concepts, the same being said of Melmoth. Health in the face of another's pain, unjustly acquired power, thoughtlessly acquired wealth - all aspects of the greater Princes. These mid-tier demons are legion, and they all are the Princes of their fields of expertise.
Lucifer would carry Pride, but his absence from Hell has left these disputable laurels to fall in Leonard's lap. The Black Goat carries the sick righteousness of the more depraved practitioners of the Dark Arts, as well as all of the Pit's assumed dominion over all other planes of existence. Someone so inhumanly proud is difficult to discourage or otherwise bring down in a permanent fashion, but Pride comes with a fragile ego... Throughout all vessels, disrupting the fastidiousness of his care for his mortal coil has never yielded good results - as he is the only Vice who takes care to blend in when manifesting amongst us. It has less to do about tactical responsibility as it has with his compulsion to select only the most noble vessels he can reach. Old money, decayed aristocracy, modern-day dilettantes and billionnaires with Ivy League diplomas... These are those he chooses from.
Mammon is the Vice of Greed, the Prince of Blackened Financiers and Melmoth's largest creditor after Leonard. If I lust for pleasure, he endlessly lusts for material gain. Objects, filthy lucre, servants and slaves, fineries - even the dignity and pride of those who summon him - they are all his to claim. As unimpressive in stature as he may be, what he represents is boundless, made to feed off the mercantile considerations of the mortal world's moneylenders.
Beelzebub is the Vice of Envy, and was punished by God to suffer for every instant of happiness, every moment of satisfaction, every shred of centerdness mortals may experience. He wants all that he cannot have, and unlike Mammon, is unable to take steps to claim any of it. His lackeys lash out and do everything to poison the lives of those he's fixated on, to quell those tiny sparks of jealousy their master expresses towards each and every mortal. For every instant of misery he causes, his black heart soars a tiny bit more.
The Great Satan represents Wrath and works with Belial in the building of the Pit's invasion forces. With ties to the Horseman War but without the former's focus on cause or strategy, he embodies all of the Pit's pent-up aggression and frequently ends up in games of one-upmanship against Leonard for control of large swaths of the Pit. Consequently, the Devil has inherited his name, the cultural concept you mortals have established being an impossible joint venture between Pride and Wrath. Those Evangelists who warn against Satan could be easily pacified - he has never had an eye for deception. Overt aggression is his forté, something that hasn't been carried out in more than two thousand years. Only the oldest of all immortals could remember a time in which he walked the Earth...
Abbadon is Sloth, and he fathered the first line of leading Djinn in Solomon's time. While he is the least active Prince, he carries within him a dangerously seductive weapon. Inaction has its perks when you're one of the Damned, and his palace reflects that fact, all in crumbling stonework and drooling courtesans and courtiers that have been filling his stone arches with their snores since the rise of Civilization. To put it simple terms, Abbadon is the after-party that never ends, the slurred voice telling you to postpone work, to sleep in excessively - to kill yourself with pleasure. There is some overlap between Abbadon and Asmodeus, my original patron, but my cravings push me towards active pursuits, while my travels and studies allowed me to moderate Abbadon's cloying influence.
Sleeping in might be delicious - even someone like myself values productivity more than endless lazy Sundays.
Belphegor is the Vice of Gluttony, his nature being somewhat close to Harrogath's, all things considered. Excess is his creed, as could be expected, and he speaks to the more weak-willed of us - those who cannot shake addictions, notably. There's obviously more to Gluttony than the simply gross intake of food, but it does represent the breadth and depths of his corrupting influence on Mankind. Every time you've put yourself up on a pedestal and denied basic rights to a weaker individual, you've given in to Gluttony. You can find facets of him in the mortal plane's corn starch and sugar industries, in brazen jewelry stores that carry Beauty to gross excess - even in the well-intentioned studio executive who nonetheless keeps green-lighting sequel after sequel to line up his plea for a yearly bonus.
My former patron then follows - Asmodeus, Prince of Lust and Allfather of Succubi and Incubi. He is my progenitor, as the name suggests, and carries a burden of desire so great it makes mine feel sedate in comparison. Mainlining incubi reflect facets of his boundless need for flesh and have the distinction of being able to affect a bit of conscious thought to it. The man himself, however, has long since faded under the weight of his impulses. This leaves my brothers and sisters in a relatively free-spirited environment - the perfect situation for rebellious thoughts like mine to take hold.
Find his den, and all you'll see is someone who was once a man, but who is now locked in an endless battle against his own urges; someone for whom the slightest bit of directed conversation requires every ounce of strength he has. Considering, he affects all the mortal plane's lechers and sex addicts, all those men and women who have a skewed vision of the opposite sex, who direct it to suit their personal carnal needs.
As you can imagine, some of them are barely conscious of the Others and the threat they pose. Others, like Lucifer, Mammon and Satan, are all too aware of it and are taking steps in order to mount an organized armed resistance. These three are those who would carry Hell's torches onto the mortal plane - the other half is too preoccupied with its own urges, literally unable to look up from the dirt they stand on, to notice the coming threat.
The Others are coming and Abbadon sleeps, as he almost always does. Belphegor gorges himself with the ethereal flesh of the recent Damned and assumes the lake of fire will never stop dropping prey into his maw. My maker pulls himself from his courtesans and painfully pushes a few coherent thoughts forward - and I can sense them trying to grasp the issues at hand. He is trying, but where my loins scream for release, his have released a constant and deafening shriek for all time. The center cannot hold, to quote a phrase - and he sinks back in.
If nothing changes, the least active rulers of the Pit will be wiped out by the clash against the Chamberlain's forces. Pride will stand fast, however, as this is its nature. Envy will seek to claim what it is that the enemy displays - which happens to be Eldritch power. Wrath will seek to lay waste to them all. The other Princes will be weakened, almost extinguished - but you cannot kill what has roots buried deep in mortal cultures the world over."
Ahriman is a Prince, but not a Vice. Operating in Pandemonium, most grimoires designate him as The Penitent One. He guides Lucifer's brood on the path of enlightenment and seeds wisdom in the minds of the souls that land in the Infernal City. The Teachers follow his will and the Seducers soothe aching hearts under his orders. Sorrow needs to be expunged, if penitence is to take place, and you can't have a clear head if the existential angst caused by your own recent damnation is weighing you down. Azorthagal and Belial are of the Pit, but they represent minor concepts, the same being said of Melmoth. Health in the face of another's pain, unjustly acquired power, thoughtlessly acquired wealth - all aspects of the greater Princes. These mid-tier demons are legion, and they all are the Princes of their fields of expertise.
Lucifer would carry Pride, but his absence from Hell has left these disputable laurels to fall in Leonard's lap. The Black Goat carries the sick righteousness of the more depraved practitioners of the Dark Arts, as well as all of the Pit's assumed dominion over all other planes of existence. Someone so inhumanly proud is difficult to discourage or otherwise bring down in a permanent fashion, but Pride comes with a fragile ego... Throughout all vessels, disrupting the fastidiousness of his care for his mortal coil has never yielded good results - as he is the only Vice who takes care to blend in when manifesting amongst us. It has less to do about tactical responsibility as it has with his compulsion to select only the most noble vessels he can reach. Old money, decayed aristocracy, modern-day dilettantes and billionnaires with Ivy League diplomas... These are those he chooses from.
Mammon is the Vice of Greed, the Prince of Blackened Financiers and Melmoth's largest creditor after Leonard. If I lust for pleasure, he endlessly lusts for material gain. Objects, filthy lucre, servants and slaves, fineries - even the dignity and pride of those who summon him - they are all his to claim. As unimpressive in stature as he may be, what he represents is boundless, made to feed off the mercantile considerations of the mortal world's moneylenders.
Beelzebub is the Vice of Envy, and was punished by God to suffer for every instant of happiness, every moment of satisfaction, every shred of centerdness mortals may experience. He wants all that he cannot have, and unlike Mammon, is unable to take steps to claim any of it. His lackeys lash out and do everything to poison the lives of those he's fixated on, to quell those tiny sparks of jealousy their master expresses towards each and every mortal. For every instant of misery he causes, his black heart soars a tiny bit more.
The Great Satan represents Wrath and works with Belial in the building of the Pit's invasion forces. With ties to the Horseman War but without the former's focus on cause or strategy, he embodies all of the Pit's pent-up aggression and frequently ends up in games of one-upmanship against Leonard for control of large swaths of the Pit. Consequently, the Devil has inherited his name, the cultural concept you mortals have established being an impossible joint venture between Pride and Wrath. Those Evangelists who warn against Satan could be easily pacified - he has never had an eye for deception. Overt aggression is his forté, something that hasn't been carried out in more than two thousand years. Only the oldest of all immortals could remember a time in which he walked the Earth...
Abbadon is Sloth, and he fathered the first line of leading Djinn in Solomon's time. While he is the least active Prince, he carries within him a dangerously seductive weapon. Inaction has its perks when you're one of the Damned, and his palace reflects that fact, all in crumbling stonework and drooling courtesans and courtiers that have been filling his stone arches with their snores since the rise of Civilization. To put it simple terms, Abbadon is the after-party that never ends, the slurred voice telling you to postpone work, to sleep in excessively - to kill yourself with pleasure. There is some overlap between Abbadon and Asmodeus, my original patron, but my cravings push me towards active pursuits, while my travels and studies allowed me to moderate Abbadon's cloying influence.
Sleeping in might be delicious - even someone like myself values productivity more than endless lazy Sundays.
Belphegor is the Vice of Gluttony, his nature being somewhat close to Harrogath's, all things considered. Excess is his creed, as could be expected, and he speaks to the more weak-willed of us - those who cannot shake addictions, notably. There's obviously more to Gluttony than the simply gross intake of food, but it does represent the breadth and depths of his corrupting influence on Mankind. Every time you've put yourself up on a pedestal and denied basic rights to a weaker individual, you've given in to Gluttony. You can find facets of him in the mortal plane's corn starch and sugar industries, in brazen jewelry stores that carry Beauty to gross excess - even in the well-intentioned studio executive who nonetheless keeps green-lighting sequel after sequel to line up his plea for a yearly bonus.
My former patron then follows - Asmodeus, Prince of Lust and Allfather of Succubi and Incubi. He is my progenitor, as the name suggests, and carries a burden of desire so great it makes mine feel sedate in comparison. Mainlining incubi reflect facets of his boundless need for flesh and have the distinction of being able to affect a bit of conscious thought to it. The man himself, however, has long since faded under the weight of his impulses. This leaves my brothers and sisters in a relatively free-spirited environment - the perfect situation for rebellious thoughts like mine to take hold.
Find his den, and all you'll see is someone who was once a man, but who is now locked in an endless battle against his own urges; someone for whom the slightest bit of directed conversation requires every ounce of strength he has. Considering, he affects all the mortal plane's lechers and sex addicts, all those men and women who have a skewed vision of the opposite sex, who direct it to suit their personal carnal needs.
As you can imagine, some of them are barely conscious of the Others and the threat they pose. Others, like Lucifer, Mammon and Satan, are all too aware of it and are taking steps in order to mount an organized armed resistance. These three are those who would carry Hell's torches onto the mortal plane - the other half is too preoccupied with its own urges, literally unable to look up from the dirt they stand on, to notice the coming threat.
The Others are coming and Abbadon sleeps, as he almost always does. Belphegor gorges himself with the ethereal flesh of the recent Damned and assumes the lake of fire will never stop dropping prey into his maw. My maker pulls himself from his courtesans and painfully pushes a few coherent thoughts forward - and I can sense them trying to grasp the issues at hand. He is trying, but where my loins scream for release, his have released a constant and deafening shriek for all time. The center cannot hold, to quote a phrase - and he sinks back in.
If nothing changes, the least active rulers of the Pit will be wiped out by the clash against the Chamberlain's forces. Pride will stand fast, however, as this is its nature. Envy will seek to claim what it is that the enemy displays - which happens to be Eldritch power. Wrath will seek to lay waste to them all. The other Princes will be weakened, almost extinguished - but you cannot kill what has roots buried deep in mortal cultures the world over."