General misconceptions about demons and other thought or mana entities
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Well, presumably it should work about the same for most any mortal creature; with a few tweaks and such. Orcs, dwarves, humans, heartheans, etc are all put together pretty similarly. Elves are stuck together differently (see library), so that would probably be much trickier.
He would have to learn to do that. I presume that since he plans to rebuild the Doompire he will want to be making more D’Orcs. No reason he couldn’t do that for others that wanted it. The only problem I see is how long it takes to figure this out. Humans don’t live that long, even assuming that a giant war wasn’t about to sneak up and clobber everyone. So he’s probably only got four or five decades to figure it out for Vaselle.
Of course this is just the assumption I am working on. We shall have to see how serious he is about the “Restoration” as the D’Orcs and Orcs are calling it. I have a suspicion not all parties agree on what a Restoration of the Doompire actually means.
All of these points you raise are good, and for the most part, that’s why people are scared witless of greater demons, archdemons and princes.
They can do all sorts of nasty things. Such as dominate the wizard and force him to become a warlock slave. They also have access to incubuses.
The type I through III’s and the lesser IV’s can’t really do this. They don’t have the power, or the resources (e.g. hire an incubus)
The animages that summon things are called Summoners. Summoners and some types of druids/shaman work in a similar manner to what you describe; very much like Tom does. The way Tom listens for Gastrope’ or others to ‘summon him’ call him by name and then he opens a link through a nearby fire is pretty much the exact reverse of what a Summoner would do.
A summoner controlling a demon would have a binding on that demon, that would provide him the link to the demon, so the demon could hear him (much like Tom has) and he could use that binding (a very high level link) to compel the demon, but he, the Summoner would have to open the gateway for the demon (assuming it’s a lesser demon)
The real problem Summoners have is that it’s very freaking dangerous, you don’t have all the protections or armor that a wizard has. The wizard will build up all these spells, ritual etc to protect himself from the demon.
Summoner’s don’t really have this, it is shear will power. So Summoners that summon demons typically stick to Type I, II. Something they have the power to defeat in combat. In particular something called a Will War or various things (wizards have Wizard War) which are basically sheer tests of magical strength/magical wrestling if you will.
That being said, summoners can and do use Rune Magic, if they know it. Rune Magic predates modern wizardry and is probably the oldest from of formulated magic. You see Tom learning how to use it/read it/activate it in book II.
So serious Summoners would use rune magic to construct wards of protection, much like a wizard does with the pentagrams. A summoner can in fact make a pentagram inscribed with runes. If they are smart, they will.
Of course Summoners can summon about anything. They often use Summoning to summon animals, or spirits, or the dead. Remember there was some talk about this when Edwyrd was handwaving to Maelon about how to bring back Rupert.
Shaman’s do a lot of Summoning; although typically not of demons.
So back to your other point about making demons. Most humans would never even think of this because demons are elemental evil in their mind. They can distinguish humans from nearby worlds on the Astral Planes, but as the distance between planes increase the distortion grows.
Orcus was essentially creating demons out of his greatest Orc warriors upon their death. There were great ceremonies where the great warriors were linked to orcus and tattooed with various magical runes and then if and when they died, Orcus and his D’Orc Shamans would summon the warrior using the tattoo’s and links to capture the soul of the warrior and drag it into the Abyss and create a D’Orc body.
Is there any one besides the demons who know the truth about them? or does everybody automatically assume that they are all lying? It just seems like every demon claiming to come from somewhere else and that they weren’t always a demon, would have been noticed by some scholar or scribe at some point in history. So either most of the demons lie about where they come from, or the wizards are just that paranoid about sharing their knowledge that they took any stories with them to their graves. or at least to their demon’s stomachs.
Another question, since demons don’t need to eat, and don’t um,… have certain bodily functions that occur after eating, is any food they eat converted directly into manna or animus?
Well, most people summoning demons are too self-centered, egotistical and narcissistic to actually ask. So lying rarely comes up. Everyone is pretty dead set on their preconceptions of Good and Evil, so they don’t think to ask.
Obviously, if a demon were to bring it up, anyone hearing it would most likely dismiss it as a trick or lie or obfuscation.
As to what other immortal types think; I have no idea. I presume that most archons/angels/avatars assume demons are sort of like themselves and got there that way. What the gods themselves know? Well, I have no idea. Some of them, obviously know what’s going on. Plus they all got to be gods someway or the other, so one would presume they have at least a basic handle on the whole “mortal vs immortal” business. Particularly if they can ascend mortals to become saints and archons.
A lot of what happens when eating depends on where you are being eaten. Keep in mind that in the Abyss, disassociating matter into raw elemental forms and harvesting the mana and animus takes a lot of energy, for those that can do it.
Eating another demon or immortal type is easier to digest and takes less mana, so you get a better meal of mana and animus. But it’s also much more dangerous. If you try to ‘digest’ the animus/lifeforce/soul of someone of near equal or greater power, you could end up getting eaten yourself…
But for example, if Lillith decides to eat someone, she’s probably only going to try and eat someone that won’t give her indigestion and that she can overpower, steal their mana and absorb their animus, i.e. fully consume the person’s soul. And that can be tricky, sometimes some of the animus or soul can escape. Sometimes, there is enough to infect the eater and well things get rather weird.
I’m aware of a couple cases where you end up with a hybrid being, often with multiple personalities. I know of one being (or actually a couple beings) that in fact go around consuming others partially to create sort of a hive mind creature.
The matter consumed is generally re purposed by the consumer into their corporal form; this is a cheaper way of acquiring matter than pulling it from the material planes.
Not all demons can digest other living creatures though; and some only digest parts. E.g. there are soul sucking demons and mana sucking demons that leave the other parts alone and don’t eat it.
And finally, eating someone on the material planes is very sloppy/messy and many times the soul and some mana escape complete absorption.
He’ll probably just point them to corrupt or “evil” places first. He’ll probably think “I can do a better job than those bad people”. That’s the slippery slope Dark Overlords slide down face first on.
You want to talk about a thankless task?
Talk to the poor demon schmucks that have to keep greasing the road to Hell! It’s got a very very steep incline and so the grease tends to run down the slope so they have to keep replacing it from the top.
The problem, of course is since they are in Hell to begin with, in order to regrease the top of the slope, they have to climb up the slippery slope to the top carrying large vats of grease.
It is a never ending task.
Actually, come to think of it, a pretty good punishment for their sins. :-k
Bah, it’s just a punishment detail, then. If they were serious about it, they’d just get a couple of slime molds or Gelatinous Cubes to do it. Our slime doesn’t hinder us too much, and our slime is just about as slippery. Our promotion council would have been all over that.
Oooh! We could butter the ramp with gelatinous cubes!
Wait! =;
Are you trying to trick me?
[-x
If we butter the slope with gelatinous cube, will there be anything left of the person going down the slope by the time they get to the bottom? wouldn’t they be digested?
:-k
I think you are just looking for a free meal!
Well, you can’t expect them to do it for FREE, can you? I’m sure MOST of the damned would make it down.
Hmm
It is a pretty steep slope, you’d probably have to alternate between sliming and psuedo-pod grabbing/dissolving to keep them slipping, but not slipping too fast to digest.
Might make a good gameshow, I could arrange for Pay Per View in the bars in the Courts of Chaos…
Well, Boggy isn’t that old. He never met Orcus, that was way before his time.
I suppose some people think of the Concordenax that way, don’t know why, does not make any sense at all. None. But I hear them. I think they must be insane. Not sure why one would worship a Concordenax.
But then you see people worshiping toast with random patterns that look like a face. So who knows.
[quote=Tizzy;3036]Well, Boggy isn’t that old. He never met Orcus, that was way before his time.
[/quote]That’s kind of my point. If demons who’ve never met or seen the Concordenax are calling his name, they don’t know him, they just BELIEVE in him somewhat, right? So does that small belief leech a little mana to him? Even in small quantities, I bet it would be a respectable amount in aggregate.
Also, a father of human children (so I understand), don’t actually give birth to them, they are just instrumental in their creation, and they’re there to welcome them to the world.
…like a Welcoming Committee?
You sort of assume the Concordenax is a him as do many others. Looked more like an it to me. But what do I know?
Who is the father of human children? Not following. :-s
[quote=Tizzy;3042]You sort of assume the Concordenax is a him as do many others. Looked more like an it to me. But what do I know?
[/quote]True. I suspect it’s a him, but you’re right, I don’t know. 😉
[quote=Tizzy;3042]
Who is the father of human children? Not following. :-s
[/quote]Sorry, sometimes what goes through my slime doesn’t come out properly into English. I simply meant a human father doesn’t birth the child. Just welcomes it to the world.
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