Named Things in Shadow World: Known Demons.

Is this Susymog or Aztaur?

As part of my cataloging all things Shadow World in our Master Atlas and indexing for the “Nomikos Library” project, I thought I would start a new blog topic: “Naming Things in Shadow World”. Today I thought I would start with named Demons that are mentioned in various SW books and are considered newsworthy in the timeline or elsewhere. Like the Dragonlords, powerful Demons play a major part in the SW history and are still major forces to be reckoned with!

Mur Fostisyr

While the book that started it all, The Iron Wind, is really a proto-SW product, most of the content continued into Terry’s later canonical material. Unfortunately, unlike Cloudlords, The Iron Wind never received an update due to authorship and IP issues around Peter Fenlon’s authorship. Nonetheless, I believe that The Iron Wind sets the tone for a darker, more menacing tone for Shadow World. In this product we learn about two powerful Demons: Susymog and Aztaur.

Susymog. An Ordainer Demon, he is lord of Var Ukaak and master of Priests of Arnak. He is also 50th lvl and secretly the Syrkakang. Elor was right to avoid this confrontation!

Aztaur. Master of Taurkytaal (K. “Dark Ice-stone”). Aztaur is known as the “Lord Demon of Cold” and “Beyond the Pale” (which had slightly different meaning than later SW book). At 30th level he is quite powerful.

Other Named Demons

Khortus. It’s unclear what type of Demon he is, but he was drawn into Kulthea by a sorcerer but was able to escape his spell bonds and “decides to remain in the Shadow World“. {see by notes on Summoning}. Anyway, Khortus is really up to no good, and now leads the Vulth Horde.

Muarga. An Earth-Demon who is the King of Murlogi battling the Lankani and embroiled in various high-level plot points in Shadow World.

Mæzebrasân. A female Demon that entered Kultha via a portal, she is now disguised as the Mayor of a small village in Sarnak…

Kharuugh. More of a historical figure, Kharuugh the Ordainer battled King Hanreth (wearing the Wyvern Crown) during the Wars of Dominion, his whereabouts remain unknown…

Quard and Urno. Demon servants of the Dyar Mage Shanarak. They are entrusted with guarding the Ark of the Worlds! (they must be powerful)

Orlhach. An Ordainer Demon that resides in a volcano in Kailoq, he is worshipped by the inhabitants as a fire god.

Gorlhach. At first I thought this was a mispelling of Orlhach, but no. (maybe a brother?). This named Demon lives under the Mountains of Gold and controls an army of Lugroki. He may also be known as the “Ordainer of Argaath”, but it’s a bit unclear.

Wargur. The Demon lieutenant of Schrek. Was banished to Rael after being defeated by Sigrius.

Raathmaauriig. An Ice Demon, he is the half-demon son of Aztaur. Has his claws in all sorts of things up in Saralis.

Vargus. A Demon Lord that resides in the Hall of the Cloudlords.

Gha’ath’uk (also known as Gha’ath’uz). A Demon of the Void, a Guguth, from Folenn. He has a Compass surgically mounted to his skull!!

Mauk, Geth and Wrang. While they sound like “sidekicks” they are all powerful Sixth Pale Demons that reside in Aalk Athimurl.

Morloch. I saved the best for last. Perhaps the mightiest, he is named Lord Ordainer and was once known as Shuraax the Fire Claw and bodyguard of Kadaena. Morloch is featured quite a bit in the story of Shadow World and I use him extensively in Priest-King of Shade. There is even a cult in his name!

{UPDATED 8/17}

Wurliis. Not sure how I missed this, thanks Alan! One of the 12 Adherents, Wurliis is a Demon of the Fifth Pale.

Wurliis is a master of arcane mechanisms. His favorite weapon is a terrifying device which fires four heavy crossbow bolts in a volley. Wurliis is somewhat smaller than most of his Demonic type

Turasoq. Another Adherent and a Procreator Demon.

If you like to use Demons as big baddies, some of these may work well. Have you used any of these in your game? Did I miss any?

5 Replies to “Named Things in Shadow World: Known Demons.”

  1. It’s late, but great work! Apologies in advance if I duplicated any, but here’s a few more to fill out the list:

    Powers of Light and Darkness
    Pg 115 – Three Avenger Demons (Miaka, Minorka, Motara)
    Pg 54: Wurliis: A Demon of the Fifth Pale. 12th Adherent
    Pg 55: Vomuk, Dyar-Demon. 12th Adherent
    Pg 55: Turasoq, Procreator Demon. 12th Adherent

    Emer III
    Pg 30: Sucathu, Void Demon
    Pg 30: Breathless, Void Demon
    Pg 116: Sigirus Ny Xanas, partial Essence Demon

    The Crazyness of “Demons of the Burning Night”
    pg 11,60 : Mortilas, Captain of the Black Lords, Half Demon
    pg 18: Teroglustrod Invoker Demon
    pg 19: Kielli Selfio, Invoker Fulfiller
    pg 19: Drozboro, Invoker Slayer
    pg 40: Vulgor, the Preventor Demon
    (*) Betting there’s a few more here.

  2. As far as how I use them, I’ve always held strongly to the idea that namely that demons were ‘other’ or ‘Outsiders’ (as TKA wrote). That the name ‘Demon’ in no way implied the traditionally baggage of ‘evil’, ‘punishment’, and ‘sins’ which you see the foundations in so many other RPGs. Probably one of the major reasons I’ve always loved that the various RM versions use this kind of reasoning (for the most part). RMSS/RMFRP does an exceptionally good job of extending this rational; RMC stinks at it (“Here, evil reigns and tortured demonic souls exist in a twisted state”… bleh).

    I also like that TKA (and RMFRP/RMSS) pointedly raise the possibility of “beneficial” Outsiders. “Entities from other planes vary considerably. Some are friendly and benevolent…”(RMFRP[86]).

    Finally, I tend to use the Stick and Threat of ‘Essænce’ for the motivation of my campaigns that feature Pale creatures. The creatures of the Pale crave and desire it (intelligently or not), but can’t get it anywhere other than Kulthea. At the same time, they also fear it’s use, knowing full well the potential power of it’s harnessing.

  3. All of those I remember by heart have been mentioned.

    As far as how we use them in the campaigns, we go with the “weird, mostly violent, does not value life, self interested”. This sounds quite “evil” now that I wrote it, but the idea is that these creatures are only looking out for themselves or those they want to impress, or those that already have a hold over them.

    So even if they are going to attack, they are prone to chatting, although, as a running joke in the campaigns, most demons only speak/understand Rhaya, just because someone said at some old adventure “that demon speaks Rhaya, it must be the language of demons”. So unless they are above average intelligence/power, they will only communicate in Rhaya.

    After the Emer III campaign where the characters managed to one-shot absolute Sigirus, then escaped to rest, then came back to look for his body, and defeated a bunch of Pale IV demons that were trying to save his body to bring back his soul, we’ve played that the party had upsetted a centuries old balance in demon/summoners/warlock rankings/levels. So now every time the party, or those who might know that particular party, interact with demons, they find out that they are either out to get them in order to bring back things to the way they were, or actively want to help the heroes because they are considered to have helped the balance in favor of certain factions in Kulthea and the pales.

    And I’m actively trying to portray demons in a more varied way, like now Pale demons have background stories, and objectives in life, and stuff like that, and my players are liking that. Mostly they behave like ruthless traders that want things from the material plane which they can’t get anywhere else, but it’s still an improvement over the overdone murder machine trope.

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