Demon Lord Thursday

Thursday, June 24, 2010

I'm still scrambling to finish up writing for Book of the Damned II: Lords of Chaos, and while I'm not done yet (I'm a VERY naughty freelancer!), all of the art for the book is done. And since my time writing should be devoted to demons and not blog posts... I'll stop here and just show off some pictures: Angazhan, Cyth-V'sug, Flauros, and Kostchtchie, all courtesy of the super-talented Eric Belisle!

Illustrations by Eric Belisle

James Jacobs
Creative Director

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Demons Eric Belisle Monsters Pathfinder Campaign Setting
Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

They look pretty cool.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

More Eric Belisle ! More !


Sweet!


Links to 4e monster manual 3.... ohoooo! :)


Wow! Eric Belisle really is blowing us out of the water lately!


Cool!

I hope that Orcus gets some love along with the Golarian specific demon lords. I am still convinced that an adventure/adventure path where the PCs have to ally with the church of Urgathoa to defeat an even viler cult of Orcus would be a winner :)

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Kostschie!

I can't wait to see Paizo's take on him!

Scarab Sages

Very nice. I'm looking forward to this book more and more.

Grand Lodge

Kostchtchie

I can hear the PCs now...

Kos-chi-chi-chi-chia!

lol


Beek Gwenders of Croodle wrote:
Links to 4e monster manual 3.... ohoooo! :)

As Beek said, Watch out where the link takes to ...


I guess Erik and Lisa take turns standing over James with whip in hand to get him to meet deadlines

Liberty's Edge

vagrant-poet wrote:
Wow! Eric Belisle really is blowing us out of the water lately!

His anti-paladin illo reminded me somewhat of some DragonAge artwork. After seeing these, I really want to check the game manual and the strat guide art credits to see if he did do some of that.


Sakai wrote:
Beek Gwenders of Croodle wrote:
Links to 4e monster manual 3.... ohoooo! :)
As Beek said, Watch out where the link takes to ...

I had heard that they'd changed the statistics block format in the 4th Edition Monster Manual 3, but this is… unexpected. :)

Um, actually, it's not really linking to the Monster Manual 3. It just so happens that—at the moment—the MM3 is at the top of the front page/store blog. Whenever your browser session times out or you follow a bad link, your browser gets redirected to the front page.


Other than Kostchtchie, any of them other guys got a beef wit' Graz'zt and/or Orcus and/or vice versa?
Any of them go out with Malcanthet?

(if, that is, one was in the mood to goulash the classic D&D demon lords in with the PF stuff....there's 666 layers to the Abyss, afterall).


Looks good. Does each demon lord get his/her own spread?

Oh yeah: Someone please fix the link.

Dark Archive

Oh wow, they all look neat! Angazhan's six-fingered hands and Kostco's skull-decorated beard and the little cage around his neck are awesome bits of detail.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

PHB Guy wrote:
Sakai wrote:
Beek Gwenders of Croodle wrote:
Links to 4e monster manual 3.... ohoooo! :)
As Beek said, Watch out where the link takes to ...

I had heard that they'd changed the statistics block format in the 4th Edition Monster Manual 3, but this is… unexpected. :)

Um, actually, it's not really linking to the Monster Manual 3. It just so happens that—at the moment—the MM3 is at the top of the front page/store blog. Whenever your browser session times out or you follow a bad link, your browser gets redirected to the front page.

Should be better now.

Paizo Employee CEO

DM Wellard wrote:
I guess Erik and Lisa take turns standing over James with whip in hand to get him to meet deadlines

I obviously need more ranks in whip. :)

-Lisa


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Hurry up James you guys just got everything back on schedule ;) J/K If it takes longer to make it as good as possible I say take longer. Erik and Lisa may say something different though.:)


*idly wonders if covering the walls in demons runes last night might have been a bad idea*

Sovereign Court

I love Flauros!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Graz'zt and Malcanteht are both owned 100% by Wizards of the Coast. Neither of them will be mentioned or detailed in "Lords of Chaos," although if you're looking for demon lords who are similar, you can check out Socothbenoth or Shax for Graz'zt and Nocticula or Sifkesh for Malcanthet.

As for Orcus, he'll be detailed since he IS open content, due to the fact that he's statted up in Necromancer's "Tome of Horrors" and, more importantly, because he's a mythological entity from the real world.

We're not going to illustrate all 32 or so demon lords; the way the book'll be set up will have two demon lords on the left hand page and one on the right. The one on the right will have about 100 to 150 more words of detail AND will have an illustration. Orcus happens to fall on a left hand page so he'll get no illustration and only have a single column of info. Of course, there's already an AWFUL lot of info about Orcus out there from other games for GMs who want to expand his role on Golarion...


Set wrote:

Oh wow, they all look neat! Angazhan's six-fingered hands and Kostco's skull-decorated beard and the little cage around his neck are awesome bits of detail.

HEY! I was gonna call him Kostko!

Please name a demon lord after Wal mart...


Lilith wrote:
*idly wonders if covering the walls in demons runes last night might have been a bad idea*

shyoh....as if that's ever a bad idea

Grand Lodge

Lisa Stevens wrote:
DM Wellard wrote:
I guess Erik and Lisa take turns standing over James with whip in hand to get him to meet deadlines

I obviously need more ranks in whip. :)

-Lisa

I LOVE it when a woman says that!

Dark Archive

That looks awesome. This may be the best book yet. :)


James Jacobs wrote:


As for Orcus, he'll be detailed since he IS open content, due to the fact that he's statted up in Necromancer's "Tome of Horrors" and, more importantly, because he's a mythological entity from the real world.

We're not going to illustrate all 32 or so demon lords; the way the book'll be set up will have two demon lords on the left hand page and one on the right. The one on the right will have about 100 to 150 more words of detail AND will have an illustration. Orcus happens to fall on a left hand page so he'll get no illustration and only have a single column of info.

Sadness. When I first saw the pictures I thought that the one for Angazhan might be the Paizo take on Orcus. I hope you don't mind if I appropriate him for such a purpose in my home game.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sorrow the Emo Fey wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


As for Orcus, he'll be detailed since he IS open content, due to the fact that he's statted up in Necromancer's "Tome of Horrors" and, more importantly, because he's a mythological entity from the real world.

We're not going to illustrate all 32 or so demon lords; the way the book'll be set up will have two demon lords on the left hand page and one on the right. The one on the right will have about 100 to 150 more words of detail AND will have an illustration. Orcus happens to fall on a left hand page so he'll get no illustration and only have a single column of info.

Sadness. When I first saw the pictures I thought that the one for Angazhan might be the Paizo take on Orcus. I hope you don't mind if I appropriate him for such a purpose in my home game.

Our Orcus pretty much looks the same as the version we presented in the last few issues of Dungeon. A pudgy goat man demon. With a stinger and a fancy club.

Dark Archive

James, in theory, just for conversation's sake, if you ever get the opportunity to get back under your control the work that you did for Dragon and Dungeon, would you include Grazzt, Malcanteth and the rest in Golarion?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I doubt Paizo will ever add anything that is not OGL in. To much risk of losing the ability to use it at a later date. So unless WotC makes them OGL someday i wouldn't count on it.

Dark Archive

Dark_Mistress wrote:
I doubt Paizo will ever add anything that is not OGL in. To much risk of losing the ability to use it at a later date. So unless WotC makes them OGL someday i wouldn't count on it.

Yeah, that was my question: if they become OGL or if Paizo acquires D&D license for perpetuity (essentially same thing) would James like to include them in Golarion or not? Simply his wishes on the matter.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

nightflier wrote:
James, in theory, just for conversation's sake, if you ever get the opportunity to get back under your control the work that you did for Dragon and Dungeon, would you include Grazzt, Malcanteth and the rest in Golarion?

The likelihood of WotC releasing demon lords to my total control is pretty much zero.

And if they did... I'd still probably not grandfather them in to Golarion. We've already got demon lords in established roles that those lords filled, and I'm not interested in abandoning what we've done with Golarion's demon lords really.

And furthermore, a lot of what makes Graz'zt and Malcanthet and the other closed content demon lords cool is not their role in the Abyss (we can already duplicate that, and have), but how they interact with the REST of D&D canon and D&D history and tradition. Taken out of context on their own, they lose a lot of their cool. Graz'zt without Iggwilv is lame, as is Malcanthet without Maure Castle.

So... to put it another way, WotC would more or less have to turn over ALL of their intellectual property as regards D&D before I'd even START to think about grandfathering those demons in, and even then I'd probably not, because Nocticula and Socothbenoth and Shax and Sifkesh and all the rest were in Golarion first.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
nightflier wrote:
James, in theory, just for conversation's sake, if you ever get the opportunity to get back under your control the work that you did for Dragon and Dungeon, would you include Grazzt, Malcanteth and the rest in Golarion?

The likelihood of WotC releasing demon lords to my total control is pretty much zero.

And if they did... I'd still probably not grandfather them in to Golarion. We've already got demon lords in established roles that those lords filled, and I'm not interested in abandoning what we've done with Golarion's demon lords really.

And furthermore, a lot of what makes Graz'zt and Malcanthet and the other closed content demon lords cool is not their role in the Abyss (we can already duplicate that, and have), but how they interact with the REST of D&D canon and D&D history and tradition. Taken out of context on their own, they lose a lot of their cool. Graz'zt without Iggwilv is lame, as is Malcanthet without Maure Castle.

So... to put it another way, WotC would more or less have to turn over ALL of their intellectual property as regards D&D before I'd even START to think about grandfathering those demons in, and even then I'd probably not, because Nocticula and Socothbenoth and Shax and Sifkesh and all the rest were in Golarion first.

I miss Graz'zt most of all. I hope there's gonna be a sexy boy-toy dominating demon lord in Golarion =p

Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
as is Malcanthet without Maure Castle.

Lame or not, she's still freaking hot. :D


Todd Stewart wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
as is Malcanthet without Maure Castle.
Lame or not, she's still freaking hot. :D

+1!!!


Malcanthet may be owned by WotC (a pox upon them) but that doesn't mean we can't see a Pathfinder version of the Demon Queen of Lust (and Succubi) pop up somewhere right James? Eh? EH? ^_~

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Berselius wrote:
Malcanthet may be owned by WotC (a pox upon them) but that doesn't mean we can't see a Pathfinder version of the Demon Queen of Lust (and Succubi) pop up somewhere right James? Eh? EH? ^_~

Nocticula.

She's detailed in Pathfinder #18, and will be even more detailed in Lords of Chaos. Plus, she's on the cover.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Berselius wrote:
Malcanthet may be owned by WotC (a pox upon them) but that doesn't mean we can't see a Pathfinder version of the Demon Queen of Lust (and Succubi) pop up somewhere right James? Eh? EH? ^_~

Nocticula.

She's detailed in Pathfinder #18, and will be even more detailed in Lords of Chaos. Plus, she's on the cover.

You are such a tease!


Dark_Mistress wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Berselius wrote:
Malcanthet may be owned by WotC (a pox upon them) but that doesn't mean we can't see a Pathfinder version of the Demon Queen of Lust (and Succubi) pop up somewhere right James? Eh? EH? ^_~

Nocticula.

She's detailed in Pathfinder #18, and will be even more detailed in Lords of Chaos. Plus, she's on the cover.

You are such a tease!

Especially given the current cover art linked to... unless she's large, spiky and ugly I'd guess it's a place holder. Right?


Sex sells.

And is fun.

The Exchange

Who's the demon lord ****
that's a sex machine to all the chicks?
(Shax!)
You're damn right
Who's the demon
that would stab your neck for your soul man?
(Shax!)
Can ya dig it?
Who's the cat that'll rat you out
when there's danger all about
(Shax!)
Right on.
They say this cat Shax is a bad mother-
(Shut your mouth!)
I'm talkin' about Shax
(Then we can dig it)


James Jacobs wrote:
Berselius wrote:
Malcanthet may be owned by WotC (a pox upon them) but that doesn't mean we can't see a Pathfinder version of the Demon Queen of Lust (and Succubi) pop up somewhere right James? Eh? EH? ^_~

Nocticula.

She's detailed in Pathfinder #18, and will be even more detailed in Lords of Chaos. Plus, she's on the cover.

That picture in PF #18 was fantastic, and believe it or not, it was the sigil-emblazoned wings that made the picture for me.

Anyway, James, I just read through the Fiendish Codex 1 fairly thoroughly this past weekend. I note you had Pazuzu as originally an Obyrith, and so assumed you'd give him a Qlippoth origin in PF. But your sidebar on Qlippoth Lords (p.57) doesn't include Pazuzu. Was that an intentional omission?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

R_Chance wrote:


Especially given the current cover art linked to... unless she's large, spiky and ugly I'd guess it's a place holder. Right?

It is indeed placeholder art. The art used right now is actually from an internal image for the first Book of the Damned: Princes of Darkness.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

BenS wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

That picture in PF #18 was fantastic, and believe it or not, it was the sigil-emblazoned wings that made the picture for me.

Anyway, James, I just read through the Fiendish Codex 1 fairly thoroughly this past weekend. I note you had Pazuzu as originally an Obyrith, and so assumed you'd give him a Qlippoth origin in PF. But your sidebar on Qlippoth Lords (p.57) doesn't include Pazuzu. Was that an intentional omission?

Yup; the Pazuzu of Pathfinder and the Pazuzu of D&D are different creatures, even though they have a lot of similarities since they're both VERY heavily based on real-world myth.

Qlippoth predate humanity, and predate the presence of deities in Golarion. They're raw creations of the Abyss, unlike demons which are part Abyss, part sinful humanoid soul. Therefore, qlippoth don't have really strong humanoid shapes at all. Pazuzu is too handsome to be a qlippoth, in other words.


James Jacobs wrote:
Orcus happens to fall on a left hand page so he'll get no illustration and only have a single column of info.

Boo, hiss!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Skullking wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Orcus happens to fall on a left hand page so he'll get no illustration and only have a single column of info.

Boo, hiss!

If Orcus hadn't already been covered in exhaustive detail as the star of numerous adventures across 4 editions of the game and something like 3 decades of content... I'd feel a little more guilty.

As it stands, though... he's got plenty of resource material out there. And since he HAS been the star of so many adventures and HAS been such a key player in so many other campaigns, we don't really want to load him up with too much more stuff!


James Jacobs wrote:

If Orcus hadn't already been covered in exhaustive detail as the star of numerous adventures across 4 editions of the game and something like 3 decades of content... I'd feel a little more guilty. etc.

Only a little more :)

Seriously though, despite the fact that no amount of Orcus is enough for me, I understand your position.

Besides - I can't fault the man who brought us the excellent Dungeon Magazine adventure Headless, which was chock full of Orcus!


Any plans to lump Book of the Damned 1 and 2 (and presumably 3 for the Daemons) together into one big juicy hardback?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Skullking wrote:

Any plans to lump Book of the Damned 1 and 2 (and presumably 3 for the Daemons) together into one big juicy hardback?

Not yet. It'd be a relatively easy thing to do, obviously, but not until the softcovers have gone out of print. Which, since there's only one book in the line actually in print yet, is not going to happen for YEARS.

And there's far more fiends in Pathfinder than demons, devils, and daemons. I could see us doing a Book of the Damned for onis, for qlippoths, for asuras, for divs, for a LOT of races.


Divs... *drools*

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