The sky has two suns. One provides life and light to the ring, glowing white and bright in the sky.

The other is Carbax, the Devil Sun. It simmers red and hateful, day and night. It also gives life, but not to the ring or the world of men. There lies the Devil Courts, where magic and power and madness are traded and stolen, all brokered by the Devil Princes and their lieutenants.

These are these names, domains, and realms.

Melsh

The master of courtesy, splendor, and betrayal. He and his court claims to have invented and disseminated all the trappings of civilization. His devils are known as the Painted Devils. His realm is Gadal, an asteroid of crystal and glass, a city carved all across its surface.

Kadon

The king of kings, master of hierarchy and royalty and creator of class, caste, and contract. He raised the first kings of men, was the first king by some estimations. He is served by the Devil Counts, Barons, and Dukes, who lord over their demesnes from a thousand thousand castles and fastnesses in the realm of Avalon, a harsh and austere world of cold seas and rocky islands.

Pilact

The Prince(s) of consensus, community, and change. They are also known as the crusher of dissent, and the death of independent thought. They are served by or perhaps serve the Million Devils. The realm of Capria is a now emptied ecumenopolis all the way down to the core, ruled nominally by Pilact and actually by the few communes that survived the last convulsions of violence.

Juvias

The Prince of ambition, singularity, and mistrust. He is “served” by the August Devils, who pursue their own agendas, and are perhaps the most diverse of any devils. They also deal most often with mortals and wizards. Their realm is a desolate, airless landscape of isolated peaks and towers.

Affra

The Devil Prince (Princess?) of love, lust, devotion, and passion. She (it?) is also called the Darklover, and has power over sorrow and joy. Their court is filled with the Amorous Devils, who run amok in creation to tempt and reproduce. Their realm is the planet Siltol, half covered with steaming, vampiric jungle, and the rest covered with sweltering desert.

Garal

The master of greed, want, and luxurious splendor. It is also known as the Rapacious Lord, and is served by the Gilded Devils. Garal’s realm is a great stellated dodecahedron known as Masop, in which all the material pleasures and treasures of the world are contained.

Elact and Voath

The two masters of war, conflict, and strife, who have been warring with each other since time immemorial. They are served by the Belligerent and Bellicose Devils, respectively. Really, they are more alike than different. Their realms fluctuate across the wartorn binary planets of Poul and Esht.

Foroth

The master of forbidden knowledge, secrets, philosophy, prophecy, and sophistry. Also known as the Profaner or All-Seeing Prince. It is served by the Seeing Devils, who trade for knowledge in all its forms. Its realm, known as Yiol, is a deep blue ice giant in which the knowledge the devils hoard is contained.

Nereyl

The mistress of death, decay, and entropy. Also known as the Nemesis Queen, and Guardian of the Dead, and has powers over mutation and evolution.She is served by the Blight Devils. The distant realm of Nemesis is a desolate, icy hellscape with pockets of subterranean sub-courts. She is hated by Ceras and all the other devil lords, and actively rebels against them.

Ceras

The Master of all the Devils, Lord of Undeath, Longevity, and Anentropy. This is god of the gods, the most powerful by far. All the other lords, save Nereyl, at least outwardly bend their knees. His control is loose to non-existent. His realm is technically Carbax itself, which is swollen to enormous size by his presence in the core. However, it also claims the tidally locked world of Seph. He is served by the Eternal Devils, and many, many undead.

Seph’s is also an ecumenopolis, filled with undead, devils, men, and demons (aliens). The light side is built around the bones of a network of smaller cities, raised long ago by Ceras’s orders. In between those and all across the night-side, the dregs of society threw up their own ramshackle architecture to accommodate the traders, refugees, and petitioners. Seph is now seen by Ceras as a horrific entropy-engine, a city of waste, want, and hated disorder. Yet he does not destroy, as would be simple for him to do. It is out of love that he preserves his erstwhile children, as is everything that he does to fight the inevitability of death.

The Wizards

Wizard in my game are like warlocks. Men’s souls are bright but weak sources of magic, and the must be augmented by the panoply. Items in the panoply include the grimoire, talismans, raiments, foci (a staff usually), a familiar, a servant, and a sanctum. If you want to cast an Xth level spell, you need X panoply items. But all of the above items only count once to your maximum castable spell level, so what’s the deal? Well, to truly ascend to the heights of mortal power, you need to make a Pact.

Note: Servants and Familiars also tend to be minor devils, but in theory be any sufficiently magical creature that agrees to service.

A pact is a deal with the a Devil Prince or one of their lieutenants. Again, these are unique and vary from devil to devil and wizard to wizard. Usually the benefits start at a spell slot of the highest level a wizard can cast and the cancellation of all experience penalties, whilst the costs typically start at the immortal soul of the wizard, one creed the wizard must always follow, and one favor owed by the wizard, to be carried out before their death, the particular nature of the favor to be determined at a later date. However, everything said for servants applies here as well, but the benefits can apply anywhere. Kingdoms, money, stat increases, XP bonuses, anything is possible.  Again, making a pact is roleplaying, not rolling.

Wizards who violate the terms of the pact (breaks a creed, doesn’t complete a favor) may be subjected to curses, lose their benefits, or even die, depending on the pact. The broker of the pact will usually “forget” to mention these unless prodded.

A wizard may have as many pacts as they want, with each one providing access to a new spell level.  Such arrangements are permanent unless the pact stipulates some exit condition, which a Devil Prince or lieutenant will almost never agree to include.

EX: Aldemos seeks arcane power through the Devil Prince Juvias. In exchange for two additional spell slots of the highest level he can cast and a ten percent bonus to all experience, Juvias requests his soul, a favor, and that he hoard his power and take no apprentices. Aldemos accepts, and gains great power as a result, eventually growing well-famed and achieving many court appointments. Soon he enters service with a powerful king, and earns an unprecedented marriage to the king’s daughter daughter. Shortly thereafter, Juvias notices, and believing Aldemos’s trust and love for his new wife holds him back, the Prince calls in his favor: kill his wife and family. Aldemos balks at this request, and instead tries to flee, family in tow. Aldemos and family is violently killed by devils the very same day, his soul dragged to the domains of Juvias.

Categories: Uncategorized