Re: Cacodemon

From: Dr Mark Galeotti <m.galeotti_at_his.keele.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 10:14:48 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)


Re: Cacodemon

Nicely nasty ideas, Roger! The ritual is a good idea, as is the re-writing of the myths from the ogrish perspective. It raises an interesting question as to whether such nasties' myths would be self-consciously evil ("gather round, children, and I'll tell you the story of how Urspeth FiendFriend poisoned Waha's well…") or, as here, self-righteously revisionist ("we are the true over-men, usurped by these inferior copies, fit only to be our fodder…").

As regards the Other Side, the whole question of where chaos gods reside is still (to me, at least - heavy hint for anyone able to enlighten me to do so!) unclear. I'd prefer to think that Cacodemon now roams and preys as he pleases, and therefore could be anywhere on the God Plane, in nooks and crannies between established realms. He promises no afterlife - indeed, I'd say that part of the very foundations of 'Cacodemonism' would be "get what you can now, forget the future" - so that his worshippers either (as in the RQ version) become part of primordial chaos or (as I'd prefer) have their spirits consumed by him for sustenance. After all, he has a small worship base on which to rely, so needs everything he can get from them!
(It also fits in with the whole nihilistic ogre take on
life.)

I don't think I'd take 'skills' to mean 'skills taught' - the latter implies structure and hierarchy, but it is more a case of what sort of skills would a Cacodemonist have or aspire to. In this context, I'd say:

Physical Skills: Create Disguise, Impersonate, Intimidate, Eat

Mental Skills: Know Cacodemon Myth (this needs to be somewhere!), Lie, Know Others' Myths (for the Steal Affinity Feat - always improvised versus a specific foreign cult, the more esoteric or alien to the Cacodemonist, the harder the test)

Another thought that just occurred to me is that Cacodemon might work very well as an animist tradition, with the cultist acquiring and integrating different spirits
(explaining the Chaos Features), including Deception,
Stealth, Eating and Dissention Spirits. Steal Affinity Spirits could each 'hold' one use of one feat. Then, the Cacodemonist would not so much summon a Fiend as Incarnate as one. Cacodemon would therefore become a roamer of the Spirit Plane.

It's worrying how interesting one can find such an unpleasant bunch!

Mark


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