> I'm mostly wondering about the western
> wizards/sorcerers viewpoint,
> but also of the more general situation.
I'm going to offer some replies, not from gamese, bu from my Gloranthan perspective.
> I assume a lot of the creatures called demons are
> from the underworld,
> also known as hell (one of them anyway). Even trolls
> are basically
> demons, or at least descendants of demons that were
> driven out of the underworld.
Correct.
Think of "demon" as a sort of generic label that is
generally applied to anything outside of one's own
pantheon.
> Another obvious(?) source of demons are chaos
> entities. I'd like more
> guidelines for these, but at least I have some grip
> on it.
Gidelines concerning what?
> But what about foreign daemons and spirits? In the
> spirit of
> misapplied worship, I suspect a sorcerer can summon
> up a daemon as an essence.
Can you clarify for me what you mean by "as an
essence?"
A sorcerer or wizard could summon a daemon, yes, but
it would not change it into an essential being. Nor is
he likely to think of it as such.
> Would the strange result of such a
> summoning be considered a
> demon, or a petty pagan godling, and is there a
> meaningful difference to the wizard?
Depending upon the information that was handed down to him in his grimoire, or that he discovered on his own investigation, he might well know it was a godling, and he would likely label it as a demon.
> So if a sorceress manages to summon Gavreninkin (son
> of Yinkin) as an
> esssence creature
Oop, there it is again!
> (possibly under a different name), would it manifest
> as a demon-cat? Would an orlanthi wind daemon appear
> as an elemental storm demon?
Labeling something as a Demon doesn't change its
inherent powers, although its attitude and obligatory
reaction to a sorcerer would likely have it show some
powers that a friendly and respectful worshiper would
not see.
So, I think the reply to those two questions are "yes"
and "yes."
> If the above paragraph is wrong, what is the source
> of elemental
> demons, or do they not exist at all?
Elemental demons would, for a sorcerer, be from the god or spirit worlds. Heck, there might even be elementals from the Essence Planes that are hostile to him, and be labeled demons as well!
--
Greg Stafford
Game Designer
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