No Small Part - Steve Chenault

No small part of the games I’ve run over the years spills itself into the design work I do on Castles & Crusades, Aihrde, and the monsters I put together. Demons and devils have always been my favorite. I have long since broken them free of any real world connotations, landing them squarely in either a generic game context or, more often than not, an Aihrde-centric mythos.

Orcus is a great example of the first. I have never used Orcus at the table very much. I could not tell you why; no particular reason. I preferred others like Amon, who just had “that” feel about them I suppose. But in writing the entry for Codex of the Planes (should be out in 2026) for the Abyss, I spent some time on Orcus, marrying up that content with what I was fleshing out in the Codex Infernum (out now). That was a lot of fun and in my mind, Orcus was suddenly anchored to the Unclad Pate in the Glass Tower. I could feel him there, sitting upon his throne, laughing without mercy or humor.

For the second, Mephistopheles offers himself up as another great example. Some years back I ran a high level party into Aihrde’s Wretched Plains. These are a little different than what one might think, as they are really just
one big plain with varied terrain. Tartarus is in the Wretched Plains, but consists of a different terrain than, say, Pandemonium. I leaned heavily on my reading of Michael Moorcocks Corum and Elric series and the stark borders that he always describes between realms: suddenly you are here. Then there. It’s wonderful mind jumping, and lodges the concept in your mind that there is something more to this or that place than the terrestrial feel of earth and water. So it was that the party came to a Lake of Fire that surrounded a Mountain of Glass. They had to cross the lake to find a particular morsel of information (I believe they were looking for a lost soul). But when they crossed these obstacles, they came upon massive, gilded halls: the Hall of Merriment. They assumed it was a dungeon complex but it turned out to be the table and board of Mephistopheles. The devil welcomed them at his table, so long as they did two things: they ate what was put in front of them, and they discussed with him the current events of their day and age. What followed was a massive several hour long role playing session that we all enjoyed. And this image of Mephistopheles.

We only just released the Codex Infernum and it is beyond the pale in what we’d hoped for, the art, much of it by Zoe DeVos is breathtaking. As with the particular demon genteel persona.

Check out the new Codex Infernum and Codex Exaltum!