Dragon (Issue 28 - Aug 1979) contained one of the most controversial articles by "The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn covers "A history of Satan and the other fallen angels after the war against heavan and they had been cast down." And its the unseen player that we get one of our primary antagonistic villains. Baalzebul get's his due in this article and according to Greyhawk on line; "In Dragon # 28, the article "The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn gives a different history to that detailed above, and includes statistics for Satan, Belial and Astaroth. Satan is more powerful than any other Devil, but lacks support, having been exiled from hell by Beelzebub following a revolution. Beelzebub ("Lord of the Archdevils") was himself overthrown by Asmodeus and is forever after known as Baalzebul ("Lord of the Flies," with "flies" meaning "little devils" in this context)."
"In Legions of Hell by Chris Pramas, Beelzebub (as he's called in that source) is described as a fallen throne archon. His servants in that book include Amitiel, the Archon of Truth; Flauros, who is consulted in divinations; Meresin, who controls lightning storms; Moloch, a former angelic patron of children who now welcomes child sacrifice; Murmur, who questions souls arriving in the Seventh Circle; Nergal, the Fetid Prince; Rahbad, Lord of the Lightless Seas; and Tamiel, Angel of the Deep." "
What does Baalzebul have to do with Adventurer, Conqueror,, King rpg's Heroic Fantasy Handbook?!? Well a bit of everything really as we get write up's for new heroic style monsters and this includes cacodemons. Cacodemons range in power from imps capable of being a nuisance to ones that are capable of ripping dragons in half.
Baalzebul ("Lord of the Flies," with "flies" meaning "little devils" in this context)." here could easily mean Cacodemons. And if Baalzebul is in point of fact still one of the most powerful background entities within Hell. Than it stands to reason that he has a network of these horrors capable of moving between the 9 Hells.
Now according to the Cacodemon's entry on Wik:"A cacodemon (or cacodaemon) is an evil spirit or (in the modern sense of the word) a demon. The opposite of a cacodemon is an agathodaemon or eudaemon, a good spirit or angel. The word cacodemon comes through Latin from the Ancient Greek κακοδαίμων kakodaimōn, meaning an "evil spirit", whereas daimon would be a neutral spirit in Greek. It is believed to be capable of shapeshifting.[1] A cacodemon is also said to be a malevolent person.
"In psychology, cacodemonia (or cacodemonomania) is a form of insanity in which the patient believes that they are possessed by an evil spirit. The first known occurrence of the word cacodemon dates to 1593. In William Shakespeare's Richard III Act 1 Scene 3, Queen Margaret calls Richard a "cacodemon" for his foul deeds and manipulations.[2] In John Fletcher's The Knight of Malta, Norandine calls Mountferrat, the play's villain, a "cacodemon" in the final scene.[3] In The Arbatel de Magi Veterum, written in 1575, the word Cacodemon is described as one of the Seven."
"In astrology, the 12th house was once called the Cacodemon for its association with evil.[4][5] Defined it as "a noise-making devil", Jane Davidson has noted an illustrated example of a cacodemon in editions of Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrum Historia (Story of Monsters) as late as 1696.[6]" "
So not only are Cacodemons powerful but thier far more formable
then thier Heroic Fantasy Handbook entry suggests. And this puts
them well in a league of thier own. And Baalezbub knew how valuble these
members of the Falare/were as this is reflected in the 'Politics of Hell' article;"
Beelzebub does seem to have had a point. However, Beelzebub had difficulty controlling the devils. He could not order them about the way Satan had, because he had gained power by promising more freedom of action. In fact, some of the more powerful arch-devils told him (in a roundabout way) that his authority would be in jeopardy if he tried to assert himself too much. So, the only means that Beelzebub could use to get things done in Hell were by persuasion or by doing favors for the devils. Needless to say, these were not enough, even if Beelzebub had had the time to talk to all the arch-devils in order to explain why things had to be done, or to do all the errands that he had to do to get things done. The devils ended up aiding humans against each other, with little coordination, so that they fell into disrepute because they could not fulfill their conflicting promises." And it's this confusion that borne the influence of the cacodemons within Hell..jpg)
Why was Baalzebul picking on our player's PC's?! Simply put we had defeated his pet black wizard who had a pact with the archdevil & was his primary agent on Earth at the time. And when we killed him the arch devil appeared and took us with him! The PC's had to deal with being lost on the first plane and events began to get worse as time went on.
Each time we got a few steps ahead, we'd get knocked back two spaces. We recruited three slayers from the prisons of Mammon. Baalzbul however was always lurking in the background. The Forgotten Realms Wiki entry on Baalzebul hones in one of the archdevil's flaws his personality; "Of Baazelbul's numerous flaws, his most crippling was his perfectionist extremism. His unfiltered dedication to achieving physical flawlessness and greater dominion was what caused his initial fall from the Seven Heavens, as such callous ambition was more befitting of a devil.[2][8] Seemingly incapable of realizing when he had gone too far, his utter arrogance led him to undermine his own plans by overreaching.[1][4] He might have even been able to defeat his rival Mephistopheles if in his overconfident scheming he didn't also aim to defeat Asmodeus, causing him to fall even further than before.[4]" Our party of adventurers were part of an elaborate plan to reclaim his kingdom.
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