The Origin Of Asmodeus (Pathfinder OR D&D)

[ArlEammon]

Asmodeus is always indescribably old in various campaigns. What about yours? What is his origin? I'm using this info for my own campaign.

[jqavins]

Well, I don't have an answer as asked, but since it's been most of three days without anyone else answering either, I'll throw in some brainstorming.

The most obvious answer is that he came to be in the same way as the other devils, or the same as some others from the original creation if the hells. Which, of course, means you'll want to have an answer for how that was, but it removes a special origin for Asmodeus. Those first devils vied for power and control, and Asmy won; the others are either dead or are the other surviving arch-devils.

Or this: The gods (or a god) created the hells as a place for the souls of the unworthy to be dumped, but then ignored it. These souls would sometimes band together and sometimes fight. Some gained power through experience and understanding, through conquest, through consuming the power of the vanquished, and by other means. From here, the story resembles that above, but with one small twist. Asmy managed to win out by organizing subordinates who would follow him in return for high positions under him after they won. It is because of this, because the hells were conquered by the introduction of order in Asmy's camp, that the hells became lawful in alignment. That is, Asmy won because he is lawful, and he made the whole of the hells lawful after his victory.

Since the standard D&D cast of outsiders has no fallen angel descent into hell story, one could put Asmy into the Lucifer role. Or he could be a "fallen god," which is almost the same thing, except that his origin would then be entwined with that of the other gods (rather than with angels).

[Hugh Mann]

The official 3.5 lore gives a few conflicting answers:

-He is a fallen angel and a few of the other archdukes of hell were also angels. At the time hell was eithier empty or populated by a type of devil that Asmodeus conquered/sealed/destroyed. From there Asmodeus either convinced the more lawful planes that he should be allowed dominion of hell in exchange for fighting against the tides of chaos (demons), or he consolidated power in secret so that he would be a major player in the planescape but came into conflict with the demons before being able to launch an attack on the higher planes. There is various lore that suggests that Asmodeus' fall actually split hell into various layers.

-He was an evil angel. Rather than being thrown from the heavens, he pretended to be good while secretly consolidating power. He and a few other angels then somehow tricking some gods into giving them sovereignty over hell as a sort of rehabilitation center for wayward souls. When the gods learned of this trickery it was too late, Asmodeus was either too strong or they were bound by a contract. They then cursed the hells, taking away the angelic beauty of the archdukes. Otherwise it is similar to first option.

-some sort of alien god. It is suggested that Asmodeus is actually some world destroying monster from another reality. It crashed into hell, breaking through all the layers, and is trapped beneath all of them. It uses the form of a humanoid devil to trick people into serving its ends.

[jqavins]

There are many "universes," the parallel planes that all know make up the multiverse. But there are other multiverses, as well. Passage between them is much, much harder to achieve than passage between the planes, and even the gods find it nearly impossible.

In another multiverse, Asmy was the god of magic, and on the verge of conquering all the planes, when the other gods banded together to destroy him. Unknown to them, as they launched the combined magical attack that should have destroyed him, he used all the skill and power at his disposal to channel all their energy into creating a gate to another multiverse - our multiverse. Breaching the barrier created a backlash that destroyed all life in Asmy's original multiverse, leaving it a shattered, dead ruin. The energy unleashed on our side of the breach shattered many of the outer planes, splitting Hell into the nine hells, creating the seven heavens, etc. The blast of energy hit hardest on the abyss, as this is where Asmy himself initially hit, but the shattering of that plane caused him to rebound over to the hells.

The denizens of the hells died in great numbers, and those that were left were easy for Asmy to conquer. The survivors of the shattering of the abyss, knowing who had caused the destruction of their world, vowed perpetual war on him and his realm.

[bc56]

Asmodeus, along all other devils, were rebellious angels who sought to overthrow the gods or god of the world. They were cast into hell and imprisoned there (they cannot leave when they want). Souls bound for hell transform into the lowest form of devil (which is a lemure). While in hell, all devils suffer eternal torment, and misery loves company, so they try to drag as many souls as possible down with them. This could work to explain demons as well.

The fiends have already lost the war against good, they just want to cause as much collateral damage as possible before they are truly destroyed

[jqavins]

The fiends have already lost the war against good, they just want to cause as much collateral damage as possible before they are truly destroyed

Probably there are some, and even some high and powerful ones, who refuse to admit this to themselves.

[Eldan]

In the official cosmology, or at least many versions of it, the devils officially advertise themselves as being on the side of good. Heaven is weak and misguided, so Hell has to step in and fight the war against the Abyss for them. But they are still essentialy fighting for a just and orderly universe free of random demonic destruction. All those souls they drag into hell are just being conscripted.

[Durzan]

The best Origin of Asmodeus story i've seen on here is listed in this thread:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...light=Asmodeus

[Bobbyjackcorn]

My world deals heavily with multiverses, and officially my canon is that the other planes are alternate material planes that progressed differently. In planes where evil wins over good,either a hierarchy of souls forms the allegiances of hell, and the plane becomes LE, with Asmodeus as the champion of their plane, or they coalesce together, souls consuming more souls, and their plane becomes one with the infinite layers of the Abyss.
So in a way, I have an infinite number of worlds with an infinite number of Asmodeus's, each with their own origin story, but all boiling down to the champion soul of a corrupted universe.

[Asmotherion]

In my personal setting, his true nature is a huge secret, even to the gods themselves. If you play, or suspect you may be a player in my settings, I would discourage you from reading forward:

Spoiler: True Nature of Asmodeus

Show

Asmodeus is actually Loki's son, Jormungandr, the World Serpant. He is Loki's Son with Tiamat, and Hell is his Half-Sister who, when killed, formed the 8th and 9th layers of Hell themselves. She was reincarnated as his daughter, Glacia. Asmodeus Deification signifies the begining of Ragnarock in an attempt to create a new order of things. This was because of an agreement between the Elder Gods, New Gods and Dragon Gods (Mostly involving Dragons) that the Norse Pantheon tryed to Outsmart, and explains the rivalry between Giants and Dragons, but long story short, Asmodeus and Loki got the short end of the stick from that deal, and try to get their rightfull place by bringing Ragnarock.)