The Most Head-Scratching Demon Lords in D&D

Originally published on Sidekickcast.com

Demon lords in Dungeons & Dragons are the ultimate embodiments of evil in the multiverse. They each rule at least one layer of the Abyss, which is where the evilest of evil spirits go after they pass on. These include monsters like Baphomet, the prince of beasts, Dagon, the ruler of monsters of the deep, and Graz’zt, the patron of tyrants and despots. Then…there are these guys.

Like the Roman pantheon, which had dozens of mundane gods, D&D has a demon lord for just about everything. Did you know that mushrooms and mucus could be inherently evil? Well, they can in D&D. Then again, this is a game that literally has monsters that disguise themselves as floors, so you shouldn’t be that surprised.

But at least only one appears at a time.

Without further ado, here are some of the demon lords that get me to raise an eyebrow. Fair warning to long-time players of the game: some of these guys are very popular. Remember that I’m not saying they’re bad, just weird.

Demogorgon

Let’s start off with the biggest of big bads, the Prince of Demons. Demogorgon comes from Christian mythology, which referred to him as a being who was so evil that people weren’t allowed to even utter his name. He got a stat block in the very first Monster Manual, and you’ve got to imagine something that evil has got to be scary as hell…

Or not.

Yeah…the biggest, baddest demon lord in all the multiverse is a giant snake-monkey hybrid with two heads that want to kill each other. This isn’t some relic from the 1970s, either – Demogorgon remains one of the biggest badasses in D&D today, getting featured on the cover of 4^th edition’s Monster Manual 2, serving as a bonus boss in Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, and playing a key role in the Savage Tide adventure path that closed out the final issues of Dungeon Magazine.

But, to be fair, art like this did make me want to play 4th edition.

When you’re talking about the darkest evils of D&D, you’re talking about a group of guys who all cower before this reptilian monkey thing. And, frankly, I love that. I love that the most insane, evil thing in all of existence is something that seems so silly to our puny mortal brains. Laugh it up, because that thing’s about to snatch you up in its snake-like arms and drag you into the Abyss, where you’ll spend eternity listening to its monkey heads shriek in delight at your exquisite suffering.

In a world filled with frightening and deadly things, I love that one of the biggest threats in all of D&D looks so goofy. It seems so perfect to me that humans would laugh at the appearance of the vilest demon of all time, completely blind to the very real threat he presents.

Asima

For every Demogorgon who appears in every edition of the game, there’s an Asima, who only gets a passing mention in a couple of supplements. In fact, I couldn’t find a picture of Asima, so I opted for this image of a cat popping out of a birthday cake and making a child cry.

Why did I pick this image? Because I appreciate art, damn it.

Asima gets a mention here because she (he?) is the demon lord of “ill surprises.” That just seems like such a rip-off for poor Asima that my heart goes out to her. Demogorgon gets to be prince of all demons. Orcus is the ruler of the undead. Even an obscure demon lord like Phraxas gets to be the demon lord of misery and despair. But poor Asima is the patron of unpleasant surprises. When you bring your car into the shop for an oil change and have to get the transmission replaced, that’s Asima’s doing. It just seems to be a really low grade of evil for a demon lord.

Juiblex

One of the aspects of D&D that I found really appealing as a kid was the sheer number of oozes, slimes, and jellies there were in the game. It probably comes from the fact that I was a fan of The Blob. One thing I didn’t really think about was whether some sort of malevolent force in the universe was creating the various killer slimes. I didn’t have to think about that – the folks at TSR had already put way more thought into it than necessary.

Juiblex is the demon lord of oozes and slimes. Now, it’s worth noting that most oozes are unintelligent, and that the default assumption of D&D gods is that they derive power from worship, so I’m not sure who decided to create a demonic cult to this guy. Neither is anyone else, really – there’s very little information on cults devoted to this guy.

Juiblex is also known as Jubilex – a distinction that came out of a typo somewhere but which became important for copyright purposes. Jubilex is part of the material available through the Open Game License, having been statted out in the third-party Tome of Horrors. Juiblex, on the other hand, is owned by Wizards of the Coast. A misprint could land a third-party publisher in legal trouble, though I hope even lawyers aren’t that anal.

Despite the fact that one of his actual titles is “Lord of Nothing,” Juiblex has a bunch of competition in terms of ruling over animated mucus. The Forgotten Realms has Ghaunadaur, which is not an exotic-sounding STD but is in fact a greater deity focused on oozes and slimes. There’s also Bwimb, an elemental lord who lived on the paraelemental plane of ooze. Bwimb got killed off by Orcus in the 2^nd edition adventure Dead Gods, and his death shook the multiverse so greatly that characters had this reaction:

Fun fact: I ran a game that had the PCs running through an abandoned shrine to Juiblex. We had to take a break partway through because we were all getting really hungry for some chocolate pudding.

Lissa’aere

Lissa’aere is a good illustration of my disconnect with gods, demigods, demon lords, and other extradimensional beings in D&D. She’s the demon lord of poison gas and noxious vapors…and I have no idea why such a thing exists.

This is actually not Lissa’aere – it’s a DIFFERENT deadly mist monster.

Granted, it’s not like anybody’s designed a full adventure around Lissa’aere – she’s only been mentioned in two supplements ever. However, I’m not even sure why she needs to exist at all. I can get behind a demon who appears as a cloud of poisonous gas, and I can see how an interesting adventure could be had in an Abyssal layer comprised mainly of noxious clouds. I’m just not sure why a whole cult of people would worship somebody who is entirely about poison gas and only poison gas.

Poison in general? I get that – it serves as a good metaphor and is very useful to assassins. But poison gas seems too focused for a whole cult to form around. We might as well have a demon lord of stubbed toes and a demon lord of acid rain, too.

Plus, there’s no way you’d be able to introduce the demon lord of poison gas and noxious vapors at a gaming table without at least one obnoxious player making a fart joke. There, I said it.

Zuggtmoy

You would think that a demon lord of fungus would be a horrifically lame creature, but Zuggtmoy is in fact one of the most beloved big bads in D&D history.

If only she were male, I could make a “fun guy” pun right now.

The reason for Zuggtmoy’s revered status is because she’s the villain behind the classic adventure module The Temple of Elemental Evil. Despite being a mashup of a puffball fungus, a Pokémon, and a mushroom, she’s one of the most iconic villains in RPG history, largely because of her association with that product.

Zuggtmoy is more than just a reminder that a fun product can make anything amazing by association. She’s a reminder than in D&D, everything is there to kill you. You wouldn’t think that fungus would have an associated demon lord, but it does. There are enough intelligent mushroom people, zombie-creating spores, and other fungus-related perils that you could only scratch the surface of mildew-related evil and still create a very intriguing dungeon.

The Temple of Elemental Evil itself involves a cult of villains tapping into the evil side of the four elements. So, yeah…water is an essential life-giving element, but there is also evil water in the world of D&D.

Nope – these are the NEUTRAL water monsters that try to kill you.

So of course there’s a demon lord associated with noxious vapors and animate slime. Of course the biggest baddest dude in the Abyss has a pair of monkey heads. In the world of Dungeons & Dragons, everything has something sinister associated with it, from mushrooms growing under a tree to the air you breathe. If I was going to come up with the most accurate name for the game, it would be Murderworld. No wonder adventurers are always in such high demand.

 

Images: WIzards of the Coast, Cat Macros