Assume this is just "default" 5e multiverse. Mount Celestia evidently doesn't fight demons, since they're all holed up in the Abyss. They don't fight devils, because apparently they're not allowed to as described by the Trial of Asmodeus. They don't usually go to the Material Plane, partly for meta reasons (we want PCs to be the big heroes who save the day, not angelic Deus ex machina NPCs). Partly because summoning outsiders requires rare, potent magic.
So...what exactly are they doing, then?
Given the paltry amount of 5e celestial lore we have, were told they do fight evil, but we don't get any examples. (But not Solars apparently? They just sleep until something sufficiently big interrupts their nap times.) If they're not fighting fiends, or helping mortals on the material Plane, then they seem kind of useless or cowardly in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, devils, creatures of tyranny and cruelty, are the brave, heroic defenders of the multiverse.
Okay, that descended into hyperbole, but I guess I'm just kinda venting my frustration on the depressing lack of celestial lore. Point is: what exactly are they doing to, you know, combat cosmic evil? If cosmic evil is already being contained by cosmic evil in the Blood War?
Of course, the meta answer is "whatever you want, it's your setting and your game". Which...yes, goes without saying. But I still would like something more substantial than that. Examples of how DMs use celestials in their games (as actual forces of Good, not as antagonists like they're so commonly depicted nowadays), or examples from older editions' lore.
That's a very good question... they share their power with clerics, paladins, and celestial warlocks?
Certainly not a bad answer. They can't directly intervene in the Material Plane without rare circumstances, so they empower mortals as best as they can. Directly meddling with mortal worlds is usually a messy, complex affair, and it's why fiends tend to do it far, far more often, so perhaps celestials prefer a more hands off approach for that reason.
I've always enjoyed the Blood War as an explanation for why mortals still have choices to make. It's got good explanatory power. A character in Forgotten Realms perceives good and evil as remote and deadlocked because agents of those forces are remote and deadlocked. Somewhere in the infinite planes devils, demons, and celestials are fighting right now (for some definition of now) and no side is making progress. It's a productive situation for stories about cosmic good and evil in a universe where those concepts have physical reality. As 5e continues the trend of moving away from alignment as a fundamental property of cosmology, they are creating empty space, and it's interesting to think of ways to fill it.
Here's the first thing I came up with... celestials are maintaining the separation between here (for whatever definition of "here" that you want) and the Far Realm. You end up introducing a lot of science fiction tropes into the putatively fantasy space of D&D's cosmology, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It might be a bad thing if you're unavoidably forced into cosmic horror territory. Not everyone wants that story. Still, it gives celestials something to be doing while not interfering...
The "good" hope its miracles and agents inspire mortals to live their best lives (in accordance with the tenets of "good"), so that when those souls arrive at Celestia or Bitopia or where have you, their souls can resoundingly join in a chorus of power and glory ... To what end? Mortals can't comprehend while still wrapped in the coils of the prime material. It's literally the next world.
It's not too hard to google plumb real world theologies of heavenly paradise afterlives that might as well be Planescape lore. Without opening any books and just relying on a mix of largely western based metaphysics, philosophy, art and lit, such places have been described on spectrum ranging from a place where one can finally experience the totality of existence both time and space all at once, that is, you finally "get it", on one hand to a place that will seem utterly boring to most mortals because it's a last stop and a place of rest of a nature most alive souls just aren't ready for. Like something like "The Prize" in HIghlander on one end and The Talking Heads "Heaven" ("Heaven is a place, where nothing ever happens).
I've always enjoyed the Blood War as an explanation for why mortals still have choices to make. It's got good explanatory power. A character in Forgotten Realms perceives good and evil as remote and deadlocked because agents of those forces are remote and deadlocked. Somewhere in the infinite planes devils, demons, and celestials are fighting right now (for some definition of now) and no side is making progress. It's a productive situation for stories about cosmic good and evil in a universe where those concepts have physical reality.
But that's just it, celestials aren't involved in the Blood War in any capacity. They don't seem to fight fiends anywhere at all, ever. No demons to fight, can't fight devils, and I guess yugoloths are only involved in that conflict alone. They're not deadlocked anywhere, they're just sitting around doing absolutely nothing. I guess a good story to tell if one wanted to tell the overly jaded, cynical story of "good is weak and useless/there is no good and evil, only shades of grey", but not really my kind of thing.
I've always enjoyed the Blood War as an explanation for why mortals still have choices to make. It's got good explanatory power. A character in Forgotten Realms perceives good and evil as remote and deadlocked because agents of those forces are remote and deadlocked. Somewhere in the infinite planes devils, demons, and celestials are fighting right now (for some definition of now) and no side is making progress. It's a productive situation for stories about cosmic good and evil in a universe where those concepts have physical reality.
But that's just it, celestials aren't involved in the Blood War in any capacity. They don't seem to fight fiends anywhere at all, ever. No demons to fight, can't fight devils, and I guess yugoloths are only involved in that conflict alone. They're not deadlocked anywhere, they're just sitting around doing absolutely nothing. I guess a good story to tell if one wanted to tell the overly jaded, cynical story of "good is weak and useless/there is no good and evil, only shades of grey", but not really my kind of thing.
You should check out some of the previous editions. If you're getting that celestials aren't involved in the Blood War from this edition, then maybe Wizards hasn't communicated effectively, but it's always been understood that that conflict was a three sided no-win scenario.
Perhaps, they merely nudge the mortal realm to mostly fight their own battles with a little help from friends on high.
When one provides everything for a people, the people become dependent and cannot survive and, despite all intents, become subjugated to those who provide. Even a benevolent tyrant is still a tyrant.
So instead, a good D&D deity will more likely help those who toil rather than provide everything "for the good of the people" and accidentally create a hegemonized populace.
Also, gameplay. If something fights evil for the players, what's left for the players to fight?
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
A lot may depend on your setting. In the Forgotten Realms you have several possibilities 1) making raids not the realms of demons and/or devils to recover stolen souls and Idjit adventurers that petition their deities for last second help. 2) dealing with demonic/devilish raids into their planar territories - demons and devils are in a two+ front war, each other and the forces of good. 3) guarding the dead souls on the fugue plain as they approach judgement and protecting them from being stolen by devils and demons. 4) leading contingents in fights with forces of their own and other pantheon’s evil deities. Example: Lolth is still a member of the Seldarine and still trying to eliminate Correllon so she may have portals and gates from he Demonweb putts to Arvandor and Correllon has solars etc. guarding these places and fighting those that come through ( a great way to create confusion by having a party members come through and get attacked by a solar etc and have to convince them they are good. Some of these might also be being corrupted by the seeping evils ( like Malkazid and Wendoni(?).
I enjoy the idea that the forces of Mt. Celestia are withholding the full might of their godly forces because of some great, unfathomable evil (which in my canon lore, exists within the deepest regions of the Abyss, as well as the cosmic terror of the Far Realm).
And so, what they “do” isn’t entirely dissimilar from what devils do…they recruit the souls of mighty warriors & heroes, who pass into their goodly realms, and let them hone their skills in endless battle in exchange for eternal revelry. This essentially fills the “ranks” of their army…the days are simply an endless routines of training exercises, patrols, and intelligence-gathering for the “big one”.
Harmony, paradise, bliss, splendor & revelry…it’s all there for the souls of mortals, and everyone partakes…but there is always this underlying tension amongst the ranks; especially among the archons, planetars & solars who serve the gods.
They also probably have constant law enforcement…maintaining paradise can’t be an easy thing to do. Probably a lot of border patrol, too…gotta keep the forces of Pandaemonium from spilling over & making a mess; and keep an eye on those scheming devils.
I've always enjoyed the Blood War as an explanation for why mortals still have choices to make. It's got good explanatory power. A character in Forgotten Realms perceives good and evil as remote and deadlocked because agents of those forces are remote and deadlocked. Somewhere in the infinite planes devils, demons, and celestials are fighting right now (for some definition of now) and no side is making progress. It's a productive situation for stories about cosmic good and evil in a universe where those concepts have physical reality.
But that's just it, celestials aren't involved in the Blood War in any capacity. They don't seem to fight fiends anywhere at all, ever. No demons to fight, can't fight devils, and I guess yugoloths are only involved in that conflict alone. They're not deadlocked anywhere, they're just sitting around doing absolutely nothing. I guess a good story to tell if one wanted to tell the overly jaded, cynical story of "good is weak and useless/there is no good and evil, only shades of grey", but not really my kind of thing.
Per Planescape lore, there was one time when the forces of the Upper Planes attempted to directly intervene in the Blood War.
The result was that the demons and devils agreed to a temporary cease fire just long enough for their combined forces to utterly slaughter the Celestials arrayed against them. The carnage was so horrific that the Upper Planes agreed that they would never do such a thing ever again. Since then, they've limited themselves to secretly supporting both sides to keep one from gaining a significant, long-term advantage because the stalemate is basically the only thing that's protecting the rest of the planes.
If fiends travel to other planes, however, they become fair game for Celestials. The forces of the Upper Planes can mobilize if demons or devils start to invade the Outlands or the Prime, though they tend to be slow to do so because they prefer having mortal champions win the day as it typically results in less devastation to the plane that's been invaded.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Re why the Blood war? Lore wise, while both are "evil" the law and chaos at their cores are anathema to each other. The way I explain the conflict, and the conflict is explained in every edition I believe, but the way I simply explain the conflict is to show that devils and demons operate. Devils seduce and lure mortal souls into servitude, and that servitude is in service(sic) to a hierarchical designs and principles. Demons ravage and tear everything apart defiling planets as part and process of their infestatations. Devils conquest with recognizable military strategy, demons just pile and overwhelm. The war between the Hells and the Abyss aren't like that of two nations of the same species. The Demons see Hell and the Devils as a wall they must break, as they must break all walls. The Devils see the demons as a disease that will bring the infernal order into entropy if the infection spreads far enough.
Even simpler breakdown: Devils want to oppress reality, Demons want to break reality.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Re why the Blood war? Lore wise, while both are "evil" the law and chaos at their cores are anathema to each other. The way I explain the conflict, and the conflict is explained in every edition I believe, but the way I simply explain the conflict is to show that devils and demons operate. Devils seduce and lure mortal souls into servitude, and that servitude is in service(sic) to a hierarchical designs and principles. Demons ravage and tear everything apart defiling planets as part and process of their infestatations. Devils conquest with recognizable military strategy, demons just pile and overwhelm. The war between the Hells and the Abyss aren't like that of two nations of the same species. The Demons see Hell and the Devils as a wall they must break, as they must break all walls. The Devils see the demons as a disease that will bring the infernal order into entropy if the infection spreads far enough.
Even simpler breakdown: Devils want to oppress reality, Demons want to break reality.
Actually, devils as the ultimate oppressor vs demons as the ultimate nihilists really only dates back to 4th Edition. Prior to that there was much more overlap between their goals and actions. Demons didn't want to destroy reality*, they wanted to destroy all order and goodness in reality and turn everything into an extension of the Abyss. In 4E, WotC made the decision to make all demons savage monsters (causing succubi to be turned into devils as a side effect) and changed their goal to simply destroying reality. This had the side effect of causing them to lose a lot of the their flavor: they were actually the type of fiend most likely to try seducing mortals in 2E. In addition to the succubus, who seduced with the promises of sex, the glabezru was also a type of demon that tried to tempt mortals with promises of power and riches. They even had the ability to cast Wish once per year, but only in response to a mortal's request. Many devils, meanwhile, were just as destructive and bloodthirsty as any demon, they just happened to be more orderly about the way they'd dismember you.
And then Wizards of the Coast came along and stripped most of the interesting bits out of the lore.
*With the exception of Demogorgon, who's always been characterized as wanting to destroy every other living and unliving thing in existence before his two heads turn on each other and fight to determine which gets to be the last thing in the void.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Perhaps, they merely nudge the mortal realm to mostly fight their own battles with a little help from friends on high.
When one provides everything for a people, the people become dependent and cannot survive and, despite all intents, become subjugated to those who provide. Even a benevolent tyrant is still a tyrant.
So instead, a good D&D deity will more likely help those who toil rather than provide everything "for the good of the people" and accidentally create a hegemonized populace.
Also, gameplay. If something fights evil for the players, what's left for the players to fight?
I still don't get this. Just because Good aligned creatures are fighting evil across the multiverse doesn't mean there's nothing left for PCs to fight. Celestials can't possibly be everywhere at once, and especially can't be around on the Material Plane without some powerful magic, i.e. where the majority of games take place.
I always assumed they were either fighting a greater evil in the "heavens" or they were philosophizing with the other good gods what the true personification of perfection would be.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I always assumed they were either fighting a greater evil in the "heavens" or they were philosophizing with the other good gods what the true personification of perfection would be.
This makes the most sense. They're protecting our reality from the really big threats by hiding our dimension from those threats, bopping those threats on the nose, and getting those threats to fight each other instead of attacking the forces of cosmic good. But in order for them to deal with the cosmic evils, they need their home dimensions to be relatively stable. As a result, they empower their clerics/paladins to fight the smaller evils (i.e. Demogorgon).
Similar to players asking why the level 10 wizard needs the lvl 1 PCs to deal with the rats in the basement, when the lvl 10 Wizard could fireball the rats easily. The answer is that the lvl 10 wizard is dealing with lvl 10 problems, and the wizard wants to know if the lvl 1 PCs can be trusted with smaller problems so the lvl 10 wizard doesn't have to be bothered by them.
(A 10th level wizard having to deal with a 1st-level rat problem is like Gordon Ramsay having to teach restaurant owners to not serve rotten/frozen/microwaved food in the 5th, 6th, or 7th season of Kitchen Nightmares.)
Also, gameplay. If something fights evil for the players, what's left for the players to fight?
I still don't get this. Just because Good aligned creatures are fighting evil across the multiverse doesn't mean there's nothing left for PCs to fight. Celestials can't possibly be everywhere at once, and especially can't be around on the Material Plane without some powerful magic, i.e. where the majority of games take place.
Eagles.
You took one phrase beyond what was necessary to understand the concept of Deus Ex Machina to create an argument that wasn't being had.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Assume this is just "default" 5e multiverse. Mount Celestia evidently doesn't fight demons, since they're all holed up in the Abyss. They don't fight devils, because apparently they're not allowed to as described by the Trial of Asmodeus. They don't usually go to the Material Plane, partly for meta reasons (we want PCs to be the big heroes who save the day, not angelic Deus ex machina NPCs). Partly because summoning outsiders requires rare, potent magic.
So...what exactly are they doing, then?
Given the paltry amount of 5e celestial lore we have, were told they do fight evil, but we don't get any examples. (But not Solars apparently? They just sleep until something sufficiently big interrupts their nap times.) If they're not fighting fiends, or helping mortals on the material Plane, then they seem kind of useless or cowardly in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, devils, creatures of tyranny and cruelty, are the brave, heroic defenders of the multiverse.
Okay, that descended into hyperbole, but I guess I'm just kinda venting my frustration on the depressing lack of celestial lore. Point is: what exactly are they doing to, you know, combat cosmic evil? If cosmic evil is already being contained by cosmic evil in the Blood War?
Of course, the meta answer is "whatever you want, it's your setting and your game". Which...yes, goes without saying. But I still would like something more substantial than that. Examples of how DMs use celestials in their games (as actual forces of Good, not as antagonists like they're so commonly depicted nowadays), or examples from older editions' lore.
That's a very good question... they share their power with clerics, paladins, and celestial warlocks?
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For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
Certainly not a bad answer. They can't directly intervene in the Material Plane without rare circumstances, so they empower mortals as best as they can. Directly meddling with mortal worlds is usually a messy, complex affair, and it's why fiends tend to do it far, far more often, so perhaps celestials prefer a more hands off approach for that reason.
I've always enjoyed the Blood War as an explanation for why mortals still have choices to make. It's got good explanatory power. A character in Forgotten Realms perceives good and evil as remote and deadlocked because agents of those forces are remote and deadlocked. Somewhere in the infinite planes devils, demons, and celestials are fighting right now (for some definition of now) and no side is making progress. It's a productive situation for stories about cosmic good and evil in a universe where those concepts have physical reality. As 5e continues the trend of moving away from alignment as a fundamental property of cosmology, they are creating empty space, and it's interesting to think of ways to fill it.
Here's the first thing I came up with... celestials are maintaining the separation between here (for whatever definition of "here" that you want) and the Far Realm. You end up introducing a lot of science fiction tropes into the putatively fantasy space of D&D's cosmology, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It might be a bad thing if you're unavoidably forced into cosmic horror territory. Not everyone wants that story. Still, it gives celestials something to be doing while not interfering...
The "good" hope its miracles and agents inspire mortals to live their best lives (in accordance with the tenets of "good"), so that when those souls arrive at Celestia or Bitopia or where have you, their souls can resoundingly join in a chorus of power and glory ... To what end? Mortals can't comprehend while still wrapped in the coils of the prime material. It's literally the next world.
It's not too hard to google plumb real world theologies of heavenly paradise afterlives that might as well be Planescape lore. Without opening any books and just relying on a mix of largely western based metaphysics, philosophy, art and lit, such places have been described on spectrum ranging from a place where one can finally experience the totality of existence both time and space all at once, that is, you finally "get it", on one hand to a place that will seem utterly boring to most mortals because it's a last stop and a place of rest of a nature most alive souls just aren't ready for. Like something like "The Prize" in HIghlander on one end and The Talking Heads "Heaven" ("Heaven is a place, where nothing ever happens).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
But that's just it, celestials aren't involved in the Blood War in any capacity. They don't seem to fight fiends anywhere at all, ever. No demons to fight, can't fight devils, and I guess yugoloths are only involved in that conflict alone. They're not deadlocked anywhere, they're just sitting around doing absolutely nothing. I guess a good story to tell if one wanted to tell the overly jaded, cynical story of "good is weak and useless/there is no good and evil, only shades of grey", but not really my kind of thing.
You should check out some of the previous editions. If you're getting that celestials aren't involved in the Blood War from this edition, then maybe Wizards hasn't communicated effectively, but it's always been understood that that conflict was a three sided no-win scenario.
Perhaps, they merely nudge the mortal realm to mostly fight their own battles with a little help from friends on high.
When one provides everything for a people, the people become dependent and cannot survive and, despite all intents, become subjugated to those who provide. Even a benevolent tyrant is still a tyrant.
So instead, a good D&D deity will more likely help those who toil rather than provide everything "for the good of the people" and accidentally create a hegemonized populace.
Also, gameplay. If something fights evil for the players, what's left for the players to fight?
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
A lot may depend on your setting. In the Forgotten Realms you have several possibilities
1) making raids not the realms of demons and/or devils to recover stolen souls and Idjit adventurers that petition their deities for last second help.
2) dealing with demonic/devilish raids into their planar territories - demons and devils are in a two+ front war, each other and the forces of good.
3) guarding the dead souls on the fugue plain as they approach judgement and protecting them from being stolen by devils and demons.
4) leading contingents in fights with forces of their own and other pantheon’s evil deities. Example: Lolth is still a member of the Seldarine and still trying to eliminate Correllon so she may have portals and gates from he Demonweb putts to Arvandor and Correllon has solars etc. guarding these places and fighting those that come through ( a great way to create confusion by having a party members come through and get attacked by a solar etc and have to convince them they are good. Some of these might also be being corrupted by the seeping evils ( like Malkazid and Wendoni(?).
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I enjoy the idea that the forces of Mt. Celestia are withholding the full might of their godly forces because of some great, unfathomable evil (which in my canon lore, exists within the deepest regions of the Abyss, as well as the cosmic terror of the Far Realm).
And so, what they “do” isn’t entirely dissimilar from what devils do…they recruit the souls of mighty warriors & heroes, who pass into their goodly realms, and let them hone their skills in endless battle in exchange for eternal revelry. This essentially fills the “ranks” of their army…the days are simply an endless routines of training exercises, patrols, and intelligence-gathering for the “big one”.
Harmony, paradise, bliss, splendor & revelry…it’s all there for the souls of mortals, and everyone partakes…but there is always this underlying tension amongst the ranks; especially among the archons, planetars & solars who serve the gods.
They also probably have constant law enforcement…maintaining paradise can’t be an easy thing to do. Probably a lot of border patrol, too…gotta keep the forces of Pandaemonium from spilling over & making a mess; and keep an eye on those scheming devils.
Per Planescape lore, there was one time when the forces of the Upper Planes attempted to directly intervene in the Blood War.
The result was that the demons and devils agreed to a temporary cease fire just long enough for their combined forces to utterly slaughter the Celestials arrayed against them. The carnage was so horrific that the Upper Planes agreed that they would never do such a thing ever again. Since then, they've limited themselves to secretly supporting both sides to keep one from gaining a significant, long-term advantage because the stalemate is basically the only thing that's protecting the rest of the planes.
If fiends travel to other planes, however, they become fair game for Celestials. The forces of the Upper Planes can mobilize if demons or devils start to invade the Outlands or the Prime, though they tend to be slow to do so because they prefer having mortal champions win the day as it typically results in less devastation to the plane that's been invaded.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Re why the Blood war? Lore wise, while both are "evil" the law and chaos at their cores are anathema to each other. The way I explain the conflict, and the conflict is explained in every edition I believe, but the way I simply explain the conflict is to show that devils and demons operate. Devils seduce and lure mortal souls into servitude, and that servitude is in service(sic) to a hierarchical designs and principles. Demons ravage and tear everything apart defiling planets as part and process of their infestatations. Devils conquest with recognizable military strategy, demons just pile and overwhelm. The war between the Hells and the Abyss aren't like that of two nations of the same species. The Demons see Hell and the Devils as a wall they must break, as they must break all walls. The Devils see the demons as a disease that will bring the infernal order into entropy if the infection spreads far enough.
Even simpler breakdown: Devils want to oppress reality, Demons want to break reality.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Actually, devils as the ultimate oppressor vs demons as the ultimate nihilists really only dates back to 4th Edition. Prior to that there was much more overlap between their goals and actions. Demons didn't want to destroy reality*, they wanted to destroy all order and goodness in reality and turn everything into an extension of the Abyss. In 4E, WotC made the decision to make all demons savage monsters (causing succubi to be turned into devils as a side effect) and changed their goal to simply destroying reality. This had the side effect of causing them to lose a lot of the their flavor: they were actually the type of fiend most likely to try seducing mortals in 2E. In addition to the succubus, who seduced with the promises of sex, the glabezru was also a type of demon that tried to tempt mortals with promises of power and riches. They even had the ability to cast Wish once per year, but only in response to a mortal's request. Many devils, meanwhile, were just as destructive and bloodthirsty as any demon, they just happened to be more orderly about the way they'd dismember you.
And then Wizards of the Coast came along and stripped most of the interesting bits out of the lore.
*With the exception of Demogorgon, who's always been characterized as wanting to destroy every other living and unliving thing in existence before his two heads turn on each other and fight to determine which gets to be the last thing in the void.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I still don't get this. Just because Good aligned creatures are fighting evil across the multiverse doesn't mean there's nothing left for PCs to fight. Celestials can't possibly be everywhere at once, and especially can't be around on the Material Plane without some powerful magic, i.e. where the majority of games take place.
I always assumed they were either fighting a greater evil in the "heavens" or they were philosophizing with the other good gods what the true personification of perfection would be.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
This makes the most sense. They're protecting our reality from the really big threats by hiding our dimension from those threats, bopping those threats on the nose, and getting those threats to fight each other instead of attacking the forces of cosmic good. But in order for them to deal with the cosmic evils, they need their home dimensions to be relatively stable. As a result, they empower their clerics/paladins to fight the smaller evils (i.e. Demogorgon).
Similar to players asking why the level 10 wizard needs the lvl 1 PCs to deal with the rats in the basement, when the lvl 10 Wizard could fireball the rats easily. The answer is that the lvl 10 wizard is dealing with lvl 10 problems, and the wizard wants to know if the lvl 1 PCs can be trusted with smaller problems so the lvl 10 wizard doesn't have to be bothered by them.
(A 10th level wizard having to deal with a 1st-level rat problem is like Gordon Ramsay having to teach restaurant owners to not serve rotten/frozen/microwaved food in the 5th, 6th, or 7th season of Kitchen Nightmares.)
Eagles.
You took one phrase beyond what was necessary to understand the concept of Deus Ex Machina to create an argument that wasn't being had.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Celestials are making sure that the level ones only have to deal with dretches and nupperibos rather than balors and pitfiends.