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Tanar'ri

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Tanar'ri
Ta.jpg
Representative art of Tanar'ri in Dungeons and Dragons
Characteristics
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Type Outsider (Fiend)
Image Wizards.com image
Stats Open Game License stats
Publication history
First appearance Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition
Mythological origins Demon

For an overall list of Succubus related articles, see Succubus (disambiguation).

For an overall list of Incubus related articles, see Incubus (disambiguation).


Tanar'ri are the dominant subcategory of demons in the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game. Originally created by the obyriths as slaves, they eventually revolted against their masters, killing most of them and taking over as the dominant race of demons in the Abyss.

Most known demon lords are tanar'ri. The tanar'ri are essentially classic demons; those that arose as a result of faith and humanity and are reflections of cruelty, evil and sin. They usually have a basic humanoid shape, although there are several exceptions. There are many known species of tanar'ri.


Publication History

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The babau (greater tanar'ri), the chasme (greater tanar'ri), the nabassu (greater tanar'ri), the molydeus (guardian tanar'ri), the dretch (least tanar'ri), the manes (least tanar'ri), the rutterkin (least tanar'ri), the alu-fiend (lesser tanar'ri), the bar-lgura (lesser tanar'ri), the cambion baron/marquis and cambion major (lesser tanar'ri), the succubus (lesser tanar'ri), the balor (true tanar'ri), the glabrezu (true tanar'ri), the hezrou (true tanar'ri), the marilith (true tanar'ri), the nalfeshnee (true tanar'ri), and the vrock (true tanar'ri) appear in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Outer Planes Appendix (1991).[1] The balor (tanar'ri) and the marilith (tanar'ri) next appear in the Monstrous Manual (1993).[2]

The Planescape campaign setting utilized demons, known exclusively as tanar'ri, under 2nd edition rules, extensively. The alu-fiend (lesser tanar'ri), the babau (greater tanar'ri), the balor (true tanar'ri), the bar-lgura (lesser tanar'ri), the cambion (lesser tanar'ri), the chasme (greater tanar'ri), the dretch (least tanar'ri), the glabrezu (true tanar'ri), the hezrou (true tanar'ri), the manes (least tanar'ri), the marilith (true tanar'ri), the molydeus (guardian tanar'ri), the nabassu (greater tanar'ri), the nalfeshnee (true tanar'ri), the rutterkin (least tanar'ri), the succubus (lesser tanar'ri), the vrock (true tanar'ri), and the wastrilith greater tanar'ri are detailed in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994).[3] The armanite (lesser tanar'ri), the goristro (greater tanar'ri), and the Abyssal lords Graz'zt and Pazrael appear in the Planes of Chaos boxed set (1994).[4] The alkilith (true tanar'ri), the bulezau (lesser tanar'ri), the maurezhi (lesser tanar'ri), and the yochlol (lesser tanar'ri) appeared in Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (1995).[5] In a review of Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II for Arcane magazine, the reviewer cites the culture of the tanar'ri as helping "give the Planes a solid base of peoples".[6] Monstrous Compendium Annual Three (1996) featured the armanite and the goristro again.[7]

The Rod of Seven Parts boxed set (1996), in "Book IV: Monsters", featured statistics for Miska the Wolf-Spider and the Queen of Chaos, along with the spyder-fiends: the kakkuu, the lycosidilith, the phisarazu, the raklupis, and the spithriku.[8] The spyder-fiends later appeared in Monstrous Compendium Annual Four (1998), along with the uridezu (rat-fiend) lesser tanar'ri.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

Tanar'ri appear in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000),[9] including the balor (tanar'ri), the bebilith, the dretch (tanar'ri), the glabrezu (tanar'ri), the hezrou (tanar'ri), the marilith (tanar'ri), the nalfeshnee (tanar'ri), the quasit, the retriever, the succubus (tanar'ri), and the vrock (tanar'ri).

The cerebrilith appeared in the Psionics Handbook (2001). The uridezu (tanar'ri), the armanite (tanar'ri), and the goristro (tanar'ri) appear in this edition's Manual of the Planes (2001).[10] The mane (tanar'ri), the rutterkin (tanar'ri), the bar-lgura (tanar'ri), the babau (tanar'ri), the shadow demon, and the chasme (tanar'ri), as well as the demon lords Demogorgon, Prince of Demons; Graz'zt, the Dark Prince; Juiblex, the Faceless Lord; Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead; and Yeenoghu, Demon Prince of Gnolls appear in the Book of Vile Darkness (2002).[11] The abyssal maw, the abyssal skulker, the abyssal ravager, the jovoc (tanar'ri), the palrethee (tanar'ri), the zovvut, the jariltih (tanar'ri), and the kelvezu (tanar'ri) appear in this edition's Monster Manual II (2002).[12] The alkilith (tanar'ri), the blood fiend, the klurichir (tanar'ri), the maurezhi (tanar'ri), the myrmyxicus (tanar'ri), the skulvyn, and the wastrilith appear in this edition's Fiend Folio (2003).[13]

Savage Species (2003) presented the succubus/incubus and the vrock both as races and as playable classes.[14]

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003–2007)

Tanar'ri appear in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), including the babau, the balor, the bebelith, the dretch, the glabrezu, the hezrou, the marilith, the nalfeshnee, the quasit, the retriever, the succubus, and the vrock.

The "Demonomicon of Iggwilv" features in Dragon each presented a highly detailed description of a single demon lord, as well as at least one type of Tanar'ri associated with that demon lord. Pazuzu, Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms and the anzu appear in Dragon #329 (March 2005).[15] Fraz-Urb’luu, Prince of Deception and the skurchur appear in Dragon #333 (July 2005).[16] Zuggtmoy, Queen of Fungi and the vathugu appear in Dragon #337 (November 2005).[17] Baphomet, Prince of Beasts and the ankshar and the bulezau appear in Dragon #341 (March 2006).[18] Kostchtchie, Prince of Wrath and the mavawhan appear in Dragon #345 (July 2006).[19] Dagon, Prince of the Darkened Depths and the uzollru appear in Dragon #349 (November 2006).[20] Malcanthet, Queen of the Succubi and the incubus appear in Dragon #353 (March 2007).[21] Demogorgon, Prince of Demons and the verakia appear in Dragon #357 (July 2007).[22] The demon lords Ardat, the Unavowed, Dwiergus, the Chrysalis Prince, Lascer, Lord of the Shadow Shoal, Shaktari, Queen of the Mariliths, and Ugudenk the Squirming King, and the manitou appear in Dragon #359 (September 2007).[23] Graz'zt and the caligrosto appeared in Dragon #360 (October 2007), in the magazine's first online edition.[24]

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006) includes new content for Tanar'ri and inhabitants of the Abyss, including the armanite, the bar-lgura, the broodswarm, the bulezau, the chasme, the dybbuk, the ekolid, the goristro, the guecubu, the lilitu, the mane, the molydeus, the juvenile nabassu and the mature nabassu, the rutterkin, the sibriex, and the yochlol. The book also contains statistics for 14 demon lords, including Baphomet, Dagon, Demogorgon, Fraz-Urb'luu, Graz'zt, Juiblex, Kostchtchie, Malcanthet, Obox-ob, Orcus, Pale Night, Pazuzu, Yeenoghu, and Zuggtmoy.[25]

The Lolth-touched bebilith, the deathdrinker demon, the nashrou demon, the kastighur, and the whisper demon appeared in Monster Manual IV (2006).[26] The carnage demon, the dradnu, the adaru, the gadacro, and the solamith appeared in Monster Manual V (2007).

The oculus demon, the cambion and the baron or marquis cambion appeared in Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (2007).[27] The cambion was also presented as a player character race in this book.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

Tanar'ri appear in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008),[28] including the balor, the barlgura, the evistro (carnage demon), the glabrezu, the goristro, the hezrou, the immolith, the marilith, the mezzodemon, and the vrock. Orcus is the only demon lord detailed in the Monster Manual. A thematic change to demons in this edition is that many demons were originally elementals of some sort, warped and corrupted by the Abyss. All demons have the "elemental" creature origin, as the Abyss is located within the Elemental Chaos.

Yeenoghu is fully detailed in the online version of Dragon, in issue #364 (June 2008) in the "Demonomicon of Iggwilv" feature,[29] which includes his exarch Nezrebe, gnoll pack leader Zaiden, and the crocotta.

Baphomet and Graz'zt appear in the 4th edition Manual of the Planes (2009).

The dretch and several other demons appeared in the fourth edition Monster Manual 2, which also featured Demogorgon and Dagon (2009).

The Demonomicon supplement, released in 2010, includes the armanite, bulezau, ferrolith, incubus (succubi are devils in this edition), nabassu, piscodemon, sibiriex, and many others. The demon lords Kostchtchie, Oublivae, Pazuzu, Phraxas and Zuggtmoy are also covered in detail.

Tanar'ri in Dungeons and Dragons

Second Edition

The term "tanar'ri" (pronounced tah-NAHR-ree[30]) originated with the 2nd Edition AD&D rules, when the words "devil" and "demon" were dropped by TSR from all the rulebooks. The names previously given as suggestions in the previous edition's Monster Manual now became each type of demon's official name.

Third Edition

The terms "devil" and "demon" were restored with the release of Dungeons and Dragons' 3rd Edition ruleset. The term "tanar'ri" was also retained, but applied specifically to the predominant subset of demons.

Tanar'ri

The tanar'ri are a race of numerous demons originally created by the obyriths as slaves. The tanar'ri eventually revolted against the obyriths, killing most of them, and taking over as the dominant race of demons in the Abyss. Most known demon lords are tanar'ri, with the exceptions being listed above.

The tanar'ri are essentially "classic" demons; reflections of cruelty, evil and sin. Although there are several exceptions, they usually have a basic humanoid form.

There are many known types of tanar'ri, including: Adaru, alkilith, alu-fiend, anzu, armanite, arrow demon, babau, balor, bar-lgura, bulezau, Cambion, cerebrilith, chasme, dretch, gadacro, glabrezu, goristro, hezrou, jarilith, jovoc, kastighur, kelvezu, klurichir, mane, marilith, maurezhi, molydeus, myrmyxicus, nabassu, nalfeshnee, orlath, palrethee, rutterkin, skurchur, solamith, sorrowsworn, succubus, turagathshnee, uridezu, vathugu, vrock, and yochlol.

  • Armanite: Armanites compose the heavy cavalry of the army of The Abyss. They resemble fiendish centaurs covered by a full plate armor. They are fierce enemies in battle and their charges are deeply feared. On the layers of the Abyss they usually wander in groups guided by a chief called knecht or pathwarden. Because of their unusual discipline, they are often employed by powerful abyssal lords as mercenaries. Most armanites come from the Plains of Gallenshu (377th layer of the Abyss); on this layer there are 24 cities of armanites, each ruled by an armanite called konsul.

Fourth Edition

In the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Roleplaying Game, the Monster Manual describes Tanar'ri as completely chaotic forces bent on destruction. They are described as "living engines of destruction" and said to have no desire for structure or order (unlike Devils who live a very ordered, though evil, existence). Tanar'ri harbor no secret goals and have no need for subterfuge. They live for the express purpose of destroying everything, until they die and are reborn once again in The Abyss, a maelstrom of elemental evil harbored deep within the Elemental Chaos.[31]

Tanar'ri seem to be the evil antithesis of devils. Where devils are endlessly ambitious, sneaky, and set in a highly structured hierarchy of the Nine Hells, Tanar'ri care for nothing but destruction of the entire universe and live in a chaotic realm known as The Abyss. All demons are classified as elementals, albeit ones corrupted by The Abyss. Many of the demon lords were formerly god-like elementals known as primordials.


Tanar'ri (3.5e Subtype Statistics)

Tanar'ri have the following traits, unless listed otherwise in their statistics block:

  • Immunity to fire and poison
  • Resistance to acid 10, cold 10 and electricity 10
  • Telepathy out to 100ft.
  • Aura of Primal Emotion (Su): Tanar'ri are emotions at their most raw and primal. All tanar'ri project one of the following emotions out to Close range (determined by their HD). All mortals (creatures that are not dragons, elementals, fey, outsiders or undead) must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the tanar'ri's CR + the tanar'ri's Charisma modifier) at the beginning of each of their turns that they spend in this aura, or become afflicted by the emotion. If the auras of multiple tanar'ri overlap, only the strongest of them takes effect, and if multiple tanar'ri of the same power have overlapping auras, those within them only need to save once to ignore both of them. This is considered a mind-affecting ability.

The emotion types vary by demon, and are summarized here:

  • Anger: Effect identical to the rage spell.
  • Arousal: Effect identical to the charm monster spell.
  • Fear: Effect identical to the cause fear spell, with no HD limit.


References

  1. ↑ LaFountain, J. Paul. Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix. (TSR, 1991)
  2. ↑ Stewart, Doug, ed. Monstrous Manual (TSR, 1993)
  3. ↑ Varney, Allen, ed. Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (TSR, 1994)
  4. ↑ Smith, Lester W., and Wolfgang Baur. Planes of Chaos (TSR, 1994)
  5. ↑ Baker, Rich, Tim Beach, Wolfgang Baur, Michele Carter, and Colin McComb. Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (TSR, 1995)
  6. ↑ Webb, Trenton (January 1996). "Games Reviews". Arcane (2): 71. Future Publishing. 
  7. ↑ Pickens, Jon, ed. Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three (TSR, 1996)
  8. ↑ Williams, Skip. The Rod of Seven Parts. (TSR, 1996)
  9. ↑ Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
  10. ↑ Grubb, Jeff, David Noonan, and Bruce Cordell. Manual of the Planes (Wizards of the Coast, 2001)
  11. ↑ Cook, Monte. Book of Vile Darkness (Wizards of the Coast, 2002)
  12. ↑ Bonny, Ed, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, and Steve Winter. Monster Manual II (Wizards of the Coast, 2002)
  13. ↑ Cagle, Eric, Jesse Decker, James Jacobs, Erik Mona, Matt Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and James Wyatt. Fiend Folio (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
  14. ↑ Eckelberry, David, Rich Redman, and Jennifer Clarke Wilkes. Savage Species (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
  15. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Pazuzu." Dragon #329 (Paizo Publishing, 2005)
  16. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Fraz-Urb’luu." Dragon #333 (Paizo Publishing, 2005)
  17. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Zuggtmoy." Dragon #337 (Paizo Publishing, 2005)
  18. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Baphomet." Dragon #341 (Paizo Publishing, 2006)
  19. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Kostchtchie." Dragon #345 (Paizo Publishing, 2006)
  20. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Dagon." Dragon #349 (Paizo Publishing, 2006)
  21. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Malcanthet." Dragon #353 (Paizo Publishing, 2007)
  22. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Demogorgon." Dragon #357 (Paizo Publishing, 2007)
  23. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Apocrypha." Dragon #359 (Paizo Publishing, 2007)
  24. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Graz'zt" Dragon #360 (Paizo Publishing, 2007)
  25. ↑ Jacobs, James, Erik Mona, and Ed Stark. Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (Wizards of the Coast, 2006)
  26. ↑ Kestrel, Gwendolyn F.M. Monster Manual IV (Wizards of the Coast, 2006)
  27. ↑ Baur, Wolfgang, and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel. Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (Wizards of the Coast, 2007)
  28. ↑ Mearls, Mike, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2008)
  29. ↑ Schwalb, Robert J. "Demonomicon of Iggwilv." Dragon #364, June 2008. Available online: [1]
  30. ↑ "Dungeons & Dragons FAQ". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2008-10-03. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wizards.com%2Fdnd%2FDnDArchives_FAQ.asp&date=2008-10-03. Retrieved 2008-10-03. 
  31. ↑ Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, Inc., 2008).


Additional Reading

  • Grubb, Jeff. Manual of the Planes (TSR, 1987). ISBN 0-7869-1850-0
  • Larme, John. Dangerous Games? Censorship and "Child Protection" [2] (2000).
  • Marmell, Ari. "The Ebon Maw: Beware the Waking Hunger." Dragon #312 (Paizo Publishing, 2003).
  • McArtor, Mike, ed. Dragon Compendium, Volume 1 (Paizo Publishing, 2005).
  • McComb, Colin. Faces of Evil: The Fiends (TSR, 1997). ISBN 0-7869-0684-7
  • "A Look Back at Demons". D&D Alumni. Wizards of the Coast. 2006-06-26. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/alumni/20060626a. Retrieved 2007-04-16. 


External Links

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