Furcas

Greyhawk Character

Furcas
General info
Home:	Baator
Alignment:	Lawful evil
Gender:	Male
Species:	Pit fiend
Class:	n/a
Dates
Age:	Unknown (more than 1000 years old)

The ancient pit fiend Furcas is the Minister of Mortal Relations in the Dark Eight, which means he is the infernal bureaucrat in charge of coordinating the corruption of mortals on the Material Plane. He commands erinyes and other manipulative devils, always seeking to lure the strongest warriors and cleverest mages into Hell's service.

Relationships

Each member of the Dark Eight is given authority over one aspect of the Blood War. They separately pursue their own agendas, but the entire council has final say over their decisions. Despite their rivalries and intrigues, though, the Dark Eight works well as a team, and Hell's bureaucracy moves efficiently.

Furcas is one of only two original members of the Dark Eight still alive (the other is Baalzephon). He uses this position to his advantage; he knows all the secrets and dirty laundry of the others, having watched them since they first began to rise up the ranks. He manipulates them against one another, diverting their attentions while he completes his own schemes.

History

Prior to the Reckoning of Hell, Furcas was in the service of Dispater, with twelve companies of bearded devils under his control. The mysterious pit fiend Cantrum approached him, inviting him into a secretive order of pit fiends known originally as the Dark Nine, which included Cantrum himself, Furcas, Baalzephon, and the original pit fiends named Corin, Dagos, Pearza, Zapan, Zaebos, and Zimimar. Each pit fiend was maneuvered through the layers and ranks until they became a general in command of one of the nine armies of Hell, and each slowly consolidated the military of one of Hell's layers exclusively under their control.

Over a thousand years in the past, the event that Cantrum had been preparing them for occured: the Reckoning, a time when the long feud between the Lords of the Nine erupted into open war. The faction comprised of Zariel, Belial, Moloch, and Baalzebul warred against the faction comprised of Dispater, Mammon, Geryon, and Mephistopheles, but late in the war both factions invaded Nessus, each attempting to unseat Asmodeus and taking the throne of Hell for their own. At a crucial moment, however, Geryon blew his trumpet, signalling that the nine pit fiend generals should turn against their rebellious superiors. With no troops, the war was suddenly over, and Asmodeus arrived to chastise the disobedient lords. In reward for their service, Asmodeus transformed the Dark Nine into a bureaucracy commanding the lesser baatezu and reporting directly to Asmodeus himself, leaving the rebel archdevils with only enough troops to defend their own layers against one another. This dramatically reduced their ability to rebel again. When the founder of the order, Cantrum, was assassinated (reports differ as to whether the assassin was a devil or a paladin) the remaining Eight elected not to fill his position in honor of his memory.

The first recorded public intervention of the Dark Eight following Cantrum's death was the Rebellion of the Inferiors, in which balor spies secretly inspired a revolt among lesser devils in one infernal settlement. The Dark Eight arrived to personally deal with the situation; the balors were revealed, and they were torn apart by their enraged dupes.

Over the centuries, many members of the Dark Eight have fallen to assassinations or other causes, but in order to maintain the illusion of continuity they have been quickly and secretly replaced by new pit fiends and given the same names as their predecessors. The Dark Eight kill anyone they suspect of knowing the truth.

According to Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, however, Furcas has recently been assassinated himself and replaced with another pit fiend given the same name.

Apocrypha

In Legions of Hell from Green Ronin Publishing, Furcas appears as the Duke of Rhetoric, an intellectual who spends most of his time in the city of Dis presiding over a library of blasphemous secrets that attracts evil spellcasters and cultists from across the planes. He has mortal agents throughout the Material Plane, and writes books that circulate among mortals arguing that the gods are frauds.

Publishing history

Furcas was first mentioned in Dragon #75 (1983) and appeared in the first edition Monster Manual II. Although initially he was portrayed as one of Dispater's minions, he was reinterpreted as one of the Dark Eight in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix (1991).

Bibliography

• Cook, Monte. A Paladin in Hell. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998. ISBN 0-7869-1210-3

• Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual II. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.

• Greenwood, Ed. "The Nine Hells, Part I." Dragon #75. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.

• LaFountain, J. Paul. Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1991.

• Laws, Robin D., and Robert J. Schwalb. Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2006.

• McComb, Colin. Faces of Evil: The Fiends. Renton, WA: TSR, 1997.

• McComb, Colin, and Monte Cook. Hellbound: The Blood War. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1996.

• Pramas, Chris. Guide to Hell. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

———. Legions of Hell. Renton, WA: Green Ronin Publishing, 2001.

• Varney, Allen, ed. Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994.

  Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Furcas (Duke of Hell)	Non-player character	Devil, Pit Fiend,	Dragon magazine #075	8, 21
Furcas (Duke of Hell)	Non-player character	Devil, Pit Fiend,	Monster Manual 2, AD&D 1e	44
Furcas (Duke of Hell)	Non-player character	Devil, Pit Fiend,	Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	65