Pazuzu
| Pazuzu | |
|---|---|
 Pazuzu, Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms, as depicted in Fiendish Codex I (2006). | |
| General information | |
| Portfolio: | Corruption, winged beings, the Abyssal skies |
| Home: | Abyss |
| Alignment: | Chaotic evil |
| Gender: | Male |
| Class: | n/a |
| Superior: | None |
| Rules items | |
| Domains: | Air, Chaos, Evil, Temptation |
Pazuzu is a powerful demon prince, called the Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms. He rules the skies above all layers of the Abyss. He is sometimes known as Pazuzeus, and he uses the names Pazrael, Imdugud, Ghlaunder, and Typhon when in his guise as a supposedly benevolent entity that protects against pestilence and blesses childbirth. Those who call to these ostensibly good spirits become unwittingly dependent on Pazuzu, who slowly corrupts them to vile acts.
Pazuzu is viewed by the denizens of the Abyss with resentment and grudging respect. Unlike most demon lords, he is not interested in conquest of the Abyss. His main concern is winning followers on the Prime Material Plane by tempting or deceiving those of good alignment. He aids any good creature who summons him, in order to tempt him or her to evil.
His symbol is a gnarled raptor's talon, often depicted clutching an eye and possibly glittering with rubies or gold.
Description
In his true form, Pazuzu is a 7' tall well-proportioned humanoid with four wings. His face combines the features of a handsome man and a hawk. His hooked beak is filled with sharp teeth. He has a noble brow, a large head, and glowing red eyes. His avian feet have long, sharp talons. He wields a + 5 anarchic greatsword of speed, and can breathe swarms of locusts and acidic, poisonous clouds.
Pazuzu is one of the oldest demon lords in the Abyss, as he is one of the few surviving obyrith demon lords. While the Queen of Chaos was in power, Pazuzu remained an independent demon lord. This saved himself during the tanar'ri revolt against the Queen of Chaos, as he was not affiliated with her. Following the tanar'ri conquest of the Abyss, Pazuzu was quick to adapt with the change. This has manifested in several ways: While most obyriths, having been conceived out of the Abyss's chaotic will itself, have characteristically bizarre physical appearances, Pazuzu appears as human-like as any tanar'ri. Pazuzu's abilities have changed as well: He can now summon tanar'ri, and the obyrith form of madness ability has changed as well. While most obyriths' visages are so chaotic that merely looking at one causes insanity, Pazuzu's newfound appearance has changed his form of madness into an "Aura of Servile Avians." This ability causes all evil flying creatures to feel an affinity towards Pazuzu, making it hard for them to bring themselves to attack the demon lord.
Relationships
Dragon #329 (2005) and Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006), list Graz'zt as Pazuzu's most notable enemy. Graz'zt alone takes umbrage at Pazuzu's claim to dominion over the skies of the Abyss, though the Prince of Tyrants has never taken action against him beyond the occasional insult. Pazuzu is also opposed by the obscure demon lord Lamashtu, the Demon Queen of Monstrous Births and Deformity. Lamashtu, a former consort of Pazuzu, is the only being who knows Pazuzu's true name. She betrayed him, and in response he ate her eyes and imprisoned the Queen of Monstrous Births in his realm of Torremor, where she has remained ever since.
Though Pazuzu counts many kenkus among his worshippers, the feelings of the kenku deity Quorlinn on the subject are unknown.
In the Monster Manual II (1983), Pazuzu is said to be on good terms with daemons (now known as yugoloths) and the dukes of Hell.
Minions
Pazuzu commands a retinue of six balors, who are known as the Six Wings of Pazuzu and serve as his bodyguards and assassins.
Realm
Pazuzu's lair is Torremor, a tangled mass of beams, pinnacles, arches, ladders, and other structures, held together by rope and chain. Torremor is located on the 503rd layer of the Abyss. However, Pazuzu spends most of his time on Pazunia, the 1st layer of the Abyss.
Dogma
Pazuzu's overriding goals are to corrupt and devour the virtues of purity, innocence, and honesty wherever he finds them. He seeks good-aligned souls and turns them to chaos and evil. This is the reason why Abyssal politics interests him little; those of the Abyss have little for him to corrupt. Too, the Upper Planes do not interest him much, for there is not much in them that is readily corruptible. Instead, the lion's share of his interest is in the Prime Material Plane. He hopes to conquer the Material Plane utterly and corrupt every virtuous soul in it.
Worshipers
Pazuzu is the lord of all evil flying creatures. His worshipers rarely emerge in societies; usually he is worshiped by lone individuals. His worshipers include kenku, harpies, gargoyles, manticores, wyverns, and sometimes evil fey or dragons.
Cults of Pazuzu are started when someone in desperate need discovers Pazuzu's name and pleads for his help. When someone utters the name "Pazuzu" three consecutive times, the demon lord is telepathically linked to that person for one minute. During that time, Pazuzu is capable of reading the thoughts of whoever he is linked to, in addition to checking whether they are lawful or good. After confirming that whoever said his name isn't endeavoring to capture him on the Material Plane, Pazuzu appears before the speaker. Pazuzu grants the person aid, usually via his wish spell-like ability, and in reply asks that his name be repeated to others. The mortal's miraculous turn of fortune attracts other desperate souls. Pazuzu continues to grant aid when called upon, each time producing more evil results. Eventually the cultists come to depend on him for their success, at which point he reveals his true nature. Those who try to repent are tortured and sacrificed. After a cult has committed its first sacrifice, Pazuzu abandons it and seeks out other prospects. Eventually the cult is destroyed by lawful and good forces; looters discover Pazuzu's name and the cycle's continuance is assured.
Clergy
Temples
Pazuzu's temples lie in areas unreachable by those incapable of flight: in wildernesses, atop cliffs, or on mountain peaks.
Myths and legends
The corruption of Tharizdun
The 4th edition book Demonomicon claims that in the Age before Ages the obyriths were trapped in a dying universe that they themselves had mostly destroyed. Pazuzu convinced his fellow obyriths to help him create a shard of pure evil that breached the barrier from their universe to this one. A power-hungry deity known as Tharizdun discovered and seized the shard of evil, which corrupted him and drove him insane. The link between Tharizdun and the shard allowed the remaining obyriths, Pazuzu included, to escape into this reality. Tharizdun planted the shard of evil in the primordial Chaos, which formed the Abyss around it. The power of the shard gave Tharizdun much more power than the obyriths had anticipated, and they and Tharizdun warred against each other for dominance, finally forming a stalemate. Next the shard was claimed by Obox-ob, who lost it deep in the Abyss when rivals attacked. Later, Tharizdun marshaled the Princes of Elemental Evil to his side to invade the Abyss again and steal the shard back, but the other gods discovered his plan and, with their combined might, imprisoned Tharizdun for what they hoped would be all of eternity.
The corruption of Asmodeus
According to the 4th edition book Demonomicon, Pazuzu secretly left the Abyss after the Battle of Pesh and introduced himself to one of the angels who guarded the prison of Tharizdun. This angel, a "paragon of chastity and virtue" called Asmodeus, listened as Pazuzu flattered him and expressed sympathy that a being of Asmodeus's great loyalty had been repayed with an eternity of mere guard duty. Asmodeus listened, and vanity grew in his breast. Soon he began to believe he was more virtuous than the god he served, and the shard of pure evil that had corrupted Tharizdun long ago began to whisper to him. Asmodeus abandoned his post and sought out the shard. He cut a sliver of it away and used it to create his ruby rod. Soon after he conquered the plane of Baator, the Nine Hells. Pazuzu, disguised as as an angel called Pazrael, served as of Asmodeus's generals. Asmodeus knows that Pazuzu was Pazrael, but this remains a secret known only to the two of them. Asmodeus still owes Pazuzu a boon in exchange for his aid in that ancient campaign.
Throughout the ages, Pazuzu helped forment the Blood War, using his secret alliance with Asmodeus to ensure the devils and demons remained evenly matched. Both Asmodeus and the hidden conclave of the Queen of Chaos used the Blood War as a cover for the goal of locating and wielding the power of the shard of evil still buried somewhere in the Abyss.
Origin of the kenkus
According to Dragon #329, a race of large, intelligent ravens was dying from a terrible plague. They called out for someone to save them, and Pazuzu appeared in the form of an albino raven soaked in blood and gore. In exchange for calling Pazuzu their master, the demon lord cured their plague and destroyed the eggs of the birds' rivals, the giant eagles. The ravens were fickle, however, and within a generation they had forgotten their promise to the Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms. In vengeance, Pazuzu slaughtered many of them and cursed their offspring to be born without wings. Thus, the kenkus were born.
Creative origins
Pazuzu is derived from the Mesopotamian and Assyrian wind demon. Statues depicted him as a humanoid with a lion's face, four wings, bestial talons, and a snake-headed phallus. He was worshiped to protect his followers against pestilence and troubled childbirths, though some sources indicate he was also responsible for them.
Publishing history
Pazuzu first appeared in The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982). He has also appeared in Monster Manual II (1983) and the Book of Vile Darkness web enhancement. He is covered in depth in Dragon magazine #329, in the "Demonomicon of Iggwilv" feature, as well as the supplements Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss and Demonomicon.
In Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels, Pazuzu is called Pazuzeus'. He is portrayed there as an elder proto-demon (conceptually similar to the obyriths of 3rd and 4th edition) with burning eyes and four avian wings. He is an agent for Infestix and also a trusted servant of Gravestone.
Bibliography
- Cook, Monte. "Yet More Archfiends: a Book of Vile Darkness Web Enhancement." Wizards of the Coast. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002. Available online:[1]
- Gygax, Gary. The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1982.
- -----. Monster Manual II. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
- Jacobs, James. "Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Pazuzu." Dragon #329. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2005.
- Mearls, Mike, Brian R. James, and Steve Townshend. Demonomicon. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2010.
- Sargent, Carl. Iuz the Evil. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993.
- Smith, Lester W., and Wolfgang Baur. Planes of Chaos. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994.
- Stark, Ed, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona. Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2006.