Post by geoffrey on May 17, 2017 20:34:40 GMT -6
In Gary Gygax's 1977 AD&D Monster Manual is the following note under type VI demons: "Six are known to exist."
I have long thought that an intriguing little nugget. None of the other types of demons is so numerically limited.
Eldritch Wizardry (1976) notes that type VI demons "are sometimes known as balrogs" (p. 33). As in the Monster Manual, number appearing is 1-6.
It is a happy coincidence that J. R. R. Tolkien late in his life wrote that "at most seven" balrogs existed (The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, published in 1984).
In 1977 and 1978 TSR published for the D&D game the Monster & Treasure Assortment in three volumes. These contain 900 monster encounters for dungeon levels one through nine. Every single type of D&D demon (save for the unique Demogorgon and Orcus) was included amongst the 900--except for type VI demons. My gut instinct is that these 900 encounters are representative of the types of monsters that would have been found in the dungeons beneath Gary's Castle Greyhawk. I find it interesting that, out of 900 encounters (including 13 encounters with demons), none is with a type VI demon.
Now scroll down for spoilers for Robert J. Kuntz's The Original Bottle City:
Six balrogs are doubly trapped in the module. They are in a magical painting which is inside a little city in a bottle found in a corner of one of the levels of the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk. Rob created this dungeon sub-level in 1974. Precisely six balrogs are noted not only in the published module, but also in Rob's notes jotted in 1974.
My theory is that the intriguing quote from the Monster Manual about there being only six type VI demons is directly related to the consideration in my spoiler above. There are only six known type VI demons, and all six are in that painting in the Bottle City.
Thoughts?
I have long thought that an intriguing little nugget. None of the other types of demons is so numerically limited.
Eldritch Wizardry (1976) notes that type VI demons "are sometimes known as balrogs" (p. 33). As in the Monster Manual, number appearing is 1-6.
It is a happy coincidence that J. R. R. Tolkien late in his life wrote that "at most seven" balrogs existed (The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, published in 1984).
In 1977 and 1978 TSR published for the D&D game the Monster & Treasure Assortment in three volumes. These contain 900 monster encounters for dungeon levels one through nine. Every single type of D&D demon (save for the unique Demogorgon and Orcus) was included amongst the 900--except for type VI demons. My gut instinct is that these 900 encounters are representative of the types of monsters that would have been found in the dungeons beneath Gary's Castle Greyhawk. I find it interesting that, out of 900 encounters (including 13 encounters with demons), none is with a type VI demon.
Now scroll down for spoilers for Robert J. Kuntz's The Original Bottle City:
Six balrogs are doubly trapped in the module. They are in a magical painting which is inside a little city in a bottle found in a corner of one of the levels of the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk. Rob created this dungeon sub-level in 1974. Precisely six balrogs are noted not only in the published module, but also in Rob's notes jotted in 1974.
My theory is that the intriguing quote from the Monster Manual about there being only six type VI demons is directly related to the consideration in my spoiler above. There are only six known type VI demons, and all six are in that painting in the Bottle City.
Thoughts?
