Thursday, April 11, 2019

Atela: The Devil & The Queen of Shadows

There are two Big Bads in the Last Kingdom: the Devil and the Queen of Shadows.

The Devil is the ruler of Hell a.k.a. the Underworld. According to the Church, the Devil was created by God to test humanity by tempting them.  However, as the Devil spent more time with humans and saw how easily they were corrupted, he himself became corrupt. God saw the Devil's failings and exiled him from the Heavenly Realm. Furious, the Devil retreated to the Underworld, where the souls of sinners languished. There, the Devil declared himself the nemesis of God's plans. He still corrupted humans, by seducing them away from God with promises of power or wealth or pleasure, but now he did it to expand his own power. So great was the Devil's corrupting aura that other angels refuted God, abandoning the Heavenly Realm and joining the Devil in Hell. These angels became devils and, over time, some of them became so debased that they 'devolved' into demons.

The Queen of Shadows is one of the Devil's consorts. Church doctrine is hazy on her origins. Some say she was an angel who followed the Devil into exile. However, others claim that she was born a mortal woman, who gave up her soul for immortality.  She is, literally, the Mother of the Elves, and that soulless race lives in abject fear and awe of her. According to lore, the Queen appealed to the Devil for aid when men turned on her soulless spawn. He agreed to help her for her eternal loyalty to him and she accepted his offer. The Devil gave the Queen of Shadows the Feywold, the unchanging realm where the elves live to this day. 
Where the Devil sees humanity as a resource to be used, or a tool to be wielded against God, the Queen of Shadows views them as nothing less than her most hated enemy. It is her hatred of them that infuses her children and compels them to wage war upon mankind.

PCs probably shouldn't meet either the Devil or the Queen of Shadows. Both characters are ferociously powerful, and should decimate any mortal that dares attack them. If the PCs do encounter either of these figures, their best bet to overcome them is through a battle of wits.  If the PCs can extract a promise from either villain, they will be compelled to obey their promise. However, neither figure should make promises lightly.

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