AGATODEMON & CACODEMON (Messenger of Deity) |
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| On the Outer Planes, closely every Power has his own lesser or larger swarm of these angels, sometimes all of the same sex, as main servants and messengers. They are native of the plane of existence of their master deity and have his same alignment. Although they are more often known as Agatodemons if good or neutral, and Cacodemons if evil, they are also called Messengers of Deity. Among them, Potestates are the most powerful, whilst Genii (feminine: Iunones) are the most numerous. Even while roaming quite all planes as divine messengers, ambassadors or confidential agents, they are normally rare an encounter. On the Prime Material Plane they can appear due to a gate spell also. Many of them have assigned a particular duty regarding humankind on the Prime Material Plane, that is often countered by enemy Messengers, or by Destiny. Each Potestas is responsible in front of his deity upon a single human matter. Human matters can be as various as birth, newborn children's wail, road viability, doors, ploughs, aration, and so on. In general Potestates are known to serve a particular god, so they are just invoked by humans when their help upon a particular matter would be appreciated. Often yet they are believed to be independent spirits, so they are worshiped; and sometimes this is true, as some rare Potestas has deserted his former master deity. In both cases, these lone angels are known as Numina (singular: Numen). There exist lists of dozens Numina in Greek pantheon, and of hundreds in Roman and in Celtic ones. Genii may have singly assigned a man, or a group of men, or a location, to protect him or it throughout their life. Group can mean a family, an association, a military unit; location can mean a wood, a city ward, a barracks, a holy place such a cemetery. The Genius or Iuno must watch over his patronized entity, defending him or it by temptations and dangers. Genii are never worshiped. In any case their intervention range on Prime Material Plane is limited: Messengers must stay in ethereal state without interfering by any means, except at unconscious level. Only in rare occasions deity allows them for direct action. Messenger abilities are given by class and level. A Potestas always has three classes, a Genius always two. Both classes and levels are given in the following table:
MINIMUM LEVELS
(maximum levels are 6 above for Potestates and 4 above for Genii/Iunones)
* Enchantress (bewitcher-enchantress): author’s class. The classes of Cavalier, Paladin, Magic-User, Illusionist, Enchantress, Acrobat, Bard and Monk are limited to Messengers belonging to deities having connection with such activities; this means an high specialization and great differences among angels of different Powers.
Negative Charisma is a Cacodemon prerogative: their Charisma can be turned from its positive value to the negative one in a single round. Hit Points are given by throwing 2d6 per level of the highest class and adding Constitution modifiers. Such high abilities give some powers and immunities against attack forms and spells, as exposed on Deities & Demigods, TSR. Each Agatodemon or Cacodemon may use the following powers at will, once a melee round: etherealness, charm person, ESP, read magic, improved invisibility, teleport without error, telepathy, infravision, alter self, suggestion, light/darkness, gate in another similar Messenger (chances are 60% for Potestates and 40% for Genii), and detect: magic, illusion, invisible objects, evil/good, lie, traps. Moreover a Potestas has the following powers: once a melee round, project image, hold monster, telekinesis (up to 4,000 GP weight), dispel magic, polymorph self, true seeing, charm monster; three times a day, raise dead/cause death, symbol, geas, mass charm, wall of fire; once a day, limited wish, power word, fire storm. They can be effectively killed only on their plane. Messengers of Deity have human appearance with a couple of large wings attached at shoulder-blades. Although the only visible difference between a Potestas and a Genius is in size, there are a lot of differences among Messengers of different alignment, as shown below:
Messengers may wear a simple tunic as well as a complete armor suite, or be absolutely naked. Their standard weaponry is flame-tongue sword, spear (Agatodemons) or pitchfork (Cacodemons), helm, cuirass and shield (base AC 5), all of magical type. Weaponry can stay in ethereal state and appear at Messenger's will.
By Gianluca Meluzzi, 1984, 1996, 1999.
For AD&D 1st Edition, TSR Games.
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