The role of Fiends in Dragonlance

Wayne Reynolds - Pathfinder: Book of the Damned, Paizo

I'm currently playing the excellent Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous video game, based on Paizo's Adventure Path of the same name, and it reminded me how fiends in fantasy made me uncomfortable, as a game master and player.

Fiends in Fantasy RPGs

Fiends as a Christian-themed monsters

There's no denying fiends are game-equivalent of their Christian counterparts. The problem is that, in Christian mythology, demons are just a bunch of monsters who are below god in terms of power, and who seem, for the most part, written as a kind of fan-fiction by demented authors trying to find reasons to burn witches.

In these, demons are either Hell's infantry, ready to wage war on whatever, or sometimes rebellious fallen angels, or (Faust's story) pact-forging dudes and gals, tempting mortals into giving their soul, or succumbing to sin.

In this context, "corruption" is an absolute concept, a soul falling from grace.

In summary, a hodgepodge of things that would make someone diverge from the commands of the unique god, and also serve as a good explanation for inexplicable evil.

Fiends in D&D / Pathfinder

In these (usually polytheistic) games, fiends are some kind of lower level divinities (like angels, deva, azata, whatever). They are usually there to eat souls, or consume souls, or to somehow recycle souls.

In my humble opinion, as some kind of ultimate evil, they don't really integrate gracefully into a mythology where there are already multiple gods, a third of them evil gods, because as gods, evil gods should be the ultimate evil.

That's weird...

Of course, it is a bit more complicated, with the chaos-loving demons, and oath-loving devils, and every hag in-between, but in the end, these alien monsters really fill the same niche in these universes as demons in Christian mythology.

Side Note: Another take on Demons

I particularly despise demons in D&D/Pathfinder. They are just like devils, but chaotic. So much mythology around how the Abyss is pure chaos corrupted by the first evil soul or whatever. I barely can make the difference between a Balor and a Pit Fiend. And try as much as I can, I see no chaos in the demon roster, which could serve as a devil roster, and no one would notice:

And then, I discovered The Thing, from John Carpenter. 

I won't add images here, but please take a look at Google Images (warning: these images can be really horrible):

https://www.google.com/search?q=carpenter+the+thing+creatures&tbm=isch&safe=off

Those are monsters with physical shapes that are horrific mutations on familiar biological shapes. Add to that a predatory mind, cursed with pure instinct coupled with madness, and you have pure chaos demons.

Fiends in Dragon Age

In the Dragon Age mythos, from the BioWare games of the same name, demons are more spiritual manifestation of strong (usually dark) emotions: Pride, desire, sloth, rage, terror, etc.. They even have counter parts as spirits, who are a spiritual manifestation of emotions like love, compassion, duty, etc..

Both demons and spirits come from the fade, a spiritual place that is affected by mortal souls' dreams. Spirits and demons are thus heavily influenced and molded by the mortal's dreams, feelings and desires.

I'd argue that these demons are much more compatible with a polytheistic fantasy universe than the christian ones, because they naturally emerge as "forces of nature" (in the current case, strong emotions or morals).

Fiends in Dragonlance

Note: Please remember that, for me, only the Chronicles and Legends are canon.

A closed universe

The first thing one needs to remember is that Dragonlance's universe is "closed". There are 21 gods, and that's that. Even if the gods of evil sometimes look like fiends, and are heavily inspired by Christian mythology, they are gods, they have priests, and most importantly, are part of the universe.

Indeed, not only they belong to Krynn, but they actually participated in its creation.

In this context, "corruption" is relative: A priest of Paladine might be shocked to see one of their acolytes be "corrupted" by the teachings of Takhisis... as much as a a priest of Takhisis might be shocked to see one of their acolytes be "corrupted" by the teachings of Paladine... 

And I'd argue it makes a more compelling reason for players to be good: Their characters are not "on the side of good against evil". Their characters are altruistic heroes fighting to defend the weak against the depredations of and exploitation from others.

So, where would you put fiends (and their angelic counterparts) in Krynn?

My answer to that is: Nowhere.

Fiends do not belong to Krynn.

Their hunt for souls, their pacts, their destructive tendencies, whatever, are already handled by evil gods:

All gods are interested by souls, and they are fighting each others for their "moral ownership". And all gods already have agents in terms of divine-magic wielding priests, to try to convert/corrupt mortals into their ways.

There is no place for legions and legions of fiends inhabiting hostile planes, and building up cults and trying to invade Krynn.

Fiends can still be used as unique "monsters" and "characters"

Indeed, gods have aspects, and some aspect might be very similar to fiends, thus reusing some monsters from the Monster Manuals.

Also, individuals might ascend into a higher status, something between mortals and gods. And for these, many "templates" are available (like the "Tenacious Souls", some undead templates), and there's no reason a female elf temptress couldn't ascend as a succubus, or a rage-filled minotaur warrior as a balor.

In my humble opinion, fiends should be like magic objects: They should be unique, have a name, and a story. Two different characters might be both succubus, but they should be vastly different in appearance and behavior, or at least enough to defy categorization.

Fiends as chaotic manifestations

Another possibility would be to use fiends, and demons in particular, as manifestations of chaos and chaos magic. Mutations that are so horrendous, so extensive, that they can't even have a place in nature because all they do is destroy everything in their path.

Some demons (e.g., the Nalfeshnee, the Babau, the Gibrileth, the Glabrezu, the Marilith) are clearly of the mutated kind.

They might be spellcasters who changed themselves using chaotic energies, or victims of such spellcasters' experiment, having escaped confinement, or even the result of the Graygem flying over normal living beings.

The important part is that they would be, like pegasi and unicorns, creatures of the material plane, albeit horribly mutated. So, no feeding on souls, no dedicated outer plane, etc..

Conclusion

In my opinion, Dragonlance is already a world where Good and Evil battle each other, and where gods of Good, Evil and Balance are active in the world.

If you want demons and devils, you already have them: Takhisis, Hiddukel, Sargonnas, etc.. They are gods, and they are powerful, and they already meddle with mortals, and have whole cults and armies serving them. You certainly don't need Asmodeus, Baphomet, Graz'zt or Nocticula.

In story's terms, there's no need for a third party, like legions of alien-looking creatures fighting in this called "blood wars", to enter the arena and confuse the themes of Dragonlance.