ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

According to lore, Lithfengel was an imp. A genius imp who devised a spell that should allow any demon to pass safely through an uncontrolled, unsafe Farportal. He tested it on himself, because it was too damn dangeorus to risk on anyone else.

It worked. More than that, it supercharged him. Passing through the portal turned an intelligent imp into a beast capable of slaughtering companies of orcs.

Think about what would have happened had Lithfengel been less selfless. Had he been the kind of person who'd risk another-not even a victim, mind you, but a volunteer-he'd have been around to keep doing that spell after it worked. Imagine if, instead of an occasional squad of Wretchlings, there was a constant stream of Lithfengels. The world be destroyed, torn apart by the horde of supercharged demons. Even if Lithfengel was exceptionally lucky, gaining a lot more positive mutations than most would, it'd be a faster and enhancing form of transport for demons.

In a simple sentence, Eyal is only still alive because a demon was too selfless. Think about that while you're drowning a rare gardener for a randart.

Think about that while you're drowning a rare gardener for a randart.

"That clever imp was right!" *shuffles through bag* "What's wrong with me! Drowning folks..." *brandishes rod of asphyxiation*

Then again, to disagree with the OP on how "selfless" demons are, their goal is to kill all of Eyal. Kinda makes them less admirable, closer to fanatical terrorists than a positive, caring culture.

And you're drowning that gardener to save the world! Or for money! Money's cool too, if the randart isn't that good.

Demons have a lot of noble traits, really - they're patient, caring and tolerant of one another (use of wretchlings as cannon fodder excepted, but then again the wretchlings love being cannon fodder; also note that the statue-plaque writer is very carefully and respectfully avoiding mentioning that the Fire Imp's hand-fusing ritual, although certainly a stirring display of commitment and devotion, makes the resulting Ruby a lot less useful than they'd be as a conventional caster), praise selflessness without demanding or enforcing it, go to great lengths to ensure that the Divine Tournaments are fair, reasonable competition and not an unbalanced bloodsport, and even Ssassh waited until her lover was nearly torn apart by an angry mob before retaliating. Hell, the first Quasit Squad Leader you run into could've been a hero of a different story - he knows he's doomed fighting you, and is writing his note for a courier so he can hold the line against you until his allies can act on it, dooming both of you to asphyxiation so you can't cause any more damage (shame you get to him before he can finish writing). They're even relatively nice to minotaurs, nicer than most Eyalites; they're not quite comfortable with just mind-controlling the poor magic-seeking beastmen, and would prefer to raise them from birth to sympathize with their cause (and happily accept minotaurs who willingly join their cause). I even wanted to make a reference to them having a democracy, but couldn't really fit it in, and the way I wrote Khulmanar's plaque makes it sound a little more like they revere him as a god-dictator (but really, he's just trusted for his wisdom, and handles the details of the invasion rather than politics at large).

Were it not for the whole "obsessed with misguided, sadistic revenge until the end of time" bit, they'd be something for most of Eyal to look up to. I guess nobody's perfect.

EDIT: Also, I think it's worth mentioning that even if Lithfengel hadn't opted to take his spell-knowledge to the grave in the event of failure, it wouldn't necessarily be a great thing for the demonic invasion. First of all, Lithfengel's been driven insane from the mutations (they worked on his mind much like they did on his body), and any other demons using his spell would be as likely to attack each other as they would an Eyalite; the demons would be a bit less enthusiastic about using his spell and warping over to Eyal if they knew that there was a higher chance than not that they'd end up attacking another demon instead of an Eyalite (which would happen after the first few mutant-demons showed up and ran out of nearby Eyalites to murder). Secondly, we don't know how long ago he hopped in the portal; it's quite likely that he spent ages and ages trapped in the portal network before your use of the Orb of Many Ways attracted him to a viable exit-point. And lastly, we don't know how efficient Lithfengel's spell was; it's possible that making a new Orb of Many Ways and a new Forge-Giant would cost less magical energy than the spell did, at least in the prototype form he used. Those are all just possibilities, though, and if they aren't applicable then the OP is completely right; his selflessness set the invasion back by quite a bit. Maybe the reason the demons have been abducting Eyalites for use as research assistants, rather than just breeding more disposable wretchlings, is to avoid a repeat? (It's possible Lithfengel wouldn't have sacrificed himself if he had a "deserving" Eyalite to suffer through the experiment instead.)

That's my main sticking point. We know so little about his spell. I was, however, under the impression he had spent a lot of time simply under the ground, trapped in some tunnel network rather than in the Farportals themselves.

As for insanity, that would limit significantly how useful it was. But, given the random nature of your exit point, how big Eyal is, and how powerful the transported demons are, drop a hundred in a Farportal and you'll have, even if only 10% make it through properly, ten spots that are just wrecked by them for a very minor cost. Assuming, that is, the spell isn't too expensive.

Demon society, though... All of it depends on [Father]. It all happened when [Father] showed up. He is, quite obviously, their god, and a god who takes a very personal interest in his worshippers. Now, considering how busy he is holding Urh'Rok together, he shouldn't have the energy to spare for anything else, in which case he has actually made demonic society the way it is. However, we've not met the mandeity himself. We've no idea if he has power left over, if he's exerting influence on the demons, if they're only so happy with each other because it wouldn't do to have his worshippers fight amongst themselves.

Demon society is a benevolent dictatorship. One that has lasted long enough that it appears to remain ordered and benevolent even when the dictator is not working, but that doesn't change its fundamentals. Really, the fact it works so well means only one of two things.
1) [Father] ain't so out of it as he seems to be. He's still dictatoring up a storm, just quietly, so no one notices.
2) These aren't the original demons. These are the demons that he has bred, he has mutated, he has molded like putty into what he wishes them to be. While one can argue that making them love and respect each other is a good thing, he has quite clearly done so by magically altering them. It'd be like achieving utopia on Earth by making all people physically incapable of having malicious thoughts towards one another. We wouldn't be humans anymore. We'd be homo empathical, perhaps something kinder and better, but changed against our will and unable to protest because the ability to form the thoughts needed is something we are no longer capable of.

That being said, Lithfengel sacrificed himself to save his brethren and killed a bunch of orcs. If it wasn't for the "trying to murder me" and, more importantly, the "has shit I need" issues, I'd totally head down to Sarah's Herbal Infusions down at Last Hope and pick up some nice, natural, herbal booze to buy him.