Whore Queens
 This page is needs images. Help plz. |
The Whore Queens - also known by the more polite moniker of "The Queens of the Night" - are a group of four female archdevils and demigoddesses native to the Pathfinder version of Baator.
Each of the Whore Queens is a female figure who entered the Hellish hierarchy, believing that she would attain greater power and respect in Hell than in the other realms they had once dwelled in - all bar one, Mahathallah, were originally archangels who came to believe Heaven's strictures were too much for them to bear. Unfortunately for them, Asmodeus in the Pathfinder cosmology is a shameless misogynist, and as such each found their possibilities for political advancement sharply curtailed.
Thus, none of the Whore Queens is one of the "true" powers of Hell, having no planar layers to call their own. However, they have scraped together potency enough to shame all but the mightiest of Infernal Dukes, and their cults easily approach those of the Archdukes in size and prominence. They don't really "get along," per se, but none of them find the others too distasteful to work with, and none of their goals are mutually exclusive, so they tend to work in concert. Also, despite being called "Whore Queens" only one of them puts out, but only one of them (not the same one) actually cares enough to feel grumpy at being called "Whore," so despite almost certainly starting as a mocking pejorative the moniker has stuck.
The Whore Queens were first detailed in "Princes of Darkness", the first of the three "Book of the Damned" splatbooks, and focused on the Devils. They were subsequently reprinted in the singular Book of the Damned hardcover.
Ardad Lili, the End of Innocence
| Ardad Lili, the End of Innocence | ||
|---|---|---|
| Wings Made of Snake Tails | ||
| Alignment | Lawful Evil | |
| Divine Rank | Demigod | |
| Pantheon | Golarion Archdevils (Whore Queens) | |
| Portfolio | Seduction, Snakes, Women | |
| Domains | Charm, Evil, Law, Scalykind Subdomains: Devil, Dragon, Love, Lust |
|
| Home Plane | Hell | |
| Worshippers | Evil Artists, Grifters, Manipulators | |
| Favoured Weapon | Dagger | |
A fallen angel once assigned to inspire nascent poets, sculptors and songwriters on behalf of Shelyn, only to become outraged and disgusted by the way that so many of them fell in love with her. Arrogance pride in her self-perceived supremacy to mortals caused her to begin manipulating the mortals she visited into promising their souls to her in exchange for (unfulfilled) promises of carnal bliss, murdering those who resisted her blasphemous temptations.
Doloras, the Lady of Pain
| Doloras, The Lady of Pain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Halo of Tears | ||
| Alignment | Lawful Evil | |
| Divine Rank | Demigod | |
| Pantheon | Golarion Archdevils (Whore Queens) | |
| Portfolio | Detachment, Dispassion, Pain | |
| Domains | Destruction, Evil, Law, Repose Subdomains: Catastrophe, Devil, Rage, Souls |
|
| Home Plane | Hell | |
| Worshippers | Kytons, Kyton-summoning Diabolists, Merciless Torturers, Sadists | |
| Favoured Weapon | Kukri | |
Not to be confused with the other Lady of Pain, although her name and title are blatant homages to her. Originally, Doloras was a planetar angel serving in the armies of Erastil. But, when a demonic incursion saw several solar angels captured and dragged off to the Abyss, including her three brothers, Dolaras followed them on her own, hoping to rescue her kin. Losing track of the raiders, she stumbled upon a lone demon and took it prisoner, whereupon she began questioning it about where her kin had been taken. Ultimately, she resorted to torture... and became fascinated with the process of inflicting pain. Even though she realized the fiend legitimately had no idea where her kin were, she kept on torturing it for the sheer sake of doing so. Three times, angels came to find her and tell her that her brothers were safe... and each time, she killed them and resumed torturing her victim. It was only after she accidentally ended the demon's life after murdering the third angel that she finally realized she'd fallen from grace and become a fiend herself, and at that point, she no longer cared - even learning the gates of Heaven were barred to her forever didn't faze her, so emotionless she had become.
Eiseth, the Erinyes Queen
| Eiseth, The Erinyes Queen, Hell's Valkyrie, She Who Defies Limitation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Horned Longbow | ||
| Alignment | Lawful Evil | |
| Divine Rank | Demigod | |
| Pantheon | Golarion Archdevils (Whore Queens) | |
| Portfolio | Battle, Revenge, Wrath | |
| Domains | Destruction, Evil, Law, War Subdomains: Blood, Catastrophe, Devil, Rage |
|
| Home Plane | Hell | |
| Worshippers | Bitter Nobles, Disgruntled Diabolists, Evil Generals | |
| Favoured Weapon | Longbow | |
Once a movanic deva, Eiseth was arrogant and proud, consumed by the belief that she was frustrated, even held back, by the perceived failings of other angels around her. She grew obsessed with the idea of becoming an empyrean, that she might command her own legions, and then with the idea of becoming an empyreal lord of duty and vengeance. Her envy festered, until finally she murdered her own commander and the most trusted advisers of her commander after she was given an order she felt was intolerably foolish. Courtmartialed, she proudly boasted of her reasonings, expected to be lauded; instead, her former kin were horrified. Sensing that they would punish her, she fled before they could lay down her sentence.
Mahathallah, the Dowager of Illusions
| Mahathallah, Dowager of Illusions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Monstrous One-Eyed Face Surrounded By Runes | ||
| Alignment | Lawful Evil | |
| Divine Rank | Demigod | |
| Pantheon | Golarion Archdevils (Whore Queens) | |
| Portfolio | Death, Fate, Vanity | |
| Domains | Death, Evil, Law, Trickery Subdomains: Deception, Devil, Thievery, Undead |
|
| Home Plane | Hell | |
| Worshippers | Alchemists, Drug Users, Embittered Dreamers, Illusionists, Outcasts | |
| Favoured Weapon | Net | |
Of all the Whore Queens, Mahathallah was never an angel. Instead, she was a psychopomp usher - for those unfamiliar with Golarion, psychopomps are the angel-like servitors of Pharasma, Goddess of Birth and Death, who are charged with ensuring the smooth procession of the cycles of death by calming the souls of the deceased and protecting them from soul-eating monsters, whilst ushers are their equivalent of archangels. Known as the Maiden of Mists, Mahathallah guided the passing of whole worlds worth of spirits, and came to be worshipped as a demigoddess of the dead for her devotion and her skill at piercing the veiled paths of fate. But she was tormented, because there was one fate she couldn't see: her own. Ultimately, this drove her to beg a boon from her goddess; to be allowed to see her ultimate fate, the moment of her death. Pharasma tried to warn her off, but Mahathallah would not be swayed; she went to the mortal realm, awaited a portentous moment, and followed the last soul to die at that moment, allowing her to traverse the River of Souls, the one act that entitled any being to perceive its ultimate fate. For this, Pharasma had no choice; she showed Mahathallah her final moment.
The Maiden of Mists, an immortal who had served Pharasma for generations beyond counting, was unprepared for the reality of seeing her own death. She finally learned firsthand why mortals feared death, and could not bear the experience; she fled from Pharasma's court in terror and never stopped running, butchering anything that dared stand in her way, until finally Asmodeus calmed her. What lies he told her to convince her that he could change her destiny, none know, but the end result was that she came to serve the legions of hell with her prophetic abilities, no longer the Maiden of Mists, but now the Dowager of Illusions.
Mahathallah experiences a constant cycle of regeneration, changing from the form of a youthful yet cadaverous angel wearing a dusk-hued burial gown to that of a rotting crone's corpse with shattered wings clad in trailing tatters, and then reverts to her youthful guise to start aging once again. This cycle is erratic and unpredictable; she may change from youth to corpse over the course of a day, or over a minute, but she shifts constantly. Although typically cold and dispassionate, her state of mind seems to affect her appearance; youth masks her fear-kindled fury, whilst age comes when she embraces her nihilistic wisdom.
She is close to the other Queens of the Night; her most complex relationship is with Doloras - dispassionate and distant, but mutually beneficial - whilst she is has the least in common with the action- and emotion-driven Eiseth. She often counsels her fellows, and their cults are considered allies.
Ironically, the cult of Mahathallah is all but indifferent to Pharasma, and instead is most strongly hostile to the church of Desna. Her temples are hidden in caverns, graveyards, and even in mindscapes, and she is served predominantly by fallen psychopomps and by the undead. Conducting Mahathallah's Obedience requires a cultist to spend an hour in deep meditation, reflecting on the nature of the cosmos and their own exceptional place within it. This is preferably done whilst under the influence of a perception-altering drug. Mahathallah's faithful depict her as either a vaguely feminine figure cloaked in somber mists, or as a glaring eye surrounded by an assortment of occult sigils.