What would happen if all the Demon Lords and Devil Lords were killed?

[TrueSpade]

By Demon Lords, I mean the ones like Orcus, Demogorgon, Pale Night, and Baphomet. (and the others in their bunch)

So, say for example, you are DMing. What do you think, realistically would happen if some overzealous, powerful person, managed to take out all the Demon Lords (and Devil Lords if there are any)

 

[Crothian]

It would depend on the agenda of whomever took out the demon lords. If you have the war between the Devils and Demons then the Devils would take advantage of this and invade the Abyss. And there would be a power vacuum in the Abyss and whatever the most powerful beings are left there would fight for supremacy.

 

[bloodtide]

In general, not much would change. There would just be a 'war' for the now open 'Lord' spot. Demons would fight until one got the lord title. It might prove a good distraction for the rest of the mulitverse.



In my game, demons, devils, gods...and just about everyone else has been doing the ''Dread Pirate Roberts'' thing from day one. So that just about everyone is not the 'real' Roberts, but everyone still uses the name.

 

[Greenfield]

If the heads of both forces were removed, there would be internal power struggles.

Within a short time though, there would be new individuals in place, claiming the same titles. The individuals would rotate for a while as others took them out and took their place.

Note that this is simply a fast-motion version of what goes on within the lower ranks all the time.

 

[Ragmon]

The Yugoloths would take advantage of the situation.
Or just a change of management in Hell and the Abyss, so the runners up would probably take charge.

 

[Buugipopuu]

The Devils probably already have successors named and arranged. They like chains of command, after all. Unless all the immediate successors to the title of Lord of the Nine get killed, and then you'll have arguments (the kind that involve killing) over whose claim is more legit.

The Yugoloths would take advantage of the situation.

I saw the title of this thread and thought "Mainly, Yugoloths would happen."

 

[TrueSpade]

I didn't know what a Yugoloth was, or that they even had lords til I looked it up just now XD

Well assume all the Yugoloth Lords vanished too. Would the Abyss be finished?

 

[Jack Simth]

By Demon Lords, I mean the ones like Orcus, Demogorgon, Pale Night, and Baphomet. (and the others in their bunch)

So, say for example, you are DMing. What do you think, realistically would happen if some overzealous, powerful person, managed to take out all the Demon Lords (and Devil Lords if there are any)

I think I'm going to agree with the crowd, and say "Violent Succession" amongst both Demons and Devils (although this assumes getting rid of any named successors in the case of the Devil lords, as well, as Devils are inherently lawful), rather quickly leading back to the normal status quo... and also acknowledging that any hostile third party (celstials, Yugoloths) would likely attempt to take advantage of the short-term confusion and medium-term demon/devil weakening that would result. But really, it would be back to status quo in relatively short order, unless invading Celestials or Yugoloths got a significant beachhead going during the confusion (which is very much not a given!).

 

[Crothian]

Well assume all the Yugoloth Lords vanished too. Would the Abyss be finished?

The best way to finish the Abyss is to take out the Demon Lords but leave the Devil and Yugoloth lords in place so they can invade. But I'm not even sure that's enough.

 

[Jack Simth]

The best way to finish the Abyss is to take out the Demon Lords but leave the Devil and Yugoloth lords in place so they can invade. But I'm not even sure that's enough.

Yeah... the infinities involved do not have clearly defined orders to them (each layer of the nine hells are defined as infinite... but the semi-defined 'infinite' layers of the abyss (not necessarily infinite, though, as it's said there are 666 of them... which may or may not be accurate) are neither specifically all finite, nor specifically all infinite.

Let's make an assumption:
The Blood War has not been resolved because the 'resources' of the Demons and the Devils are approximately equal-sized infinities for every reasonable and useful definition of 'resources'

And because the OP doen't seem interested in them, let's make another assumption:
The Yugoloths don't have an impact in this analysis

And another:
There are a finite number of demon lords and devil lords

And a final:
Any given Demon Lord or Devil Lord has a finite amount of 'resources' that go away when the respective Lord is killed

Assuming those assumptions (redundant redundancy is redundant for the sake of emphatic emphasis), then killing all the demon and devil lords would not have an appreciable impact on the situation as a whole as it reduces the resources of two infinities by a finite amount, doesn't really change the goals, and will soon settle out with new Demon/Devil lords (via succession, subschool Bloody, descriptor VERY).

That said, the short-term turmoil would be very useful for individuals with goals. Why? Because for a short period of time, there's no new orders coming down from the top to adapt to variables for the orderly devils, nor to reign-in chaos for the disorderly demons - so for the Devils, defensive patrols will be more predictible, and for the Demons, strategic assets will be less densely defended. Anyone wanting to get something specific will be more able to do so.