Small technicality in that Lilith's demons are (in large majority) not currently bound to a wizard, they are bound to Lilith, albeit loosely.

Tom actually binds tighter than Lilith. He bound all the D'Orcs directly, Lilith uses a feudal system and doesn't have direct links to all her minions. She relies on senior minions, money and terror. There is discussion of this in book 3 of course...

Typically demon lords only use links for very important missions/secrecy for one really good reason...fear that someone could follow the link to their minion upstream to the demon lord.

So if this starts happening, the best plan of action is to kill someone below you, but higher than where the infection is. At least that's the paranoid theory.

At the most, Lilith or her major minions would have tracking links to key people, but not really binding links, those are way too dangerous because they can be infiltrated much the same way Tom did at the end of Book 1.

Now it's possible, but unlikely that some of her soldiers might have a master now and then, but the most common reason for joining anyone's army is money.

If you have a master, you presumably get to the Planes of Men every now and then and can snag some swag to sell in the Courts, or decorate you cave/condo/etc.

If you do not have a master, you probably can't get to the Planes of Men and therefore very likely have no way of generating income to pay for Denubian Choco-Coffee(TM) or other things. This makes eternity very unpleasant. Literally what Tom was facing so morosely in his cave in Book 1.

Sounds like he took a DIRECT binding link to all the D'Orcs. Of course, I would think that most demons who knew anything about Tom would be very hesitant to try to takeover the binding links, considering what Tom did to a GOD's links. Tom might be able to do the opposite on them, though. >:)

So yes, first would be the dispensation of Lilith's demon army. But who knows what rumors may abound in such a group. Perhaps of a damsel in distress in Durance Vile?

Regardless, Tom will (if he's smart about it), appoint a Demon Commander for the demons, and link only through the commander. Thus firewalling off the demons. I really don't think Tom has to worry about any D'Orcs betraying him at the moment, so just keeping the demons separated by at least one commander should be sufficient.

Of course, knowing Tom, he won't do it that way, but will directly bind all of THOSE demons, as well. While it means there's no buffer, it does mean he'll have direct control of all forces personally, as well as access to their eyes, ears, and power.

...I still want him to meet Bess face-to-face. Here kitty-kitty-kitty! <Fiendish Cube Face>

ANYwho, personal human-style cat-girl fetishes aside, Book 3 looks to really start chumming the waters of the Abyss (figuratively speaking). Hopefully soon we'll get to see what sharks start nosing around! :)

OH, OH, OH!

I just had another thought...

Sir Gadius said at the end of his musings, "they would be able to track Talarius, given that the knight would be the only other thing in the Abyss to radiate the power signature of Tiernon."

But that's probably not true, is it? After all, the WoO (Wand of Orcus) was encased in powerful wards practically screaming "TIERNON!" What else is out there that the Knights Rampants (is that the plural?) detect?

Edited by user Monday, June 13, 2016 8:58:56 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

That's a great question. I'm sure he could find out, but all of his minions have free will, so I guess it really depends on how far out of bounds they went. Also, there's the image of someone high up in his organization betraying him. Press is everything, even with a god. He might not agree with them, but may not censure them for image reasons. Or he may do the whole "Bell, Book, Candle" thing on them. Maybe we'll find out in Book 3 or 4! :)

Something that puzzles me about Tiernon, though. The books have mentioned several times he doesn't like demons. Surely as a god, he knows where demons actually originate. So why does he dislike them so much? It's almost...personal.

It does sound personal, but it could also just be greed. Like you said, PR is everything, as I'd imagine belief and appearance plays a role in how powerful such entities can get. He may not give a flying fig about Demons, but his platform does.

Ah, yes! I think you may be right. Just like a human politician, eh?

Please feel free to compare any and all gods to a humanoid politician.

However, please do not make any search inference about demons. Our feelings would be hurt.

Of course, if you made the comparison to a D'Orc, any self respecting D'Orc would stand up for his/her race by splattering you to a pulp. Same with Orcs, but they aren't quite as strong, you'd still be dead, just not quite as big a smear on the ground

The list of most hated and despised beings for orcs and D'Orcs are

1) Diplomats
2) Lawyers (sometimes 1 & 2 are interchangeable, I personally think it's a function of proximity)
3) Politicians
4) Pundits

They also aren't that fond of preachers, but as long as they don't preach in their direction, they can be tolerated. There are no obliterate/eviscerate on sight orders for them.

You know, another thing that popped into my cube (other than that barbarian last night). Gods and their avatars seem to get cut off from their god/pantheon pools when entering the Abyss. What if your god pool is IN the Abyss? Does it get cut off when you go to the Outer Planes?

And how do you make a god pool? Besides a lot of water and concrete, I mean?

I am simply speaking in generalities, and advising who it is safe to compare to a politician. I understood the point, just wanted to ensure your safety.

Although to be fair, the splattering part was thinking about humans doing it. Not sure it is overly productive, and in fact, it may be counterproductive to try and aplat a Gelatinous Cube, since they could just reform, assuming they didn't cling to you and try to consume you.

Now, this would be bad for an orc. So they should not try this. It would be interesting to see if a D'Orc regenerated faster than a cube could dissolve him/her.

Hmm...same is true for demons.

Please do not go enlist with Lilith!!!!! This could be a truly hellish torture! Eternal consumption!

As for mana pools...yes...this has been something vexing demons for some time. it is essentially what sets demons and gods apart (and gods and avatars) who has and who controls a god pool? And then there are Pantheon Pools of course...

If a demon could make a god pool, would he or she not be a god? Of course, there is that whole worshiper business. If one didn't want to hassle with that, one would have to figure out some other mechanism for charging one's "god pool" or "demon pool" as the case may be.

One tricky fact however is that most god pools seem to reside in the outer planes (or so we all believe) where there are no real gems. Only refleca gems...not sure how effective a refleca gem would be...

Hmm, god pools collect and store mana, from believers? Is that some sort of link system? One wonders if Mount Doom could become a god pool..

<jiggle> <jaggle>

Ooooh, that'd be rich! Just walk up to a priest and say, "Hi, godly warlock!"


Hmm, Mount Doom 2.3...the god pool update for 54,268.