In the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

 roleplaying game, Ahazu the Seizer is a demon lord

Demon lord (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, demon lords are demons who have gained great power and established a position of preeminence among demonkind. Each demon lord has a unique appearance and set of abilities. Most control at least one layer of the Abyss...

 that now functions as a vestige as a result of his self-imposed imprisonment in the Abyssal layer

Abyss (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Abyss or more fully, the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, is a chaotic evil-aligned plane of existence. It is one of a number of alignment-based Outer Planes that form part of the standard Dungeons & Dragons cosmology, used in the Planescape...

 known as the Wells of Darkness.

Creative origins

His name and title of "the Seizer" is based on a demon in Semitic mythology. The mythological Ahazu is also associated with disease while the Dungeons & Dragons Ahazu downplayed this aspect. In Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....

's Gord novel Come Endless Darkness, there was a character by the name of Talonclasp who was an ahazu-demon. He is described as a square-bodied creature with long lanky arms and huge talons.

Publication history

Ahazu was one of many demon lords that was mentioned only by name in a list in the original Monster Manual II (1983).

Ahazu received further details in third edition in Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss is an optional supplemental source book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.-Chapter 1: Demonic Lore:...

(2006). Ahazu played a role in the 2007 Savage Tide adventure path in Dungeon

Dungeon (magazine)

Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...

magazine #143 in the adventure "Tides of Dread", and #148 in the adventure "Wells of Darkness".

Description

Ahazu appears as a dark-skinned naked humanoid with bat-like wings, long thin arms, and an elongated head dominated with a mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth. Ahaz has long sharp talons and his legs appears to trail away into nothingness.

History

The demon lord Ahazu earned his title as The Seizer for his portfolios of the night and of abduction. Ages past, Ahazu stumbled upon the Abyssal layer that would become the Wells of Darkness. This layer apparently lies in an infinite void called Shattered Night. The layer itself is surrounded by a planar "membrane" that separates it from the void itself. Ahazu discovered that by digging shafts into the terrain of the layer itself, he can reach thin spots in the membrane which would act as "windows" to Shattered Night. After many years of digging (creating hundreds, if not thousands of shafts, or wells, as they eventually became), Ahazu finally found a planar tear that enable him to actually step into the void, which he did, never to return.

Ahazu's cult and followers eventually discovered that their patron can be contacted by pact magic and they built a fortress, called the Overlook, over the planar tear that Ahazu have stepped in. Ahazu demanded that his cult abduct other beings, dead or alive, and bring them to the layer in order to join him in the void of Shattered Night. His cult would place these beings near one of the windows/wells that Ahazu himself have dug, and Ahazu himself, as befits his title, would seize the creature through the well and into Shattered Night.

The cult soon made a fatal error in trying to capture and imprison Orcus

Orcus (Dungeons & Dragons)

Orcus is the fictional demon prince, and lord of the undead in many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He is named after Orcus of Roman mythology. His symbol is a mace with a human skull as the head...

, the Prince of the Undead. They launched an assault on his layer of Thanatos and was soundly defeated. In retaliation, Orcus' hordes swept the Wells of Darkness, destroyed Ahazu's surviving cult, and left the fortress of Overlook in ruins.

Years later, a coven of varrangoins discovered the ruins, Ahazu, and the nature of the layer itself. These canny new arrivals pledged their service to Ahazu, but instead of abducting prospective prisoners on their own, they offered to use the Wells of Darkness to imprison the enemies and undesirables of others in exchange for wealth, power and prestige.

Ahazu himself can free a prisoner (although he cannot free himself) through one of the wells, or create a binding pact with other beings that whisks a creature into Shattered Night based on certain conditions. Ahazu can also absorb the life essences of those who entered Shattered Night, hence lies his primary motive for his self-imposed imprisonment. Given enough life essences, Ahazu can emerge from the void as a true deity.

Artifacts and relics

The Tooth of Ahazu, one of the fabled Teeth of Dahlver-Nar

Teeth of Dahlver-Nar

The Teeth of Dahlver-Nar is a collection of artifacts associated with the priest Dahlver-Nar, in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game...

, is the only magic item known to be associated with Ahazu.