Tell me about arcanaloths in general, and Shemeska the Marauder in particular.
Tell me about arcanaloths in general, and Shemeska the Marauder in particular
Robert Campbell
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Connor Jones
self bump
Adrian Price
Why are animals with glasses so cute?
Justin Morales
...
Xavier Cox
So unassuming for a CR12 creature.
Alexander Baker
What are yugoloths even used for? Ignore the default DnD cosmology.
Elijah Rivera
>Ignore the default DnD cosmology.
If you decontextualise something unique to the D&D universe, what sense will any of it make?
How could you describe the role devils play in making pacts with mortals to obtain their souls if you ignore the existence of the 9 Hells?
Yugoloths are effectively the mercenaries of the evil realms. They fight wars for devils and demons.
Dylan Cook
Well, there seems to be something wrong with that fox.
Michael Stewart
Arcanaloths were introduced in the 1e Fiend Folio, back when the yugoloths were simply called "daemons," and thus arcanaloths were "arcanadaemons." In 1e, they had the ground-breaking mechanic of being able to attack with their claws while simultaneously casting Burning Hands, in gish-like fashion.
During AD&D 2e, yugoloths became the "pet race" of the Planescape writers. They retconned the yugoloths into having a tremendous significance to the major schemes of the Lower Planes, to the point wherein the daemons knew every single true name of all fiends in existence, and a yugoloth-curated bioweapon was the source of all fiendish teleportation (see Hellbound: War Games: Squaring the Circle).
Since the arcanaloths were the "iconic" wheelers and dealers of the yugoloths, the writers pushed arcanaloths as the greatest masterminds and puppeteers of the Lower Planes and the Blood War, including not-so-subtle images of arcanaloths playing Blood War chess (see Planes of Conflict: Liber Malevolentiae: Gehenna) and arcanaloths literally puppeteering baatezu and tanar'ri (see: Faces of Evil: The Fiends: Yugoloths). For all intents and purposes, during 2e, arcanaloths comprised the bulk of the true conspiracy running the Lower Planes, below only the ultroloths and the 'loth lords. The Tower of the Arcanaloths in Chamada (or Khalas, if you believe the Blood Wars TCG) might as well have been the true seat of all fiendish power.
Things took an even more interesting turn once 2e's Uncaged: Faces of Sigil was released. This marked the first major appearance of Shemeshka the Marauder, the first arcanaloth described as a "fox," rather than a hound or a jackal like most other arcanaloths. The Planescape writers began to heavily push Shemeshka from this point onwards, to the point wherein after the Faction War adventure (which was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy that was never completed), Shemeshka rose to be one of the top three most politically powerful people in Sigil.
Easton Evans
During the 3.X era, the writers opted to push yugoloths into the background and focus on the baatezu and the tanar'ri instead, from the Monster Manual I to the two Fiendish Codices. They swept all of that "yugoloths are the true masters of the Lower Planes" business beneath the metaphorical rug.
However, another strange phenomenon occurred during the 3.X era: a fox-furry and Paizo freelance writer named "Todd Stewart" had co-opted Shemeshka (or "Shemeska" as he often misspelled it) as his fursona.
Yes, really.
Todd Stewart was absolutely, positively obsessed with yugoloths, and arcanaloths especially. He had written plenty of fiction concerning them, some of which was erotic:
enworld.org
enworld.org
He had commissioned various pornographic pieces of fanart of Shemeshka, as well as artwork of his own original arcanaloths:
furaffinity.net
sayda.deviantart.com
Todd Stewart managed to shove Shemeshka and other yugoloths into various Paizo pieces he had written. There was a redeemed ultroloth named "Felthis ap Jerran" in Dragon Magazine #351's article on the gate-town of Ecstasy, Dragon Magazine #353's article on demiplanes mentions a very special baernaloth called "Harishek ap Thulkesh," and Dungeon Magazine #144's Diplomacy adventure had an arcanaloth archmage NPC working for Shemeshka.
When Paizo moved on to Pathfinder, Todd Stewart still managed to introduce his own brand of furry foxes, the vulpinals:
paizo.com
He was also in charge of Pathfinder's take on neutral evil daemonkind:
paizo.com