Tell me about arcanaloths in general, and Shemeska the Marauder in particular

During the 4e era, arcanaloths became "raavastas" in the Manual of the Planes supplement. That book explicitly notes that, even in-universe, they were once creatures called "arcanaloths." Shemeshka made an appearance in that book, as well as in the Demonomicon.

Then Dungeon Magazine #205 rolled around. It contained an article on Shemeshka, and one of the two authors was Todd Stewart. This article canonized various pieces of Shemeshka-related lore from Todd Stewart's story hours, for better or for worse.

In the current era, that of 5e, yugoloths have been promoted back to a spot in the core Monster Manual. Arcanaloths are among them, and of course, there is a quote from Shemeshka the Marauder. We have yet to see any sign of Todd Stewart's involvement, but who knows what will happen if he gets signed on?

So, there you have it. Arcanaloths started off as one of the D&D's first uniquely gish-y creatures. They then became the bulk of the conspiracy secretly masterminding the major events of the Lower Planes, and on top of that, the writers introduced and heavily pushed a fox-arcanaloth named Shemeshka.
The yugoloths in general fell into the background in 3.X, but from that point on, an extremely dedicated fox-furry named Todd Stewart did his best to co-opt yugoloths, arcanaloths, and Shemeshka into a vast web of fiction which slowly became more and more canon due to writing freelance articles. His reach extended from 3.X Paizo magazines to Pathfinder to 4e.

Such is the clout of fox-furries.

As for me? In my Great Wheel games, I use arcanaloths as an excuse for high-powered, magical [fox/hound/jackal] kemonomimi of daemonic persuasions. I do not use any D&D systems for such games, so arcanaloths have proven to be the single most popular PC race across all of my players to date. My various players simply love to be arcanaloths. Many prominent NPCs in my campaigns are also arcanaloths.
What can I say? Furry ears and fluffy tails rob us of all higher reason.

For fiends.

Offering practical, real-world evil to content with the SW Empire of devils and the "kill em all" of demons.

Planescape creatures who had two named NPCs, some minor lore and one adventure in 2E. Oh, and one NPC in Ravenloft as well.

They're mainly notable because one of the freelancers for WotC known primarily for Planescape stuff is a huge furry whose waifu is Shemeska.

>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?
The concept of a/the devil exists outside of D&D, so, very easily.

>Shemeska thread

She's a furry's canon waifu.

And one who's got a penis at that.

Only some of the time.

Some of the time? She had a Male sex symbol on her character sheet when she was first added to the game, and it was an in-joke that she flew into a rage if you ever dared to call her "Queen of the Crosstrade" instead of King of the Crosstrade.

That was a typo, but it doesn't really matter.. All yugoloths can gain a dick or pussy as they desire.

>Tell me about arcanaloths

Why do they wear the fur?

This is horrifying.

What's horrifying?

Does this mean that the iconic arcanaloth is a foxgirl (male)?

She looks more like , but yes, she can be.

I'd hit it

Well, dang. user asked for information and user fucking provided.

I'm not the OP, but that was quite an interesting read, thanks.

Old D&D cosmology had some whacky shit.

>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.
I haven’t read the material you reference, but that makes an intriguing amount of sense.

The Blood War is deadlocked, yes? This is simple enough if you think about it as a two-sided affair— devils and demons are roughly equally matched. But a three-sided standoff between ruthless, actively warring parties would be an unstable equilibrium, wouldn’t it? (The obvious exception would be a classic rock-paper-scissors non-transitive game, but as far as I know the Blood War does not resemble this sort of nontransitive game.) Whichever faction happened to weaken would be swiftly destroyed by combined might of the other two. However, a scenario in which the third party is able to manipulate the other two is stable so long as such manipulation never grants them enough power to knock out one side or the other; if the yugoloths are clever enough to forestall any joint attack from the baatezu and tanar’ri but not clever enough to use one side to knock out the other (or would never gain much by doing so), the Blood War may continue indefinitely.

Three more details I had forgotten to mention:

1. In Uncaged: Faces of Sigil, Shemeshka the Marauder was erroneously listed as having a symbol. In truth, this was a typographical error (do not ask me for a quote on this; go run Google searches for "Shemeshka male symbol" to discover snippets of Ray Vallese's error). However, the fact that Uncaged: Faces of Sigil constantly referred to Shemeshka with female pronouns and explicitly noted that she hated being called "Queen of the Cross-Trade" made Shemeshka come across as a gender-confused arcanaloth. This became even more confusing when Faces of Evil: The Fiends: Yugoloths explained that yugoloths in general were hermaphroditic. The point is, Shemeshka is a dire mess of sex/gender confusion.

2. D&D 3.5's Planar Handbook and 4e's Dungeon Master's Guide 2 kept on pushing Shemeshka's power and status in post-Faction-War Sigil. Shemeshka was constantly listed as a person of great political clout. Even people outside of Todd Stewart really loved pushing her.

3. In Todd Stewart's Dungeon Magazine #205 article on Shemeshka, he had the audacity to canonize Shemeshka as having a "lesbian" arcanaloth lover, Shylara the Manged, whom he had commissioned furry artwork of here:
sayda.deviantart.com/art/Shylara-the-Manged-141722253

This mostly goes to show that sometimes, there is no well-thought-out world-building logic behind certain RPG quirks.

Sometimes, it really is just a case of writers pushing their "pet race" or their "pet NPC" for the pettiest of reasons, up to and including "being a furry."

I can understand the yugoloths having plenty of clout as manipulators of the Blood War, but 2e went *far* too far with that. It is completely ludicrous that the daemons knew every single true name of all fiends in existence, that a yugoloth-curated bioweapon was the source of all fiendish teleportation (see Hellbound: War Games: Squaring the Circle), and that the yugoloths could limit access to that bioweapon to coerce baatezu and tanar'ri into serving them.

That is an entirely new level of masturbation over the yugoloths.

This is some good stuff.

Please bear in mind the "bonus material" in .

Also, have three snippets Faces of Evil: The Fiends: Yugoloths that establish cute quirks.

1.
>Arcanaloths devour marrow, partly in a gesture of disdain and partly to show their place in the multiverse as fiends that drain life from the inside out.
Arcanadaemons love to eat bone marrow. Fried tofu is to kitsune as bone marrow is to arcanaloths.

2.
>See, the nycaloths and arcanaloths actually meld into the essence of the plane. They don't just wriggle down into the dirt or sink into a river; they let that soil or water get into them, too. They merge with their chosen element and draw life-giving power directly from the plane. It's also a way to keep in touch with the mood of the plane, to see where it's falling away and where it's growing. The fiends do this for nine hours every nine days.
Arcanaloths (and, for that matter, nycaloths) sleep by merging with soil, wood, water, or whatnot. Arcanaloths must have gardens in place of beds in their bedrooms.

3.
>Likewise, arcanaloths create nothing but more of their own kind. The young're raised with grace and care and taught the ins and outs of negotiation, but lessons are no substitute for experience – these arcanaloths aren't as skilled as fiends who reach the rank by promotions from below. Those born into the rank serve mostly as scribes in the Tower of the Arcanaloths.
>Finally, ultroloths can give birth all on their own, without having to mate. But their offspring are always young arcanaloths, who, like the young of arcanaloth parents, end up filling more mundane roles in the 'loth hierarchy. Why don't ultroloths produce ultroloths? Sages think it's because their state of existence is pure status, pure reward – a fiend's really got to work its head off in order to reach the top of the chain. It can't just be born there.
There are little pup-arcanaloths scampering around the Tower of the Arcanaloths, hard at work scribing books of sophont skin.

It's mildly disturbing just how obsessed you are with me and what I've written. Yes I've written a metric ton of stuff on the 'loths, easily over 2k pages of fan work on top of the published material. I was (and still am) a Planescape super fan in many ways. The 'loths in 2e were awesome and the arcanaloths were pretty much the arrogant, loquacious posterchildren of their kind.

I got a ton of art of NPCs from a pair of campaigns, and then more of the Marauder since I largely co-opted the Marauder (misspelled name and all) as an online username on pretty much every forum out there.

Some vaguely and intentionally disturbing borderline racy content in the storyhour is all there is however.

Gonna need some proof that you're Todd, chief.

>It's mildly disturbing just how obsessed you are with me and what I've written.
We can't ever get a decent planescape thread running without the Kitsune-futa-fag ruining it with reference over reference over reference.
Doesn't even need a trip cause he just posts the same fucking anime kitsunes over and over.

I just posted on my storyhour on Enworld in reference to this thread.

enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?352957-Shemeska-s-Planescape-Storyhour-(Updated-26September2017)/page24&p=7261323#post7261323

Also worth noting that since most of my work has been for Pathfinder for a long damn time now, I've gotten more tiefling and protean character art for newer campaigns. Still writing the storyhour when I have the time, but it's slow at this juncture.

Only written a single 5e product for Legendary games. No idea if I'll write anything for WotC for 5e, though I'd be open to it clearly.

Okay, cough it up. You've worked with other writers, so tell us: Who's the biggest Drow fan that you've worked with?

2hu and Shemeska sitting in a tree; y-i-f-f-i-n-g....

Is Ssalarn a shit?

Not a clue to be perfectly honest. I've never worked on anything involving Drow, and really most of the projects that I've done have been solo assignments without a ton of collaboration between freelancers. The ones that weren't were sole authorship deals (TGB, BotD3,etc).

I've been largely pigeonholed for years now just doing planar material, so I don't have much insight into the quirks and likes of other freelancers as you might think.

...

What a disappointing answer

We have spoken before on this matter, Mr. Stewart. I have even asked you for your opinion on yugoloths previously: archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/45627125/#45631780

I am an immense fan of yugoloths, and arcanaloths especially. It is just that I am a degenerate kemonomimi-lover, and you are a furry, so our aesthetics diverge. That is why, in my campaigns, Shemeshka, Shylara, and the two dozen or so arcanaloth NPCs in my are kemonomimi foxes (or sometimes dogs or jackals).

>Some vaguely and intentionally disturbing borderline racy content in the storyhour is all there is however.
I do not actually decry you for this. I am very much depraved when it comes to the arcanaloths in my own campaigns anyway, so I am in no position to judge. I just find your brazenness and audacity rather hilarious, much as I have mentioned previously.

I have also used Felthis ap Jerran, the redeemed ultroloth, and Harishek ap Thulkesh, the blind clockmaker, as NPCs in my campaign at various points.

Of course, ultroloths in my conception wind up looking like white-skinned anime girls/boys with glowing red eyes, and Harishek was a blind anime girl always carrying around multiple clocks. This was the picture I had used.

Shemeska the Marauder was an annoying tranny faggot on the old Wizards.com boards. Was obsessed with Planescape and would not shut the hell up about it for two seconds. I hope he died of bone inhalation.

I eagerly await the day Paizo hires someone to introduce arcanadaemons into Pathfinder cosmology. Then we could have vulpinal-descended aasimar foxgirls/foxboys *and* arcanadaemon-descended tiefling foxgirls/foxboys.

Arcanaloth-descended tieflings are already possible in 2e, 3.X, and 5e, after all. Pathfinder could use them too.

I would like to see more of the yugoloths and the arcanaloths in 5e as well. There was an arcanadaemon in Curse of Strahd. There was also an arcanaloth in Tomb of Annihilation, who was both implied to be a fox and named after Gary Gygax:

>The old man sleeping in the chair is an arcanaloth under the effect of its alter self spell. The fiend has one of the library's spellbooks lying open on its lap and pretends to be asleep. If approached, the man appears to wake and asks, "Why do you disturb me?" The creature won't reveal its true name, instead referring to itself as "Mr. Fox." The arcanaloth is bound to the library by Acererak's magic and can't leave, nor can it allow any of the library's books or scrolls to be removed.

>If any character speaks the arcanaloth's true name ("Ygga Raxyg"; see area 71) within earshot of the fiend, it is stunned for 1 minute. Once the stunned effect wears off, repeating the arcanaloth's name has no effect on it for the next 24 hours. If killed, the arcanaloth melts into a pool of ichor, leaving behind its robes and horn-rimmed spectacles (see "Treasure" below).

>Treasure
>The arcanaloth's horn-rimmed spectacles aren't magical, but they are worth 250 gp. The spectacles are also a gate key that opens a portal in the planar city of Sigil. The portal is a two-way door to the plane of Arcadia. A legend lore spell cast on the spectacles reveals this information and raises their potential value to 2,500 gp if they are sold to a wizard or sage.

I like the idea that someone could approach this arcanaloth, off-handedly mention the name "Ygga Raxyg," and watch as the old man seemingly succumb to a seizure for a minute straight, all without knowing that there is a fox-daemon in disguise before their very eyes.

>shemcoffee
But where is the coffee?

Are you referring to the fellow who always posts them toohoos? Because those posts are usually reasonable, on-topic, and informative. Veeky Forums‘s seen worse, in other words.

I’m trying to think of something else to write here, because I sort of understand what bothers you, but as I turn it over in my head, I can’t find any way in which your complaint is genuinely justifiable.

2hufag, kill yourself already

If you're unironically defending the fucking worthless pile of horse-jizz linked above, you seriously need to re-evaluate your life choices up until this point.

Be fair, he might not really know much about the shit Edna gets up to elsewhere, easy to mistake it for a poor disabled kid being ganged up on when you don't know how much Touhoufag has done to deserve hatred.

Why do you have to be mad at 2HU?

What’s the difference between the Kemo-thing and a Furry? Isn’t it the same thing?

>on-topic
How is talking about Todd Stewart on topic?

Kemo is ears/tail only, furry is anything involved with anthropomorphizing animals. So kemos are lite furries in deep denial, basically.

>If you're unironically defending the fucking worthless pile of horse-jizz linked above, you seriously need to re-evaluate your life choices up until this point.
Well, as an example, when when I compare this post to the touhou ones, you do not come out ahead.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only know what I’ve seen from the occasional Planescape thread.

It’s a thread about arcanoloths, and Todd Stewart apparently had a lot to do with the development and portrayal of arcanoloths. It makes sense to me.

Unfortunately, this thread has already outstripped my knowledge of arcanoloths, so it’s probably best for me to shut up now.

If there is anything you would like to know about arcanaloths canonically (going by 2e, 3.X, 4e, or 5e), then feel free to inquire.

If there is anything you would like to know of my personal interpretation of arcanaloths, or my take on yugoloths in general, then feel free to ask as well.

Many of the PCs in my campaigns have been arcanaloths (mostly Gehennan, but with one Grey arcanaloth), and a good chunk of my NPCs are arcanaloths as well.

Thanks for the infodump sir/madam, your expertise is greatly appreciated.

Again, please see the "bonus material" here: and .

>oh a beastfolk thread, let's have a look
>fetishy anime garbage and furfaggotry

Every fucking time.

Some people are so mentally ill they don't watch themselves around elves.

You know, I actually respect the "furry" aesthetic more, if only because it can be used as in genuinely bestial and monstrous way, rather than just as fetishfuel. I mean, a savage animal-demon, I can get behind that.

Foxgirls on the other hand, are cancer. Touhoufag here is fully justified in doing whatever he wants in his own game, and having been around for a while I must respect the autistic depths of his research, as always, but animue foxgirls is infinitely more cancerous and degenerate than furries, in my opinion.

So however degenerate you may be Todd, at least you aren't foxgirl degenerate.

>Why do you have to be mad at 2HU?
Because he's an awful human being.

This thread is a fucking train wreck.

I can at least mentally filter out the furries as long as the pics look somewhat similar to the original monster. I can't do the same with borderline underage anime girls with cat or fox ears.
I mean, what does have to do with a jackal demon?

Shemeshka is a fox arcanaloth, thank you.

>In Todd Stewart's Dungeon Magazine #205 article on Shemeshka, he had the audacity to canonize Shemeshka
user I'm picking up the sense you don't like Todd Stewart very much? I'm completely fine with that.
Have you read his story hour? I would describe it as 'cutesy bullshit'.

Oh, no. I am very much a fan of his work, as I explain in and .

Hey Todd, is Shemeska a lesbian, or bi? Or do those even mean anything to arcanaloths?

Why would anyone care about the sexuality of a monster? Do you routinely delve into the sordid nightlife of ogres?

What do you expect from a bunch of weebs? This is a thread about monsters who happen to look like anthropomorphic foxes, but then the monstergirl shitters come in to vomit all over the place just like in /pfg/.

I don't know what it is about talking foxes (jackals in this case, but whatever) that spurs such titillation and brings the absolute worst out of people.

I personally like to occasionally use Arcanaloths as Japanese fox stand-ins, of the dangerous information broker-type. Heavy use of Alter self and/or Polymorph, combined with doing small favors, such as answering questions, in return for seemingly inconsequential minor requests that lead to catastrophic results in the long-term. I also really like to make them the ringleaders of big, exorcism-centered campaigns, and riddle specific, strong Arcanaloths with equally specific weaknesses or obsessions. While I like the "embodiment of avarice" and True Names aspects to them, I don't really care much for their whole bioweapon and scheming in the whole DnD cosmology shtiks.

>Todd Stewart

is that you?

archive this thread for all future Daemon and Yugoloth lore seekers.