Retired Monster: Difference between revisions

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'':

** The demon lord Pale Night is an ancient being that many other demon lords claim is their mother (and some claim the current race of demons can trace their bloodline back to). Nowadays, she tends to stay in her palace, distancing herself from the mortals, the Blood War, and other demons.... But, may the gods help anyone she catches trespassing on her property. Some she turns into souless husks whom she keeps as trophies (and guardians) while others she lets go, only to live with the horrors they've seen forever.

** Another ancient demon who is now retired, but not by her choice, is the Queen of Chaos. In the mythic Age Before Ages eons ago, she ruled the obyrith, the race of demons that first populated the Abyss, and led them on a war of genocide against the Wind Dukes of Aaqa. She was such a monster, she murdered any obyrith who refused to join her forces. Eventually, however, her army was defeated by the Wind Dukes due to the creation of the Rod of Law (later the Rod of Seven Parts), her second-in-command and consort Miska the Wolf Spider was banished to Pandemonium, and the obyrith nearly driven to extinction as a result. Neither the Queen nor the obyrith ever recovered; since then, she has laired in the 14th layer of the Abyss, known as the Steaming Fen, licking her wounds, dreaming of freeing Miska and returning to glory.

** In 3rd Edition, the baernoloths are the creators of the yugoloth race, but long ago entrusted leadership of the race to the ultraloths and retreated to the farthest locales of the Grey Waste. The few encounters that mortals have with these ancient fiends have yielded reports of horrid and blasphemous experiments, but fortunately, the baernoloths don't seem to have the great power they are said to have once had.

** Also, there are the Rabble of Devilkin, powerful unique devils who reside on the first layer of Hell. Technically, they are exiled, not retired, formerly being Dukes of Hell (or in the case of Moloch and Geryon, rulers of whole layers) who were stripped of their position for some reason, but spared death for other reasons. Most are content to simply stay in their lairs and keep to themselves, but a few have made vain attempts to regain their former positions, so much that in such cases, their names have been stripped of them to prevent mortals from summoning them. One notable Rabble is Armaros, a being who is believed to be the most powerful devil in existence and a wizard with godlike magical power. Only Asmodeus himself is allowed to visit him (which he does quite often, possibly for advice) and no-one else dares disturb his magical research.

** A few ancient evil gods match this Trope; legends say they were once powerful gods, but because this cosmology is one where [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]], these individuals suffered as their races became weaker and lost their influence on mortal worlds, becoming slothful and neglected due to the lack of worship. (This happens to non-evil gods too sometimes, but not as often, for some reason.) Examples include Ramenos, the frog-god of the bullywugs, Merrshaulk, the god of the yuan-ti (a race that challenged humans for dominance and lost), Laogzed, the deity worshipped by troglodytes (now little more than a giant lizard that other gods think of as a divine garbage disposal), and Gorellik, who used to be the patron deity of gnolls until that position was usurped by the demon lord Yeenoghu, causing him to wander the lower planes, seemingly with no purpose.