Four Horsemen
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End Bringers
Apocalypse Riders
The Four Horsemen, also known as the archdaemons, End Bringers, and Apocalypse Riders, are powerful and unique daemons having attained the power of demigods: they rule Abaddon, and have hordes of daemons in their service.1
Description
Each of the Four Horsemen represents one of four ideals: war, disease, famine and death. The actual position of being a Horseman is a coveted title and is often fought for by the greatest members of daemonkind. Each Horseman has his own legion of servitor daemons known as deacons or destroyers.2
Current Horsemen
Each Horseman also boasts his own realm uniquely suited to what they represent. The current Four Horsemen are Apollyon, the horseman of pestilence, who rules Plaguemere; the horseman of death, Charon, who rules the River Styx; Szuriel, the horseman of war, who presides over the Cinder Furnace; and Trelmarixian, the horseman of famine, who rules Wasting.31 A fifth Horseman, known in forbidden texts as the Oinodaemon, is said to be superior even to the Four Horsemen in power and stature. Most believe he either never existed, or was killed by the remaining Horsemen long ago.345
Apocalypse horses
Each horseman has an apocalypse horse as its mount.678910
History
'Horseman' is a title granted to a powerful daemon who ascends to this position. There have been other daemons in the past who have arisen to the title of Horseman, but they have been replaced for various reasons, including by their murder at the hands of Lamashtu.[citation needed] The Horsemen, however, were the first daemons to appear.1
An ancient Horseman is responsible for the genesis of the demons.111213 Lamashtu learnt the daemon's secret 'art' of creating demons from the torture of a former Horseman of the Apocalypse, whom she had taken during her wars against Abaddon. She had managed to take two Horsemen captive during these wars and murdered both of them.13
Previous Horsemen
Before the current incumbents, there have been a number of previous Horsemen such as the following:14
Horsemen of Death
Charon is the only Horseman of Death to exist holding this possession since the beginning.15
Horsemen of Famine
- Lyutheria the Parasite Queen, the original Horseman of Famine15
Horsemen of Pestilence
- Azulos the Corrupting, the original Horseman of Pestilence
- Drulaema the Fever Princess
- Llamolaek, a Horseman of Pestilence16 demoted into an astradaemon by his rival, Roshmolem. Now a harbinger.17
- Yrsinius
Horsemen of War
- Horeksim, the original Horseman of War
- Roshmolem the Steel Weaver
- Ortaro of the Ten Thousand Screams
Unspecified
- Balishek, early Horseman of unknown station destroyed utterly at Balishek's Crater in Abaddon.18
Churches of the Horsemen
The Four Horsemen are such powerful fiends that they are capable of granting spells and power to their deluded, nihilistic clerics. They do not have churches or organised faiths in the Universe, but rather are worshipped out of fear or by hate-filled monsters.19
References
Paizo published a sourcebook titled Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Inner Sea World Guide, 241. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “Bestiary” in Seven Days to the Grave, 81. Paizo Inc., 2008 .
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Chapter 3: Religion” in Campaign Setting, 183. Paizo Inc., 2008 .
- ↑ “Bestiary” in Into the Darklands, 61. Paizo Inc., 2008 .
- ↑ “Monsters A to Z” in Bestiary 2, 62. Paizo Inc., 2010 .
- ↑ “Monsters A to Z” in Bestiary 6, 12–13. Paizo Inc., 2017 .
- ↑ “On a Pale Horse” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 8. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “On a Pale Horse” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 10. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “On a Pale Horse” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 12. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “On a Pale Horse” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 14. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “Premortality” in Lords of Chaos, Book of the Damned Volume 2, 3. Paizo Inc., 2010 .
- ↑ “Demonkind” in Lords of Chaos, Book of the Damned Volume 2, 33. Paizo Inc., 2010 .
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 “The Demonic Horde” in Lords of Chaos, Book of the Damned Volume 2, 61. Paizo Inc., 2010 .
- ↑ “Previous Horsemen” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 42–43. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 “Chapter 1: Fiendish Divinities” in Book of the Damned, 37. Paizo Inc., 2017 .
- ↑ Because Roshmolem was Horseman of War, and all of the Horsemen of Death and Famine are accounted for, Llamolaek was presumably the Horseman of Pestilence. However, this is not directly stated in the text.
- ↑ “Daemonkind” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 25. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “On a Pale Horse” in Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Book of the Damned Volume 3, 6. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “Chapter 3: Religion” in Campaign Setting, 175. Paizo Inc., 2008 .