Apocalypse Riders
Four Horsemen
End Bringers
- For other meanings of "Apocalypse rider", please see Apocalypse rider (disambiguation).
The Apocalypse Riders,1[citation needed]2 also known as the Four Horsemen, archdaemons, and End Bringers, are powerful and unique daemons having attained the power of demigods. They rule Abaddon and have hordes of daemons in their service.3
Description
Each Rider represents one of four ideals: war, disease, famine and death. The title of Rider is coveted and often fought for by the greatest members of daemonkind. Each Rider has their own legion of servitor daemons known as deacons or destroyers.4
Current Riders
Each Rider also boasts their own realm uniquely suited to what they represent. The current Apocalypse Riders are Apollyon, Rider of Pestilence, who rules Plaguemere; Charon, Rider of Death, who rules the River Styx; Szuriel, Rider of War, who presides over the Cinder Furnace; and Trelmarixian, Rider of Famine, who rules Wasting.531[citation needed] A fifth Rider, known in forbidden texts as the Bound Prince, is said to be superior even to the current Riders in power and stature. Most believe he was either killed by the remaining Riders long ago, or never existed.56
Apocalypse horses
Each Rider has an apocalypse horse as its mount.78910
History
The title of Rider is 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 Rider, but they have been replaced for various reasons, including by their murder at the hands of Lamashtu.[citation needed] The Riders, however, were the first daemons to appear.3
An ancient Rider 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 Rider, whom she had taken during her wars against Abaddon. She had taken two Riders captive during these wars and murdered them both.13
Previous Riders
Previous Riders include the following:14
Riders of Death
Charon is the only Rider of Death to hold the title since the beginning of daemonkind.15
Riders of Famine
- Lyutheria the Parasite Queen, the original Rider of Famine15
Riders of Pestilence
- Azulos the Corrupting, the original Rider of Pestilence
- Drulaema the Fever Princess
- Llamolaek, a Rider of Pestilence16 demoted into an astradaemon by his rival, Roshmolem. Now a harbinger.17
- Yrsinius, a lost Rider of Pestilence ambushed and possibly destroyed by proteans14
Riders of War
- Horeksim, the original Rider of War
- Roshmolem the Steel Weaver
- Ortaro of the Ten Thousand Screams
Unspecified
- Balishek, early Rider of unknown station destroyed utterly at Balishek's Crater in Abaddon.18
Worshipers
The Apocalypse Riders are such powerful fiends that they can grant divine powers including spells to their deluded, nihilistic worshipers such as clerics. They do not have churches or organised faiths in the Universe but are rather worshipped out of fear or by hate-filled monsters.19
Devoted mortal worshipers can become apocalypse riders gifted with foul steeds to help them sow death and destruction.20
References
Paizo published a sourcebook titled Horsemen of the Apocalypse and revisited the subject in the collected Book of the Damned.
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Monster Core. Paizo Inc., 2024 .
- ↑ Paizo referred to the collective Apocalypse Riders as the Four Horsemen, and to individual Riders as Horsemen, until the publication of Monster Core.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 “The Great Beyond” in The Inner Sea World Guide, 241. Paizo Inc., 2011 .
- ↑ “Bestiary” in Seven Days to the Grave, 81. Paizo Inc., 2008 .
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 “Chapter 3: Religion” in Campaign Setting, 183. Paizo Inc., 2008 .
- ↑ “Urdefhan” in Into the Darklands, 61. Paizo Inc., 2008 .
- ↑ “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 .
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 “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 Rider of War, and all of the Riders of Death and Famine are accounted for, Llamolaek was presumably the Rider of Pestilence. However, this is not directly stated in the text of Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- ↑ “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 .
- ↑ “Apocalypse Rider” in War of Immortals, 106–107. Paizo Inc., 2024 .