Devils and Redemption

[Troy]

I just dove into the creation of a Tiefling Warlock, named Baroque Tyr, and I find myself getting sucked deeper and deeper into his history and the circumstances surrounding his pact with a devil. There are a couple things I was wondering about. As DMs, I figured that you would be able to give me a general opinion on the solidity and plausibility of certain aspects in the characters back story. If it makes it easier, I can post all the stuff I have written up about the character so far, which is mainly about the House he belongs to and its history. I looked through the forums but I didn't find a place that seemed geared towards these types of questions so I figured i'd ask the experts .

1.) The devil I chose for Baroque and his predecessors is Duskur, The Dark Lady. Duskur is never really fleshed out as a character, the most I could find being her description and a few of her personality quirks. She is listed as a "unique devil" in Fiendish Codex II, a 3.5e book about the Nine Hells. I have found entries of lower level devils known as Duskurs while digging through web site after web site and based off the way Duskur is described and the abilities of the Duskurs, I figure the Dark Lady to be a very powerful Pleasure Devil of sorts, even though she refuses to choose a mate. My first question, then, does anyone know where I might find more information about Duskur? Or is there a DM or player you know that likes to use devils in their campaigns that can help me in fleshing her out a bit?

2.) Pleasure devils, like the Archdevils and certain other unique devils, are actually Fallen Angels. Would it be plausible, then, to assume that some of these devils want to be restored as angels? Duskur has been forced to stave off the advances of Archdevils in the past and maybe she decides that being an angel was more fun? Maybe she was one of Asmodeus' original soldiers and fell with him, even though their ideals didn't quite match, and longs to return to her former station. Is the concept of a devil being reborn into its previous deities pantheon based off the actions of a PC, influenced by that devil, too much of a stretch? Would the PC have to follow that Diety, or even recognize it, for the actions it takes on the devil's behalf to have any meaning? This is the part that i'm really struggling with right now. If I use this basis for the pact then Baroque does not have to be Evil. The pact itself involves knowledge possessed by Tieflings during the empire of Bael Turath that will allow Baroque to restore one of the great cities that now lies in ruins. This goal could be for various reasons leading to any alignment but I would rather not play him as evil. Also, if the foundation of the pact, what Duskur gets in return, isn't something that most other characters or DM's will think is plausible then I don't want to base my character on it. I have already grown attached to Baroque and I don't want to mess with the way he is too much.

Thanks!
Troy

[Alegria]

I'll address issue 2. I imagine that some devils may want to get into heaven, and even try to act like good creatures, but most of them still have an evil (tainted) heart either take outright evil actions (murder, trickier, etc.) to get back in or they THINK they are being good but the taint leads them astray without them even realizing it.

That said, I don't see why a demon or devil can't, for some monumentally strange reason, change alignment. If an evil creatures wants to get into heaven, it will usually be for basically evil reasons such as lust (for angels), desire (to be acknowledged by a/the god), hate (hell sucks), or any other number of basically evil reasons. A true change of alignment would require divine intervention (god or mortal), cosmic interference (some cosmic or magical event that has a profound impact), etc.

So let's say the devil is actually good and trying to get into heaven. Simply giving you the blood and powers of a devil (making you Tiefling) hardly qualifies as heaven-worthy. That's like some stranger handing you a sword and saying, "Go kill bad guys." They may have gotten you started but they hardly deserve honorable credit for the work you achieve. I'd say that the devil has to teach you, coach you, and help you along the way in order to qualify for heavenly reward. In fact, considering all the evil the devil has probably done, that one devil will probably have to create, coach, and aid multiple heroes to qualify.

How do you RP this? Whenever you go up in level, it's because you and your devil buddy are training together. Whenever you make a particularly great skill or attack roll, qualify it by describing how your devil buddy pushes a little extra power through you to make sure you succeed. You can even ask the DM to have the devil pass along relevant game info through the devil so that the party has a source of good info and the devil has a chance to continually aid the cause of good.

Those are my ideas. Take what you need.

[Troy]

Thanks for the response! Gave me a little to think about.