Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Demogorgon 

8:55 You'll thank me later.

Orcus and Grazzt are battling it out in the ring Looks like Orcus has has Grazzt in a headlock, Grazzt punches out, and OOH, where did he find that chair! This is getting wild folks- Wait, is that? IT IS! That's Demogorgon, they're not even in this match! Uh Oh, neither Orcus or Grazzt is paying attention- Demogorgon's slithering on up there... AND BOOM! RKO out of nowhere! I can't believe it! Grazzt is out everybody, and Orcus is barely hanging on! The crowd's going wild, Demogorgon just swooped in and stole the Title Belt right from under everybody!

"I didn't summon you to talk about your problems." Holy SHIT that magus has balls of steel.

Stranger Things kids: "We did it, we beat the Demogorgon!" D&D Nerds: "You killed ONE VROCK..."

The Ritual of Self Feasting is to this day the only thing in D&D lore that made my jaw drop

The Demogorgon certainly deserves such an epic intro!

No disrespect to Orcus, but is anyone else here old enough to remember when Orcus was THE interesting one? Great Demogorgon video AJ.

By far the most underappreciated channel on youtube

In terms of being such a badass enemy, Demogorgon is right up there with Tiamat.

"I won't be going into anything that isn't depicted in the Dungeons and Dragons Guide".....Ah but as terrible as the depths of human depravity and the fetid mists of imagination are. They bring deeds to mind that are far more terrible.

The ixitxachitl's name is seemingly written to look like a Pre-Columbian language from the Mexico and Central America region called Nahuatl (pronounced Na-whaht) . If it were a Nahuatl word, it would be pronounced Ee-sheet-shacheet. The L at the end of Nahuat words is almost never pronounced, though modern diaclects sometimes do, but inconsitently as far as I can tell. The X is pronounced very much like SH.Great video. Keep up the good work!

Crom claps at your soundtrack!

I love it that the dark, demonic narrator voice has a New Zealand accent :-D

I absolutely love the starting of this video, I finally watched and listened to it with subtitles on. I was completely and totally hanging on every word as it wove the tapestry that told the story of how Demogorgon was cast aside and came back to claim what was originally his... Keep up the amazing work, you are a true blessing to the D&D Community....

Stranger things was the first thing that got me interested in dnd. Aside from my cousin relaying stories from his games when he was younger. Specifically his dwarf character that fell off a mountain side and decided to flap his arms and fly..... Roll nat 20. 😂 the dwarf rises above the mountains cliff flapping his arms furiously. Then lands in the snow beside his fellow adventurers exhausted and must take a short rest.

Awesome. I like the longer form videos. The loads of detail really fill in all the little traits, homes, motivation etc.

Wasn't Orcus originally a mortal who climbed the demonic heirarchy all on his own? that Scramble for Power must've lasted many centuries.

Thanks for the candle. It brought me back to playing og dnd and adnd with my friends as a child. :)

I was under the impression that dagon was on par with the queen of chaos in power as it was stated when she gathered the other demonlords, The only exception to this was Dagon, whose power she feared. Dagon always whispers his secrets to one head at a time (never both at once), thus playing a major role in the tension between Demogorgon's heads.

I dont know how many times I've watched this just for the first part.

22:05 I thought that motorcycle was the demogorgon...

I remember Demogorgon even before I got into AD&D. I remember playing a game called, Forbidden Forest that had a boss creature known as Demogorgon.

I hope you do yeenoghu as well, after all he had the most influence in the material plane out of all the daemon lords*

Tasselhoff also experienced fear in the presence of the Death Knight Lord Soth, when he captured Laurana.

Im loving the longer videos. The amount of detail you put into these is incredible and greatly appreciated by all Im sure

thank you for making my campaign epic i always liked him "demogorgon" just needed some extra flex of inspiration. also thanks for making a player know kender CAN feel FEAR!!!!!. XDDD really really the player liked it as well as in the read. so~ thanks mate....

Mr. Pickett your content is astounding! Not a D&D player myself (aside from the games BG 1+2 ID 1+2 NWN 1+2 ect.) so I've dipped my big toe in the lore over the years. I am a fictional writer though so your content is an absolute goldmine of inspiration! Thank you for the hours of entertainment 👌

Splendid monograph, I enjoy these in-depth recitations...All Hail The Mighty Gluestick!!!

I love how your videos on Demons & Devils really dives into their personal motivations, you point out how unique they really are. When I read about them I don't pick up on that and they just kinda seem all the same, you have a way of making them more believable and interesting. Thanks!

“Stranger things theme plays”

The Abyss is eternally fascinating...imagination fuel par excellence!

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels.

It was really interesting to hear that Demogorgon could wrestle a dragon, made me wonder about what the ultimate pecking order is. Could you make a list of most to least powerful diety level beings in DnD?

You should do a detailed video on Raistlin and Fistandantilus (dragonlance), Raistlin is what made me interested in d&d and in my opinion is the arch type mage, worthy of a video

Thank you again Sir, another great addition to an already impressive collection of videos.

You make really great videos. Underrated for sure

Wow, a spell caster wizard can "summon" Demogorgon with a "Gate" spell ! This can be Abuse big time ! 3.5e favorite multi-class combo Starting as : rogue2nd/fighter1st/wizard3rd. CR: 6 ;BAB+4 Getting Naughty : wizard6th/Loremaster4th, CR: +7(13) ; BAB+4(+8) Doing the Work: Loremaster10th CR:+6(+19);BAB+3(+11) caster: 16th-level wizard Getting the Job Done: 3.5e " Manual of the Planes," prestige class: Planeshifter 10th-level, CR:+10(26) BAB:+5(+16) ; +7caster level: 23rd-level wizard. " 12th-level Spell" slot. Class special ability: "Planar Swap," planeshift a section of land equal to 100ft radius per Planeshifter level for a few days or two weeks. AD&D2e "Tome of Magic", had 'Estate Transfore' as a 9th-level spell that can/ could movie a 100ft radius piece of land to the first level of any give Out Plane," at cost." 2.) Build a " Magic Circle of Holding " from Pure Cold Wrought Iron a.) Send the "Trap" building to the First Layer of the Abyss.. b.) Use "Wish/ Gate" to call/ summon Devil/ Demon Lord, trap them, bind them to an Iron Flask, or Kill them, and wait till they are " Wish " back to life. I go with Binding them in an Iron Flask. c.) My groups were more creative with using " Celestial " energy from Lawful Good Planes to " Energy Level Drain " them to the power of an Imp. Then "bottle."

I really enjoy your interpretation of Demogorgons confusion gaze. Also, great video. You deserve more attention.

Who is this magus that casually summons contains and interrogated the Demogorgon like it were some quasit?

O lord it’s an hour long. I did not anticipate this well time to watch it.

Demogorgon is ridiculously powerful. All but the most powerful characters would shit their plate mail even laying eyes upon him. Think about his passion for rage and chaos and then add in his abilities and intellect. He's destruction personified and has perfected the art of destroying. If I was DM'ing a game with him in it, this is one encounter I take zero pity on the PCs. You'd best be bringing EVERYTHING against him in the most articulated way or you're going to end up a mane or worse.

Been playing in a Savage Tide group for the past 3 years. (old ass 3.5 campaign that was in Dungeon magazine, had Demogorgon as the BBEG. Our DM adapted it for 5e.) Now the campaign ended, we killed Demogorgon's sorry ass, and it feels so damn good to finally be listening to this video that I purposely didn't watch to avoid spoilers.

I might have missed it but Demogorgon was "killed" (or banished) in the novel "legend of Drizzt, Heros book 3" when the city of Menzoberranzan was attacked by him. Loth blessed her followers and help the drow "kill" the demon prince. If any one wants more Demogorgon.

11:04 if you have the developer's Ascension mod installed and are using insane difficulty, that fight is ludicrous.

Well done! I definitely would enjoy more of these longer more in depth videos.

Lmao that motorcycle noise actually made me jump. Thought it was some demonic sound effect till you said it wasn't 🤣

This is my favorite video you've done. The music, the back story, all of it.

This video de-railed me from writing my history project; still worth every minute

I cannot believe you only have 74k subs. You deserve a lot more!

Loved it. Great work as always. Thank you 👏🏽

newish subscriber from canada... been watching a lot of your videos lately and must say this one has to be my favourite. many thanks for putting the full hour treatment to one of my favourite characters! much love and keep up the awesome work!

Oh my friend, you must have a conduit into my head. I've been planning some Demogorgon related material recently! Thanks as always for your thorough and thoughtful coverage.

Thanks for making this video I had been looking for a video about the Demogorgon. :)

Love the videos, thanks for the hard work. Would love to see one on Graz'zt!!

thank you for inspiring! been LOVING listening to the monster backgrounds...ALL of them

That motorcycle was great ambience. I enjoyed the long video

Yes the intro was great...at some point I hope you do a video on Malcanthet the Demon Queen of Succbi😈💯

Really appreciate your work and ask the effort you put into these videos 👍 you're awesome!

One of my favorite bosses of all time. One can make many different fight scenarios with only this monster

41:50 Demogorgon could reach his goal if he obtained "the Apparatus".

Fantastic episode - I am running out of the Abyss now and this will add tremendously.

Love demons and oove long videos. Good job man

Thanks for this video my good sir. It has been very enlightening

It would be nice if you provided the spelling for all of these weird names and made up words. Either said aloud, or printed on screen or in the description. I could sound out "ixitxachitl" 100 times and never even get close. Luckily google knew what I meant by "demon ray" lol. Not that you don't put enough work into these videos already, they are phenomenal.

Damn flower-headed son of a- wait- wong Demogorgon

Hey, I enjoy your videos quite a bit and hope you keep doing long ones like this! You’re a fantastic storyteller and I’m hoping to absorb some of the descriptive strategies you use to detail those stories. Thanks!

This was amazing. Your hard work and research are so admirable. ❤🎉

Crom laughs at Demogorgon from deep in his mountain.

These videos are top notch, I've been peripherally aware of D&D for years now, played a few games with my buddy who is DM, but the tabletop was always a little slow for me. But with Baldurs Gate 3 recently coming out, ive really gotten into the lore, and your vids have been tremendously helpful filling in the backstory, so thanks a lot. Epic addition of the Conan the Barbarian score on this vid: "And the secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline. For no one, no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts... This you can trust."

I'm guessing the green ring on the one fellows hand is a ring of magus killing? Making the one guy a mage assassin?

Love the long video style!!!

nice intro and use of the C .T .B sound track - anvil of crom - ? a sound track every gamer should have :)

You could modify the ritual that the potential thrall goes through so that the demon slices through the corpous callosum, the thick bundle of nerves that connect the two hemispheres of the brain. This is actually performed in humans in extreme cases of epilepsy to stop seizre signals travelling from one side of the brain to the other. Thralls in game may experience apraxia / aphasia, balance issues or even Hemispatial neglect. The latter could manifest with thralls shaving half their face (and not realising they missed half), denying that some of their limbs are theirs or ignoring things that fall only on once side of their vision (maybe they only talk side on). Maybe they can also now concentrate on two spells at once :D

That intro was straight badass!!

AJ - I’ve been revisiting some of your older videos. Love Demogorgon and plan on having him be the Demon Prince the Yuan Ti in my campaign worship. Side info - Ilsidahur makes his first “appearance” in Dungeon Magazine #10 (March / April 1988) for the short adventure The Shrine of Ilsidahur (stats are provided on pg 8)

Hmmmm Demogorgon and pale night both made a race of demon spider things maybe something in the far realm or outside reality gave them the idea of spiders a massive hive of creepy horrible spider like evil just viewing these two as caught in its web

Nice, I'm wating to see how you handle the lore around Graazt

Awesome intro. Thank you.

Awesome vid, dusted off my old book of vile darkness

Out of all the DnD channels, yours are the only ones that hold my attention and that I binge on! Most of the others are just too childish and show-offy...I hope life is treating you well during this pandemic; stay well my friend 😊

So much nostalgia. I played D&D long ago. It gets much harder to find a group as an adult, so I ended up in MMOs. I would still play if I could. I bought first edition books when they came out I was a child (so parents bought them), 2nd edition, 3.5, 4th edition. That was about the end of it for me, last game I played was 4th edition.

Running an out of the abbys campaign, can't wait for demogorgon to wreck some koa toa ass haha. But yeah really this guy ia going to be fun for every one to either fight or play :)

Finally coverd the prince of demons

I actually made a fusion of the stranger things demogogon with the original by giving them two flower pedal mouths and the ability to dimension door between dimensions using a black inking stuff as their door as well as a fun little move where they use the door ability and only puts their arm in it and will try to punch the party at where ever they are. I call it “a rift punch”

You do an amazing job, keep it up!

This was great. i loved it I would really love some details as majors figure's "plot/story" has progressed through the editions of DnD

So, four years later, I might not expect an answer, but in 5e, would you still allow Demogorgon, and other similar monsters to grant divine spells to clerics? In my experience, the ability to grant such spells is an ability that sets gods apart, so a Demon Prince, not counting as a deity, wouldn't be able to do this. In my headcanon, gods don't empower Warlocks, because unlike such weaker Patrons, they have the power to grant real power, in the form of full casting, and get a greater hold of their souls. Patrons, lacking such a boon, tend more to slip secrets, and lead their Warlocks along via breadcrumbs, trying to get them to do their will. I getvthat part of that might just be my preference, but how about you? Could 5e Demogorgon, Graz'zt, or Fraz'Urb'luu still have the strength to empower Clerics? If they do, then why "waste time" with Warlocks? And I know part of that isn't fair; Warlocks can be a blast, and have several fun builds and abilities, but the biggest complaint I always hear is limited casting, followed by dual-classing into Sorcerer, because Charisma caster. Since many Patrons are definitely not mighty enough to grant full casting, would you let Demogorgon "double-dip"? Fraz? Asmodeus is a weird area, since he definitely has clerics, but also contracts warlocks; I haven't had to feel that out yet, in a game, but what is your opinion?

Love the intro, I love using Demogorgon in settings that the players an even the beings of the setting do not know Demogorgon is a single being with two personalities, but instead know him by the main name of his two heads instead. Like that either Demongorgon does have a single cult that exist in the setting, but within that cult is a split within which two sub-cults exist devoted to one of the heads thinking that the other cult is a imposter, or that the two heads have founded separate cults that the other head does not know of actually, and these cults actually work against the other.

Loved that intro

Over an hour of awesomeness ;]

I have been fearing this dastardly prince since the 80's. I remember him in the old blue Monster Manual and he had a stat block, even though I cant imagine putting a party against him in anyway other than him being behind the scenes mostly with rare and powerful occasional appearances, like he isn't an end boss I wouldn't think.... or is he! Its funny you mentioned the ancient and time honored Ixitxachitl, I was going to ask you about those damnable death rays, I didn't know they worshiped him, thats killer. Great video as always, I love them long, I watch and work at the same time, thank you for doing this. Maybe one day you can go live and do super chat so I can buy you lunch, it will take me awhile to lunch you in patreon lol. =)

22:02 A nice Demogorgon roar right there

I love these lore videos

one of the best, (and rare examples) of art that improved drastically from 3.5e to 5e look at that shit!

Demogorgon: Foolish mortal you stand before the prince of demons! Conan: I am king by my own hand. This hand in fact, the the same one I used to rip out Dagon’s horn, before I killed him. *smiles slightly* Dagon:

Deep dramatic voice: "In an act of utter hoobris" Me: chuckling expecting talk of hooman souls.

This is fantastic

Hope this never disappears ❤

Wouldn't be surprised if this gets a bump in views from the Stranger Thing's craze.

Well fuck, this is another awesome channel I have to subscribe to. Great content dude!