[ Persian Pantheon ] [ Baxt | Daevas | Yazad ]
Angra Mainyu
The Eternal Lie, Lord of Darkness and Ruin; NE Overpower of druj, supreme evil and lies [He/Him]
Realm: The Darkness Beyond Planes (?)
Angra Mainyu [ANG-rah MY-nyoo] is the supreme evil power of the Persian Pantheons, and the eternal adversay of Ahura Mazda. In fact, his entire existence is defined by being in opposition, from his creation in a failed ritual to his desire to unmake everything Ahura Mazda has made. Right at the dawn of time the twins started moving in opposite directions, and Angra Mainya chose the way of death and deceit. His essential nature is druj—the lie—which manifests as greed, wrath, envy and nihilism. Yes, all those things your mother warned you about. Angra Mainya wants more than just to corrupt the multiverse mind, he wants to ruin it, break it beyond all recognition, and then erase it. He has the upper hand, for since he was born first, he was given the multiverse to rule for 9,000 cycles, and after that his twin is prophesied to return from self-imposed exile and usher reality into a new and perfect state. Angra Mainyu seeks to end things before Ahura Mazda gets his chance to spoil things by making everything perfect. And you’d better believe he’s got a cunning plan or three.
Like his twin, Angra Mainyu emanated a number of powers from his portfolio, transforming them into daevas—divinities, demon lords and fiends. Among these, if you believe the chant, are such unpleasant characters as Aeshma, Ahriman, and even Asmodeus. While these cutters are technically all a part of the pantheon of Daevas, they certainly don’t act like one, and that’s probably why no berk ever seems to have heard of them. But, I hear you ask, what is the logic behind the most powerful evil force in the multiverse splitting off shards of his own power, setting them all fighting each other, and then slinking off to the Darkness Beyond Planes? Well cutter, firstly, if I knew the answer to questions like that I’d be one of the powers too, not a damn tout. And secondly, were you not paying attention when I said Angra Mainyu wants to cause destruction and division, ultimately ending in the destruction of the multiverse? His plan seems to be, all of these awful powers do their own thing, making everything worse. Because they are all designed to hate each other at least as much as they hate everything else, this means they won’t team up against him, and might even destroy each other in the end, saving Angra Mainyu the trouble.
His greatest trick though, has been to convince the multiverse that he does not exist.
Once he emanated the daevas, Angra Mainyu then retreated from the planes. The touch paper was lit, and his emanations would now be left to destroy everything on their own. Nobody knows where he has gone—perhaps he exists in the void between the mountains of Gehenna, perhaps between the orbs of Carceri, perhaps beneath the 665th layer of the Abyss. Perhaps all three. Or maybe none of them. Perhaps he’s out there somewhere, watching and waiting. Or maybe he never existed at all, and this is all just barmy screed spread by yugoloths.
Fact is though, evil exists, and all the awfulness of the Lower Planes has to have come from somewhere. There are as many myths about the origin of fiends and worse that point to some grand and sinister unknowable force. Perhaps the yugoloths came from the baernoloths, but there did they come from? Who created the Horsemen? Where did the tanar’ri and baatezu come from? For some graybeards, Angra Mainyu is a conveniently absent explanation for some, or all of these questions.
Either he is the most dangerous being in existence. Or he does not actually exist. Over to you…
Edicts
- Corrupt, poison, or unmake what is good, healthy, and ordered wherever you find it
- Spread the Druj: let falsehood, greed, envy, and wrath become the air others breathe
- Serve nihilism truly; go beyond seeking mere power to promote extinction of hope and creation
Anathema
- Creating anything genuinely beautiful, lasting, or good
- Showing loyalty to any other power
- Allowing the truth of his existence to be revealed before the time is right
A Who’s Who of the Pantheon
Realms of the Persian Powers
Source: Jon Winter-Holt. The pantheon and philosophy described here are based on Zoroastrianism, at 3500 years old or more, it is one of the most ancient religions, and even more impressively, it’s still around to this day. While the religion originated in what is now called Iran, most of the 100,000+ faithful are Parsis who live in India and Iran. I hope I’ve done these powers justice, and the liberties I’ve taken when details were sparse are in-keeping with the historical details—as always, if you know more about Zoroastrianism or ancient Persian or Iranian mythology please do get in touch!