Technically on 12-22-2022 but that's what the Past Midnight tag (which tbh I don't really use much anymore since most entries are past midnight) is for, when I call attention to it.
So obviously, not me waking up--me needing to go to bed.
But, while today's stream went quite poorly, it was still a hugely productive day. One of the major accomplishments was working on my story. Mind you, I didn't actually write anything (I know! I know! I need to!), but I tackled an issue that has been bugging me for months.
Basically, months ago, I made a list of 18, at the time, called "Demon Lords", also called "Demon Gods", later officially deemed the Abundant ARGON (technically doesn't need to be allcaps there, can even be fully lowercase, but my phone's autocorrect suggested it and I found it funny so I tend to keep the allcaps even when not needed; Abundant Argon works just fine).
Now I later went on to define more clearly demons (they're inherently "divine" beings so even the weakest demon is akin to the strongest mortal, and being inherently divine beings, their perception of reality is different than that of a mortal, with many transcending realities in some way shape or form), Demon Lords (basically, demons that are powerful enough and influential enough to rule over something, but not necessarily any stronger than a powerful human, although most are stronger than any mortal), Demon Gods (basically, demons that have gone through ascension to become full realized/awakened/etc. true demons, usually some of the most powerful), and how the Abundant ARGON are basically just the 18 individuals who are the combination of both, both ruling over lands and having gone through Demonic Ascension.
But something was bugging me, and holding me back.
When I first did the work on demons months ago, I named the Abundant ARGON, all 18 of them. Yet I didn't leave notes as to what those names meant. A fair number were obvious. "Luden, The First Fallen (loosely, pride) (light)", doesn't take a genius to realize 'oh that was Lucifer'.
"Trisairo, The Exiled Fae", I obviously knew was based on Ramiris (well, actually, a combination of Ramiris from Slime Time, and her demon assistant Beretta, and largely, Glaistig Uaine from Worm while also taking cues from the fourth wall breaking fae in Keychain of Creation and fae in general), so that was fine.
"Milodee, The Dragon Reject" I obviously knew was based on a combination of Milim from Slime Time and also Hera from our own work of Phyrra and Cyrus. So that was easy.
"Mastemo, The Forsaken Scholar" was named later because I actually forgot to name one of the Abundant ARGON and he was the one that I did later, so he was good.
​"Bemoheth, The First Beast", and "Athaneva, The First Chaos" I could identify as Behemoth and Leviathan because I paired them together, their epithets were fairly obvious, and autocorrect wanted to make Bemoheth be Behemoth anyway, so that I could figure out.
And two demon lords are impossible for me to forget, as both are main characters.
​That's 8/18 I had easily figured.
And a full ten that I had no notes on. Just their name, and the epithets.
Who was "Zeboel, The Striker (loosely, envy)"? Well I don't know for sure, but I have a fairly good educated guess that's farn's equivalent of Beelzebub. (Beelzebub is often either gluttony or envy.)
Who's "Deumos, The Deceiver (loosely, despair)"? Well, I'm guessing it's the farn equivalent of Asmodeus, reassigned away from lust because that's a position held by a different demon, a main character.
​What about "Sanatas, The Destroyer (loosely, wrath)"? Well from what I can gather, the most likely answer is Satan.
Who's "Ebandon, The Commander (loosely, sloth)"? As far as I can tell, the farn equivalent of Abadon/Abbadon.
Then there's "Rarma, The Ensarer (loosely, greed)". I don't know how I got from point A to point B with that name, but from what I am guessing, that's somehow the farn equivalent of Mammon.
Of course, "Belchevore, The Consumer (loosely, gluttony)", I also had to guess at. It seemed reasonable to assume I made that name from Belphegor, who is traditionally either gluttony or sloth, and me assigning the former instead of the latter.
See, when I originally did the naming, I spent like ten minutes on it (estimate, is anywhere from 5-120 actually), basically just searching "demon hierarchy" or some term like that, and got the wikipedia article on Classification of Demons, and one of the first lists looked plausibly like my own. The six names above, paired with Luden/Lucifer, are the first on the list, and in that order by and large, with Asmodeus moved by virtue of not being Lust and being a different sin.
But that still left mysteries for me.
​Where did I get the name "Bothai, The False Chosen"? In my three hours of research to find the same process my past self did, I couldn't locate anything remotely looking like this. Maybe, maybe, maybe it was combined with the below and separated out for convenience, but I don't know.
How the heck did I get "Belreach, The First Damned"? Like Bothai, it baffles me, nothing is a full match. I'm guessing​ that 'first damned' along with vague loose name similarities means that this is what I came up with for a combination of the lore behind Samael and Belial/Beliel, in being basically one of the strongest, oldest, demons, akin to Lucifer/Satan and often combined with them, as sometimes a first/prime servant of God, sometimes God Himself, and often a fallen angel who used to be a servant of God, and/or a demon rivaling God.
But I couldn't lock it down for sure.
For "Rothasta, The First Accused" (I later renamed her to Rothasta, The First Inquisitor), her epithet is that of Samael, but her name was fairly clearly me making a farn equivalent of Astaroth.
And then I got "Dabadon, The Trickster", which also seems like it's Abadon/Abaddon. It's possible I accidentally got the same demon twice due to Abadon and Abaddon and assuming that in spite of it being just one single letter that it was a different demon, but for the life of me I can't figure out how I got everything I did.
​Granted, this does potentially free me up to add in different names of different demons that I know I didn't use but which could be useful to have. Ahriman / Angra Mainyu, Amon, Mephistopheles, Moloch, Obizuth / Obyzouth / Abyzou / Abizou / Obizu / Obizuth / Obyzouth / Byzou / Apsu / Abzu / Gyllou / Gylou, / Gello / Amorphous / Karkhous / Briane / Bardellous / Aigyptiane / Barna / Kharkhanistrea / Adikia / Myia / Petomene / Anabardalea / Auntara / Alabasandria (uhhh she has a lot of names for some reason), all are good options.
Then there's also the ones that I'm baffled about because I would've sworn past-me would use them, but I can't tell for sure.
I swore I would've used Azazel, but I can't figure out where.
I swore I would've used Azrael, but I can't figure out where.
​
Beleth / Bilet / Bileth / Byleth / Bilith, Balam, and Bael / Viné / Baall / Boal / Boall / Ba'al / Baal all feel like I could've used them.
Ditto for Amaymon / Amaimon / Amoymon.
I can see me not using Python/Pythia, and assuming Mahazael was too niche (needing the element assigned but not the name), and maybe similar for Merihem.
But there's a lot of holes in my tapestry.
​And I spent the majority of today plugging most, to make it workable.
Mind you, I'm not plugging in demonic figures of earth's various mythologies into farn as demons with them being such. There's a reason I deliberately renamed them. It's because most of them have actual origin stories in the form of most of them having once been mortals, having undergone demonic ascensions. So, no fallen angels here. No servants of god here. No offspring of monsters here. No opposite of god, here.
I have set the backstory for Milodee, Trisairo, Mastemo, both the main characters (obviously), and most recently Rothasta once I decided that, yes, she would be one.
And I know the backstory of two others, too, just awaiting final sorting.
But that's only 8/18 demons.
Some of them don't particularly need much. I'm thinking that Luden, Belreach (okay so he might have backstory anyway if he's one of the two above), and both Bemoheth and Athaneva don't really need backstories if they're basically primordial forces, things that have essentially always been.
But while the oldest demons don't need backstories.
​All of the newer generations do, as to what caused their origin.
And better defining who they are--which is what I did today--gets me close to doing exactly that.
So I made huge progress.
There's still a lot more to get done. But it was good. (Also, gotta go to bed now for real, took over an hour to write this blog and it is freezing cold. As in, in the teens outside and 63 inside, COLD.)
So. Productive day.
Frustrating, didn't go great.
​But productive all the same.