Chaositech and Anger of Angels

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

wyvern76

Sep 26, 2003 21:17:48		I was looking at the latest updates on www.montecook.com, and the press release on Chaositech reminded me of the discussion we had a while ago on chaos magic. Chaositech sounds like it could make a great addition to Planescape; too bad it's not scheduled for release until March!

There's also Anger of Angels, which has just been released. Judging by the table of contents, it's a departure from the default cosmology -- the inhabitants of Hell are called demons, and the geography of Hell sounds as though it comes straight out of Dante rather than Planescape. But it could still be a great source of ideas and inspiration. There are 11 new angelic races, rules for using them as PCs, several angelic prestige classes, feats, magic, and lots of adventure seeds. Has anyone seen this book yet and have an opinion to offer on it?

Wyvern
#2

zombiegleemax

Sep 27, 2003 15:03:38
the geography of Hell sounds as though it comes straight out of Dante rather than Planescape.

Well, the geography of Baator comes pretty much straight from Dante too.
#3

wyvern76

Sep 29, 2003 0:59:29
Originally posted by mrgoat
Well, the geography of Baator comes pretty much straight from Dante too.

I think it's more accurate to say that it was inspired by Dante. I did a quick search to refresh my memory, and came up with this page and this one.

Some differences from Baator: The 1st circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno is Limbo, the 5th is the Styx and is a black bog (not a frozen sea), the 6th (not the 2nd) is Dis, the 8th (not the 6th) is Malebolge, and the 9th is Cocytus (not Nessus). The other layers are not given proper names as far as I know. Phlegethon is a river of boiling blood that borders the 7th layer, and Nessus is a centaur that guides Dante and Virgil across it.

Conversely, the table of contents for Anger of Angels includes entries for Limbo, Purgatory (which was described in a separate work by Dante), rivers (of which Dante mentions at least three, namely Acheron, Styx and Phlegethon), and woods (which may be a reference to the Wood of Suicides in the 7th layer). Then again, it may very well be that Monte Cook's version of Hell diverges just as much from the source material as Planescape's. It's hard to know without having read Anger of Angels. I'm just saying that it sounds more like he went back to Dante for ideas rather than following D&D canon.

Wyvern