Publication History
Devils first appeared in the original first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.
Many of the early devils were inspired directly by real-world religion and mythology, with Mephistopheles best known from the Faust cycle, Asmodeus, a devil from the Deuterocanonical Book of Tobit and Baalzebul appearing as high devils in the D&D cosmology. Other inspirations came from the Erinyes, Greek demigoddesses of vengeance, and the Lemures, Roman spirits of the dead.
The release of the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set brought a name change for the devils and their counterparts demons. Concerned about protests from religious groups and others who viewed the game as an entryway into Satanic worship, TSR, Inc. dropped the words "devil" and "demon" from all descriptors of the monsters, substituting instead baatezu /beɪˈɑːtɛzuː/ and tanar'ri . This persisted until the rollout of 3rd Edition, when the original terms were reinstated. Since the change, the term "baatezu" has been retained as a specific subset of powerful devils.
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