| “ | Humanity will live in fear and darkness for thousands of years. And when the last human dies, I will still be there, laughing. Eh hahahahaha! | „ |
| ~ Asmodeus in Shadow Hearts: Covenant; writing his own epitaph. |
Asmodeus, also known as the King of Demons, is one of the major villains in the Shadow Hearts video-game series.
History[]
Asmodeus is a king of hell. There are six Lords of Hell according to the Key of Solomon and Asmodeus is one of the top three most powerful or at least the top three most prestigious, along with the demon lords Amon and Astaroth. Asmodeus's raison-d'être is to watch man kind suffer and die. The details are unclear but Asmodeus must have fought King Solomon centuries ago and been defeated, as he is one of the 72 demons sealed within crests in the Key of Solomon.
Asmodeus would eventually be drawn back into the world by being invoked by the mad monk Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin wanted demonic magics to use for global conquest which Asmodeus was more than happy to trade to Rasputin in exchange for being anchored back into the world. Of course Asmodeus was counting on Rasputin being too power-hungry to resist Asmodeus's influence. As it turned out Asmodeus was right and Rasputin soon needed to invoke Asmodeus's full power and became possessed by the demon god. Once possessed Rasputin's soul was completely eclipsed by Asmodeus's will and went from wanting to rule the world to wanting to destroy it slowly so he could watch mankind fester in it's own suffering as they slowly died off over generations. Asmodeus is listed as wanting to sew the seeds of suspicion, ambition and greed in each generation and harvesting the souls of men as they slaughter each-other.
Motivations[]
Asmodeus possessing Rasputin.
Asmodeus considers the demon lords Amon and Astaroth his rivals and is terrified of them. Asmodeus is actually made out to be the weakest of the three though this may be because Asmodeus's host had the weakest will-power while his rivals became stronger for their efforts to claw themselves back into the world. An important distinction between the three demons is that while Asmodeus wanted to destroy the world over generations, Astaroth wanted to corrupt mankind by unleashing it's bound up Malice and destroy the world much more immediately afterwords and Amon is a harbinger of the Apocalypse that just wanted to simply destroy and did not care if it was for good or evil.
Powers and Abilities[]
Asmodeus has the power to avert all harm through his very force of presence, however with enough will-power fueling them another demon lord has the power to shatter this ability. Asmodeus has the power to possess humans that invoke his name and can control several humans and demons once in the world. He has the power to summon his living palace the Idar Flamme to a plane with him. Asmodeus has access to devastatingly powerful dark and holy magical energies. Asmodeus can transform the body he is inhabiting into his native form and has the power to fly through the air at great speeds. His appearance also seems to herald violent weather-patterns though this may be just an involuntary effect of his presence and not a intentional power.
Trivia[]
- In zend - the language of Zoroastrianism, "Asmodeus" means "wrath".
- In real life Grigori Rasputin was a cataloger of Zoroastrianism.
- A brief mention of Asmodeus in The Bible, uses the name as a synonym for "false king"
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 Villains
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Koudelka Shadow Hearts Shadow Hearts: Covenant Shadow Hearts: From the New World | ||