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From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Why no renegade demons, etc.?
Message-ID: <14369@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-May-85 11:06:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.14369
Posted: Thu May  9 11:06:22 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 10-May-85 01:10:22 EDT
References: <10050@tardis.UUCP> <26000009@siemens.UUCP>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 47

[...]

There are many many instances of evil beings becoming good.  As someone
else pointed out, you can point to hundreds of cases of religious conversion;
you can debate whether the convert began as totally evil or ended as totally
good, but it is certainly an "alignment change" whatever the case.

Second, literature is full of monsters who are traditionally bad but
eventually work for good.  Some examples:

Vampires:    Dracula books by Fred Saberhagen
	     Dracula comics (Marvel)
	     Count St.Germaine books by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Dragons:     Tea with the Black Dragon, R.A.MacEvoy
	     A new line of comics whose name escapes me at the moment
	     Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin
Ghosts:      Thousands of "noble ghost" stories
Werewolves:  Werewolf by Night comic books (Marvel)
	     Several Poul Anderson short stories
	     The Compleat Werewolf, Anthony Boucher
Demons:      Ghost Rider comics (Marvel)
	     The Demon comics (DC)
	     Several John Collier stories

The John Collier stories are the most blatant "conversions" that I can
think of.  In one, a demon is cured by psychoanalysis (in order to save
an angel with whom he has a demonic bargain -- John Collier stories are
usually tongue-in-cheek, and delightful to read.  I recommend them to
anyone.)  I might also mention an interesting version of Doctor Faustus
(the 16th century Christopher Marlowe version) recently performed at
the University of Waterloo.  In this interpretation, the demon Mephistopheles
was played by a woman.  Without straying from the text, they showed
Mephistopheles slowly fall in love with Faustus through the course of
the play; by the end, there was the air of a classic tragedy, the woman
forced to consign her beloved to hell, although she no longer had any
"evil" feelings in her.

I have no idea how much of this applies to role-playing, but it might
provide interesting background material.

P.S. In a Champions campaign in Waterloo a few years ago, one of the
characters was indeed a reformed demon, Hunted by the hosts of both
heaven and hell.  It was a neat idea, but it didn't seem to fit into
the campaign very well...

				Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo