Malcanthet

Keep it safe and sound what you have inside
The ark is imprisoned by the ocean
A placid giant failed the mission
Horizon bends over hiding dryland
The giant surrenders the quest for a mountain
Skies are falling, Noah!
This woe just can't be gone!
The horizon is bending over
And now it's upside down”

Queen Malcanthet, aka Astara, truename: Lamashtu, is a watcher of the Abyss whose sphere of influence is on the Planes of Chaos. She is known to bear seven names and is described as seven witches in incantations.

Malcanthet (Lamashtu) first became a consort to Pazuzu, who at the time, was the watcher of the 503rd layer, Torremor. After allegedly betraying him, Pazuzu blinded and imprisoned her there. He impaled her on a gleaming spire. After three days and three nights, however, a certain person using the powers of Brine restored her sight, and she was released. Pazuzu had long been gone by this time to rule the first layer of Abyss. Malcanthet thus took control of the 503rd.

Pazuzu relying on old dark magic, has become rather naïve to Malcanthet's efforts of what he calls "scraping for influence and position", and is more or less amused. But Malcanthet successfully took foothold on Abysm by having her older sister Shami-Amourae ousted from her position as queen, a watcher of the 80th layers of Abyss.

Strategically, Abysm serves as a major artery of Abyss, arguably spanning twenty layers. At the heart of Abysm is Gaping Maw which links to Blood Sea - all part of the Abyssian Ocean. Blood Sea connects as high as Azzagrat, and as low as Scalding Sea on layer 245. Regarding sentimental interest in Blood Sea, where Dagon dwells on the 89th, the tumultuous sea forms of Maw echo a time past when Dagon, Demogorgon, and Malcanthet experienced a flood cataclysm when thereupon exploring a Material Plane in a secret space.

Once Malcanthet had her sister Shami-Amourae deposed as queen, the first consort of Lord Demogorgon, she also vanquished her two other remaining sisters. They had also been vying for queenship as the opportunity arose. Malcanthet as queen now retained partial control over Abysm as well as all layers from at least the 503rd to 507th layer of Shendilavri.

Shendilavri had become a place of "heaving and shuddering flesh". But Queen Malcanthet turned things around so that it became a verdant paradise. The 507th now echoes a time that once existed in age before ages. Because some next generation beings could not relate to the changes, they assumed that she created this environment for her own benefit.

Malcanthet, the youngest of her sisters, appeals to Lord Demogorgon because of her dual nature: being savage (Lamashtu) and seductive. The two faces of Malcanthet:

Some poor soul has claimed that Malcanthet has a long prehensile tail tipped with a spike-like stinger.

Queen Malcanthet expanded her influence by consorting with Mastiphal the Hunting Sovereign of Vanelon Fortress, who happens to be on the first layer of Abyss where Pazuzu reigns. Mastiphal's audiences with Malcanthet have been less and less frequent, and he is always willing to do anything to regain her attention. He guards the pit leading to Malcanthet's lair some 500 levels down.

The Queen's measures in positioning herself throughout the Abyss, and at the Plains of the first level regarded by everyone as having "strategic value" for its portals, has caused Lord Graz'zt of Azzagrat to blink. She's even alarmed Yeenoghu on layer 422 and Baphomet on 600. But this is her conspiracy to eventually face Pazuzu for what he had done to her. Interestingly, Shami-Amourae and Pazuzu have what some call an "uneasy truce" (DNG #5.27).

Queen Malcanthet's interests are supported by the Radiant Sisters, thirteen lilitu bards of great power who are based out of Miomanta in Shendilavri. Their names coincide with the colors they radiate. There names are: Midnight, Violet, Crimson, Snow, Jade, Ash, Cherry, Emerald, Rose, Hyacinth, Tawny, Ivory and Azure. Each one has a soul-draining locket and a shining halo.

## Material Plane

Malcanthet grants spells to clerics. She and the haloed Radiant Sisters have affected the Material Plane, inasmuch as one Christian group also bears the same name Radiant Sisters since the year on their calendar: 2018.

* Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual II. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
* Jacobs, James, Erik Mona, and Ed Stark. Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2006.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mister Sinister's D&D, Malcanthet (3.5e Monster)
2. ↑ Wizards of the Coast, *Demonomicon* (2010), p. 16
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamashtu#Mythology
4. ↑ Wizards of the Coast, *Demonomicon* (2010), p. 79
5. ↑ Wizards of the Coast, *Demonomicon* (2010), p. 132
6. ↑ Wizards of the Coast, *Demonomicon* (2010), p. 68
7. ↑ Demogorgon. Abyss Astral Plane, 88th
8. ↑ James Jacobs (March 2007). “The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Malcanthet: Queen of the Succubi”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #353 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 23–35.
9. ↑ James Jacobs, Erik Mona (June 13, 2006). Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 150–152. ISBN 0-7869-3919-2.
10. ↑ Re: Demogorgon Vs lamashtu, Entry by Honest Tiefling Honest Tiefling is offline, June 2011
11. ↑ Wizards of the Coast, *Demonomicon* (2010), p. 44
12. ↑ Jacobs, James. "The Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Malcanthet." Dragon #353 (Paizo Publishing, 2007)