Demon's Throne Stats and Char Sheets

An oddity about Demon’s Throne is that it has a number of stats and character sheets to track behind the scenes, despite otherwise being a narrative-driven series. These relate to the source material, and I chose to preserve this particular facet when rewriting it.

I have a gap between the sort of content that I read and what I write. I like to read litrpgs and isekais, but I don’t like writing them. For isekais, it’s because I find the trope to be pretty tired (there’s a reason Japan has primarily shifted to in-universe isekai for newer series, after Re:Zero skewered the entire genre). For litrpgs, it’s because I don’t like how crunchy/stat-focused most of them are.

To me, there’s nothing worse than a book trying to make you care about a boss or enemy because they have a big stat block. Actual games have long since shifted to spectacle to make you care about dangerous enemies, and I want to accomplish the same when I write dangerous foes (or at least try to).

So when I wrote Heretic Spellblade, it used game-like systems to ground it but eschewed stats. This definitely hurt sales, but that’s Amazon and the nature of trends for you.

When Demon’s Throne came around, I had a similar question: do I build in the behind-the-scenes stats, or take the same approach as in Heretic? In the end, you know the answer. There are some pretty obvious signs of where the stats are, given how blatantly Rys talks about specific skills and gaining strength when he opens the seals or locks in stats.

I actually considered putting the character sheets in the back of the original book as bonus content. Given the nature of the “discussion” that took place after the book came out, I’m glad that I didn’t. But I’ll share a whole lot about the stats, pseudo-mechanics, and character sheets here on Patreon, as well as why they exist.

First, let’s talk about the source material.

The original story was interactive fiction. It was actually written live, and it’s a large part of why Book 2 has turned into such a shitshow – but that’s a whole separate post. If you’re familiar with the newer voting systems on fiction sites, it’s similar enough to imagine. The results didn’t produce something coherent enough for a novel, although I underestimated how soon it became so bad.

To help with decisions and to track progress, there were a bunch of stats. These included character sheets and allowed readers to choose how Rys grew in strength as he unlocked his former power. Enemies and allies also had stats (and rarely, full sheets), which I used to determine difficulty and how conflicts flowed.

But beyond the character stats were all the empire stats: how many infernals were summoned; what the castle could do; what the economic stats of the empire were; how much time had passed etc. In a previous story that I wrote, I actually tracked some of this stuff to an insane level of granularity (I simplistically modelled population and economic growth at a regional level, which isn’t that hard but I won’t do it again).

In the Demon’s Throne novels, I could remove all of this and drive everything narratively. One of the problems with purely stat-driven systems is that they can essentially explode if they haven’t been well thought out. Think of every litrpg you’ve read that has insane stat bloat, ridiculous monetary values, or systems in later books that completely shatter concepts from the start.

In a nutshell, power levels are bullshit. Fortunately, Demon’s Throne is based in an absolutely ancient fantasy world of mine. I know the breadth of everything possible and the major players, as well as the upper and lower bounds of power. The original stat system was built largely to capture power levels that start at “can single-handedly destroy a small army.”

Anyway, enough preamble. Let’s jump into some of the stats being tracked:

Time

Obviously.

Book 1 starts in early spring, 1923PC (post-cataclysm, for simplicity). It ends in early summer.

Book 2 starts in mid-summer, and will carry on for quite a bit of time (spoilers).

Economic/Population Stats

I chose not to track these in the books. I’m even fudging the demography, which will probably bite me in the ass. The map has hard numbers on the size of the archipelago, which means there should only be so many people hanging around on the islands (although they are a decent size, they are in the middle of nowhere).

I don’t think there’s much to gain from directly tracking actual numbers and size, and a lot to lose by bothering people who think that the numbers are inaccurate (rightly or wrongly).

Castle Stats

These are actually directly tracked in the book, and Rys talks about them bluntly. I feel they add a level of crunch that some people will appreciate. At the same time, I suspect they change the tone of the book.

Quite a few people have mentioned that Demon’s Throne has a different feel to Heretic Spellblade (and I agree, although I’ve struggled to recapture that feeling with DT2). I think the progression aspect is a major part of that, and the castle and summoning aspects directly link into that.

The four castle modules are:

Overall Castle Power – X/4; limits the amount of modules that can be placed in other slots and also the total influence area of the castle. Has some plot effects as well.

Labyrinth Control – X/5; Rys has been avoiding this module. It links the castle into the Labyrinth and will be fairly important.

Castle Size – X/5; also called the Construction Support module. It lets Rys build more stuff in the castle, including defenses.

Summoning Support – X/5; the module that lets Rys draw on the castle’s power directly. He uses it for summoning and also to leave the castle.

I tweaked these modules heavily from the original ones in the source material. The scene in Book 1 where he rearranges the entire control room was a subtle reference to that fact.

Anyway, the values at the end of Book 1 are:

5 slates

Overall Castle Power – 2/4

Labyrinth Control – 0/5

Castle Size – 1/5

Summoning Support – 2/5

Summoning Numbers

This is one of those annoying things to track, but I track it because I don’t want to get caught out. Rys summons infernals at fixed points, and also loses them from time to time. He might reference past events, too.

Really, this is just bookkeeping. If this were a litrpg or X Core book, I’d probably annoy everyone by telling you explicitly how many of every summon there was every couple of chapters.

But as an example, these are the numbers at the end of Book 1. I don’t track imps, because that’s against non-existent union rules.

Numbers:

Rys

Fara

Vallis

Alsia

Grigor

Tyrisa

10 Noble Demons

72 demons

20 Ashen

10 Malakin

12 Lilim

Character Stats

The meat.

Right now, Rys is the only character with a full character sheet (that I can find – I’m almost certain I gave Grigor and Fara ones; and I know that Fara and Miva have ones for Book 4 onward).

But the general stats apply to everyone. Here are the original explanations:

POWER - the raw magical strength Rys can bring to bear at once. How powerful his blows can be, how large his fireballs, how strong his magical barriers etc. Affects the magnitude of his abilities as well as the feasibility of doing some. A high enough Power stat allows him to use certain abilities without a ritual or extended casting session (extended casting typically takes minutes or hours).

CHANNELING - the speed at which Rys can draw on his magical energy and use abilities. How fast he can draw up to his Power stat for ability usage. How long it takes him to charge his fireball, to cast a full-strength magical barrier versus a weaker one etc. Affects the speed he can use abilities and react to other ability-usage – vital in defensive and disruption situations and useful otherwise. A high Channeling stat can allow the usage of complex abilities near instantly. Has a negligible effect on extended casting or rituals.

POTENTIAL - the amount of magical power Rys can bring to bear in a single session. How many fireballs he can cast in an hour, how long he can sustain a magical barrier under assault, how long he can magically power your body without rest etc. Is equivalent to his magical endurance and affects how long he can actively fight at full power. As Potential is also linked to his magic regeneration, having a high enough stat can make weaker abilities essentially effortless (meaning using them does not exhaust him).

VITALITY - the overall hardiness of Rys’s form, both physically and magically. As he is a magical being, physical damage can sometimes be superficial, and this attribute reflects his ability to shrug off or sustain damage of all forms. A higher stat allows him to take more damage before collapsing, weakening or dying. A high enough Vitality allows him to outright ignore some attacks. Can be negatively modified by attacks he is weak against.

In short: Power is physical and magical strength; Channeling is magical speed/dexterity; Potential is the MP pool; Vitality is endurance. Everything revolves around magic, because that’s how the setting works.

The stats go from 1 to 10 and are exponential. Generally, an increase in level is roughly twice the magnitude of the previous one (e.g. Power 5 is twice the magical strength of Power 4).

Under the hood, this system has some peculiarities. This is because every character has a ton of skills, and they interact with these stats. Different races prefer different stats.

For example, dragons and angels favor Potential; foxes Channeling; infernals Power. One of the biggest battles still to come involves a dragon drawing on their centuries’ old reserves – this involves them converting Potential directly into Power. Angels power their lifeforce directly from their gigantic piles of astral power, which makes them extremely difficult to fight. Foxes can cast multiple spells quickly due to high Channeling.

Narratively, this isn’t that important. I can instead explain all of this as it comes up. In fact, the sheer complexity and amount of races makes things too difficult in many ways. But that’s Demon’s Throne for you.

I actually didn’t track these stats in Book 1, as I didn’t plan to use them. Then I realized that I did need to track them as they’re intimately tied to what Rys can handle as he unlocks the seals.

Anyway, I’ll provide both Rys’s stats and some reference stats below.

Rys, end of Book 1:

Power 2

Channeling 1

Potential 2

Vitality 2

Rys, Book 2 after power conduit:

Power 5

Channeling 2

Potential 2

Vitality 2

Grigor:

Power 4

Channeling 2

Potential 2

Vitality 4

Fat Fred:

Power 3

Channeling 1

Potential 2

Vitality 5

Fara:

Power 2

Channeling 4

Potential 2

Vitality 2

Flashback Azrael:

Power 9

Channeling 9

Potential Really, really high

Vitality 9

Character Skills

The dessert that you don’t know if you can eat after dinner.

Honestly, this is probably way too much detail, so I’ll basically just drop all of Rys’s skills that he has access to, so you can get some idea of what I’m working with behind the scenes. I don’t use all of these in the books, as they’re primarily narratively-driven. I also haven’t bothered to re-write these from 2ndperson.

There are also a bunch of extra skills, including those not being used and future ones. Maybe I’ll post those in the future.

Right now, these match those from the source material. I’m fairly likely to start changing these up in future books, to make things more interesting (I’m already changing the summons).

Non-Combat Abilities

Abilities go as high as 5.

Charisma [2] – you have a natural way with words and are a talented orator. A mixture of experience and talent make you a world-class negotiator, if not a legendary one. You can broker nearly any deal, so long as it is reasonable, and can play people’s emotions like a harp.

Sub-Skill: Social Cunning - You excel at outmaneuvering your foes in social battles, rather than merely trampling all over them. Using their own desires and social trapping against themselves, you know how to twist the proverbial knife better should you find purchase. You double your critical success range for social rolls that can be considered ‘cunning’.

Leadership [2] – your commanding presence and inspiring attitude naturally carries others with you. People flock to your banner and rarely waver so long as you stand firm. You find it easy to command others, even in large numbers.

Rune-crafting [1] – an ancient art now long forgotten by modern mages, runes enable you to draw on the very concepts of the world to empower magicks. Sadly, with your sealed power you are unable to draw on the most powerful runes you know but can still craft simple magical weapons and armor with one major and one minor magical property. Rune-crafting requires special resources and these are the main limitation on the amount you can create.

Combat Abilities

Abilities go as high as 5 and you gain a sub-skill per level. Newly attained sub-skills have the same level as the newly purchased ability level. Sub-skills are upgradeable later.

Infernal Sorcery [3] – your gift of ‘knowledge’ from the knowledge devils known as the Darus Twins has given you what few non-infernals have ever possessed – mastery of infernal sorcery. Although less flexible than evocation, the power of infernal sorcery is unmatched, although much of it is ritual-based without sufficient raw power. Your Channeling attribute counts as one higher when using infernal sorcery.

Specialization: World Breaker – you imbue your abilities with so much of your power that even the world gives way to your almighty fury. Your magic counts as conceptual, drawing on the power of the world to reinforce the nature of whatever power you are projecting. All abilities become highly resistant or immune to all forms of disruption (if less so to astral disruption), wounds dealt with your magic hamper most forms of regeneration by default, your magic is longer lasting by default and all magical abilities will be more damaging and penetrative. You can also maintain more conceptual runes at once.

Sub-skill: Leech Vitality [1] – by imbuing this ward into your weapon or another spell, your attacks will convert the damage done to your opponent into regenerative energy for yourself. This will heal your wounds and recover your stamina. Attacks that do no damage leech nothing.

Sub-skill: Death Ward [2] – this ward completely negates the next mortal blow the target receives, lasting until a mortal blow is received or as many minutes as you have Power. Can be cast on yourself. Takes some time to cast, but does not require extended casting. [I’ve chosen not to use this in the books for various reasons]

Sub-skill: Absolute Disruption [3] - a unique creation of yours, inspired after a battle against Azrael, the master of magical disruption. This spell immediately nullifies every active magical ability in your vicinity that is not an enchantment or similar and that does not exceed your Power+2. New magical abilities can only be used after a short time has passed. You may only affect infernal sorcery, normal sorcery or spiritualism with a single cast. This ability may only be resisted by explicit anti-disruption skills and abilities. It has no effect on astral power.

Martial Prowess and Power [2] – you are a master of countless battlefields and bear the infernal gift of ‘incomparable strength’ from the Arcas Devil Krisanem. This ability represents your prowess in using weapons to slay your foes and your near-mythical strength. Excepting magical spells, you are always physically stronger than your opponent.

Sub-skill: Master of Weapons [1] – centuries of battlefield experience have left you with an uncanny familiarity with all manner of weapons. No matter what weapon you wield, you can bring out its full potential alongside your powers. All weapons count as magical and become more destructive.

Sub-skill: Infernal Blow [2] - by imbuing your weapons with infernal sorcery, they become singly destructive. Your attacks punch through all defenses weaker than or equal to your Power, often explosively destroying most enemy armor and weapons on contact. Regenerating wounds you inflict is nearly impossible without extremely specialized healing.

Summoning Abilities

I’ve changed this one the most from the source material, so I’ll just give a simple summary of what can be summoned:

· Imps

· All demons

· Name-bound summons (true names)

· Sorcerous devils

· Devil controllers (mental influencers such as Haunts and succubi)

· Arcas devils

- - - - - -

Anyway, I hope some of you enjoyed this random dive into some behind-the-scenes stats stuff for Demon's Throne.