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...best artist to ever make an impression on my D&D life.

Moderators: Thorn Blackstone, Halaster Blackcloak
I don't think it was me that offered up that idea.Halaster Blackcloak wrote:Varl, was it you who once suggested that the words "tanar'ri" and "baatezu" were the names used by those races, ie the devilish and demonic words for their race(s)?
That makes the most sense to me. There are precedents for this kind of verbage in AD&D: svirfneblin for deep gnome, duergar for dark dwarf, the elven racial descriptors, and using national names to describe humans such as Calshites for people from Calimshan, Zhents for Zhentil Keepers, and Purple Dragons for Cormyrean knights.In other words, devils call themselves baatezu in the same way that elves call themselves tel'qessir or whatever it is ("the people" or "the race"?), while we just refer to them as elves and demons? I can see that as a very workable explanation.