#[throwing the rat meme] WOE. LORE BE UPON YE

[cantuscorvi]

What are Raum's thoughts regarding the Devil and why is he after them? Is it out of pride or does he have other motives?

@distopea

This is a bit of a complicated question to answer but I hope you'll bear with me.

In Raum’s ‘lore’, (and I’m using that term loosely because it’s just a bunch of ideas I’m sticking together with duct tape at this point) the existence of a One/God/etc ( who they call ‘the Almighty’ ) and a Devil/Satan/etc ( who they call ‘the Adversary’ ) are under doubt.

Both of those entities have been missing for an extremely long time, to the point where even their supposed creations are struggling to believe in their existence. They are close to a mythic status. Even those who claim to have seen or met those beings are met with suspicion and they also doubt themselves, each encounter feeling like some sort of dream, hallucination or false memory.

The Ninth Circle, the place where Raum lives — the lowest, coldest reaches of Hell — is said to hold the ‘tomb’ of the Adversary far below it. A place where they are perhaps trapped, dead, or resting. Although again, they haven’t emerged once since the birth of Hell, so the issue is up for debate. Some assume it to be just a story, some believe it’s an empty tomb while the Adversary moves unseen elsewhere, and some imagine the tomb is literal and only the corpse of the Adversary remains there.

Originally Raum didn’t live in this circle, instead he lived in a higher ring, in the City of Dis, but he made the journey there when he became curious about the existence of the Adversary, and ended up claiming territory there when he found the environment suited him far better than before.

You could say it’s out of pride — but his motives are fairly plain. In the end, it’s about power. The reason Raum moved to Cocytus in the first place is to get closer to the bottom of Hell and figure out if the existence of the Adversary is real; and if so, to try and claim that power that has been sleeping for so long.

Incidentally — when Raum fought with Malphas, he trapped him under the ice at Cocytus after grievously wounding him. Malphas was dragged under the water by the spirits inhabiting the lake, and he felt as if he was stuck in the tomb for years — exposed to something terrifying under the depths which he believed to be the actual existence of the Adversary.