Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures mentioned in the Bible's book of Revelation. They represent ConquestPestilence, War, Famine, and Death. Originating from the Bible, the horsemen have become a staple of fantasy by either being mentionned or having echoes of them in form of other bringers of the Apocalypse. Some books or games being outright centered around them.
In the Bible[edit]
The original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were unnamed, as they were just mentionned once and served as general allegories for the things they represented (duh). They came in a specific order, as the arrival of one would sometimes (or definetely) announce the arrival of another. The pecking order was:
- Conquest, Rider of the White Horse; Yes, you read that right. Conquest. Or he's Christ himself perhaps. Or the Antichrist. Or just the embodiment of mankind's folly to wage for war or look for conflict, the unquenchable lust for power and control. And he's all that at the same time. Or he's the Roman Empire personified. He's a lot of things. He came armed with a bow and dressed with perhaps a robe or a victor's crown. But usually, he's the one who started shit. Empires would crumble or shake, wars would break out.
- Pestilence, The Other Rider of the White Horse; Yeah, so as it turns out, people began to replace Conquest with Pestilence, the bringer of illness and plague. Either reinterpreted as a mankind's lack of power before the plague or an outbreak, or the manifestation of doom and bad fate spreading across the land. Just as much of a mixbag like his brother Famine.
- War, Rider of the Red Horse; This mad lad came trotting with a goddamn sword. And he means business. You might be wondering, "If Conquest brings War, then what does War bring?". And to that, we'll say... Maybe even more war, but more likely is that he breaks everything that is orderly, he completely cancels peace. People go mad and start picking fights with just about anyone they come across. Whereas Conquest sparked conflict over petty interests and between factions, War just wants pure utter chaos. With the mess that he creates, this usually follows...
- Famine, Rider of the Black Horse; The dude who makes everyone starve. The great equalizer. He who decides who lives and who dies. Seen coming to town with a balance in his hands. He delivers justice... Or hunger. Some people depict him as a symbol of oppression, of the death of freedom as a whole. Some prefer to represent him as the natural instincts of humans kicking in, transforming desires into needs. Blinding them with their obsession of possessing. Famine is a lot of things.
- Death, Rider of the Pale Horse; Death, straight up. Bringing the final destruction of all empires, reaping the people who's soul are doomed to die. 'Nuff said.
Over the years, people have added supplementary riders to the gang, or even straight out modified some.
Pathfinder[edit]
In the Pathfinder RPG, the Four Horsemen are the lords, rulers, and exemplars of the Neutral Evil daemon race of outsiders. Their lore draws on mythological sources, including the descriptions of the tribulation in the Bible's Book of Revelation and the concepts that have grown up around that, and ancient Greek depictions of the Underworld and Tartarus, among others.
"Horseman" is an office, not an inborn status - Horsemen can die or be deposed, and lesser daemons can eventually rise to the position and power it carries. The names and natures of some previous Horsemen are known to some mortal sages, but exactly how many there have been and how they changed is unknown.
The current Horsemen are:
- Szuriel, the Horseman of War, who looks and behaves something like a twisted, psychotic angel. She wields a horrifying black sword believed to be a corrupted weapon from Heaven.
- Apollyon, the Horseman of Pestilence, who spends a lot of his time creating new diseases to weaken and kill mortal beings.
- Trelmarixian, the Horseman of Famine, who spreads slow deaths such as starvation and cancer. He is the youngest of the current Four Horsemen.
- Charon, the Horseman of Death, who plies the River Styx much like his mythological namesake and collects lost souls. He also has the distinction of being the only daemon to have ever held the dominion of Death.
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His horse, Chloros
Bestiary 6 stats out the Horsemen, and they are BEEFY. They possess Challenge Ratings in the 27-30 range, over 30 hit dice, are rank 10 Mythic monsters, have special abilities out the ass, two of them possess potent artifacts and have several powers that fit their theme. Befitting their name the Horsemen of course have horses, and these are CR 25 beasts in their own right, with several abilities meant to keep them in the game: not only do they flat-out refuse to die if within 300' of their Horseman, if they were to die outside of that range the Horseman could can just raise their horse from the dead. They are the main vehicle of the Horsemen to travel the planes, being able to Plane Shift themselves and their rider. Sometimes the horses get lended out to favored servants, a great honor but also a great risk to have a Horseman's most loyal servant at your side.
Ravenloft[edit]
In Ravenloft, the Darklord of Necropolis, who styles himself as Death, maintained an elite cadre of followers based on the four horsemen during Azalin's absence, deploying them to stalk Darkon and slaughter its populace in hopes of extinguishing the last lingering remnants of its creator.
Quoth the Raven #10 also features an alternative take on the Four Horsemen as apocalyptic agents from beyond the Demiplane of Dread.
Chronicles of Darkness[edit]
In Geist: The Sin-Eaters, the Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse, depicted as Famine, Pestilience, War, Death and Chance, are regarded as the spiritual patrons of the five Sin-Eater "Thresholds", the subrace equivalent for Sin-Eaters.
| The Fiends of Pathfinder | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lawful: | Asuras - Devils - Rakshasas - Velstracs | |
| Neutral: | Daemons - Divs - Sahkils | |
| Chaotic: | Demodands - Demons - Lilus - Nindorus - Qlippoth | |
| Any: | Oni | |
| Lords: | Ahriman - Archdevils Demon Lords - Four Horsemen | |
