| Game background | |
|---|---|
| Title(s) | [Former] Prince of Demons |
| Home plane | Pandemonium; formerly the Abyss |
| Power level | demon lord |
| Alignment | Chaotic Evil |
| Superior | The Queen of Chaos |
| Design details | |
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Miska the Wolf-Spider is a demon lord, and former holder of the title "Prince of Demons."
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Miska the Wolf-Spider was first mentioned briefly in the second edition Dungeon Master's Guide (1989) under the description for the Rod of Seven Parts artifact.[1] Miska was mentioned again in the description for the Rod of Seven Parts in the Book of Artifacts (1993).[2] Miska was further described in Skip Williams's article in Dragon #224, "A History of the Rod of Seven Parts."[3] Miska first debuted in the second edition adventure The Rod of Seven Parts, where the players went on an extended quest to recover and restore the fabled Rod and eventually confront Miska in his extraplanar prison. Miska's ultimate fate depends on the outcome of the adventure.[4]
Although Miska has not been officially updated for the game's third edition, he and the Queen of Chaos have been mentioned in Dungeon during the Age of Worms adventure path. Miska's history was recalled in Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006).[5]
Miska the Wolf-Spider appears as a large armored spider with a four-armed human male torso. His human head is flanked on either side with the head of a snarling wolf. Miska is regarded by the spyder-fiends, a subrace of the tanar'ri who takes the form of wolf-headed spiders, as their god and patron.
In the early days of the multiverse, in the so-called Age Before Ages, the obyrith demon lord called The Queen of Chaos launched a war against the forces of Law. By brute force and threats of death and punishment, she rallied her fellow obyriths into a united front. To gain cooperation from the then-servitor race the tanar'ri, the Queen took as her lover and head general Miska the Wolf-Spider. The Queen went as far as to murder the then-Prince of Demons Obox-ob and bestow the title to her new consort.
Under Miska's command, the forces of Chaos were triumphant, taking over world after world, driving back the forces of Law, which were led by the Vaati, known as the Wind Dukes. The Wind Dukes eventually fashioned an artifact to use against Miska known as the Rod of Law. On the battlefield of Pesh on the world of Oerth, the Wind Dukes defeated Miska, imprisoning him in Pandemonium and shattering the Rod into seven parts, effectively bringing the war to a stalemate. The Queen, to this day, looks for a way to free Miska to restart the war.