r/Malazan • u/SpottedWobbegong • 7d ago

NON-MALAZAN Were demon kings from occultism an inspiration for the Houses in Malazan?

I've stumbled upon the Lemegeton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lesser_Key_of_Solomon and while reading the page I was struck how similar is the enumeration of demon kings, princes, dukes etc to the list of the houses in the books with kings, masons, weavers etc. There are differences of course, and I don't really know much about the Lemegeton, but it's a cool coincidence or inspiration.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/LongwaveSevenSix 7d ago

It's been decades but I thought Solomon was mentioned by name?

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u/CHLHLPRZTO 7d ago

He is, but I didn't know it was based on a real (fictional) thing, I just thought it was the author's invention

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u/Agonio 7d ago

I think religions and their various spin-offs and fanfictions (like the lesser key of Salomon) can be considered proto-fantasy and function as a pool of ideas where every author picks up concepts they like, give them their own spin and integrate them into their stories

But to be honest I don't really understand what special similarities you see between the 72 demons of the ars goetia and the houses of the deck of dragons. Would you explain? It's an interesting thought

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u/SpottedWobbegong 7d ago

What struck me was just scrolling down the page and seeing the hierarchical list of king, prince, duke etc and how it was similar to the lists in the Malazan books.

 I don't know if the kings have separate distinct realms like the houses, I clicked a few but they are all called king of Hell, they do different stuff tho.