Thanks! If one takes old grimoires at face value, Lucifer was apparently so busy being bossed around by magicians that he mustn’t have had time to actually do anything evil! And of course, the instructions for summoning the Devil were filled with easily broken conditions, so there was always an excuse when Satan didn’t actually appear to fetch your slippers.

Thanks! Regarding #19, the “danger” that naive young men would be seduced by predatory older widows was apparently a concern in Georgian/Regency England. But then the virtual hunting of young widows for their inheritances was also very common. In contrast, Benjamin Franklin famously advised young men to take an older mistress. #3, of course, is a riff on Mesmer. #6 was partially inspired by the colorful life of Baroness Julie de Krudener, the socialite and novelist who became a wandering mystic (and advisor to Tsar Alexander I).

Thanks. I’ve long had a fascination with “occult rascal” characters. The type that may even have actual magical powers, but find it easier to pull cons than use those abilities.

It even has a get-out clause for when (if) it goes wrong, since once you’ve removed the heart, the monarch is dead and thus no longer reigning.

And 3 and 6.