The Blood War

Throughout history, the teeming hordes of the Abyss and the strictly regimented legions of the Nine Hells have battled for supremacy in the cosmos. In the mortal world, the scant few scholars, arcanists, and adventurers who know the conflict for what it is refer to it as the Blood War.

The fighting takes place across the Lower Planes, on the Material Plane, and anywhere else that demons and devils might congregate. From time to time, demons spill out of the Abyss to invade Avernus, the uppermost layer of the Nine Hells. While the devils defend their home turf, they also make strikes against locations in the Abyss. Although the intensity of the conflict waxes and wanes, and the front lines of the war can shift drastically, a moment never goes by when demons and devils aren’t battling each other somewhere in the multiverse.

The Great Dance

We measure ourselves by those we fight, and my company faces the greatest threat to the cosmos.

• Veritus Wrath, commander, Flawless Execution

The battle lines in the Blood War undulate like a writhing snake. Each time one side gains an advantage, invariably its lines weaken somewhere else. Demons enter the Nine Hells by following the River Styx from the Abyss into Avernus. By hiring skilled merrenoloth pilots to navigate the river, a demon lord can transport an invasion force of enormous size.

Mimicking a complex dance, the two sides shift their attacks and trade positions with each passing day. About once every thousand years, the demons close in on the lower reaches of the Styx and portals leading deeper into the Hells. Invariably, the legions of the Nine Hells boil up from below to repel the invaders out of Avernus, back to the juncture where the Styx enters the Hells. This drive by the devils attracts the attention of more demons from the Abyss, which pushes the front line back into Avernus. The process repeats itself time and time again.

To the good fortune of the rest of the multiverse, almost all the battles in the Blood War take place in the Abyss and the Nine Hells. Whether by cosmic chance or the design of some unknown power, the dark waters of the Styx provide passage between the two planes, but pathways to other realms are at best fleeting and unreliable. Despite the difficulty of escaping the Lower Planes, combatants on both sides find their way to the Material Plane and other realms from time to time. Although the conflicts on these other planes are little more than skirmishes in the Blood War, even a small number of demons and devils can wreak havoc and bring destruction wherever they see fit to do battle.

Mortals and Minions

Devils and demons are far from the only combatants in the Blood War. Both sides exploit the Material Plane’s most abundant resource—mortal creatures, whose bodies and souls are both useful to the cause.

Devils constantly strive to recruit mortals into their ranks by offering them rewards in return for their service.

While they live, these cultists carry out the wishes of their archdevil masters, whether raiding an enemy outpost or gathering more members for the cult. When a cultist dies, its soul emerges in the Nine Hells and becomes another of the Blood War’s immortal soldiers. Most of the evil souls consigned to an afterlife in the Nine Hells become lemures, which make up the vast majority of the hellish forces, but some mortal recruits who willingly accept a contract offer from a powerful devil can arrive as a lesser devil.

Demons generally have no regard for mortal souls and do not solicit them, but living creatures do have their uses. Groups of corrupted cultists dedicated to one of the demon lords exist all across the realms of the material world. For as long as these mortals do the bidding of their lord, they are allowed to live. From a demon’s perspective, all other living creatures are nothing more than sheep ripe for slaughter, and demonic cultists share this view. These fanatics don’t hesitate to slay other mortals if given the chance—and if their victims happen to be in league with devils, so much the better.

A casual observer might suppose that two forces of evil bent on exterminating each other would be an advantageous situation for the forces of good, but the combatants in the Blood War have no regard for collateral damage—and on the Material Plane, they can cause a lot of it. If agents of Asmodeus discover a thriving demon cult in a city, they might deal with the threat by starting a fire that not only destroys the cult but burns through several neighborhoods and kills hundreds of innocents. A demon might unleash a plague to kill every person in a town, just for the sake of claiming from its library an old book containing a map to a lost artifact. The fiends on both sides of the Blood War take the path of least resistance to their goals, heedless of consequences that don’t affect them.

Agents of Treachery

Both sides in the Blood War employ spies and soldiers drawn from the ranks of other evil creatures of the planes. The devils are generally more successful at this tactic because of the discipline they can bring to bear on these ostensible allies. Even so, powerful, intelligent demon lords such as Graz’zt can also force their agents to do their bidding under threat of annihilation.

As creatures that don’t favor either cause, because they care nothing for the philosophical concerns of law and chaos, other fiends including incubi, succubi, and night hags work for whichever side offers the best compensation. Demons use them as insurrectionists in the Nine Hells, inciting rebellion and defiance. The devils employ such creatures as scouts, who use their magic and other abilities to navigate the Abyss and gain intelligence about the demons' activities. Adventurers hired by an agent of the Nine Hells to make a foray into the Abyss are customarily guided by such a mercenary.

The Search for Secrets

The Blood War has all the characteristics of an eternal stalemate, in part because the two sides are so familiar with each other. Every time the Abyss belches forth some new variety of horror, the disciplined and well-trained legions of the Nine Hells reorganize, rally, and counterattack. The devils continually dream up variations on their attack strategies, only to be checked by the overwhelming chaotic force of the Abyss. Little true advancement occurs under the angry red sky of Avernus or in any other realm where the forces clash.

The leaders of each side recognize that the introduction of some unexpected factor could permanently affect the balance of power. Accordingly, demons and devils constantly send their agents across the planes in search of artifacts, powerful creatures to recruit, and other resources that could lead to a key advantage in the war. Adventurers of great repute might get involved in such a quest, either as unwitting pawns or as an independent force pursuing its own ends.

Cosmic Battlefield

The Blood War rages along the length of the River Styx. Direct confrontations between demons and devils erupt along its banks, making any of the Lower Planes the Styx touches a potential battleground.

The devils view fighting demons on Avernus as a net benefit for their cause. Although most devils slain there are destroyed forever, ready access to supplies and support from the Nine Hells tilts the tide heavily against invading demons. Also, the prospect of a permanent death compels the devils fighting on Avernus to maintain the utmost readiness and coordination. Wounded devils retreat, knowing that fresh reinforcements can continue the fight. Hordes of lemures, devils that are permanently destroyed only if subjected to holy energies, are used to blunt demonic incursions. The terrain of Avernus is thoroughly mapped and festooned with ambush points, strongholds, and other defensive measures.

Sailing the Styx

The River Styx frustrates every attempt to map it or predict its course. Although anyone can try to navigate it, only merrenoloths, the yugoloth ferrymen of the Styx, can faultlessly negotiate the Styx’s treacherous waters. For a price, merrenoloths will carry anyone safely and swiftly across planar boundaries. The greater the distance and the more perilous the passengers to be ferried, the higher the price.

Getting lost while sailing the Styx isn’t the only danger the river presents. Merely tasting or touching its waters causes most creatures to become stupefied, and drinking fully or being immersed for too long can render that condition permanent, robbing a creature of all its memories. Fiends don’t fear being momentarily exposed to the Styx, but—with the notable exception of hydroloths, merrenoloths, and amnizus—even they can’t retain their memories if they drink from the River Styx or swim for too long in its waters.

More important, demons that are slain and sent back to the Abyss return to their chaotic wanderings in that realm. A demon lord is thus hard pressed to keep a horde cohesive as it takes casualties. If the devils extended a tenacious defense out to the planes beyond Avernus, they could keep the demons away from Hell’s doorstep, but such a strategy would place a great strain on supplies, reinforcements, and unit integrity. Although the devils killed in such places would recover, their weapons, armor, and other materials would remain lost.

The Devilish Point of View

My legions are the only thing standing between your precious Seven Heavens and the bottomless hunger of the Abyss. I did not fall into the clutches of evil. I rose to shoulder a cosmic burden.

• Zariel, Archduchess of Avernus, former angel of Celestia

Although the basic facts of the Blood War aren’t subject to debate, a host of theories exist that attempt to explain why the conflict erupted in the first place.

The devils fight as a matter of pride mixed with burning resentment for a cosmic order that refuses to acknowledge their role as overseers of the multiverse. To the devils' way of thinking, the Nine Hells are the front line in the demons' war against all of creation, and the fate of the cosmos depends on the devils' ability to blunt the invasion and send the demons back to the Abyss.

In fact, devils believe that the demons would have long ago swept across the multiverse but for the unflinching rule of law that underlies the actions of the infernal leaders and their armies. If necessary, a general must not hesitate to sacrifice entire legions to stall an enemy advance or punch a hole through an enemy phalanx. Iron discipline combined with a ruthless focus on victory at any cost is what fuels the devils' war machine.

Every devil takes a grim pride in its service in the Blood War. Talk to one for a short time, and it will reveal the scars earned during its time in Avernus and tell tales of the great battles it has seen. Talk to one for a little longer, and it will inform you that you are alive only because of the devils' heroic efforts. If there was truly justice in the world, it would tell you, the multiverse would bend its knee to the Nine Hells in thanks for the devils' role in preserving the cosmos.

Legions of the Damned

Most of the forces of the Nine Hells are grouped into three types of legions that each play a role in repelling the invading demons. Incompetent or weak devils fill out the dreg legions, composed mainly of hordes of lemures and nupperibos. They are deployed as a delaying tactic, serving as fodder to slow down an advancing horde of demons while sword legions organize their counterattacks and shield legions establish their defenses. Each legion within a category has a distinctive, fearsome—sounding name in the Infernal tongue. When translated into Common, these names are often descriptive of the legion’s status or battle-worthiness, such as the ones given below.

Dreg Legions: Bugs in the System, Momentary Lapse of Progress, Casualties Imminent, Last in Line for Healing, Not Worth the Effort

Shield Legions: Moment of Silence, Welcome to the Hells, Pleased to Meet You, Front toward Enemy, End of the Line

Sword Legions: Flawless Execution, Damned Good, The Hanging Blade, Inevitable Outcome, A Taste for Carnage

The Demonic Point of View

Why do we descend upon the domain of our hated enemies? Because that’s where the fighting is!

• Zaadaaak, demon of the Abyss

Most other creatures believe demons to be little more than mindless engines of destruction and violence. If that supposition were true, the Blood War should have ended long ago, since the tactical and strategic genius of the archdevils would have made quick work of the hordes that erupt from the Abyss. In fact, even though demons are quintessentially chaotic, their evilness combines with that outlook to produce a fiendish, subtle shrewdness. Demon lords and other powerful entities exert control over their armies that enables the forces to accomplish goals that would be beyond the capabilities of a leaderless mob. To the demons that have intelligence enough to appreciate their role in it, the Blood War offers an endless source of diversion underscored by resentment of a cosmic order that refuses to admit their superiority.

As the devils have surmised, the demons invade Avernus because it is easily accessible from the Abyss. But some sages and demonologists maintain that even if that were not the case, the Nine Hells would still be the demons' prime target. If the demons sent out a large force to invade a different plane, this theory holds, the devils would be able to marshal allies from across all the planes to rise up against the Abyss and end its threat forever.

Instead, as long as the demons focus most of their efforts on the doorstep of the Nine Hells, realms such as the Seven Heavens and Bytopia are loath to commit aid to defend a plane that is inimical to everything they stand for by aiding the devils directly.

Therefore, the demons assault the Nine Hells over and over not only because it is the greatest threat to their dominion, but also because striking in force anywhere else would play into the devils' hands.

Yugoloths: Fickle Allies

Yugoloths are major players on both sides of the Blood War. The death of a yugoloth is meaningless when it occurs in the Abyss or the Nine Hells, and thus these mercenaries freely give their all in any battle even when it means fighting other yugoloths. Demons and devils both know that a yugoloth’s loyalty is constantly for sale-even during a conflict on the battlefield-and a yugoloth never agrees to a contract that prohibits it from seeking a better offer. This set of circumstances prompts hellish and abyssal armies to carry war chests with them in the hope of buying the services of the yugoloths on the other side. The war chests themselves thus become highly prized targets, which in turn leads to protective measures, such as valuables hidden in bag of holding or empty treasure containers used to lure the enemy into a trap.

Regardless of the side that hires them, yugoloths almost never fight on their home plane of Gehenna despite the fact that both sides sometimes traverse it and many battles of the Blood War are fought there. A yugoloth killed in Gehenna can’t be restored to life except through an exceptional ritual, so the sums required to entice one to fight on its home plane are astronomical… and making such a bargain always draws the attention of the ultroloths.

The Balance

The demons and the devils both foresee their own versions of the future of the multiverse-a cosmos in which one side or the other triumphs in the Blood War and rules for the rest of eternity. A third point of view exists, held by those who take both sides at their word and strive to make sure that neither outcome ever comes to pass.

The adherents of this viewpoint refer to the concept they espouse as the Balance, and they seek to maintain equilibrium across the cosmos above all. Mordenkainen and his compatriots are among its most notable devotees. Since a true appreciation of the Balance and its implications requires a grasp of events on a cosmic level, very few people or entities fully embrace the idea. Those few, however, make up a formidable force that can mix martial and magical power to keep the extremists of the Blood War in check.

To an outside observer, a disciple of the Balance might act cruelly or heartlessly one day, and benevolent and caring the next. A follower might aid in consigning one city to domination by a devil cult while driving demonic cultists from another. For the sake of the Balance, the cosmos must remain in a static state where neither demon nor devil can permanently gain the upper hand.

Keepers of the Balance sometimes resort to strategies that seem inexplicable to those who don’t grasp the whole situation. A crusading paladin might be discouraged from seeking out and defeating Demogorgon, because doing so could weaken the Abyss enough to allow the forces of the Nine Hells to gain a firm foothold there. An adherent of the Balance might vie with a great arcanist as both search for knowledge of a ritual that would cripple Asmodeus for a short time. The arcanist correctly believes that performing the ritual would free a world of the Material Plane from the devils' taint, but doesn’t appreciate that it also would bring a grievous setback to the forces that had been keeping the demons from overrunning Avernus.

Those who vow to maintain the Balance make enemies wherever they go, because their full reasons for acting as they do aren’t always apparent. The fact that some of these adherents embrace the Balance to further their personal quests for power makes it impossible to count on them as allies with complete certainty.

Lords of the Nine

From his throne at the bottom of the Nine Hells, Asmodeus commands a sprawling bureaucracy tied to a massive war apparatus dedicated to turning back the demons that invade the uppermost realm of Avernus, and to taking the fight to the other planes, including the Abyss, whenever the opportunity arises.

Asmodeus and the other archdevils rule over the nine layers that comprise the Hells. The devil lords make up a hierarchy that is both rigid and fragile. Although Asmodeus is more powerful than any other lord, he has to be constantly wary of treachery within his ranks. It could be said that the true ruler of the Nine Hells is the immense body of rules and regulations that dictate how all devils, even Asmodeus, must conduct themselves.

Layers and Rulers of the Nine Hells

Asmodeus

I literally sit beneath eight tiers of scheming, ambitious entities that represent primal law suffused with evil. The path from this realm leads to an infinite pit of chaos and evil. Now, tell me again how you and your ilk are the victims in this eternal struggle.

• Asmodeus addresses the celestial jury, from The Trial of Asmodeus

Asmodeus is an unmatched strategist and orator. The most epic of all his achievements is chronicled in The Trial of Asmodeus, a play based on purportedly true events as researched by the aasimar bard Anodius.

In ancient times, as the Blood War raged, the angels of law and good that dwell on Mount Celestia issued a decree accusing Asmodeus of terrible crimes. Outraged by such claims, the Lord of the Nine Hells petitioned for the right to answer the charges before his accusers. The angels, although shocked at his impudence, accepted his petition and agreed to hear the bargain he proposed. Both sides, he suggested, would present their case to Primus, leader of the modrons. As a creature of absolute law, Primus could be trusted to issue a fair and impartial verdict. Asmodeus drafted a contract to seal the deal, and the angels-after carefully scrutinizing the terms-agreed to the trial.

When he testified before Primus, Asmodeus attributed his actions to the dictates of law and the survival of the cosmos. He admitted that he swayed mortals to evil, but he and his minions never breached a contract and explained the terms clearly. Had they not obeyed the rule of law in doing so? Was it not mortal ambition, rather than infernal deception, that led so many souls astray?

Asmodeus also pointed out that the souls harvested from the Material Plane went on to serve in the infernal legions that repel the endless tide of the Abyss. Were not such souls put to good use against the demonic hordes, a power that if unchecked would scour the universe of all lawfulness and goodness?

He further asserted that he was bound to the rules and traditions of the Nine Hells, compelled to adhere to law and to maintain the devils' trafficking in souls. If he violated those laws, he would be no better than the demons he fought. Mortals who refused a devil’s offer were left alone, in accordance with the law. Those who struck deals with his followers and then somehow turned the contracts against the devils were freed from their debts. A contract is the law, and the law is a contract.

Primus weighed Asmodeus’s words and listened patiently as angel after angel testified to his crimes. Hours turned to days and days into weeks as more and more of his sins entered the court record.

Even Primus’s patience has its limits, and in time, the remaining angels who were eager to testify were told that only a few more would be allowed to speak. A brawl broke out when one angel, Zariel, pushed her way to the front and demanded to be heard. As the scuffle turned into a battle, Asmodeus looked on with a smirk.

In the end, Primus declined to issue a definitive judgment. He rebuked the angels for their descent into infighting, but didn’t punish Asmodeus for his evil ways. He did, however, order Asmodeus to forever carry a mighty artifact, the Ruby Rod, that would guarantee his adherence to law. The artifact, which has remained at Asmodeus’s side ever since, grants him and his underlings the right to enter into contracts with mortals for their souls but unleashes an inescapable punishment upon any devil that breaches such a contract.

He Who Would Rule

Asmodeus wants to rule the cosmos. Under his watch, he believes, the universe would take on a pristine, perfect state, with every living creature assigned a place in the infernal hierarchy. Wars would end, and every creature would have a purpose to fulfill. The universe would be a utopia, at least as Asmodeus views such a thing.

Of course, as he sees it, Asmodeus is the only being with the charisma, strength, and insight necessary to shepherd in this ideal future. His rivals are inferiors who, if left to their own devices, will turn the cosmos into a demon-infested maelstrom. The powers of good are sentimental fools, too delicate and soft to do what must be done. In his mind, Asmodeus has been chosen by the universe to protect it from annihilation.

If Asmodeus were any less capable, his arrogance would have led to his undoing long ago. Yet still he sits atop his throne, having thwarted every conspiracy mounted against him. He once walked into the lair of one of his enemies in Mount Celestia and survived using nothing more than his words and his wits. Even his most ardent enemies must grudgingly admit that his skill and competence are unparalleled.

Power without Limit

Unlike the other Lords of the Nine, Asmodeus has no quota of souls to fill. Any soul recruited by any denizen of the Nine Hells is also pledged in his name, and a cult dedicated to any other devil is also dedicated to him. Because he doesn’t need to spend his time courting mortals, he concentrates on manipulating demigods and beings of similar station. Occasionally, he lures such a being into a contract and adds a new, unique devil to the ranks of the Hells. His most recent recruit is Zariel, a former angel. His supposed daughter, Glasya, is thought by some sages to be a godlike entity of unknown origin.

Lord of Nessus

Asmodeus resides in Nessus, the bottommost layer of the Nine Hells. By design, the place is devoid of activity, since Asmodeus values his privacy and safety. The environment is a rocky wasteland, crisscrossed by deep fissures and lacking roads, bridges, and other means of passage. Asmodeus dwells in a great fortress somewhere in the wasteland, at the bottom of its deepest pit. Only his most trusted followers and most important advisors know the route to it. He remains inside, relying on messengers and magic to convey his dictates.

Zariel

Keep wasting my time with your pointless words and die, or join my war band and live. Choose swiftly. I have a plane to conquer.

• Zariel addressing emissaries from Dis

Zariel was once an angel, but her impetuous nature and love of battle led to her fall. In her previous life, she was charged with observing the battles on Avernus and tracking their progress. From this exposure, she grew obsessed with the Blood War, and a thirst for battle grew within her that she couldn’t ignore. In time, she became frustrated that she and the other angels were forced to remain spectators while the demons and devils battled. The hosts of Mount Celestia, she believed, could descend upon Avernus en masse and wipe both hordes of evil from the cosmos if they so desired.

After her repeated requests to join the fray were denied, her frustration overtook her, and she launched herself into the Blood War. Accompanied by a mob of mortal followers, she cut a swath through a legion of devils before their numbers overwhelmed her. A delegation of bone devils later dispatched to the site by Asmodeus recovered her unconscious form beneath a small mountain of her slaughtered enemies. After allowing her to recover in the depths of Nessus, Asmodeus installed her on Avernus as his champion and new lord of that layer.

A Fighting General

When Zariel supplanted the pit fiend Bel as the ruler of Avernus, that change signaled a major shift in the devils' tactics. Zariel’s fiery temperament and reckless maneuvering stand in stark contrast to Bel’s approach, which relied on his expertise in logistics and defensive tactics to make steady but slow advances. Bel remains one of her chief lieutenants, and he doesn’t discourage her reckless tactics in the hope that she will overextend her forces and suffer a defeat that leads to her removal.

For now, though, the devils are fighting with a berserker fury under her charge. Zariel leads their offensives herself, and her unyielding resolve coupled with the fighting skill of her underlings has pushed nearly all the demonic invaders out of Avernus.

The Warrior’s General

Zariel is no politician. She lives to fight, and she bases her assessment of those she meets on a combination of their combat skills and their willingness to use those skills. In Zariel’s eyes, zeal and fury are as important in a fight as iron discipline and extensive training.

That outlook has made her something of a political pariah, since she has spurned overtures of alliance from other Lords of the Nine and elected to swell the ranks of her armies through the aggressive recruitment of mortal souls. Her agents offer gifts of martial skill and courage to any who are willing to bargain. Zariel needs souls that yearn to prove their worth on the battlefield.

Lady of Ruin

Zariel rules over the ruin that Avernus has become. Once it was a bustling realm filled with cities, trade outposts, and other features, but recent activity in the Blood War has reduced it to a blasted wasteland. The few structures still standing are citadels constructed by the devils to repel attackers, to be rebuilt each time the front line of the war moves. The devils are in control of Avernus at present, though the fighting goes on (as it always does) in isolated locales throughout the layer.

Adventurers able to avoid the other occupants can find treasure within some of the ruins, though they must venture to the fringes of the active conflict to have any hope of finding places that have not yet been looted. Many of the active citadels on Avernus loom over the River Styx or surround portals to other planes or to Dis. An amnizu presides over each location, directing the lemures that emerge from the Styx, marshaling forces against invaders, and preventing unauthorized travel.

Tiamat Waits and Watches

The Queen of Dragons resides in Avernus. Her lairs sits atop a towering mountain, with flights of dragons wheeling through the skies to discourage any demonic incursions. For their part, the demons avoid this place. The hordes of the Abyss have learned the hard way that Tiamat and her court prefer to be left alone. She appears disinterested in becoming involved in the Blood War.

Tiamat’s presence in Avernus has confounded sages for years. As with devils, she is unable to leave the plane of her own will. She must be called forth, but only the mightiest rituals can draw her back into the world. So, if she has been imprisoned here, how and why did that come about?

The most prevalent theory holds that her confinement is related to the end of the long war between the dragons and giants, that she was sequestered here by means of a mighty curse levied by a forgotten god of the giants she slew. The curse brought an end to the war but also drew the curtain on the time of the dragons and giants on the Material Plane, clearing the way for the rise of humans, orcs, dwarves, elves, and other folk. If Tiamat were to return to the material world, that event could trigger, or be a signal of, the resumption of the war between giants and dragons.

Dispater

The cosmos is a grand game. He who knows its rules the best shall win the prize.

• Dispater

Dispater is the foremost arms dealer of the Nine Hells, and perhaps the greatest weapons supplier in all the planes. As the lord of Dis, he oversees a mining and smelting operation that continually churns out weapons and armor. Using some of the great number of secret techniques Dispater has unearthed over his lifetime, the foundries of Dis produce deadly armaments that help to stem the abyssal tide. The fighting requires constant reinforcements, creating a voracious appetite for the products of the iron mines on Dis and the workshops in the sprawling metropolis that shares the name of the layer.

Dispater trusts no one and dislikes surprises. Since Zariel’s rise to power, he has taken to dwelling in the libraries inside his iron palace. He employs a network of spies and informants to watch over anyone that might threaten him, a measure of his deep paranoia. Dispater has created an impenetrable suit of adamantine armor for himself, imbued with charms designed to foil spells and keep him safe in any environment, no matter how hostile. No one can guess at all of its features, since he crafted it using methods that only he has mastered.

Dispater’s paranoia affects everything he does. For example, he often dispatches orders and other missives by branding his message on the back of an imp. The imp wears a leather vest that conceals the message, and the laces of the vest are knitted into the imp’s heart. If the vest is removed by anyone other than the intended recipient, that act kills the imp and causes its body to disintegrate before the message can be read.

The lord of Dis measures everything in terms of the knowledge it contains and the secrets that can be gleaned from it. He yearns to solve every mystery of the cosmos, a quest that might seem foolhardy for anyone other than an immortal being. Any hint of a secret that remains hidden draws his attention, and a discovery that could tip the scales in his favor might be enough to entice him to act against his fellow Lords of the Nine.

Given his reclusive nature, gaining an audience with Dispater is difficult at best, with no guarantee that any correspondence truly reaches him.

The Greatest Game

Dispater’s trade in souls is concerned mainly with the acquisition of secrets. His imps scour the Material Plane in search of any lost lore that could help to turn a soul to Dispater’s service. Such a secret could be a lost spell sought by a mighty archmage, who pledges fealty to Dispater in return for the knowledge, or it could be the identity of a petitioner’s secret admirer. Dispater and his minions know that the perceived value of a secret is a highly subjective matter. A farmer has no use for an arcane spell that could incinerate a legion of warriors, but the promise of knowing which crops will sell best over the coming years might persuade him to enter into an infernal compact.

To Dispater, all of reality is a contest played out under secret rules. If he can discover the principles that define the true nature of the cosmos, he can learn how to ascend to the top of the Nine Hells' hierarchy and then eventually the entire planar order. He covets the souls of those who seek secrets and those who have useful, secret information of their own that he can bargain for.

Mammon

The count of my coins is more reliable than any roster of mortal hearts or immortal souls.

• Mammon

Mammon is the foremost merchant and miser of the Nine Hells, and perhaps the richest entity in all the planes. As the lord of Minauros, Mammon oversees the soul trade. While those who pledge their souls are claimed by the devil they bargained with, lawful evil creatures that aren’t bound by any contract emerge from the River Styx as lemures. Roving bands of soul-mongers patrol the river’s banks, harvesting the newly created devils. On its arrival, each soul passes through the capital of Minauros, the Sinking City, and is recorded. The soul is then distributed to whoever should claim it, according to contracts in force and laws in effect. Mammon appropriates any extra lemures for himself and sells them for profit.

Mammon has accumulated a great treasure hoard, but spends only a small portion of it on maintaining his domain. As a result, Minauros is a fetid, wretched place, its structures characterized by cheap construction, flimsy materials, and shoddy artisanship.

Everything Has a Price

Mammon measures everything in terms of its value in gold. He cares only for the material gain that a transaction can provide for him. He never rests, and spends every waking moment pursuing schemes to fatten his treasury. He looks for every opportunity to make his processes more efficient, so that he can rake in more and more gold in a given span of time.

Mammon’s obsession with wealth and efficiency make him a dangerous entity to entreat. He enters any bargain with the goal of making a profit. Those who waste his time or tarry in their dealings with him are likely to incur his wrath. If he can’t make an acceptable profit in return for the time he has spent, he can at least vent his frustration by grinding the offending party into a thick, bloody sludge.

Financier of the Hells

Mammon’s wealth is his primary way of exerting power and influence. He offers monetary loans to other devils in return for service, favors, or items he desires. From time to time, he dips into his coffers to attract mercenaries to ensure that a particularly virulent demonic advance is stopped-always in the expectation that the current lord of Avernus turns loot and booty obtained from the defeated demons over to him.

When they bargain with mortals, Mammon and his minions can offer irresistible wealth. Devils that are tasked with harvesting souls for Mammon carry with them The Accounting and Valuation of All Things, a manual that guides them in assessing the value of a soul in gold or other goods. The amount of gold that is needed to incite the greed of mortals is a minuscule drain on Mammon’s treasury, but the transactions that he and his followers consummate draw in more souls than the efforts of any other Lord of the Nine.

A Shabby Kingdom

The layer of Minauros teeters on the edge of ruin. The realm is a great swamp, interspersed with cities and fortresses that are in constant need of repair, upkeep, and replacement. Time and again, structures built on this layer are left untended and are eventually drawn into the bottomless muck of the swamp.

Mammon refuses to spend any more coin than necessary to keep the soul marketplace in the Sinking City functioning. Devils and fiends from across the planes gather here to trade souls. The place bustles with activity as caravans arrive and depart and merchants haggle over their wares. Buildings rest haphazardly atop the ruins of those that have sloughed into the muck. The roads are little more than huge stones sunk into the swamp, needing constant replacement as they slowly submerge until the mud consumes them.

Fierna and Belial

A paladin? How exquisite! Sit, please. Rest. Tell me about the god that would send such a bright soul on so long and dark a journey.

• Fierna

In the flaming realm of Phlegethos, Fierna and Belial rule in strange tandem. They are variously thought of by mortals as mother and son, daughter and father, wife and husband, or ruler and consort, but none of those terms can capture the paradoxical nature of their partnership. The Nine Hells is a hierarchy in which two individuals can’t normally hold the same position as ruler of a single layer. Yet Asmodeus allows these two to claim dominion over Phlegethos as partners and rivals.

Fierna’s charisma, equaled only by that of Asmodeus, makes her a brilliant manipulator capable of filling mortal and immortal hearts with whatever emotion she chooses to evoke. Belial, meanwhile, doesn’t attempt to sway others with his interpersonal skills and focuses on the duties of ruling a layer of the Nine Hells. The two seem to hate and admire one another in equal measure and are in constant competition. Every time Belial outthinks Fierna, she talks her way out of whatever trap he has devised. Fierna stages insurrections against Belial, but his contingency plans rescue him from possible disaster. Other devils might gain a brief advantage over the two lords because of their infighting, but whenever any true threat to their rule arises, the seeming enemies cooperate to dispatch pretenders to their shared throne.

Fiery Realm of Dark Delights

The pair rules over Phlegethos, an expanse filled with immense volcanoes that expel rivers of lava into a sea of molten rock. The fires that burn throughout Phlegethos seem to be sentient. They leap at intruders, appearing to take delight in setting creatures and objects aflame.

At the same time, the fires of Phlegethos do no harm to any denizens of the Nine Hells. Even devils that are susceptible to fire suffer no injury or pain from exposure to them. The realm’s primary city, Abriymoch, is a pleasure palace of sorts for devils that are enjoying a respite from their duties. Abriymoch is filled with devilish versions of taverns, theaters, casinos, and other entertainments. In contrast to the stiff regimentation of the rest of the Nine Hells, the laws that govern Abriymoch allow the place to operate as a carnival in which any wanton desire can be fulfilled.

Justice in All Its Forms

Phlegethos is the center of the Nine Hells' judicial system, which is overseen by Belial. Any disputes regarding contracts, accusations of cowardice in battle or dereliction of duty, and other criminal charges are resolved here. The Diabolical Court is an independent institution, answering only to Asmodeus. That fact doesn’t discourage devils from constantly plotting to introduce new laws or to set precedents that they find advantageous. The court’s function and its decisions are wholly dependent on the intricate laws of the Nine Hells, an impossibly complex code marred by a multitude of loopholes and exceptions that can cause any legal dealings to drag out for years before a resolution is reached.

Belial and his underlings also administer the procedure that determines the fate of devils that are in line for promotion or demotion. At the culmination of the process, the candidates are made vulnerable to the fires of Phlegethos through a special ritual designed for this purpose. The flames either bring searing agony that reduces a devil to a weaker form, or ecstatic joy that transforms it into a mightier being.

Soul Searching

Like the rulers of the other layers, Belial and Fierna have a quota of souls they must meet. Belial largely leaves this task to Fierna, even turning over to her the mortals that directly contact him. Fierna offers her supplicants the gift of personal influence, endowing them with a glib tongue and the ability to mold others' emotions as they see fit. Her agents typically concentrate on swaying mortals who already seek to manipulate others. Mortals who are desperate to attain positions of power and status entreat her, as do those who-for whatever reason-need to be loved, feared, or respected.

Fierna takes a direct interest in the soul trade. Her prodigious intellect allows her to glean the best information from the mountains of reports generated by her agents on the Material Plane. Fierna sometimes personally takes a role in bending a mortal’s emotions to her will, as a way to better understand the workings of mortal hearts and minds. What she or Belial intends to do with their accumulated knowledge none can definitively say, but rumors exist that Fierna has stolen the secret of how to travel freely between the Nine Hells and the Material Plane from the archlich Vecna. The fact that the denizens of the Nine Hells take such rumors seriously is a clear indication of their respect for Fierna’s power.

Levistus

Though ice might hold my body in place, it has done nothing to contain my ambition.

• Levistus

Even by the otherworldly standards of the Nine Hells, the realm of Stygia and its lord, Levistus, both occupy strange positions in the hierarchy. Stygia is a frozen wasteland of mysterious origin, a churning, murky sea covered in a thick layer of ice. Where the ice gives way to open water, immense icebergs drift on the unpredictable currents. Levistus is trapped within one of these bergs, imprisoned there by Asmodeus for reasons that few can even guess about.

As part of Levistus’s punishment, Asmodeus decreed that he must offer escape and safety to the desperate, especially those who fear for their lives. A criminal might entreat Levistus on the eve of his execution, for instance, agreeing to exchange his soul for a boon that enables him to escape to safety. With nothing to do in his tomb other than answer distant entreaties from the Material Plane, Levistus has attracted the devotion of a wide variety of criminals, rascals, and ne’er-do-wells across a multitude of worlds. He continues to meet his quota of souls, both despite his lack of mobility and because of it. Being imprisoned means that Levistus can focus his full attention on such matters, which allows him to excel at what he does.

A Contested Realm

Levistus was not always the lord of Stygia. The archdevil Geryon previously ruled over the layer. The two constantly vied for control of Stygia. The conflict ended when Asmodeus brought down his punishment on Levistus, who was frozen just after his latest victory over Geryon. The displaced lord still schemes to supplant Levistus as ruler of the realm, but he can’t directly affect his foe, since the ice that imprisons Levistus is impervious to harm.

Violence does, however, remain a viable option for Geryon against Levistus’s servants. As such, Stygia has become a war-wracked realm. Any devils bound to either of the archdevils that aren’t needed for service in the Blood War engage in constant skirmishes across the ice, and yugoloths and other mercenaries from across the planes play a key role in the struggle. Both sides sometimes employ adventurers to seek out knowledge that could free Levistus or allow Geryon to vanquish him and ascend to the lordship.

Geryon fulfills his responsibilities in the soul trade by continuing to court mortals through his agents, offering them superior strength and great physical prowess in return for their allegiance.

A Frozen Wasteland

Every other layer of the Nine Hells has a function related to warfare, industry, administration, or commerce, but Stygia is an expanse of untamed, unimproved territory. Even so, it has its uses. All manner of unlikely beasts wander the frozen terrain and swim the seas, including remorhazes, krakens, mammoths, and even a few tribes of frost giants. These denizens have no fear of any other creatures, including devils, which makes the place an ideal proving ground. Lesser devils that need to sharpen their combat skills or improve their endurance before reporting to Avernus for duty in the Blood War spend time in Stygia. The cruelly cold environment, combined with the constant threat of attack, helps commanders assess their troops and place them into the various legions as appropriate for the skills they demonstrate.

The presence of so many creatures native to the Material Plane has led to speculation that Stygia was not always a layer of the Hells, but was previously a world on the Material Plane. Its inhabitants, facing annihilation, are said to have pledged their souls and their world to Asmodeus in return for a safe haven-whereupon Asmodeus kept his end of the bargain by transporting the world into the Hells. The archmage Tzunk has researched the topic extensively but has yet to find any evidence that truly confirms the account. If the supposition is true, then the riches of that world might lie under miles of ice and beneath frigid, monster-infested seas.

Glasya

Of course I love my father. Without him, whom would I have to strive against?

• Glasya

Malbolge is the prison of the Nine Hells, and on this layer dwells its most infamous criminal. Glasya, the rebellious daughter of Asmodeus, rules the place and oversees the punishments doled out to devils that stray from their assigned tasks. These lawbreakers are put on trial in Phlegethos, and if they are found guilty they are dispatched to Malbolge to endure years of torment. That Glasya is both prison warden and the Nine Hells' most notorious criminal is evidence that in the infernal realms, crime pays as long as you avoid being convicted.

Prison and Torture Chamber

Malbolge comprises one infinitely large, steep-sloped mountain. Boulders and other debris rain down from its heights in frequent avalanches. Some of the structures here are erected atop pillars of adamantine embedded in the mountain that can withstand the constant battering, though the platforms they support sway under the force of the onslaught. Condemned devils are typically trapped in cages, which are lowered on chains to hang beneath the platforms. From such a vantage, the prisoners are continually battered by Malbolge’s avalanches, causing injuries that are agonizing but never fatal.

Some locations on the mountain are shielded from the rockfall by structures that have projections pointing up-slope so that avalanches wash around the protected areas beneath. Roofed trenches and tunnels make travel between locations possible, if perilous.

A Singular Iconoclast

Of all the Lords of the Nine, Glasya is the most unpredictable. She flaunts the rules of tradition and bends the law without breaking it. She delights in shocking others by springing gambits that catch them unaware. Mortals who go up against overwhelming odds with an audacious plan attract her attention and could win her respect and patronage.

The reason behind Glasya’s rise to lordship is the subject of much whispered debate in the Nine Hells. It is generally known that Asmodeus presented Glasya to the Lords of the Nine as his daughter, and she toured the Nine Hells on his behalf. While doing so, she put her own plans into motion, much to the surprise of the other archdevils. Even before Glasya assumed the rulership of Malbolge, she established the Hells' first organized crime syndicate, using her followers to purchase souls on her behalf while paying for them with what amounted to worthless coin.

Was it Asmodeus’s intent all along that Glasya should strike out on her own, or was Glasya rebellious and clever enough to successfully defy her father? Was Glasya’s rise to power an unforeseen benefit of her machinations, or is it a great embarrassment to Asmodeus? Likely only the two of them know the truth.

Coin Legions

Taking a cue from the sword, shield, and dreg legions into which the devils' armies are grouped, Glasya established a new category of “legion” to realize her plans for profit and power: the coin legions.

The members of Glasya’s coin legions operate in the manner of thieves' guilds on the Material Plane. They have one critical advantage compared to their mortal contemporaries: Glasya’s knowledge of the law. She knew that in many cases, procedures that devils observed and obeyed as laws were merely traditions, and failing to observe a tradition carries no penalty according to the law of the Hells.

Glasya’s scheme involved using counterfeit currency to buy souls in Minauros, then selling them soon after to turn an incredible profit. When the truth of her dealings became apparent, she defended her actions based on the legal definition of a coin as minted in Minauros.

According to law, the gold composition of a coin was strictly defined at the time of the coin’s creation, but no law governed a coin’s state after it left the mint. As long as it was made in the mint, it was legal currency.

Glasya got around the law by transmuting lead to gold, then having coins minted from the substance. After she claimed her currency and her coin legions spent it on her purchases, the magic expired and the gold became lead once more.

Asmodeus, although he couldn’t punish Glasya for breaking the law, decided to discipline her by doing something only he could do: making her an archdevil. He reasoned that, now that she was effectively tied to a single layer of the Hells and saddled with responsibilities in her capacity as prison warden, her ambitions would be kept in check.

An Ironic Sphere of Influence

To make Glasya’s workload even more onerous (and to serve as an ironic form of punishment), Asmodeus decreed that Glasya could entice souls into the Nine Hells only through delving into matters of contracts, bargains, and legalities. She and her agents offer mortal petitioners advice on how to manipulate or circumvent the law, or to identify escape clauses-all to ensure that whatever they desire can be obtained without violating a legal precedent.

Her petitioners want power, money, and love, but they want to come by it within the bounds of the law.

An ambitious prince who is entitled by law to inherit his parents' wealth but doesn’t want to murder them might ask for help, and Glasya’s agents provide it by arranging for them to die in an accident.

A notable portion of Glasya’s petitioners are souls who have pledged themselves to another Lord of the Nine and want out of the bargain. Her minions scour every contract struck with another devil and approach mortals whose contracts contain loopholes. In return for giving their souls to her instead, such individuals learn how to break the contract and negate whatever price the contract says they must pay.

Devils and Gender

To a devil, gender is insignificant. Devils can’t create new life through physical means; a new devil comes into being only when a soul is corrupted or claimed in a bargain, and the gender of the mortal that provided the soul is immaterial. Devils that represent themselves to mortals are likely to adopt an appearance (including an apparent gender) that conforms with what those mortals believe to be true. Gender (and the assumptions that mortals make about it) is just another tool for devils to use to get what they want.

Devils that are known to and named by mortals often accept the gender assigned to them, but they aren’t bound by that label. Stories of the Lords of the Nine told by mortals might speak of Glasya as Asmodeus’s daughter and Belial as Fierna’s consort, but such expressions can’t encompass the complexities of the strange relationships formed by beings of immortal evil.

Baalzebul

Through sufficient penance and grace, even the lowliest can redeem themselves. Am I not a living testament to that fact?

• Baalzebul

Maladomini was once a bustling realm of vibrant cities and a panoply of roads, gardens, and bridges. It was the center of the Hells' bureaucracy, where every edict, law, and order was dutifully copied and filed away. With each passing year, the devils would add more fortresses and archives to Maladomini to house all their records.

Then came the single greatest act of treachery in the annals of the Nine Hells. At the time, the archdevil Baalzebul was so powerful that he ruled two layers of the Hells, Maladomini and Malbolge. He conspired to topple Asmodeus and replace him, which in itself was not a crime. But in order to work his plans, he knowingly altered documents that passed into his care with the intent of confounding the apparatus of the bureaucracy. Before his scheme could come to fruition, he was caught and subjected to the most bizarre of punishments.

In that time long past, Baalzebul believed that he could cast Asmodeus as incompetent and amass a force to replace him before Asmodeus’s allies could act, but his calculations failed to take into account the unpredictability of the Blood War. A sudden offensive from the Abyss struck Avernus just as Baalzebul was about to put his plan in motion. Baalzebul directed most of his shield legions to stay out of the fight, instead of helping to hold the line against the demons, so that he could use them in staging his coup. The absence of those legions, however, enabled the horde to push close to the door step of Dis.

Baalzebul was forced to abandon his plans, realizing that the Nine Hells would be of little use to him if it was overrun with demons, and ultimately he united with the other archdevils to turn back the invasion. But when an investigation of the events uncovered his treachery, Baalzebul didn’t submit to punishment, and Maladomini was wracked with fighting as the other Lords of the Nine took to the field against the conspirator. The resulting devastation left much of the layer in ruins.

After Baalzebul was overwhelmed and defeated, Asmodeus stripped him of his rulership of Malbolge but left him in charge of Maladomini, albeit with a new set of duties. Asmodeus knew that Baalzebul’s superior intellect and propensity for lying would make him the ideal representative of the bureaucracy of the Hells in the worlds of mortals. So, to ensure his loyalty while taking advantage of his talents, Asmodeus enacted two laws concerning him.

First, whenever Baalzebul lied to a devil, he would transform into a slug-like creature, hideous to all who beheld him, for one year. This penalty was retroactive, covering several millennia of deceptions and untruths-and only recently has Baalzebul worked off all those transgressions and been returned to his former humanoid form. In all that time, he has not told a lie to another devil, and his continued honesty is motivated by his desire to keep his current appearance.

Second, Asmodeus decreed that any deal Baalzebul strikes shall end in disaster for the other party. For this reason, other devils avoid forming alliances with him, even though they know he is compelled not to lie to them. Mortals, on the other hand, know nothing of the situation and still offer their souls to him.

His ability to scheme neutralized by these limitations, Baalzebul continues to ensure that the devils' bureaucracy runs smoothly. He focuses most of his attention on gathering souls from the Material Plane, a task to which his talent for lying is well suited.

A Maze of Information

Every edict, policy statement, scientific treatise, and other document in the Nine Hells is recorded, copied, and filed away in Maladomini’s archives. These store houses are buried deep underground, so that they would remain intact if the layer is ever again hit by the sort of devastation that occurred when Baalzebul was brought to heel.

Each document in the archives is important in its own way, and all these sites are heavily guarded by devils and traps. Even if would-be thieves could get around the defenses, they would have figure out how to navigate the complex classification system that marks the precise location of each bit of paperwork stored within.

The Price of Redemption

Baalzebul and his agents recruit mortals that are desperate for redemption of some sort, perhaps the restoration of lost status or the recovery of resources that were lost because of treachery or incompetence. To these people who have been humbled by unfortunate events, Baalzebul offers a supernatural means of re gaining one’s reputation or riches. The failed merchant desperate for another chance at making his fortune or the once-traitorous knight eager to restore her honor are examples of the individuals he deals with.

What those folk don’t know is that Baalzebul is a master manipulator. He directs his agents to embed clauses and specifications in contracts that trip up the unwary. Because Baalzebul’s targets are typically desperate, he almost always bargains from a position of strength.

Although Baalzebul claims a great number of unsuspecting souls, almost all of them are pathetic, incompetent wretches best suited for the dreg legions, whose only task is to die as slowly as possible so that they might delay the advance of an abyssal army.

Mephistopheles

There are few problems that cannot be solved through the application of overwhelming arcane firepower.

• Mephistopheles

Cania, like Stygia above it, is a bitterly cold realm of glaciers and howling ice storms. Mephistopheles holds court here with the ice devils that make up his retinue. Operating from his great tower, the icy citadel of Mephistar, he conducts a never-ending series of experiments that expand his understanding of arcane magic and of the planes of existence.

Mephistopheles keeps his realm churning with punishing storms. He doesn’t entertain visitors, and Asmodeus has charged him with maintaining a stout security force around Nessus. Travelers that aren’t protected against the environment, which is cold enough to kill a creature in seconds, have little hope of surviving.

The foremost wizard in the Hells, Mephistopheles suffers nothing that would compromise his intellectual focus. He hates distractions and allows only particular devils to speak to him without first being spoken to. He has been known to disintegrate minions for the smallest transgressions, and sometimes carries out an execution simply because he suspected that a devil was about to do something to annoy him.

Mephistopheles is able to devote almost all his time to his research thanks to the loyalty of Hutijin, his top lieutenant. Even though Hutijin commands enough power to threaten his master’s position, he is content to remain at the right hand of the throne, at least for the time being.

Experiments in the Unknown

Cania is essentially an enormous laboratory. Mephistopheles and his devotees prefer to conduct their studies in a wasteland where they can unleash gouts of arcane energy without destroying anything important. Experiments involving new spells, new magic items, and other innovations for the infernal arsenal regularly cause localized cataclysms in this place.

This activity attracts numerous spies despite the inhospitable environment. Merely observing Mephistopheles’s disciples at work can provide insights into the nature of their research and the discoveries they have made. His court is constantly alert for agents from Dis, since it greatly pains Dispater that Mephistopheles might come across a scrap of information that he doesn’t possess. A number of renowned archmages, including Mordenkainen, have at times found their way into this realm on a search for forgotten lore or in the hope of confirming a theory of arcane magic.

Keeper of Arcane Souls

Mephistopheles and his followers specialize in luring wizards and sages into making compacts with the Nine Hells. Of all the Lords of the Nine, he has the lowest quotas but the highest standards. He harvests the souls of skilled wizards and cunning sages, exactly the sort of folk he needs to further his research. Curiosity and ambition are motivating factors that entice such souls into his service-often, a mage who gets an opportunity to join the cause of Mephistopheles sees that invitation as proof of one’s ascension to greatness.

The downside to this arrangement is the true nature of Mephistopheles, which is apparent only after a new contract is signed. He can be charming when he recruits a soul directly, and his agents are careful to avoid making any promises about his actions or attitudes. But once a soul arrives in the Nine Hells to serve him, it invariably faces decades of routine work or tedious study.

Thus, few who join his stable of arcanists remain happy with their decision, but they would be well advised not to show any discontent. Mephistopheles fills his contracts with cleverly worded clauses that allow him to annihilate any of his servants with a word. As further protection against dissent, he isolates his minions, allowing them to gather in small groups only when needed to carry on their work. Even then, the law of Mephistopheles prohibits all but the most vital communication, limited to why they have come together. Some of the most skilled but most gullible former wizards of the Material Plane now toil eternally in Cania, alone except for their books, their tools, and their regrets.

Storehouses of Lore

Libraries and other places where arcane knowledge is recorded or contained are scattered across Cania, mainly to ensure that a single disastrous experiment at one location can’t destroy the evidence of all the work conducted at other sites. In his pursuit of ever more lore, Mephistopheles combines his prodigious intellect with his obsessive nature. This combination of traits enables him to delve far more deeply into a topic than most ordinary wizards can even conceive of. Even the tiniest of trivialities is fascinating to him.

Sometimes, however, the business of the Nine Hells forces him to relinquish direct oversight of a project. When he returns to his research, a new mystery might capture his fancy, while the older project continues to move forward without his oversight or interference.

Here and there, tucked away in Cania’s terrible environment and similarly buried in the immense bureaucracy of the Hells, stand long-isolated citadels occupied by sages and spellcasters toiling away at some seemingly forgotten endeavor. The supervisors of these projects might have achieved incredible results that they patiently wait to share with Mephistopheles the next time his attention points in their direction.

The Rank and File

While the Lords of the Nine set the overall direction of the Hells, it is the rank and file-uncounted numbers of lesser devils-that drive their schemes forward. Denizens of the Material Plane deal primarily with devils from the lower tiers of the hierarchy.

All Creatures in Their Places

Status is all-important to devils. Every devil knows its place in the hierarchy, and each devil has a unique name to ensure that no cases of mistaken identity occur when a devil is called to account for its actions.

A devil’s form usually corresponds to its status, but circumstances can allow for variations. A pit fiend, for instance, might take the form of an imp in order to personally infiltrate a kingdom on the Material Plane.

The hierarchy of the Nine Hells has thirteen tiers or ranks. A devil of a higher rank can potentially compel those beneath it to obey its orders, but it must still abide by the law when exercising its authority. In most cases, a devil can demand the obedience of another devil only if both are in the hierarchy of the same archdevil. For example, a devil in service to Dispater can’t command a lower-ranked devil among the forces of Levistus.

Lowest of the Low

At the bottom of the hierarchy are lemures and nupperibos, creatures that qualify as devils only by the most generous of definitions. Although they are individually worthless, they constitute an effective fighting force when gathered into a teeming horde that floods the battlefield.

Lesser Devils

The next six higher tiers are occupied by the lesser devils: imps (rank 2), spined devils (rank 3), bearded devils and merregons (rank 4), barbed devils (rank 5), chain devils (rank 6), and bone devils (rank 7). These devils are specialists, typically assigned to tasks that best suit their capabilities. Imps are used as spies and messengers rather than combatants, and they are the infernal agents most often encountered on the Material Plane. Lesser devils rarely command other devils, aside from specific, short-term assignments for which they are invested with authority.

Greater Devils

Grouped in the four tiers above the lesser devils are the greater devils: horned devils and orthons (rank 8), erinyes (rank 9), ice devils and narzugons (rank 10), and amnizus and pit fiends (rank 11). Lesser devils deal with these leaders on a daily basis. Ice devils are combat commanders, equivalent to captains and colonels, while pit fiends are the Hells' generals and nobles.

Archdevils

The mightiest devils of all are the unique and uniquely powerful archdevils. Those who don’t presently serve as lord of a layer hold the title of Duke or Duchess (rank 12). Atop the hierarchy at rank 13 stand the Lords of the Nine, arrayed from topmost layer to bottommost, with Asmodeus holding sway over all.

Rules for Everything

Devils are evil schemers by nature, but they must operate within the bounds of the Nine Hells' intricate legal code. A devil’s attitude toward the law is in part driven by its personal attitude and situation.

For instance, devils that fight in the Blood War rely on military regulations and their officers' directions to dictate their actions. They obey orders without question, and take part in drills when off duty to ensure that they act to the exact parameters of their instructions.

Some other devils, particularly those of higher ranks and those tasked with infiltrating the Material Plane, see the law as a puzzle to be decoded or an obstacle to be circumvented. For instance, a devil might be bound by law never to withhold aid from its commander except under rare and specific circumstances. A clever upstart that wants to annihilate its superior could manipulate events to bring about one such circumstance, then look on as the commander succumbs while it cites the law that “prevents” it from offering help.

Three Paths to Power

Rank-and-file devils have three ways of ascending through the ranks. The Nine Hells uses a complex system of rules to quantify and recognize a devil’s deeds.

Souls

Each time a devil signs a contract that pledges a mortal’s soul to the Nine Hells, that devil receives credit for the achievement. A stronger soul, such as a mighty warrior who leaves mortality behind to become an ice devil, is worth more than a simple peasant likely to be consigned to existence as a lemure.

Glory

All devils are required to fight in the Blood War. Every low-ranking devil spends at least some time on the front lines as part of a legion. Some find combat enticing and volunteer for extra missions. Others are content to do only the minimum needed to fulfill their obligations, but they fight just as furiously when they are engaged. A devil receives credit for each foe it slays, based on the worthiness of the opponent and whether the devil scored the kill alone or with the help of others.

Treachery

Just as the law has complex rules for the promotion of devils under normal circumstances, it also includes contingencies for how to fill a sudden vacancy in the upper ranks. Vaulting into the position formerly occupied by one’s superior is the fastest means of advancement available to a devil. A devil that successfully arranges for a superior’s death can immediately step into the vacant role, as long as the devil is aware of the rules of succession and positions itself as next in line.

Devils look at mortals as sheep, just as demons do, except devils see themselves not as wolves but as shepherds. Shepherds fleece sheep by the season and slaughter them as needed. A shepherd likely kills the wolves that threaten its sheep. But then again, shepherds always expect to lose a few sheep. If you were a sheep, would you trust your shepherd?

Diabolical Cults

Cults dedicated to infernal beings are the foes of adventurers throughout the D&D multiverse. This section gives the DM ways to customize the members of cults dedicated to the powers of the Nine Hells.

Every archdevil attracts a certain type of person based on the gifts the devil offers. In the following cult descriptions, stat blocks from the Monster Manual are suggested in a cult’s Typical Cultist entry to help you represent those people.

Each description also includes a list of signature spells associated with the cult. If a cult member can cast spells, you can replace any of those spells with spells from that list, as long as the new spell is of the same level as the spell it replaces.

The customization options here will typically have no appreciable effect on the challenge rating of a creature that gains them.

• Cult of Asmodeus
• Cult of Baalzebul
• Cult of Dispater
• Cult of Fierna
• Cult of Geryon
• Cult of Glasya
• Cult of Levistus
• Cult of Mammon
• Cult of Mephistopheles
• Cult of Zariel

Infernal Cambions

Some archdevils consort with mortals to produce cambion offspring. While most have the typical abilities for a cambion (as detailed in the Monster Manual), some gain abilities reminiscent of their archdevil parent.

Signature Spells

Cambions have the Innate Spellcasting trait. When customizing an infernal cambion, you can replace spells in that trait with ones of the same level from the list of signature spells in the cult entry of the devilish parent. The cambion can use these spells once per day each.

Special Traits

A cambion linked to a specific devil typically gains any special traits conferred to that devil’s cultists.

Some devils grant a unique ability to their spawn that replaces the cambion’s Fiendish Charm trait; Zariel and Geryon have a penchant for spawning cambions to serve as war leaders among their followers. The two of them grant the Fury of the Nine ability in place of Fiendish Charm.

Fury of the Nine

As a bonus action, the cambion chooses an other creature that can see or hear it within 120 feet. That creature gains advantage on all attack rolls and saving throws for the next minute or until the cambion uses this ability again.

Tiefling Subraces

At the DM’s option, you can create a tiefling character who has a special link to one of the Lords of the Nine Hells. This link is represented by a subrace.

• Tiefling (Asmodeus)
• Tiefling (Baalzebul)
• Tiefling (Dispater)
• Tiefling (Fierna)
• Tiefling (Glasya)
• Tiefling (Levistus)
• Tiefling (Mammon)
• Tiefling (Mephistopheles)
• Tiefling (Zariel)

Devil Customization Tables

This section provides tables useful for DMs who want to create devil NPCs.

Devil Customization Tables

Devil Honorifics

Devil Personality Traits

Devil Ideals

Devil Bonds

Devil Flaws

Princes of the Abyss

The Abyss is a vast wound in the cosmic order, a bottomless pit teeming with creatures that exist only to rend, tear, and destroy. The demon princes, individual demons of great power and determination, bend and shape the Abyss and its inhabitants to meet their every whim. These mighty beings imagine themselves at the center of the cosmos. Each demon prince believes that the universe will one day be theirs to command, its laws and structure twisted and warped to match the demons' ideal of perfection.

The demon princes' arrogance is exceeded only by their ambition. While any rational being would dismiss their goals as empty ambitions sparked by madness, the truth remains that the demon princes and their thralls are among the mightiest forces in the planes. It is conceivable that, if the Blood War turns dramatically in their favor, the demon princes could put the rest of their apocalyptic plans in motion.

Scourge of Worlds

You must understand that my ambitions do not stop here in Doraaka, or even at the doorstep of Greyhawk or the Amedio jungles beyond. Oerth is but the first of many worlds that will fall.

• Iuz the Old

The Abyss and its demonic inhabitants are akin to a virus. While most other factions across the planes spread their influence into other realms through conquest, conversion, or diplomacy, demons infect a world by traveling there and beginning to transform their environment to resemble the malleable, chaotic substance of their home plane. If demons dwell in a place for a significant amount of time, the area starts to warp in response to the abyssal energy that churns within it. If a demonic infestation is left unchecked, a portal to the Abyss is the result, and more and more of the essence of the Abyss pushes its way through. In time, a plane or a world could become a colony of the Abyss, overrun with demons and devoid of all other forms of life.

Initial Infection

A full-fledged demonic incursion takes time to develop. A demon prince might rampage across a world for a few days or weeks before returning home, but that event doesn’t qualify as an incursion. After the demon is banished, the world suffers no long-term effects, aside from the destruction wrought by the demon.

But if demons can dwell undisturbed on a plane for a period of time, their continued presence begins to erode the barriers between their location and the Abyss. It can take a few years for weaker demons to warp their environment, while changes begin to occur around the location of a demon prince in about a month.

To bring about these changes, the invaders must remain in the same location for some time, usually an area no more than six miles on a side, to combine their influence. Fortunately for their would-be victims, the chaotic evil nature of demons means that they rarely organize in a way to cause such a disturbance. Demons that enter the world are bent on destruction, not concerned with greater matters, and inclined to go their separate ways unless a powerful leader can keep them under control long enough for the virus to take hold.

During the first stages of an abyssal incursion, the natural world recoils from the demonic presence. Plants become twisted versions of themselves. Leering faces appear in leaf patterns, vines writhe of their own accord, and trees grow foul-smelling tumors instead of leaves as their branches wither and die. Bodies of water in the area become tainted and sometimes poisonous, and the weather might feature extremes of heat, cold, wind, rain, or snow that aren’t typical of the normal climate. Living things in the area flee or are killed by the demons.

At this stage, natives can stop the incursion by killing or driving away the demons that infest the area. The effects of the event might persist for a few months or even centuries, but the barriers between the Abyss and the world remain intact.

A Growing Menace

If the first stage of the infection continues long enough, a portal opens in the corrupted environment that connects to a random location in the Abyss. Demons that happen to be near the portal can travel through it and into the world, while the raw stuff of the Abyss also begins to seep through the passage.

Even at this stage, the infection has almost no chance of developing into a true incursion. The immensity of the Abyss means that a portal’s random location is more likely to be an empty, uninhabited place than anything else, and demons can’t make use of the portal unless they can locate it. The incursion might be long delayed as a result, but the portal’s opening on the other plane remains a lurking threat until it is closed.

As more demons find and use the portal, the Abyss becomes strongly linked to the world, and the region’s transformation grows more extreme. The odd but still mundane weather gives way to storms that drop burning embers, or winds that shriek in all directions, seizing living creatures and hurling them against the ground. The environment becomes inimical to all living things.

At this point, the incursion is still in a state of flux. The demons aren’t yet directed by a single will. Unless a powerful demon dominates all the others, the area is wracked by fighting as one demon after another claims primacy, only to be overcome. The tie to the Abyss is still fragile enough that, as demons are slain, the portal grows smaller and weaker. If the invaders are reduced to about half the number that were present when the portal was created, the opening winks out of existence.

A Stain on Reality

In its third phase, the demonic virus invades fully and becomes a part of the world. Simply killing the demons in an afflicted area is no longer enough to remove the Abyss’s stain.

The size of the region begins to grow, the effects of the lethal environment expanding from the original area. The demons likewise begin to roam, and a small force capable of establishing its own incursion might travel far. If enough of these groups splinter off, the incursion could spread into a network of similar sites, each opening its own portal and drawing in more demons.

Slaying all the demons in an infested area ends their direct threat, but the terrain remains twisted and accursed, the portal dormant but still in place. To repel the incursion at this stage, the defenders must not only slay the demons but also establish a permanent watch over the portal, to ensure that it remains unused. Ambitious cultists, or even a random confluence of planar energy, could awaken the portal and start the infection anew.

Apocalypse Now

If the incursion remains unchecked or grows strong enough, it enters its fourth and final phase with the entrance of a demon lord. As a portal continues to shunt demons and abyssal energy into the world, it begins to attract the attention of the lords. Two or more of them might fight for control of it, or in the worst case, several might travel through the portal in rapid succession.

The visitation of a demon lord to the Material Plane is a cataclysmic event. The lord’s presence overwhelms the minds of other beings to keep them from resisting, and the lord’s power enables it to command the other demons already present in the world. They form a horrid army that sets about stripping the world of life and clearing the path for the lord’s dominance.

At this point, a besieged world’s only hope for survival is the expulsion of the demon lord. The lord’s defeat leaves the other demons again leaderless, and they react by warring against each other, which makes them susceptible to attacks from the world’s defenders. The longer a demon lord remains in control of all the other fiends, the more the world around it becomes irrevocably changed. When a demonic incursion runs its course, no vestige remains of the world that existed before-in effect, the realm has become another layer of the Abyss.

Chaos Incarnate

Although sages group demons into types according to their power, the Abyss knows no such categories. Demons are spawned from the stuff of the Abyss in a near-infinite variety of shapes and abilities. The common forms that are familiar to demonologists represent broad trends, but individual demons defy those tendencies. For instance, a vrock might crawl out of an oil slick in the Demonweb Pits with three eyes and vestigial wings. A chasme might appear on the layer of Azzagrat possessing the ability to belch forth clouds of flies.

If a demon survives for centuries, it accumulates changes to its form due to interaction with the energies of the Abyss. These long-lived demons often become demon lords, beings of such power that they can hold sway over entire realms within the Abyss. A few demon lords have come to the attention of mortals and are even worshiped as gods in some places, but the vast majority of demon lords remain unknown to scholars and sages.

The Unknowable Abyss

The Abyss is a puzzle to those who study demons and an attraction for those who seek power. It isn’t as purely chaotic as Limbo nor as pliable, and yet demon lords can shape its essence by their subconscious will. Some demon lords emerge from the planar stuff, others seem to have been in existence since the start of time, and still others are interlopers from outside the Abyss. Several theories exist about what principles dictate who can gain a demon lord’s power, or, if no such principles exist, how that power might be seized.

Most mortals would rather be annihilated than have their souls travel to the Abyss, but some see its chaos as something that can be harnessed and manipulated by those of sufficient will. A powerful soul might be able to dominate demons, retrieve weapons of the Blood War to use in mortal conflicts, or discover spells known only in the Abyss-and the madly ambitious might even seek out the means of becoming a demon lord.

Ever-Changing Layers

The physical nature of the Abyss is something that few mortal minds can understand. Those who discuss such matters use the term “layer” to define a certain part of this infinite expanse. That nomenclature, to the extent that it implies a particular configuration, is misleading.

The Abyss is a chaotic tangle of miniature worlds, each one shaped by the demon lord that claims primacy over it. Within the layers it controls, a demon lord manipulates conditions to match its view of how that world best serves the lord’s desires.

Of course, keeping control of a layer involves fighting off other demons that are looking to expand their domains. From time to time, a layer changes hands or is seemingly obliterated in a battle (perhaps to be reborn in another location). For this reason, imposing a sense of order on the relationship between the Abyss’s layers is a fool’s errand. All that can be determined at any given time is which lord holds sway over which parts of the Abyss, and which areas are being contested by two or more lords. And as soon as such a fact becomes known, it might already be obsolete.

Getting Around

Portals connect various locations in the Abyss, but these passages are as unreliable as anything else in this environment. Most of them fluctuate, sometimes winking in and out of existence or connecting to different layers at random. Rituals exist that travelers can use to attune a portal to a certain domain. However, the exact specifications of such a ritual vary for each potential destination.

Those who would navigate the Abyss always enter the place in a random location. From there, they must locate a portal and then perform the ritual that enables them to find a specific destination. Escaping the Abyss likewise requires knowledge of the specific ritual needed to do so. Without it, visitors are trapped unless they have access to magic that permits travel between planes.

Evil Inchoate

I will be the last creature when I am done. The cosmos will then be perfect, free of the braying abominations that are all other living things.

• Orcus

As beings of utter chaos and absolute evil, demons have no concept of empathy. Each demon believes that only its needs and desires matter.

This self-centeredness applies even with regard to other demons. These fiends have no particular affinity for their own kind, which is the biggest reason why they seldom cooperate with one another unless they are forced to submit to a demon lord or other leader.

Going even farther, every demon sees itself as the rightful inheritor of the cosmos. It is driven to destroy all other living creatures, or at least command their absolute loyalty. In due time, the laws of the universe will bend to its will, shifting to bring about its vision of a world of absolute perfection with the demon at its center.

One Cosmos, Infinite Visions

All demons seek to satisfy their whims and force others around them to serve their purposes. What specifically motivates a demon varies greatly from one to another and often changes within the same demon, but it is always attached to fulfillment of its desires.

Less intelligent and less powerful demons typically have correspondingly modest visions for what it means to be the center of their universes. All demons have an instinctive sense of their own status, and they typically don’t set impossible goals-a lesser demon, for instance, might simply run amok when unleashed into the world, its only desire to spread chaos, but a marilith or other powerful demon usually has an intent that goes beyond merely causing carnage, and a plan to achieve it.

Demonic Amulets: Blessing and Curse

Some demon lords have a way of cheating death, but this great benefit doesn’t come without its own perils. A demon that stores part of its essence in a demonic amulet can avoid being destroyed even if it is killed in the Abyss. On the other hand, anyone else who lays claim to such an item can command the demon to do as they wish.

For this reason, demon lords hide their amulets away and trust no one, not even their followers, with knowledge of the location. Such a site is usually protected with intricate traps, mindless servants, and other defenses that bring no risk of subversion or betrayal.

If an archdevil were ever to acquire a demonic amulet, that event could signal a tipping point in the Blood War. If Asmodeus held Demogorgon’s amulet, for instance, the demon lord might find itself in a position from which there is no escape.

Lords and Their Thralls

While the demons fight for domination among their own kind in the Abyss, the Material Plane is the most fertile ground for demons to acquire followers. Even a relatively weak demon can demand obedience and worship from humans and other mortals through the threat of force. In turn, its magical abilities allow it to impart boons to its servants, making them more useful and better able to pursue the demon’s goal in the world.

Sects dedicated to the worship of the various demon lords are spread across the mortal worlds of the multiverse as well as the Abyss. In return for a cult’s adoration, a demon receives allies in its struggle against its rivals. To show their reverence, cultists might offer sacrifices of treasure and magic items that the demon can use. Taking advantage of that same reverence, a demon might send its cultists into battle to soften up an enemy before the demon enters the fray itself.

Many cultists gravitate to a demon lord out of a desire for power. Others find themselves captivated by a demon’s narcissism, so that their minds and worldviews become twisted into a pale version of their master’s.

Baphomet

Known as the Horned King, Baphomet divides the creatures of the world into two groups. Those who acknowledge his power are his servants, and he endows them with savagery and a hunter’s cunning. The rest are prey, creatures to be hunted and slaughtered. His aim is to transform the cosmos into his personal hunting ground.

Baphomet is a savage entity, but he tempers his ferocity with shrewdness. He loves the hunt and the sense of impending doom that comes over prey that can’t escape his pursuit. His fondness for labyrinths, instilled in the minotaurs he created, reflects this aspect of his personality. Baphomet studies every detail of the mazes he creates and exults in the dread that overcome those who become lost in them. He tracks them at his leisure, striking only after the maze’s contorted corridors have exhausted the energy and the hope of his victims.

Cultists

The cult of Baphomet attracts those who see themselves as superior to everyone else, to the extent that they consider other people little more than animals. Baphomet’s teachings reinforce these beliefs, appealing to the ego and justifying narcissism. Bigots are also drawn to Baphomet’s doctrine of individual superiority.

Cultists of Baphomet include nobles who use their vassals as playthings, assassins who practice their murderous art for the sheer love of hunting intelligent creatures, and paranoid humans who combine a hatred of outsiders with bloodthirstiness.

Typically, a cult builds a maze beneath a castle, a guild hall, or some other place it controls. The cultists drug their victims, strip them of their weapons and armor, and place them in the labyrinth before they wake up disoriented. Then the cultists stalk their prey in the maze. They howl as they chase their quarry, striking fear into their victims' hearts before descending for the kill. If the hunt claims a particularly powerful creature, Baphomet might bestow boons on the cultists as a reward.

Demogorgon

The Prince of Demons is a being of unfettered violence and rage, the mightiest of the demon lords. His twin heads, Aameul and Hathradiah, compete in some ways and cooperate in others. The result is an entity that is capable of devising and enacting the most clever strategies, paranoid at all times about threats to his rule (which certainly exist in the chaos of the Abyss), and possessed of immense physical power.

Demogorgon prefers to meets every challenge with overwhelming force and to ferret out enemies long before they can marshal the strength to make a serious stand against him. He sees every living creature as a potential threat-and only those who debase themselves before him have a chance of escaping his wrath.

His ultimate goal is to empty the multiverse of all other creatures, even his cultists. Free from any prospect of being betrayed or insulted, he can finally rest in a perfectly peaceful cosmos. According to one hypothesis, if Demogorgon were ever to achieve this end, his two heads would finally fight to the death, each devouring the other and leaving behind nothing but a void.

Cultists

Demons comprise the majority of Demogorgon’s cultists, since he commands unmatched power in the Abyss. The mere sight of him anywhere in that realm can transfix lesser demons and instantly compel them to do his bidding.

In mortal realms, people can fall under his sway simply by laying eyes on a true copy of his symbol, crafted either by Demogorgon or one of his most powerful demonic followers. An individual exposed to such a symbol becomes an agent of Demogorgon, dedicated ever after to a life of lurking in the shadows, lashing out against unsuspecting victims and striking fear into those who discover the bodies left behind.

I studied Demogorgon’s symbol. I thought that, by looking at it through a mirror, I might avoid its effects. If anything, viewing its reflection made its effect more potent and more subtle. It was Rary who saved me, and I thought he had been spared the symbol’s effects. I don’t have many regrets, but underestimating that symbol is one of my greatest.

Fraz-Urb’luu

The most deceptive of all demons, Fraz-Urb’luu is a master illusionist and weaver of lies. He thrives by luring his cultists and his enemies alike into lives of self-delusion. He can take on nearly any form, usually appearing in whatever shape is most pleasing to a potential cultist.

Fraz-Urb’luu considers himself the smartest entity in the cosmos, the only one who can see through all of reality’s lies and understand the truth that lies beyond them. Yet the truth that he sees remains known only to him. He utters cryptic remarks about a grand design that guides the cosmos toward some unknown end, but none can say whether these statements are another layer of deception or evidence of a true insight.

Cultists

Those who worship Fraz-Urb’luu fall into two camps. Most of his so-called “cultists,” rather than being true volunteers, are unfortunates duped into honoring him because they listened to his lies. Fraz-Urb’luu might appear to a desperate paladin and claim to be a saintly figure, or contact a wizard while in the guise of a wise sage. He tells these folk whatever stories and promises they want to hear, playing to their needs and slowly drawing them into his circle of influence. He especially enjoys using the arrogance and vanity of good folk against them, helping to bring about their downfall.

A few of his followers are illusionists, deceivers, and con artists who seek him out. Fraz-Urb’luu makes use of their talents, and rewards these supplicants appropriately, as long as they follow his example in the campaign to bring about the downfall of all that is lawful and good.

Graz’zt

The lord of pleasure and limitless indulgence, Graz’zt is the ultimate hedonist. He incites lust and uncontrollable urges in both his cultists and his enemies.

In Graz’zt’s eyes, the universe is a great plaything, and one day he will be its master. All other creatures and things will be allowed to exist only if they give him pleasure. When he ascends to dominate the cosmos, all who are left will love and worship him.

Despite his extreme self-indulgence, Graz’zt isn’t blind to what goes on around him. He can curb his lust when he needs to plot against an enemy or counter an attack. When he must contend with an enemy, he fights with a detached, thoughtful demeanor, channeling his frustration at being distracted from pleasurable pursuits into the actions of a cool, efficient killer.

Cultists

Graz’zt attracts most of his followers from the ranks of those who seek pleasure above all else. He promises dark delights and forbidden ecstasies, in return for total submission to him. His cult gathers new members by circulating tracts, poems, and other works of art that depict encounters with him. Upstanding folk regard these works as vulgar, wretched, and obscene, but the delights they depict or describe sometimes lure a curious soul into learning more about the demon lord.

When a cult beseeches him during the induction of new members, Graz’zt sends an emissary or an avatar to preside over the proceedings, which conclude with the new followers being treated to a night of debauchery.

Graz’zt’s Murky Past

Sages have put forth ideas for why demons consider the denizens of the Nine Hells as the greatest threat to their designs for the cosmos. Some researchers claim to have uncovered evidence that the animosity between demons and devils has its roots in a primeval time when Graz’zt, now a demon lord, was a member of the devils' hierarchy.

As the hypothesis goes, Graz’zt wasn’t satisfied with the prospect of being eternally subservient to Asmodeus in the Hells, where only one devil can claim absolute rulership. The Abyss offers greater freedom to those who are powerful enough to carve out a realm for themselves-and, after forsaking his status in the Hells, that’s exactly what Graz’zt did.

Those who find this idea plausible hope that Graz’zt’s defection is a unique event, never to be repeated. If that turns out not to be the case, another such shift could be a major turning point in the Blood War.

Juiblex

The Faceless Lord is a truly alien creature, said to be responsible for spawning the oozes found throughout the world. Those who study such topics theorize that every such creature has a connection to Juiblex, and the demon lord sees and knows all that its minions encounter.

Wherever Juiblex wanders, it leaves trailings in its wake that coalesce into new slimes and oozes. Most sages believe that if Juiblex and its spawn were given free rein, they would one day overrun the universe, turning every realm into an ooze-infested wasteland.

Cultists

Juiblex has few cultists, and most of them are incurably disturbed or delusional. His mortal cultists preach of the glorious day to come, when a tide of slimes and oozes will swallow the world. These wretched followers believe that by aligning with Juiblex, they can avoid the fate that awaits all other living creatures.

The lord’s followers dwell underground, where they maintain a stable of oozes and slimes that help to protect their gathering place. They use traps to capture sentient creatures, then feed them to the oozes in a simulation of what awaits all who don’t revere Juiblex.

Orcus

The bloated Demon Prince of the Undead seeks to end all life in the cosmos, replacing the living with immortal, undead creatures that answer only to him. In this grim future, the many suns of the Material Plane are extinguished, and all hope has faded away. All that remains is the eternally static realm of the living dead.

Orcus is the universe’s staunchest advocate of stagnation. He sees the activity of life as noisy, crude, and maddening. It rakes at his senses like the claws of a rat scratch across a hard floor. In his view, the universe can know peace only when life’s incessant hum is replaced with the peace and quiet of the world of the dead.

Cultists

Worshipers of Orcus are heretics and blasphemers who see the gods of the multiverse as cruel, unjust creatures. They resent that mortals must suffer and die at the whims of these entities. In Orcus, they see the promise of release from pain without the demand of obedience. In the state of undeath that Orcus offers, they will be free from hunger, fear, and worry.

People who have lost a loved one to a tragic death are especially susceptible to his appeal. A father stricken with grief after the death of his child might seek Orcus’s intervention in returning his child to the world after the gods cruelly snatched her away.

All who would become cultists of Orcus must be willing to become undead. Those who commit to the cause are admitted to the cult. Those who have second thoughts and attempt to decline are destroyed, their souls condemned to the Outer Planes while their bodies are animated as skeletons and zombies.

Yeenoghu

Also known as the Beast of Butchery, Yeenoghu inspires his followers to devour any creatures they meet. In his mind, the cosmos is made up only of predators and prey.

To sate his blood lust, Yeenoghu often rampages across the Abyss, killing everything in his path. Only those demons that join him in wreaking carnage can avoid his wrath. Yeenoghu’s wanderings across the Abyss are like the meanderings of a storm. He and his cultists pass through an area like a monstrous hurricane whose course can never be predicted.

Of all the demon lords, Yeenoghu has made the greatest mark on the Material Plane. During his rampage across the world eons ago, the race of gnolls sprang up in his wake. Every gnoll is a miniature embodiment of Yeenoghu’s rage and hunger. They mimic their creator, killing any creatures that cross them and respecting only those that can withstand their fury.

Cultists

Yeenoghu rarely acquires cultists other than gnolls, leucrottas, and the other creatures spawned by his incursions across the planes. The few humanoids that take up his worship are disaffected loners, many of them outcasts driven away from civilization. A cult of Yeenoghu operates like a pack of gnolls, regardless of what creatures make it up. Yeenoghu infuses them with a cannibalistic hunger, and they know that each victim they claim draws them closer to his presence.

Zuggtmoy

The Demon Queen of Fungi has many traits similar to those of Juiblex. Some sages believe she is the originator of all fungi and molds, from the mushrooms that grow in the forest to the deadliest forms of yellow mold. Those who study demons argue that Zuggtmoy isn’t merely a patron of fungi, and that her ultimate goal is to meld all living creatures into one great organism, an entity that she will then join with and rule over.

Cultists

Most of Zuggtmoy’s cultists are hapless mortals that have been infested with the demonic spores she cultivates in the fungi she created. The spores slowly devour these creatures' brains, leaving them with enough functionality to spread malevolent fungi but robbing them of the will to turn against their master.

A few mortals freely enter her service. Most are druids who want to exterminate civilization and replace it with wild plants and fungus, or deluded, power-hungry individuals who believe that they would retain their identities while they bring others under Zuggtmoy’s thrall. Zuggtmoy allows these zealots to retain their existing forms if doing so furthers her aims and helps to spread her children far and wide, but they are destined for the same fate as all the others.

Lolth Extends Her Webs

The Demon Queen of Spiders and her brood rarely take part directly in the Blood War; rather, her agents in the Abyss contrive to lure her enemies into throwing themselves into the struggle. Her servitors spy on both sides, playing demon and devil against each other.

Lolth’s plan, as far as those who study the Abyss understand it, is to tempt her rival demon lords into venturing onto other planes or to send them away with powerful magic. Because it is in the demons' nature to spread and destroy, they rampage in their new environs instead of seeking revenge on Lolth. Lolth, in turn, delights in filling the vacancy left by a departed rival, expanding the reach of the Demonweb Pits and claiming those servants her enemies have left behind as new spies and informants for her.

Demonic Boons

Wicked folk who seek power from demons are scattered across the multiverse. Some of them gather in cults, but many of them act on their own or in small groups. Whatever their organization, they are united in their desire to draw power from the bottomless evil of the Abyss.

The following entries outline boons that a DM can grant to monsters and NPCs dedicated to a particular demon lord. The entries also list signature spells associated with a demon lord. If the monster or NPC can cast spells, you can replace any of those spells with spells from that list, as long as the new spell is of the same level as the spell it replaces.

• Demonic Boon of Baphomet
• Demonic Boon of Demogorgon
• Demonic Boon of Fraz-Urb’luu
• Demonic Boon of Graz’zt
• Demonic Boon of Juiblex
• Demonic Boon of Orcus
• Demonic Boon of Yeenoghu
• Demonic Boon of Zuggtmoy

A typical demon can impart boons to a number of creatures equal to the demon’s number of Hit Dice. In contrast, demon lords have no limit on the number of creatures that can receive their boons.

Boons from demons are fickle gifts. They remain in place only as long as the demon is pleased. Accepting such a boon is a damning act that corrupts the soul and drives a person toward acts of chaos, evil, and madness. Rejecting a boon likely provokes a demon’s wrath.

Demonic Cambions

Cambions spawned by demon lords sometimes manifest different abilities from a typical cambion. Graz’zt is notable among demon lords for the many cambions he has spawned across the multiverse. Most famous among them is Iuz, who combined his father’s abyssal heritage and his mother’s peerless arcane tutelage to become a demigod.

Signature Spells

Cambions have the Innate Spellcasting trait. When customizing a demonic cambion, you can replace spells in that trait with ones of the same level from the list of signature spells in the boon entry of the demonic parent. The cambion can use these spells once per day each.

Special Traits

A cambion descended from a demon can have the special traits conferred to that demon’s cultists, as described in the demon’s boon section.

Few demons consort with mortals, and those with the charm or desire to usually grant their cambion children the Fiendish Charm ability. Cultists of Baphomet and Orcus can also use foul rituals to infuse their master’s strength into a young or unborn child, yielding a cult champion who can wield special abilities; a cambion linked to Orcus replaces Fiendish Charm with Spawn of the Grave, and one linked to Baphomet replaces it with Horned One’s Call.

Horned One’s Call

When the cambion targets only one creature with the attacks of its Multiattack, it can choose one ally it can see within 30 feet. That ally can use its reaction to make one melee attack against a target of its choice.

Spawn of the Grave

At the end of each of the cambion’s turns, each undead of its choice that it can see within 30 feet gains 10 temporary hit points, provided the cambion isn’t incapacitated.

In addition, this cambion can use its Innate Spellcasting ability to cast animate dead three times per day.

Demon Customization Tables

This section provides tables useful for DMs who want to customize certain demons.

Demon Personality Traits

Demon Ideals

Demon Bonds

Demon Flaws

Unusual Demon Features

Use the following template to quickly customize a Demon

Fiendish Cults

The following tables can be used to generate random cults dedicated to fiends. Roll on the tables in the order in which they appear to build up the cult’s traits.

Cult Goals

Cult Resources

Cult Organization

Cult Hardship

Use the template linked above to quickly draw up some information on a Fiendish Cult.