evilbound

paizo.com #652842, Kari Wilfong <[email protected]>, Apr 6, 2009


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1

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CRB D I IE S

Desmer: Colin McComb + Editor: Ray Vallese Proofreaders: Michele Carter. Monte Cook. Valerie Vallese d

Cover Artist: Robh Ruppel + Interior Artist: Adam Rex + Cartographer: Roy Bohold Art Director: Bob Galin + Project Manager: Karen Boomgarden

Electronic Prepp~ns Coodinator: Dave Conant + mography: AngeUka Lolrotz Border Art Robert Rrpp + Graphic Design/Cover: Dawn Murin

Author's note: Special thanks to the PUNESCAPE@ game e-mail list, Erik MOM, and all those whose suggestions or actions-good or evil-insphi me.

You know who you are.

Editor's note: Even more special thants to Col i for writing so many @at Pmesupe products over the past few years. I only wish I

had been lucky enough to work with him on all of them.

US., CANADA EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS ASIA, PACIFIC. R LATIN AMERICA

Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast, P.B. 34

P.O. Box 7(n 2300 Tumhout , Renton, WA 9 8 0 5 7 m 7 Belgium + 1-206-624-0933 +32-14-44-3044

V i OUI' website at http://www.tsrinc.com

2630XXX1501



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. ... TABLIB cse C ~ N + I B N L ) I ' ~ -

: $@of, * " ch#adurd)urity

i@TROOUCnON ............................ 4 LordoftheFourth ............. 31 , ............... 31

33

I TheNahucofEvil ' ................... 5 ., l(hd &thpFiftb ................ 31 What -a p k n d i F i w . ! ........ ..*..,

Plant of0rlgin ........... ' ... 6 tala of hi2 ............. .............. ... Lord ofthe Eighth ...... ' ......... sr ........................ &od o # W Nhth ....

(I,.

Immortality 6 Gender 7 , '

Clueless Slun .,. '.7 ........ True N a m e ..................... 7 Rlr! ind the RMn ........... The Blood War .................. 7 ASorlcty ofBctrayal 1

Going to the Prime ................... 8 L.nyage .......................... 35 Summoning the Fiends ................ 9 Tht Csxtes of Speech ............ -35 AFinalWord ....,.. ................. 9 cutturc .......................... 235 Acknowledgements .................. 9 hhitcctufe .................. -36

Aft . ........................... 36 ........................... Economy ...................... 36

Origin of the Specie 12,. , Educatibn 3c Up From the Muck ............. -12 . . odvemment ................... 37 Modem Evolution ............... 12 . tit*oy ... ....... 3P Fleeting Memory ................ 13 .. . . '. ...... .37.

Station to Statloa .... ..R&I#w .... ...... .a?., InSu&@! . . t . . . . . .

Lesser Bast- ...... .. l?Ibcf&Of.hfi' ........

................ .............

.

'1 ................ ... . . ..................... 1 THE BAAIEZU 10

. . '

Least Baatm , . . Greater Baatccu , , . , .

Methods ...................... 17' ' ' ' . i ln ...... Ridng to Power ................. 17 Demotions .............. , . . 18

An Endless Varlcty .............. 43 The Pit of Flame ......... * . 19

......................... L+cr Tandd .................. Parts .I9 Gender 9X.. wt WwIt 44 Birth 20 Nourlshment ................... 20 WeatnTanar'rl ................. Siecp and Dreams ............... 21 Tnle Tanar'ri ................... 46

Powers ........................... 22 Glutdlln nhet'ri ............... 47 Alterations .................... 22 Ascen3ioti ........................... 48

WeaknesJcs ....................... 23 Traiton ............................ 48

......... T ~ C PIOC~SS of mmotibn .. i ... ,

. ,

........... ............. .......................... ................. ........................ .. . . ...................

Bodily Form and Fmdcma 19 Mutbn.obfbfit . i* 4 :. A ' ' ItaWga . i . . ' . . J

Physical Vulnerabilities ........... 24 BodUy Pohn and Fundions ........... 4d Spiritual Vulncnbillties ......... 2 5 . . . P h y s m AnnbutsJ .............. 49 The True Death ................. 28 am& ....................... 49 Banishment .................... 25 Pmurttion .................... 49

Summoning the Baatuu ............. 26 Sustenance .................... 50 How to Call Them ............... 27 Rest and Respite ................ 50 How to Control Them ............ 27 POWCrS ........................... 50

Dealing With Mortals ................ 28 Vulnerabilities ...................... 51 The Dark Eight ..................... 29 W n g Dead Stay Dead .......... 51 Noble Baatuu ..................... 29 Dew'wlth Modah .......... , The Lords of the Nine ................ 30 Suwdning the Tanar'ri ... ,

Lord of tht h t ................ 30 Arcane %I& ................. 53 Lord of the Second .............. 30 Sprcadtng the Word ..... ' ........ -54 Lord of the Third ................ 30 Communication .................... 55

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.................. .......................... ..................... ...............

A Culture of Chaos 55 THE GEHRELETHS 82 Character 56 The Legend of Apomps 83 Aesthetics ..................... 56 Physiology ........................ 84 Society ....................... 56 Laws ......................... 57 Population Count ............... 84

Getting What You Want .............. 57 Posturing ...................... 58 Parasites of Power ............... 58

TheTriad ...................... 84 . Gender and Birth ................ 85 Rest and Nourishment ............ 85 Powers ........................ 85

3

3' InSummary ....................... 63 Mal Atundak: The City of Confusion .... 63

THE Y U C O L ~ S ........................

1

t

Abyssal Lords ...................... 58

Fraz Urblu .............. .... 60 Lupenio .............. ....M,

....... ..... -61 ...... ......... Lynkhkb

61 Verin ............... ...... 62 . . .

Abyssal Prlnccs ................. 62 . 0 Controlling a Layer ............. 6 2

Pmsccuting the Blood War ........... 6 3

Mortality ...................... 85 ....................... ................... ...................... . 1 Alvarez 60 86

Eldanoth 60 r !

%

. t ' -

The Lies of TNth .................. In the Beginning ..................

The TNCst Fiends .............. 6 9 The Shapes of Evil .................. 70

Yugoloth Creations .............. 70 Lesser Yugdoths ................ 70 h a t e r Yugdoths ............... 70 The Oinoloth 1.

Baemaloths ................... Promotion and Purification ............ Rogue Yugoloths ................... 72 Bodily Form and Functions ........... 73

Gender ....................... 73 Birth ......................... 74 Nourishment ................... 74 Rest and Recovery .............. 74

Powers ........................... 75 Dbposing of a Yugoloth .............. 75 Dealing With Mortals ................ 76

Summoning Yugoloths ........... 76 Language ......................... 77 Culture and Society ................. 77

Essential Beliefs ................ 77 Politics and Caste ............... 78 Manipulation .................. 79

In Summary ....................... 79 R e Tower of Incarnate Pain ........... 80

..................

. . h p w d Quasits .................... 91

Physiology .................... 92 Society and Culture .............. 92 Meeting an Imp or Quasit ......... 93

Larvae ............................ 93 Physiology .................... 93 Society and Culture .............. 93

Night Hags ........................ 94 Physiology .................... 94 Swiety and Culture .............. 94 Meeting a Night Hag ............. 95

Shadow Fiends ..................... 95

Society and Culture .............. 95 Meeting a Shadow Fiend .......... 96

T k f h @ .......................... 96 PhyJiOlOgy .................... 96

Physiology .................... 95

Society and Culturc .............. 96

P'



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think you've got the

with a bent toward the dark side

der machines. And *ten those who

skips over a tot of numbers you can pick up

More importmtly, though, this pendish mind. 41th alt, the matures

most of 'em ears. anyway). They've ,got Tbeyfonn sociclJes out ofalliances a and architecture and education. And is

. - rK, mdR+ALLY P E R l L g , +$e..

it mow than P moment's attention Why? Bmnme8Cn.d fifling. said it. NOW get WCI it. sure, rue gotptn,+i&w: - maybe buckettoads, maybe just afew drops.

w h e n r m going. Find my place in the multlversc.

Just m e m b e r me when somethiw's riaht.



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L . THS NA+UR8

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the Bends. we need to tackle a much bigger question: What i s evil? SUR, most folks think they h o w evil when they see it, but stop readtng for just a moment and try to come up with a definition.

what that means? Evil is different things to diffmnt people. I started a few folks talk-

+

Chances are that no two of you came up with the same defdtion. Know 7

ini I C

Barlaw: Evil? That's simule. Evil is trvinu to ruin and destroy,

01

B: Well, what I really meant was trampling any-

0:

,.&:+,, d

some 0' those bashers're as virtuous as a solar.

thinu that pets in vour wav.

these n i t t e n - ~ t l b ' a l , by - stomp their way am Great Ring, mn in ' ever's in thcir path,.<.

B: All rlght, then. Evil is

0: there,

belon$ I

b c k I ,A i o th Fatedy

don't

YOU,



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'he freedoms of those ked up to a quirk of- bmnlng

, . .

.Ns Ofl OR181.d

this is want for all you bem-coun- abes out then - a fiend Is ID evil

where else, it Jn't a Bend. Mod. On the other hand, not cvnythlse tbat comes from the

Lower Planes is I Bend. Plenty of die ataturn come from the bottom of the Gnat Ring. Some of than even haw the word 'fiend" built right into tbetr neme8, like the ahadow

&clcshucs can rightly be d W W: the baa- the " lw. But they'rr not fiw.Fq 4, Only flvc dim races

it tucl&~<mewfi:n in &e back of your head, you're done is the same thing

end b sknplya basher that's of cvU. a bnt with atrange



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'Coup& that wqn't make berk - n q uplw a flea& bma p q that it nevu co

trying to make sure that thdr o w vim prevail. They we any mea118 at their dirposrl to drive out welr ha or aauipu- late 'rm to their own epds [as youll learn In latar chaptd.

cweLass SLVRS.

Wve dl otten p l a t y of 1pUebr.out of the fact that bum from the 1 rims Materlnl Plane eall soma of our p i m a by

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, .

5th-level wiza urationlsummonii

Range:. 10 yards I Durktion: Special Arca of Effect: lcreature Saving Throw: None , ,

Casting Time: ld4 bouts

fiends appears in the wiz

"efore casting the spell, the ,ng circle in which to trap the crea

VIost fiends won't perform any service thai'takes longer than 34 hours to complete; only guardian yqoioths are.,able to ;ewe longer. Once the fiend agrees to a deal. it must complete., .he terms of the bargain to the best of its ability'before re- urnim' to the Lower Planes. Of co f the fiend can violate he intent of the agreement while ng to the letter of the leal, it will, but lesser calling brings only creatures of low to niddling Intelligence - not the Bind well known for their : h e r trickery.

If the wizard's warding circle is faulty, or if he doesn't )repare a circle at all, the fiend is free to do as it pleases from he moment it arrive. (Later chapters in Faces. of Ed1 give de- ails.on how various fiends react to being summoned.) Ifit so :hooses, the creature can remain on the wizbnl's plane~for up o a year, at which time it's back to the Lower Planes.

The material compone this spell are an animal's :ollar, a handful.of soil from cursed gro&&;and a skieet of iarchment made from the skin of any outer-planar being.

For details on constructing warding circles and hargain- ng with summaned creatures, refer to the 6th-I

Now, it's true that not a11 flendr spend their entire lives focused on the Blood War. The hordlings ann? involved, the gehdeths try to avoid it entidy, a d the yugoMhs scun to w& for one side just as easily as the other. The baatau and tanar'ri keep the flm of war bwning, but not even atl of them care all that much. Stiil, mortals like guahprps. any fiend that hopes to rcoune, dl ahls kgs make a name for itself d the question: Why do better consider how it's fiends give a fig about going to deal with the m o w h t h e first place? fighting. Weil, w abready stated,

The Blood Wsr trou- they count on thc sods as blcs mort& in more ways future fodder fur the than one. Obviously, the i Blood War. EriPyes, battles raze lands and kill glabreru, succubl and innocents. But they also Dthers try to tempt and wipe out so many fiends corrupt mortals over,to that the baatezu and Lheir side, so that when tanar'ri have had to figure the brit, 6ie thcy end up out how to rtplcnish their a n the 'proper" Lower numbers more rapidly. Plane. Soktinhcs, the What they did was learn Rends just smtch ldving how to twist larvae into mortals and &!ag &tm lemures and manes. They iwck home for use as also tumbled to the fact sbvss. mercenaries, or that larvae form on the foodstuffs. And sow- Lower Planes when evil times, they just like to mortals die. Any berk >lay wfth 'em, IS a cat who can put two and two 'orments a mouse before together can see what the kill. happened next: The h d s Fiends also use the began to corrupt mortals norlds of the h i m e as in order to get more lar- >attlegrwnds or &it- vae. loks for the Blood War.

Most OF the outer Plnncs IW too well defended by

G e I N G h e natives - modrons, ipzimon, gusrdinals. oz nhattver - to let the

+(B +HE

'irnds grab mueb of a P R l m E

From a fiend's point of oehold. But, rkghtly OF view, mortals are dung and vermin. That doesn't mean they're useless, though. The fiends dis- covered the Prime long ago, and they've used mortals in their schemes ever since.

From the perspective of a fiend, a mortal's life span is pitifully short. This grants the creatures extraordinary insight into mortal character, though they often have to wait until they're fairly high-powered before they can put this knowledge to use. See, weaker fiends

dcmt usually deal with mortal% and besides, they've got to gather the wisdom before tbcy can use it. Bat when they begin to we that k n o w l ~ . . . be& that's another story. I ' w h e d there's no mortal reartion that surprises a high.~up fiend, not cvm from Xaositcak Chant is that b d s pley

m*, the CRatUm Bee hc cludcss P puahom md they bri% thdr bat- 4es to prime-mterial uoddr without a Exre.

Most of all, though, ht Primd is a w@Uspdng If faith. The outer Planes a n on belief, and, as we've already seen, the %ends thrive on it. So if he creatures journey to

the Prime and convince the Clueless to fear and

respect them, they gain the strength of that belief. T b t alone is mason enough to terrorize mortals on the h e .



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m y a b h k d want to summon a Rend Is beyond w, but since thep's no shortage of Pook willing to try, I figured I'd better ghe a quick rundown on the best methods of d o l y It and whan to expect from each. h t c r chaptm in this book look specifically at calllng the maln types of fiends. The chant bdow'sfwt a general ovuvim.

Ffnt of rU, it depends on whether or not you know the ttue name of the &nd to be aupmoned. If you don't - and m a t spellcasters don't - you're stuck with casting lesser callfng, which sorely limits what you can get (see the spell description on this page spread). It's theoretically possible that a very high-level monster summoning spell will call a

~

I

t ACKN$WL@DQ@IUsN*S Some of what's in these pages is undeniably true; some of it's just aa likely barmy nonsense.Wth q o r t s gathered from every nook and cranqof&e p l w , It's hard to separate fict from fidion, truth frod lies. P o r n know just how much the fknd8 lb.&d$dfc@t& It'! tpLL1((;pudLtlme and &rt to sort thkAlg o\p +ed w s c q ; l 2 d s tome's a compila- tion of the findings of researchers and bloods all over the multiversc. Though I'd like to take credit for all of It, I can't I'm just the ultimate compiler of what's here. As you're reading the book, you'll no doubt notice that different rrpom're credited to diffmnt people. Let's glve 'em thdr due.

Nornoto Sinh, my good mage mend, is as friendly and

w&r shows up is petty much free todo wha& it llkes. With cwmarfmmt and mro~?& a blood can bind the

summoned fiend in a wading drde - or, more accurately, he can try. If he does it right, the mature's trapped until it a m to perform a d c e (or u n a it flgum out how to get free). 'Cortnc, enslavtng a fiend like this won't do much to make the creature happy.

No doubt there are plenty of magical items and other methods of c a b g fiends fmm the Lower Plams. But thme're tite best known and most widely u d . To me, that means they wo*the best. So if you must aummon a fiend, stick to what you can

. . . more powcn%l fiend, but since you won't kno ture's tm name, I'd advise agatast trying.

If, 'on the other hand, you ,know a speci& rime, opu can try to c#~$?Q y g u ment, or cacoficnd. TheSe"&b baatau, tpnar'rl and YiUryaulaJ After all, goh merely o can steu throunh or to

Kedell, a cheerful and taka Telson Spluhom, whose the rest; and the blue sla who's a dprd. That says points in some kind of order and weed fusing iuIdes, but its personality still better or for wone).

Lest a body think that all fimds are alike, let me say that this chapter presents only saperficiP1 similaritles. Though It's been suggested that all fiends sprang Prom one primal source, tkcy're Incredibly dif€ercnt In their outlooks and goals. Tha mt of Feces of Evil lays those dlfFefcnrcs bare, W k even dug up the dark on a baatezu city, a tanar'ri burg, and a yugoloul tower: that chant appears klong with mapa) at the *Ids of each of the three main chapters.

And fix those of you who still need to know how tall a fiend is, *st kind of morale it h a , or how hard it is to kill, we'n Included refi- to other books that speclake In that kind of chant. These "Other Sources" appear In each chapter, telllng you where to go to lsam more about each type of mature.

The mastermind behind the yueoloth chapter - a ~~~~~~

h; zeral with a sometimes doleful outlook - asked to remaM anonymow, signing his pieces only as The Unnamed He didn't want to bc linked to all the smctr spiued about the yugoloths. Those as3&Ung him, the old tiefling Enkillo the SIy and the well-spoken luplnal Mowart Ke'Mahn, weren't so discreet. Unfortunately, much of the chapter is suspect. I have mason to believe that one of the three rcswchm - though I don't know which - is a disguised loth spy. Think I'm paranoid? With the yugoloths, a body can never be too carcful.

The gehreleth chapter was a good deal easier. The whole thing was pulled together by Carlvfan Euerboftc, a dmw w h r d from the M e . A few of you might've read his previous boot on gehreletb, R e Jhm B&s ofEVf1. It's what made me tap him for this job.

Finally, the chapter that covers other pssorted flendirh creature3 was a group effort. I asked some of my contrtbu- tors to do double duty and write a short piece on bodaks, night ha@, or whatever else needed attention.

Sadly, not all of the bloods I just named are still with us. I lost aome good people making thls volume, and not all of 'em were lost to death. Some went to fites far, far worsc. But I'm not naming any names here. I don't want the chant they dug up to be tainted or overshadowed by their fates. See, we made sacrifices in the name of truth so that you wouldn't hwe to. The least you could do now is put our col- lected wisdom to good use.

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Prom the boiling rivers offluid in Avernus to thc sheer crags of Nessus, a body'd be hard-pressed to find a place that sums uv the cold cnulh, of the rultfvme

- ~

more rkan Baator does. Certdnly, other L&er Planes - say, the Abyss or the Gmy Waste - might seem tofit the MI& but an Baatof the honors are catalogued and ordmd , with harsh law bun&t to the most chaotic elements ofthe cosmos.

There, the evilflowsfast and W e . Thm. the glint of evny cyc sizes up a body mdJigum out where he'dfit best into whatever scheme the obema's got cooking. b, the

clink of evny coin is the sound of betrayal. There, thefiends plot and a c h e within their circles to smear law and evil acmss the planes.

That's the tub, I always say. It seem like tkc baatau nm the show, hying to turn the whole plane k t a a twl for t M r

agenda. T h y we the plane; the plane ldcs

them. It's a geod tradefmm W r p o f n t

L ofview-t-@et whnt they

Chant is that u) vlore on Baator is I k o f

the baatern's i&ence. I ccrhridy k i e v e that to be true - just look at all their i-al h i m h i e s and powcr a- tures. And above it all sit the Dark Efght, the highest of the 'ordinary" baatern, thejfmds who tun the Blood y\hr and give orders to the rank-ad- file. T h y don't hesftate to m h any berk who stcmds in the way o f t h d r g m d plan.

But there's more. Another level of organization lurks above the Dark Eight: baatezu nobles who scheme and plot in tk names ofthdr prmonq the Lords of the Nine. And let's notforget the lo& themselves, dtkerl RmwaUy, I believe they're ascended baatezu, though the truth is no one mUy knows where t h y camefrom. Supposedly, the lords are about on the same &vel as the powers, but they've not d C f i n * e l v e s &her way os of yet. Regardless,

I -

thy're s&,t&-.* srpbs c u + A D E A L keep more, *n a disinterew

ural@6fhey'd show thejfmds

Now, for all their talk A+HER C U + m y +HR@A+. abodvcanundmtand,ab

sfthe plane. BAA+EZU? , + H A N K S .

. and smngth to the weak, &'s the dark of it: The baatern are in this existence only for themselves. They make tortuous rules, nearly as totinous as

- TARSHSVA L(BNOR8ACH. BXPBRIBNCBD PLANBWALKSR

their vny lives, and udr mazes of logic la^ eycll the Fmternity of oldcr bqeped at times.

This chapter offers what chant my team and I have gathered on the baatern. But I think the real k y to undmtandifig them lies in h m a l f n g tD the Rule of Tkms. Thefiends' home plane has nine (three times thm) Ipym. The race i s divided into t h m main castes: least, lesser, and grram: The h r c h y of their society involves t h m mnkfngs of power: oniimnyprnds, the noble, and the Lords of the Nine.

See, the lives of the baatezu are g o v m d by the knawn pdncfpks of the multiverse, in ways that've been reanangulfor their convenience. Certainly, it's no easy task to sum up the mm, and perhaps no one will aver manage it. But we believe the answers are there. We must keep trying.

- Nomoto Sinh, Compiler-in-chicf

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it's a reshaping for selfish PUQOSCS, plain and simple. The baatnu don't want to take the chance that the nuppwhs might one day mlve into stronger members of the andmt Baatorian race. So they steal the fat flmds and f o m them into thein own hvlsted hierarchy.

It's the supreme example of the baatezu imposing order - thdr order - over the essential chaos of life. Even the winnowing of the larvae showcases their love of law. The fiends let the brutal proms of natural selection catapult the toughest larvae to the top of the heap. The choice isn't arbi- trary or subject to bad judgment - only the most capable larvae sunrlve to become lemum.

Not all baatezu grow from larvae and nupperibos, though. Some just pull themselves fully formed from the un- feeling oMer of Baator itself. But, as a body might suspect that's a tough trick In a place as structured and regulated as Baator - the baatezu don't just spring up like weeds. Still, the Rends can't produce ofipring by mating (as will be dis- cussed later), so they have only two ways to replenish their race: appear spontaneously or evolve from larvae.

'Come, baatezu aren't stuck in a single form all their lives. They can grow in power and rise through the ranks of their ram; later my editor will present a discussion of the hierarchy of their shapes and promotions. For now, just understand that the monsters assume new abilities with each change in rank and undergo full physical transformations. 6ven the& spirits are altered (though only slightIy).

Their mcmories, unfortunately, remaln intact.

F L a c I + I N O IUBIlIORY

An old fool I met in Sigil swore that he kept stealing from one partlrular baatezu by using the same trick on each of the flendis incarnations - because the monster couldn't remember the m from one body to the next.

Hahl I don't have the space to explain how many dlf- fercnt ways that b n k ww a liar. The fmpomnt point here is that baptczu do remember the time they spent In pmrious forms. If they didn't, they'd lose the hard-camed knowledge a c ~ u l a t e d throughout their centuries in the lower ranks. Even m o e to the point, they wouldn't be able tu anticipate the schemes of their inferiors (and that skill is one of their most f i n e tuned instincts, seeing as it Lnpa them alive).

Now, it's no dark that as mortals grow older, they accu- mulate experience and knowledge. It's no dlfkcnt for the baatezu &hough they don't grow older; they just keep on living). Of mum, since the monsters live for so much longer than ordinpry people, their coilected experience is a verita- ble treasure-trove - and it's all tainted by the wlls they ex- plore throughout their lives. L k mortals, the baatezu lcam to look back through the Alters of expcrience, and thcy constantly reinterpret past events to glean nuggets of knowledge for lpsc in the future.

Fortunately, like an aging human, the baatnu don't always have immediate access to their pasts. The longer a fiend lives, the farther its memory stretches, and the harder It becomes to recall insigniRcant facts. Naturally, as the

baatau mow up In rank they gain greater intelligcnrr, aod thus greater ability to p m c a old memories But just as it can take a long time to locate one particular phrase in a book, it can take ewn longer to puU minute detaib out of a memory that spans millennia. So, unless a baatczu juat hap- p n u to store rrttain important details right at the fmnt of its mind, it'll need a few moments to (for exampk) r e d thc name of a mortal it met once before.

That's how you can fool them. Remain insignificant enough for as long as you can to a d d their suapMons [aa much as anyone can avoid their suspicions) - just long enough to do your deed and get awlry with I t 'Coursr, Prom that moment forth, you'd better keep a constant migU for thc fiend's vengeance. Being made a fool of by a mortal is an insult a baatau doesn't forget easily - certainly not In thc span of a mortal's life.

In short, the baatezu don't forget thdr pmrioua stations and pmrious feuds. They may undcgo starfling change8 in shape and abifity, but the bansformations reflne their minds and their memories (though spellcasting flends do loae their learned spctls).

S + A + I Q N +e S+A+IeN Nomoto Sinh

I was abk to uncover iltformahn on 13 diffmnt klnda of baatczu; I don't think any others crict. The k d s fdl into three overall castes (leaat, Icsser. and greater), and within each caste, into numerous stations (speciflc drpa). Appar- ently, the time spent in each station is meant to tach a particular Icaop about the nahm of lawful evil and its place in the multi-.

It seems the lowest stations - that of lemure and nupperibo - don't impart any specific lessons. That might be because those two miserable ranks barely qualify as baatczu in the first place. (Rememkr, as ow Mend Tarn reported, nupperibos actually belong to another race entirely.) Per- haps the Rends make their lowest kind nearly mindless XI

they can fuUy manipulate the maturea and set them rigidly on the come of Nil. The higher baatau decide the behpv- ior that marks the lower Reads for the rest of their livcs.

LBAS+ BAA+BZU The lemurcs fester at the wry boltom of the scale baatau politics, Again, many scholars seem reluctant to classify them as tnre basta, leaving them officially unrmked and deAnitcly unnamed. The lemum are the mlndless armies of the Blood War, the rank-and-&, incapable of mUu# dcd- sions on their own. They're driven into battle by threats of pain and destruction. However, as pathetic as they are, lcmurcs are also the stqph@tone to greater thin@ (they can be promoted to splnagon statlon, and from &re h@cr still).

But don't forget the nuppcribos, the strange matures forcibly reshaped into baatezu. The lawful fiends put forth the lie that nupperibos are me members of their race, and

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that thct b a t e d monstm an huned into lemures as punishment. Unpcrtunatcly, most low-planar s a p belimd that story, having no good reason to suspect otherwise, until very recently, when chant purchased from yugoloths re vcakd rule mth. (Of aourse, one might wonder how much faith to place in Such mnlatlOM, but I eMlIC YOU, the 'laths proved their claim exceedingly 4, aithough I'm sworn not to discuss their evidence here.)

Interestingly, it seems that some nuppmibw M actu- dly higkr-rsnthg bartuu that died outalde of Baator and were reborn into that low shape, I& to toil unknown and unwant@d una such time (If cver) as thcy're &covered and mtoredlto thdr previous rank. This, to me, is simply mMc pmof &at nupperibos aren't really baatczu at all, but the original4 natunlly occurring spawn of Baator. It must vex the fiends greatly to know that when they die, they w-mter the worlki in a 'fomign' shape: no wonder they're so eager to turn nuppibos into lcmures t

still, fo~ the sate of Eonvmhcc, we'll continue to refer to nupperibos as 'lesat baatau" throughout this book. Per- haps in time, as the truth becomes more widely known, wc can do w a y with that fiction entlrcly.

The last of the least baatezu arc the spinagons, the expendable mcscon~mand iaforma~s-gathcmrs of Baator. Though they'rc the weakest and the most bullied of the intelligent baatau, they're also the ' h t rank that can determine thqir own eventual fate. A splnagon who serves well can rise Ir high as amnfiu. (That's 811 Incredibly rare ormr+ ~ n n ; far mare common ia a promotion to one of the thm kinds of bbishai.1

Thelstatlon of rplnagon is also the flnt one in which the baattzu learn a lesson: It's best to succeed early and avold the trouble of dealing with the in-betwenrP.

LBSSBR BAA+BZU

The mptilian abirbpf's thm rank am (in ordm of asccndlng influence) black, green, and red. Ironic&, black abishai are often mote Qaplrcd throughout Baator than arc spinagona Mer all, a spinagon who pclfonns wdl can be promoted to a numbmMhighcrrrnLs-barhnqosyluth,andcvrnamnizu. But a spiwon who lacks amMtbn and cunning mhtcs thc smallest possible promotion and becomes a black abishal.

Thus, black abwlai are sccn as fiends without purpose (except qs fodder for the armies). And if that perception docsnt dpm a black abishai to try to cbange it, ststion. it truly Is one of the most worthless creatures on thc plane. 'Spinago$s have potential," said 811 crhyes I brlbed on the Outlands'(th0ugh wtth what, I wlll not say). 'gut a black abishai? h t h l n g but a spinagon without enough drlve to make soldahfng useful of itsclfl"

She exaggerates; black a b b h i da have their uses. As the most bmmonly summoned l a m baatau (the barbazu and OsyIdths arc alro called, but less frequently), they're given a c c p to atrong magic 90 they can cormpt inexperl- enccd mottals with the promise of great powa. And black abishai who perform admirably can still recti@ thdr prcvi-

OW mistake, gaining promotions to gnen and, later, red .birhsi. From there, thy can rise to the &tIons of babuu, Locrschon (for those with slighUy more prwdsel, or erinycs Ifor the very tsdcntd).

The lesson of the abishri: IRm@ ddmnWW0r aul ckver thlnhiug, cvm eady nfrtrbo can be cwwcemc.

Ncxt. the barbazu and kocrachau l%wgb. tKhnially q u a l in station, t h e two h d s M woltds e m +n thdr percsptions and goals. Barbazu, strong and dull-wlttrd killing machines, art on the slow tmck of p~~~~otion. '@cd ablshai who excel sldp this station altogertra.) Bnbrm arc the elite of the baatezu warrlon, ya, but they rbo SUEU in- d i b k bes~saeci in the battles of the Blood War. They arc, in short, expendable benetlrcn, c o h n e d to A@ by t M r lack of ambitlon. They cao ltte only to the rank Of6@&

drlvcs me qui& c$icknt~ and i t tules mom sHll than hrot to survfw.

Yacrpchons, the elite torhwaa of Baator, a r e i a W u m of horror and nlghtmare. Whm the barbazu are n e d for thcir ferocity on the fleld of battle, the kocmchoas are known for theL skill and subtlety with the instmrscnts of c ~ d t y - the vary antithcsfs of the dull a d brutal nurkn. Thty extract bsttle plans m d inibrmrtion about q h frmn tanar'rl and cclcstial prisoners of wu, and from mort& UB- wire enough to fall into flendkh hands. Maaten of thdr trades, komachons are rcspected by every other kind of baatezu for thcir ability to w r i q a confw6ion Rom c~lcn the moSt unwilling throat. flnterestlngly, the most skilled kocra- chons earn the gspert +heir wiaima well, who learn to

among them are especially dangwas when - m If i. rc- lea&) But no matter how swcmlid thcb mcthDQ @mi- chonsran be prometed only to the station of cdnym.

The lesson of the kocrachon: Take pafns tu 1ndp~c in othm mpectfm a &dng ofobvfovs shllL

The rank of erinyes is Choaght to be a reward for baatezu who've overcome tiuir Initial eluggIsham.9, for those who've bad to sufkr through thc stations to prove

sume e k h a male or female form in orda to best acdwx haplw mortals. Erlnycs arc spies an well, wnt to irua K- crets from enemies and allin alike. And these Acnds art frighteningly good at both tasks. They can rlse d M y to any mt above than (wen straigld to that of plt MI), or they can suffer demdlan to thc station of biubsru. depcad- ing 011 how well they SCNC their maam (thy'= d d (0 report dircrtly to the Dark Eight). Howcm; the most cmmon mow is to the atation of wyhrth.

The l w o n of the erlnyes: Cunning cmd nralhn thinking e m p o t ma&.

Me thc splaagons and the black abishai. the o&uths are hated among the baatezu, but for a vny d i f h m t m- son: The oryk\ths have power over all othm of tbdr race (excepthg only thc pit fiends). In CS#IICC, osylutb are the guardians of baatezu morality and caste. They watch to make sure the ideals of law and evil are upheld by every

T h c t W h k S S O M O f @ E h a r b r z u : & V 4 # C ~

equate exquisite pain 3 th love: the mortals and cclestials

thdr Worth. Tho@ @lhW M ptrtdhl famdc, M-



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r Gelugon

Hamatula Cornugoa

oayluth

Erinyesi Barbaau

Lemure



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Other Sources: Baateau PLAN ESCAPE^ MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM^ Appendir

Abishai, amnizu, barhazu, cornugon, erinyes. gelugon, hamatula, Iemurc, nupperibo, osyluth, pit fiend, spinago

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and they bow only to the Dark Eight (who are pit fiends themselves), the nobles (who are something more), and the Lords ofthe Nine (who may be deities).

The leswn of the pit fiend h this: Powrr c&at'@es, aad a b d U h P O W N Cbt'@CS 4bSdUhl>

TH6 PReCSSS + $P P R e l l I e + I @ N + Nomoto Sinh

How arcbaatrcu pramoted? WCH, lemurcs are chosen by chance and left to wort up to theb 01111 potential. Andeat's the kst time chance plays a rok in their lkm. Prom that point OLI th@n watckd, catalogued, numbmd, and or- deml, sobe highafknda can drmrmtnc w W ofthem am worthy of promotion, which are the k t dedslon-makers and the p).omMng Lcpdrra of ?be next gmersdon of baatrm, and whi& art doomed to be tpliar'rl-fodder for the rest of their midrrrbledstmcu.

Y e thm We b M m mtnimks d m t to Slm- pk rrconaltlaprng rmd obtervatbn. And *e Idn P smes IIC

fPhtyimporlrettoaSuppoedy,notarlnglepasaaindl the history of thcaultivcne hmr broken into ow. (Of course, if anyone has, he was no doubt exterminated befort he could ever breathe a word of his accomplishment.)

The point of all this eimcrvation Is to ensure that only the most competent make k to thc top. A baatezu's got to show ambition, strcffiltl4 anb(m0atSiaIl) thc Intelllgence to make a splash in the fleedl54 worid. Alrcr a& the race ia centered around the $acts of law and cvil, whiela w, In turn, u e d toward thc ma of the strong ~ISI~II to thc ton

Othcr baatau go through d d a r tomUn to ascend to the natstptlon. 1 belieucht the d h wdpad Ish arert p r o p o ~ o ~ to the speed of the pmatotion. md h t achlevin@ each new rank involve suffntng a WMcnt LLad of pam. w of- tornun rn irmasdf.t~ (anlllc thc tanar'ri, which are said to o m over t Inn# period of time), and rll of them mqplrr t)3L assistance of other hatem to complac the rituals and hbuc tbc promoted ilnrd its am o)ilitkr. POI examp*:

+ A lenmra chosen to h o m e a splnq3onri3#h In a vast glatliatodal combet with othdrs of &s kind, striking down ail comm u n a it's thc only .M M

peeled from its body, revealing Ihe spiaagemtbat h r s fomWd !Mid6 the wPX& shell of 4hc lCIlIru0.

;* An ab lda i selected to b e a o w as eitnycs mst submit to the tender minMmtions oP the bm- chons in thr Knoll of Blades, wbo mmn@ (be features of the h i d to matt it mere pGcrsh~# ta mortals. They also cam anoti~s syllable into dLe fiend's spirit, making it a more cmnpliaatd ma' ture, more d i W t to sumpon, and acme cunning then cvn kfm. @St@ 4lh1tnttim~n wlll psc.)

+ An osyluth promvtal toithe station of a m n h m- dergoa the ritual making, aod .grurmlsg necessary for asccasiom As e u h limb ia yank& from the osyluth's bo& a d & o n c e m c q @ W the torso. When thc cwkting Bsyhrtb pLd~vff the Mny face of the se0rldoay-W thsg krm&Mnd a alJY caul on the PLCW smmh's krr. 'Fhe .mdh must remove the caut *.force d will rDwc. 01 it

stanfnn~'Ihc wiancr i r t h med off mB Its skin

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Th.aMinistry of Promotion (overseen by the pit fiend Zaeboa, a member of the Dark Eight) won't let a fid ascend rmtil it meets the stringent nquiremcnts OF its htutt station. The stmia of quotas for how many baatent rtx and ~pcryesr,pcrrmtuly,andsofolth,arrnonrcnrc.If,ina given t iqe period. there aren't enough capable fiends to pmmotc to the rank of amnlzu, then them just won't be M

many amnisu for awhile - plain and simple. Though the in- spectors of the Ministry discourage short promotions and may p+h superiors who hil to deliver good educa?ions, they won't fill ranks with the unready. No incompetent baatezu aan ever rise to power.

Intmstlngly, that doesn't mean that a fiend who does succeed ia the cream of the crop. My ahyes contact told me tha$ when a pit fled PrLS for "exemplary d c e , " he doesn't expect a stellar performance so much as the abscnce of mistakes. In puler words, the baatezu care leu for marding the good than they do for punishing the bad - it provides the Rends wlth exaapks of what to avoid. Sadly, sometimes the ided of *the bad" can change, depending on how much a superior wants to atop a particular baatezu from rising througb the ranks.

That might wen mean doctoring =ports and walus- tions to keep a Rend down. Of COUISC, this practice is officially discouraged, and a fiend MII to be m a y hamperin% the education P-Sua

based on the l h l y p r o m of a fiend fmm strtia to Sa- tion, as wdl as the careful study of its supcriofa taaia. Thus it is that the fiends have to both thdr supcrhs and the impectoa h m the Mhlistry of Promotion.

And, of course, being caught h a bribe WMIDtS punishment. See how the baatezu way enCOUragCS subtlety and covering one's tracks?

I I

"None may rise unless another WltS." Most of the time that axiom refers to face and pmttge among one's feUom,.but for the batear, itts often Utenlly true.

Ifa meabcl of the race just Wt wonklag out In ttspo- sition, or l€ it ~ m m i t s a snious w m g %pinst ImamuMv. the high-ups have no choke but to dcmotc i t Thc mdty of the demotion depends on tho severity of the tvnnagm- sioa as wdl M the number of ofinsea t& fknd m@t ham accumulated pmiously. Minor faults can mult In thc demotion of a station within a caste w, on a bad day, a futf duction in caste. More suica mom un hock a Bsntezu down sevenl casta. And the mort heloorts erimapvl mult

nk of kmwe (and perimp$ a mas- incs of the Blood War).

2% '4.

of a promising young baatezu is 1



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Soma mhtaka, certainly, rpll be c o d up, depending on how high a baatau stands and how powerful its friends are, But when a fiend falls, it's usually marked in some way to make its punishment clear. Evcn worse ifthe demoted one is foreed go d n in the ranks it formerly commanded, it's likely to end up in the dead-book (baatezu are notoriously unfogiving of anyone who's done them wrong). Some demoted fiends take the route of the roguq rather than face the punishment 4ikely to be doled out by their new pens.

THB P I + @f fLAllIB Of the schools of punishment on Baator, none seem quite so excruciaqing and fearsome to the baatezu as the Pit of Flame, which sits in the center of PhLcgethos (the fourth layer). I haven't seen it myself (nor would I want to), but the Pit is said to be a huge lake of boiling filth and excreta, burning with searing white tlames @at reach over a hundred feet high. Supposedly, all osyluths have the power to magically depssit in the Pit any baatuu (except a pit fiend) that flouts Baatorian law.

Sometimes, wan I have to admit that the formr, of the baatezu seem like mundane and, well, gargoylish, barque shells chosen for their ability to frighten morwS - though naturally, they can adopt more pleasing fcaturm to lure those same victims. But then I lo& dcqur, and I h a y s flnd the baatezu creatures of strange beauty. Tho- deemed bkkous by conventional standard% thew fienda marry form and function aIm& pufcrtly w i t h their bodies.

The basic shapes of the race ue generally fairly well adapted to the layers of Baator: even CanIa hsll evolved its own baatuu. They can withstand erbcmea of both heat and cold, and their very nature helps to deflect most e€ the magic a mortal might hurl agsfnst than. Thy am in short, some of the toughest creatures in the multivene.

Though thdr f o m wry, a body wlth an eye for detail can spot similarities if she knows whae to look for them. Discounting the lemum pnd the nuppdbo& we seethat, hi- erarchically, the forms tend to rltanate between an appearance of delicacy or fragility and OM of dmsity or danger. Examining the hierarchy in o r d n of rank (rathu than in

OFda of mmotloa which

guarded nlne companies of cor- I ADmI+ +e 14- - the two CXtFemq the only nugons, who watch to make SUR none leave B R . RA+HER. ex- kine - . .,

the Crinycdo@uth and hnmatulal

I rnAKE S @ r n € @ N i BLSB before theJr time - nor othen enter. Why would anyone uwt to enter the Pit, you * n m r 1 . - . 1

cormrgoa AU11117 T W IT. ask? Becape to the Rends of Baator, Is this conhuing

yet? Do ~JY h r k q up. If we look at simi-

laritics along the various paths, we get en-

w y diffrremt intaprrtp-

caste svatau. It's

it's a place of purification - A N A I Y ~ R Q U N , ArnAizu, AVeIDING D @ m 6 + i e N S

bM. That's aftk

as well as punishment. A baatuu Mho bathes in the tompting flames EM gain stre@ and heal

doesn't tend toward law and evil is Instantlv con-

a sumed by the Am (and, some say, reborn & a slave to the flends - but that may just be a tale to frighten children).

Naturally, the fire isn't no1 fire as we know it at all, since most baatezu arc immune to wen magical flmes. In- stead, it'q some kind of fiery energy drawn up from the essence of Bsator i tdf . Of course, it might &8 well be ordinary the do mortals, as it bums them just as easily.

BIBWILY p e ~ i n * A N D S U N C L ) I I e N S Tealo Wilton

The body of a baatuu matures toward a 'perfect form" as it ascends @rough the fkndirh hierarchy. The IC& and sym- meby of its shape in- wlth each incarnation, though thc changes m ' t always apparent to an untrained eye - or, for that matter, to an eye that's unfamiliar with baatrm l a c and style. And the higher up the ladder a fiend climbs, the more twisted the logic that goes into its creation.

like reading a n d with vari& p& to a dif- follow thmugh the chaptm, where a& reading

f m t vision of the work aa a whple.

PAkrLY Firstly, to get this out of the way: Bsatezu keep their vitals in much the same place as do mort bnmpn anddcmihuarsn

of mortals, sinee brnnu have quite differrnt go& md 4n- stincts. LurcwisC, t h y don't breathe as oRm or as deep& LI do mortals, so Auiag their lun@ with polsonous gaa doesn't bother them quite as much.

They do ham eyes, cars, tongues, skin, vocal cords, and other a p p a n m k t M faidy simllar to what a m o a uscs for perception. Thcy also ~BUKSS h e a s , lung. kid- nys, brains, and all that - it's ju& that a b t u u ' s w for these organs dlffm from a mortal's. To put it bhntly, a body who ruts open both a baatuiu and an ordinary prime- material human might not notice much difference in the

mortals Of COOISC. theirvitpls M quite dlffacnt thrn thax

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gross appearance of mqjor organs. But the truth is in the details: 1 * A baatezu's pineal gland (or third eye) is more

highly developed. ThC fiends are attuned to portals and the hidden secrets of the planes, and their @mal gland has grown to reflect that semitivfdr.

+ A baatezu's adrenal gland can be up to three limes the size of a human's (apcdally among the barbazu)l This accounts not only for their incredible vpecd and ferocity in battle, but also for their mto- flow@ aggressive behavior.

+ Certain baatezu muscles are altcrpd to fit the power that courser through their veins. The muscles are generally longer, meaning that the flends have fan- tastic enduranm. And while not as highly developed, the rhorter muscle@ are more open to the flow of blood and other fluids, &wing the f l e d to p a c fDrm great kats ofsbmgth for short mods of time. + Baatau blood tends to flow as black as the waters of the Styx, though it changes depending on the atmosphere it's exposed to.

+ The internal organs of the baatezu are, like their $tin, usually covered with supple, leathery scales. This helps to account for their natural ability to resist blom and to heal more quickly than most when ritmrk. + Baatezu bones seem to be made of a different mate- rdal than most bones. They're slightly metallic, and *say Secm to have been carved before placement in the body - almost as if their omem had been con- atnutmi. This is a mystery I've yet to aack.

sible, and can learn this only by amming the forms of all genders posstble through each of the stager ctf rheir life. Thus, when a baatau is promotcl to a higher s t a h , it might keep the same gender or be given aaothur. h &I de- pen& on what the fiend stlll d t o learn (ory*hnt Itasu- mors tkM it needs to lam). It's the only expiana8on thn really makes any s m e . despite tk criticism Icvttlcd nt me by undoubtdy jealous pcers.

My thmy has one excepfMn:.When a boraEu fr promoted to the station of pit fiend, it becomes fm to choose its sex. A pit fiend can even -e i$ mind later in life and switch genders, but only by flrst spending three days in the Pit of Flame. Baatezu who ascend bcyolld t k rank of par fknd and become nobles are again cbslnad to a sin@@ gcs- der (though, as usual, they cen change thah aplssmfirc to that of anothal.

BIR+A

Do you ever wonder why aobody sees baby baatrmP Itb an easy answer, really - thm aren't any. Mak4aatem w fdk, but females are not Thw bratau arc not born in thccgtrm- tional sense and do not grow from infamy to PdsWood. When they achieve a promotion to'a c&&n s W n , they bcgin their new life as a Mly famed &nd oftheir am trSt

Indeed, Bastodan sori@ is far more ~1 l t . r i rn r tba that of most pn4me-matnlal worlds. 3y that I man that a fiend needn't worry about its station or drcunutmw ba- c a w anyone with enough cunning and tenacity canmlakelt tc the top There's no "glass ceiling" It's all a mttu of how driven &e flend is and wh

nge. Sow say that thlr is bilarem. soddy; i*rsy it%

I , 's ascendaxe b-the makhae. Many be& who don't underst&& b as I d f r o m k h c b j e c f a i h W A l

ot &e bhth. maIc h b c w uc do nwen seem to know whether to use ,*,p ' ~ : * :

w k n refhring to such a fiend. The terrns are &t eq~%$ J1 baatau dearly fall into one of the time categories. But like so much tdse in Baatorian society, the gender of a Rend is determined by its high-ups, based on the fiend's performance in its past station(s1.

Naturally, there is a pattern to the assignment of gender, and it follows the Rule of Threes. Among all baatezu (save the nlnyus, which are female only, and the lemms and nup- pnibos, rrhich are uttaty genderiesr), one third of the fiends MC mak, lone third W e , and one t h i sexless. This breaks down stul mer within each station; thus, one third of the spinagonr are male, one third are femak, and one thkd are left to wonder at the mystnia of the other two.

What role does gender play in baatezu society? For creatures with the power to alter thehelr appearance at will, tt would seem to be a supduous diffmnca, and it's a safe bct that the baatau don't give a toss one way or anotha - unless it matters to their duties (as with the erlnyes, whose job is to lure mortals of all sMpes and tempment) .

I haw an explanation, of course: The baatezu simply desire to understand as broad a reach of behavior as pos-

fully-capable of &timing offi$lng, and their aocicty m- courages them to do so - with other races. It Is pasi of&c baatau's agenda to enrkh the mu#ivcrstrvtth their dah sed, as ccrtaIn mortals haw ka& nb doubt to IMr dismay (see ?Dealing With Mortals," later in tbk chapter). Some of thcsc fkndr am mainly driven by I-, but f o n t h most put, theb zenl flows from an edhmnce to the gmter agenda of leavlag the baatau mark OQ the muktiverse.

WOUAISll

One of the base atqvirracnta of hu u c a w is sustmance - almost everyone needs to take in some form of nourishment. Even the powers depcnd on the bencf of their wonhlpm to sustain Wr uistcnct. It's 110 different with the bartau.

But whrt ex.ctly do tbey In@&? Folh from alI wal& of life have seen blstczu cat Just a b u t anytbin%~a mcMd can cat, thou& of come they prcferrmat (l'k nup- eat nothing, bac then, they're not mnUy.baatem, arc they7) The flsnds also make distinctions as to the source of their food. That is, they pnfer meat from an intrlligcnt maturr,

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. ..

they treasure meat from a good-aligned sentient creature, and theytprire most highly of all meat from a paragon of goodncsq like a deva or solar. They also eat their own kind, if neccsnpy, though they'd rather dine on larvae, tanar'ri, or yugolW. So what's the common thread?

Unlike thc tanaf 6, who are thought to take their sustenance from terror and pain, the baatau derive nourishment from life Itself, from the symbolic devouring of the d v l d - wl spark. When a baatau eats P cnaturc tba poseslcu Ufc and wlll, it subsumes that life into itp own, thus maklqj tbc energy serve its own needs.

I'm ant.in that's why the buanr take such pkanue In consuming beings of good or chaos: In so d-, t l y use the lives of their enemies for the baatem c a w , Hvcs PhPt othcrwiso would bc devoted to workibg cyrfnkt &em. By eating the flesh of their foes, they Mt only tvcakcn mclr opponents but also strengthen themselves. It's a zero%un game - what one gains, another must lose.

No doubt my revelations will amaze many readm, es- pcdally those from tba Prime Material Plane. Why, if 1 had a copper piece for every prime who thinks the baetezu feed on the Spirits of the living.'. . . It's simply not so. Thew people have mobt likely seen erinyes at work dragging mortals away to Baator or faMcated their stories out of whole cloth. Baatezu don't eat spirits unless said spirits are flrst distilled into physical form (as larvae or lesser Bends). Certainly, the flends can take these essences from the living. but spirits art made foriconuption, and eating them would be a waste of valuable mources.

As for drinking: Baator's said to hold great rivers and bottomkss lakes of fluids precious to the baatezu. Most of these fluids were once precious to the livlng, and I trust I need ssyino more than that. While away from thdr home plane, the baatezu can drink the fluids of othcr creatures or wen draw moisture from the very air to refresh themselves (though again, nupperibos drink nothing).

H e ' s the dark of it, though: The baatnu don't need to eat or drink anything. It's just one of their pleasures. All they truly need to exist is the awe and dread of creatures below them. Certainly, they enjoy consuming meat, and they relish sacrifices and offerings, but the baatezu are partly matures of belief, and in the end, belief is what they feed on.

<

S L P I P AIID D R I A m S When it comes right down to It, the baatezu are still living creatures, and all living creatures need to rest, even if it's just for a few moments. The lower ranks sleep more frequently than the higher, though their rests are of much shorter duration. For example, the l e m m snatch moments of sleep - no more than five mlnutes at a time - in between long periods of being crowded iostled. and forced into combat. The splnagons, likewis~, must always be available for their superiors and can only catnap.

others,tbat sham this pool of visions, but the taint flows both ways: The baatezu rOme

away colored by the perceptions of othus.

rl

only one hour, and therefore the flends must sleep several times a day. Generally, lower-station baatezu who serve well are allowed more time to themselves for rest.

And so it goes up the ladder. The higher ranks are bury and have fewer opportunities for sleep, but when they do rest, it's for longer periods of time. Of cwrse, B ~ t o r i p n am- bivop compela most high-ups to devote all thdr waking

to SCrvlCc, a d the usually bcgrUdg@ tharnwhm My bseaks. They wmt t o p w e their worth, a d d h o l e who yeem to make rorpabing of thtmselves sleep u littk as posdbk. As cceaUms of panendous will, baatezu can hold OB bsmonthr st a tllhc. 3ut when exhaustion catches ;up b &em . . . snfIice it W say tbey'n out of commission for a week or two. Ws wWi PiR the greatest of the 5ends. They can keep themsWts awd& for years, decade& wen CUI-

turks at a tlmc.*pw eventually pay the phx, falling mmpktely odt bf codkiousness until thcy've mplenabhed their stores of energy.

That's why they guard their slecplng places so jd- ously. Why, any basher who happened upon a siteping baatau could wreak comldaable damage on thc flmd before it could rouse itself from its stupor. Thus, too, isr baatezu's sleeping place ringed with wards and hiddm frmn thc most care131 searchers. NaturPlly, the mlghtie? the flend, thc mightier its protertions. Woe to thc fool who WCS to violate the sanctity of a pit flend's sleep!

Far the exact ratio of wpung to slnpina we turn a#dn to the Rule of Thms - or an uhnsion thereof. Aa nuu as 1 can tell, baatezu nonuaUy sleep for one hour for cvny nine in which they're awake, with light dfffcrenm allowad for personal dhdpline. (It's a known fact that some bsPtnu follow the tcmts of law more dody h n others.) I must admit that my theory is based on observations of lower-ranking fiends; I've not had the chanct to measure the sleeping schedules of higher creatures, but snly because I haven't been alive long enough to do so.

On to the next topic: Do baatczu dream? It's a good question. I've gathered enough evidence to posit that baatezu definitely dream, and that their d ream are more vivid than those of any mortal. Naturally, they have their own idens of what makes for gwd and bad h a m s . What a baatau mlght consider a ni.gbharc would be a nectrfllled dream for a tanar'ri, a blessing €or an archon, or the quesy, half-remembered ravings of a prime-matuial barmy. The baatezu's most pleasant dreams M better known a s t k hor- riM nightmaw of bashen acmes thc p lana

nese dreams have a purpose, too; they m e to e m - @e the fiends through their next period of wakefulness, I also bcllwe thai the baatmu draw their dreams fmm - and contribute drealps to - a sort of rdlectlve planar drrm- ing. (The Outer Planes are bullt on belief, and what are dreams but the beliefs of the uncanscious?) Baatorian

dreams impose a tCFIkjhg order on thc mlnds of



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Here's what I've been able to dig up. Each of these separate experiments is headed by a different baatezu high-up, though I'd bet that none of the leadcn'm Iowa than pit Rend rank. But there's one thing that he lp the rest of us out: When a baatezu's been altered. It show6 - #e

I + Pewens + Regnus Roy

The baatau're a tough bunch of b u h m . Every single kind's got one or more special abilities: even the sodding iemures regenerate whe they're hacked to bit Most bdatau have sew

fiend's outward appearance changes. Uafortu- nately, the diffmncca are

All baatezu land tanar'ri] have lost the ability to teleporr wit1 out error, as detailed in the boxed set Hellbound: The Bloc War. The fiends can regain the ability only by swearing loyal ~- 'he yugoloths, who secretly stripped them of the power i

first place. Few baatezu have even admitted the loss i ,,,h other, let alone to their enemies; they don't want to t perceived as vulnerable. In the halls of the highest, pit tieni discuss the problem. Meanwhile, they simply hand down edic that forbid the lower ranks trying to use the power at a!

rate spellblitc powers, ioc And all of the lessen an0 greater$ share the same group of spell-like powen on top dfeveqything else.

Sed, they can creal illusions from the thi fabric of space and mini They w call deaden bac to service (though the corpses won't haw the spark of life). They can ixnd a bod to their will. Thcy can see in the dark. They can tell a eut- ter's views Just by looking at him. Worst of all, they can drop thqmselves from one place to another - wen from plane to plane -just by thhkhg about it.

'Course, the fiends aren't calling on that last power much lately. Instead of teleportlng all over the multlvene, they've been taking the Great Paths and ordinary portals. That should make a canny blood wonder if maybe, just maybe, the baatezu're having trouble doing some of their fancy Mtks. On the otha hand. think on that too much and a body'sllikely to second-guess himself and wonder if the fiends're@st mnnlng a peel, and that sort of thinking leads to seeing a baatezu around every comer and unda every bed. I

It's best just to figure they're as tough as they've always been. Better safe than sorry.

,TrR -.7 ".V

AL+GRA+l (BNS

It's no dark that the baatezu've played around with ways to make thdmselves more powerful. They've created "study groups" to see how a bit of tinkering with the promotion process can alter standard baatezu abilities. With my own eyes. I'wi seen the results. some of 'em are funnier than a modron in Limbo, but some of 'em - well, they're downright frfghtenidg, I don't mind saying.

Even more frightening than the changes themselves is the knowledge that the baatezu're ready to tmplement the ones thatiprove useful. That means the berks could fiddle with w q y slngle promotion ritual to make themselves stronger and deadlier than ever. Chant I've picked up In Sigil is that many baatezu high-ups are tradltlonaiists and don't want to +ess around with tried and true methods, but a growing rhuaba are more adventurous - thcy feel that con-

I

slight; they're prSencaUy invblble to any krlc wko W t spent tlme studyine tk brutau fonn.

&DIC CORNUOONS.

A normal cornugon's main offcusivc wcmpoa Is Its lfgktrrfng Mt ability? which has no effect on

most tanar'ri. A bit useless for Blood War combat, If you ask me. The baatezu m u s t h thought so too, becaosc in some cornugons they've changed the electridty into d. Their new acid bolt power causes the same damage PI the old lightning bolt, but with a gwd deal more paln aud howling.

The cornugons with d d bolt W e a more brownish tint than the others, and their hands are free of scales.

The standad saw-toothed gldves of the barbazu art sbwty being replaced with similar glaives made of cold-wmugbt iron. This isn't the case acmss the board - m i r y to get a barbazu to give up lts glaive, wen In exchange far a new one? But some of the baatezu high-ups'm purhlng for aztotal changcovcr. After all, the barbam are primarUy Blood War- rlon, and cold imn brings a lot mom hurt to a tmrr'ri th8n

Since this change doesn't alter the physical meLCup of the barbazu, the OMS with cold-&on glpphns don't look any dff€ercnt than the others. 'Coune, the mapon i W f ia aaycr and a lot less shiny.

OrdlMW Sted.

Everyone knows that a spinagon's spina bunt into R u c when released from its body. Till now, thii flre'sjust been an ordinary reaction between the fiend's blood and the air. But the baatezu'vc #em4 wqe of ~e$U@&o~Splned Descent to make it a nagkal fiame. Though it seems to c a w a slight drain on the spinagons' reserves mey lose a small Mtof their life form with each spine flml), I've heard more than one say that it's worth the cost. Whether they say this because they've been told to or because they actually belleve it is a macer of opialon.

The spinagons with thc magical-flame enhancement are of a slightly d a r k a d rdorthur their companions.

WARMER GELUQO(IS.

trolling cbangc is the best way to make sure that uncon- trolled change doesn't sweep the race. Whatever happeq, the outcoine'll determine the fate of the baatezu, and thur the rest of,the Lower Planes.

<All baatezu take full damage from electricity and lightning, ' and dkotce gelugons've been ad?"+" +- '7 to get around



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that wcptnc&s. Such M d s haw a lpcata resistance to dcc- Mcity a&d lightning, magkal and othemiW, so the only safper half a6 much fmm a jolt. Wfortunakly for them, the

ate cold fmm thdr tails has 1IkcwSse dimlnlshcd by half. A bbod can spot an dcctrlcltp-rraiatsnt gelugon by its

odd skin (which is more transparent than normal) and the extra antennae atop its head.

Tbe fUp sMc of the clect~Idty upniinmts has mated gdu- gons that're orm more ffi$id tbm wal. See, &e yugolouU have a strange vulnerability to cold of all sorts, so the bartent Ugh-ups liLc to send detachments of enhanced gd- ugons albng with any d a l yueroioth mnrcaprg compa- nks. By deubllng the strength of the Bcrcrgons' cold, the pit finds hop tcv ensure that the yugolothr won't turn .rtpg - not unless they feel like losing their entire force to thclr extra-chilly baatezu comrades.

The gelugohs so treated m brlght blue, not fading wen in the glooms of the Gray Waste.

procrss dB0 pilrcs tbdrrLLn I c y iq, so thdrpowcr to ndi-

cOLD@R GELUGONS.

of thdr klnd to cambion w a s - tbc d u e of elite fiends skilled In stealth and ROW ihw're matlnu some of their own. "he

BUND F U N I S 1 v 1

All fiends have a vulnerability to magic mfssflcs; the baatau hew decided to clpitdiu! on It. Sadly (fm -1, the method. they've scttklor~ ain't wwkiag oat too mu. See, they trlad to shap ficads that couki ilrr thc ddlcs from tbcir eyes. Thpt part worlredJurtfim in carb.t, they can Arr hro mag& mfssfles each- minute - me perfeye - with an ~nllmited supply, a n i the bolts inflW thc wne amount of dtmrge aa thosc 18nncIicd by ihe niuad. qcll. But tile poor sob shoot the nihil- Isllisolmlnatdy my- time th& eyes are open, la b8ttls, they're & Baty, but when it's t h e to leave the fiuld, they'vemto bebllnd- fdded.

What's more, the sods can't see a bi?, btinMolded or not. A l m ~ r Bend's got to *'em PIOuad patd g&k tLdr g a m BO they cause the most damage. 'Coirrrc. b a r t a u bcing whn they M, wm d the lead tbcirekrga right to a11 the othcrh&?zu who've a n g d them, ushg the missiles to avenge old insults. (Bellon it or not, some of the guides actually get rewarded for this Und of inventlvc treachery.)

Promotion srmw to m the problem - the fiends' eyes return to normal as soon as they reach the next 6tation In the hlmrclgl. But they losc one of thc abilities of thelr new rank, scdagly at nndom.

SPEWSLINGERS.

cast 'em like a m inger. And 1 hope they still in are too numerous to toss en't seen any proof with



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PHYSICAL VULN6RABILI+IBS The best way to physically harm a baatezu of any variety is with add, eleetridty, or magic missiks. They can't seem to shrug OH the damage from thane sods of attacks as easily as they can ignore poison or flrr (or, to tell the truth, as easily as tanar'd can). Cold, gaseous attacks, and somaimcs even silva generally do about half the damage you might uqnct so if you're fighting a baatuu with such weapons, be prc- p a d to U n d toe-to-toe with it longer than you would with an ordinary berk. But that redly goes without saying.

Holg weapons tend to do the trick pretty well, too, but the monsters usually spot such items from a long way of€, I heard OM of lbem aaually claim that holy weapons shed a kind of &ow that they can sn and cven scnac deep in their spirits. H@hl I've heard better l i a from mhons. But it is truc that it's extraordinarily difficult to smuggle a holy weapon into the pmcnrc of baatuu (or M s of other varieties) -

you might tu well just announce your intentions flpt out Holy water's effcrtivc as well, and f haven't beard any

ng monstm dah the stuffghns offa glow. H o w

to wedrrn the foul creature. If the mow strength, the water won't hurt it much more d d would, and that only s e m to aet tlu B a d

g of heart, it's said that a sure ng rid of a fiend is to cut the thing apart and s how the tanar'll pmwit lnerura and nup

ragmerat& d w i q Blood War battles - (hey dlas mowers. (Ifa bastcsu's cacrace Es @ekd it l o w its existcnrrj But doea tha&tdck wort

king baatuu? I t uay weU my, but chances

a a m flesh isnp somahing you'd want w &y

't douse a baattnu with holy water ualass you've

O ~ c h i s U ~ t O t h e b S k k S k h S ,



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S P I RI +UAL VU LN8 RABI LI + I8 S

Mort folks would rather tay to HI1 a baa- with a dull fork t h n n t P L s U O n s p ~ U y I O r m c n t P l l y , l B y o u ~ g w ~ member: mK mmsters are iabepcnUy d l w m , and 1 pemonalky Mion that &e powcr of an evllldad is &bg compa1~4 to lhat of a good pmon stpading againht It Re- lacmbcr $his!

Oae way& engage a lawful lien6 in MatalromW Is to a d am&tdy&mtkaUy. Mow Mtbact waran t purpose 01

plan; a c t m the spur of the moment. The werage b e is so pmgmnpd that what he ltelievea to k slmple refkxh uc really reactions he lcatnul IP long time ago. And rcDetionr cam be\mkpwcb H o w , if a b ~ m t t @ t ~ &cbDCCto W

question lits foe to any degree - and 'the higher thc baataq tbc Lns thae it n& - the mwskr will have a d m n t mid 011 lfs *onmWs instincts and rrblun: in thb casq chaotic behavior won't be effective against the fiend. Thc t d c works only if a baatmrand its foe hve Mlfttkcuntad

Anot4er method exists.for those who aren't keen on standing itoe-to-toe wlth a baatezu. It's mom d a n g e m s Ipanbcd, but the rnracds can be eved mer. Simply tty to convince the fiend that It's vroy). Sam, there's no easy way to dp thla The baatezu M taught throughout their en- ttrc I M h t &elr way is the right way, and a mortal% ar- gummtsiwm't make- think twice nowmless h c b s a silver torkgue and the luck of the goda

My eempaniom and I must have had the luck, bmuse we once ldked om way past a #peen ablshai by demoartnt- ing the psuadve power of chaon and the ncod for bUa in the mtlltiveme. We mrnrgcd eo confuse the monstkr f6r only a faiv minutes, but that was Pu wc needed to esc-. I don't thhk this tartlc would wort agrlnsi a tougher or smarter type of baatreu.

Natt~rPlly, there arc o t k r waya to deal with the m stem that don't entall physical combat, bM the b u m @I

d b l s Tlr creatures hate k i ~ g fookd. a mined never to be fooled by the same trick more than kup. The baatezu learn from experience: if they didn't, they'd& Just as bad off as the tanar'ri.

TH8 TRUC DBA+H The baatczu claim to be immortal, that they'd live former 4 they wden't troubled by little things l i k the tanar'ri qf mortals with holy nvonds. But men then, m n when Ucjr

of the original baatezu to exist (unlas tacy've Mdcn themselves away so carefully and preserved their Uvea sa.,.* ningly that they've passed beyond m o d bnWgeI .

Of course, sometimu, the baatezu truly om reborn.

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common baatnu are restricted from roaming the planes at will. Andlno baatezu in its right mind would gainsay orders from Baator's high-ups, not unless It could bring those superiors crashing down with that one act of rebellion. (Erinyes are an exception, as my fkndlsh contact smugly in- formed me, fm to journey to other planes whether they've been summoned or not.) The matures must either obey or invite the wrath of those who hue the orders, not to mention the legions of fiends thatfollow the commanders. That's a formidable obstacle to most baatuu, and only the exceptionally stupid or exceptionally brave try to cross it.

Solqe do, of course, and they visit the Prime or the Upper Plana even when forbldden to do so. These flends n m r return to Baator, not unless they can prove that what they accomplished was worth foreswearing the baatezu lords. As ithat's usually impossible, the wanderers often turn toward chaos or join the ranka of the risen (though some continue to pursue the ideals of law and evil on the Prime).

Of course, such deviants are the exception. That's why many of the baatnu who are truly summoned to the Prime exchangq tbeir services for the privilege of hunting down thelr "traltorous" fellows. They don't want the errant fiends giving bqatczu mlywhere a bad name.

H@W + 8 ) CALL

potential candidates, administered by Furcas (the member of the Lhrk Eight in chprgc of mortal relations). As might be expected, Baator's high-ups have determined the spots where spcU crystals - thew objects that grab a wuamo#d creature and whisk it to tbc summoner - are Ukcly to appear from points all ovcr the multlvene. They position various baatezu at the most Important of these points. (Nstunlly, what's considered 'important" really depesdr on what fiendish faction holds power at the time, and the number and type of baatnu manning the entry points ch- par- tically day by day.)

When a spell crystal eventually appears, a fiend leaps into its path and is summoned to the location of the rpcll- slinger. Naturally, the baatezu stationed at the cry8tal mtty points are briefed on what agendas to punw once they arrive at their destinatioh. For the most pW. they've got tremendous latitude in determining how to achieve their goals, but their every action reflccid on baatuu pll OVCI thc multivme. Those who fail in their mksiom or who baing shame to the race am due for torment. That's what makes flends summoned by this method more than a little uneasy in their appn4nt-d duties.

- - .. H(bW +a ... ;*ROL T---Tl

In my mcprch, 1 stumbled aaons no lack of bubbers who promised to teach me "the multivene's best summoning spell' fonthe price of a drink No doubt a few of tMr rlojhs had some grain of truth, but those methods an$+t best, Bn- gcmusly unproven. Mages who wish to c& baatnu s ~ b o w rely on more widely known methods (as desaibed in the in- troduction to this very book).

Sadly, most of the common summoning spells have been designed so that wen a rank amateur can work them (though poorly). The consequences of an improperly cast summoning can dewatate untold miles of the Prime. And there's always a chance that a spellslinging berk manages to grab one of the rare Rends who sees an improper summoning as UI e x c w for carnage (though the danger is less with baatezu than with tanar'd). Stories tell of a mageling who inadvertently released a single barbazu on her prime-material world. The fiend gated in its brrthren to lay waste to the land, and they did so with relish. By the time a pit Rend R- nally came through to call back the renegades, the barbazu had destqoyed over half the world.

lko diffmnl types of summoning8 work on baatezu. Thl Arst calls a fiend by name, drawing it from its tasks without cam or for that work. A baatezu so summoned is almost always Rrious for having bcen pulled away from its duties. Abandoning a task set by its superiors is one of the worst crlmes a baatczu can commit; drawing a a n d away from its own schemes is one of the worst insultr a summon- can offer. Since baatnu are always invoIvd in a task or a scheme, it's hardly likely that a mage will catch one in a good mood - unlas the flend's manipulating the fool for its own pluposn.

The second kind of summoning draws from a pool of

'

Controlling a summoned baateru Is risky at best. Though they're proscribed from action by the summoning c b d w any intelligent mage puts down when calling outer-planar beings, the more talented among them can talk their way out of nearly any situation. It might just be Baatontn bhu- ta,buf I've heard that some flads have been summoned ao o h tkt they know, by sight, the race of over a hundred prime-matcrlal worlds - and the weaknews of each.

Thus, if a mortal h o w to conhul a summoned bamtuu, he'd best make sure to triple-check wry siagk scel end to phrase his request such that the creature can find no loopholes. The baateru are masters of manipdation; they find the smallest c h i in any protection, magical orvcrbd, and exploit it as much as they possibly can. They'll reek to spread their evil as far as they can, as long as it promotes general gods of the h e . If all ehe fails, they'll fouow in- structions so l i t e d y that the summoner will wiah he'd neve dealt with them in the Ant place.

trick applies more spcdilcally fiends &w opadn$a In con- tage of on& the mort glaring

the spellcaster has debased himself with enough summonings to fully ensnare himself in a net of evil, then the baatnu strike and bring the bcrk down.

(This is why most contracts - cyem those between rtp- utable merchants in The Lady's Ward - arc w-6 down with h e print. Obviously, it's meant to protect tke signer from trickery, to close loopholes that might othmvirc k exploited, and so on. But the practice actually gmv out of dealing with the baatezu. They're the lo& of legditka and tiny details: ignore this at your peril.)

Hem's the most important thing to remember: Sum-

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nmned baatezu, even if completely bound by abjurations and holy symbols, will always try to exchange their d c e s instead of providing them for free. Most summoners (espe- ci&y novices) fall for this m e ; the fiend provides a service, and the sprmaoner must provide one in return. Whatever the fiend ask$ for never falls to advance the goals of the baatezu or wrap *e summoner in a web of lies. magic, and evil that ends only whcn the spellcaster has become a lemure on Baa- tor. (Canny mortals know they don‘t have to trade services at all; the simply make their demands of the fiends.)

The best advice for maklng deals with the baatezu is simply ta leave them alone. But if a spellcaster happens to summon a fiend that’s not all that smart, he can extort promisest from the hapless creature. And all baatezu are bound to honor the lawful agreements entered into by any member of their race, even If said member has been tricked. The deal4 made by outcasts don’t count, obviously, but a bargain dRmd by an abishai will bind wen one of the Dark Eight. (Of course, thc high-up will examine the agreement ucry carefully and exploit any flaws it Rnds, but still. . . .)

+ D S A L I N G WI+H IIIeR+ALS + Regnus Roy

In all tha digging I’ve done for this project, I’ve found dozens oE hgments of text from primes detailing their m- countm with Rends. And sure as Sigil, in every one the

olent, gazed out at me lvith suck cunning &la- Hon that, for an Instant, Jfrored Z had remehow s m d its purpose In drplwing It h m . I skwh that thoughtfrom my mind and began the abjutatioa that would drive l t&cvm lato abllvton.

Inside the clrcle, the cnahlly syflni a ymn, I t s leathery whgs unprrscd behind tt, thdr krranre span making as they spmad slowly, JllUng the nl- lar, and them-

It s t q p e d j h m the drele.

’ C o w , some primes know what they’re doing, but planar~ have a better grasp on dealing with WC appcara~~ce of a fiend. A spetlslinger’s already lost the battle if he pn dl barmy when the thing shows up la kis cutk - he nlkd it, for powers’ sake, so he’d better k ready to hand& it1 That don’t mean chewing it out, @I-. A canny blood rccogniws the danger of a Rend and treats it with mpect.

What do bwtezu think of mortals? For the mod part, the same thing mortals think of flks: lgnore ‘aq but awat ‘em if thcy‘w a bother. Even the lifc of an d f - tfiouJpeds of yean long - ain’t much more than a day or a week to a Rend. Sure, mortals are tenacious and wry, wry pmIiRc, but they’re too weak to take on even one of the fiendish races. They’re insects; they’re vermin. But that don’t mean they can’t be exploited and then tossed aside.

I suppose if a N t M s Bpinrd some faatas- tic knowwe or power (or ifhe h~rthc p *

r - 1 baatezu go to considerable lengths to make a strong impression. They figure by assaulting a berkk seMes, they can make him fccl the power of their race, make him know the dread at the COR of dabbling wlth dark forces.

called The Black Beyond:

t d to gpln it$ which the fknds uw- ally rccogniee), a baa- a c ~ a

him with a bkt more rcspcrt lhat’s why tba Duk Eight set up the Minktry of

Mortal Relations - a, deal with & special cases that need more tbrn sim-

SIGN H E R E , ple swatting (though the minbtry stiu triestolcsvcmoltalsodswlth

thc taste of betrayal one way or

govan PU contact with mortab, and the R a d s sent out on sum-

moninlp (or wdedn@) am brl&

I f Y e U ’ D IUS+ &d ?

Herek a p i m I found in a dusty book

WE CAN CeNCLUDE . . . My chalked drcle completr, I awalM the comlng of the fiend said to have mmr- ized Phis planfor so long. I did not have long to wait.

anothcr).Undertheaysof~ - U N e P P I C I A L llI@**e c a S t t K ~ ~ S u p p c r e d k l

or +ue Ill I N I S + RY or

e R*A L R8 LA* I e N S re tbev have Baator. A coursing ofelec- Baatau who stay clt home

don’t usually get tk same imlnlng. See, mortals who visit Baator are supposed to stl@k to cert&o paths, plaas

along t ic ines of the spbol pmaged its mmlng. The stench of nether mlms wa@d anass tke e where agents of the tntnlshy can work tklr chamw on ’em. - mom as the maw to a helUsh pit gaped eyer wider to disgorge its pandemus cargo. I gaggd, my slght growing blurry with the a d d va. p m , land through my tearfng vision, I saw the approach of this mature. It came, not thmugh the air as anionihry beast nlght, but through the cornrn of spqn ikcK tmwlingjhm an unimaginable dis- tannland gnnufng at a tmnrndous speed.

At last thefiend stood witkln my dde, barely contalned by the lines. Its eyes, p’g-rrd and malru-

’Course, what with all the portnls in SiUgl (and elsewhe), it’s likely that some folks just dip through the cracks - and that’s when they gtt a true glimpse of how hellish Baator really is.

It’s not hard for baatezu to romrmmicate with mortals. They know many languages, and if thllt fails, they can usc telepathy. When they do, their thoughts simply tram)ate into the lamyage of the listener. But s inn they think &I their own caste languages (see ‘Language,” later in this chapter) and in the horrld concepts and metaphorn of evil,

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the listener can't help but hear a low, terrifying buzz in the ba-und of the telepathic nmssge. If the fiend makes the effort, it can screen out most of the 'static," but few of 'em bother wlth this nicety.

ColRJnon chant is that baatnu take contml of the bodies of mortals so they can spread the word of evil amds the multivcrae without fear of discovely. That's barmy talk. Sure, a Atnd might plant seeds of itself in a sod's mind, and It could usemagic to take over if it wanted to. but what'd be the point? No, the baetezu're too subtk to take complete possession of mortal bodies. They leave that kind of rough stuff to the tanar'ri.

All this talk of bodies reminds me of something the faint of heart ain't going to l k Baatuu~sometimes b m d with mortals. It's not as rare an occurrence as most folks'd like to think; it seems the fiends go out of their way to pm- duce offspring with other races. But I don't know what one of these baatezu-mortal children looks llke. because I've nrvn seen one up close and personal. However, it's practically a given that these half-baatezu do exist. Otherwise, how would we ever get tieflings with Baatorian blood, which am let mmtl oncouartcr beatezu?

+ THls DARK 81GHl) l + Nomoto Sinh

I had no trouble convincing my ennyes 'friend" to regale me with the story of the formation of the Dark Eight, a tale which has since passed into legend (and must thus be con- sitbed s w ) .

Long ago, she said, a great and wise pit fiend named Can- saw the necessity of further order in the ranks of the baatlezu, and he gathered together eight like-minded brethren. The combined force of nine ambitious and ex- tremely well-organized pit fiends yielded a new pattern for

Apparently, there's some debate on Baator as to whether the group grew from an idea by the Lords of thc Nine orlwhether they took the initiative on their own. It's no sen~r that some of them rose through the ranks in the senrice of the lords. In any case, the Dark Nine (as they were then calkdl became the driving force of the race, a sort of guild mediating between the whims of the noble baatezu (and the lords) and the needs of the common baatezu.

Then one day, Cantrum fdl to the blade of an assassin. Most sa9 the killer was a paladin, though some fiends swear it was ad abishai. No matter; Cantnun died. Rather than try to replace th& prlcekss founder (which they feared they could ncver do), the remaining pit Acnds renamed their circle the Dark Eight, though they swore to honor always the memow of their leader.

Thlt's thc stow as told in Baatorian socicty, anyway. My contact says the Dark Eight learned a lesson from Cantrum's fate and protected t h d w against the kind of assassination and intrigue that characterizes the rest of baatezu society. In other words, the pit fiends who currently

SUCIYSS t&Ough discipline.

call themselves the Dark Eight arc supposedly the same pit fiends who came together undcr Cantrum. I very much doubt that. But if they truly are the originals, they're d q n e beings among the treacherous b teau . And if they play at politics and rivalries (which they mustl), they keep their struggleJ hlddcn from mortal eyes.

Each d the Darh Eight wrtchcs over ona of the m i n v istries of baatezu cultun: hem ate the fiends' n~lassrnd duty deaignatlons: B a a l ~ b o n , Supply Master of Bastor; Coria, Spyma~ta; Dagos MPrPhalbof ithe Pit% Furel* a- bta of Mortal Brlations; P e w , W of Ilmalck zrbor, Minister of Pmmatlons; Zapan, Miairta of bmortal Dipb macy; and Zimimar, Minlrtn of Marplr.

'Ik pmtlge and inil- oftbe D a k E@t am at least equal to thm of the noble bsrtrm that aaratheloi$eHow nnr, theE!ght rrmain ordiasly pit fiends, w h i l e t h e n e b h r ~ sume gmtu physical powa and rpatn prmdmity ta tk tmp mastcm of tbc plane. S U few mortals am fool& emu@ to test the limits of the Eight. They can m c h to moat prSra acm the muhiverse, and as the heeds of the mbbttica of Baator, they have amss to more information tha rlaadt any llvinq mufil WI the plana It's kst not to plwl tLnt

+ NeBLg BAAIE8ZU + Tealo Wilton

For a long time, it's been thought that there was no step between the "ordinary" baatuu (perhaps a better word would be 'nongodlike") and the Lords of the Nine. Wt my owe painstddng rrsearch has m v d e d me with th~ dark Cpf the matter: An tlusive group of baatuu cxlsts sbovc the mt of the race, nobles who dirrctly sme the loldr Appmtly, tbc lords shape them from pit Acncb who* MNed the intsrrsb of Baator exccptionaUy well (and who've also muaged to secure power for themelves in deing so). The Lords of tbc Nine appreciate that sort of devotion, and they w a r d it with d c e of a higher kind - service that enwls more ICI sponsibUy and more pcnond e a t i o n .

It's imponant to note th t thac noble bpstaa actudy ranL above the DarkEight in turns ofststus (mdlllrdypowpr). And if any ofthe Eight grumbk asout the M t , timy

Baator: a deal that's mutua+& SdVpntseeMII to eU adca Though I've not met any Baatorian n o b l a I g.tber

(from lower-planar chantb that these specid fiends can choose indivklual forms, that they fonu on a pUbtColrr am of expertise and altar thcmsehres to flt their rpedaWts. Why, I suppose this means I may have met a nobk er two aRer all and simply not realized it.

Is this individuality a mnrk of chaos? No more thaa a secundus modron is chaotic. Though the m h n hpr a form that only t h m others duplicate, a srunduc is still a mature of taw. So it Is wlth the noblea of Baatw - they have form and individual desire, but they pmmote the laws ofthe land, And if they m a t e ~ l a s to benefit tbcmectvcS, what of it? They have the power, and more importmtly, they have the

keep it to themsehtm. It may well be that fareat of wags Is

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Mht. They've paid their dues in millennia of labor for the causa of law and evil, and they deserve to reap the rewards of that mcc.

As a baatezu progresses from lemure to pit flend, its name grows in length and complexity as its power in- creases. Once it achieves the status of noble, its name 1s again simpliflcd, but that doesn't mean the fiend is any less troublesome to call or control. Many mortals recognize this fact, and as a mult, the names of noble baatezu are more often used to summon and bind lcsscr fiends ('ln the name of Amduwias, the Horned Duke, and Caarainolaas of the S m n t h Quarter, I call t h e forth . . ."I. Only a fool would use a noble's name to call the noble itself.

The nobles are not the culmination of Baatorian politics, however. Though they may slt above the Dark Eight, they answer to the Lords of the Nine, the rulers of the layers of Baator. Chant is each lord has a covey of nobles at its beck andl call. Each noble, of course, commands armies of baatezu and sends them against its lord's enemies (and n m r forget that armies can be used in more ways than simple physical battle).

As Mr the lords themselves, well . . . I regret that I wasn't chosen to expound or I at length, but I place you into the hoacfUv capable bar-- _ _ one of my compaMots

THlh L@RDS .P + H 6 N I N g Regnus Roy

Plenty oflmytbs surround the Lords of the Nine. Some folks say they'* arch-fiends, riacn from the ranks below than to dominatt the layers of Baator. Other graybeards claim they're really pgoloths (I swear, some folks see loths every- w h m they look). There's wen a grwp that thlnks the lords g m v up from the very essence of Baator ibclf and are the livlng manifestations of the plane's will.

Is any dit true7 Who know? The lords keep most of the facts about thnwhrcs dark: the I n s folks know of 'em, the better. Still, it doesn't prevent tezlsdou mortals from digging up whatever they can. Take Willgan the Dogged, for instance. That blood gathered together more material than nearly any other. 'Come, the baatuu say hls s o m were corrupt, and WUgm ain't available for questions - he's vanished.

Anyway, here's what we do know about the lords. They're mighty, maybe even mightier than the deities of Baator. They're partly creatures of symbology as well as physical form, so their natures change bit by bit over the milienniar They've hidden the truth about themselves behind countless walls, giving different names and showing different aspects to almost every berk who ash, so that no one can truly labd them. Like powers, they can manifest avatars and chooe thdr forms for bcst effect.

The lords shape the layers of Baator in their own Image and polick their territory better than the Harmonium ever could ThOy command handfuls of noble baatezu and armies of common baatrm, and they use their undnlings' power to amass c v e ~ more influence for themselves. And though they're

bitter rivals, they recognize the need for dipdomaey and sl- l i a n a now and again to keep Bartor strong ag- outddar.

What else7 Well, the lords don't glve a flg about the Blood War, leaving it all in the hands of the Dark Bight. They simply rule the nine layan of Baator. They pla 4nekc pacts with leatherheads on the Prime Mated81 Plane, promising strength, wealth, and somctlmca immortdtty te those who follow their tencts. They build Fkriltp.tiOae md nurh e m p h . T h y are, in short, ncm to k mcssad wlth.

h just guesswork. 'Coune, some guesses are betterthan etkm, and the chant below is a collection of the most c0gPctll.g evl- d a c e ever found. But mlnd where you take this infbrma- Hon, berk - flap your bone-box too loudly In the w m y places and you'll wind up in the dead-book for SUI

That's all 1 can say with certainty. hytbtag

LBRD eF Y H B FIRS+ The unnamed Lord of the First was deposed thoasanria of years ago by Bel, her plt flmd wpriord. Bel was an ambitbus general under the command of the Dark Eight. cud ht getb- ered enough power from the amiss of A m u s to knock thc lord out of power. Now, he's more or less taken over her spot. Lots of folks today don't m n know a different Lord of the First wer existed - theyju)t 5@re ltbs@wayskn Bel.

His servants include the dukes Amduscias, Malphas, and Goap. They too are warlords and generals.

LBRD e F +HB S B C B N D

It's no dark that the Lord of the Second is the wk pater, an urbane flend who goes to great lengths to makc sure everyone knows he's in command of any situatiw. He's as cruel and manipalathn as they come, but he slro recog- nizes the need for goodwill wlth other planars. Merchants are often welcome in his iron city, Dis, though the bwgs scalding walls scorch anyone addiecowl enou## to b m h into them. Of all the lords, Dispter 1s the most vfstble to mortals a m s s the planes.

Hls numerous servants include ednyes and w w a l dukes. The most notable of thcsc is TitMlus, DhpaMs me+ smger and herald.

L@RD B,F * I i B THIRD

Common chant marts the Lord of the Thltd as a M M dug that prattks on and on about the virtue of greed and]I& That's just barmy talk: foWre probably bhing the third lord with the seventh. See, the third hyw, Mimws, is a sodding swamp, and it snms far more likely that its lord Is really the make-bodled Viscount also csllcd Minaluwl h dead giveaway, if you ask me).

The Viscount k known to have had the pit flend Zimi- mar in his scrvicc - that is, u n a Can- made Zlmknar a member of the Dark Bight. MInarvos's romort h the h t e h Glasya, and the current commander of his armies is Duke Monch.



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LORD OP + R ( i SIX+H

The Lord of the Sixth is commonly portrayed 85 a hag countess p e d with a huge sword and the ability to bring avalanche down on the heads of her rncmics. This wicked countess usually called M8lagud - loves to Lure mortals and pow$ul planar qmhrol to the layer, onty fa dcstmy *a n&@eedh&b$sdWbqlge.

tribuncl rtrlcr...*auae s u m = visits to upagain& UL torrcntp of htone. :,:

It's Md Bilah (hcr,plt fiend

see howlthe structrues hold

: i

Triel the Fslicn.-thc Slug ArdLQBe, the Lord of the Plies - these arc pll naqcs for& Lord ofthe Scw#?h. Chant is he was once an archon nh9 got tossed frmn%fotint cdmtlp

+ CHAOS A N D PURIIEY + Tealo Wilton

k ow f& editor detailed urlfu, BW#Ian sade wmIsts 9 of thm primaryeasks - least, l c w and #mater - w h h am the ba$c boildlng blocks of tha culture. W'& mymem- ber of the race has the chance to asctad to the level of mater baateau and bcyond. You must admit (as k~ I and k c i y ) that the flmdr enjoy a rrrurrkabtyjust rcwkty. Of -e, it's also citridly rrglwnted. A baateznjust hm to lcam bow to play in it.

Again, as noted epruSr, ssch oP&a thm castes is,& thu bmkn down into various stations E v u y baatmy;hom splnsgon up must leam exactly how much d e f e m e to pay to each rank. Too much, and it'll get flayed for insulting sar- cam; too little. and it'll be tom apart for base insolence. Whw deallng WWI a baatmu of a highec c*c, ~lltudly, it learn to bow and scrape. it msy have plots io place for de- vatlng itself, but only thc ditnmw of fleads rim its M U to

OWhWhSilEpkavo-

the spirlt - is most



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say the baatuzu am co remed only with corruption, but tbey alw seek the demUncss of pure conviction, and that's what

threefold possible membedp

wrrd &n -power overvast armles of lesser baatezu md the Fame that acampauks ibb; m d the shaping of the wry mjhivem wlth BCW polkin and dnfluence that few mort& can comprehd Stlll, 1'11 be happy to try to explain ItalltolyousomeothcrOimc.

thmugh tha ranks Ir dl about. Thd rewad fbr

in the nprli (*&?&It fW bum dare this K-

TH5 R e G U 5 S + A N D lEHg R I S @ N + Regnus Roy

Evcly ~ Q W lad again, & baatuu of wbatmr nu1I~2 break its ~ ~ n d t h e ~ o f * ~ ~ ' I h m c w m the mgurs, snd nwyh a8 hstcd by them OfthCbaatQU IW rogue -s arc by the clockwork nmin of Mcrhanus. Their former fellows'll do what- tkq cam to bring 'em domq m ~ a r hm- ~JXW WNW thcplpn~. umi- m u € U * D p r t ~ L H n i a t c r o f w ~ ~ r D d r hcrovra age& #tcrfkndv Wtr0)tum stag, to sbow 'em that no one's beyond thc m c h of the brstazrr arm. MOa of the dearrtcRl wlud uptswlng@ fmn Ihc ghbctwof Bel's cpstk in Avcrnur

wlh, do the botP fled their postd Well, some of 'em

breasts. (It ain't always boiled out of 'em) Rarest of all gv the Ieathmheads who give themselves over to tbc 'forces of good - the cdestials of the Upper Planes. B W wko Ibt- low this path're called the rlsm.

See, just as the archons can fall from~(laCwso emu w t c e u climb up out of the pit Sure, s0meaf:emmigMbc double agents, ~ n n l n g a peel to gain valuable cluat #*u the celestials into lending the flends a hand. But r m h ~ Sigil, thcte're $eRnficly wme baatczu w h o k &fIw?d$ given up their evll ways and now struggle to make.^) f& thelr past sins. And the rlsen have p r o m to bo- tim II to the bms of good.

Don't misunderstand, W k , - tk Uppu Phnat mn%

tween, and they don't nomPny grPrrr in c b c mcrplapl*ll M u all, how bon one d a fkndWtiw IPrhstbb changed, or Just am wiissht oat for bis &Id? lRlcr to ske% clear of each other, they flgure.

Still, there's one cutter, the most prominent of dl the risen, who can briw 'em toletllCar w k q Imdaa: FnaV Vahlix, a male hamatula. A do-gooder who organizes other reformed fiends into the celestbl nndn, he coordl~ta any nlsrtons w h m have 80 UcriL*cl~witb ~YUISIW~ sarlmbn, and the lik. Aaom&patmM& k w * o W f h . t t n k o n and would-be awmhss d o 8 k ~ W i &'muL&t't forthmmlq a b u t hb ppst kt the's 10 tw~~w@s*bdrtli~

swPlmingwittkafbmndbutruL~*Rr.ruY**

- ws WC~Y cut his tin w#h BIS h e m e w ch..tww mdolhco killed re in their img to

4 paizo.com #652842, Kari Wilfong <[email protected]>, Apr 6, 2009


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j- ,-

L A S E E , BECAUSE want to test thcmschns, right? -

'Cour$c, it I BE+RAYED YCeU, In the lowest rsnks, barsyrb

creatures of good- slights, Ute lack of communication, the ness won't cycr learn A N D +HA+ GCe+ Y e U h c k o f a b W t o s e e w r p o i n t o f

view, and (of COLI~SL) thedninto advance. It's Usuplly not untll later in a

to trust a ahanged

baatezu's life - at lpcm Pbisbai strtion and baatnu fully. "Can't take

above - that themonsterrellizls it cau rlsr further and faster if it plans the ktrsyll* if

thefireoutof - S+BRAN(b DAI'BL, ABISWAI, the fiend,"

it caremy schcmc~ to better itself at the expense of its brrthrrn.

they say. Iqact is, some folks think the

seems like some Y ~ U LEARNED +e +RUS+ NCe @NE, gmdyoccurbecP\Llcofperrdwd ~ e + EVEN YCeUR FRl€NDS.

A PRCem$+leN. yeu @WE mE @NE. +. DWANA mAAR' 9

N I W BRINYBS baatczu're at least partly evil by nature. Just as a yeth hound remains a carnivore, so must a baatezu remain a monster of evil. But then they look at some of thk reformed baatnu, and they've got to wonder at their own lack of faith in the power of good.

+ A SCeCIis+lY eQ BB+RAYAL + Rezzik Tam

Although it's strange to think of vile monsters forming any kind of soaicty, the baatnu definitely have one. And here's the most @portant thing to remember about it: The common fiends do@ make the d e s ; they just play by them. Natu- rally, they bkuggle to ascend so they can be in a position to change thq rules to suit themselves. But when they finally reach the rank they so covet, they discover that the status quo is manly perfect for their ne& and desires. Typical.

Of coqrse, what can we expect from a sodety based on lies, betmyw, and one-upsmanship? Sparked by envy, greed, and hate, e baatau scheme and plan their whole long lives, looklng to rLse through the ranks at the expense of others. What th can't use to climb to a higher status, they tear d m j u s t it then can't be wd against them. Their lives BR dgorous d ordurd ycs, but they stlll live in fear that they might not i ve covered thdrtrsdu as well as they could have alter com@ttlng their latest wrong. h v h g evidence behind is said to be one of the wont alma a baatezu can commit.

Fiends who excel at treachery and backstabbing rise high, and quickly at that. Such qualities are exactly the sort prized by their superiom, for they're the ideals that advance the baatezu race. Those who can't learn these lessons are doomed to wallow in low-ranking stations forever - if they're no4 sent to a painIul death at the front lines of the Blood War, that is.

Still, 4 esplte this atmosphere of distrust, the monsters do have allies - if you can call them that. Thee 'friends" are more cbmmon at the lower l m i s of the baatezu hierarchy, but as a Bend travels up the ladder, Its allies become fewer and fewer. Unless its companions ascend qually Isd into spots t)at don't threaten Its rank, a baa- faces a constant dangpr of betrayal from thau - espccidly if they

Know what I think? I think aome of the most powerful and cunning baatczu are thcu who trusted too much in their earliest days, that they became so hardened because of particularly painful treacheries from those they relied on the most. Look at it this way: Imagine a lifc spannlng thousends of years. Imagine th most wenching behyals of a human lifetime and extend those across millennia. Imagine what sort of penon a body'd become without trust, without pwlt

the hope of trust, to keep him going. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying we should feel

sorry for the baatnu. Hahl They bring the misay m tbcn- selves. Their bctrayds foster further treacheries, tad ulsy become so enamored of their own smug 'perfection," of t h i r refusal to face the fact tkat they too are fplllble, that they practically invite hatmi and dMaia. In short they get nothlng they don't deserve.

The real kicker is that the superiors encourage and sometimes wen create the betrayal& When a high-rmldng baatezu sees a lesser fiend with promk, it often maaipu- lates the monster's pule# ieto astonishing acts of tradwy, Why? Just to teach fiend that thnr 's no one it can trust, that a baptW must always I& c &self for solace and comfoft

That's right. PowdW baatnu t a k ~ msLa memlm of thdr race under thrir trrln

its inflrlon' inm* wbb may plot to toppk it SO

YeU'RE RIGH-F, that p m & m come h W # d l around. And

I n m - wsastforget I De, et.0 FRl€ND.

CM profit &om the treachery. Somctlmes a fimd I _ .

will turn on one of its fellows just to see If it can get away th it. After all, the best and brightest

-, PWANA mAARBBN'S

, , by B B P e R B , , , .i. i*,,

7 ' S ; B%BCU+lfBN 1



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It's a mad labyrinth, and what it bolls down to is this: The flends do their best to make sure they've placed spies and infopants anywhere their rivals might lurk, and they know that rivals lurk evcrywhm. The fellowship that many on the Middle and Upper Planes take for granted is in tremendOusly short supply. As the saying goes, 'There's more water in a thimble than trust on Baator."

+ LANGUAQB + Tealo Wilton

As highly advanced matures, the baatezu have quite naturally developed a highly cvolvcd and compllcated language. Languagt is life, after all, and the hws of Baator govern speech Just as much as thcy govern bchavlor. Why, the Baa- torian tongue even ri$ccts baatuu society in that it's broken into difirent castes, with each successive level adding more complexity and malevolence in its order. Within the language of each caste, the diffmnt stations use different inflections, so that an abishai's speech, say, is markedly different fmm an osyluth's.

The baatezu themselves know (or wlll admit to knowing) only the languages of their station or thosl below it? a flend caught speaklng a tongue of a hlgher station is pun- ished for Insolence. Of course, knowing a smattering of the higher languages allows a lesser flcnd to eavesdrop and perhaps gain knowledge that will help it advance in rank.

I have, of come, mastered tbc SUbtlcrirJ of h t o r i a n language, but few mortals need to bother trying to mimic my incredible feat. Better to leun the standard trade Jsgm of the planes, with which most Rends are faknfliar. Still, a general understanding of the diffcrcnt levels of the lan$uage is a worthy goal.

The baatnu language has four official divkiow and though each ugs~cs different conccpb and uses different words, they're dl based on the same h~ndation. The en& structure is sum that the speaker oiwclyc apmes its domlnanm, equality, Dr subordination to the listmu. I fl&l that it's quite lmposslbk to tell or perceive the whole of any matter when using this tongue - it always seem to snake Its way around the truth,

The Ant division is the language of the least baatezu (or, more accurately, of the spinagons, as neither lcmum nor nupprribos speak). It's used to convey simple c o d and concepts and also to mock others by implying the Hs- tener's stupidity and dimwitted ways. This variation is a hanh tongue, almost a rough barling, ideally suited for shouting commands across a battlcfldd

The second division is the language of the lesser baatezu,l and it's surely the equal of any plime-material tongue in complexity. Uscd to communicate morr abstract conceptmuch as hate and honor, this variation is the first in which the language begins to ooze malevolence and take on

+ 35 +

a recognizable form. The pattern is easily discernible, yet quite tricky to duplicate for anyone not fully immersed in the cultum. This 'lascr tongue" Wt as gmw as that of the least baatau, but it's dl far from mcUWous. it's &a the language moat nonbaatezu leun when they study Bur torian speech.

The third division - stilted and formal, grating yct melodic - is spoken d & l y by the rpenta baatuu. It's full of patterns that emerge only over the course of a conversation, sermiagly going nowhere and s u d d ~ E 0 m t a g to a conclusion. Use of the language requires forcthoueht, planning, and the ability to lead the listener with only the smallest of cues. Chant is that two greater baatau can hold an cntirr convusatlon with this language by only spepthte

I_ tly b q l d q n pf th+,w-. b n W 3 I wkw * is how telepathy developed in the race.) The "greater tongur' is ustd to Impresthe Iesscrbaatuu and is warly hpossihk for a mortai to Ibn.

The least, Icssa, and wa te r varkdons 111 NO^ gml- ually into the coivt 1-e of Baatoc, a tonye turd only by pit fknds 8pd the a o k of the lords. The court lsneDsgc spin) over with designs of cvll that move almost beyond the edge of complwnslon, patterns with t e n i a eddies that can Qng a licttprr downwvd Into hateful despair. suppoJ- edly, thcw&tcnRorm of- tongue - the clrcularloglc and exprrarlyc symbdsaf the htghest baatau IsMhw - is thc elqwt line used to draw a summoning cMe, the bound- d e s delineating the M d ' s powers. Let me cmp)nie that in simpler tcm Ws only a well-constructed argument that keep a summoned flend from ravaglng a apcllcastn. Take care when Ebrllring pur .sunrmoning cimlek

No matter which wtation is spoken, the bmatczu Ira- guagc is one of bmndwfne complexity. The noises uttered ofted appear to bear no relation to one another, instead

ombination of a bark@ hound, an elo- quent verse, the pqucpl of slate and steel, and the subtlr smdl of ha% O~COUISC. the o\rcTBu sound vsFia, dcpad- ing on t4( sp& aid onwhat's said. ~ t l t in&&- atiom, the sound of the language being zrpcd aloud is caw for mgbt.

+ G U L + U K @ + Tealo Wilton

what, two &ons in a mw penned by my illustricru~ U-

It seems that ow Fair editor h m who is best quplifM to write at length on the baatczu. Indeed one reasan 1 rmptcd this assignment was to have the oppo!twnity to shon the multhrmc that the baatnu aren't the simple, savage, ~ t h - less creatures they're often made out to be. Quite the m- vmcl Why, thcy're some of the m a t advanced beings in the cosmos. As pmof, I point to a meit handful of example of their fine cultla

For a closc look at a typical baatezu city, p l a s ~ refer to the description and mugh map of the City of Man, found at the end of this chapter.)



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ARCH I + 8 C+ UR8

mqmrates a dWurbing a m y of concept% The odd slyle is but described with the broaling, daugmus, and loom- ing. Something about a Baatorian building m a k the viwer fed that it's going to lurch into unwholmme life at any mo- m d l t For those of you fgnriliar with t8c wanis of Sigil, the architecture is much like the proudest stuff of the Hke: sptlty and pmding, with blades secming to jut h m oray surface. But unlike the squalid buildings of the Hive. evwy baatezu structure snms also to uroicct its own hwrtance.

L&c many otha of bmtrzu life, th& rvchitorturr in-

BCB)NOmY

The economy of the bantczu is almost too agonkhtgly crm- pluc to diPruss k. Suffice it to say that their cultwe opr- ates on the gem standard, rupplmmtcd by coins 0f.vuiOur purity (and many dark jewels arc the kind traded by shadow fiends - gems that house stolen mortal minds). But few baatezu view riches as the path to true power (though they certainly foster that school of thought on the Prime). Mon- ey's often used to lure mortals toward evil, but a gelugon with vaults of diamonds isn't necessartly any stronger or more respected than one without a copper piecc to its name. _. -

Furthermore, the- . a . r . . . . Host baatea value lar- baatezu design their - vm. malic. bnftda cities along &e same lines, with grand structures of note toward the center and the squatting homes and businesses of the lesser fiends toward the hinges.

$elected* L a w s zf the Baaterta

I. Strength lies only in unity. II. The strong rule the weak.

Ill. All lies contain a spark o N. Slavery creates freedom. V. Failure leads to pudishment.

VI. ;.Do to othen as they have done to yo1 a. When oossihle. do to others before. inev b. Treat your inferiors as your superiors treat you. c. Learn your lessons from above and below.

a. Revenge is best tempered hy time. h. Plan carefully and leave no evidence. c. There is no crime if there is no proof.

VIII. A sharp eye and mind are more valuable than strengtl

VII. Haste makes waste.

of arms. a. Let cunning be yo b. Any fool can he.won hy extravar!

IX. Know your enemy. X. None may rise unless another f;

atchword.

BaatollPn worts of att are often stunnlngly well- compwed and chiUing in their cnrcl prrdsion. Ihc vkwa o b feclr mmy, as if flre am were mwi- ing across his h h . Yet much baatezu art lacks a spark that most critics thinkshwldappcarinthe best pieces. Please don't misunderstand me; the baateau deflnftciy have aesthetic talcnt. But few Rcnds of lower-rmking stations arc allowed to create at all, and of those, even fewer dare to produce art that might rival the work of their superiors. And the greater baatezut don't seem to have theaWive juice n c m s ~ ~ to make mastupims. "MI mwic, for aunplq Is stining and manipulative (the baatau know tM secrets of the mind after all, and they know what's effectlw), but it follows a pattern that, once discovcrcd, re- duces the pure cq)oymmt of the p i e .

That's the pmblcm with all Baatorlan art, from musk to murals to VCAel once you'vc dlsmncd its pattern (which can be difRdt or simple, depending on the creator), the rest holds no Surprkr A Rend may begin a workin a flash of mativ- ity, but cuerylhing else must follow iogkaliy from that point. That structure is the work's inspiration and its downfall.

or even ulc excbaw-of Ewors m e than maw- ial wealth.

The ~ll(m habitable layers of Baator hold sbops and businesses that deal in vartow items, mostly for the b d t of trpvalen. The baatezn don't need to buy tbhgs; tbc lower mnks m i v e the emn- t iab of cxistmrt from the hlghcr, an8 the hjghcr can slmpiy take what the like wbmcvn

a. There's only so much room at the top. h. If you would ascend, you must first topple another. Take pride in yourself and your works. a. Admit weakness or error only when it gains y

an advantagi

uncounted volumes line the Shelves of the Library ot Intern Law in Malholge, and still more fill other cities of Baator. Fu ther, it's thought that each caste and station has its own code I

behavior; for example, the charge" of "inherent chaos" weigl C t a It--- heavily against - ---- &-- L

.L-- -__:_

taywice.

' # D u CAS 1 @'N Education is a core part of baPtezu.ilk. While

" they believe firmly in the lessons of ezptri-

: cncc, they also L n h . ' t b t cart&,n typrd of

knewlaagcjust don't !gat paired od that wa3. Thus, they've founded rt~wls fo r pramIda# baatuu. abomhabk in-

dom of the masten and the untlppcd ppamtinl of thr stn- dcats. It's no dark that the tanar'ff (and no dolrbt otks) would im to destroy these phus.

Each school rpcrhltaes in a certain path of COUFSCS that grooms a fiend for a partldu place in Bast& sodcty; sub-schools provide mom intensive education Un pain, manipulation, politics, subordination, and so forth). The schools arc, natwdly, dismal bastions of cruelty and humil- iation, run by the V&OM ministrda of the Dark Eight gie- orous and painful examinations weed out the fiends W ~ O

don't e x d at a particular line of study: if they fail in more



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than two of the courses suggested m w & A w - ' by the Ministry of Promotion, why, i?s off to the Blood War.

Some say that mortals can gain a c m to certain schools. I'm unable to verify the truth of that statement, but who knows what sort of deals the baatuu makc? I know I'd gladly pay a small fortune for the

p~'ge' 0 (bV8 RN HI 8 N + As noted earlier, government on Baator consists mainly of the nobles of the lords and the ministries of the Dark Eight. These two groups seem to be growing together gradually, but right now they're fairly distinct. The Dark Eight (and their mtnions) prosecute the Blood War. The Lords of the Nine (and their servants) govern the laym of the plane and the fiends therein. It's a strange mixture, seeing as the Dark Eight control most aspects of baatezu life, but their laws recognize the need to accede to the desires of the lords and their feudal system. (Some say the Eight are really just an outgrowth of the lords, that the lords see their own importance waning and plan to evolve into a new form of government, but I don't place much faith in that rumor.)

The Dark Eight have established ministries across Baa- tor, each answering to its respective member on the council. The ministries oversee the day-to-day life of the baatezu, including the education of the ranks, the use and abuse of other creatures across the planes, and the smooth running of government They've wen instituted emergency procedures for their continuance should the tanar'ri succeed in the un- thinkable and destroy an entire ministry (which is highly unlikely, given that each organization has numerous out- posts spread throughout Baator).

Each city on the plane has at least one branch of each of the ministries. Detractors call this paranoia on the part of the Dark Eight - that the pit Bends don't want their comrades to gain any knowledge they don't have. I say it's simply because the Eight wish to have their fingers in every part of baatezu life.

H I S + e R Y

It's said the Dark Eight keep a brutally honest record of Baa- torian history, an account frec of the politics, revisionism, and outright falsehoods that mar the records that aren't so closely guarded. If such a document exists, 1 haven't read it (though I'd dearly love to). But the idea isn't so far-fetched. The Eight truly believe that the baatezu can and should learn from the mistakes of the past.

Of course, they also believe that other races (especially the tanar'ri) don't need to know what thox mistakes are. Thus, any history a mortal researcher might find in the li- braries &Baator is Ukely to contain at least 25% pure fabri- cation. Unfortunately, the lies hold together well enough that there's no way to tell which parts are true and which are "misdirection."

For the baatuu, the lowest ranks of the military hold no honor, just endless drilling, flghting, and death. But promotions come fast and fuious for successful Blood Waniors, at least up to a certain level. There's alwsys a need for just about any l p of lesser baatezu, because the commanders offen protect themselves with waUa of lower-ranking Bends (and that's just more reason to perform well and rmivea promotion into thc higher stations). Though the front lines usually see the dregs of baatau sodety, the flnest are sometimes sent to fight as well; nothing brings out the best in a fiend like a hial by fln.

The Baatorian military is just as strict as the society; both are run on the same principles, after all. However, Suving is not advantageous in and of itself; for example, a military cornugon gays no more respect or statu# than a "dvillan" cornugon. Both have paid their dues in reaching thctr caste and station. On the other hand, a military baatezu that senrn well mlght eventually movc on into the a d e s of the nobles, and from there to a position of nobllity itwlf. Oenerally. thc most a civlllan baatezu can hope for is to move into its chosen ministry; only by serving with extrcmc distinction docs it gain a shot at nobility. c

I / J

,. > * , I

RCILIdIYN ' ' '

The baatezu don't really have a religion, as such. They IKM the Lords of the Nine and occasionally dou us lower-planar powers, but they rarely offer up their l i i In prayerful scr- vice to either. Their religion is law; their rituals, cvil. That's all they strive for, and though they may manipulate mortals through religion, they keep their own number away from It.

Why? Even a chlld could gucas. The Lords of the Nine, the Dark Eight, and other Baatorian superiors demand the respect of the race, and they don't want the baatcvl to devote any part of themselves to other figures. Those fiends who choose to wonhip a deity do so only to gain the powa that comes from such a deal. Even the& they cloak thci religiaw allegiances as carefully as they can. I And this odd dation- ship fascinating. Why, I've penned an excellent (though strangely poorly received) treatise on the subjCa. should you flnd yourself in need of a clear and thoughtful analysis.

IN S U l M E A R ~ f '

m li Though they number far leu than the tanar'rt, the baatnu have managed to keep a foul stranglehold on the Lower Planes and, indeed, on most of creation. It is my sincere hope that you now have a bmn understanding of why that is. Said fiends love their intrlgues more than they l o x their lives, and that is no exaggeration; their schemes CM live beyond them and shape the planes for eons to come. Immor- tality in belief - that is, being immortal because of the be- Uef of others - is a strong weapon indeed.

L " -rj.

The h t e z u need no other.

" +37+



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t

I

+ TH5 CIlzlY ef IIIAN (Town)

CHARAWR. Behind the obvious lies the hidden. The right twlsts and turns can bring true understanding and true vision. E m the flesh has ita share of secrets.

RULER. The d m of the City of Man is Alasta the Ken, a beautiful erinyes. She’s only recently been promoted to rulership of this city and is still learning the ropes. Her gelugon mentor, Wlarls, the last ruler of the city, promoted Alasta and stepped aside - a bit too eagerly, some say.

BEHIND mE THRONE. ia’laris is the nominal shadow ruler of the city, “guiding” Alasta’s every move. But anyone who knows the Rule of Threes is looking for yet another basher with hi6 flngcrs in the government. That other basher is ru- mored to be the pit Rend Furcas, Mlnister of Mortal Rela- tions. Rums had the city built in the Rnt place, and chant is he makes sure it’s mn right.

DESCRIP~OW. This enormous burg (ncarly 81 miles a m ) sits atop a gently sloping hill in the layer of Minauros. The hill rises above the fetid muck and offers a breathtaking view of the surrounding swamplands. Intermittent lightning races across the sky behind the city, illuminating its spires and hurtling arches. Each time the sky flashes, a body sees another a $ p d of the city, which is laid out in nine rings and tempts many a traveler to enter.

’Course, Rmt he’s got to Rnd hi way in. Unless a body walks the s m c t path (wending around and through the city three times), the town appears to be an abandoned marble burg decorated with frescoes depicting scenes of unspeakable debaucheries and glories long past.

ON the other hand, if a cutter does And the correct mute into town, he hears the sounds of riotous revelry long before he spies any life. When he rounds the Rnal comer of the path, he suddenly stumbles across a mob scene - he’s en- tend the R o t ring of the City of Man.

The nine rings are actually a smaller set of larger divisions. See, the flrst three rings - Sensation, Desk, and Pu- rity - are collectively called the Walls of the Body. The second three - Emotion, Logic, and Understanding - are the Paths of the Mind. The third - Body, Mind, and Power - are the Temptations of the Spirit

Anyone who walks the rings in the proper sequence undergoes some changes. For instance, the Wall of Sensa- tion purges all sensual pleasures from a traveler by offering them in tsuch excess that he eventually wearies of them. This Rnt ring is the only one in the City of Man that boasts such endless debauchery, and h m a body can find anything he wants, from pleasure in silk to agony in chains to a combi- nation of the two.

Eventually, the path leads out of the Wall of Sensation and into the Wall of Desk, a realm of desperate sods SCtLinrr Dleasurcs of a new varictv. Thev

but titq won’t have any luck until they reach the Wail of --. Thcrr, they learn to understand that the mind g w Wns tk bedy, that physical pleasures are nothing compared to the delights pwsible in the mind. This ring is a gray place of purification and asceticism.

And so it goes through the mt of the ctty. Visitan can travel back through any rings thcy‘ve already Ihedemd, but they’re forbidden to continue inward until they undestand the s e w of their current ring. Armed guards patml the 10- foot-thick and 40-foot-high walls, makhg sure no visitors try to advance before they’re ready.

Within each ring, the marble buildings rm a6 places to indulge in the ring‘s dominating feature, Wth plenty of mom set aside for folks to sleep and replenish thcmsehrcs as well. Thc only structure forbidden to casual vfdton is Alas- ta’s palace, and evcn that opens up to those few who master the Temptations of the Spirit.

What’s the purpose of the cIty7 Chant is it exisin to lure mortals into the embrace of Baatodan ideals, that it was built by the Ministry of Mortpl Relations to foster gocctwiU among mortals and slowly corrupt them. Another rumor says this is the place where all erinyes bring ththdr prey, so the victims might eventually become b a s t a Rcgatdlw, a body can leave the city whrncver he likes - the baatau want their m i t s to come to them f&y.

MILITIA. A company of cornugom keeps the peace, while solitary hamatula roam the city looking for trouble. When they flnd a problem, they take care of it quickly and dff ciently, with a minimum of fuss, so as not to disturb the workings of the rings. Nothing’s more l h l y to h a k rk mood of the vfdtors than violence from the militia.

SERVICES. The City of Man holds all the baric goods offered in any city across the planes, and here it’s all fmc - but only for visitors who walk the rings. (Greedy planar traders caught trying tc take advantage of the situation IC publicly tortured to death.) Naturally, the baatezu areo’t going to stock any items or pmvide any services that might be uard against the city itself, but otherwise, they’re happy to oucflt their visitors with whatever they need to complete their journey toward total understanding.

LOCAL NEWS. Chant is that Alasta’s not rumbg the city quite right and will be ousted soon if she doesn’t buck up. Also, a tanar’ric agent’s supposedly crept into the city pd is mrk- ing his way through the rings; once he undc&ands it dl, he’ll take the dark of the place back to the Abyss.

One persistent rumor that penetrata all rings says that the city’s really a baatau training camp, that mortals who reach the center are either cast onto the planes to encourage lawful evil or transformed into lemures. Either way, more than a few folks arc gMng up on their quest for understanding and leaving the city - and occasionally they‘re

bmught back, some say In chain8 (so much for fmdom

of choice). come toga& to flnd ultimate satisfa&on,



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want lo uttdttxamd the taw'ri? Hm's how. Look into vourselt: Find the core of hamd then. 4

You

Don't wony $you cav'tJnd-it right 4quay. Just keep searching. Evmhrdy,"'you'll peel away the skin of what you thought was virtue andjind a writhing pit of darkest sin. Even (f youkoneof thepurestbCI~inufstenrc,you'llstiNdfseatntLcport ofwu that's bkackcr than am, ebom,. The vart that tastes of Mthmess. " * despoir, and envy. The part ?hat &tes, Ast of all, of & a t all tbc

things you can't change and all the things you might have. Hold that malevolent core in the palm of your mtndfw o time. PIMIIrc it

expanding, slowly growing to become the size of your entire heart. Feel it thumping in your chest, stronger and stronger, attuning eWJ1Bct o f m r

Mng to fts wicked rhythms of pain and honor. Can YM( i m & w the gnnadwfRofnylc needed to make it gnnu this large, the

A tbat would drive you ever onwad with a heart &ked by unrelmed Ery? You can?

c n s c r l l t h a s ~ ~ y o u r ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t r r o t r r f m ' f i ~ ~ s . W s w m , theyfceEtWthevagarfcsQTt&eron*ascalltptrt8spouc

them right. Every single OM af &em &e& tk weight of the phhes on its shoulders, a d #m's notsing tha# can con& theprAds Mt the multivmc is0 kfndphn to be. @they w ~ r ~ y c r t o change, rYahavct8 be a chan#e.)%m within. And that's w h m they're least likely to chayq because they simply Mn"t COnnlvC Of the nmSon that they mi#& be w?umg.

Diis cbpter takes you inta rlu tonar'rt be& the tanar'ri mind, and the tanar'rl heart. Eut be wamnl: Whhe we've sMwd to bring you the truth, what you mad bere mar may not bcjvholJy accmte. That's because what's true now may becomejblse lam, and whot was false bzfm may become tne in time. Wfth the tanw'ri, all things are possible.

- Jcssyme Rauch, Tanar'ri Specialist Extraordinalre

..,



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Ill

+ IN *HIS ABYSS + Michil Kedell

Do you bow, then’s stlll debate as to whether the A m

whether .the anhuer of the Ahysr M

otthe plrnc or whctha they create ft Mdden fear& wlth each layer only c m t u ~ ~ that mw it. The Abyss

t# OnlbaVn? 1%- in 8 lo* mlfl m-

is the place where every evU$mpuhe is laid bare. If you can lrmetge w i n g awful or &&que, you’ll find it there (though why you’d go lookkg, I couldn’t gum). But docs the I m T thia(l dmady or docs thc imaginer (con- sciously r ocbawirc) ~~ nu1 on the plane, forging

The ,phWng lands of the Abym are a welter of Impm- afthem uc W. I quote from ~rma ~ y ’ r ex-

like the stench of an open of an old herlot’s death 0 1 ~

a scream.” Aridbcllcvryw be, thattsjwt has creatum of such mai&okma

the pattern fmm yaur bmln enuh yoyr WmJUst for txo&Dg tbcir ptb miles brct Et*.

warrlng qiot of pmeptknq nd and tktt scMeaet*rp

p l a c e o f C V f l i n ~ i b ~ W i t h t h C o ~ l a w \ r i n g that t h w is no law ucepkfmw &aw that’s fmpaced R’r a

and toug and amdl and Pu

the Outer Plane that most dody nmtchcs the -ce of IIIS former being: the Abyss K In we$ the pattloncr worshlpd a partlculsr Abyssal ddty, he &up in tJmt power‘s mlm and is transformed into a dupe of the god‘s choodq (perhaps even Ms O l f g h a l form].

If, on thc other hand, the mortal did not pledge his life to any one power, his splrit becomes a disgusting larva, whlch is still con-

yeu - mAN€S&$,, s i d e d

tloner. The new

\ a p a - Y ~ U - R U + + E R K ~ N . c

Y@U - D R E + C H . %@u larva appean in the MOUU-

(the 400th

Abyss), where it

tdn ofwoe -

spirits that ‘imd to-l

III(LMS w drctrha but such a bsafDc plane. The

C$sA+IeN A N D JUDQUlg,N+

best to rtprt yUba q+& i&n

t&& an& of creation of the 1

tsnar’d @ne ,to exist. Now. 1,hn.t laei to th kersladg of

his life to &os an his spirit w& it# way to,

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&fore we continue, I redly should set something straight. I know what some of you must be thinking. 'Tanar'ri? Fehl They're as jumbled as a windstorm of leaves. Me, I can think. I can plot. I can plan. I'U always be three steps ahead of those addle-coved fiends."

Oh, my. My, my, my. Best read on, all those who hope to take advantage of the chaos bred into the tanar'ri spirits, all those with lawful natures who hope to trick and dupe and makc hordlings out of the Abyssal k d s .

It's said that one of the best ways to dc8troy a t r l l a thmugh planning, that since the creatum M incapable 01 hatching complex schemes, they're easy vlctlms of thw who can. That's barmy talk, plain and simpk land sprcpd b) the tanar'ri themuelves, I wouldn't doubt). Heed my words The tanar'rl can and do make plana They're capable of weaving plots that span centuries of work - It's Just that thcy don't work together, not unless It ndts them. They don't build for future generations or tbc good of thc nce. They f o w only on thcmsclvp and on Inamsing their own power.

Just ask any haatau. If anyone knows just how dangerous complete self-Interest can k, they do. They've op- posed the chaotic tanar'ri for mlllennia now, and they've not made much progress against their hated enemies. They're stuck, and it's due, in part, to the very chaos they despise. See, the baatezu are too steeped in the ideals of law and order to understand just how a tanar'ri can exist - let alone prosper t when even it doesn't often know what it will do next. Oh, the lawful fiends have studled chaos theory, hired Xaositccts, jumped through all sorts of hoops in the hope of better understanding their foes - and they're still no closcr than they were before.

If the methodid, persistent baatezu can't find holes in the tanar'rk shell after eons of trying, is there really any hope that a lawful mortal could?

How many different kinds of tanar'ri exist? A dozen? Two? Perhaps we've only fdenqPed some twenty-odd types of Abyssal fiends, but I'd bet a week's wages there are more kinds of tanar'ri than there are portals in Si@, trees on Ar- bores, gears on Mechanus - you get my meaning.

You see, there's only one rule to the shapes of the tanar'ri: Form is slave to function. Since the very birth of the muitlvnse itself, the Rends have adapted themselves to the rigors of the Abyss, and that has shaped every sucm- sive form they've ever taken. Oh, the race has a set of standard shapes, ones that appear often enough to make folks think the tanu'd have an organized system. (Why, do you know that some primes still classify the multitudinous tanar'ri by type, creatively labelling them Type I Rends, Typc U Rends, and so on? I can't d d d e whlch is greater: the irony of trylng to pin one of the most haphazard races in the cosmos to the wall like dead buttdies, or the arrogance of the primes in thinklng they could do it in the flrst place.) But

for every form we see, there mwt be fifty we don't. More, no doubt, for we believe now that each layer of the Abyss spawns particular shapes suited to living there.

With M many d i f i m t kinds of tanar'rl, the pattan of evolution - the order in which tkis Rend becomes tkor Rcnd before turning into that otkcr Rend - wut be confusing, no? Well, no. The forms of the tanar'ri aren't locked into a hierarchy. Certaiuly, they all begin from one of a few common points: dretches, maMs. or ~tterkh. After that the only thing that governs their climb is thctr lust hr pansr (a dbcuutol, for another tlme; KC "kscuuion," later in this rhrpar).

A

BVOLUWeN OF W R m In the ever-changing layers of the Abyss (which I routed are not infinite, just uncountably numerous), the tanu'd must adapt or die. When fiendish llfc rises spontpwouay on one of the layem, it's because the larvae there have mamgd to evolve to such an extent that they can survive. Of course, on some layers the proems is m o ~ r difflcult; genmtlona of larvae appear and die and appear and die, growing tougher all the whlle, until finally one of them rlses up from the chaotlc soup of its pain and assumes a form that can exploit the layer's hanh environment.

What I'm saying is that the shapes commonly tplrrn by the tanar'ri arc those most suited for the rigom of tha Abyss, forms that can survive in more than one specialiffd amin& Tanar'ri that evolve into vrocks can function mll is end- ronmcnts of land or air, wlxik those that becomr waatrtlitb get on best in liquid ThC a W t h doan't seem suited f o r a y environment known to mortals, though It thrives In its own parts of the Abyss.

Is this an automatic change that's forctd on the tanar'ri? I don't believe so. The newn Acnds take their cues from the strength and staying power of the mom uperi- enced members of the race. They slowly shape themuelves into the forms that have the best chance of suvival in tbdr home layers. Later on, thq may tak otbm fwms, but only when they have the en- to spare. (Remember, thweh, the tanar'ri work on the Abyss just as it works on them. Their belief and power feeds the chaos of the plane, and It returns the favor by making them strong.)

In the Ab% power equals stptlon. That's an ascntld fact of life. The lawest ataturea there. the lame. lean^ that mighty quick, and they evolve toward sentience and strength just as fast as they can. Some of them make it; others wind up as food for the other tanar'ri. P o m of will counts for a lot, but chance and luck arc Just as important - we're talking about the Abyss, after all.

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+ RANKINQS + Xanrost

Hello, mortals! It is time for you to learn about the different kinds of tanar'ri to be afraid of. But do not worry! X w o s t has peri+mally killed many of these fiends whlk researching thts book So just take Xanxost or another slaad wlth you when ygu fight tM1pl'ri and you will be flne.

they obey a system of castes and stations. You know, like the baatezu or

O M thing everyone thinks about the tanar'ri is thr

yugoliths. Xanxost lilies its

. , i thing. It is just a story spread by leatherheads who can not help but find an order for everything in existence.! It is a lie told by

Other SOX

tanar'ri - they are just petftioncrs, spirits of mortal berks who spent their lives on chaos and evil. Every once in a while, a manes realizes that everyone elsa is much t o e than it is, and It Rats to i m p m its podtton. This ha^

es: Tanar'ri L A N ~ ~ C A P E Q MONSTROUS COMPFNDIW? Appendix

Mu-fiend, babau, balor, bar-lgura, cambion. chasme, dre glabrezu, hezrou, manes, marilitb, molydeus, nabassu, nalfeshnee, rutterkin, succubus, vrnck, wastrilith '

Alkilith, bulezau, maurezhi, y

those who know nothing of chaos. What Xanxost means to say: There is not a sodding

way anybody can tell anything for SUR about the tanar'd. A berk wUI get dead-booked If he trim The tanafri do not llke mortals poking into their business. Or their bellies.

What Xanxost means to say: The Abyss has no common htararchy. The tanar'd have no easy classifications. Terms like 'lesser" and 'greater" are useless, or mostly so. But mortals like to use words to guess at the power of the marc common shapes of tanar'ri and how that power affects thdr staeding in the Abyss. Xanxost docs not like standing in the Abyss!

But tanar'ri like it. So Xanxost will tell you now ahout how thqy stand there. Remember, things arc not always what thsy look like in the Abyss. But here are the basic types of power for ell the tanar'd's physical forms. Yes, Xamcst has described every single kind.

No, h i t . Xanxost hsS forgotten some. But these are the bulk of the known tanar'ri. Do you know any tanar'ri?

By the way, Xanxost has done its best to remove the taint of M1 or good from these descriptions. The natural tendency when speaking of the fiends Is to weight the words. In response to their evil, Xanxost has found itself balancing toward good. Soon all Wlll be evened

LBAS+ TANAR'RI In the cetegory of the least powerful tanar'ri, Xanxost knows two kinds: the manes, the dretch, and the rutterkin. Three kinds.

The lowly, bloated manes are the basic soum of food in the Abyss. Xanxost especially likes the stomach-sting when they turn into acidic vapor as they are eaten. Deli- cious. Manes are the flrst to be h d e d into battle against the baatezu. Other tanar'rl do not consider the manes to be real

a hundred million times a day.No, wait& it is more R;tc, than that. Only about one in a thousand of these special manes ever makes it to the next 'rank" of power pa& be- cfnnes a dretch.

The slack-jawed dretches are not much Mer off thsar w the manes. But other

tanar'ri do cousik thccr real members of the race. That is becalrrc findstha% reach &etch lexel step being petitionen and b e come me pianat beings. 'phey get the 6pa* of the plaaes. Now, they arc tawr'ri and them is no going beet1 Thc drtddm arc s c a d of the higher flends and usuaUy h k to

please them. Thank you. If they remember nothing ebe of their former life, they d l that high-ups can h l p a fiend reach the next lcvd of pmrrr. Oh01 In the Mys, this Ls e fwllsh notion. And the dretches are reminded of this harshly.

Still, now and again, a dmt& takes command of Its pack and rises above them, becoming a mtterkin. 'Fltcsc malformed and crooked flends are loners and azilcs nma among the tanar'rl. They are hateful. Viciaur. BPd-t.l(ing. Xanxost has heard that the original mmrkin werp hummud who came from the Prime to the Abyss but Xanxost knows better tu know that no one knows. RutterLin am mostly incompetent, and all tanar'ri - 01cn the dc&&es - m e them and say they are pitiful w d l n g s . Arid the rutterkb hate them back in return. Xanxost has even heard of rutterkin attacking other tanar'd that are very puny or very wounded, but they would never go after anything that could hurt them too bam.

LBSSBR TAHAR'RI The tanar'ri called lesser come in all shapes and dzcs m-l looks and smclb and flavors. Thc weakest amon# thcm are the mortal-tanar'ri cmssbmds - that b what you get whew a tanar'd goes W t h g for a nmsemrtion or a mblzll goes lusting for powa The weakest of tbnv are the alu-flmds.

Mu-fknds, the female chlldm of succubi and 801t.14 can only be born into thelr rank. They cannot ssccnd to it. Many humans and demhumans think they arc attractive. Xanxoat fiads them ugly. They c ~ l l occariondly ppla among mortals anmarked, and they can hsl thcmwhres by harming their opponenw u k e the nrttntin, alu-ffcrrds arc outcosts among thc tanar'd~ end they work doubly hard to pmvc their hatred or to vent it. They arc weak In combat but strong in spellcasting. ThiJ makes them Wued by the hIgh-ups.

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The alu-fiends are the weird sisters of the cambions, the bastard chiidren of - oh, oh1 The t iding Ice told Xanxost to stay away from such words. So he will just say that cambions are what happen when a tanar'ri mates with a mortal female. Any kind of tanar'ri. Any kind of mortal. And they can cvcn make four different kinds of cambions. Pint there is a major cambion, whose father is a lesser or greater tanar'ri. Next there is a baron or marquis cambion who% father is a truc tanar'ri. Next there is -

Two uads of cambions. Say, why does the baron cambion need a whole othcr name? Who doa he think he is? WcU, his father Is a hue tanar'ri, after all. So the baron is tougher and more likely to rlse high in t h e m a t is one thing the tanafd do right, ju@ lke the slsadi: The shng sweep over the weak, and accident3 of bkth &en help determine strength. All cambiom M valued as ssMss1M and bodyeusrds, and most peopk wiU not cmw a cambion mom than one. Like the alu- fiends, cambions can only k bom not made.

Born or made are the armanites, tlu violent centaurs and barieur of the Abyss. Half are born from armanite mating (they make such funny noises) and half are f o m d from weaker tanar'ri who manage to ascend to a better place. Limbo is a bmn place. The armanites are mercenaries and knights, and they travel in disorganized packs, hiring themselves out to whocver pays the most Amunites like to go on missions that promisc the most bloodshed at the least danger to themselves. Xanxost has heard stories that they devour the spi& of the fallen in the Blood War. Also that any bargain made with them is never worth the price. Do not tnut them. But who trusts any tanar'ri?

Next In power comes the maurezhi. Thcse fiends are ghoulish life-stealers, haunters of gnveyanis, and thieves of memoria8 that are not their own. Did you like those words? Xalwtos? got them from an elf poet on the Outlands before his head came off his body.

The elf said that maurczhi are mated by Abyssal lords. He said the Acnds M made tolift senrts from the minds of the dead. I€ a maurezhi kUls and eats a victim. it gets the deader'slmemories and cxpcricncca. Xanxost has scen hezrou generals k a t and imprison their baatem enemies and then stand aside aad let a maurezhi go to work. This sometimes gets them secret plans for the Blood War. It usually gets them lots of stupid things the baatezu have in their heads.

Do the maurnhi get a choice? Don an Abyssal lord say to a tanar'ri: "Hey, how would you like to bc a maurrzhi?" Or does he say instead: "Hey, you will be a maurezhil" Xanxord does not know. But at least the fiends can move on to a different form when they get tired of chewing up the creatures they kill.

Okay, Xanxost is back now. He left for awhile to find something to eat Writhg is such hungry work1 Arc you still there, mortals? It is time to keep talking about the tanar'ri.

Tougher than the maurczhi is the succulent succubus (and hen cousin, the incubus). This fiend is deflnitely female. She can take the form of a female of any race and make herself so desirable that few mortab can mist her wiles. W e what? Am incubus does the same thing, only it can turn into

m y kind of male. Both kinds of fiends try to tempt powahrl mortab who are slaves to their appetite& wby do &ey do it? Oh01 Thm reasons. Flrst, becane they like the auelty of luring the weak-willed and tht foolish. Sermdiibccwsc their mission is to bring as many life forms aa they can to the Abyss t o m as rlsvn, and food.Third -

Tvro nasona The yochlol h m o f t8c dmw go& desslolth,are mxt Thqlookllke big- No, vplt Tbw caa look Uke ladles or SpMar or sthue nKy PR Wight to k kssatanar'ri m p t c d and twbtcd to -thepmpo8coftk dread Spider Queen. How do you corrupt a tamfrl, that what xaaxost would naUy llketo kuowl Yachld do not have much to do with the regular dealin@ of the ram krd Wtb squadus any mdydens, heamu, o r c h a r r thatakr topvllrsh one of her m a n & For this, t3ba ymhlol IUL openly oonkmp- tuous of other tanar'ri. For t h k (he d e r talur'rl tear the

Ia that all of the tanar'ri? No, there is also the km-@m. Ask anything in the Abyss about the bar-- &It docr aot kill you, Ii will say that the maturrsme m i d . h t h h , and nearly uselcss. The bar-lgura's prtmitsve f e a m .ad dGdl ways give no lie to that statement. Thm is U d k @ad abut them, except that they are w s in guerillr warfare, and they make excellent scouts. Xanxost think8 that bar-l@m am smarter than other tauar'd because they try to stay away from the Blood War. They also form chdr own Mbrl gown- mat3 if they thhk no one Is mrhlng. But they a n a m as cruel and savage as the rest of th race; they Justdo not get out as much. Xanxost has had many NWIM with har-Igtm both singly and in groups. They arc m a t d s .

The bulaau are definitely bred Pot a role 4n the pkod War. But they are bull-headed in mare wsya tbn one. That is a qlaadi joke - do you get that me. mmtai7 BUirrru arc just like manes m drctches, only big rad tough and dangerous. What Xaaxost means is that the b h u attack my enemy they see. If they do not see oac, a commander bad M e r makc one up before too l o w othmiac, the will JW a foe among thdr own ranks, Tbcy arc lluyc vicious than most tanar'ri, and they r a d to plaes anythhg that mpLcs them angry. Jhrything makes icbca, mgy.

yochlol to pims when they think theycm get alvqvuirh It

ORBA+BR TANAR'RI

The c - - - ~ Y tanar'd arc the fiends who, through cunabrg. self-] )tion, or lucky birth, have risen to a poaition of real p c r . They are worthy apponents for a dud. "bey are tougb bashem and they do not At Wo essy groupings.

The weakest of the greater tuW'ri3is the nlbsscu. It is designed to spread the terror of the Abyss. Spread it like sauce all over the multivelac. Th Outer Planes are shaped by belief, especially the belief of mortals who live on the Prlme Material Plane. So the tanar'ri think: Huh1 If we scam t h e mo&& they will klim that we M very powdid, and so that will make w vuy pawafd. TBC tanar'rl want thcir dark name feared acnxa the multhanc. So the aabaamu travel to the Rime and terrorize the beings them. Bdng thee. Evmm- ally, they mrn to the Abyss and get thcir rewprd: They PIC

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locked up in one of the iron fortresses in the Plain of Infinite Portals. Thm they wait unffl they are needed again. A few of these nabassu are lucky and escape. Some of them take new forms. But the tanar’ri say that a nabassu that flees its duty is more hated than a thousand Ntterkin.

The flylike chasme arc stem agents of the true tanar’ri. They usually leave Xanxost alone. They say their duty is to punish Abyssal warriors who desert the Blood War. How? Everyone pressed into wartime service is psychically lm- printed with a symbol of chaos in evil (or is it evil in chaos7)i The chasme home in on this symbol and bNtally slay those who run away. But that does not always scare other warriors into staying - they abandon their posts anyway. The chasme drink the blood and fluids from their sffll- living victims in a most painful way.

Xanxost is thirsty now. Sometimes, a weaker tanar‘ri transforms itself into a chasme, but most of the buzzing fiends hatch from eggs. Any adult chasme can lay eggs all by itself, without mating.

So the chasme punish those who desert the armies. But the babaus arc the ones who fill the armies in the first place. These leathery skeletons recruit for the true tanar’ri. In exchange for their own freedom, they get other fiends to fight. If a babau can not find enough tanar’ri to All a high- up’s army, it must take its own place in the ranks. Ohol Most babaus do their Jobs very, very well.

TNC tanar’ri watch the babaus carefully. Chant is that one of them will come to help a babau that is attacked. But not always. Just five times out of every one. No, wait: Just one time out of every five. That scares anyone who thinks about attacking a babau. It also scans the babau - who wants to be watched by true tanar’ri?

N e d , next, n a t . The behemoth goristroi standing over twenty feet tall, are often used as citadels to carry lesser tanar’ri. A goristro is as dumb as a barbazu, but it is so strong and hardy that even some slaadi fall back when a goristro en- t m the &. GoriStmi eat any meat that comes their way, and it seems that their stomachs arc never full. Even the high-ups among the tanar’ri walk carefUlly around these monsters.

Most powerful of all greater tanar’ri arc the wastrilith. They serve almost no one. Though they make their home in the Gaping Maw, the watery layer ruled by the Abyssal lord Demogogon, they arc not the lord’s servants. Wastrilith can swim in the River Styx without losing thelr memories. That’s why they maintain the aquatic defenses of the Abyss. The fences ofthe Abyss. Do they do anything else? Who knows? They Ilks to be alone In their water. A berk who swims in on a wastrillth had better be rcady to die.

, I TRUB IANAR’RI

No true tanar’ri are ever born into their places. They all evolve h m weaker fiends. Even the vrock, which hatches from an egg, is mated whole withim the egg. The egg can be sold or stopped from hatching, but the fiend within keeps all the memories of its previous forms. Any fiend that wants to be a true tanar’ri has to get there on its own. Maybe that is

why the ones that make it arc called hue tanar’ri - because they have understood what it is to hate and rage and never not know it.

The most important thing to know about the true tanar’ri is , , , Xanxost forgets. But it is still very Important to know that they take the Blood War very seriowlyl Their desire to see it through inspires the lower ranks. What Xanxost means to say: Their desire means that they bully the lower ranks into believing the same way. The true tanar‘ri see the advance of the baatezu as an encroachment on the pure chaos they love, or as the baatezu’s attempt to dictate the Answer to them. (Each tanar’ri thlnks that it and it alone knows this Answer.)

The weakest of the true tanar’ri is the vulturelike vrock. Vrocks are fighters, and they work together with other vrocks with uncommon grace and ability, That is a big thing for the tanar’ril Of course, vrocks arc tough, but they are not as strong as some slaadi Xanxost knows - not even as strong as some humans Xanxost has eaten. Still, when working together, vrocks gain special powers that make them more dangerous. H m Is the secret: Lure them off one by one. By one. Easy to do to a group of tanar’ri.

The hezrou are the tanar’ri that look the most like slaadi, though they arc not as handsome or as strong as the greatest warriors of Limbo. After the babaus put armies together, the hezrou watch over the troops (or else the nalfeshnee will be mad). They take thls task seriously and arc instrumental in commanding the fiends that sweep across the Lower Planes. For tanar’ri, they arc remarkably docUe in following orders. They arc also remarkably me l . Their hand claws make good weapons, and they know tricks to make a blow hurt morc than it should.

The doggish glabmu arc the true tanar’ri most often summoned to the Prime. When they get there, they do not Just pull their summoner’s head off. Not always. They like to tempt him with magic and power, planting seeds of greed in his mind. Planting seeds like viper trees. When the time is right, the glabmu draws away much of the sod’s strength, as well as the power of his very plane. Of course, in the Abyss, the glabrezu are fearsome overlords - they take revenge for having to follow the ordm of mortals by crushing the spiritp of those around them.

The slimy alklliths arc thought to be a creation of the slime lord Juiblex. Or maybe they are Just the Fanless One’s servants. Whmvs they come from, alkiliths go on mtssfons for all the Abyupl lords. Any berk who get8 in their way can ucpcct a pslnful and lingering death. Thcy can compt mortals just with thefr touch or their tnrlble stench. Xanxost has never kllled any alkiliths. The only other thing he knows is that they do not have to fight in the Blood War. And that they stand clear of the rest of the tanar’ri hordes. Two other things.

The mariliths, six-armed wonders and mind-dancm to the highest degree, are like gems in the heart of the Abyss. Yes, they are evil, but they arc deep thinkers and great t a d - clans. Slaadi and mariliths both prove that chaotic beings do not have to be stupid beings. Ohol The marlliths have mas- t m d the inner rages of the tanar’ri (or at least pushed those



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feelings down). They can antidpate the patterns of law, even though they do not really understand them. The mnriliths shape the sbatcgy of the Blood Wsr; they mpLr the plans that confound the baatau, the cuned lawful baatrm. the hated -

True tanar'd. Next come the bloated nalfeshnee, the judges of the paitlonm who come to the Abyss. X-t has seen them seated atop their flaming thrones on the Mountain of Woe, the 4GQth layer of the Abyss, Tay tum t&!.@@lition- em into manes, drctches, or n@@J& ilqtcading DII Wthe tanar'ri need food or t&wm&~? diDd %r slaves. NabWutne do not command the armies, but they decide who makm up the armies by promoting, demoting, or destroying Rends,.& is said they hold the key to the Blood War in their fleshy pm It is said that what is said is a myth spread by the nalfe&c6 to boost their inflated sense of self-importance. It Is said that what Is'said about what is said Is sour grapes. Sal, the nal- fesbnecme truly the most pownful tanar'ri known.

Thk most powerful tanar'ri known? The balors. They are the kings of the race, the strongest in name and belief if nothing else. They arc above the cold logic of the mafliths. They are passion and reason combined, a lightning dance of purc hatrcd and motion unchained. Those words also came from that elf poet on the Outlands. He was such a funny mortall Too bad for him, though.

BPlon exist to inspire their kind and destroy all othels.

I

and they do both very well. Someone once told Xanxost that there were only 24 Won in the Abyss. So he counted them. He found 178. Or was it 6,0137 Or as many as the tun- ncls of Pandemonium? Maybe dl three. But 24 balon? Ttmt is just a story to make people feel better, to mke themnot so scared in thdr beds at nlgM. Only 24 balomwod mesa thm w m more Abyssel lo& than balon. Is that idea lcsl scary or more?

I QUARDIAN TANAkll l bast, last, last. Last are the moiydei, the two-headed cn-

., ' ' Wemi of loyalty among the tanar'd. They make sure the true tanar'ri muah Mthfut to thc vlslon of the Blood Wu. The mlydd report to ths balors.but will not bailate to hrm on them If tbdr high-ups do not ahow the proper mothra- tlon. Of course, a balor will try to dmtmy m y molydew that dam to qucstion its dmtlon. Ihe omn? Xanxoat l h the ocean9 of Limbo.

Maybe the molydei are planted by some other farce. Why would the balas spy, 'Here, molydei, bit us with your big if we do nabkeep in line"? Xanxost wowid not tell

fighting the ban



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their ability or brainpower. And, of course, groups like the Fraternity of Order suspect that a secret order underlies everything; the pattern's not apparent, but they say it's there.

Which of the theories is true? It could be any one of them. Or perhaps none of them. Or perhaps d l of them. In the Ab= it's hard to be sure of anything.

+ A S C f l N S I e f f + Jessyme Rauch

Fi t off, it's important to note that not all of the tanar'ri arc obsessed with dsing to the top. Some of them certainly do desire that level of power and infamy, but a large mdority don't care to go through the whole fiendish rat rnce. h g b

loths, it's la matter of finding the right way to believe and the best method to demonstrate pure evil. Both require the nod h m hlgl)-upa and that can take a very long time indeed.

The tanar'd have no such rigmarole. There's no rhyme or reason to the way the chaotic fiends ascend But the most common! theory suggests that they rise as they will, or rather, as they b e l i w . It'd be even M r to say they chaw as they b d i ~ because the Abyss has no real hiernrchy to speak of, no castes or stations -just dassiflcations of pown that don't mean much. In the Abyss, a fiend earn status not by what It looks like hut by what it does.

Of course, something that looks like a balor usually gets mated like a balor - that i occasionally lesser tanar'ri

thjng else around it - and WE satisfaction and the s a t i s f a h fellows - tlw.fleml

they may have ambitions of their own, quite a f m tanar'ri are content to wreak havoc on their own personal level.

For the baatuu to ascend, they must flrst pass muster at one or another of their infernal ministries. This requlres getting the stamp of appmval fmm one superior to the next, currying favor with all the important fiends in order to move up faster. For the yugo-

TRAI+ERRS + Telson Splithorn

The chaotic tanar'd: ever changing. ever mutabla The baks base their lives on being Werent from thelr fallows, on the triumph of indivldualily over all. Some of the flux& spmd so much sodding t h e focuacd 011 the bcaulks md bomm of the self that they tumble to a novel way to k tfub dIf- ferent - that is, they cmbrncc the rmdy of gooancaC witb d l their dark hearts.

Most of 'em mnl in thekr IKW bdief system for a Urn, flaunting their differences (if thty can get away with It). But before bng, they realize that the goodnesa they've toyed with ain't nothing compared to the exquisite horror of their old lives, and they return to the old ways with dish and a greater understanding than before.

A few fiends, though, turn st@ rad m m It. 'hey stand fast wlt4 their new beliefs, learning to wadi the wlhwt out of their body and soul. They're traitors to the Abyaaal cause, seeking to be dlffmnt and savoring it so much that they makc a mockcry of their en& Wtenrcs.

whpt do the other tanar'ri do bD 'em? Wdl, tmclmy's a

multivcrsc'd cr)s it wanted 0. The

tPnpr"ri might be able to mwe&fbe tdbtklrnrhua, but



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tuned ip the baatau vanishes here, tossed to the wayside as the esrc~lce of chaos MIS its ugly head. Thc organs of one Abyss& Rcnd are not the organs of another: the skin of one bas no baring on the skin of another.

No, Wend, far easler than classifying the slmilarlties and dlllkrences between the variow type of tanar'd is clas- slfyhg the similarities and differences between the many layen of the A b . That is, after all. where the tanar'rl learn which forma to adopt (and which forms toflee from) lo order ta Nvive. To be sure, some layers are small (not at all the intinite expanses most folks seem to expect), and the tanar'rl that live there might all share the same forms, unable to leave or evolve. Some layers, certainly, support no life at all. They all have their own themes, and they're all in- imical to life in their own way.

I PHYSICAL A++RRIBU+#S

The tanw'rl fomu have no pattern because the tanar'rl UXS- tence bs no pattern. Some types of tanar'rl are wholly unique., Por example, a humanold fiend bound about with rings of cold fire and dripping with llghtning is to be avoid4 at all costs. Though it's not a well-known mature, it Is the dread Knlght Want, and to see it is to see death. It allows 00 one who looks on it to live, no matter how far it must hunt those who try to Bcc.

A @ect example. However,jW because all tanar'd can be diffept, that's not to say a clever blood can't undustnnd a fiend's function by looking at it. You see, many of these physid dues are fairly obvious. Some arc more subtle and remain hidden fmm the simple and the careless (of which I am neither). And some are nearly impossible to discern without the lnside knowledge of an expert such as myself.

Here arc some examples from among the obvious clues: + Sharp claws, horns, and teeth indicate that the fiend

comes from a layer that encourages close-up fighting, preferably the kind that results in massive lbloodshed and pain (or, at least, that the fiend itself believes those qualities to be worthwhile pursuits).

+ An ability to coqjure fire from thin air probably means that the fiend is quite comfortable around flame (and thus unllkely to be bothered much by ,fiery attacks - be warned).

+ A fiend's style of movement reveals a great deal about its character and environment. Does It slide sinuously a m s s the ground? Does It shuffle with a Uerky stumble? Does it cover huge distances with great horizontal leaps? Whatever the movement, It ~spcaks volumes about the natives of a fiend's layer (both predators and prey), the dangers found there, and Lperhaps) the best way for a h v d w to make his own way a c m the layer, should he ever vislt

+ A tanar'rl covered with spikes and another covered In slime are llkdy from layers far apart from each lother. Furthermore, the substance of the spikes - lbone? metal? - might indlcate the most common imatvlal of that fiend's layer.

Do you begin to 8ee how much the tanar'd tcU us without ever spcaLIng a word? Let's continue with examples of more subtk p m a l clues: + A find with sportl ig eyes and a distant s t a n eould

be from a layer where it's necessary to pow hta ?he infrared - or that llhe fiend's got the sbuitjr to see maglc wherever It goes,

+ Paceted eyes may @e a fknd more than thc a b w to see In many directions; they nigM also allow sight into Merent realities or tbc abiligr to daact emanatlons of heat, cold, by, pace - whatever. + Snaky appendages - without bone or f h g m - tell a canny blood tkat th &td's a quick mom, that it can attack with blinding epeed In I@ rage, that it can sMLe like a whip (and might also have YCILOID).

Finally, then, I c d u d c with a few aolllp*s of phyd- cal clues that are nearly Impossible for Use av-e olaher to detect or olpll understand

+ A fiend with a s m g e neck and ddly Juprd can might well be able to induce sound wwm ulrt can shake the earth and collapse struutum (or evw a foe's blood vessck depending on the tkquacy and volume of the waves),

+ If c e m h fiends stand at just the right angle in p w tlcular kinds of light, their bodies become gsllrlu- cent and they appear to have vanis&d. Their bow laym are no doubt menaced by fearsome prcdam with poor senses.

+ A fiend with a sllghtly awkward grit may have just overslaked itself on a victim and be Pnlia a bit lethargic. That's the best time to attack or escape from the creature.

It's not uncommon for the tenar'ri to take genders as they wlll. Some days they're male, some days kmok; some days they're neither, and SDme days they're bot& tend to dck with one or the o k s s they grow older, and to all thmc who think W lmplks order or atabllity, why, I ague thrt Ws simply another a m p l e of the @ends ktthg the &ongust urge dominate (as they do in all otherospccfa of tbClrUve9,

On the &a hand the fleods can't sI@y cbpagc mtir genders as easily as you or I might change our shoes. You see, it takes a considerable amount of effort. even for &e migMkst members of the race. That's another reasen w b a particular fiend mlght make a c h d n and nti& with i t latin% the other possibilities fall by the wayside - It w d d much rather use Its power for d e s W o n than waste anergy on switching genders.

PRO CRaA+ I eN Most types of tanar'd are formed when w a k r flenda sd- vance and take on new shapes. But the tanar'rl can a d do breed among themselves. For example, armanltes couple

+ 49 +



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after slawghtdng baatezu, goristmi are carcfwly mated by their masters so as to produce young, and chasm lay eggs. Tanar’ri born “naturally” arc, of COUISC, hue planar beings from thelr Aot moment of life (unlike thosc who begin thdr Abyssal c a ~ n s as petitioners].

Whtm two tanar’ri mate. the offspring is usually born into the same rank as the parents, or, if the parents are of different types, into a rank somewhere in between. In the latter case, the youngling often favors the mother’s status, for she’s the one who carries the child and influence it until the day it’s born. Thankfully for the rest of the planes, many hue-born tanar’ri are killed by their p m t s soon after birth, althoughsomc do survive to adulthood.

The various methods and periods of gestation are quite interesting to me. Some tanar’ric mothers carry a child for mere days before disgorging it onto the plains of the Abyss. Others cany their babies to term o w decades, allowing the ofkpilng time to gmw and h t e r In their wombs like owr- ripe fruit on a loathsome tree. As with so many other features of the Abyss, reproduction‘s a chaotic affair (and one that could spcll no good end for the childbearer unless protected ageinst the coming of the offspring).

Of coum, try though we might, we can’t overlook the fact that the tanar’d love to mate with members of countless mortal races 85 well, using seduction, disguise, brute force (powen save usl), unholy pacts, or what have you. My goodness, I don’t know of a single mortal race with which the Abyssal flends can’t crossbreed: their natures seem able to override the most compelling biological barriers. Mortal fathers are often slain soon after the coupling, and mortal mothers rarely survive the birth of their Infernal children.

SUS+aNANCB So what does a tanar’ri eat? Well, the answer’s Just what you’d expect (and fear], my friend They consume meat - and lots of it. They prefer it still living, obviously, and even better, thcy prefer it scared. @Very cutter’S heard the story that nttalh anlmds can me11 feu; with the tanar’b it’s a knawn fad. If the flcnds can ltterplly mgiw thdr prey witless, the mh t ake on a bold new flavor (or so I’m toldl) that’s far &ore saaSgring than the meat of calmer victims. Oh the tah’ri can stUl derive nourishwnt Prom prey that ttn’r tarlflkd, but it’s Just not as good for them.

But iq thCR someihlng deeper io the process? Well, while the fugoloths like the taste of meat flavored by fear and pain, i\’s thoughi that the tanar‘ri eat the fear and pldn its@ You $ee, they relish tearlag the meat from the bnes of the living because their victims' screams add to the fear fdt by ofha p w (not to mention the dark tales that arhc w- rounding tanar’ri eating habits).

Some tanar’ri are said to eat the spirits of their fallen foes along with the corpses; others supposedly draw the magical essence from the bodies. But I can’t tell you which kinds of flwds inflict what types of honors on which som of prey. Nope of them follow any set pattern in thdr dining habits: it’slscnselcss to try to force the tanar’ri into neat

rows of dassification. There’s even argument as to whether the tpnpr’ri need to cat or slmply ckoosc to do so, eithcr for simple pleasum or for other pwpom. For example, mw- rczhi eat their foes in order to assume their forms, and vmctr devour Mien oppontnts mostfy as a symbolic gcs- tule of supdomy (though it also prevents rcrtdn fimdlrh enemies from ntumlag to Me).

If there’s strurturr or symhllsm to thr wrythe tmafrl cat (as thm is for the baatnu eud yugdothb), nu ollc h#ws the dark of N. Unless they Intend to i d 1 Pear nd the re- minder of pshfw mortality in thck victfms, it d be sild that the tanar’ri eat Just as thy llvc: senselessly and Q- struaively.

If the tanar’ri sleep, they manage to avoid sbwhg it, or dsc they do it so quickly that it’s nearly lmpoaaibie to notice.

aim fmm one task to the n a t ‘Ihcy don‘t em seaato stop. Oh, it’s not impossible to catch a tsnar’d doxi&#, but h

all my years of observing them, not WN have b dvu seen one actually sleep. Perhaps they were aware of my gaze. M a p s thcy simply earn the rest thcy need In bclwccn *e blinks of an eyc, dreamlag with cvcry third step take. Indeed. that may well be why they act as they do - they live in the twln worlds of sleep and wattfulncrs, never sure which is the dream and which the mality, and they’re determined to wreak 85 much havoc & &her.

This theory also cxplallw the tanar’rl’s berrtl- re- actions to so much of the multivenc rad th& abU4ty to make completely dazzling ksps in Mght. If hue, it’s bath their blessing and thdr curse. (Of CGWSC, thc flcnQ’ arm@ behavior could just as easUy be &bed to insantty bmught on by insomnia.1

They’re rrrpturrs of constant nwloa. movlu# wl(h p w p d &

PeWfiRS Jessyme Rauch

Truth be told, there’s not really any such thtng pb a ‘standard ablllty” of the tanar’ri. Thdr macrY, el1 btlt precludes such a statement. However, two special powers m p up re- peatedly among the chaotic Reads the a m to m in the dark and the abtlity to mate darkness Itself. And that’s all we can predict with any measure of sxrtniaty. The list of standard powm isn’t nearly as long m it & for the baatnu. But then again, the individOa1 bmds of tanar‘ri have also shown thcmsrlves to posscss more unlque abilities than the ban tm could ever know.

Thc tannr’ri dso have the formidable p o w io trans- port thcmsclws uncrrlngly throughout the Abyss - and a r m the rest of the plane pb well, though with slightly lcss accuracy - at the agmd of thought At Ins t , they used to haw this power. Ccnhuies’ worth of reports and accounts describe in meticulous detail tln frustration of flehting off flends that could move fmm spot to spot in the blhk of an



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eye. But not one tanar'ri has cailed upon its telcportation power iin some h e , not wen when its life was at stake.

Npw, the tanar'rl m n ' t likely to voluntdy forgo .* use ofithe ability - espcctdly not when it could .sa~,t&eir

the cMl. 6xactly how it h it's bqt not to ask The fl subject, and some poor

I ,

9 VULNSRABILI+IeS Xanxost

tanar'ld. Xanxoat knows of only three attacks that arc effectbe: the magic m cold-wrought iron. Two attacks. A cutter lng wlth the Abyssal flends had better h spells and weapons at hand. Any bcrk w

times? No one knows.

weapons arc primitive. Scconil, the weapons do

tanar'ri [and baatezu) have lost the ability to teleport wit\ r. as detailed in the boxed set Hellbound: The Blood War. ds can regain the power only by swearing loyalty to

yugoloths, who secretly stripped them of the ability in the : place. Unfortunately for the tanar'ri. few of them have even alized the tmth. Their lack of organization means that they d, know they're all in the same boat: many think they're the c ones having "problems" with teleportation. And most of tl don't much care: Powers come, powers go - that's chaos.

people to stop using cold-wrought iron. That way, the tanar'd wlll have one Lcss thing to wony about.

t lmn. Sknu+es, tho*, a newt PB tie Abyn It sll e n d s on w h m Itd&rrhrt kW of it kiad how many d m it hsr o. llskft RIQL ActtuBy, it d w not matter at aU about Ib+ W.

the W 40 dead forever, ncr t h m w - w t it Ilr c 0 r p r " l S R e M back lato @a heut ofthe p i h and cvcntuolly spit out

In tke Rkplcof a mulp or some such leua mature. It

and ~QI a g l n The pull of t h e m b & s t tob -@the flmd's spirtt is somehow dcatmyzdu well, the q & t wlthers away and does not feed the Abyss.)

'

Other types of assaults hurt the tansld as wdl: + Magkal add bums them all, except for the atkilith

- it does not cam +I Normal acid does the trick, but a l y sometimes.

Some tanar'ri shrug it off after a wince or two, and others take no damage at all.

these things from the mortals known as paladins. They work even better if they are enchanted or made of cold-wrought iron - except for the holy

If a tansr'rl dies while it is In tbc

+I Holy water and holy weapons work nicely - steal d4#9glhc mum or its pact* too dor to mform

+ 5 1 +



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t it !s,bahy. 'Xanxost" they liLe wehave told you, you are ' bumyl" They thinl'that any

' .tanPl'li thpt dim just reforms in thcAbyss as the lowest of the



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explain why the Abyss is 80 full of tanar'ri. But it is proba- My not true., Other fiends can die when they die. Even daadi die whm they dk. So who says tanar'ri should comc back to llfe? Nbt Xanx0stl:ThC tanar'ri are contrary, but not even they cdn give death the laugh fomrer.

Sure, I might forget most of what I learn, hut I should be ~

able to turn some of it to ,

+ BBALINQ W I + H mBn+ALs +

At a Lot of time h d hassle.

k 'upwed. But W s no telling whrt'll3uppcn w k n d

a tanar'ri, and there's no use gncsaiu@nblt ,;prt in. Sowtima a taasr'rl's grndaw and

tastes dla more to cvil --. n K y , m t

th,body&chsb all of Wr k&gy hat& and Afhh



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public - they might be followed through by a baatczu, a celestial, or any krk d if a tanpr'ri pop over to the Prime on its o m ruu'a plow shfp ability) in ordu to swhr an in-

someone, well, the flend's that got to tract dorm dy enough to do it. If a tanu'd fr suipmoned, thou& n to do as it likes - it won't be chased by planar ene-

ears right in front of a perfect victim. c boob on summoning t-'& om of the molt

d sources known to mortals is the Harmonium- and Ow- anned volume Mors Mystetfum Nomfnum (also known as

the Mysterious Nunes). This ancient tome & half

stench of the age. It'a spidto hold the &ea

and chain 'em. What's more, the book wppm itsdf whenever a true tanar'ri is formed or de-

e tanar'ri in udstaarr dong wit4 thc?llll&

in the multivasc.

and the rlghl key can xc 'em,,

boob that teach a b&y blnd tpnnr'ri Cwa d n w



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the Prime, hoping that a foolish mage might actually dare to try it. There's a good chance the leatherheadll be turned inside out for his trouble; t h m ' s an equally good chance he'll be mvpldcd with magic 01 service. The Abysspl lords want to keep folks guessing. If mere mortals can predict thdr mc- tions, how much easier would it be for the baatnu to do so?

Balors eager to begin their rise to lordhood occasionally make their names known as well. They want to k summoned to the Prime so thy can work on devdoping a base of wonhip. Ironically, they often struggle to keep their b w gains as best they can - at least at Arst Sce, they%- iW by striwng deals with mortals, their fame will spread, and thus their might will grow. So in order to establish decent reputations, they've got to keep the agreements somewhat fair. 'Course, once a balor gains enough power and no longer needs to keep its word - well, look out.

Another warning: Any spellslinger who stumbles moss om of these balor names'd bmcr double-cheek bis sources. Some balors find that their true npII1c. get spmd around by their encmies so that they're called away from the Abyss at the most inconvenient times. Obviously, a k r k who summons one of these furious fiends'd best hope @ wards are strong and perfectly drawn. Otherwise, he rry wcll find himelf embraced in tlames and whisked away to S t l f f C I unendurable t0mMtS for hlS prrsumptlon.

There's no telling what a tanar'ri'll do to a summoner on any given day, nor how it might react fmm moment to moment. A barmy who insists on calling the tanar'ri fmm the Abyss takes his life into his hands cvny time he plucks a fiend out of the gibbering daILnas.

Jessyme Rauch Most kinds of tanar'ri can communicate telepathically, except, perhaps, the manes, which arc too witless to communicate at all. The fiends are far too diverse a crowd to have drawn together in a uniwing racial language, so they've learned to project their thoughts across the distances between minds. Those that haven't picked up the skill of 'mindspeak" must pment themselves to their supcriors on dcmandiso the high-ups can simply pluck whatwer information's needed dght from their heads.

Based on reports from Blood War mercenaries, it can be determined that the tanar'ri are able to communicate via mindspeak to a range of about 1,OOO yards - wen across crowded battlefields. A forceful mental ahout deafens the IC- ceiver's mind for a moment or two, much as an audible smam leaves a rlngfng in a body's em. However, the mindspeak doesn't disnrpt speUca8ting or harm the target It aim- ply informs the poor sod that a tanar'ri wants to talk to him.

Intemthgly, the fiends can use mindspeak to mmmu- nicate with any intelligent race, for the messages rely more on symbols and concepts than on words. The lower tanar'ri, unable to express complex ideas. usually project symbols that are harsh and crude. Cannier fiends eventually learn to

translate thnc symbols into intciUgble conccpta thai nonta- nar'ri can more easily understand. But be warned: Some- times these fiendish symbols burn thenuelm into the re- ceiver's mind, leaving him permanently scarred The tanar'ri, namdly, take great delight in this.

Of counc. just becaw the tanar'd speak with $be& minds docan't m a n that they can't Iho do so v d y . Ihc fiard. weam and shout and threaten aloud PI w& PI in si-

?dace. l?qm choose whatever method ia most convenient a c f f c c t i n , ~ . ~ w h i ~ e r t b y f c e l i i t c u r i r 4 1 r t t h e

those who deal mguldywith bions, and succubi - have time. Some

mortals, like tht alu- mastered one or more mortal tongues, but the bvwr of thc tanar'rl simply make noise.

The lower tanar'ric vocal speech membks the buWg of canines yapping incerswtly as they vle Poi attention. More refined fiends speak in the soft drone of ocun MVPS

coupled with the violence of a disturbed w e ' ncmt. But occasionally a balor yelps in jangkd disronrnre and a har-

In a smooth susurrus. As with cverytbing

e acrosa the b o d , though: Their vocal prt- direct as telepathy and tmd to tcveal thc of the speaker. Among the fiercely territorial

fiends, that can be a death sentence. To tell the truth, the tanar'ri are a deconstructionist's

dream. nKy don't wer fuUy undentand the spnch of PO-

&a fiend, and it goes without spying that they'rr net fuUy understood either. When mortal scholars try to learn the tanar'ri lansluay, they usupuY focus on the dlrlects oE one or two of the &otic fiends, but even thee it's a task. That maywdl be pu t of the mson the tannr'ri arc so angry all the time - thcy'rr comtantly and fuadpmatluy misunderstood Thst may .Is0 explain why the tuuu'd oftm mort to methods of communication that can't be mbcon- strucd - like torture.

vn

tanar'ri, their U K of & can? k p d c t e d

+ A CUL+UR@ ef C H A e S Michil Kedell

If you seek to understand the culture of the tanar'ri, my friend, just remember the nature of the Abys: It's chaos. More to the point: It's Chaos. My goodmu, aqy-thing' can - and usually docs - happen there. The tanar'd watch their backs in all dimtions, constantly alert to aqy possibility. expecting the wont because they know that's what uswily comes to pass. They lay plans and discard them just as quickly. In short, the fiends adapt thenuelm to any situation, no mntter how sticky - that's how they're bid.

Their culture (if one can truly speak of a tanar'ri culture) reflects t&. It surges in all directions, anticipating nothing and ready for wcrything, datwying itself from within when thar's no threat from without. Thc Blood Wsr7 I see it as a diversion for tbe tanar'rl a way to focus thdr anger beyond their own kind (a difficult task!) and onto those who represent the law and orda they so hate.



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AgS+ R8 + I C S Thfs Is mother of the fm points when the tanar'd Ihlm. As a race, the cbaottc fie& produce M that b not plcula& not platy (pawen be, sometimes It's sot Ncll ad), but it's ab ways disturbin#, plwpys thought-prwoling. Thatr prktbriQ their architecturn, thelr music, thdr poems and &?ks - trepr'rk work Irr a hcd#e-podge (wmc miat 3ay ntbhma6h)

of rontlktlng tmrges and h a , each of whldr por- trayasom new etrodty even morrhrtrted

Well, now that 1% gotten thc gmtral- izationsoutofthcwry,IcanPorusinona

few exceptions. Yes, my Melcndr, occwbnslty a denizen of the Abyss p d u c n a work of

undeniable appeal not say bcrclly) *t touches hcarta acrosa the planer. For rxample,

the camblon Olltrtaar'r cpk paam lnto the h a d Slyr is a moving testament to loyalty, betrayal, and lom. M e r

pmoaal favorite Or mine ts the .scrim of csmcor painted by the n a l f d n m Judge Qiwdt OF the

moaai petitionen brought b t&e her. nK Image6 are ddlcate and loving, showing a measure of cow

passion unthlnkabk in the tanar'ri. ('The medium ulad

This is the key to undemanding thc tanar'ri: Each fiend beliwcs that It - and It alone - knows the true answer to exhtmceJ the real meanlng of llfe. And it tries to teach by example. I've heard this from enough different tanar'rl to assume that it's true. If It's not (which Is unlikely), that would m a n the fiend6 are all Mmtkally confused or have rallied 'mund a common Ile, and the fiends are too wildly in&vidud for that. Thus, I believe it's thh certainty of truth that drives the tanar'd to their nefari- ous dacdr.1 &anted, some of tk lesser fknds simply exist to tomre, maim, and U, but thcuc with any in- - WI.)IKIN IIIAHURA, telllgmce seek the

and the only way they know how to do that is through their pnsollpl torment and experience.

alwwm far themselvm and then try to impresa that knowledge upon others. They'n not looking to enlighten, but only to spmd the doctrine of cham -

than the one before.

Y E S , BU+ Is ,+ AR+?

+AN A R'RI A k+ C RI + I C (NOW D # C # A S # D )

C H ARAC+BR

Just how bed arc the tanar'rl, anyway? Take the worst mortal murdertr, the most amoral human monster Imaginable. Now imagihe all the horrors he's Eommitted on Ms vfctlms (stccl younclfl) - wearing their skins, devouring thdr bodies, and other unspeakable acts - and multlply that by a hundred, adhousand. That mindless calloasness and disre- gard for others, roupled with savage delight in pain and suf- fering, metcly scratches the surface (the surface!) of the tamr'dc &dSa. At leas4 mortab who commlt qrehensl- ble actions usually feel some twinge of guUt; the tanar'd revel in the misery they inflict.

Some "experts" claim that the tanar'ri act as they do because the fiends need to express tbdr inner rage at bdng trapped In such hideous forms. Leatherheads who make this argument don't seem to understand that most tanar'ri like their shapes - they're adaptable and powemtl.

One of the best explanatlons I've ever heard of the tanar'rlc character Is this: The flcnds lash out because they're weply of being repressed by t o u g h n flmds. Oh, I don't doubt that some accept or enjoy harsh oppresslw from the Wty. And I don't mean to imply that the tanar'ri at the top oflthe chain are nky they're sffll nasty Just for thc sake of nastiness. But why do you think the Abyssal lords scratched t4elr way to the top In the flnt place? So they wouldn't hlhre to take orders from anyone, tbat's why! In Fact, that's h e of the few mlcemlng features of the Abyss: The fiends were M all individuals, and they fight with such fmwity because they're upholdlng the11 personal vfsions. (The worth of those vhions is another matter entirely.)

They can be admlrcd for that much. Powers know there's precious little eLw to admh.

- whlch is bcst unrrvcaled here - learn samething to be desired, Mt with the unar'ri, we must take what w t can get.)

In short, the tanar'rl aesthetic mlnon ttnlr live - as all good art should. It is unprrdfct&e a n d J e w and brnb and soft and flowing and clean and messy, all at the same time. It's a mixture of Jarring contrasts where the audience expertssmwth transition, a d , we& a mixture of jarring contrasts where the audience upccb jarring contrasts. I can no more explain the tanar'd aesthetic than I can explain the dreams of the wind. The !lends M beyond dcflnltioa.

But they p d u c e wry, very i n t a n g art,

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Sod@? B.ldcrdashl The Abyss. hac nowiety, and ntitkr do the tsnar'ri- at least none that rpSM the whole $bat. There is nothlng more than what an amMclous fiend am c a m out for itself and hold onto for a the. And cvcll tbat CUI endure only if the next flend to come dong - the suc- ccssor to the vhIonuy - has the ablllty to hold it mgetk, to M a t it forselhrh ends. It's notbecsw anychiqmrckln them is neatst to endure; pltltc the oppos&e.

Certainly, small kingdom do exist throughout the plane, and some ftcMoms blanket en& 4 n . But whereus the baatcau rally around a &@e Unifyhg pdnciple, the tanar'rlc instinct encomgcs dlvisivmnr md cham by its very nature, and the imposition of a single society goes agalnst cry drop of b h d the tanafd pws- Ofcoune, if a pomrhrl Abygol lord w m to unite the lpymand tmpoK his wilt over the entire plane, the tanar'ri (theanticatiy, at least) would be under a single ruler.



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At the time of this writing, for ucpmple, the lord Graz'zt has aircady taken over three adjacent layers (the 45th through the 47th, I believe). However, I don't think he'll claim too many more. That kind of domination would surely cause the lesser tanar'ri to rise up and cast out the one who would crush their freedoms; the fiends are capable of con- certed action, aRer ail.

I

, LAWS Are there laws in the Abyss? You might as well ask if there's chaos OB Baator, or order in Limbo, or evil on alysiuml Now, I'm sure that many of our friends in the Fraternity of Order will flnd s t r u m in the Abyss (even if they must impose it themsellresi), but let me tell you, friends, the only kind of law amqng the tanar'ri is the tanar'ri. By that I mean that each fiend Is a law unto Itself. each seeking its own way and its own truth or deceit (as the case may be). They each rebel against the higher powers and kick and kUl until they can claim tatal frcedom for themselves. They each act as their own judge, jury, and executioner, and pity the berk who breaks their 'laws."

So how are these so-called laws established? No one knows (probably not wen the tanar'ri). You see, they invent thelr lives over and over again with wery breath they draw. They dop't believe in consistency - why, that would nail them down, force them to be something thcy're not1 The tanar'ri believe in making their own ~ I e s ; that way, only they can tell when they're bmking them.

Let me put it another way. Every basher's Been the Xaosltegts raving in the sprawling Bazaar and the stinking Hive of Si. Many of the poor sods are crazy and can't help it. Othgs, howwer, struggle mightily to be crazy, trying hard to throw off the shackles of restraint (no matter who might have put them thnr in the first plm). It's hard to say which @pup has it worn and which the tanar'ri resemble more. But the truth of it Is that both kinds of Xaositectc typ- ify tanag'rlc nature: Barmy naturally and trying desperately to get even more so.

"Barmy" may be too strong a word; the tanar'ri are too canny to be dismissed as simple lunatics. But then, only one other word can describe a whole race of creatures with no structure: chaotic.

G 6 + + I N G + WHA+ Y8U WAN+ + Jessyme Rauch

Think that the only activity in the Abyss Is the constant smg- gle of kssa fiends ploming and scheming against one another, tiepltins pad baffles to the death and beyond? It's true - almost. But not qultc. The hlghcr flea& and wen the Ahyssal lords plot and Schmae and flght just as much. Thcy Just prefer to do It Wth more subtlety than the weaker tmar'ri. And when subtlcfy falls? Wdl, it's not hard for a layer's lord to round up a squad of warriors to lay siege to a rival's forms

The Abyss holds Innumerable such strongholds. Some are built of Iron, others of flre-hardened and magically enhanced clay, and still more of serpents mortared togahcr with tbc essence of paln, It seems there's no substance that hasn't been used to create a forbcss. But all of them haw ken +seated and tested to stand true. ARa all, sieges come frequently in the Abyss. Hardly a day gwc by without an assault on some castle somewhere. It mlght be a matter of territory or insults or simple mean-spiritedness. It might have no reason at all. The tanar'ri act as they wlll.

Thus, because it's nearly impwsible for the fiends to prepare themselves for all the attacksthat come mpe- cially when they have thdr own violence to commit, they try to hold their enemies at bay wlth politics. They hspc to buy time to mmhal their defenscr, offcavs, or supposed allies. Political maneuvering Is one of the fm ways they ~ p l l

forestall a war until they're ready for it. Of course, the tanar'ri don't have the complicated, dg-

orous political system favored by the baatczu. @&e hlr- verse, in fact. Politics In the Abyac Is just a matter of who holds the greater power - in numbas. stmgth, magic, clad reach - or who appcan to. The tanar'ri throw their loyal& such as it Is, toward the stronger side unless tky'm. pcmn- ally threatened or believe that they're goin# to be tbmt- ened. In that case. they try to convince thelr fellowthat they are strongest in order to gain aUles against the apparent usurpcr.

When a fiend rises quite high In the Abyss, it has to start playing down its power while still mnintpinlng Its real strength. The tanar'ri like nothing better than toppltag whatever someone else has built Mgh. A k n d that porhpvs itself as almighty will soon find Its I- testad kw at every turn. Then again, if the Rmd mekm itsclf out to be teo weak, that also opcns the door to assault. It's a delicate bal- ance. Who would haw thought the tanar'ri could wdk such a flne edge?

Strangely enough, the greatest among tbc tpnar'ri do it so well that they often fool thcmsclvcs. They fdp strength and weakness as the need arises, but in order to be truly convlndng, they must bel lm their own storin first. And it goes bcyond merely putting on a good show. Rememkr: In the Abyss, as on the rest of the Outer Planes, strong belief can turn dreams Into reality.

Politics is another arena in which the distinctlorn of least, lesser, greater, ~NC. and guardian m y take 011 -I- tance. Though the labels are redly just broad estimates of power, the tanar'ri themselvu somctimm flaunt the tnmr to frighten a foe 01' put its mind at nsc. For example, an du- fiend might tell a band of drctches that s inn thcy're only least tanar'ri, they've got no chance against a lrwr tanu'ri such 89 herself. ,Of course, if that same alu-fiend la ta fapa a nabassu, she'll do her best to convince it that the divkknm arc meaninglm After all, she's got maglc dancing at her flngertrpk and no mere clacsiflcatlon can hold her.

In short, Abyssal politics are based on the tanar'ri dolng whatever they need to do from moment to moment to survlve and thrlw.

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P@ S + U R I N At the lower end of the power scale, tanar'ric politics tends to be that of tooth and nail, of whlch fiend can most effec- tively dwtroy another through sheer physical and magical strengthr The more fearsome a creature looks, the more likely it I$ that laser flends avoid it or accede to its wishes. The weaker tanar'ri don't understand the subtletfes of the high-upst All they know is raw destructive might. While they desire that kind of power, they also shrink from those that currently porn tt - or seem to.

Thus, when a higher tanar'd waats to commuaicate with a lower, it adopts a brutally fierce form - something the Icssen fiend, which equates appearance with strength, can understand. Of course, if a higher tanar'rl meets with another flend of the same power level, It takes on a more subtly imposing shape. This need to deal with each other on many levels, low and high, may contain the seeds of the tanar'ri's shape-shifting abilitles.

Intmstlngb, though the higher fieads no doubt dcsplsed the o p p d o n they s u m back when they thcadves w m in weaker forms, they show no compuncMon about d u g it out now tbat t h y wield the power. They use lesscr tanar'ri to prosecute their etmal veadma against the baatau. and they gather amlfes to assault anyone who disagrm with them It's a vicious me of use and abuse, one that kecps the tanar'ri both evil and chaotir. Mer all, they reason, if it was done to them, they can do it to s-ne Jse.

Of cqunc, among the highest members of the race - from true tanar'ri on up - the political games rely on more than Just appearance and cruelty. They depend on posture, gestures, kord choice, and scores of factors beyond the comprchewion of laser tanar'rl. Survival is no longer the only goal: the players seek dominion over the Abyss by a- tending their wills across the layers. Naturally, since the Aends are all out for themselves, the atmosphere is one of constant paranoia and hatred. Indeed, the high-ups never know what their foes might be planning, as they literally move without provocation or forethought.

And then we have the games of the Abyssal lords. Think the m e tanar'ri cling stubbornly to their vision of what's be& for the Abyss and the rest of the multivemc? Well, to use the vernacular, you ain't seen nothing yet. Each Abyssal lo@ holds to a personal vision, and each works at cms-pwposcs with the othm. Thou@ they may stand side by side now and then, they expect no less than betrayal from their compatrlots every time, and most lords flgure it's best to bettay the othersfirst. Alliances rise and fall with nary a single bond of tmt. If one Abyurl lord grows too ar- rogant or dingemus, the others migbt band together to take him down a notch or two. They might marshal riotous armies, turn a familiar confidante againat him, lock him up fn one of the stale bubbles of Pandemonium's Agathion, or banish him to aa interdicted layer of tbc Abyss where even the tanar'ri know Rnr.

On the1 other hand, they might fail. In the Abyss, nothing is certain. That's why the politics of the plane are so tur-

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bulmt. Indeed, the cardinal ntlt, a law that even the ram- paging tanar'ri manage to obey, is this: Tnwt nothing and no one.

Is there no way for the weaker flends to deal wMh the h a d ministrations of the stronger? Well. there's outright revolt, but that rarely finds success. And the process of advandag to a tougher shape is a slow and difPlcult one. However, if a lower tanar'ri wants to flnd immediate release from the abuse of its betters, it might attach Itseif to a flrad af importance and become what's called a parasltc Mpmucr.

ThC pansltn are tanrr'ri that give up their own drlves and d& in order to make themselves m m lwful to one more powerful. They don? change th& physlcal fonm; they merely surrender their wills. For thdr chosen master, pan- sites perform any rUnaion, no matter how m m d or buurli- iating. (See fflusmtbn at might.) Why? Simply -use they feel they m ' t amount to much on their ewn, sad they want to aUy themselves with a winaer.

These tanar'ri are odd flends indeed. They subjugate themselves M y just for the privilege of saying they know and serve someone of importance. Truth is, they sacrifice their own chance at gaining that %me kind of Importance just to pssociate with a fiord thafs more powerful, dcstrue- tive, and lntemtbg than they are. By doing so, they h o p t o make themselves seem more pownftd, destructive, and interesting. The parasites learn & they can about theis master and d a t e his actions whenever gosstble, dorm to man- nerisms, styk of drrso, and chosen nwmics. Indccd, mortals haw, on madon, mistpbn particularly adept parasites for their overlords. Chant is some pirrmitts mntualiy ovn- throw their masta , having ka& their lnsoas too well.

If another f led trles to stand ktwm a panrite and its mater, the parasite feigns fifcamh(p for (and perhaps rtlb servience to) the interloper, and then bcglns to commlt its betrayals. And If tm parasiten go to wrr over whicbof them can better serve a mighty tanar'ri - well, the mamy fiends understand each other and know how best to iofila great misery on their kind. Naturaliy, they do it with h y &hb.

Rcscsrchcn have catalogued pahi t ts ranging fa pomr from the least dretches to fiends that might have been Abyssal lords themselves, had they not sacrificed their fumes for this fascinating - but pitiful - display of sycophanw,

Hello, mortaisl It is time now for you to learn about the Abyssal lords. 'fdble are they, great creatures truly honi- fylng in their wickedness and powm Most of them spent cons rising tiirough the many s h a m of the tanar'ri. Some got where they are because they had mighty tmar'rl. parents. Some got where they are because of a strange co!!jun&n of Abyssal forces. Some got where they are because of no



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good m n at all. For example, Urdlen of the gnomes and the 0-t Mother of the brholdem both rule their own layers of the Abyss

Is it easier for a tanar'ri to seize a layer and hold on to it? Or is it easier for a mature from the outside? wha cam? There do not sccm to be any particular bad fcdin the two kinds of 1. would expect from

chaos, but beneath it SCathR even mom chaoa Does the Abyss have an inamitc WmbR of layem? Yes.

Xanxost has counted them. But the Abyssal lords are wt ia- finite. xnnxost has led merrolmy companiatIuougb several Layam that were not ruled by nnyonc. Still, laat lpya do



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Before they can do that, they muat eliminate their rivals, The arrival? Xanxost thinks theyshould Rght the slaadi way: one oa one.

The t9efling Ice has ,asked Xanxost to name all of the Abyssal 1Qrds. Impossiblel But Xanxost will do it. Xanxost will describe each Abyssal lo& starting with Zzyaesiya - no, AI- - and continuing through to the end until mry last one la here for all to see. Prepare yomlva~, mortals. This may take some timL

I ., .

Tanar'ri csll him "The Purging Duke," but not when he is most famous for the mdty and bru-

troops. Bven the Iicnds fear the inventive under &e Duke's m m a n d . Slaadi do not. b the Dukcwsr rerrnthr a mortal

wards. Out came many vassals, including EManoth. who b now trying to get mortals on the Rime Muterial Rime to worship him so he can become an Abyssal lord, too.

Eldanoth looks like a smiling d e tictling with makes @wing from hls Angertips. He wants to become a power of crime and hatred, and his worehip Includes the rituPl slaughter of criminals by criminals. Their spkits ue said to feed his stragtb with their evil. nyr'rr cvil.

Slaadi reports say that one of the old a b a n b a i layers of the Abyss - somewhen in the 300s - la slowiybeingre- shapcd by Bldanoth. Snake md already gather on the blasted plains outside a roppv fortress that h.s rlrcn from a mt in the esrth It is said that when Bldtnoth jour- neys to a prfiae-m&tW, world, h d e a w s hb body hidden in* fortnar and psojccts Wpcnm8Uty through the As- wptna

lng to hls current

$.e

' F paizo.com #652842, Kari Wilfong <[email protected]>, Apr 6, 2009


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tittering cackle, a mixture of sounds that has been known to curdie even slaadi blood. The tMrd sign is Lupnclo’s incredible strength; the tanar’ri say them is nothing in the Abys that the Baron can not lift. Du fourth slgn -

Thee signs. A balor once told Xanxost that Lupercio I really the embodiment of the strength of darkness. Bu whrtcver Lu@o is. he goes back and forth between Ion periods of total sbth and short Bouts of manic activity. he either Sits and sits and sits. or he flits around lilrr a wh



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guarded ad all times by a horde of w i n g claws and bones that move around all on their own. Slaadi say the castle itself can riqt up and crush all who come against it.

Somchmes mortals who wander through Baphomet's across her castle. The Lady sends some of

pad lirrps some of them for her collection

as a h a l e mopped mund her palace

around can scc:

cver & This leaves her sewants to wonder.

VB RI N

VCIIU is a flim. pale flgure who serves the Abyssal lord Graz'd He is also known as Ztefano, and slaadi reports say he mlght 9 nothing more than a parasite - not a real lord at all. Vuiqdoes nothlng to stop such talk. At the very least,

acts among all of the lords. If k can ask them favors, is he not powerful? Xanxost would say

Verin flnds out all lords. Then,

whenever he feels like being he is a tanar'ri, what was

secret information and then sits back and

ach other. None of the lords trust him. After all, Verin might hold se-

, so they go along with

ust another name for this crea- say whlch is the true Is someone else. One

o(bicr is dark. Both ooze spiritual slime. e between than Is that Ztefano has the detected, while Verin is better known

xpnxopt

among all 9 lords of the plane.

AEYSSAL PRINCBS

Xanxost is tjred of writing about the Abyssal lords. He will finish the lib some other day. Now he ls moving on to another subject: the tanar'ri known as Abyssal princes, which some peopleisay arc higher in rank than the lords and some say are lower.

Mortal~~might think that the princes stand greatest of all; after al1,;that is the way most hierarchies work, Well, it is not the way the tanar'ri work. Tanar'ri are like slaadi. They do not stand for other berks' rules. Being a prince in the Abyss does not really mean much. It Is the lords who hold the real power.

Oops. Evnything Xanxost just snid might be wrong. It depends on what day it is. The tanar'd change their Utks faster than a p r iw changes his mlmd b a d on wlnt is most likely to gamer them more power and respect. But based on the current chant, the Abyssal lords arc higher in rant The princes are mighty Rends - always tanu'd. never outddas - who gather on the Plain of Infinite Portals. That is the topmost layer of the A b y s The prlnces Live then in huge fortresses and command massive armies. They give themselves big, fancy titles and try to LLU all the other pzinm so they can rise higher in the eyes of the teeming masses. Why do they do this? No one knows.

Wait, Xanxost remembers why. It is because they are looktng to flnd a layer they can wrestle into submisslw, a place they can call tbdr own and rule from as phey grab more and more strength. sometimes the prlnccs send scout- ing parties down the conduits that riddle the Plain of Infl- nite Portals. Xanxost does not know any riddles about the Plain. But the scouts go down In search of layers that are unclaimed and ripe for conpunt.

That is the true difference h e e n an Abyssal p r i m and an Abyssal lord. A princecontrols a citadel and a stretch o€ land on the Plain of Mni t e Portah A lord a&- ally controls a layer, watchlng it rrspond to his wirhes ai- most a8 a power's realm responds to the &ityo That Ls not to say an Abyssal lord Is necessarily a power - at least not yet. Some truly are gods, but most are just dmmns.

C 8 N + R e L L I N Q A LAYBR

What does it mean to rule a layer of the Abyss? Mcmhaulk Ithe yuan4 power) and Ramenos Ithe god of the bullymgs) both live in Smaragd, the 74th layer. Xanxost is sure that both would claim to be the lord of Smaragd. And Kali, a human goddess, named the en& 6 4 M layer for her holne there, the Cavcms of the Skull. Is she the Abyssal lord of the layer? Most people say yes. It snms some gods M considered lords of a layer just because they happcn to live thcrc.

Fine. The strongest blood on a layer can say he b the lord. Why does Xanxost care? 'Course, being an Abysssl lord takes more than just Rnding anpty ground end march- ing over it with an army. Porn is not enough. Anyme who wants to be a lord must do thm thinga: Drive the natives of a layer into submission, and &ape the land itsclf to flt ids will and vision. Two things.

That is where moa Abyssal prlnm fail - they do not have enough strength In their heads to dominate a whok layer. Why is It so hard? The tanar'ri say that Abyssal layers are sentient. Not smart -just aware. The layers haw primal urges and abilities. They respond to their masters and can swallow unworthy berks whok. Sa if a prince tries to take over a layer but does not haw enough force of wlll, he g& absorbed into the land. It is the price of failure In the Abyss. And that means Xanxost is hungry. No, It means that each prince who tries to &e a layer and fails becomes part of the land's power used to resist the nest prince. You have heard that even the tanar'ri are afraid of some layers of thc



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Abyss? Those are the layers - the ones full of berks that tried to rule them.

The problem with Abyssal layers is that they need w- tenance. Suss ten ants? And they constantly need bigger and stroaer prilmcl to nourish them. When they do not get their feed they grow weaker and eventually didc away into nothingness. "hese poor, hungry layers get absorbed into other layers. There they shrink and become little realms, and that is how they stay unless they can lure other prince-food to their 18nd But sometimes a layer clings too much to life to fall away like that, and it makes a deal with a prince who wants to N e it - as long as the fiend can convince the layer that it would be best for both of them to work together.

Abyrspl princes and 0th- challengm are not the only ones who rbk going into the ground. An Abyssal lord. too, can melt 1 into his awn layer if he is not careful. Whcn that happens, !the lord becomes an extension of the layer he has crafted. He turns into the living embodiment of the land itself. Taking on a shell of a body begins to become a chore. Oh01 The lord had betta watch out, because if he discorpo- rata muqh further, he will be gone. Then the layer is ready for a new master to try his hand at ruling.

Xamost has much more to say, mortals. But he is too hungry tp write now. Maybe later.

PRts S Is C U + I N 0 + +Ha B L e e D WAR+ Telson Splithorn

Some fo+ say the Blood War is everything the tanar'ri live for, that they grow old and perish fighting, fighting, fighting. Well, that's dght enough for some of the fiends. It's no dark thattthe truc tanar'ri push vigorously for thc rest of the race to qush the b a a t m out of existence. Vest companies of disorganized armies disembark every day from Durao (the 274th layer of the Abyss), spreading chaos and havoc across the Lowe Planes - and sometimes the Middle and Upper Planes, too. Clawing and screaming, the fiends launch themselves like arrows from a bow, raining down on any sod who stands in their way.

'Course, they're mowed down by the mlllions by the steadfast1 and dkciplined baatezu. Toe-to-toe, the tanar'd fight likq - well, like fiends. But they've got to get there first, and that's why the commanders send in the lowest rpnLs. See, the true tanar'd need the berks at the bottom of the power scale to maroh in and soften up the baatezu (or at least dlsYact 'em for awhile). Once their fw're biuiscd and bloody, the big shots can move In and slay 'em without nearly asmuch trouble. Sure, the tnie tanar'ri lose plenty of troops thct way, but it doesn't seem like the Abyss'll run out of new fitnds any time soon.

No qne really knows why the true tanar'd are so eager to push the Blood War. Maybe they figure it's their mission to get rid of the baatuu, or maybe they Just want to strip the skin of law from the face of evil. In any case, it's a safe bet to say that nearly all true tanar'ri have a vested interest

in keeping the war raging. Whether they gain power for themselves or just get to watch thds hated en& CnraMe (which ain't bad, dtha), the huc taonr'ri Mem only to bm~- efit hy forcing the ksser fi& to Qht.

But the truc tanar'd aren't the b a l l and end-all of the Ab-. Many lo& of the layem wlgh in on tbc Lwc as well. Some of 'em. l l h Scss'innck, lock ~ l v c s nway from the c o a c t entkly. 0th- Ilk Alv- scheme mom against their fellows than against the bantczu. And sttill others, like Graz'zt, work to end th Hood War (at kmt tcm- ponrily) so the tides of evil can unite and fiow against the

Blood War as there are Abylsd 10- and not OM of 'csl forres of g d TNth is, thac M es ?Utly approrcha to thc

aepm with the others in ail-the paFtknh.MuchIlk thc m t of the tansr'ri, really.

+ I N SUmmARY Jessyme Rauch

Purveyors of ill Intent and crrotum of utter cruelty, it's likely that the tanar'ri M the mcut mcan-spkited and ther- oughly cvit monsters in d t e n c e . They vkv life m a nul- sance. They sectheliving as toys to be savagcy pburcd and then dimrded. They care for nothing but themaelm and they don't even care about themselves all t h t mwh. The tanar'ri act in accordance only with thck own daim, and whatever hidden motives drlve those deslrer are ao de- bauched and depraved that a body'd be betta off not how- ing anything about them.

A fool who travels willingly to the Abyso d a r v e s whatever he gas. An addle-cove who deals willingly with the tavar'ri deserves no more than death - and he'd bc lucky to get wen that. The tanar'll arc d&Nct~e , petty, and hateful, proud to exemplify all the worst that can come from chaos.

Just hope thcy don't win the Blood Wnr.

HIAL ARUNDAK + T H ~ OI+Y 09 cewusmn + (Town)

CHAFXTEK. In a breath of air, the rot of the dead essaults the ears. A riot of color SCOWS the t o w . A scream ntaa UXOM

flesh, and the disjointed feel of cinnamon echoes throw the balls of the mind. PuriAcstion of the body Ir paramount; those who fail sbnll perish.

R w n . The fallen trumpet archon Alusiel watches over the city. Unfortunately, the archon d m p ' t realize that she is fallen. Aluriel sttll believes hemelf to be a good mer and considns hcnelf an wid foe of all that I s chaotic and evil leven thou& she's become chaotic evil). The trouble started long ago, when she accepted the task of ncortlng a lost spirit back to Mount Celestia. Unbeknownst to Alusid, she

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took the wrong spirit, one that planted snds of malice in her lieart.lWhhispering words of power Into the archon's ear, thb dark qpirit turned her toward the Abyss - but not before Aluiel had also infected a handful of her b r e t h n by shar- ing with them the trickster's wicked promises.

Now iAluslel seeks to be a candle of hope In the Abyss, to ease the tormented sods back into the light of truth and purity. She wants to cleanse the spirits of all those who come to her city, so that her charges can emerge from Mal Arundak I b h and ordered. No one ever has.

BEHIND THE THRONE. Alusiel maintains her entourage of archons that were lured away from the Mount, trusting them

sure the city is secured. Or 90 they the lure of the Abyss, Alusiel tmsts - for such have they become - at all.

o wrest the city from her. and she won't let that happen; she knows that only her way can purify the mortals who wander into her land.

DESCRIPTION. In the heart of the Rainless Waste (the 403rd layer), wha t the parched desert soil holds rifts wlde CMugh to swallow a town, sits Mal Arundak - the City of Confu- sion. Perched on the edge of a sulfur-belching rift, Mal Arundak tl a tiny dot in the vast, dusty landscape that sur- rounds It. The city's gained the reputation as a burg of trade - or at kgst the nearest thing the Abyss can muster - but, In truth, hapl Arundak Is much more.

To rc*h the city, a body need only journey to the Plain of Infinite Portals (the first layer of the Abyss) and pasn through a huge triangular portal made of a mixnne of c o p per, iron, and sllvcr. (The key is a broken feather from any bird.) Mal Arundak Itself is much like its doorway: roughly triangular, with walls of copper, iron, and silver to shield it from the dements and the occasional tanar'ri siege. The walls are 33 feet thick and stand over 100 feet high. Squadrons of weary archons pace atop the walls, casting their pnry eyes over all those who approach.

The landscape around the city's walls is dull and dttary, but inside, Mal Arundak is a riot of confusion and fear. Only the Grand Market (and the roads to and from it) remains somewhat calm, for it's a place where travelers go to pup chase whatever they might want or need, from a simple skin of wine to their deepest heart's desire. Three main roads lead to the Marbet, one from each of the three gates. But If a vis- itor strays from the thm roads or the Market, the true nature of the city becomes apparent.

See, Alusld designed Mal Arundak to purge the impu- rities from mortal flesh. She weaves a net of illusion and reality throughout the city to tempt and repulse those who come k ~ , and no OM can tell what is red and what is illusion unffl tbey'n grasped for it.

Here's the dark of It: An invisible web, spun from the hidden palece of Alusiel, blankets much of Mal Arundak. Whenever a sod brushes up against a strand of that web, the city conjures an image of hls fondest desire. If he pursues his dream, he's given evnything he ever wanted in a flood

I

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i

of sensory impressions. The deluge never cads, and that's why many say Mal Arundak is a city of bannkr; the dream- cursed are a common sight in the sbccts.

llm who llve here permanently do so in coaptpnt de- nlal of their desim. They don't dare gurmc an- tbcy want, for f eu that they'll be driven mad. Thus, the rrddnrls have taken to indulglng their menta: appctltn, sptaning f a n t h and tdes of dcprwitia that would $hock evtn a tanar'ri. By represslng the desire for physical goods and pleisum, Aluskl's created the supreme market fer those

Mal Arundak Is a welter of Ilapresrlons. The stately mansions of philosophen loom on one side of a broad av- enue, whik the hovels of the poor and m i d y squat on the other. Yet tbc Up boast more beauty ta tMrcacfw acSlgn, and the fine h o w an squalld and Alhd with vcmdn. 'Izlls is the city of denial, and what appears to be beautiful on the outside rots on the inside.

M l m . The city really needs no militia. Alwici's fflusiau tempt and destroy most wrongdoma long before they ewn realize what's happning to them. But since aome can rrsist her web of drcpms, a company of bund archow arfrrtains the peace. Whereas Alusiel's law says that viUains muat k destroyed, the hound archons recognize the value of mercy, even in the Abyss. They often allow minor criminals a chance at escape, though a second ofAac brings destruction down. S a , It shouldn't be long bcfotc thc archons lose hold of their lawful goodness entirely.

Whwc h S t C in V k C NIlS t0 tbc WJIlkd.

S s. The Market holds anything a *tor mlgM want. Beyond the conflnes of the Market, a body should sMck to findlng a place to cat and a p l m to sleep. The dcdre for anything other than those moat bask needs might offend AluaIcl; depending on her mood, even a simplc swig of bub might be forbldden. Fortunately, Mal Arundak features many Inns that cater to dl manner of mortal p h e w s l h n . Naturally, fiends aren't welcome In the city, thou@ that doesn't stop them from trying to gain entrance.

Ll . Chant is Alusiel's spiralling ever further into In- unity, that she's already half-tanar'rl (with powen beyond those of most archons) and ready to take the next sttp. Whether sbe intends to or not, sht'a chnglng, and If she doesn't leave the Abys soon, she'll be stack Umc f o m , Some folle even nbtsper that she's losing her grasp on the city, that a lcascr archon has nallzcd the folly of ttying to nu^ a burg in t h e m and plans to fortiblymorc Aludd when the time is right.

The city's sulprislngly nrtensive lmkgmmd k U W that Aluslel maintains control over Mal Arundak only through the use of an ebon stone that reflects light llk a crystal. The gang bossca who operate out of ~JIC Grand Mar- ket would pay a pmtty piece ofJink to anyone who steals the stone (If It wen exists) from Alusiel's cvcr-shifting palace.

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Lr To think like a yugoloth, youfirst have to empty your heart and mind of all you hate kancd in the past, You must achicve a state of wtuy wtth yourself; fully a-

ctgw all that you are today and all that wu d h t be in the future.

mean nothing to you. price of a m a l Iflt your heel. . . yet stfll

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I N L)IH@ B ~ Q I N N I N Q Mowatt Ke'Mahn I

Although I am flrstky a hunter and a celebrated leader of I've led enough charges against the yugaloths to

lost so fru back in tlme that not wen their own

agreed to have beem spawned (perhaps by bacr-

know my enemks quite well. Their beginnings

any authority on the matter, but the yugoloths

glooms of the Gray Waste, near the banks of

have

the Riveq Styx. Rising from the dusiy plains of Oinoa the new fiends must have scrabbled toward dvzlhtion as so manv 0th 1

THB TRUES+ F I E N D S

Of the three primary races of the Lower Planes - baatezu, tanar'b and yugolotb - the ?oths are the dJt Bends that don? arise fmm parti- They draw tkh arngtb dim rectly from thdr planes ofpower: sahsnna (thrtr new homc) and the Gray Waste (their ancient bilabplace). Granted, many baatau and tatuu'ri are spawned h m thdr rcspc tive planes as well, but they supplcmenb thci? rmmbsg with Bends raised from petitioners. And the gehrelethr d e e

their essence from their hideous god Apomps, not from the plane of CamrL

races have done throughout &e.

history I$uspea, of WHEN D E A L I N G tn\c planar &rdapu%cdof

It's epsy to e, um& why Hoywer long that

may ha+ taken, their

come) g~s us that & the hv#n strptas of law rd

the yugofoths found themsclves contamillat& with A

traces of lchaos and lawandbltadtotlnd ' 111 a way to lexpunge their

Yug@oth histories (most notably The ofDml* MagJcLS, though scholpm have

spi* ofltecsc tplnts. BWR

recently un wthd qthm) posit that one ultroloth created a gem called the Hem of Darkness, which it used to 'puriv the yugo- lothk magnificent jewel spilled the law and chaos into the f o r q of tibe larvae nearby, whirb were then herded to thc Abyfi and Baator, where they evolved Into the baatezu and tanaqri. As for the clevcr ultroloth, he went on to be- - thc~kgenday fyrurr known as the G c n d of Gehmna,, whose wisdom guides the race wen today.

b 4s tale a true one? %me certainly ~ n k it so. B U ~ I would belremiss if I failed to mention that m n t chant - especial1 talk on my beloved Upper Planes - brands the yugoloth i as hopeless liars. Just yesterday, it seemed as if everyoneland hls imp were ready to believe that the 'ioths were indqed the flrst and greatest evil planar race, that they did indeqd create (directly or otherwise) the baatezu and tanar'd. df come, dear Reader, the Mca that the yugoloths are less *an truthful is hardly news. but regardlass, 1 think I spy on th+ horizon a backlash against 'bth podamations of

Sa, pe story of the General and Ms jewel mtahly hdps to explain1 why the yugoloths feel M though thy can manipulate Even if the tale of the Heart of D a m is just a fably designed to make the yueroloths fed hnpomt, irs a tenibly good one.

superiorit+

locked away from mortal knowledge) focus the energies of thc Lower Planes, at-

tracting the power of 4 and harnessing It for the yugolotbs That Implies, dew Readst, that there ucdwaya

at kast a certain number of yugchls hr &am. (I aay bt last? because the Am& c a n a l s bred natwaIiy, which In- mam t$dr population.) Supposedly, only the damdon Q f ~ e o f t h a y l l ~ ~ M w a s C ~ a r c m d n t h e ' l O t h r d c r d f ~ any slgniffcant kngth of h e .

TNC? Pabe? Dear me, who can say? But it & trueat the yugoloths clafm to have rid themirhrer of lorvend chaos, claim to have driven t h e s b s m s Into l a m e that would later woke into the baa- and tanar'd. Seholam who klkvc this claim (what a wtionl) have mberqusntly theorized that the yugolotb deatmyed their own 1Mm# spsrkwhenthqdminedthetuaLthfcrl~etomtbir

cruits from l a m e and why they've been k e d to wolve thdr reinforcemen@ frollp the phrm

Thost *ho lurk ia the undcgreund of AcndbB howl- edge &&that rrhllctlic p q e m y k ellznfnsted (Be true spirit from the~yugobths, it has ensured that thdr race b Filled rrwIthe aacaa of mil. Wali theyugoloths haw to do is keep the m a r pcaaptlods of cvil from -q. Por if those basic no!ims e-, the very sntff of the Lower Planes wu) change, bld that could spell the end of dl of the yueoioths' plana.

spirits. That's why, Some say, thc am& W't draw newt-

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+ T SHAPBS eF @VIL + The Unnamed

The yueolbths are much like the baatau, in that they spend most of tlrck lhrcs learning the lcuons they need to advance to the next step of their NL1 existence. Thosc who succeed may shape the planes. Those who fail have only death to fear. Aftq all, lk all fiends, the high-ups of the race (and even the lafniors) do all they can to challenge a yugoloth's Progress. '

H CI i

Flrst we have the canoiotns ana guarn~.nyugoloths, tw9 ~

spdes wated by the yugoloths p rb serve as lackeys

race, are thought to be mezzoloth stripped of their power and ~ansfbrmed into beings that will serve greater yugoloths hithblly. Sages aren't sure whether the transfonna- tion is a punishment or a stcppingstone to greater power. Still, no yugoloth wants to be forced into canoloth form. for it's sal4 that to be a canoloth is to glve up the status of yugoloth qntirtly.

Chan$an yugdoths w ' t true members of the race, el- ther. Mora powerful 'loths create them to heed the inter- minable summonings of mortals addle-coved enough to try

and summonlng stock. The canob T s, the 'dogs" of the

must dqgtantly tolerate their bNtd d e . calling a figoloth guardlam arc an answ spirit T h q take many forms, none ot whfdr lty of the yugoloths.

nowlsp *ts true name. lett#r&?c binding,

of this laziness and hatred?

.I

keep their stnygla WR mbU4 Tbt hated, bullytng.Rcnds often wind up splattered across the rocks on the banks of the River Styx.

Next come thc hydrolotha the scouts and guidca of thc yugoloth foms. They swim in the Styx fcdcsrly, knowlng that their memories are protected against the dnlnlng power of the black waters; this m;llua thm espdally valuable in the Blood War. Still, the hydroloths know they're Juat pawns, and they desperately try to reach the lcvd of yag- noioth, where, though hated, they can at least stand back from the carnage of the war. Hydrolotho learn to trade In in- formatinn rather than pure muscle, mowing from the phyd-

tal. Slowly, slowly they grasp at how to

end of the lowest ranks, we And the

Gray Waste against invaders - that is, when they can bc bothered. It seems the yagnoloths prefer to do as llttk PI

possible, living instead off the labor of thelr underli-. Still, the ultroloths grant them widcjudldary powers - yagnoloths can command any yaeoloth in their domala. dl the way up to the rank of arcandoth - so the reat of the race

The lowest and most plentiful of the yugoloths art the mezzoloths, tht brutal soldim of the race. They're tough, in=- tile creatum but they're not wen as smart as the average human. Mquolotha are the basic tools in the ultmloth chain of commafld, used only when subtlety and guile have ken exhausted, only when there's a need for &ct action. Oddly, though mauoloths are the lowest in rank, they're not the weakest in strength.

A stq up in rank, we find the dergholoths, which also serve as mercenaries in the yugoloth armies. They, too, are stupld, brutish, and malcvolent, but they make excellent sol- dlh19; their four arms let them parry as well as attack (and do much of both). It's A d that this shape is a form of punishment but if so, it's one ofthe harshest the ultmloths can dish out Mer 9, stdpping a creature of the knowkdge it hos accumulated is tantamount to total oblivion on the planes.

Abovq the dergholoths slt the pkoioths, the sergeants of the bottgm two ranka, ovcnnr~ and mastns of the brutes of the race1 They're powerful and frightening 'loths, to be sure, but they're also desptsed by thwc they command - and more t&m a few wind up dead or &sing. If a body accounts only for direct treachery, he'll find that the rank of piscoloth is one of the most rapidly RUed and emptied positions in yugoloth society. (Higher-ranking yugoloths tend to

Jokes from above, which they do notkakc, and thc target of hatred from below, which they moIpllzc aU too wdl.

Flnally wc haw the skeletal mamesolotb, which some call "the in-between," a middle ground between the lnsrr and greater yugoloths. Having leR bddnd thc bunlansomc rank of yagnoloth, the manaenolotbs learn the d u e ofme- terial wealth (payment for their smrlcesl a.6 the hrlstkng patterns of thought mastered by tbe greater yugoloths (aa embodied in the Styxh As the boatmen of the dark riwr, tbc marraenoloths absorb complctc knowledge of the water- way's way bend and swirl, and the Rmds KC it echoed in the multlvcrse around them. And, as ferrymen for the Rendlsh armies, mamenolaths also learn the rudiments of maklng - and brmking - contracts.

Y

A triad of greater yugoloths - the nycaloths, arcanaloths, and ultmloths - art thc makers of pollcy pnd the Rends re- sponsible for hewlng the race's path to ascendancc. All lesser yugoloths pmrlously described are simply todr urcd to bring that goal to frultion That 1s the essential divide bc- tween the ranh of lesser and greater.

ThC least ofthe gmter yugoloths, UK nyuloths m the observers and scouts of the Blood War. They often carry enchanted axes, many of which are said to be wrpal wapons.



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Nycaloths watch the battlefields and pass their findings straight on to the arcanaloths. Their role is dtical; their observations hclp the alranaloihs determine exactly where to allot the yugoloths' strength, which in turn allows the ultmloths to plot the coune to victory.

Next in the chain of command are the jackal-headed arcanaloths, yugoloths too keen to be dulled by mind-af- fcctlng magic. These dmr fiends Imp tbe contram of the Blood War. assigning yugoloth mercenary companies to the baatczu and tanar'ri - end deciding the costs of such services. Indeed, the war is h i profitable for the yugoloths, and with the stroke of a pen, an arcanaloth can make or break its own wealth and reputation. They enact thc policy of the yugoloths delegating the troops and dooming one fiendish rnny while saving aaothcr (at least, for today).

Of COW the arcanaloths all take their orden from the ultroloths, who watch the vast sweep of the baffles and rk- tennine when the mercenaries should betray one side or the other. The faceless ultroloths (a mom apt form than most folks realize) are some of the most feared creatures in the entire multivene. Though solan and certainly powen a n stronger, it's said that few have longer reaches than the ultroloths, and fewer still can hide their knowledge from these ruthless flends. Truly, the most effective weapon the ultroloths have is their reputation - no fool in his right mind

tion, and it can be held by only om yuBoloth at a time - invariably, an ultmloth. Of course, theJob is a precarioue one. Most ultroloths wish to sit in the throne known as the Siege Malicious, and they lay thdr schemes to further their ambi- tiom, not caring who's crushed under thalr mhecis of pwm de&, and behsyrL Naturally, a k w camnothlng for gab- ing the s a t of power - but only if tkycanaontd4hezdns of the one who docs.

The currmt Oindoth Is an ulbolath n a n d Mydhmch- larus, a datlvely recent snfvel to thcSlage. urrprtyfta me- mies marsbal~fo lres to toppk tbrmw lulerandcJc the mvlltfe for thcmsdvca. Howcvcs, Mydianchipnu is no cay mark: rumor says it single-hanWy ousted tke previous Oinoloth, an incredibly powerful ultroloth known aa An- thraxua Bntthebattkwnan't apbysial ont-is said tu have whlspctrd to Antkrsxur a single uerr( of saab pmfound and disturbing insight tha&thclattar fhad wm cam- ptUd to lcaMKhh-Oin and mwcon.An?bmxw & now try-

to offa his savipcs towrious powrrs of the Loffapfnae*

B A I RN AL Q + R S

Above the ultroloths, above the Wolotb, above even the General of Gchenna sit the baumloths - thrt is, if the leg- endnry matures exbt at all. These pustular ruppos-

would dare to cross them.

troloths are the highest-

edly created the.entlre Although the ul- ~ yMo1uth mce back in a

time b d o m history and ranking manbas of their race, they're physically in- distinguishable from one another. The only differences are in how they d m and how they seck to pursue yugoloth interests. Ultmloths provide the vision that guides the race; they're the secret soum of all modern 'loth scheming (and, no doubt, all part L

scheming as well). In the eons it tqkes for a yugoloth to asrend to this lofty rank, it learns to spin its weba far and M e . As a result many folks fear ultroloths on the basis of their knowledge alone. Thdr contacts supposedly span m n the Primc Material and the Inner Planes, and the forces an ultroloth can bring to bear on a foc can be as mild as a message and as mighty as the destmction of a planet.

?LANESCAPE MONSTROUS C

UONSTROUS MANUAL"' t

TRa Q I N @ L Q + H

The nominal leads of the yugoloth race, the Oinoloth commands all &om Khin-Oin, the dreaded Wasting Tower of Oinos (the f lnt layer of the Gray Waste). The status of Oinoloth isn't a new or horrifying shape; it's merely a posi-

them later vanis~,-leav- in@ the altroloths in ahange. But w M J m that story is true or tk bscr- naloths arc simply myth.^ spmpd by the ukmlotha to Just@ their own de, the fact is that most of the yuploth race b d b n in ck erlstsnee a€ the b m - nalothn To &em, It b true, u d t h c y k t h c l r k a ifit wmw true. For tht rrst of us, that mCQM it's just aagoodaatruc.

A handful of planewalkers here and there have clalm&&o hnw t ~ & a hpar- d o t h on their travels, whlrh poke hales in the won that only the ultroloths know wheR to flnd their rrclwdve fa- t hm. These morPals reported that the baentalotha de-

advice to so-called worthy nlt~ola?he b o 8 t notably, the General of Gehenna), This (pddrre b rskl to Wa the form of secrets about khe ophcr fiendlrh races, and word among the pgoloths 1s that these secrets have proven tried and truc o m and we? agabl.

Of c o w , dnrc all knowledge from the W& fil- ten down only through the ultraloths, it's possible that the faceless Ben& twlst it to thdr own cnds.

havine created theyugolaths thovevlthey .dmtttcd ofmrkg

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PR8 8llI 8LE I 8 N + A N D PVRIFICALEIeN + Yugoloths don't climb through the ranks like the baptnu or tanar'd do. Sac, when a lawful Rend advanm, it's only got a fm plam to go. The chaotic Rends ain't so conflncd: they can try to transform themselves into a n w n g they sct their minds to. But &e yugoloths walk thc strsightatroad of all, moving from mezzoloth to dergholoth to piscoloth and so on and so on, until thc hcklcst bloods reach the statu of ultroloth. They can't sliip ranh just because of a good re& or a tough will. They've got to do time in crch form, learning an they go.

The promotion of a 'loth depends on a few factors. First of all, the Rend in question mwt've rntd well in its current rank. (No screw-ups need apply.) Second, the 'loth mustlve ambled to the kssons built into its current rauk. (For example, when a lowly wuoloth flnal)y opens its rycs to the fact that it can easily lay a dergholoth 'superior" low, it earns a shot at promotion; lt's learned that command don't always mean physical power.) And last, the 'loth's got to belkvc, with all its dark heart, in the purlty of cvil and t k necessity of cvil's triumph.

'Coum, It ain't as easy as all that. See, a 'loth has to plot and protect againa intrigue from three sides: from above, where the high-ups try to dcfcnd tpeir own positions against up-and-uetners; from its own ~ . p M l c r r s t Q ~ do whatever it takes to make sure f k y get ahead wad; and h m below, where the sch- and tecdng ppmq may decide to show ofy their own potcntlrl by knocking off their superiors.

Chant is that all yugoloth promotions foilow a W c pattcm. First, the bcrk in question has to show its imwdt.tc high-ups what a Rne job it's doing laming the Ins and outs of, well, yugolothness. It petitions them for a revim e#l fully demonstrates its brains and skill - which can t a b yeus, decades, or wen centuries, dcprndtne on how quickly

impressed by the candidaie's evil and high& they s q g d the pmmotlon to tlr& high-ups.

That's where lots of promotbolls fail apart. Sre, the next level of superiors pepper the candidate with even more qua- tioas and chnlknges to see if it's truly worthy. If they Rnd the sod lacking, they punish thc 'loths who recommended it in the Rrstphrc - usuPUy by Raying off their skin and d m g them for a time - and then thy demote or destroy the c a d - date h tha furnace8 of Gehcnn8. Let me tall you, that ~ p U y make a candid& think twice about whether it's ready, and it ~ n f t c l y makat the W s bosscJ look at it long and hard before daub@ to recommend It for promotion.

If, on the other band, the judges Rnd the candidate worthy, well, the next step is to wipe away all the fwlts it's accumulated in life and make it, in essence, a dam d a h for the new Rand to come. 'Coursc, they don't want to get rid of the ucqldful lespons of its previous f e r n ; that's why they go through the process of the Puriflcatlon. It's a painful ritual,

Enkillo tl

the SupcriO~~ want to proceed. Ifthc hlgb-ups decide th- '

one that invariably inwlves the outer death of the 'btk's

give brlors nightmares; 1epIcd on one as I paacd Mvcm portah in Mungoth om time, and i nearly gouged out my own eyes to block out the m. Bat that's a story for M k

other time.) Ones thc PurtRcaUon b complete, tka Rend arbor, ready to take IS place in thc yu@lotbhierm&ydat* urally, lt's got to prom itscif 111 o w again befm M gab another shot at moving up.

Like I said before, there ain't no short-cuts. A yu- goloWs got to move up OBC rank at a time. wh.t'swonc, chant is it's got to spend at least a few ccnt\nlcs - Isa often d k n a i a -in a p.rticu*r shape Wore It. next p10c motion. The trlas patience. Some a n handk &e wait, always kcepingthdr eyes on thc mnnk to mnr, shys plotting and planning and showin@ thcir wurtb. OIhCn ei- tht~ can't bide tbeir time or Just atkept thefrpt that they don't haw thc drhr to succeed. Thcrc 'loth6 don't worry 10 much about advancement and eontent thmsckocs nrt(h F a d i n g evil at their ament rank. After ail, tfry~rcdtll fiends, ail1 more powerful and mow feared than 'meat bmks on the ~ S W .

~WIII - thc SMPplne S W ~ Of thc living she (The rttupls'd

R e O U f l YUQeL8LEHSi+ Mowatt Ke 'Ma hn

' l3im&W'u~ WJgIm among their lmmk, f l q v ; f ; l l m R ~ ~ b L p c h i n g & l o B ~ k k n l ~ c l o -

bdely* layself, It r$inds to lu80ntht might also fall prey to this *affltctlonF

Mow, I'm IW appUs0 of the khd ofaanyak m emn+ m a t o tl*yw.goircb* thc Iart loyal ef all t h e m . I'&W thrrt~i$il lrgmsMyontheLomtPlsaartbrdatmop O t l a a z n l a t b r W ' t ~ t h c m s c h e s o n p b d t ~

a dorm sfilluloths nfl -e& otkcr do-

in ibb manner aren't vc@im:

( ~ 3 p d k t o ~ l t 8 blessing).

to *d, but nrrn4tItscmly not be trac trestom. Irs thought that the gduektb g d 4- thc unsightly being known as Apomps b an uihd y u g m md the W t y witb which thc gcklcths a&& &Wage yqW4h would ccrtsinlyrcsl to btsrautiimt ammpihm. And Ihm ire others uh A ' b , thc unnaioth whontm.lbs FricadlyFind.trlnka shop ia Si@ #bagb #kin oftea em tertains lhdish cdlcrs, and I W e be's sinrpay Jtlllsd at masking his me intentions).

The dark of it, dear Reader - at least as most bloods have it - is that the ywgoloths viclowly prosecute the traitors among their number, driving them forth and killing thcm at d l costs. Why, during a raid I led on the Qrry Waste, I pmonalty witnessed a 'loth wrce~ry eonrpupy practlcalty ignotc their attackers - that is, me and my pack of lupinals - to w ~ t r a t c on chasing and sl.yfng a pis-

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coloth that sought to switch sides. Do the yugoloths haw such great secrets that even lesser 'loths who turn stag must be silenced? Or are the fiends simply vindictive monsters who refuse to let one of their number slip away? I've heard of many a dissatisfied yugoloth that has chosen self-induced oblivion over desertlon from the ranks.

Of c~$urse, therc arc some yugoloths that disagree with the prwajling political mood of the race, but, dear me, that doesn't make them rogues. (Some of the most loyal guardi- nals on Rlysium are those that quation the orders of our leaders.) If these 'rebellious" yugoloths w m to speak their minds too freely, they mlght be tormented until they either recant or demonstrate the validity of their 'dangerous ideas," but they're still welcomed back into the fold. As long as they don't try to cause dissension or abandon the general goal of raising evil to dominance, they're allowed to live.

Some have it that vulroloths are incaDable of true

F'

B O D I L Y eenm + A N D 9UNCLEEONS + Enkillo the Sly

Long ago, when the gmn buks of the Prime Material Plane first laid eye8 on the yugolotbs, thy fSgimd the f l e d had to be the mult of some kind of bizam adaptations, muta- tions, or cross-breeding. Why? Simpk: Creatum couldn't look that weird naturally.

No wonder pdma're called Clueless, eh? In my dny, we called 'em worse names than that, let me tell you1 And now we know today that yugoloths arc flesh-and-blood planar beings, whlch means that they mate, eat, and sleep just like anything else does. Well, maybe not just l i anything else; read on.

Q 8 N D 8 I l change, +at their spid&aA so tilled with [he essence of The whole idea of gender just ain't as important to the

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What ol' EnLUIo means is that a yugeloth's gender really d w n d s on b current sftuation. What's m a , it may change at a moment's notice, because the only real change taking place is one of perception. When two 'loths mate, the fiend who fithers the offsprhg is considered the male, and the Aend who carries 'em is marked as the female.

'Course, anytime a yugoloth docsn't care to identify with a particular gender, it can still position itself as neuter. Strictly speaking, I guess a body could say the '10th are neuter all the time - or that they're everything all the time. It's just a matter of how the flends're vlcwed.

B I R + H 1

All yugoloths can breed. That might be due to the fact that they can't replenish their race with petitioners like the baatezu and tanar'ri can Sure, every time a 'loth dies, another one's born from the rnergles of Gehenna or the Oray Waste, but that just keeps the population constant. To grow the race, the fiends'vc got to reproduce naturally.

Anytime two lesser yugoloths - of any variety - mate, tht end result is a mnzoloth, the lowest-ranklng Rend of the race. Whichever parent takes the female role glvq birth, though the mezzoloth doesn't come out full-

's a young 'loth, plld it must be raised to adult- re it can B c g h advtpdng through the ranks of

yugoloths mate, they anturnllpproduce cy can breed only with others of 11 never catch an ultroloth mating ample. And the same rule applies 's got to reach its prime More it

nycalothhlways produces a litter of , which're forred by their parents to fight E 2 8th to see whlch one earns t k r i g h t to grow to

Le, arcanaloths create nothing but more of their The m n g ' r e raised viith grace and care and ( p ~ and outs of negotiation, but lessom M no

brightest in positions of power. And the only way to get that is through rmNiies of striving and pmmotion.

A e URI SH m @ N +

Most folks call yugoloth carnlvorrs and let it sit at that But that ain't tlrc whole story, and it's an o v c n h p l i M o n to just say W they eat meat. Pint Oa, loths mlkh in the crlt- ing of life. Meat Is mom than food for them: a h g it's a symbolic of contempt 8o*vud the lrst of the nwdtl- vem. See, yugolothr consldci thcmschns t0.W et the top of any food chaln, and they want orcry berk In existence tc know of their arrogance.

The freshness of thc meat - and thc way in which its mna got put In the dead-book - are o l h s Important Rc- ton in a yugoloth's diet. Sure, they can survive by ea- old meat, even the flesh of a bariaur that's been lying &atd in a des& for weeks, but they redly prefer thc m a t &a lfv- in& thinking creatYTr. m e lesscr 'lo* npactdly, h &e flesh of a berk that's quaking in tmor. Chant is the fear taints the flesh with Just the right amount of angst and despair - flavorings that're an ns+ntlpl part of -0th he. But anger's supposed to lend a kick aU Its own, and tbe other dark emotions each produce their own unique tzstcs lor so it's said, not having tried it mysclfj.

'Ihc Wta yugoloths don't care as much about cmo- tionrl flhrdugs, and some arm? Nan m a r aboat thc quality of the mea6 at all. Nyraloths lean towand m e d flesh, savoring the extra decay and a11 that it symbolizes. Arcandoths devour marmw, partly in a gesture of disdain and partly to show their place in the multivene as fiends that drain life from the inside out. And ultroloths - well, they chew up the all of their victims. They take pain and love, glee and anger. It's a good thing the powers watch over their petitioners, or else the uttroloths'd devour every bak they came across, bot&& soul.

Einally, ulffeloths can gi without qaving to mate, But th young amallplotb. who, like tbe ents, end up flu@ more mund chy. Why don't ultroloths produce it's because he ir state of existcqcc

ves OM thm days" ham& itandhaon:

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tually i m m q y themselves in the soil (or wood or water or whatever) of the plane and let it refresh 'em for about five hours Then they rise up again, ready to rrsumc thcir dutk Me, I think they or& do It because that's what they sec their high-ups doing. 'Course, the yagnoloths and mar- nenolothg don't seem to understand the point of the pmcess: tbcy'rr just like children aping the RCUOIIS of thdr parents.

See, the nycaloths and arcanaloths actually meld into the essenec of the plane. They don't just wrlggk down into the dirt or sink into a river: they let that soil or water get Into tkm, too. They merge with their chosen element and draw life-glrfng power directly from the plane. It's also a great way to keep in touch with the mood of the plane, to see where it's falling away and where it's growing. The fiends do this for nine hours way nlne days.

The ultroloths, on th other hand, simply fad from sight for a whilc Some folks think they gl to commune with the bacr- naloths. Some say they dis- p m e themselves (or focu themselves so tightly tha It amounts to the sam think!) into the realm o

dy, ultroloths need never fear such an unpkamat mrprIse; when they gate In a yugoloth, the summoned ficsd lraaws that it had M e r obey.

D I S P e S I N Q

The Unnamed + BP A YUO*Le.)IH

.,, . c_

xme uar u have lost the a

m e t ~ ~ h y s i c a l reallty and '

waft on currents of power through the Lower Planer 'Course, the ultroloth might just hole up In on of the towers of yugoloti lore, places where they -Q=m know thqf'll be protected from all dangers but treachely. Whatever the truth, the ultroloths don't seem to need as much rest as the other 'loths: they're gone for just one day wmy decade.

. . 5 .

ewor, as detailed in the boxed set Hellbo&d: ThhBlood Wa The fiends can regain the power only by swearing loyal* to t k yugoloths, who secretly stripped them of the ability in the fir place. Of coume, the yugoloths themselves lost teleport withot ewor along with the other fiends, hut they quickly managed to get it back and now use the power as a tool to bend the baatau and tanar'ri to their wUI. The oath of fealty binds even the mo chaotic of the tanar'ri; those fiends who agree to the deal fin themselves at the beck and call of the 'loths at the most lncor venient times, forced to turn stag on their companions wher ever their new masters com--A it so. Many feel the restor€ ability isn't worth the price,

1

c I

iere's no going hack.

P@W@RS + Mowatt Ke'Mahn

In comba0 the yugoloths arc fonnidabk foes indeed. Take it from me; I've led my packs on many Invasions of Gehenna and the Gray Waste. All secm to have an imprrsslve array of powers they can wkld at will, powers that mortals can duplicate only with magic. Yugoloths can change their features, raise the dead, infect a foe with a crippling illness, turn a fon into a Mend, create potent illusions OUP of thin air, draw flm from that same air, and relocate themselves In the space of a heartbeat.

LIke other flcnds, most yngoloths also have the ability to gate in their romrpdu. (I say 'most," dear Reader, because yagnoloths arc too widely hated by the other members of their race to gate in allies for a flght.) Howom, moat yugo-

Mortals everywhere should thank th& godsthat dapstt all of their much-vaunted powers, the yugoloths hrve their weaknesses. The most effec?ive weapon against the Wgo- lothg Is an application of cold, m a g l d or othnwisc; thh inflicts twice the damage one wwld axpcct it to mise. Then are two ucceptions: First rsczzoloths, for some odd 1~119

take only .d dunage from cold-h& a t t a c h p e r b p s the yugofothr found s a p e may to Im- prove the'msfataace of their ranband-fila MI- d i m . And seconb, u1- tmlaths tote no dtmrge frdm nonmagkal cold: they're made of sterner stuff.

If a cold-based rt- tack is lmposslble, the n u t best o f f e m is a d m of magical electricity, which inflicts 111 damage on all yugolotbs. Ordi-

naly electricity is nearly as good, though be warned that ultroloths are, again, Immune. Finally, if neither cold nor electricity are available, try using magical or ordinary gas against a yugoloth foe. Alas - and by now this Amid be expected - the nonmagical varlety will do no harm to an ultroloth.

Do not attempt to defeat a yugoloth - any yugolath - by attacking it with acid, fire, or pow whtcb bm no d fed whatsower (except, perhap,, to amuse the f*ndt. Wha it comes to weapons, remember that a blade of cold- wrought Iron works no better against a yutpioth than a blade made of any othcr substance. However, silver 01 rug- Ical weapons can cut deep into lotk flnh.

For the sake of a%l\lamt, Mus you con- front and slay a yugoloth by virtue of your wits and ow ef the above methods. Do not 4ebrStc; the fiend may not k entlrely dead. If it is a lnscr )Mgdoth, you can be rewon- ably certain that you haw Ued it ( u n l ~ it b playin# had in order to lure you closer, or it can use magical means to revivify itsel0. But most greater yugoloths can be slaln only whea on the Lower Planes of fslrrrl, OdKIIIII, or th Gray WpstG If a mater vu~oloth 'dica" on a m other o lm. it m-

loths take poorly to this sort of perrmptoly summoni$, ind . if the gated fiend is as powerful as the one who summoned it, chances are fairly good that a struggle will ensue. Natu-

form blckon tho&& on which it waabora, tpldng ten to thirteen years to mh* its physical brm from the energies of tM lan&lt ir l@t hewn whether greater yugoloths an

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dangerous or wen sentient during thii time, but once whole, they remember the faces of their killers and take pains to avenge themselves.

Beyond these general rules, two kinds of yugoloths have special abilities regarding death. First of all, an arcanaloth can be completely destroyed only if killed on Gehenna - neither Carceri nor the Gray Waste will do. And when an arcanaloth is slain on Gehenna, its accumulated knowledge wings its way to the Tower of the Arcanaloths and is absorbed into the racial memoly of all yugoloths of that rank.

The other special case is the much weaker dergholoth. For some mmn, it - alone among all the lesser yugoloths - has the ability to regain its form within a few days of its death, as long as that death occurs outside of the Lower Planes. Not even th@ ultmloths can do the same. Thii might be related to the mezzoloths' increased rrsbtrnce to cold; as

Look, youngsters, it's never safe to snmnmn a fiend No matter what anyone else ssys, the d u b &.a Iowa-ptpnnr -ter can -helm a berk without a mond thought if he's not rprrful. And wen care ain't enough, most tlmm, to keep I mortal summoner from falling into I& -of whst? ewer fiend he calls. It's a dangernus Lwiness, d 110 one in Wright mind'd try it. Those who do are dapeate, addle. covcd, or greedy for power - or maybe all three. For folts with hain-boxes in their heads, summoning a f i d is the worst kind of last resort. Most b l d d rasher die.

Them. That's my spiel to discourage a11 you m@ spellslingem out there from trying to summon a yugoloth. Did it work? Did anyone put this book dorm? Did anyont say, "You know, ol' Enkillo's right on the mask, he is - I figure I11 uo dn sopcthin~ safer. like tease the Ladvuf Rh"?

the bulk of the yugoloth armies, dergholoths and ms- % 'a., 6 D k t thinkso. +&then, read M, but r e k o o e zoloths might have evolved the pownrg tbcy need@ to w- thm I tried. ynab tad gets rip@ off and ihded to main aliva and battle-ready.

And vet, cuen when a sturdy mortal panages to & a Let's rtpa yIth the basics: nameso If a body docan't yugoloth and know in his heart tbst it will not rise agoin. work thqtk name bf a specific yngoloth into his stun- the victory is a hollow one. Thcyu@bb do pot fear death, m&@peU - if he &ut blindly c a b a 'loth, any :loth, bsauscit.issaMthatthereisdnrc(yra#tirumbcroflo~ f r o i a ~ ~ h c ~ - - U e n d u p w W 1 a c a n o l s t h o r a in existence at any one time - tbrt, like the IuodroM, when @umttimylydoth. Itpt'r what those creatures were made one dies, another rises to take i& plm. %Is may he pmpa- fbr: to aaswerJli.t8c gencral summoning so the mal yugo- ganda spread by the yugoloths tbcrmJa&er to dlshearten fa& wwkhft i d re tq bother. Oh, they anive with all the their foes, but it seems reasonable Yngolbths asc pm evil. ji stink a d smokt of my'hydroloth. but thev're second-

1 you, #on4 come qybg to me, be&

and the amount of evil rarely dcPrrPscs hr the atultivme.

. - - _ _ - -IN(- ' I+H IlIeRLEALS J L J o the Sly

Thinking about hiring on with a loth mercenary company. or maybe offering to sell one some chant on the Blood War, or wen calling one up from Gehenna and fming it to do some of your dirty work? Well, here's a tip, berk Remember that the baatezu and tanafri - two of the most vile, dangerous, and arpnienced r a m on the planes - are like clay in the hands of the yugoloths, molded and shaped as needed. Imagine how much trouble a 'loth'd have pulling your strings, a puny mortal who ain't even been alive as long as It taka to fight a minor Blood War skirmish.

The best way to dcal with &e yugoloths is to kecp out of their knowledge. S q the 'loths think killing mortals is a waste of resources. They'd much rather peel the sods into canying out thdr dark plans& them. That way, if the truth of a scheme wet comas to light, the mortals're likely to take the blame. And even though plenty of folks know how sneaky the yugoloths are, they rNll €all for the fiendish tricks more often than not. It sccllls that 'loths j u t

" 1

. . dngm at but.

Fact &O(trydlan yueoloths can't even do anything but m; they Can't perform the kinds of shvices that summoners these days seem to want. And s1mt thcy'lc notking but loth conshuctionr, guardians perisb &mu whtn sl;dn. Bound to their masters in exchange for smrlccs o f & d or prod&, guardians have about as mu& k Wlll m golaap. They can be smart: they're just not independent, When they're not under orders, they're motionless, locked away in the secret cellars of the Wasting Tower.

The guardiaM're s m r l ceso9 actually. It takes power to command one of these fiends. That's no problem for a regular yugoloth, but any mottal berk who brlngs one to the Prime'd M e r be prepared to back up his entreaties w i h a show of strength This is OM case where the yueolotlts brook no argument or bluff. If the cuter hasn't tumbled to certain mysteries of the mulfhwse beyond a c-n poiat, the guardian yugoloth might Just kill b&n outright

Now then, we w w talking about names. If a montnl wants to puU something better than a canololh or guardian, where does he get the true name he needs to do it? Well, there's always a chance he could buv the dark off t h r

'

~- - . . . .- baatnu or s&al it from the dallpr'ri - akuming that those fiends ~ l f bow any true loth namra. A d it's pmible he could track down a blood who's eelled a higher 'loth. btfpre

(and lived to tell about it) and use that same name OWT again - but, mna alive, that yugoloth'll be sodding

furious to be called away from home twice in the stme

have an uncanny knack for appealing to a mortal's greed, ego, seme of sdf- preservation, awl the like - you name it, they'll take advantage of it. short time span (short for the loth, anyway).



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No, the best bet for true name# I8 The Book of Keeping, a rare tome that identifies a good number of the '10th~ in existence and gives tips on calling and blndtng them. Some folb say the book's Just a north, but ol' Enkillo's seen a copy with his own two eyes; I even got to fflp through a few pages before fleeing for my lik from ita owner (a story for another tlme). Chant is that ten copopks of the b o k exirt In all the multiverse, which is an increase of six aver the last time anyone checked. (Do you suppose the bean-counters were wrong before, or is some blood with a vendetta against the l o t h maUng new copies?)

'Cwc some of the 'loths mentioned in The Boo)# Kecpine have no doubt been put in another boob by spw - the dead-book - and replaced with new fl&W~osc dames cmn't yet public knowledge. But if a yugoloth's still alive snd klcking on the Lower Piancs, The Book OfKeeping'li give the best details on summoning and binding it. Natu- nlly, unkss he wants to hide his existence away for the rest of his mlsnible life, a basher'd better take care to compen- sate the e n d handsomely for its trouble. Yugoloths - espe- ctally thergrrater t y p s that most berks can't seem to mist calling - are no creatures to irritate, and the flends definitely consider summoning an irritation.

+ LANGUAQB + The Unnamed

The yugoloth language is a complex ode, *minding one both of the stench of decaying roses and4he whisper of

Nor should you orpea that the yugoloth language follows the divisions of rank. The ul&oloth and tfLs pimloth do not spcak di-t tongon. Howeve?, it may seem so to the casual observer, because the fiends' languagu grows more complicated as its speaker w o h . No mortal ~EOWII

to history has nm mestercd the speech bcyond the level of nycaloth. None ever will. The labyrinth 0% manjng and a b - tlety grows too dark to nartgete; It is said that even the balm and pit fl& cannot unravel the secret tongue of the ultroloths. In some quartezs, k g d has It that a blood who

Mowatt Ke'Mahn As one might expect, the yugoloths have a h@ly advanced society, one developed toward the pursuit and pdty of cull. They have created a system that focuscs the h a b e wkked- ness of their race and encourages a cold and shpiIplt6Dmprd march toward the realization of their mas& plan. Sow say that the yugoloth culture seems as though tbc enttrr m10c were evolving toward one organism Others dtcmfu that 110- tion as chlldkh nonsense, viewing the society as a eel*rtiw of individuals working together. Regadless of whlch ai& is correct, dear Reader, I now present some of the more f d - nating facets of that culturr.

wind blo&ing across the sand. Though they cate with pne.anothrr - and with many other an innate !sort of telepathy, yugoloths also c dinctly ifithey 90 desire. And when dealing yugoloths, thy genemlty choose to speak to convey e x a w the message thy intend. k a n a - lo& cspb l ly , rely on speech in thek negotiations with baatau and tanar'ri forthe sale ofyugoloth mercmaria

But whereas most races use the spoken word to send

t +HE a E CReWS a+' !m I I

simple mgssaga and prefer to deliver sensitive or com- THf WELL, IS, DRY.

- A m'EZZ@L@+H &ulna +, DBLlVaR A M C W + m @ S

plex information tekpathically, the yugoloths take the op- ,. ' ; S I X + E E M . posite approach. After all. a conversation held with telcpa- thy can be overheard by any fool wfth the right magic. But even a sage who eavesdrops on a spoken exchange cannot uncover meanings hidden deep below the surface of the sounds. Nearly rvcry word in the yugoloth language carries - - two or more meanings, and thus when a 'loth speaks, H de- livers at lqast two messages by its phrasing.

Not all yugoloths arc highly practiced in this matter. Small-brained flends like the slruoloths and dergholoths have liffleiconunnnd over the language; they try to commw nIcate hidden meanings but usually end up obscuring at2 understanding. (It is quite amusing to observe.) But do not assume that two yagnoloths in Si@ who speak of a mn- chant's wares are doing anything of the sort. air red conversation no doubt takes place in the subtle shadings of word choice and inflection.

~ S S ~ N + I A L BeLiePs H m is the most Lnportpnt s e a to understanding yugoloth sodcty: llreir nrlturr rests on the h i s of the bluff. The fiends believe fa manipulation and the skillful twisting of words and deeds tc achieve thdr goals. Why, tWr en& hierarchy toarhn, thm the Importance of controlllng the mIon from behind the scenes, of ntpbushing dominance by blanketing pwns with a s l I k m wcb rather than p d f n g them with brute f o ~ Several varieties of yugolotb are weaker than their Inferiors

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in sheer qrength, so the high-ups must somehow convince And though my past dealings with arcallploths have shown their subardinates of their power and the m@ht of the hler- them to be utterly without feeling, several colleagues on archy abonrc them. By doing so, they learn to bring the fom Elysium have boasted of how they managed to dig into an of the whole race to hear to suppress threats and make areansloth's core and unleash the deeply veiled c m o t i o ~ themsclve seem ever greater. within - the better to vanquish the fiend. I'd hazard a pear

t the ultroloths manipulate the wiled pauloas of the u-

My, but don't the fiends live in a dang- world? They espouse the fom ofw& and 00 they must&

with it on a daily b u k If the yugolotba ~NIY seek

Of course, there are degrees of bluff. Dear me, it can't all be liesc otherwise, the whole system would crash to the c nalothJ ia order to keep them under control, and so on ground the h t time one fiend &tided to put its superior's d n the yugoloth ladder. bluster to the test Yugoloths prefer to have the upper hand at ail times (unless they put themsahns in the appearance of submission, only to strike

to bring strength ta the multhrcnc, the only way to do it is to make tbsmrlva

co1wt(llltb. dmp, constantly aware - and the hest way to do thatis to mpLc

SUIC that they JRW trust a sod The I F 1 WERE Y @ u , BERK, yugoloths move toward a realientiaa

of no amtlon, no honor, and no

again later): they know they need to back up their bluff on the odd chance that it's actually called. They prefer to do so with WO& p r o m n g greater and greater threat undtheirfoeeithergives I ' D I U S + E N D I + N e w .

trust And yet they mwt work together, since they'= buudhg for the

in or shows slgas of re-

cal metho* of debate. REACH Y @ U ANYWH@Rfi* goodofthemulthmsc.~rpthn,for And if it cpmes to - RAVAL VALSBIR, the evil. that, the yugoloths like to be ready. Ovcr the years. they've accumulated a wealth of power, and they've no Ill8N+BIRUS C H B I R I P , , " A compunctbas about using it if One could ow that life as defined they have to. +HM F I B N D S - by the yugoloths is one of caste,

much Ukc thnt of the baatezu into mv next touic: the lack of feelins! b (tho& n d t h a ammi-

1

JL- THE YUG@L@+HS CAN

sorting to m~ physi-

SPY roll +He YUGOLe+HS, peu+ics COUNSBLING

AFD C(sS+@

8 N +ne RUN F R 8 Ill

Ah, that leads me nicely Fl -

Smongthe fiends. n e yugoloths

of dfspsssia. T h uI- ress. Those who must take P feel anger or jealousy -

merely a driving ambition to seize the throne for themselves.

That's not to say the yugoloths donY understand emotion; on their way up through the ranks, they learn all about it, but they also learn how to cast it out of their bodies. The fiends are coldly dispassionate, logical ond intuitive to the extreme; they're said to scc all with crystal clarity. The yugo- 1 0 t h use emotion as they do any other tool - to manipulate

urged the strains of law and chaos they claim), they're just not gripped

pride, hatred, or greed. They certalnly wind up like the tnnar'd and baatezu, who'w

taken these dark emotion8 to ridiculous extremes. Unfortunately, shedding passions is not u easy - or as

permanent - as flaying skin. The heinous actions of one yugoloth can actually drive another backward in its emo- tional evolution. The stories I've heard of Anthraxus (poor, deposed Anthraxus!) seem to indicate that he has truly learned to hate the clever rival who, without so much as lift- ing a finger in battle, drove him from the Siege Malicious.

i I

~

greater r ~ k the l n n r thmugh adfit, mauic. and force of will. The infcriorr steer E - d& of their supetioa when nn, but

tlcgr rsrcly dse up against the opprnson - unless they can get away with i t Mutlny is tolerated at the lower ends ofthe scale: tho= higher up should know better. To nukc m d t m worse, there's no telling when an especially ha& supecior has been installed simply to test the loyalty of the lower ranks, and any Rend higher than a piscoloth mains alert for that possibility. Thus, the very exbtence of the yugo- lo&, dear Re~der, is one great test.

A distinct chain of command runs from the ultrolotb down to the mcpzoloths, but within each rank, all h d s BR

more or less qual. One der@oloth,or hydroloth is M good as any other - at least, until a fiend proves itself specla1 enough to merit a promotion to the next rank. And thus the yugoloths struggle to prove themselves worthy of n d c e , certain that their situation wu1 improve as 00011 as they ascend. Of course, they progress only from being one ma- 2010th among many to one dergholoth among many to one piscoloth among many. . . . Thtr ppttaa of proving oneself special and then rejoining the masses repeats itself with greater and greater complexity as the 'lotha grow prngm- sivcly more powerful.

As you mlght expect, the scheming for advancement is much more subtle than even that of the baatezu. Yugolodhs



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prefer to lrccp their politics on a mentd and verbal lwd. Oc- casionally, though, it degenerates into physical or magical brawling, ,and then all hidden factiona stand maled. When two 'lothq dcdde to settle mattrrs wIth combat, they bring their subordinates and allies along for the ride, and what might have bcm a simple duel turns into a free-for-all with various cabals struggling for domination. When the fight ends, theifactions realign, and only the canniest of the yugoloths knows who's d l y on which side

AU of thlp politlrpl squabbling fpils kfm the true lead- us of the tare: the Ohloth and the General of &henna. The Oinoloth - the fiend that rulea from the Wasthg Tower - is said to d d e the rare and uniw the warring factions, to present a dermined yugoloth face to the outside world. Be- lieve me, 11 don't envy the Oinoloth its job. How can the b W accomplish anything worthwhile when it must constantly defend against real and imagined plots against Its position? Among the lupinals, we have a theory that Oinoloths are #lad to give up the throne to new leaders, to free themselves from the chains of rulmhip. Dear me, the creatures can guide their race more fully by their absence than they Wer did by their presence.

Now, ,the Gennal of Ochenna LY said to be many thlngs. 'I2re Arst and Ptrongcst ultroioth. A returned baernaloth. The leader of,the yugoloth race. The keeper of all fiendish knowledgq. A symbol to be revered and respected. The most feprsoune 4mhur in the multivrrsc. A god-slap. Whatcw the truth of the General, it exerts a powerful pull on the hearts and minds of the yugoloths - and especially the ncwcst Ultploths. Just as some say the ultrolaths conspire to create thq fiction of the baernaloths, others believe the Oinoloth s ~ e s to it that the legend of the General lives on. When the Pinoloth isrues a dccm h m the General, d l the fadions listen. The myth and reputation alone of the Gen- eral are enough to unite all yugoloths under a commd goal. The fienda know (or do they simply aucvCi') that agt cycn the Oinoloth would d m to lie about such a thing.

Amoqg the 'loths, that sort of respect is truly pow-.

lUAN I P U LA+ IO N

derstanding that theydee onty what the fiends let them see in order to mislead them fmm the huc plot. (Of COUDC, mortal egos rarely allow them to believe that they've been duped so easily.) The yugdoths play games of plots within plots, mazes withln mazes spinning webs of sucb complex- lty - and, at the same time, bmtLtaMng s i m p l l d ~ - thpt few cutters cver have a chance at unravcUing them all. Only those with vastly cynic4 attihlda and the tilac (and ex- pcnsc) to devote to mndcmtandiug yugoloph m o t l m might ever cow close, and that, mallyi des out just about everyone but the fiends' fellow immortals.

Thc yugolotha simply vim cvny h g that walks the planes 01 a pawn in a greaten inatrh. They don't rrspfft my- one's feel&# OY fate - and why should they, sine phe multiversc is thdr plrythinp Depr Reader, the 'lotha don't wen spare one another from this attitude. Each thinks that it is running the ultimate game, that wen though other yugoloths can see thr pieces on the board, they're still juat pawns in a gmater contest. Yugolotlw usc and manipulate oae an- aths elmod as much as they do everyone da.

How do they become so dcvlous, so calious? Imagine, dear Reader, that your closest friend, thc being you trust most in the entire world, is suddenly revealed to haw been moldlng you to his needs and goals all along. HOW do you react? With shock and dismay, certainly, with self-loathing for letting yourself be fooled. And you m i w not to make the same mistake with the nElt king you choose to be- Mend. . . but it happans a@. And again Ova and anr, until you become untrustlng, ushg others to see if thcy have the integrity to treat you as you d a c m . By &ea, OE course, you can dearly see how much umartcr you PIC thm evayonc else, how you cen manipulate othcls to yowr ends - and then you discover, once again, that you've heen molded.

The evolution continues. Thou& you see the pa- - indeed, tho@ you set the pattern all around you - you come to realize that there's something greater. You f a 1 110 passion for your inferiors; thcy can be - should be - n&p ing but y~ur unwilting pawns. Now you look to control t& thing that controls you.

So it is with the yugdoths. Disc~wa all the schemes haiched by the yugoloths over the eons? Dear me, our mysterious cditor has not granted me the space to detail those we've uncovered tor suspected) in the past year alone1 The neutral evil fiends have been involved itq so much string-pulling and shadow-ruling throughout history that I daresay it'd be easier to list all the events they didn't have a hand in. And wen then, I'm sure that someme, somewhere, would stand up and swew that the 'loths were behind those occurrences, as well. How could we prove It conclusively one way or the other? The canny fiends cover their tracks too well. (If you must have an example of this cunning, refer to ?he Dark," &in in this chap&.)

I'm always amused when a mortal mercenary in my employ tells me that he's seen through a particular yugoloth's p l m . The poor bashen have such a hard time un-

Pear the baa& They B T ~ cold ULd cuaning dlsripunulrar Fear the tanar'ff: They are brutal, bloodthirsty klllcn But most of all, fear the ytgoloths: Tky ur masks of mystery, and no matter how many layers of sk(ll you peel away, you will ncyn know how many sal lie between you and tk tluc face. Spamtd on tbc Gny Wastc ( thew heart of mil) awl navf shd on 0- (the very foge of u-ving ku- talityl, the yugoloth race is notorious for the ill ends to which it applies its manipulative genius.

m y be - never come to fruition.

Pny that their plans - what-



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TH5 T'$WBR '$F + INCARNALE5 P A f N + (Site)

SAY. Somewhere on one of the Lam Planes, the yugoloths are constructing a hidden tower that'll form a perfect planar trinngie with two other 'loth spires: Khin-Oin (on the Gray Waste) and the Tower of the Arcanaloh (on Oehenna). Thb new tower, which is nearly flnlshed, is the finds' @eat& est smct and will also bc their greatest source of power - P

place where yugoloths can scheme against the multivcne unhindertd. Ita completion will giw them domination over the plan- and spell the triumph of mil. What's more, any mortal who enters the tower will be transfigured into a shape more suited to Knlng his new yugoloth masters.

DESCRIPnON. Though most chant about what the yugolothr're up to is dtad wmng (malnly because it's usually disinfowa- tion spre8d by the 'loths themselves), word about the IICW tower is actually half-right. For the past several millennia, the flends've been growing the structure in Othrys, the flrst layer of qarceri. The new spire - called the Tower of Innr- nate Paini- will allow the yugoloths to forus theb energies across the Low- Planes of Conflict (namely, Gehenna, the Gray Waste, and Camri ] .

Where the Wastlng Tower is the spine of a &ad god and the Tower of the Arcanaloths Is an obsidian spire, the Tower of Incarnate Pain is the perfection of agony made corporeal: The town's formed of the living bodies of pefi- tionm magically bound together in an obscene mish-mash of flesh Bact is, the town's planned to be a living creature on its own, able to move or bury itself into the ground. 'Course, the tower'll never leave Car& (not that it could, anyway); in order to maxlmize their power, the 'loths need to keep one spire on each of the t h m mid& Lower Planes.

The Rower's only about one-third finished (though chant-broken flnd it more dramatic to warn that it'll be done any lday now). The walls stlll bled with pain, and the agonies of its mortar scream to the skies. When completed, the Tower of Incarnate Pain will stand over 20 miles high and three miles through. It'll replace the Wasting Tower as the supreme architectural creation of the yugoloths.

HISTORY. If the builders had been allowed to work in peace, the tower would've been finished long ago. Unfortunately (for the fiends, that is), the fict that the project's #et on Carmi means that they've got to deal with the gehrelcths, and, as any bnk knows, the 'leths hate the yugolothsi something flerce. On four separate occasions, the architects1 had nearly completed the tower, onty to have a marauding army of farastu, kelubar, and shPtor storm in and tear the tliing to still-screaming pkces.

'Course. since the gehrcleths number just shy of twenty thousand at the best of times, the yugoloths could simply fill Othrys with AR, thousand 'loths to guard against the van-

P

dalism. But the neutral cvil Rends want to keep the whole thing quiet, 80 they don't dare move such a large force. WhaP's more, chant among the 'lettb l a d e n has it tbat Apomps, the bitter god of the gchreleths, l a & &ne aid to its creations, epecr to ruin dl yugoloth plana That wonies the eommandcn; they haw no dcityan their dde.

SPECIAL Fmms. The Tows of Incarnate Pein docs not pt haw any spcdal featurea forthe y?@lothr. Ihwer, it& have t8c abUityto abmb pay aonyusodoth f;odirh enough to walk M& the Stnrchm. The tomrtakeuthek bodies fbr ttT brieks and their spirits forthe Bdkdhrc Cham (scc b d m k

Appacntly, the uae of livlng k(rrlp in the rnnamction is more than just fiendish malwokncc. Chant b that the hue purposc of the tower is tu launchran cxpdmcnt Inan - tience, that the yugolotha hopc tw end up with a amr Ip.d utterly loyal) mature that will codify their race and bring wirM enlightenment to the m m .

THE Replscmre CHASM. Below the "scaffotdiae" ofthPTomw d Incarnate Pain lies a gash In the epldh, a dcap pii thaaOpr for miles straight down. That's w h a the tomr will come to rest when completed; the cham wen moycs a8 tbc spire momso as to remain aiwayxundemcatb.nK sldcsnftl*plt are lined with darkly glimmering obddhn, wh*h reRmts back in a thousand diffmnt ways anyH@ brougi&near it Now and apln, purpk lightning a m up fmm the chasm, shootiag jag@dly into the roiting clouds a b the kwm.

A bcrk who approaches thc edge of tk pit and gpass ia may*rri lbefuolaatedbythe~b~eplPyd~m-deap blues and angry re& clash and cdHde in the mWt of the chasm, seeming to war for dominance. If a sod lookn on thesc radiant hues too long, though, he'll see mure than br

ewr expected. Thc catom while besutifd la a aavage h y , I& h m oalootrn wlwewa

dark mcmorles and emotlonr they thou@ thw loeked dwm dnp (or, in the words of rn and&

blood,".d.theabysslooksalsointo&he"). One to six minutes after a be& flrst starts

watching the rplop, they'll mne,pcacefully into a sickening hue and begin to rise. At that point, a per-

fect double of the vicwcz qmma In the congsung colonandtrlcstoovcmhclmhIm.Hithitstnwkd@of

tis secret weaknessca A paladin, for example. f e b @t- mnching mom for any unwo?ihy acb he may bavecorn- mitted in the past. A fiend, on the othcl ha&, dkrs from the weplrmar of a m m y allowed or a vlrhlc lcfh msoikd.

M e r way, the unlucky rod's got m e chance, and one chance on&, to resist the puU of the Re&rtlve UUWL If he is well and tmly wise', he can SaMbk to safety. (If he wer returns to tbc charm, though, hk reflection will still be t ho , waiting fOr hln~) But a bmk who fatls the t n t feels an inexorable pull from the pit, and no force on the planea can stop him from hurling himself in, where he joins the tortured cham of watb In the danrin& lightnhg.

I

I In other words, if he succeeds at a Wisdom check at -4.



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nlssrmw thcir way m u s s the plane, dooming any traveler whosefootfly is uqwaty, and miles-high m~rofnJmaks shrug fl thdr laads, s h d w k u l d a and L i b f

I n those darkest cab- H e , Ibr, *

P



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C ',

-.

-=

THS L 6 G S N D A P O m P S

it's dark ps to how long ago the gchlctha came into being. Word has it that they've been around at least as long as all the other flendlsh races, and maybe longer, though the yugoloths would no doubt challenge such a claim. It is said that a mlghty shator itsclf mnded the truth: The g c ~ l c t h s once held sway over the entire Lower Planes, unpU they were reduced in number and imprisoned on C m r i by a cabal of evil deities who feared the flends' power. It is said that a chant-broker haunted the Upper P h e s for scraps of wisdom about the gchrclcthsi returning with a dilapidated tome (apparently bound in klubar skin) that told a story of how the 'lcths, once the handsomest nobles of Elysium. were dbffmucd and cast out bv

h 4 jealous arehons and asuras. It is sdd that an Arcadian z&logist capturrda larvae, locked it 1; a tank on Gchenna, and obscnnd i t She later claimed that the thing, kept out of thc hands of fiends and night hrgs, slowly evolved into the form of a farastu. and thus she concluded that the gehrrlcths must be the natural race of the Lower Planes, the intended kings of those blighted lands.

The tales are many as to why and how the gehselcths came about. But none of them take into ac- - ,



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stu attack any nongelarrhtha they no fcrr of their own, death. re stili known as the lowest Th finds make ,up.ifiol.this

percdvdFraIity with.their faui- in bsitk -At's bath ,to he~eallcd."ao:bravc m a

The middlegehnleths are the.kdubag or :dime.'lah*" @e.to~rrldiraensh&by

their skin. lbestcnch of thia slimerk maugh to:dbrcir im ~ ~ b y o n e o f ~ a c m a - ap.faOrn their aatumkadd

Kelubar are said to be a mow bctnem the,hrrmt 811&he shetor. Thick ,fiends with d i ebony-slimed bo-

, . .

brethren and their new crestions, a race cal)Ld the s. Few of the nehreleths had survived tht trek to - __.~_

'' ' ,&ir ne\ir home, and so';Qpomps €asMoned.ncw ones, usiug thy'n even sttang- than t$c fpnsbq a& to wIutle.pdme- ' . the bodies of the native beasts of C m r i . Apomps siphoned rmtuipl .@ants with little diffldty. l%y uc mat%* nqtb

its life force into the models it had created, at the same timc ' cal itens, f lgwhg that surh o m M hdp k y i a flu- channeling their perceptions back in upon itself. Finally, it ther power Pmong their raa. bestowed upon them obsidian triangles, shapes of power Thc,nobility.of the gebrektb, PhcshPtDr.ambovarrd from w&ch they derived their history and inner strength. with lwse wattles of fieab, making ithem bot iik thy?rr Thus w 4 the current race of the gehreletha spawned. draped in skins. This mtght be the I- of- alskmne,

No bne know if this story is any more true than the 'shpglly 'lcths," whirh is rd&a mbnomer in thatabator variant legend rays that the.yUli0- are hairlak Thcsc fiends m shortcrthpn either dtht-otkr and that thc original gehrektba wclc ' . hro varktles of gekrrtetk, Mtbr3p'rr.much.havlar~rad.m mimiay. Wkbkmer the rc~&tntth, the rtroagv than just about' any Irtnd of t a n u ' l baatam-or

the g e i m k t b h v e bcea rouewi p j e c t paint U4&%am.incrr&bly pnd dangerous pieceof mh slrm

...

+ 84+ 9 paizo.com #652842, Kari Wilfong <[email protected]>, Apr 6, 2009


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Yes, some believe that Apomps - recognizing the immediate danger to its chlldren - nearly depletes all of its own personal energies by creating enough gehreleths to wlthstand~the war. Once the bulk of the invaders have left C u m l the 'I& - according to the stosy - quickly dwin- dle back down to 9,999 as Apomps reabsorbs its precious life force.

OClNDlR A N D BIR+H

Gender is unknown among the gehrelcths. The fiends don't couple for p m a s o n or pleasure, and it's not that they sim- pty choma not to - thq can't do It at aU. Gehrcleths appear to be totally wlthout the drive to create new life, existing only to dntroy. When one is slain. a new farastu rlses fmm a corpse somnvhcre on Cmeri, the body remaking i$df into the shape of a tany ' I d . The process has nothing at dl to do

Thls Ls due In part to the fact that they're blesaed with special abilities that promote their natural talents. All gehrcleths haw a number of innate powem that dupllcate the effects of m d spells. 'lEough.sow 'leths haw htkr abilitks, these am the powers conimon to aU membns &the race: sense the presence of gead-rlllplcd bcines, smrc the presence of creatum that try to hide imrldbly, ppwc tlram- selves to be so hidden, dstcrmine whcthes a place or objeu radiates magical power, do away with the efbcta of spdb and other magic, read the minds of others, comnrunicate verbally with foreign creatures, cause foes to flee in a b j d terror, summon other gchrcleth8 to thdr ald, ma te banka of obsrluing fog, and sap the strength of thd r cnemis The gehrelcths can call upon some of these powem at will and some only a certain number of times per day.

Furthermore, both farastu and kelubar can liquefy themselves into pools of slimv ooze - and later rrfwm their

I _ bodies - more or less at

other Sources: Gehreleths I NINIJ~P A p p e n d u

withpetitioners. Others claim to have

spoken wlth various geh- rrlethr that IdentiM themselves as males or females, so unless the mortals were

will, depending on ouW forces st wok If a e- p w s itself into a bottle and then a sbatorgopski a cork, the Hqucfkd fiend

won't be going anywhere until it's rdeetd In fact, it's very l i y that a &ator has a number of such bottks in its lair so

being peeled, it seems that some 'lcths do assume genders at will. But inasmuch as they can't sire offipriug or give birth, It makes little difference. In the end, all gehreleths are neuter.

RBS+ A N D N @ U R I S H l l I B N +

Gehreleths never seem to sleep. Infused wlth the restless power of their creator, they comtantly roam, seeking new opportunities for destruction and havoc. Stlll, when the farastu and kelubar liquefy themselves (see "Powers," below), they might achieve some sort of replenishing rest. Shator remain wakeful throughout their existences but arc largely sedentary, resting occasionally to gather their thoughts, though no study of a gehreleth has ever shown it to attain trite sleep.

As for sustenance, aU gehrrktbs seem to be pure m i - votes - and eager ones, at that Thcy're always on the hunt for meat, and they appear to have nearly limitless appetites. Some schdars think 'leths eat all the time because It's the best way to destroy other fiends. but they may eat so much simply beaause they have little else to do; they certainly don't let the need for food overwhelm them. After all, gahrrtcths ue Rends and presumably immortal. They can't starve to dmth.

rewins Though smaller In number, the gehreleths arc, pound for pound, morr powerful than dmost any otbrr race of fiends, which no dpubt helps them to stay allve when thc Blood War surges. A shator likely can defeat a pit fiend, balor, or ul- imloth in straight-up battle, and even a farastu can give the higher baatrm, tanar'ri, and yugoloths a run for their money.

that it can open 01 shatter said contabas and quickly command a brace of guards and dehdem Natumlly, thc imns- formation isn't immediate; the gehrdeths trLe a tcw minutes to dlssolve themselves, and they take &out twicc w long to rtform.

Gehrelcths seem to be a tad cask to dispose of than other fiends in that they don't share many of tbt inununttia en- joyed by baatezu, tanar'rl and yngolothr - not tMt they're pushovers in any sense of the word.

AU three kinds of gehrclcths mmly laugh at add, poison, and weapons that a m ' t enchanted. Farastu, plhrps due to their tany skins, don't burn of Reen as e d y w tJxy otttcmire might, and sa they suffer only half damage from flames and cold. Kclubpr, their skin evm better pmhaad by acidic slime, feel no pain whatsoever fmm fire- M co ld based attacks. And while shator don't exude anything through their flesh, they don't saer woun& fbm any kin$ of nonmngtcal attack. €veri enchanted wcspolu prm't quite as cffcctlvc agatnst shator M they could be, perhapn because the fiends' hanging folds of skin deffect many blows and help to absorb the force of those that strike home.

When it comes to the matter of d n g sure a gjddetb is truly dud, again the finds of Carccri follow less complex rules than thdr lower-planar brrthrm. In slaylng t baa- or tanar'rl, onemust take into account all manner of hctors - site of death, method of killin& type of fiend - in determining whether it might rfae again on its home plane. In slaying a gehrekth, one can rest assured that he has buly and permanently ended its Ufe.

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Of course, one must also live with the knowledge that he has mated a new menace in the proms. Ifa farastu dies, another one instantly rlses on Carceri to take its place. If a kelubar or shator dies, ARt lowrr g h l e t h s are promoted to tUl the holes in the hierarchy, and then a new fupstu is born from a Carcaian corpse. Unless the Red Prison were cleaned of every last dead body (an impossible task, all admit), the gehreleths have an inexhaustible supply of meat waiting to sem Apomps.

In the end, remember this: No matter how or where or why a gehreleth is killed, a new one forms immediately in the canyons of Carceri, complete with its obsidian triangle and ravenous appaite for destruction. Thus, no one can ever really say that he's killed a gehreleth.

Oddly, gehreleths n e w Rght amongst thcnrwlvea Per- haps they're so closely tkd to one another that every blow struck against a gehreleth is felt by Apomps, and those struck by one mkth against another wound most deeply. The mad baernaloth forbids the infighting so commen among the other fiendish ram and, as a mult, gchrrhthe lash out only at other creatures, and they lash out hard

Promotion in gehreleth society is a matter of catchh-* catch-m. When one of them b bcsboycd the most convenient gehreleth of luscr rank is promoted immdhtdy, and so on down the line until a new fmstu stin fmm a coqm. It has nothing to do with merit proven or lessons leuncd; it's merely a matter of chance. It is not known whether Apompa - or some other force - pulls the strinp of the process, or whether it is merely as natural as a crmpUlar

Gehreleths are said to have no society, but that's oqLy half true. The veracity of the statement coma

tyniqt l l to a butter&. tht hrt &atA' fhc Yam* rad Wubu believe the latter, but when a

'leths constantly perish and are replaced, and thus have 110 real identities to speak of. What's m m , othu thnn thdr OM- ian trlangles, which command quite a black-market price, the gehreletho produce no cultural material of any value. How- ever, the reality b that they haveevolved a sockty of a sort

Of course, the society is extmely simple, one based on raw power. Inasmuch as the shator are the strongest, they rise to thk top of the heap, and, as the nobility of the race, they enforce their whims ruthlessly. It is said that the shator draw from their obsidian triangles the images of the lesser 'leths, then command them accordingly. If that's the case, though, it's hardly ever seen. Despite their might, the shator appear to be creatures of whim, and they don't organize mops unless soreiy pressed to do so.

The keiubar occupy the middle rank of the society, and they too bully the lowly farastu. Their main goal in life b to destroy any fiendish armies (especially yugoloth mercenary companies) that cross their paths, but they'll not hesitate to sharpen their skills on any mortals they come across.

The ifarastu are the least of the gehreleths, and they chafe under the& lack of power. Though they're born Wlth the instinctive knowledge of their purpose, they don't have the power to cany it out entirely, so thcy rage agaInst any mature Chat's diffcrrnt from them. When a shator needs an army or a kelubar needs a distasteful job done, it calls the farastu forth, and so the tarry 'leths simmer in resentment.

Apomps, their deity, watches over all, perhaps from a hidden ldir in the sixth layer of Carceri. It remains aloof from the day-to-day concerns of its creations, but when a gehreleth finds itself in dire need, it can somehow call upon the power inherent in its obsidian triangle to gain an audience with Apomps. No one know if the gehreleth travels to its god, if Apomps comes to the tknd, or if the exchange occurs only in a dreamlike, spiritual sense. Naturally, a gehreleth knows to petition its god only as a last resort, for what prevents Apomps from simply letting the foolish fiend die? After all, another will take its place.

gcbkth meha t& rSnt of shator, it gain6 enough iaW- gact W-tJmtitern, perhspa, k a w the B d y rrrlm entirely and mage with Its god, es do pailionrn though- out the Outer Planes. Of coou~c, thc reptor haw no ldn if t h e y c ~ ~ ~ t h ~ ~ I n a n y w ~ , o r ~ ~ ~ advanranrnt b again a matter of chanae. In any case, t h q might be wrong and face nothing but eternal oblivion when slain.

.. _. Z S 3 l D I A N TR- .-,@S

One thhg unites the gehrekttw Each of thpm carries an obsidian triangle, said to haw ken mated by Apompa Thb object is thought to be a link to Apomps itsel€, .s wdl es a way for the flends to draw power and knowkdge h m their collective racial memory. It is said that, on occasion, a gehreleth can draw strength from ita triangle In olllrr to strike en& - such as baton sad pit flcnda - that nor- mally are wounded only by magical weapons. WMI the triangles, the 'leths can level the playing Rdd a blt.

Chant in some quarters sap that the triangles also KNC as eyes and ears for Apompa, which coUecb the impressions and thoughts of its minions. Thus it Is that Apomps is said to be omywhm that a grhrrleth is. to hnn insinuated its own being thmughout the ceth ram. It b rm- clear whether Apomps conhols Its ofFaprlng or stlnpbr h u e s secret wisdom vlci the tzhngles and lllm the k,

do as they will. Most believe that Apomps infines the lahs with knowledge at the time of their creation, then sets them loose on an unsuspecting plane.

The triangles are difficult to study. The only way to ob- tain them is to kill their owners. nrrd even tbcn, it's suspected that the objects lose whatever dark potency they m@t once haw had, lmring them valuable only as atrios. A wily merchant or mercenary mf@ be able to steal OM from a still-living gehrelah, but the fiend and its brethren would then go to any length to retrieve it - and dsy the



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puppet, the greater the pleasue thief. Because of their rarity, there's a thriving market for of the fiend. Of course, once the triangles taken from live 'leths, shator grows weary of spreading not to melption for guarding R I G H + PLACE. malaise, it slays its tool and thesafetyofasagebusyexamining I'VE G@+ WH(BLE travels back to Carcni.

Don't summon a gehreleth. If one fcels he

the dangerous object. No one's fully plumbed their secrets yet, but

knowledge accumulated by the fiends over the span of eternity spun on many a mearcha.

If theitriangles truly do all that is said of them, it's dasy to see why gehrelefhswould want them returned. But some scholars believethpt,thc re- eo'

L e e K I N G +e BUY A 'L,E+H'S + R I A N G L E . CU++E

+FLUNK F U L L 'Em. the thought of unlocking - *Hems+-, ORADY, I , '

nm A LeW#R-?LAN meRCEHAN'le IN S I Q I

mAR&S+ WARD indeed, they may wen pass the mcmo-

rim of that scrvitudc on to the mt of

"

wen deeper, that ApompJ % peer Billy tbugh triangles . Each stolen b one

fewer eye the baernaloth. T Cuccri: and thus BIK

carried by its faithful

step toward decreasing the power ofthe ddg, end its race. On the planes, that cannot be tolerated - especially among Rends.

S U U l U l 8 N I N Q A Q @ H R @ L @ + H

If a spellcaster knows the true name of a specific farastu, kelubar, o$ shator, he can use ensnammt or gate to try to summon the fiend to his plane. If the wizard uses lesser caN- ing or another mcBlls to summon a fiend at random without knowing the creature's true name, he can bring only a faraslu.

The farastu are particularly notorious for turning on the mortals who summon them. They hate to be ripped from Carced and will kill their Summoner or plot revenge against him for being forced into tasks not of their own choosing. Should one (accidentally or with malice aforethought) summon a farastu, he should banish it back to Carceri immediately. For even if one succeeds in binding and commanding the fiend, it will no doubt look to avenge itself on the entire world. It will try to establish a kingdom of cruelty and pain, spreading destruction across the land by enslaving all people to its wiU.

Keluhu summoned from Carml aren't as murderous or bloodthirsty. They use their vast abilities not for havoc but to steal as many small magical trinkets as they can before they're banished. Kclubar have little or no interest in rav- aging or dominating prime-material worlds and prefer to tear apart the wastes of their home plane. contributing to its bleak desolation.

The stlator actually delight in being summoned. One of these fiends will try to turn the spellcaster's mind from all thoughts of banishment, then set itself up behind a mortal philosopher or artist. Using its powers, the shator induces visions of beautiful despair and grants a strange sort of po- etry to its victim. The more appealing the presentation of the

i . .: ;y , ~ . . . ' . . . c . 3 "

. . D'd &e$-na"** . . ' L . '&.+-*

Gehreleths don't deal with mmnh e tbc fie#& 6J toying with them. They don't h d U s lato- m- me1 them to get information. trick them hlto oot dark schemes, or anything of the sort. s 4 & e t violence upon thelr victims in such a manan Y to uxtse themselves greatly. They arc openly contemptuous of@ #er creatures and won't show deference to any being - em if they're about to be destroyed. lhdr knowledge of thctr RccTs immortality keeps them from fear or respect of any son

The fiends speak their own language, a harsh and gmv- elly tongue, but they can use their magical abilities to communicate with any creature that crosses their path. Even when speaking other languages, 'Ieths sound guttural and raucous, full of the malevolence that only the urge for true destruction can bring. Generally, gehreleths talk to mortals only to taunt or anger them, or to instill in them the dread of Impending doom.

IN SUllImARY A! once the simplest and most puzzling of all the fiends, the gehreleths seem to exist only to destroy - and to destroy yugoloths in particular. They are primal and instinctual, with little society or culture to speak of; even the poetically bent shator prefer to corrupt other cultures rather than m- ate their own. Gehreleths are reviled by the baatezu and tanar'ri for getting in the way of the Blood War (and, worse yet refusing to fight on either side), and they're hated by the yugoloths for their deep-seated vendetta against that race,

Gehreleths are, in short, the most despised creatures In the multfvcrse, and they strike back accordingly. If one sees a 'leth while on his travels, his best bet is to hide until the creature has passed. Gehreleths aren't beasts that can be dealt with. They are agents of annihilation.



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Theflends oftheplanes aren’t limited to those described in thepagespnvtous. Those’re just the most common and the best known. Fact fa, the Lauer P h m are crawling with plenty of creatures that have the raw povcr o f d l rr*lofng through their veins. Some are Considered flendc in tMr own tlght, whik others have a simple touch of thefiendish about them.

See, some of the creatures natiue to tbeLower Plonu a m j w t 1u wicked - and some just as intelligent - as any bortctv or gehmkth, without actually earnixg the title of “fiend.” A ~ o y l these we corntcd abrians, barghests. diakka, maelephants, nightmas, rrhfnms, skodau- drakes, uargouilles, and so forth. These monsm’re all natfue to oneor more of the Lower Planes

nut? Some say it’s beeawe the simply that thefiends a

elelCIp1ms ‘ took my own stab a t soMnp that pun*.

A -5 fonedf im the eisence o f a petitioner or

tbe rnw material of the Lower Planes themselves. Sure, plenty of beasts that live on Acheron or the Gray Waste or PIlndnnoniun UK touched by the

essence of their home planes, but it’s also afact that most of them atrn’t shaped by thdr plane, altemi by the pow? of bdw, a d i&rd

with a tmlblepurpase. Thy might take on some da* pnrpsc themselves, and they might be feared in the coundb of

This find chapter ductibes the most promhat lower-planar matures that hawn’t already been coyerrd

in this book. No d d t plmiy of M’ll hoot and howl be- Muse I I@ out theirfiwtites, and to #em I say: tough. You want to learn more about wrgodJcs? 00 poke thwu#h same

caves ow Cateerf - you’ll learn pknty, and tkor ff&t quick. But

+ Bodaks - mottals corrupted a d d&nned by tkc euils eftkc Abyss. + Hordlings - the rootless, mawuding abomfnations of the Gray

t Imps and qumlts - small but insidiow Partations onjieuHsh

+ Lnrvae - the writhing clayfrom which baatern and t w ’ r i &n#. + Night hags - wrrteked cmes Nut p&le &I to bot6 sides df the

+ S h a d o w j i 4 - creatures qfdafiness tW steal a M ’ s wy n d d + Tiflings - the plane-tonched descendanh of mortal-Bend COY-

I- c

T H E R E I S m $ R E +e +HEIR VILLAINY

- A ?rime SAGfi,

rhdr lands, but they can’t rightly be cai*dJ&. +HAN m E E + s +HE E Y E .

IIIeRfi CeRR8CIE +BAN

SEI6 K N 8 W S

here’s what I’ve gotfor yeu:

Waste.

themes.

Mood Mar.

plings.

Some af these creatures, like the larvae, imps, and quasfts, can go on to become realfiends. Othm wiM never be mare than what t h y am. But only the hordlings are concl&rrd mcCj3cnds, Jvrr WI the bnakm, tanar’ri, yugolatks, and gehreleths. The othm am, at best, nunlyjhdlsh.

But watch yourselfcaqM~ bcrk: That doesn’t make them any ku dk.

- Ice the M e - B o r n

+ 88 + I



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lhra so much lbpt they'd

would that it wen h e .

REST AND NOURISHMENT. don't sletp long (would heal up whatever dam

i.

Then thay shamble on. If thq' cat, it's edge of most folks; no bodak hw,onr

with their gazes. anything. Perhaps they survive on tile life fok@ %&&i ..~ ~ 'Bod&

POWERS AND WFAKNESSES. The most f a & ability of a bod& is its dreaded death gaze - if you get too close and look the mature In the eyc, there's a good chance that you'll simply die. (Should this befall you in the Abyss, I'm afraid that you, too, will become a bodak.) Their bodies are tough but not too tough, harmed only by weapons of mild enchantment or cold-wrought iron - silver weapons do nothing. Perhaps bc- cause they spend so much of their lim in darkness, bod& can also spy body heat at a great distance (three times farther than an elf!).

But darhness is a curse as well as a blessing. You scc, a bodak that finds itself In the sunlight slowly withm a d din -for good. l'hw the best way to get rid of 8 bod& Is to I n it out into a large field, or, better yet, a desert (in daylight, of courscl. But if you want to prepare against bodaks in the Abyss, carry flasks of acid and outfit younclf (or your spellslinging friends) with mugfc missiles - both work well. 0th- e*, tny cold, magical fire, and gas, but don't bc surptised if those attacks don't work as w d as thcJt should. Poison, nonmagical tlames, and ligbtning haw no effect whatsoever. and neither do the spells charm, hold, sleep, and slow. (BOW may be immune to othu mind- and body-alturing magic but, as you might expect, it's quite difflcult to conduct this sort of research.) 1

of * plane.

7blbc&D



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+ H$RDL,INGS + Regnus Roy

The Gray Waste's got more hordlings than Ysgprd's got warriors - and a body who's been to Ysgard knows just how many that means. The teeming masses swarm over the Waste and spill onto the neighboring Lower Planes, where they provldt amusement, entertainment, and sometimes panic for the berks there. Oraybeardg say no two horUlings are alike, that their forms are endlessly varied. From what I'vc

Hen'$ the chant: Hordtings are formed from petitioners, f o b who devoted th& mortal lives to the pursuit of neutral Nil. When these sods pass into the dead-book, they're cooqsigned to the Gray W e e to live out eternity as larvae (unlp they'lt later molded into new Rends or simply absorhed 40 the essence of the plane).

Everyl basher knows that the Waste drains a body of aaotlon. d k h , and purpose. So toss off the despair of the pl willed cutqcr, and keep their They nwh#e the hate or e in the Rrst place, and their emotions twist '

rpd h n d , that's a power's own tNth.

shepcr: hofdli*. Tbtrr'b no telling what horrid new form they'll settle in

or what w w powers they'll have m e all's said and done. Every h a m is difFerent, and every petty jealousy and deep- seated resentment has its own unique influence. The shapes of the horplings arc truly awful, and they all reflect the inner tornlent of the brain-box inside the shell. What's worse, hor$lings don't get promoted into new forms llke the other m; they're stuck with whatever they get.

Touw, all the shapcs're well-sulted to rmding, snap- ping, and tearing. Fighting and eating are about the only things the tniserable hordlings do well.

How can aibody make general comments about a race when every single member's different from every other? Gender? Well, some hordlings have one or the other, some have neither, and some have both. Do the ugly little things breed? Who know? Chant is that hordling-descended tieflings lurk about In rdmote places of the Waste, but there's really no way to tell4 If these ticflings do exist, they're most likely exceedingly pre, 'cause hodlings take their greatest pleasure in MUng apd devourlng any berk that stands in their way - even other Slordllngs.

As fori their powers and wcllnascs, well, it's doubtful a bufldlng b e size of Sigil's Civic Festhall could hold all the books It'd take to describe 'em. Some hordlings, ao doubt, would fall over from a good strong sneeze. Others regenerate even if they lose thdr heads. Some spit €ire or tmdc dust or streams of caustic acid (Some turn into caustic acid, for powers' sW) Some bum at the merest touch of light, while others glow with an inner radiance. No, the only similarity the hordllngs have is that they're all so sodding different.

+ 9 1 +

S @ C I B + Y A N D CUL+URU

Though they travel in huge packs a m m the Gray Waste, the hordlingr have no culture to spcak of. They produce natbing of value, though sometimes an overeager haatmu or wmr'ri trles to press a group of 'em into a Blood War army. %a the hordlings'rc harder to control than manes, and that's spying a lot. They're Far too undisciplined to take any sort of cem- mands, and they don't seem to be afrald of anything, so they just do whatever they plme.

Chant is that's a villpge sowplace on the Gmy Wnte where a few dozen hordlings have managed to overcome thcir hatreds. SuppoKdly, they've bullt up some sort of dc- fense a ainst the despair of the plane and're slowly paeiag

es of evil If it's true, it'll be an interestha expcri- mcnt: ill they keep their shapes, or will they turn back into 1 ae - or even their original mortal forms? 'Come, it probsb th2 ai#? true, but just some night hag's way of luring --&Us doqpj;lo the Waste.

There ain't much to a hordling's personality. They're raven- ing beasts, bent only on destruction and devouring. They can be as clever as a human or as pox-brained as a lemure, but they generally recognize wepLmss - aud tbcy fall on a berk who shows it Ant chance they get. Hordllngs are tm tally UMlly, in other words, and a body shouldn't expect to deal with one unless he's got protective magic and a powerful blade.

'Come, what's it mean to deal with a holdling? Thm's no standard hordling tongue, so unless a cutter's lucky enough to Rnd one that can speak an understandable language, any exchange'll be short. A blood who uses some sort of mental communication like telepathy finds a hordling's mind cluttmd with persistent anger and burning barred. As with a hodak, the best way to deal with a hordliig is to avoid it.

+ l m P S A N D Q U A S I + l S + Xanxost

Hello agaln, mortalsl Xanxost is here to tell you now about imjx and q u a s h 6and quash? They are easier to kill than tanar'd but they do not taste quite P( good. That is the most important lesson: The best meals take some w o k

The Lower Planes are full of larvae. Xanxost does not liLc being full of larvae. Not all of the worm-things get tossed into a lich's larder or shaped into the bully-flends of the baatau and tanar'ri. Some of them arc inmighi instcad to the attention of @cater Rends and twisted into new and iniuest- ing forms. Xanxost twisted a hrva once. It squealed and ripped into pieces. But when a baatau twis*l a larva in just the right baatezu way, it becomes an Imp. Ta~&ri get quasits.

Thc poar Imps l i e most creaiuru under the control of the baatuu, the cursed lawful baatau, the hated -



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The poor imps are rigidly regulated and watched over by their baatezu masters. When a lawful evil priest or wizard is judged "worthy," the fiends may make a gift of an imp to that poot basher. Ohol It is no good @AI From that point on, the imp starts to corrupt the mortal and drag his heart, inch by inch, closer to the grasp of the baatuzu.

Quasits do the same thing for the tanar'ri, though their masters don't work together in any grand scheme to draw in victims. A marilith or vrock or baior or nalfeshnee or nabassu or hezrou or glabrezu or chasme or babau just sends a quasit to spread mischief on a primematerial world. If it can scrag a chaotic evil mortal here and there who is foolish epough to deal with the tanar'ri, good. If it just rum around and causes trouble, good.

Chapt is imps that do well can be turned into baatezu, and quasits that do well might be made into tanar'ri. Per-

form, in the blood marshes ouuide the town of Torch. Xanxost planned to find it by asking each frog in the marshes: uAre you a quasit?" Xanxost knew that the frog that did not answerwould be the quasit, trying to hide. Those marshes had many guasits.

As far as food goes, bothlmps and qussita eatwh.tcva they can get, as long as it is meat. The crraturw do not CM If thc meat h &e or dead, or if it has been in frpror g e ~ s l h n c . l t j u s t h a r t o b e m u t X a n x o s t h a , ~

P M S AND W-SSSS. Both imps and pwSib hmpohon in their bodin Ah Lmp's is much morc deadly: a imp EM even take outa dragon with awdl-plad sting Xpluostbeb it could oren take out a slaadl A q d t ' s p o h n just eauscea virtlm toitch and bum and be cluduin for a fou mlautes.

When the b a a t m and tonar'rl twist hrvot aato imp and quasib, they wrlng a fcvr special pwcts into sonaily, Xanxost would rather stay as an

imp or a,quasit than become a iemure or a manes. But if one of these little creatures is willing to start small and work up through the ranks, it could go far.

thdr new m n t a All hnpsandquasibaaidl

w k i Bod-- - or magid arc ncaw,

and they can twn iwhtbleto hMc from awthiag that worries them. Also.

'HY

Imps and quasits are about IWO r m tad, so they both run between pour legs when you try to grab and cat them. Still, there a* two easy ways to tell an imp from a quasit. First, an imp Was wings and can fly; a quasit doca not. Srcond, if you are stung by its tail and you die, you know it was an imp; all of a quasit's poison is in its claws. Third - three easy ways - an imp can change its shape into any two of these forms: large spider, raven, goat, or giant rat. A quasit can chasge itself into any two of these forms: bat, frog, wolf, or giant centipede.

If yqu see a big frog in the Abyss, it might be a h u , a hydroioth, a bullywug. or a shad like Xanxost. If you see a big goat on Baator, it is just a big goat. Unless it is an arch-fiend.

H. Imps muddle through centarics of existence as neuter beings. When they have done enough good jobs to please thdr masters, they are assigned a gender according to the traits of their work. Why must the baatezu always do things the hard way? Quasits have whatever gender their tanar'ri mators and prime-material mastm impose on thau

Xanxost already talked about how imps and quasits are made.

REST AND NOURISHMENT. Imps and quasits are usually too busy to sleep. Their Rend masters and their mortal mastm always send them out to do evil things. Many imps and quasits do not care; they do not need sleep at all. But sometimes they get tired Of running around and they hide in one of thdr animal shapes so they can rest somewhere.

Xamost was hired once to find a quasit that had run away from the Abyss. It was hiding on the Outlands in frog

c - imps can t a d oth& berks into ddmg things, and quasits can make those same berka nan away Mead .

To kill imps andqwasib, do not try to burn or mnC or shock thcm; they love h, cold, and lightning Bcltm it or not, tscse puny maturea am almost as hardy as a Icdstppd when it comes to rh~gghg off spells. UK mseaE.r wmpom instcad. Or PIC silver weapcns on quasib and cold*wmugbt iron on impa

Wait, do that the other way around. Anyway, both creatures also regenerate from wounds. But Xanxost will say this: No imp or quasit has wer regenerated out d a slaadi stomach1

DEATH. If slain off their home planes, imps and quasits just reform back home after a year and a day. But if you kill an imp on Bador or a quasitknthe Abyrs, they are blasted into etmal obii- - which is right where Xanxost wishes thcy would stay.

I

These aeaturs do not r d y have a &cly.hps~t in with whatever plans thdr baateat matns dream an$ &cy follow thee * to the kst of thdr fbflitin, lacy Dey be weak and low, but they are smart emtgb to how that theyhadbct t l fdovrhPt thyakto ld .~atk(heo~way theyEMedvance.

A w r i t works direct@ uada a Angle tanar'ric - and hps to do lb bidding, If it get8 the chance, It MQ t e a cepe. Of course, all qursits bow now not to hide in thc Mood marshes of Torchi Those tlmt flee m l k e that they haw m future tanar'rl, andthey ilgarfthy am the best krks to decide how to spend thcir iivm.

Two thingssare most important of all. Pint, both imps



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and quasits realhe that they have sidestepped one of the most dangkrous things about being a larva. By accepthe the changes thrust upon them, they avoid being turned into lemum, manes, or other fodder for the Blood War.

Second . . . Xanxost forgot what the second thing was.

m @ # + I N G AN I m p B)R QUASI+

Like mostismall infernal creatures, imps and quasits act weak to tough berks and tough to weak ones. What Xanxost means to my: To those they serve, they are ingratiating and endlessly pelpful. But they lord their little migh! over any sods unfortunate enough to come under their power.

Most of them [especially imps) are also way concemcd about thelr potentiai ad- vancemeqt. If you offer one a hanQ up on the food chain, you might earn its loyalty, at ileast for a small time. But ohol These al- lianas don’t l& low. and

Larvae appear as slimy, sickly yellow worms that generally span about Eve or six &et in length. Their worst hhture, though, is their kads, which haw twisted and mpipormcd featum that faintly echo their former mortal fam. Larvae also exude a noxious stcnch that docyl’t get any meem no matter how long ohe creatures arc around. They haw no obvious gender: since they don’t mate to rrproduce, they don’t seem to fed that need. They eat eath otkcr and whatever’s unlucky enough tu fall in their path.

Planewalkers who cross the Gray Wlste report seehg huge clumps of l a m e just lying around motholeas - aa if it weren’t easy enouuh already for night ha@ to catch tbe

creatures1 When larvae do move, they leave traib of slime in their wake. But they usually wriggle only when prodded by their

orner erourcea PLANEsCAPfB MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM“ Appendix

I ! w fiend, tiefling

., hordling, implquasit, larva, night hag

I.

if you ccunt that they will, you m - s w d Fount yourself right into the dead-book, because that’s exactly where the little horrors would like to put you, mortaL

+ LARVAE + Rezzik Tam

When mortals who stupidly and selfishly followed the path of evil die, their spirits appear on the Lower Planes, transformed into larvae for their transgressions. These squirming, woradiLc monstrosities - hideous petitioners, really - can appear anywhere. Lawful evil mortals become larvae on stlnldng Baator; chaotic evil foob sufFcr in thc Abyss. And those who IWWUC simply euil, with no care for either law or chaos? They &rm on one of the other Lower Planes - usually, tlnc Grny Waste.

Good folks steer clear of the larvae, using them only to scare their children straight as examples of what hte befalls thc -1But to homn like fie& and liches, the lame are the basic units of lower-planar currency. They serve as money, foo& or new mauits for the armies ofthe Blood War. Lame are, In short, untapped potential at its best. Night hags ratndthcnl np on the Gray Waste and ell them to the highest or doset bidder, depending on how much the crones need the jhk or fpvors their dirctuptine cuatomm promise them

Oh, iflonly we could wipe all larvae from the Lower Plane)! M q y Rends and fiendish races would suffer then, that’s for aurcl Hordlings, imps, quasits, baatesu, and tanar’rf all rise from the ranks of the larvae [though, admit- tedly, the bgatezv and tanar’ri do emage h m other sources ad well). Hpw do the Renda twist the worm-creatures into their new Jhapes? Even if I knew, I would not sey. Some knowledge daavcs to be Iwt to timc.

8 fronS to Ul&C thCa dimC along. What good are larvae? Why do fiends and Hches em

about buying them from the hags? Well, most larvae are eaten or sacrificed, their colYNrmd for whatever anme rim- als their new masters can think up. Lame that aren’t so lucky get mhaptd into other, d l more honlble forms. “he crcclhmr are the tabula m a of thc Lower Planes, the blank dotes on which almost anything can k written and become true. A Iowlyhvae can cvcntuPlly become a pit Aend or a baler -but only one in a million moves on from the life of a squirming gmb and most of them die at the lowest kvds of flrndhh sob cty. S a at least that chance isbetter than wtr4plt -on.

Reports coming in from Baator say that the baatau PFC

purchasing more and more l a m e from night hags - an in- cradibk amount, h fact A spy warned that the flends plan to perform some sort of ritual with the creatum’ life forces to destroy the tanar’ri or give themselves a new power that will makc them unbeatable. Hahi It’s had to see how my- thing could swing the Blood War one m y or another. But Rends are foul creatures, remember. If they’re desperate enough, they‘ll try anything.

SB) l+Y AN *URB ’ Socictyr L U I N ~ C I You must brjoungi Larvae He around. They get h d d They get sold They squirm when you potc them, and they bite you if you’re not careti& What eke is thm to say about them?

S a , tlu thing3 are - just bandy - above animal intdU-

a crude language made up of body movement. Hahl They might ac wdl just spy the l a m e wdg@c and roil o m one another - it all loobthc sameto thelestofuk Somcofthe Iar- we rls to the top of thc pike. Some sink to the bottom. Some bite others. Sometimes they move on their own, but not UUL. ally. That doesn’t sound like much of a language to me.

gcnce. some Schob who’vrshtdkd the larvae say they haw

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+ N I G H + HAGS + Telson Splithorn

Of all the creatures of the Lower Planes, the night hags're probably one of the most underrated and overlooked. And the why of it's completely dark to me. As suppliers and herders of the larvae across the Gray Waste, hags're one of the great "economic" powers of the Lower Planes. But the fiends o5ten dismiss 'em as simple mmhants.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, maybe the machinations of night hags don't reach as far as, say, the plots of the yugoloths, but hags're some of the most in- fluential bloods of the Lower Planes. Tbey're the top of the pecking order of the natives of the Gray Waste, that's for sure. ('Gourse, that's mainly because the yugoloths all moved to Gchenna, and any other tougher bashers keep out of sight.)

See, the hags don't forget slights easily, and theyke no compunction about wasting years hunting a berk dons for any wrong done to 'em, no matter how slight. Small wonder, then, thqt they've risen to their current status as the real merchants of the Lower Planes - they've done their level best to &stmy the competition.

PHY S I 6 L 6 Q Y Horrid qeatures whose features vaguely resemble the most wizenedl(snd ugly) of mortal crones, night hags stand about five feetitall. Th& skin's a nanseathg purple-blue in color, their h 9 darkest ebony, and their eyes a bitter, glowing red. Their dsws protrude like hooks, and their fanged teeth rock loosely ip their gums.

Dod't misunderstand, berk - hags might look h U , but they're powcrful opponents, both magically and physically. After all, they've got enough might to earn the respect of pit Rends, balorr, and lichcs. That alone should be a telltale sign for mosttbashers to deal with 'em carefully, if rt all.

mm + B m . night hags are foask. They omasion- ally take a powenid fiend high-up (of any race, as long as it has some kind of noble status) as a husband. The chiidrcn of this mating are invariably female, invariably hags. It's said that, now and again, night hags take a more seductive guise than their usual and trick mortals into helping 'em propa- gate the hag race.

Where did the first hags come from? No one knows. The latest theory making the rounds of Si@ says they amse from larvae, that they were mortals with too much hatred to become mere hordlings. If that tale's true, that'd make the hags real fiends. It'd also make a body wonder why the crones sqll larvae rather than twn 'em into new hags themselves Do they have some method of raising and controllhg a young hag that domn't work on one that comes from a larva? Or is it just that mortals today don't have the capac ity for hamd they did in the old days? (Any planar alive'U tell you what he thinks of that idea.)

I

REST AND NOURISHMENT. No one's ever caught a night hag sleepmg. But the crones withdraw, certainly, and perhrps they go through a period where they lie vulnerable. But if

approachable. Unfortunately, what night hags eat ain't so much of a

mystey; they're seen snacking on fmh h e plucked from their henis. But chant says they also devour dreams and hopes. As avatum ofthe Gsay Wsrtzthat mtainly-likdy.

POWERS AND WEAKNESSES. The night hags ain't the toughat bashen on the Gray Waste, but they're among the most stubborn. They r e h to let inntwS dmp, and they m M thanselves get p d e d by anyone. If they deal with solncone who's weaker than they are, they usually Wad the k k down bter and turn him into a lam. Fact Is, they a n omr h d d fwrtd sod's dreams and dain his he& awry until be'rJust pprt of a wrlggiing herd on& Wssta

IIPgs'n too a r t to let thtir brain-boa be M. Mq@c lib rkrmc, sleep, and fir won't even slow 'an down. They're also immune to !ire and cold, though a good rmrL with a weapon3 usually make a hag sit up and tnkt notk6. 'Course, not just any weapon'll do - it's got to be highly a- chanted, or at least made of silver or cold-mought fron.

DEATH. It's thought tha.t a dead night hag simply die. If something special happens, no one kaons what it is. 'Course, with all the power night hags have, It's far easier to talk about killing 'em than to actually do it.

so, they protect themsehrn so Well that they're basically up 1

secIe+Y AND CUWURCI There's precious little sqckty for night bags to k a ppt & They compete against each other as well w outddm, and thy don't fed any partlrulrrloplry to any m e - b d t v b their own. It seems even hlgr'm mowhan afftietnl. by Ik apathy of the Waste. Still, they do worship CegilUe, &e greatest hag of 'em all. Chant has it she's Just a nigh! hag who's fax more powaful than the rest of 'em, bul $b@ certainly holds hcr own PI a power.

Night hap'rc an important lint in the ahah of tbc Lower Planes. Thcy herd vast srmics of l a r v a PQOII thc planes, culling the worst and saltlng the ahoke6t to fian& Hches. and h e r creatuiu that rcqulre life Irmrrs. F.b i, hngs'ra somehow able to tell the good luvro from the &d quiclr w a wi.k; that's why their cuetonmb dcpad 011 'em And one r e a m thy harvest moltt3. on thc Gray W c h that the plane's larvae ate cdl ncubal d, which am e d y adaptcdcby both baatau and tmsr'ui. @ftk hags sald tr- vac that already leaned t o w d law or cbam tl&d be rmt- ting af€ half their businem - fiends find it too hard to evoke lwnc that haw bnworkable" al@mmts.)

' h e hags o h n ride nightmares, summon lcglcr fimh as servants, and k' mercumdes (evil ones, of counc; hpss attack any good folks they think they can as gw* on the more dangerous treks. That's about the extent of their involvement with society.

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into new shadow flends. Of come, like so rmrh elsc about these creatures, exactIy how thb occurs b not known.

W AID Ncmmbmr. When a shadow flend wants to mt, it simply loses itsclf in pure darkness. Hmcn the b M light to caat a shadow, the c r e a m can just fade into inky Mack- ness and relax. Do they actually sleep, or do they simply cease all movement until they recover whatever angy

they've expended? Once again, we don't know. But one thing Is amhc De- priVr a ahadow Bend of its rccovuy

time, and it gmvm a bit weaker. That also might be due to the possibility

that tk flenda actually sub& on dprlmcas and shadow. However, now and again the creaturrs do

consume the minds they hawest from mortals - but only those that prove too weak to command a

IEl#+IWQ A NIQH+ 'HAQ

Most hags're good to their word, if a body can get 'em to @v@ it in the tlkt They don't ketp their pacts out of benot; tbq do it bcrpurr thtir uvellhood dcpcnds on it. Not CYM a f l d d trust a ntgbt hag known to $ell h d larvae or back out of de&.

' C o q , trytae to conduct businns with a night hag's a lbadlag bdd idea for *ne. They're petty, &lous, a w l , pnd * TMyVc h a @ got a pccl mmhg

e&@!, or M e - hrg prize those things above all e k .

mehow, and they seek hanh revenge if thcy're peekd in turn. sb don't try to trick 'a. Ifyoulcm't put I I&$ in the dead- aoot try tlj buy hcr odntth magic, hlowl-

I

I

+ SHADeW P I B N D S + Nomoto Sinh

Shrideiw fipds are'tipParently a rwe unto themselves, thargr sodac liloods tila to an odd thcory that the m- mea growl fMm manen f ~ n e wro@# What,dienaensel The sheii iatcl~gcnct Of the shadow flMds puts &at notion to resh,n~.irmnd the fact that theyseem to be made of the

.. d n . of ida@aa. Thm despite their name, they share n a n g with ,Nt nene ;Bula thril a reputition for Right- cniq atyodtiq.

Rall&$'of shadow, Rends blot thC.low& Planes, the niwttbiiwon in the Abyss, C k r i , and the

,. Gray Was+ Lone s h a d h fiends wander the &eat Ring and appear on any of the Ourer Planes, though they also travel to the Prime in search of minds ripe for stealing.

Some 4agh put forth that the shadow fiends are actu- dyip+ of pow&, the lowrr-phnst etjuivdentb of sdalst Tbe:trath.Df this Is dark, but a few wicked priests h8W boqtdd thbi tMl? bcltib send shadow fftfids on mis* doas. Of cwme.ewn if tlK priests sp&e true, pdaps said flends wen merely promised minds or power .in exchange for a me-time Jnvice. Who knows what g o a on when we aren't thm to see it?

PHYSIeL@QY Shadow Rad8 are said to be built out of the stuff of darkness itself, their slender forms shaped from shadow and glwn I& by the force of pure td. Thcsc mowitas of corporeal gloom are sMetal in appearance, as if they're fiends that haw iqd the flesh saipped from their bones. lheir fingers and tqes are cruel hooks, their eyes empty pools of white space. Terrible beiags to behold, shadow flends are few and fa betmen, which unfortunately also means they

I

don't lend 3, cmrclvca to claw study.

OWER AND BIRTH. lh entire race appears to be neuter in

raw force of evil magic and shaping it with arcane rituals gender. It's!thought I that they reproduce by obtaining the

good price on the trading blocks.

Pow~lls mu W- Though a shadow fknd haa wing, it cannot actually #ly. Its whga are udd only for slowing a f J i or helping the creature to sprine a great dimt8nce. They like to surprlse a foe by leaping onto it and rendlng it with all four claws. Once the poor sod is shaken by this Mt&d attack, the flend trks to snatch his mind and stuff it into a dark gem for safekeeping, leaving the victim's husk to witha and rot.

The !lends can also create magical darkneas amund themselves and send their opponents away shrieking in magically induced terror. Furthermore, shadow fiends are unhindered by Arc, cold, and lightning.

On the other hand, the monsters do have their weak spots. Simple torches or light spells cause them pain, and stronger stuff like sunlight or conHnvclf lfght spells maku them much easier to strike and wound. They can wen be turned by clerics.

DEATH. If a shadow Rend is slain, it's thought to be hrever dead. W v t all heud the rumon that the mmsters can use their stolen minds to somehow refom, but if this occurs, how could we tell? Wen to a trained eye, all shadow fl& look alike, with only minute differences. As always, the best advice whm dealing with fkadish natures is to sprinkle a corpse wlth holy water.

S@CI#+Y A N D CUL+URB Like the gehreleths, the shadow flends seem to have an ab- solute prohibitlon agaislnst kiIling each other. And, also likc the gelmktbq they have no compunction about slaying members of any other race. But their purpesc Isn't simple datmcdon; they live to caphut the minds of mlgMy and knowledgeable m a l & They store their prfics in gems rad trade them for powerful magic, which they w to shrpc more of their thd. (You'd be surprised - and alarmed - to hear just how many diffnrnt matuns on the Lower PIanw are lntacstcd in b y - ing W e stolen minds, using them as food, imphies, and bar-

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gaining chip for thcir own trPda.1 Thus, the trading system of the shadow fields supports their enth race.

On the Lower Planes, the fiends cluster in eerie hollows near tiny gatcs and portals. Their structures art shaped from p u t darkness and rise high into the alr, supported by nothing by vrlllpower. Shadow fiends possess a highly developed sense of the aesthetic, and they enjoy meking sculptures fmm the doom.

we rely far m q e on gur quick wits and quicker reflexes to get ourselves out of jams.

. Tieflings can he of & h a gender, or none, or both. 'hem's a broad range of posdbtllties open to us, and we experiment when- we can (a stmy foran- other time). That's how we know that we're uompatlbk with most othm humanoid ram. And. aft@? a while, our fiendish blood is dilated enough that our chiirken's W- dren's chlldmr mi@ become pruC - but tha! hLn! E 1- l y # time. ~

Ih& It has long been thought that shadow fiends have iWnd of no language, I*KaTdlcR have m n t l y discov

with any sentient being. Of course, a message shadow fiend wan one's mind like pure evil. Its m Is smooth and insinuating, hiding a great darkness words. It's like listening to a voice cmpnating from a

telepathy among the creatures that lets them r ommunfEate

mismm. For mst, tic4lbgs we pmity mwh like nary b a s h . We've got goad csukmu, but M get

H's our m o d hnitagc Asfonfood, we praWr meat - wer the better. But we can survive on inserts. ashes, or

F I N O A AD@W P l s N D even minerals for a short while, if need be. We're nothlng if not adaptable

A shadow fiend won't automatically try to kill everything it meets, as do so many of the other lower-planar races. If a cutter is smart, the flend might just try to take his mind. If a cutter is really clever, he might figure out a way to give the monster what it wants and s a l walk away in one piece. Of course, the beat way to protect yourself against a shadow fiend is to avoid acting powerful or exceptionally knowledgeable. Bluff and bluster may I m p ~ or cow many matures of the Lower Planes, but those tactics fail miserably auainst shadow fiends.

+ TIE Enkillo the 31y

Being atidlhgmysctE.IsupposeI'mina sodd&ggoalposi- tion to HRite about those who fdnd thcir llncage touched - or tainted, take your pick - by the denizens of the Lower Planes. Sure, there's a remarkable range to the way we look and act, but somethhg, somewhere, always giws the game away.

Srr, somewhm way back in our past, one of our an- ton dallied with a fiend - or with a human Again, take your pkk. Thc mult was a half-breed. Well, when a half-bred fiend mates with a mortal, thc result is a quarter-breed - a tietUng. Truth is, thfllngs're guatct-bmds at nost. When a body moves down the line a dozen generations. little of the original flends left in the descendants. Still, fiendish blood is powerful, and it shows through in strange ways.

P H Y S I @ The signs of a tiding's fi&n ncrl~@c usually subtle: small horns, a tail, crimson skin, bony teeth, strangely cuwed ears, a &wing cast to the eye - the li.st goes on and on. These clues ain't foolproof, though; only a ieatherhcad thinks that cmy bnk with horns Is a tiefllng. 01' Enkillo docsn't have horns at all.

We ticflings also tend to bc a bit sllmmcr and more attractive than your average mortal. We're not brawny, and

, This is whnc our ancestry comes into play, because any tiefilng could have qaust* r~of stmge powem quirks, or v u i n e w k r . i'n rm *dl in my day But I've a h seen ma@ te h o w thatmat Flap.

lings can 9cc body heat about as well as an and wrap themxhns in da&ncss llke a clort Cold dwn't a&a us as much as it would an ordinsry be& and we're mom nsu l s t to fire, l&hbkin& and poison.

Dwm. When WC'R killed, we die. Anywhcm. Fnkd We can be lpisld fmm the dead, h t tot& .Ihttruth~ wedonB~!DIlllt on anyone to do us the favor.

11 2 , , fl < 3 rWD FI,

Tiding society2 Pike tbatl If anything c a u b I&I nW as- surance about tiefliny, it's tfist we're laacn. We're db-

start tubdkvc It o u m h . It's bud not to try to Iiiupe the hype, eh?

That's why tictlin&s are p m y and &Itmy. Just Lag& having the lesson that you're cvil and bound to eoae to no good end pounded into your head from your very earliest memories. Picture being the butt of pmnks, having all the blame for dirty tricks placed on you wen if you had nothing

gentle person. On owasion, M I of note attract y o u u p tic-

cutters r h o want to Inm how to sunive la a mplthrtm that doasn't s m n to wani 'em Tbrt 's &out as much wdrty as a tidling's ever likcly to haw, and about as much as hell ever want. And as for culture, lstr of us a v e Into d4tk endeavors later IB We, hoping ta apma our we at the in- justice of the multivene. Like mort other thfags we rry, we're sodding good at it, too.

Fact iS, despite dl tbC cmma WWS at US, Mdllngs'R pretty tau@. k! the end, It's how we feel about o u m h

t w e d andvirmd PI cvil mdro*ts for so lowthat .R

to do nith 'a - Imd then try (a hasghrki~adalliviag

that coun& anyway.

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...

'.' Faces of Evil:

EVERYLEHING Y@U EVER WANLEED LE@ KN@W ABeULE F M N D S (BU+ WBRE AFRAID ASK).

.R,

oen I iany timec. A OcrkJnd7'out how much drinrc- ads ajf to the Lorver Plane7 - and i c Net ' The fipndc arpn ' t i i i r t l i c r c nf qUm}yr'

evol t u r r ,rate w r u 11 Curturt of rli all hac 6 it= of duckrirg

in!

u iuryrr : dent belk

or j 8 'ndcr d i n g

This rb-page P L A N W A P E ' accessory, wrirren Tor players and Dungeon Masters 111 levels, i s the ultimate guide to the fiends of the Lower Planes - the malevolent mons1 :hat wage the Blood War, terrorize mortals, and befoul the multivene. But whereas other guides focus on statistics and mbat, Fuces of Evil delves into the physiology and psychology o f the fiends,

they eat? How do they deal with others? And just what makes them so - well, fiendish?

Faces of Evil is a mnct fnr anv AnWn" campaign that featuwc thece vile mpaturec nf death and destruction.

exploring the Y ark forces that shape every detail of their lives. How are they born? What do

iR, In TSR Ltd. 201 120 Church End

Cherry Hinton Cambridge CB1 3LB United Kingdom

EON8 4 DRAGONS, AD&O theTSR logo, eglMred I radmrks owmad by TSR, Inc. hts reserved. Ynde In the U.€.A.

sug. Retail: S. $18.85 CAN $25.85 U.K- -

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