The Archdevil Lords and Ladies of DND’s Nine Hells

A lore and imagery repository of the Lords and Ladies of the Nine Hells, their notable servants, and other hellish figures and information for my 5e Dungeons and Dragons campaign. For more of my Heroforge models, you can also look up Directorium-Diabolicus.tumblr.com and Symposium-Demonium.tumblr.com.

[atlas-infernalis]

Hello travelers!

This blog primarily exists to document some of my work creating models in HeroForge for the DND 5e campaign I’ve been DMing over the past few years and to contain lore on certain characters for my players. This particular blog exists to showcase my models of the 10 Archdevil Lords and Ladies of the Nine Hells of Baator as well as the occasional addition of prominent underlings, associates, or companions to those Lords and Ladies.

As much of the lore here is condensed from across editions and filled in by my own editions per my own whims and the needs of my campaign, don’t take any of it or my visual interpretations as gospel. Still, if you find it inspires you or makes certain aspects of DND lore and cosmology easier for you to understand, feel free to use it!

[atlas-infernalis]

Asmodeus, Lord of the Ninth, King of Hell , Faerunian Deity of Indulgence

"You wish to know of the Hells, mortal? Then know this: in all of Baator, none is greater than I, Father of Devils, I, the Rebel Serpent who causes gods and demons to quake, I, the Fallen One who knows the truth of law and indulgence. I am without peer!" Placeholder Text

[atlas-infernalis]

Mephistopheles, Lord of the 8th, Cold Lord of Contradictions

Lord of the Eighth and of Contradictions, Mephistopheles is the mightiest wizard in Baator, wielding both mighty Hellfire and piercing frost of the utmost cold. He resents being second to Asmodeus and has crafted an image as the ideal archetype of a Devil in response. Placeholder text.

[atlas-infernalis]

Baalzebul, Lord of the Seventh and Lord of the Flies

The Lord of the Flies and of the Seventh, Baalzebul's unending perfectionism has rendered his layer of Maladomini an inhospitable, polluted wasteland of aborted projects. Said perfectionism may stem from shame over his hidden past as a Celestial Archon. Placeholder Text

[atlas-infernalis]

Glasya, Lady of the Sixth, Princess of Hell

Daughter of Asmodeus, Princess of the Nine Hells, and Lady of the Sixth, The Dark Prodigy Glasya rules the layer Malboge with a cruel sense of mischief. Torture, seduction and mockery of others are but games to her, her beauty a mask for flippant sadism. Placeholder text

[atlas-infernalis]

Levistus, Lord of the Fifth, The Rogue Lord and False "Prince"

Truly the most hated Archdevil of all the Lords of the Nine, The Traitor Prince Levistus, Ruler of Stygia, is forever frozen in indestructible ice as punishment for murdering Asmodeus' wife, Benzosia. Rumor holds a deeper conspiracy spared him execution, however, with the rarely whispered story telling that Levistus had been bedding Asmodeus and Bensozia's daughter, Glasya, before she had become Lady of the Sixth and that he had used his seduction of Glasya to orchestrate a scheme to frame Glasya for the murder. If--the rumor purports--Asmodeus had acted further against Levistus, this falsified revelation would likely have been brought to light by his underlings, thereby giving Levistus the means to enact one final usurpation of Asmodeus even from beyond the grave. If Asmodeus had taken the bait, no doubt countless Devils would have wanted justice for their slain queen to be enacted upon Glasya, thereby putting Asmodeus in the midst of a ruinous quandary. If he were to spare Glasya, such perceived favoritism and nepotism would undermine his role as the paragon of Fiendish law and order in the eyes of other devils. If he did what law required and punished her, he would have been robbed of two of his greatest treasures by Levistus and his victory would have been a Pyrrhic one at best. Asmodeus, however, chose a more measured response than foreseen. He allowed Levistus to live and even to retain his Lordship over Sygia, but he condemned Levistus to forever be sealed within a glacier indestructible, eternal ice, his life protected from ever being extinguished, but his ambitions forever being stymied by having to be carried out by the hands of others. As a show of staying his hand even further, Asmodeus explained the punishment to the other denizens of Hell as being merely for the crime of trying to unseat him unsuccessfully and without just cause rather than allowing news of Bensozia's murder at his hands to spread; the murder was instead pinned upon an already-slain Pit Fiend who had been loyal to Levistus, ruled an unfortunate misfire in the commotion. Finally, in his master stroke, Asmodeus levied one final threat: if Levistus ever though of mentioning this agreement to any others, the curse upon him would lift, thawing the ice and summoning all of his foes to him that they might massacre him in his weakened state. Levistus--ever prideful and unwilling to relinquish his life without finding some way to outsmart and destroy Asmodeus--begrudgingly agreed to the pact between himself and Asmodeus that would enact this secret punishment for Bensozia's murder in hopes that he might find some other way to escape. The temptation to mention this pact and to ruin Asmodeus' reputation, of course, still looms eternally overhead for Levistus, but doing so would still ultimately be a victory for Asmodeus in his eyes, and this sentiment stays the frozen Lord of the Fifth's hand.

Since being frozen in such a fashion centuries ago, Levistus has amassed a staggering army of spies , envoys, and underlings to do his bidding across Stygia, Baator, and the rest of the multiverse. His preferred deputies are the Amnizu Devils, their ability to inflict amnesia upon their foes and to sow discord of particular use to the Frozen Traitor. His encouragement of their egotistic belief that they are above the laws of Baator would make Levistus and his Amnizu cronies truly dangerous to all of Baator were it not for one simple fact: Levistus' rival and the deposed, first Lord of Stygia, Geryon, has risen to prominence and power in recent years and is constantly vying to wrest control of Stygia from Levistus. Geryon's incursions into the strongholds of Levistus' lackeys forever stymie and thwart Levistus' schemes upon the other Lords of the Nine before he can enact them.

Unwilling to waste any more time than necessary combating Geryon, Levistus has thus been forced into a sort of stalemate, forever locked in a holding pattern wherein he can hardly act on his desire to betray and slaughter the other Lords of the Nine and wherein he is thus forced to instead dutifully act as the Lord of his layer. As such, Levistus has taken exceedingly exhaustive efforts to meet his soul quotas and to surpass them whenever necessary; this protects him from losing his Lordship and thus likely being executed by a vengeful Geryon while also having the added benefit of helping him to recruit more Devils to aid him in his fight against Geryon. Similarly aiding Levistus in his plight was the presence of commerce with outsiders. While trade with other layers of Baator was nigh-impossible for his reputation as a traitor, Levistus saw fit to open up trade with outsiders from the other Outer Planes to a degree rivaling and possibly even trivializing that of Mammon's activities. Though Stygia is almost exclusively composed of glacial seas covered in ice floes and icebergs, its frozen wastes do contain a few floating cities carved into the sides and hearts of the more enormous chunks of ice dotting the seas. These frozen cities are known to be hubs of interplanar commerce, particularly hubs for the trade and copying of spellbooks, spell scrolls, and other arcane secrets and treasures. While this largely arose out of happenstance, it is suspected that Levistus hopes such trade will one day bring in the means for him to free himself without being slain by Asmodeus, Geryon, or one of his many other enemies.

[atlas-infernalis]

Belial, Lord of the Fourth, Archduke of Pain and Suffering

While his mastery of Hellfire is less than his daughter, Fierna’s, Lord Belial of Phlegethos surpasses her in cruelty. He delights in inflicting pain on others and never fully heals his own battle wounds so he can mockingly boast that he can easily endure worse. While this aspect of his appearance is largely rooted in Belial's propensity for sadism, it also has the effect of conveying extreme confidence, pride, and charisma. This, coupled with his general civility towards guests and rivals alike has earned him a reputation for being incredibly magnetic and inspiring. Similarly to his daughter, Belial also leverages such a reputation to court countless lovers, often extracting favors and fealty from them in their lustful dazes.

As much as Belial enjoys debauchery and cruelty, he is an exceedingly old Devil and has thus tempered his impulses well enough to have perfected his skills at strategy, warfare, and bureaucracy. As such, he's even come to enjoy these aspects of Lordship, welcoming the surplus tasks passed to him by Fierna in exchange for her management of the temptation of mortal souls for Phlegethos' soul quotas. Of these responsibilities, he is noted to most enjoy oversight of the Infernal Courts of Hell in Phlegethos and their many trials of mortals and Devils alike, as well as always being present at ranking hearings to personally decide whether lesser Devils will be promoted or demoted. Whereas Fierna rarely leaves her palace, Belial is often found wandering his hellish realm, seemingly enjoying its fiery, volcanic environment and taking a special interest in perfecting its appearance as the most archetypal vision of Hell. As a result of this attention to detail, no city across Baator can claim to be more quintessentially Infernal than the fortress city capital of Phlegethos, Abriymoch, a staggering stronghold of enchanted obsidian and basalt towers built within an active volcano. Abriymoch--while a military and police stronghold of the Hells--is also somewhat paradoxically something of a pleasure palace. Its halls are rife with casinos, theaters, taverns, brothels, lounges, and other indulgences wherein Devils and guests of the layer can partake in all manner of deviousness and debauchery. It is a favored destination of Devils on leave from fighting in the Blood War. All the same, while it is a place of respite and of sin, order and law are still harshly maintained, and any behavior outside the bounds of what is acceptable--cheating in the casinos and abuse of staff at the taverns and brothels especially--is almost instantly noticed, apprehended, and punished with centuries of extreme torture ending in death for non-Devil visitors and immediate demotion to the lowest possible rank and form for a Devil: that of a Nupperibo.

[atlas-infernalis]

Fierna, Lady of the Fourth, Archduchess of Hellfire

If any being in all the planes can claim absolute mastery over the power of Hellfire, Fierna, the Fiery Lady of Phlegethos--the 4th level of the Nine Hells--is that being. Whenever not bathing in lava, she can be seen conspiring with her father, Belial, the Lord of the Fourth and other ruler of Phlegethos. Theirs is an odd partnership and the only one of its kind in Baator. Not even Asmodeus' queen, Bensozia was allowed to rule the Hells and his layer alongside him. It is largely suspected that Asmodeus ordered the partnership so that someone might temper Fierna's more impulsive and unpredictable approach to rulership while still honoring her immense prowess in combat and other Hellish affairs. This partnership also likely exists to give Belial an honorable means to fade into retirement eventually instead of seeming inept or being deposed and slaughtered by any would-be rivals.

While she is less measured and less experienced than her father, Fierna ought never be underestimated. Her charisma and her mind for subtle manipulation are second only to that of Asmodeus himself, and her gifts of seduction have laid waste to countless hapless fools who thought her merely an immature, irresponsible, and inept hedonistic airhead. FIerna is far, far more cunning and more dangerous than most give her credit for, and this deviousness and power is likely another reason Asmodeus has saddled her with the much more trustworthy influence of her father.

Still, this arrangement is not merely a handicap but is in fact largely symbiotic. Fierna has her own talents but can hardly be bothered with some of the minutiae and more tedious aspects of ruling a layer of Baator, whereas Belial excels in such areas. Given their shared specialties, while Fierna is rightfully presumed to almost never leave the pools of her palace for anything but sharing her bedchambers with any number of random lovers, said time spent poolside is almost always actually entwined with discussing strategies and the finer details of Lordship with her father. Neither of the two finalizes any decision for the fate of the layer and its workings without first consulting the other at length, and such consultations almost always happen in such a manner.

While Fierna largely concerns herself with comfort, hedonism, and her insatiable lust, she is also a fierce student of politics--even if she never engages in them herself--and also a devoted scholar of pyromancy and the psychology of mortal and immortal minds. Her interest in psychology of course only empowers her seductive prowess and her ability to tempt and corrupt mortals--thereby making her incredibly skilled at the harvesting of mortal souls for Baator--while her study of pyromancy has allowed her to so thoroughly animate the flames of Phlegethos with her will that they seem to be alive and possessed of their own sentience. Quite curiously to those who are unaware of her influence upon the very fabric of Phlegethos, these flames will never harm welcomed guests to the layer and to Fierna's palace of pleasures and vices; even beings who are not innately immune to fire find themselves unaffected by the flames' heat in any fashion. However, intruders and those who displease Fierna instead find that themselves instantly engulfed until naught but ash remains, a fate that has no respect for one's immunity or lack thereof to Hellfire.

One other curious aspect of her studies is the fact that Fierna has developed an immunity to freezing magic. Some suspect this may be something she has perfected to overtake one of the colder layers of the Nine Hells that she might have her own domain one day away from Belial, but others suspect she has no such ambitions and is content with her life of lust and luxury. Those who doubt she has such aims instead believe that it may be something she's undertaken to defend her and her father from Mephistopheles, or something she's learned to defend herself from the equally powerful and infinitely more lecherous and predatory Levistus, should he ever escape. Those who know her truly well have posited that such defenses are part of a ploy to aid her closest friend, possible lover, and fellow Lady of the Nine, Glasya in slaying Levistus to avenge his murder of Glasya's mother, the late Queen of the Hells, Bensozia.

[atlas-infernalis]

Mammon, Lord of the Third, The Serpent of Avarice

Forever weighted down by his enormous, serpentine tail and by his pockets stuffed to the brim with treasure, Mammon rules Minauros--the 3rd Layer of the Nine Hells--with absolute selfishness. In his eyes, all power is measured in wealth and rare treasures. As such, he only inks contracts for the purest souls so he might auction them off to the highest bidder so they may have the pleasure of corrupting or consuming said souls themselves. It is not uncommon to see vassals sent across the Outer Planes by Mammon to facilitate such auctions. Likely credible rumors hold that Mammon is even willing to do business with Demons if the price is right, though any such deals--if they do in fact exist--are likely to be obfuscated through the use of ostensibly neutral Yugoloth brokers.

As should be apparent from his willingness to engage in such deals, Mammon's propensity for dishonesty and treachery is almost bottomless. Anything he believes will secure more wealth--and thus more power, he believes--is permissible so long as it serves those end goals. That said, he is not beyond grovelling when faced with threats, especially when reprimanded by Asmodeus. The simpering, sycophantic serpent's entreaties appeal to Asmodeus' pride and entertain him, and such is the manner by which Mammon has escaped outright destruction. That said, it is also entirely possible that Asmodeus has not destroyed Mammon outright because he knows that the constant threat of being reverted back into an even more serpentine--and therefore more helpless--form is more frightening to Mammon than death would be.

While he has so far survived such gambles, they are ultimately pointless and unnecessary risks for the Lord of the Third to be taking given the fact that he almost instantly abandons his interest in any treasure or prize as soon as he has gotten hold of it. His coffers and vaults are tombs of flippant disregard filled with treasures others would covet for lifetimes if they knew they existed. This, however, may be the very thing that protects Mammon from usurpation. His profound wealth does ultimately benefit the Hells because it does get spent on occasion even if for no other reason than to give Mammon a means to flaunt his riches. Additionally, those that would seek to pilfer Mammon's riches are much more likely to encounter and to compete with each other before they actually close in on Mammon himself or his treasuries; such encounters often end in mutual destruction of the involved parties or in prompt interception by Mammon's guards. As for Mammon's domain, the layer of Minauros is largely a marshy, murky wasteland of polluted wetlands and unending rainstorms. Sickly geysers spontaneously erupt throughout the countryside, dousing unwary passersby with caustic and horribly diseased sputum. The only relative respite from the contagion and misery is the capital of Minauros, the aptly named Sinking City. Built upon mountains of the dead that either wash down from the River Styx or that were slain in past wars of conquest to claim the layer, the Sinking City sits upon a precarious foundation in an already precarious environment. Buildings often slump and lean in manners that make their first and uppermost floors inaccessible, and sinkholes and rifts litter the streets. As such, traversing the city on foot is difficult, but doing so by wheeled vehicle is altogether impossible. If one's vehicle is not ensnared by crumbling and disjointed pavement and cobblestones, it will most certainly become mired in necrotic muck or fall prey to a sinkhole. To avoid this, many of the permanent denizens of the plane either fly or climb across scaffolds linking buildings to one another, though such means of egress can be risky for those unaccustomed to or unwelcome in the city.

Even Mammon's palace--though it may be a gilded and opulent spectacle of his wealth--is slowly succumbing to the slop and sludge that dominates the plane. Countless floors of the palace already lie submerged, merely replaced with further construction at higher levels to keep enough livable space. The entire process is, of course, only possible because of the obscene amounts of wealth and influence Mammon has acquired for himself. It also stands as a testament to Mammon's wastefulness and his disinterest in the affairs of his plane and its denizens, as funding these rescue missions for his palace is typically the primary--if not sole--investment in his domain that Mammon ever makes. Fortunately for the other denizens of the plane, the fiendish contractors tasked with such operations know well enough to overcharge their profligate Lord so they can have the means to literally keep the rest of Minauros afloat. Were it not for such countermeasures, Mammon would likely not even have a layer to rule.

[atlas-infernalis]

Dispater, Lord of the Second, Iron Duke of Dis

Dispater rules the semi-eponymous 2nd layer of the Nine Hells, Dis. One of the more secretive, cunning, and cautious Archdevils, Dispater's mind swirls with contingencies and paranoia towards friends and foes alike, though he does his best to disguise this fact. He is, however, eternally consumed with attempts to understand the true nature and secrets of the multiverse so he might forever be protected from any other getting the better of him.

To this end, Dispater has uncovered numerous means to create unique armaments and defensive tools with which to defend himself, offloading his surplus and outdated tools to the armies of the Hells. This nervous habit has made him the foremost arms dealer in all of Baator and is the origin of his title as The Iron Duke and has made him very well-liked across the battlefields of Avernus. While Tiamat thus views DIspater with some sense of appreciation and gratitude, Dispater remains mostly disinterested in her existence beyond the fact that her relative success protects his domain from encroachment by Demonic forces.

Despite his anxious and obsessive internal dialogue, DIspater always acts in the manner of a courteous lord, chivalrous even when he is being deceitful and plotting with malicious intent. Evil and treachery, however, are not his primary aims but merely means to ensure his own survival. Dispater is, then, first and foremost an opportunist. Even in the throes of brutalizing and massacring members of his own court for fears that they may betray him, he is known to remain somewhat detached, even apologetic for the acts being--in his mind at least--necessary evils to protect himself and the relative stability of Dis.

Dis, however, reflects the state of its lord's mind in that its stability is stifling and unpredictable. Most of the plane is dominated by its capital, The Iron City, a sprawling--possibly even infinite--labyrinth of changing fortifications and forges forever engaged in acts of industry and defense. To this end, The Iron City and Dis at large are surprisingly welcoming to outside visitors, guests, laborers, and artisans so long as they can tolerate the constant presence of scrying devices and other means of surveillance and observation all projecting towards and controlled from the inner reaches of Dispater's Iron Palace. So long as they prove useful, Dispater and his court are willing to allow all manner of interplanar visitors save for Demons, but the slightest hint of disloyalty or treachery is often met first with decades of excruciating torture before ultimate execution. To ensure his vigil over the city and its inhabitants is never interrupted, Dispater refuses to leave his inner sanctum unless summoned to do so directly by Asmodeus and returns immediately after whatever orders he has been given are concluded.

Ever fearful of traitors and usurpers, Dispater has nominally aligned himself with Mephistopheles, both to protect himself from becoming collateral in the fight between Asmodeus and Mephistopheles, and as a sign of respect for Mephistopheles as another of the truly ancient, "old Devils" to have originally fallen after having been tainted by war with the forces of the Abyss millennia and millennia ago. However, owing to this pride in his ancient stature and his sense of honor and duty from having fought against the Demons of the Abyss from the beginning alongside Mephistopheles and Asmodeus, Dispater is especially resentful of the success of Baalzebul, who he views as false and an interloper, merely a, "failed Archon" in the eyes of The Iron Duke.

Despite his alliance with Mephistopheles, Dispater remains ever loyal to his King, Asmodeus, and thus his alliance with Mephistopheles sees him acting more as a mediator. Were he not so well-equipped to defend himself and were he not so privy to every hint of political intrigue and deception within the Hells, Dispater would hardly be able to succeed at such a gambit, but he has proven incredibly successful in calming undue, direct conflicts between Asmodeus and the upstart Mephistopheles without getting caught in crossfire. Moreover, such counsel has earned him the respect and appreciation of Mephistopheles and Asmodeus alike, even if both of the mighty Archdevils wish that Dispater would abandon his sense of neutrality to embrace favoritism in their respective direction. Neither would dare risk the loss of their dutiful intermediary, however, so neither dares to push him too hard nor to dream of attacking him.

Owing to this unique position as well as to the goodwill earned from his donations of armaments to the front line forces of Avernus, it is ironic and almost tragic that Dispater lives so consumed by fretful paranoia. It is highly unlikely that any of the other Lords of the Nine would be fool enough to betray him lest they face the combined ire and retribution of Tiamat, Mephistopheles, Asmodeus, and countless Devilish footsoldiers from across the layers of Baator. To attempt such a thing would be suicide. Similarly, it is highly unlikely that any outside antagonist would ever truly get close enough to Dispater to prove a viable threat; to overcome his countless defenses, guards, and wards as well as his allies from across the Hells would be an inconceivable, impossible feat. Thus, if Dispater be ever truly endangered, it is perhaps as a prisoner of his own mind.

[atlas-infernalis]

Tiamat, Lady of the First, Overseer of Avernus

Legends told by Dragons themselves state that the ancient Dragon God, Io was slain by Erek-Hus—a Primordial Lord of Chaos—during the Dawn War between Gods and Primordials at the beginning of creation. From the slain body of Io, it is said that the spilled blood droplets formed the first Dragons and that the flesh that Erek-Hus had cleaved in twain immediately reformed itself as the Gods Bahamut and Tiamat. Both halves teamed up for the first and only time in all of existence to overwhelm and defeat Erek-Hus in a second round of combat.

Legends of Tiamat’s fate after this battle are conflicting, but it is generally believed that after this period, Tiamat went on to attempt to slay the rebellious Giants that still populated Toril and that still warred against the Gods on behalf of their defeated Primordial progenitors. Many of the Gods, resentful of the Giants as reminders of a time when they attempted to collaborate in creation with the Primordials and fearful they could eradicate their own created races of mortals allowed Tiamat to wage her campaign of brutality unimpeded, feigning a blind eye. However, they soon came to fear Tiamat and her Dragon armies when it became apparent that they possessed a power even more potent than the Giants had and that many of these freshly birthed Dragons had—much like their queen, Tiamat—an innate and unquenchable thirst for power, dominion, and riches.

Interceding on behalf of righteous Dragons, Bahamut entreated the other Gods to not smite all of dragonkind for the brutality and crimes of his twin sister and her armies. Instead, he proposed, if she wished to wage war against the Primordials and wished for power, why not allow her to wreak destruction within the nascent Abyss where even greater threats to life, creation, and the Gods themselves were being born? The Archdevil Asmodeus—having recently inked the Pact Primeval with the Gods—needed powerful forces to help him keep the Demons of the Abyss occupied in the ongoing Blood War, and Tiamat craved power, riches, and bloodshed.

The proposal—surprisingly—pleased all involved parties. The Gods no longer viewed Giants as a threat and even felt a sense of shame for how vicious a massacre they had allowed Tiamat to pursue. Asmodeus welcomed a dangerous new underling and took pride in subjugating a truly ferocious Goddess under his military command. Tiamat welcomed the glory, spoils, and fear that waging war in the Hells of Baator would bring her and the power she would gain from being able to harvest wicked souls. Moreover, she welcomed the fealty of those Dragons who wished to continue similar acts of conquest and evil on her behalf, all of them giving rise to the modern Chromatic Dragons. Similarly, Bahamut took comfort and satisfaction in sparing himself and the rest of Dragonkind from extinction by the other Gods and in his new following of righteous and noble Dragons who would become the forebears of Metallic Dragons.

Unfortunately for Tiamat, the agreement she signed with Asmodeus was not without its unfair and misleading clauses. While she had agreed that she would—in exchange for her service as the general of the Devils’ vanguard—reside in and rule over the first layer of the Nine Hells of the plane of Baator, Avernus for all eternity and that she would answer to the orders of Asmodeus to carry out his wishes and strategies, this ultimately tied her to his will and deprived her of any respite and any hope to escape from The Nine Hells and the eternal Blood War between Demons and Devils. Additionally, while godhood offered her some degree of relative immortality via the high probability she would just be reincarnated in another, similar form if slain, becoming an Archdevil and the Lady of the 1st meant that she could be slain outright by the same means as any other Devil: killing her anywhere on Baator. This meant both that her life was always slightly at risk and that she could never truly enjoy her riches and her palace in Avernus because it was always far safer for her to wage war in the maddening and truly wretched reaches of the Abyss than it was for her to be present in the Nine Hells.

Understandably resentful of this, Tiamat began to seek agents to spread her faith further to mortal races across Toril in hopes that the worship of enough mortal souls would grant her power enough to escape the Hells and her indentured servitude to Asmodeus. Her cult’s agents promised that those mortals who swore fealty to Tiamat and to Chromatic Dragon rulers would be spared their wrath and destruction once Tiamat was finally freed from the Hells and that the most devout and devoted to her cause would be given great riches and lordships of their own under various Dragon Princes. Surprisingly, many evil mortals with little else to lose and few other prospects joined this campaign and created powerful armies for her cult, but they were ultimately thwarted by heroic adventurers.

Still begrudgingly, unwillingly confined to rulership over Avernus and subservience to Asmodeus, Tiamat now suffers even more for her failed escape attempt and her insubordination, her main body being restrained with all but one of her five heads held under the waters of the River Styx while her essence is divided amongst many identical Aspects who actually enact the orders given to her by Asmodeus. This punishment, while both cruel and disorienting for her, also serves a secondary purpose: to cleanse her mind of any memory of ever having been anything but a servant to Asmodeus. The waters of the River Styx cause amnesia for all who touch them for too long, even Gods and Goddesses, and Asmodeus’ punishment for the rebellious Dragon Queen is engineered to hopefully cause Tiamat permanent loss of memory and identity. Unfortunately for him, Tiamat’s cultists are less under his control than she is, and they still vie to free her from Avernus and the whole of Baator before it is too late for her to be anything more than a hollow, Archdevil shell of her former self.

Dazed as she is from this punishment and constantly plied with dubious and manipulative suggestions by Pit Fiends and Amnizu Devils sent by Asmodeus himself, Tiamat’s Aspects remain wholly unaware that there is any reason to mind her true body’s imprisonment in the River Styx and instead dutifully carry out the orders given to them by Asmodeus’ messengers. To this end, any time an Aspect of Tiamat materializes at present, it is typically with the goal of making Avernus even more hostile and warlike or of inadvertently depriving Tiamat of some resource that would help her escape her current fate.

With regards to the first goal, the culture of the Devils of Avernus has become even more fiercely warlike, constructing truly devious and merciless traps, reinforcing already impregnable fortresses, and executing the weakest amongst any unfamiliar faces found across the plane while forcefully conscripting the strongest into service as enslaved knights at the front lines of the hellish campaigns against invading Demons of the Abyss. Rumor holds that some remnant of Tiamat’s true self still persists and that she at least honors those unfortunate mortals pressed into her service who do exceptionally well against the Demonic hordes with prompt promotion to higher ranks within Devilish society once they are finally slain in combat.