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The Nine Hells of Baator
Material produced below is from the "Manual of the Planes"
It is Hell, where sympathy withers and malice blooms.
It is home to devils.
It is the plane where the rule of law reveals evil's heart.
The Nine Hells of Baator, sometimes simply called Baator or even Hell, best satisfy the imagination of travelers, the greed of treasure-seekers, and the battle-fury of paladins. It is the ultimate plane of law and evil, the epitome of premeditated, crafted cruelty. The devils of the Nine Hells all obey a higher law than themselves, but all that means is that they chafe and rebel in their caste. Most undertake any plot or action, no matter how foul, to advance themselves. At the very top of the hierarchy is Asmodeus, who has yet to be bested. That is the law of the Nine Hells.
The Nine Hells compete with any other lower plane for their sheer diversity of vileness. The devils are more cunning, more subtle, and more dangerous than other fiends - or so say the devils. A demon revels in slavering, insane evil power, but a devil always has an agenda, a plan of attack, and a carefully conceived plot for retribution if necessary.
Baator consists of nine layers, each lower than the next, like ledges stepping down into an ever-deeper pit. Each layer descended gives a traveler a better view of the Nine Hells as a whole; the layers fit together like puzzle pieces, and each new descent allowes a traveler greater understanding of how the puzzle comes together. It is an evil enticement.
The Nine Hells are home to minor, major, and noble devils, as well as true deities of evil. The Dark Eight are powerful pit fiends who control the primary devil armies engaged in the Blood War. Worse still are the Lords of the Nine: Each Lord controls one layer of the Nine Hells, hovering in status somewhere between scion pit fiend and demideity. Of course, all the lords ultimately answer to Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine, who rules from Nessus, the bottom layer of the Nine Hells.
--Posted 28 Jan 04 by OrchestralDarkness
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