Memo to: Yen-Lo, supervisor of the Cheng Huang

I greet you, Yen-Lo.

Know that the Hell Kingdoms have been divided into ten provinces by my hand.

Know that the Tenth Hell will be ruled by the Emperor of the Eternal Wheel in my stead.

I trust you will honor him with the same respect as you do me.

From: Parintachus, Ultraloth Overseer of the Baator Project

Memo to: The General of Gehenna

Re: The Heart of Darkness

The project is going splendidly, Lord General. The Celestials burnt out the Baatorians just as you said, and the construction of the "Dark Lord" from is ahead of schedule due to our use of native larvae. The "Dark Lord" should never know its true nature.

My lord, I will tell you of the fate of the god Xolotl.

Xolotl, as all know, was the sacred twin of Quetzalcoatl, torn to pieces by the gods in penace for its crimes.

My lord! Xolotl lives! It dwells in the nether stars, beyond the sight of our astronomers. It dwells in Hell, deeper than the grasp of Mictlantecuhtli. It dwells beneath the sea, where even Tloloc cannot dive without his ears tearing from the pressure.

My lord, though Quetzalcoatl returns to bring the Fifth World, Xolotl returns as well! The conflict will make anything Lord Huitzilopochtli has done look like the futile slappings of a young girl.

From: Druj, Representation of the Lie and the Underworld

Missive to: The Damned One, Emperor of Baator

Re: the Dark Lord of Nessus

It seems you were correct in your judgement, Bright Lord. The Ancients did have a "queen" of some sort. We have found it in the abysm beneath the layer we have constructed. With it in our control, our mastery of this plane we have found ourselves in is assured.

From: Moloch, Prime Minister of Baator

To: Baalzebul the Fallen, Emperor of Baator

Subject: The Dark Lord of Nessus

My lord! Something has happened of which you must be aware! The Dark Lord, the great queen of the mindless Ancients, has stirred, destroying the ruby fortress built by servants of Lucifer so long ago!

General Asmodeus, of all fiends, has volunteered to take a look. He will be difficult to replace, but the Raging One has as good a chance as any to succeed in discovering the cause of our misfortune.

From: Asmodeus, Lord of Nessus.

To: Adramelech, High Chancellor of Baator

All access to the chasm known as the Serpent's Trench in Nessus is henceforth forbidden.

Lord of the Ninth Hell

The Dark Lord of Nessus, Emperor of Baator, Being of Judgement, the Raging Fiend, The Dark One, the Wyrm, Great Beast That is Called Dragon, Prince of Darkness, Father of Lies, Destroyer of Kings, Deceiver of Nations, Despoiler of Worlds, The Overlord

Alliases: Ahriman, Angra Mainyu, Aeshma Daeva, Asmodaios, Asmodai, Asmodee, Ashmedai, Hasmodai, Chammaday, Thasmudyan, Melchiresha, Marcolf, Modo, Morolf, Sathanas, Saturn, Sydonay, Satanael, Xolotl

AoC: Dark forces, evil, darkness, Baator and the Baatezu, lies, deception, power and the abuse of power, rulership

Superior: none

Allies: Leviathan, Bel, Tiamat, Ravana, Bane, Astaroth, Moradin

Subordinates: the Lords of the Nine, Adramelech, Alastor, Glasya, Bar Shalmon, Baalberith, Martinet, Buer, Morax, Bune, Rimmon, Zagum, Phongor, Akoman, Druj, Hazzael, Agrath, Paimon

"Pleased to meet you, won't you guess my name?" -- R. Stones

The Dark Lord has survived for eons by keeping itself a mystery and enigma to all, cloaked in deceptions and false leads Half of the lands that know of it at all think it is Lucifer; the other half confuse it with its direct subordinate Martinet, the diminuative Prince of the Game. Still others confuse it with Samyasa, a famous fallen archon who succumbed to the temptations of a sorceress. Many aren't aware of it at all, seeing only the Dark Eight it keeps in front as the supposed leaders of the baatezu race. Indeed, Asmodeus encourages these rumors; it is certain that none but those who Fell with it remember its true identity.

Before the Fall, Asmodeus was Ahriman, half of the great World Serpent worshipped by the reptile races. Together with Jazirian, they were the Serpents of Law, the entity that some claim defined the present-day planar structure. When the war was over, Ahriman had fallen to Baator and his follower Lucifer Morningstar was busily attempting to establish divine order in its infernal depths. With the aid of several powers of Acheron, Lucifer and his minions cleared the layers of their native race, the Elder Hellions, killing them or driving them beneath the surface. Only their young, the infinite nupperibos, remained.

Lucifer then directed a task force to design a new race to populate Baator's vasty depths. The task force survives to this day and is responsible for the modest changes in each "generation" of devils. Since an undisclosed number will be forced to take on whatever shape they design, each member of the team is very conservative in their plans. The basic baatezu form: wings, hooves, scales, horns, and all, is said to be modeled on the true form of the Morning Star, though no one knows for sure.

Chafing under the Dark Lord's reign and eager for more power, Baalzebul forced the Adversary to accept Lucifer and himself as co-rulers. Lucifer managed, by playing his rivals against each other, to regain his position, but abruptly quit, tiring of the game.

However, one figure - Asmodeus, one of the lesser arch-devils felt differently. He was like an administrative assistant to Amaimon, the devil in command of the largest of the four armies of hell. Asmodeus took care of non-military matters for Amaimon. Through political maneuvering and brilliant misdirection, Asmodeus rose as King of Hell in the wake of Lucifer and Astaroth's defection. Convinced its primary rival was elsewhere, Beelzebub never so much as looked at Asmodeus until it had already gained too many allies to stop.

In its true form, which no one sees, Asmodeus remains a great serpent, thousands of miles long, buried within a great trench under Malsheem. To others it may appear as a subtly horned human, a shadowy monster remaining in peripheral vision, a pale black-eyed youth with melancholy aspect, an enormous scaly three-headed hermaphroditic monster, an afrit, a multi-eyed cocoon, or any of a million guises.

Asmodeus was responsible for the formation of the Dark Eight: desiring a central control divorced from the other lords and completely in its power, the Dark Lord instructed nine pit fiends to organize a bureaucracy to orchestrate Hell's day-to-day affairs based in Asmodeus' palace of Malsheem. To ensure that none knew the group's purpose, Asmodeus had the group's founder Cantrum removed; some believe Cantrum was Asmodeus himself all along, while others suggest Adromelech or Martinet. Or maybe the true Cantrum was something else entirely, and survives in some infernal prison or palace.

Lords of Baator cannot grant spells; the plane will not allow its power to be shared with non-natives. Priests of the Dark Lord (usually known under one of its aliases) get their spells from Tiamat, in return for its support and tolerance of the Dragon Queen.

More than anything, Asmodeus desires freedom from Baator's constraints. He tires of his endless game of power with the nobles and wishes to conquer bigger territory, perhaps the Heavens themselves. To do this, he needs something rare in the godplanes: Doubt. Souls and larvae are being collected from all corners of the multiverse -- those that belong to skeptics and cynics are useful in weakening the structure of the planes, allowing Asmodeus to rise again. This event is called the Bringing, and it may cost the lives of every inhabitant in Hell as it consumes the energies of millions of souls.

an exotic picture elbow,

Rip Van Wormer

Bow to me!

Then continue through Hell.