Lord of the Seventh Hell
Archduke of Maladomini, Lord of the Flies, Crafty One, the Fallen, the Slug Archduke
Aliases: Lukhavi, Apomyios, Achor, Tiriel, Triel, Baalzebub, Baalzebul, Belzebut, Belsebuth, Belzebud, Belzebous
AoC: Selfish perfection, the soul, entropy, factions
Allies: Belial, Set, Maglubiyet, Nomog-Gaeya
Subordinates: Baftis (consort), Barbatos, Abigor, Zepar, Seragorn and Biliavn (pit fiends?), Gorson, Neabaz (herald), Fleurety, Moreau, Shemihazah, Gadreel, Abezi-Thibod, Mulciber (on contract), Nergal, Murmur, Rahbad, Tamiel, Meresin, Flauros, Amitiel, Lazariel, the knockers
Rivals: Mephistopheles, Dispater, Lucifer
Perfection. That's all that Tiriel, Prince of Zebul, ever wanted. A mighty throne archon in Jovar, the sixth layer of Mount Celestia, Tiriel was known as the sternest, most dominating master the archons had ever witnessed. Tiriel also got the job done. Under his reign everything seemed to function more smoothly and more efficiently. His Trumpets always got more than their quota of souls, and his einheriar slew more fiends and evil-doers than any other group in Mount Celestia. Still, the prince wasn't satisfied. Some archons just wouldn't cooperate with the Throne's schemes, and there were only so many his superiors would let him cast out of the hierarchy at a time.
Tiriel convinced Zachiel, the Tome of Jovar, to agree to a great experiment. A city would be built to Tiriel's specifications in his realm of Zebul, completely outside the interference of his superiors. In this city, Tiriel promised, everything would go according to the Celestial plan.
A cycle later, a sword archon was dispatched to see how things were coming along. What he saw completely shattered his faith in the Celestian system, and, for a time, his mind. The Sword, Rudolf, requested transformation to asuras status within a cycle of Lunia's moon.
The city was a holocaust. The inhabitants had degenerated into a few competitive factions, devoid of personality or individual motivation, systematically annihilating one another. Their robes and collars were discarded, replaced with a system of brands that Tiriel had designed. The Throne himself was discovered covered in filth and parasites, nailed to his seat of office with wooden stakes. It was later discovered that he had done this to himself in order to prevent one of his factions from unseating him.
In disgust and horror, he was driven off the Mount, purged from the sight and memory of the archons.
Trying to build a new life for himself, Tiriel began taking jobs as vizier or steward to various petty rulers in the Outlands, but it seemed as if he could no sooner get started in molding the place into proper working condition when the town would begin to slide towards Baator. He even went to Sigil and involved himself with the kriegstanz there until he was mazed by the Lady of Pain.
It was in that maze that he discovered himself. When he finally solved it, opening a Gate of Flies in his own flesh, he had decided on his next course of action: he would offer his services to the Lords of Baator, who as they were still relatively new to their position would surely need a good administrator and would be the most likely to recognize his talents.
The baatezu embraced him with open arms, and were almost loving as they rendered his flesh down into its component elements. When they were done, they looked at their craft in admiration. This was the finest lemure they had ever seen, a vast sluglike puddle of melted flesh with the noble features of a Throne Archon still vaguely recognizable.
When they killed it, they were shocked to find his soul had entered a nearby nupperibo, as a real baatezu's would have. This was quite a revelation, and provided the basics for the process by which the ranks of the baatezu were replenished with the souls of the damned.
Beelzebub ("Lord of the Dunghill"-- a mocking jibe at his former status and his disastrous experiment in Heaven) ascended rapidly through the ranks, proving its might in combat, its skill in procuring souls, and its excellence in government, eventually rising, as a pit fiend, to be second to Lord Sammaeon of Maladomini, a prize cherub in Sammaeon's garden of unholy delights. And with Beelzebub's own unique administrative skill, he shortly transformed Sammaeon's dark paradise into the ruined waste it is today.
This unprecedented corruption of the already corrupt drew the attention of the Bright Lord himself, who sympathized with a fellow Fallen One. With the Bright One's approval, Beelzebub completely revised Baator's system of soul processing, modelling it more after the Celestian system with his own evil twists. It was he who created the hobgoblin race by joining together Maglubiyet's twin sons Gaeya and Nomog, according to Tal Meta's Runes of the Jebli.
It came to pass that the Lower Planes were invaded by a massive force of celestials. The Lower Planes were forced to, for the first time, unite to defeat a common foe. As Absalom, chief of the asuras, stormed Baator looking for a legendary cache of innocent souls, Baalzebub took advantage of this opportunity and offered them to him in exchange for aid in seizing the reigns of power in the plane. Absalom reluctantly agreed, and with the support of Belial gained command.as part of a triumvirate with that lord and Atar.
Atar played the two against each other until they were sufficiently weakened to seize Overlordship once again. The Morningstar ruled for a short time, but decided he was tired of Baator and its endless power plays. He quit, bringing Belial with him, sending Hell once more into disarray.
Beelzebub discussed this with the other important devils - Adramelech, Astaroth, Moloch, Nergal, Amaimon, Belphegor, and many others - and most agreed with Beelzebub, after promises of more power and freedom under a new order. Beelzebub became the Dark Lord of Nessus. Unfortunately for him, Baator simply cannot be run that way; the result was nearly a repeat of his experience in the Seven Mountains. By giving more freedom to the nobles, old rivalries exploded into open warfare, while others pursued their own side projects to the detriment of the plane. No one was accomplishing much of anything, and the tanar'ri invaded the unhallowed layer of Nessus itself during one particularly ill-advised attempt to conquer Mount Celestia.
Asmodeus gained control of the plane in a bloodless coup by gathering a coalition of devils who agree that he, not Beelzebub, would be the best possible overlord. The Lord of the Flies was forced to acknowledge the interloper's supremacy, and was generously granted sovereignity over the sixth and seventh layers of Baator in exchange for his cooperation. The Lord of the Flies swore undying hatred. He tried to regain the throne once more during the last Reckoning, when he steered half of the Lords against the other in an attempt to provide a distraction for his move on Nessus. Just as he thought he had succeeded, the pit fiends of all the armies turned against him, squashing the rebellion down flat. Many of the defeated Lords were allowed to keep some of their realms, now that their lesson was learned. As a result, Beelzebub now drives all pit fiends from his domain. Instead of pit fiends, Beelzebub is served by "fallen" celestials, gelugons, and even, in at least one case, a yugoloth.
Beelzebub schemes to regain the Hell he lost, and then perhaps the Heavens. In the meantime, he continues to fulfill his old role of bringing mortals into the infernal ranks. Lately he has taken an interest in mortal technology; he believes he can use it to "perfect" and control whole societies and bring them into Baator neatly and efficiently.
The Lord of the Flies is simpathetic toward those who strive for perfection without reaching it, though he punishes errors ruthlessly and brutally in his own servants, whose mistakes reflect on him. He has an open invitation to the gelugons of Cania who tire of trying to meet the standards of Nexroth and Hutijin to come serve him in his own layer. This denies them any potential transformation to pit fiend status, but some gelugons are satisfied to achieve mere political advancement among the other Fallen. The Slug Archduke sees each gelugon he takes as a black mark against his hated rival Mephistopheles. It is theorized that perhaps he once ruled them all before Mephistopheles took Cania's throne.
Beelzebub rules from his High House in Malagard. He resembles a humanoid with horns and an insect's compound eyes, a disgusting maggot, or a pig's head impaled on a spear. His voice sounds like the swarming of a million flies, and he is capable of expressing his will on the Prime through the manifestation of great black swarms of these insects.
Priests of Beelzebub actually get their spells from Set.