Lord of the Third Hell

Viscount of Minauros

Aliases: Hazzael, Azazel, Maymon, Naamon, Minauros, the Serpent

AoC: greed, materialism, avarice, disease, slime, circuitousness, hunger, snakes

Superior: the Dark Lord of Nessus

Allies: Glasya, Kurtalmak, No Cha, Shemeshka the Marauder

Subordinates: Duke Morsch, Focalor, Bael, Caarcrinolaas, Melchion, the adroi and the twelve Bordeks

Rivals: Belial, Mephistopheles, Dispater, Geryon, Fierana, Beelzebub, Baalzephon

"I've got some beachfront property, that is to say, more specifically, swampland

Mammon, also known as Minauros and the Serpent and previously called both Azazel and Hazzael, is the result of a unique experiment in the history of the Hells: a minor incarnate was transformed into a lemure. The entity, a spirit of covetousness, was at first deemed a failure by its superiors when it refused to do anything, even to move. "It acts like it thinks it's better than us," the spinagon handlers muttered darkly. However, it was promoted immediately when it was revealed that it had been secretely hoarding larvae; it collected hundreds and was storing them within itself. The creature (then known as Hazzael) did not ascend quickly by baatezu standards, but ascend he did. It is known that she spent time as an abishai and an erinyes, collecting a vast number of souls for her masters, more than any had in ten thousand years. As a noble he managed to acquire the deed to Minauros in a dubious business venture.

The Serpent was once the ruler of, or an equal to, or perhaps even a duke under the previous Lord of the Third, also called Mammon (and a duke under Dispater before that). Exiled for his bravery, his principles, that is to say his disobedience, that is to say his arrogant belief in his vast superiority to those who would command him. The Serpent's schemes ultimately won him a new place in the Hells much higher (or perhaps "deeper" would be the better term) than the ones he had lost. He also won for a time the hand of Princess Glasya, the ambitious and clever daughter of Asmodeus.

Dispater is, above all else, old and stuck in his ways. He is not one to embrace a newcomer, and certainly not a former greed incarnate who worked its way up from lemure status to Lord of the Third. But Mammon had been working at his trade for a long time, and had been under the supervision of Dispater for most of it, having been created in and served as both an erinyes and as Duke Hazzael in the Iron City of Dis. Though the noble's stubbornness had led him first to the status of "gift" to the prior Mammon and then to exile in Avernus, the Iron Duke still regarded the Serpent as a fiend with talent, and bore him no ill will once he was out of his hair (or lack therof). When a bewilderingly complex deal involving a 'grandfather' clause in the Third Circle's original deed, a nest of nycoloths, many magical mercanes, a doomed civilization from the mortal worlds, Baalzephon of the Dark Eight, a solitary lost kobold, and Shemeshka the Marauder gave Minauros a new owner (and name), Dispater immediately sent his herald Tintivulus to welcome the prodigal into the club.

Though he had previously treated the old trickster with nothing but contempt, the Serpent was sufficiently impressed by the gesture that a formal alliance was born. This also brought the new Mammon into the same social circle as young Mephistopheles, one of the few entities he had ever admired. Their alliance was less firm, but it lasted enough to draw Mammon's hosts into Mephisto's invasion of Maladomini, a debacle that ended with several lords losing their thrones. Not so the Serpent, who was the first to abase himself before the Overlord of Nessus, claiming in a surprisingly straightforward manner that the whole thing had been a terrible misunderstanding, that is, a deliberate but unfortunate mistake. Anyway, it was Mephistopheles' fault. I would gladly give you back Glasya as a token of my respect. Dispater is a traitor, too. And Geryon, in a very real if difficult to explain way. Look! I've tattooed your symbol on my arm!

Like his career, Minauros is slippery and cunning, indirect and venemous, his schemes convoluted and twisted. His tongue is forked; his eyes are yellow slits; his face is during moments of unhappyness rotting and hideous; he speaks in a sibulant whisper, using riddles, puzzles, rhymes, alliterations and esoteric allusions even (or especially) when giving orders. His servants imitate him, even going so far as to make rhyming ability a prerequisite for status. They use greed in others as a weapon to gain power on the material plane and to manipulate the yugoloths. His trademark weapon is disease of all sorts; he encourages pestilence in his layer, and has absolute control over it. Stories, spread by Mammon himself, even place him as a former Oinoloth.

Besides constantly searching for wealth and power, Mammon is an avid hunter of beings, often personally chasing down lost souls who try to escape the endless labor involved in shoring up his capitol - though he permits rumors to circulate that he spends most of his time basking in the muck beneath the Sinking City counting his wealth in his head and plotting for more. Some even believe that Mammon's strangely loyal seneschal Focalor has most of the real power on the plane, and that Mammon would be lost without him.

The Bordeks are Mammon's twelve greatest servants, each as strong as any of his nobles. He created them to be the generals of his armies in the ancient war, and now they act as his personal bodyguards and legates. Only one has ever been slain: the others dropped what they were doing and immediately swooped toward the perpetrator en mass, without having to consult one another or ask who had done it. Subsequent targets of the Bordeks have often slain themselves rather than face them.

The Serpent is often worshipped by lawful nagas, ormyrr, kobolds, and yuan-ti. Priests of Mammon get their spells from No Cha, a god of thieves whose realm migrates throughout the pits of Baator. In exchange, Mammon protects him from the wrath of those from whose vaults he borrows, and never repays. "Steals from," I think you would say (or perhaps you are too polite).

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