The following is based on characters from _Planes of Chaos_ and some other characters posted to the list by Roland Lamoreaux a long time passing. Also some small inspiration from Tim Powers' novel _Earthquake Weather_. Any of the many resemblances to real people involved in the history of TSR, inc. are coincidental or a result of creative license.
A nalfeshnee of the Mountain of Woe, Ygrax the Skullbiter would feed on pieces of personality from the manes who came before his throne for judgement. These soul fragments clamored and howled within the fiend like pandemonic yetis. The hollowed-out manes, now relatively docile and obedient, were sent to Durao for transportation to the Blood War fronts.
Twilight Bloom was a rival of Ygrax's; the two nalfeshnee fought for dominance over the 51st tier of the Mountain of Woe, quarrelling over the tastiest souls, each with ambition for something more. It was Twilight Bloom who ultimately won by slipping Ygrax a "poisoned manes" - actually a disguised succubus called Red Shroud. Expecting a fresh petitioner, Ygrax choked while trying to devour the personality of an experienced tanar'ri, long purified in the fires of chaos. The two engaged in a desperate battle of wills, with Red Shroud becoming the victor. Ygrax's mind was shattered, the sub personalities escaping like varrangoin from the Grand Abyss.
Ygrax wandered the layers amnesiac and lost, gaining and losing followers, winning some demonic games and losing others, until one day he encountered a most unusual creature. It resembled a manes in form, but its features flickered and changed like a chaos beast, sometimes even taking on attributes of nalfeshnee and succubus. Ygrax mentally dominated it and, as he held it rapt in fear, he discovered something extraordinary: the creature was made of his own memories and lost fragments of personality. Devouring it, he gained them all back.
The now-empty chaos manes yapping at his heals, Ygrax set about finding Twilight Bloom and Red Shroud, and exacting his unjust retribution. As it turned out, the two had done quite well indeed. They had established a town called Broken Reach around the portal on the Plain of Infinite Portals that led to the Outlandish town of Plague-Mort, a tasty prize. It seemed, though, that Twilight Bloom was already destroyed, Red Shroud having had him executed or perhaps imprisoned and hidden away. Still, Red Shroud was still there, and with her a chance at revenge.
Ygrax played it smart; he did his research. Red Shroud's consort after Twilight Bloom was an incubus named Vile Rose. After a failed attempt to influence a Material planet, Vile Rose had left Broken Reach in disgrace for an under populated layer of the Abyss he was still a long way from conquering. Ygrax wooed the exile, and convinced him to join the nalfeshnee in his quest. Taking on succubus form, Vile Rose agreed. Red Shroud's then-consort was called Pelor, or Pelor's Kin - the tanar'ri resembled a handsome sun god with subtly demonic features. Pelor masqueraded as a proxy of good in order to corrupt mortals; he had become good at seeming to be what they trusted the most, while secretly running an organization of darkest corruption. Ygrax's army was to join Vile Rose's own in the mustering fields of Durao, but when they met the succubus turned on the nalfeshnee, slaughtering his troops and badly injuring their leader before capturing him.
The would-be usurper was proudly led to Broken Reach and presented to Vile Rose's old love. Red accepted the gift so thoroughly that she decided to take him as her new consort, driving both Vile Rose and Pelor's Kin away. Pelor fled to the Gray Waste, while Rose hid in the layer she had recently abandoned. With his new injury, Ygrax's personality had shattered once again, existing simultaneously in his own skull and that of the metamorphic manes that continued to follow him around. This left him psychically open, so he spends most of the time muttering odd phrases that come from long-dead petitioners or the memory fragments of the Astral void, even the deep thoughts of the layers that adjoin the House of 1001 Closets (a nickname for the Abyss' first layer, which may ultimately refer to Broken Reach itself). And occasionally something else comes through.
Ygrax seems nearly brain-dead most of the time, panting and snarling happily whenever his mistress comes near. Red Shroud uses him as an oracle, having grown proficient in drawing out and interpreting useful information from his scrambled brain. But lately, the redes Ygrax utters have seemed more purposeful and determined. They still definitely come from elsewhere - they're nothing like the nalfeshnee's former personality - but where that might be is hard to say. They urge Red Shroud to mount an attack on the fortress Mithrengo. An arms merchant with a withered limb (still mysteriously perfectly functional) has arrived. The tiefling can smell fragments of souls, and he's communicating with Ygrax's.
Mithrengo is the fortress nearest to Broken Reach. It's run by priests exiled from Sigil's Temple of the Abyss, which has a permanent portal leading there. The priests, mostly descended from the ancient cross-planar empire of Melnibone, once ran the Temple themselves until a coup sponsored by the lords of the Abyss brought them down. While Demogorgon got the credit, the involvement of the cambion Rule-of-Three makes it likely that Graz'zt was involved. Graz'zt has long hated the Temple of the Abyss since it destroyed the emerald temple in The Lady's Ward that he had established as its rival many Grand Cycles before, and the coup gave him a chance to be worshipped in the Temple at last. Graz'zt wants them entirely dead, and he thinks Ygrax is the tool he needs to make that happen. He's projected his personality into similarly sensitive hosts before - he even keeps a presence in the Automatic Scribe in Sigil despite his godlike status.
Meanwhile, Twilight Bloom has been freed from his prison on the plane of Ooze by alkiliths serving Juiblex. Juiblex is negotiating an alliance with the minor archomental Baron Bwimb II, and Twilight Bloom has decided becoming part of it might serve his own needs.
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