Editing Baator (section)

===Avernus===
[[File:Avernus FC2.jpg|thumb]]
The first layer of Baator is a wasteland covered with the remains of millions of creatures who died in battle there, while fireballs literally rain down on the area. Fresh blood and gore help you to slip and cut yourself on jagged, sharp stones, and the dried bones, horns, and other remains of defeated creatures crunch underfoot. The River Styx passes through, with little side creeks and streams running off down into the lower levels, while marraenoloths (the "boatmen" of the river) ferry collections of fiends in various numbers to some business, either battle or soul-harvesting.

It is really one of the most accessible of the Lower Planes to get to, at least in terms of not needing a lot of special magic or other stuff to get there: there are links with the Elemental Plane of Fire (the devils do brisk, good business with the efreet); there are links in Hades to a number of Outer Planes (as well as the Astral), allowing you to go "up" river to Avernus; you can always try to hop the portal in the Outlands town of Ribcage (either legally or through trespassing, whichever you feel like). This lovely first layer is where the Lawful Evil souls not pledged to a specific deity end up washing up on a half-mile part of the Styx called the Shelves of Despond, where they are herded up and either marched off to the Maggot Pit (where souls are eaten by huge maggots and then shit out as lemures; this isn't poetry, that's literally how it happens), or sent away to be transformed through some gruesome process or experiment into something even less fun (such as being stripped of all mental function and turned into some kind of useful object).

This is also a continent-sized battlefield of the Blood War, so there's a lot going on. You've got several fortresses run by this and that devil commander, occupied by a force of demons, or in ruins and being plundered by various scavengers of the planes. Groups of devils ranging in size from small patrol to a full legion of armed devils roam the area, and if you snuck your way in rather than getting good, official papers saying you have business there, it is better to stay out of their way; unlike the Abyss, a unit of devils going missing will definitely lead to some questions and investigation, and nothing pisses off devils as much as fucking mortal assholes coming in and mucking about in their great works. Never mind that you also gotta be careful about demons, who would just as soon rip your head off and defecate in the neck-hole as they would look at you, or yugoloth mercenaries who take a liking to anything you have that they want (since their contracts may specify they can "keep what they kill"). All in all, getting into Avernus is easy, but moving through it is like trying to navigate a war-front for a coffee and a pack of smokes.

Other than the Archduke, there's two groups of beings that have a lot of stroke out here. The first is the Dark Eight, a group of pit fiend generals who Get Shit Done, and in fact like the position because it's one of the highest you can get until you become a unique devil (a status that only Archdukes and/or Asmodeus himself have to give you), and the fringe benefits are pretty good: lording over other devils, even some lackeys sent by Archdukes (remember, the Blood War and keeping the demons at bay is infinitely more important than any political bullshit from the other layers); they get to exercise that Evil axis of their alignment by killing the shit out of everything that isn't a devil on this layer (and maybe a few of them, too, if it's justified); they can start building a political power-base by bringing this and that devil into their service on the front lines, or they can eliminate a political rival much the same way (by putting them into really dangerous shit to get them killed). While a lot of devils toady to the political hierarchies or engage in other intrigues, more than a few started off as lucky and successful veterans of the Blood War who clawed their way up in rank and got recruited elsewhere for efficiency.

The second group of devils to keep tabs on are the various outcast devils, also known as the "rabble of devilkin". These consist of various unique devils who are close to the power of the Archdukes (including a few former Archdukes here and there), and got fucked out of their positions and thus have nowhere else to go but Avernus. There's a huge list of these devils, and include familiar names like Moloch, former ruler of Malbolge who was sentenced to death for plotting a nearly-successful scheme to overthrow Asmodeus. There's a few other interesting outcasts as well, and it's best to walk a fine, polite line with all of them, because some of them may still be working off a few centuries of anger about their fate.

There's a path leading down through the ground to the next layer, Dis, inside of [[Tiamat]]'s realm. The evil bitch was tasked with guarding that path in exchange for room and board in Hell, so abishai and actual fiendish dragons keep a watch here. Interestingly, because of Tiamat's great greed for wealth, it's not that hard to bargain your way through, just be careful how you speak to the guards there. You can also find Draukari, the realm of the [[kobold]] god [[Kurtulmak]], and his little bastards, doing nothing but digging mines and making traps. Kurtulmak doesn't like intruders, so he just slays devils under a certain station outright, keeping most devils from even trying to bother him.

[[Bel]] has been the Archduke of Avernus for a very, very long time. This is largely due to the fact that he is happy with his position and enjoys fighting the Blood War, something the other Archdukes don't really care to deal with. As a result, his only real political schemes are to keep the Dark Eight happy, which he does by using super-intelligent planning and caution when fighting the demons; his victories have pretty much kept things happy for the devils in his command. However, as of 5th edition, the unique devil Zariel has ascended to Archduke. Zariel started as an archon sent to keep tabs on the Blood War, and saw how valiantly and skillfully the devils were at keeping the seething hordes of the Abyss at bay. She basically got the idea that the forces of the Upper Planes could sweep the whole lot of fiends if they tried, was told to STFU and do her job, got salty and ragequit to become a fallen archon and a new champion of Hell. She's apparently the exact opposite of Bel, all fired up to charge outside, kill demons and curbstomp anyone who contradicts her. For his part, Bel patiently stepped aside, and is basically allowing Zariel to inevitably fail with one of her reckless ideas, so he can take back control. Given how things go in the Lower Planes, it probably won't even be that long.

The position of Archduke for this layer has actually changed a number of times on our side of the 4th wall. In original editions it was [[Tiamat]] of all people, but then in more recent ones this was retconned into being held by Zariel, who was later usurped by Bel, who then lost later his job to Zariel againdue to a major fuckup, and then in the module Descent into Avernus it's possible to convince Zrariel to give Baator the finger and go home to Celestia, but it's also possible for one of the players to decide they want the position for ''themselves,'' in which case it might be possible to impress Asmodeus enough to actually grant it to them. Yeah, our heads are spinning too.

As an aside, as of 5th edition (Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes), there's been trouble on Avernus. It was overrun with demons for a while, due to some politics delaying reinforcements, but is now again in infernal hands (claws?). It is currently even more wrecked-looking than previously, and several devil strongholds were smashed in the process. The devils there are now on higher alert than before, so trying to deceive or sneak past them is more treacherous.

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avernus map Well of Worlds.jpg|2e
avernus PoL.jpg
garden city PoL.jpg
poster map DiA.jpg|5e
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