Baator

Baator: aka Inferno; the Halls of the Damned; the Fire Below. Few names evoke as many dramatic and terrifying images in the minds of mortals as The Nine Hells, and with good reason. Baator personifies the epitome of the Lawful Evil ethos as a place of punishment, oppression, and endless, soul-crushing conformity. It is the eternal destination for fascists, tyrants, cruel overseers, malicious judges, unscrupulous barristers, and (most) politicians. Basically, anyone who dominates others through (legal) force or manipulates the law at the expense of others will probably find him-or-herself on a one way trip to the big H-E-Double Hockey Stick when they get their ticket punched.

Organization True to its lawful nature, each layer of Baator is ruled by a despotic head of state known collectively as the Lords of Nine. The Lords of Nine are the princes and archdukes of Hell, wielding absolute tyrannical authority over their respective layers. They concern themselves with little else beside the orderly administration of their layer. They form the pinnacle of a vast, rigid caste system populated primarily by Baator's most notable inhabitants, the baatezu (also known as Devils). Greater Baatezu serve the Lords of Nine directly as generals and officers in Hell's massive armies as well its barons and overseers. The least and lesser Devils serve as rank and file soldiers as well as the clerks and petty officials who maintain the labyrinthian bureaucracy that keeps Baator running. Baatezu of all descriptions fill in the middle of the hierarchy and serve as everything from lieutenants to emissaries, courtiers, spies, and administrators. The very bottom caste of infernal society is made entirely of petitioners, the souls of dead mortals whose deeds in life earned them an extended stay in Baator as their eternal reward. Petitioners are treated more like cattle than slaves by the baatezu, who see it as their duty and privilege to torture, humiliate, and degrade these unfortunate souls in a manner appropriate to their individual sadistic whims.

Baatezu are almost without exception arrogant, cruel, opportunistic, paranoid, self-serving, and megalomaniacal. As the very embodiment of malign lawfulness, however, baatezu frame all of their actions within a twisted, nearly incomprehensible code of honor. A Devil can always be counted on to keep its word and will never violate the terms of an agreement or act in such a way as to breach its duty to its leaders. That being said, however, baatezu will only ever honor the word of a deal and never the spirit (unless it is to the baatezu's benefit). They must honor their duty to their rulers, but have no concept of loyalty to them. Baatezu are constantly looking for weaknesses and shortcomings in their peers and superiors they can exploit in order to advance their own self-interests. Thus, Baatorian society is an endless climb up a particularly ruthless corporate ladder. For this reason baatezu are relentless schemers who see their subordinates as mere pawns and their superiors as obstacles in their endless grabs for influence and authority.

Structure Baator is made up of nine descending layers and does not resemble a certain Italian poet's vision of Hell at all. These nine descending layers form (conceptually, at least) an inverted cone with the "largest" layer (Avernus) at the top and the "smallest"(Nessus) at the bottom (although theoretically each layer is infinite in size; go figure). Baator's layers each embody a unique vision of torment, misery, exile, and suffering.

'Avernus: Avernus, the first layer of Baator, serves as the proverbial "Gates of Hell" and is thus the layer most readily accessible from the outside. Avernus is an endless, rocky, blasted wasteland where lightning streaks across the blood-red sky and balls of molten fire periodically streak overhead before crashing into the dust-choked hellscape in a pyroclastic explosion. Lesser Devils herd petitioners (the souls of the dead) through the gates like cattle, prodding with spears and lashing with whips, pausing only to inflict specific torments upon the terrified, shrieking wretches according to their fancy. Avernus also serves as the martial fields where the infernal legions muster and drill endlessly in preparation for the next battle in the eternal Blood War. Unlike the other layers, no one knows the identity or whereabouts of the archduke who serves as Lord of the First. In the absence of a traditional Lord, the Pit Fiend Bel oversees Avernus as both military governor and commander of its forces. Other notable inhabitants of Avernus include Tiamat, the evil mother goddess of all chromatic dragons and Kurtulmak, the spiteful, petty god of Kobolds.

Dis: Dis is both the name of the second layer of Avernus as well as its principle city. The two are used interchangeably, as the "City of Pain" sprawls endlessly across a blackened iron wasteland to the point where it is difficult to determine exactly where one ends and the other begins. On every horizon black mountain peaks thrust into the ash-green skies, although no one can tell if they are a geographic feature or simply a mirage brought about by planar metaphysics. Within the city itself, the iron walls smoke with intense heat, causing painful burns to any exposed flesh. The air is filled with the acrid stench of hot iron and the screams of the miserable souls who are condemned to spend eternity building, tearing down, and rebuilding the city with their bare hands. The archduke Dispater, Lord of the Second, rules the City of Pain from an enormous citadel of iron and lead known as the Iron Tower. From here, he oversees the ceaseless toil of petitioners while lording over his vassals with an iron fist.

Minauros: The Third Hell is a cold, endless, fetid swamp. The air is thick with the stench of rot and decay. Stinking, oily rain and sleet fall from the leaden skies, which are periodically illuminated by streaks of green and purple lightning. Sharp ridges of obsidian thrust out irregularly from the muck along with small, muddy islands containing the twisted boles and skeletal limbs of lifeless trees. At the center of the great bog looms the layer's namesake -- Minauros, the Sinking City. The city is built upon great stone plinths that thrust into the fathomless depths of the swamp below. Here petitioners are lashed to the columns, screaming and wailing with increasing panic as they sink helplessly, inch by inch, to drown in the brackish, frigid waters. The walls and avenues of the city proper remain in a constant state of decay as the city slowly, inexorably sinks into the ooze upon which it was built. Work details of petitioners constantly extract stone from the surrounding mire, using it to reinforce the city's support pillars in a futile attempt to delay its inevitable plunge into the muck. It is said that the current city is but the tip of an impossibly vast structure, as each layer is built upon the ruins of layers that have been reclaimed by the endlessly hungering morass.

(more to come)