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“It's no use dancing around to avoid the flames. If yer trespassin' hereabouts, the fires know it and cuddle up close to you til the baatezu can get around to dealing with you.” — Unknown[6]
Geography
The layer's climate resembled the Elemental Plane of Fire. It was dominated by a scorching heat that ignited the air itself, creating seemingly sentient and aggressive flames that leapt at visitors but not at the residents. The ground had fissures that spewed jets of flame that flowed into rivers of liquid fire. It contained numerous volcanoes whose eruptive products flowed through rivers of lava into an incandescent ocean of magma.[2][7][8]
Government
Phlegethos was ruled jointly by Fierna and Belial, a partnership that was allowed by Asmodeus as an exception to the typical rule that each layer should only have one ruler.[8]
The layer was the center of the judicial system of the Nine Hells. All legal disputes involving devils were discussed in the Diabolical Court, an independent institution under Belial's supervision that only answered to Asmodeus. It was also in Phlegethos that the promotion or demotion of devils took place, through a ritual that temporarily made them vulnerable to the layer's flames.[8]
Defenses
The city of Abriymoch held a reserve of 5,000 hamatulas under the command of the pit fiendGazra, stationed there to serve as a line of defense in case demons managed to reach the layer.[2]
Notable Locations
Abriymoch, a city made of volcanic rock, obsidian, and crystal, located on the caldera of a volcano. It was said to have been built on top of the grave of a deity killed by Asmodeus. It contained numerous taverns and places for entertainment.[8]
Jealous Heart, realm of Inanna of the Untheric pantheon.[5][9] A vast field of crimson dust and rivers of blood, it was not as physically hot as the rest of the layer, but it awakened an equally hot passion for war in its visitors and inhabitants.[10]
Pit of Flame
The Pit of Flame exemplified Phlegethos and Hell overall; it was a place of pain and punishment but also of pleasure and purification that blurred the lines between the two so heavily that it was difficult to tell where either ended. It was the volcanic center of Phlegethos, a massive lake of boiling filth that jettisoned columns of white flame hundreds of feet into the air. At first glance, this would seem harmless to the devils, most if not all of which were immune to fire, but not even devils could endure the agonizing flames of the pit.[7][1]
That was because the flames were not ordinary fire, but hellfire, a kind of unspeakably hot energy drawn from Hell itself that caused even those normally immune to extreme heat to writhe and convulse in unimaginable torment. Suspended above the columns were iron balls held in place by huge, cantilevered beams in which various devils were kept, the maintenance of which was partially kept by all archdevils as a form of paid subscription for using it.[7][1]
Osyluths, with the exception of pit fiends, could condemn devils that broke Baatorian law to the Pit of Flame, and devils of all layers could send their underlings there for disobedience or failure,[7][1] Asmodeus himself being known to send those who provoked his ire to years of torture at a time.[3] It was one of the worst punishments in Baator, one of the few threats that could make even most devils stammer in terror. At the same time, many devils, particularly the fierce and ambitious, were known to willingly subject themselves to the pain, either to prove their resilience, gain mental strength, redeem themselves with an act of penance or simply for the highs of ecstasy they somehow received from the torturous, purifying fire.[7][1]
Barbazus operated the beams, although they had been known to accept bribes to keep prisoners there longer than their stated sentence, while thousands of cornugons ensured that no devil escaped their judgement, forcing powerful devils into cages and making sure they weren't freed before their time was up.[7][1] The Pit was also used as a method of promotion and demotion for several devils, granting some with greater forms but reducing most to lesser beings.[8]
Inhabitants
In addition to the vast hamatula and cornugon contingents, the layer was inhabited primarily by hell hounds, imps, and spinagons. Other planar creatures also made their home there, but the heavily guarded layer was not welcoming to strangers.[1]
Stygia was the fifth layer of the Nine Hellsof Baator. Ruled by the archdevil Levistus, the Frozen Wastes,[8]much like its prince, was a strange part of Hell's hierarchy, fulfilling no explicit function. Instead, the untamed expanse[2]that was the Great Sea[9]was a proving ground, an environment of cruel cold and active conflict that tested the prowess and endurance of infernal soldiers against monstrous beings that did not fear them.[2]Stygia was named after the River Styx, which crisscrossed its entire extent.[5]
“Follow the Styx and ye'll leave the Blood War behind, he says! Well, he forgot to mention where we'd end up, didn't he?” — Unknown[10]
Description
Stygia was best described as a frigid ocean,[11] a pit of endless, murky seas and unpredictable currents churning with crushing, unimaginably massive ice floes and icebergs.[2][3][5][12] It was a realm where the powers of ice and cold were empowered, while those of fire and heat were diminished (even those from magic items and spells);[3][6][13][14] even light magic was influenced by the plane, taking on a soft, gray radiance.[15] A thick layer of ice covered the layer,[2] pack ice extending up to 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) deep,[16] but in many places it gave way to open water,[2] and even in such a place as Stygia the ice slowly melted, feeding the dark river for which the layer was known.[12]
Strange as it is to consider a river running through an ocean, the Styx wound its way through the Stygian seas,[5] maintaining its own integrity along the way.[4] It meandered across the 5th layer like a winding serpent, just as it would a plain and fast enough that it avoided freezing[5][4] (although its flow was still sluggish and the layer's cold chilled its fetid waters).[17] Where river met ocean, the oily, putrescent waters of the Styx were clearly distinct from the surrounding sea.[4]
Besides the bitter cold and River Styx, the other connecting theme of Stygia was the bitter, bloody backstabbing of its master, Levistus.[4] Stygia was an uncaring hell, a place that ripped away love and compassion, consumed sorrow and,[18] for some period of time at least, had a pervasive sense of hunger lingering beneath its biting winds.[11] Through the attentive influence of its lord, however, the unreasoning tempest could become like a living thing, a crushing and caressing force that cajoled and commanded. As its will screamed, the ice would quake and crack as geysers of water burst forth from beneath. [18]
Civilization in Stygia was contained to the dominant surface, the ice floes,[5][19] specifically those large enough to serve as foundations for cities and castles.[3][5] Communities had a tendency to form by parts of the floes where the Styx cut through, with people clustering near its banks since it wouldn't freeze over and thus provided relatively easy transportation despite its overall toxicity.[4][5] Several areas in Stygia were connected by bridges of black wrought-iron that arched far into the sky before coming down again some thousands of feet later. Such bridges were caked in frozen algae and slime, ominously trembled when walked upon, and were so slippery that those not crossing carefully were at serious risk of falling into the ocean or ice.[15][20]
Along the Styx's blighted banks, approximately every 10 miles (16 kilometers), were fortress checkpoints equipped with watchtowers and processing centers.[21][22] Once identified, visitors would be made to go through the long twisting halls of the gloomy, unwelcoming sites. These were as much mazes of corridors as they were of regulations, though they were equally convoluted in either sense. After waiting in the dark, pungent places, visitors would be interrogated on their intent and possessions, strip searched, and once thoroughly humiliated, made to pay an entrance fee somewhere below 500 gold pieces in coinage, gems, magic items or other valuables.[22]
Geography
The Stygian landscape consisted of many rises and falls. Much of it was high, such as the endless, tumbled mountains of ice and frozen rock. There were also long, twisting, rocky canyons and hanging valleys, and even a few volcanic rifts in the mountains called steam trenches.[23] The treacherous alpine and glacial ice made scaling Stygia without the aid of magic like spider climb difficult,[24] not to mention that avalanches were common.[23] Though its terrain was rugged, Stygia was rich in natural wealth. The mountain quarries yielded much of the structural stone used throughout the Hells, including granite, basalt, marble, and even chalk, as well as rubies, beryls, and turquoise from seams and veins. Meanwhile, many igneous, metallic ores could be found in the stream trenches high in the outlands.[25]
Closer towards the center of Stygia, the encircling mountains were left behind in favor of a vast salt swamp which filled much of the layer. Contrary to what the word swamp might imply, the Stygian swamp was still a frozen place,[23] although one with an interesting explanation. For eons, tiny arctic plants and mosses took root in Stygia's thick ice, sending tendrils deep inside it to gather what little nutrients there were, and the millennia of decay underwent by such plants created cold swamps atop the pack ice. The areas of thickest swamp were the most hospitable, although naturally this meant they were the places a wide variety of other creatures found more comfortable. Furthermore, these were also the places the layer was the warmest, and the dangers of falling through the ice were exponentially higher there.[19][16]
The frozen white landscape of Stygia juxtaposed the black waters of its lightless seas and the Styx.[5][23][18] Intriguingly, while the Styx remained fluid by moving fast enough to not completely ice over[19] (though there were still icebergs choking its flow),[4] it was unclear why the swamp did not.[23] Notably, the spell transmute water to dust worked on the swamp waters of the upper hell of Minauros, but not on the Styx itself or the salty waters of Stygia's swamps and ocean.[4][26] It would seem that the Styx had been diluted in Stygia, which reduced the river's memory-robbing influence;[16] melted ice from the bergs would not induce the Styx's amnesiac effects, though other Stygian waters still would.[12] In any case, the Styx's waters fell from the mountains and swelled into the swamp,[23] and from the river's bottom, opals and topaz could be dredged up.[25]
There was no sun in the Stygia,[15] just a gloomy sky[27] filled with smoky black clouds[15] and a landscape of eternal twilight dimmed by the long shadows cast by great icebergs.[4] Rather, the fifth layer was illuminated by the constant flashing of lightning,[5] although that might be an overstatement since one could only see up to 180 feet (55 meters) away.[15] Regardless, electrical storms in Stygia were common to the point of being ubiquitous;[23] there was no break in the the lightning, and following every bolt was thunder, creating a steady, subdued, ever-distant roar that echoed across the icy plains.[18][19][12] Other noteworthy qualities included the sharp stench of frozen-over ordure sometimes in the air[15] and the shooting stars of smoking ice that sometimes hurtled across the sky from the peaks and plunged deep into the swamp.[23]
Cold
It was obvious enough that Stygia was cold, cold enough that long-term exposure[12] to its barren environment of perpetually blowing sleet and snow was dangerous,[28] and even worse if one entered the frigid water.[12] But the cold of Stygia was also supernaturally dangerous.[29] For example there were the cold fires, weird white flames that were horribly freezing to the touch. They burned on rocky peaks where lightning struck for some time, although it was unclear what was fueling them given that they seemingly blazed on bare rock and left no trace on it or the ice.[23]
Stygia was also the source of Stygian ice, an extraplanar form of ice infused with the plane's soulless evil and the waters of the Styx. The black substance constantly crawled with a thin layer of pale blue mist, was colder than normal ice (though it still melted if in an area above 40 ℉ (4.4 ℃), albeit slowly) and when melted gave off nauseating vapors. But what made Stygian ice particularly deadly was not what it did to the body, but its faster effect on the mind. Those making contact suffered its magic, freezing cold and had their memories slowly frozen. Further contact brought physical debilitation that ended with the victim rising as a wraith in a under a minute.[29]
The drawbacks of weaponing the ice was that it was somewhat fragile, being only slightly harder than normal ice, and could be destroyed with flame, especially magical flame. Furthermore, unless wielded with extreme finesse or by one immune to the cold, it would inflict the same torments on its wielder as it would their opponent.[29]
Cosmography
By Asmodeus's decree, no planar portals could connect directly to any layer of Hell besides Avernus. This meant that in general, if one wanted to get to Stygia they would have to go the layer above it, Phlegethos, and find a portal, and likewise would need another to get to Malbolge below.[27] Portals existed from the only city in Phlegethos, Abriymoch, to Tantlin in Stygia, as well as from the City of Ice to at least one of the many copper fortresses in Malbolge from the Moloch regime.[30] Balls of cold fire danced about the barrier regions to the Hells above,[16] and if one traveled deep enough down (somewhere beyond 2,000 feet (610 meters)) it was possible to enter the "neither-here-nor-there realm" betwixt Stygia and Malbolge, where the cold would recede.[31]
It was also possible to reach Tantlin from the divine realm of Ankhwugaht also in Stygia.[30] Interestingly, the bitter cold in Material Plane locations that become as frigid as Stygia, such as what Icewind Dale almost became under Auril's everlasting winter, allows Levistus to open portals between said places and Baator.[32]
River Styx
Notable Locations
Tantlin, the City of Ice, largest city of the layer. It was built atop an ice floe on one of the banks of the Styx and was ruled by an unknown pit fiend.[3][19]
Divine Realms
Ankhwugaht, realm of Set.[33][34] It was inhabited by numerous liches and mummies, who occasionally left the realm to trade with the other layer's inhabitants.[4]
The layer was ruled by the archduke Levistus, who was kept prisoner deep within a large iceberg known as the Tomb of Levistus in Tantlin's harbor. Levistus issued his commands and gathered information telepathically, as he was able to communicate with any other devil within 10 miles (16 kilometers).[3][4][27] Levistus also controlled all of the amnizus, while he secretly planned to conquer another layer of Baator.[19]
History
Before Levistus's rule, Stygia was ruled by the archdevilGeryon. After Levistus killed Asmodeus's consort Bensozia, he was imprisoned within the layer's ice for millennia, until Asmodeus ousted Geryon and transferred control of Stygia to Levistus. Asmodeus, however, did not grant Levistus freedom, but instead kept him within the ice[4][6] and decreed that, as part of his punishment, Levistus must offer escape and safety to desperate individuals. Able to conduct all his affairs from within the ice, Levistus then became expert at trading souls of the prosecuted and criminals in exchange for a quick escape.[2]
Rumors & Legends
Stygia was rumored to have been originally a world in the Prime Material plane that was doomed to destruction. Its inhabitants then pledged their entire world and their souls to Asmodeus in exchange for safety, which resulted in their world becoming one of the Hells. This hypothesis was based on the unusual variety of creatures native to the Material Plane that inhabited the layer, although no more decisive evidence had ever been found to support it. It remained a topic of speculation whether the original world's riches were still buried under the ice.[2]
The layer was also rumored to be the headwaters of the Styx, both due to the river's ubiquitous presence throughout the landscape and to the strength of its memory-draining effects there, which were capable of erasing an individual's soul.[19]
Malbolge was the sixth layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Ruled by the archdevil Glasya,[6]the Tyranny of Turmoil, as it was known,[7]was the prison of the Nine Hells where devils found guilty of breaking the law underwent years of torturous punishment under the supervision of Asmodeus's daughter.[6]The Crushing Lands,[8]sometimes titled the Crushing,[9]was one of the most inhospitable of Hell's circles, its endless avalanches making it unpopular even among the baatezu.[6][8]
“Moloch, these Hells offer themselves to those with the might and will to take them.” — Malagard, once ruler of Malbolge, to her own predecessor.[10]
Description
Malbolge was best described as one seemingly endless, infinitely large slope, as if it were the sides of an impossible massive mountain. Boulders and other debris would rain down from its heights in deadly and deafening landslides, and to avoid these, the inhabitants lived either in great caves carved into the mountainside or crumbling fortresses.[6][11] In older days there were many fortresses of bronze, but those slowly fell into ruin one way or another.[12]
Some locations in the relatively modern Malbolge were shielded from rockslides by structures built with upslope-pointing projections such that avalanches washed around the protected areas beneath them. Other structures were erected atop adamantine pillars embedded into the mountain, allowing them to withstand the constant battering even if their supported platforms still swayed. Here, cages containing condemned devils were typically lowered on chains beneath the platforms so they would be struck by the avalanches, resulting in agonizingly painful but non-lethal injuries. Roofed trenches and tunnels allowed for travel between locations, though even that was dangerous.[6]
Geography
Malbolge was arguably the most treacherous of Hell's layers,[2] and the hardest to traverse.[13] The landscape was similar to that of the plane of Gehenna in regards to the difficulty of scaling it,[3] slowing movement down to about half the normal rate even for those skilled in mountaineering and to a quarter for those without such aptitude.[2] The entire circle existed on a tilt ranging from mild (about 10-15 degrees) to severe (which could be beyond 75 degrees).[14] There were no naturally-occurring horizontal planes to be found, making it difficult to rest or build, and making falling a constant danger, as one could plummet anywhere from 10 to 10,000 feet (3 to 3,000 meters) before smashing into stone. Most baatezu had the privilege of teleportation to mitigate this issue, while most travelers did not.[2][14]
Those seeking to scale Malbolge also had to contend with the jagged boulders, if not dodging them to avoid being crushed then climbing over them when they were at rest.[2][14] Frequently parts of the layer would break off and roll downhill,[11] but ultimately no one knew where the boulders came from.[2] They would shift and roll down Malbolge, sometimes settling briefly but always moving on, seemingly at random but in truth they following a prearranged pattern too complex for mortal minds to grasp.[2][14] Every ten minutes there was about a 1 in 5 chance a boulder would crash through somewhere and every hour there was a similar chance of a rockslide, although these would be somewhat forecast by the frequency of boulder encounters up until then.[2]
Amid the smaller boulders of Malbolge were great "islands of stone", larger rocks that tended to be more stable. Even these however were not anchored to the mountain itself, and all attempts to build atop such boulders inevitably failed when their bases rolled over during particularly violent landslides.[2] Occasionally boulders stopped moving long enough for dark tunnels to form through the piles, although exploring or idling in them was unwise since, despite offering protection from other boulders, the rocks that made up the passages could start moving at any moment and pulp their occupants.[2][14] Sometimes the boulders shifted enough to reveal passages into the underlying stone, although whether this was compacted granite or just another, larger boulder was itself a mystery.[14] Beneath the relatively stable bedrock of hellish stone were rumored to be entrances to underground cities, strongholds and other ancient places.[2][3]
Malbolge did have something of a ground layer, but from it rose jagged shards of obsidian known as "the Knives", towering monoliths that leant against each other to form passages or jutted out in great sheets. Though seemingly stable enough, attempts to walk across them revealed that even their foundations were unsteady, and their sudden shifting would drop travelers into the razor-lined pits below to be sliced and cleaved.[12] The steaming sky above meanwhile[14] was a firmament boiling with leprous colors that showered burning droplets down upon those below.[12][3]
Cosmography
By Asmodeus's decree, no planar portals could connect directly to any layer of Hell besides Avernus. This meant that in general, if one wanted to get to Malbolge, they would have to go the layer above it, Stygia, and find a portal, and likewise would need another to get to Maladomini below.[15] Portals existed from Set's Stygian realm of Ankhwugaht, to at least one of the bronze fortresses of Malbolge, as well as from another fortress to Baalzebul's primary city of Malagard.[16]
World Axis
In the World Axis cosmology model, the Nine Hells were a planet-shaped astral dominion floating in the Astral Sea, no longer of infinite size nor consisting of layers.[17] In this cosmology, Malbolge was one of, if not the smallest and least populated of the Nine Hells,[12][18] a cavern kingdom less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide with a ceiling a 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) overhead.[18] Dozens of sinister lamps burning with a yellow-green radiance were suspended from the roof.[19][18]
In the World Axis, the River Styx connected Malbolge to both Stygia and Maladomini.[20] Several canals, each hundreds of miles long, connected Malbolge to Stygia,[18][19] and were kept clear of shifting ice by a great fleet of icebreakers maintained by Lord Levistus.[21] At the farthest shores, the canals lead off into the darkness towards Malbolge, the ice gradually thawing as one approached the sixth Hell. The Road of Perdition, a great marble boulevard lined with hideous statues, led from Malbolge to Maladomini,[18] although the winding tunnels of the seventh Hell reached into Malbolge, as well as the lower Hells, on their own.[19] A ring of razor-sharp stone about a 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) across surrounded the layer, ending at the outer wall where vast tunnels lead to the adjoining realms.[12]
Notable Locations
The Birthing Pits, fetid pools inside bulging mounds where most damned souls were marched to. Pain devils pushed and prodded them into the foul liquid filled with wriggling maggots and snapping, toothless mouths. Hours later, lemures crawled out and dribbled down the side of the hill before being driven off by the excruciarch attendants to wander the layer mindlessly. Most of the pits were hidden by forests, but the most notable was located in the center of the layer.[22][12]
Glasya's Citadel, the unnamed palace of the archduchess after Malbolge returned to its mountainous state. It was supported by sturdy but seemingly cracked and unstable pillars and buttresses, and beneath it was a labyrinth lined with cells and torture chambers where those who displeased Glasya were confined and tormented.[6]
The Garden of Delights, an enclosed garden somewhere near the center of Ossiea tucked behind high walls of bleached skulls. It was a beautiful, expansive place filled with plants from across the planes. The perfumes of riotous flowers and whispers of succubi soothed visitors, putting them at ease and chasing away their fears. No fauna lurked waiting to pounce and no flora was a poisonous trap. This was a place of true beauty in a realm of ugly lies, of respite and refuge in the middle of Hell itself. It existed to put the victims of Malbolge at ease, just long enough to make it truly agonizing when its comforts were cruelly taken away.[18][12]
The Hag Countess's Stronghold, the unnamed citadel of Malagard during her time as Malbolge's ruler. Her fortress was the core of a mountain-sized boulder that perpetually rolled down Malbolge's slope on a path unknown to any of her nobles. The strange palace was one of the surest and most costly places to acquire a large amount of souls in all the Nine Hells. It housed a coven of three night hags and an assortment of annises, green hags and medusas at all times, as well as a stable full of nightmares.[3][23]
The Hair Forest, also known as the Forest of Sighs, a dense, gnarly woodland composed of the black, twisted, scaly, oozing hairs of the Hag Countess, enlarged and rooted in white, flaky soil. Glasya used it both to hide her treasures and oubliettes, where prisoned languished in isolation. When she grew bored of her playthings they were impaled on the branches and left to rot for decades. It was believed that the trees kept the victims alive by pumping the victims full of nutrients while slowly feeding on their souls.[24][12]
The Hag's Innards, a cramped series of twisted passageways formed by Malagard's intestines. Her rotting bulk seeped below Malbolge, retaining a fleshy appearance despite being as sturdy as stone. Non-devils within the intestinal corridors were treated like undigested food and met with periodic sprays of acids, while the rooms were relatively normal and carved out of the maggot-rich earth.[24][12]
The Lakes of Bile, a collection of putrid pools that produces various potent poisons bottled and sold by Glasya's forces to interested parties across the planes. Toxic fumes rose from the lakes, often mixing with unpredictable results. The entire area was imbued with an ambient toxicity that made it dangerous for mortals to be around, while any devils not already immune to poisons eventually became inured to their effects.[22]
Maggoth Thyg, a cavern whose walls glowed with a grayish, brain-numbing light. The falling boulders of Malbolge often blocked off the obscure defile leading there, but it always reopened somehow. Devils sent to investigate never returned, and terrible cries from within its depths sometimes echoed across the slopes, imperceptible to the petitioners but audible and innately terrifying to the resident devils.[3]
Ossiea, the fortress-palace of Glasya, a white, lustrous building lavishly decorated with baroque ornamentation. Seemingly constructed from stone, closer inspection revealed it to be the enlarged and distorted skull of Malagard fused with the lacquered bones of countless victims, many among them devils who displeased Glasya. The palace stood beyond the edge of the Hair Forest, above perfumed gardens atop a rounded hill. It was adorned with erotic statues and unnerving sculptures, decorated with poisonous plants, and filled with haunting music. Beneath the luxurious, well-guarded playrooms was a long, tubular corridor reminiscent of an enormous throat, the pinkish walls still moving as if by the continued breathing of an immense creature.[24][18][12]
Slag, the Final Fortress, the last of the great bronze fortresses of Malbolge's previous administrations. It was a great half-melted structure with galleries hosting the preserved remains of hundreds of creatures dipped in molten gold and set in niches so that Moloch could gaze upon the twisted expressions of their agonizing final moments. Glasya encouraged the structure to be left standing as a reminder of what stood before and what she had overcome.[12]
The Ten Towers, crooked spires of ivory that were once Malagard's fingers. They were hollowed out to create roosts and guard posts for the erinyes tasked with watching over Malbolge, but Glasya set aside the first to be the Tower of Pain, where enemies too dangerous to be left in her palace were kept. The regimens of punishment became more excruciating the higher one went, with the lower levels housing minor foes, including many adventurers, while the uppermost chamber interred loyalists and sycophants who refused to renounce their service to the Hag Countess.[12][25]
Inhabitants
The primary inhabitant of Malbolge was Glasya, Hell's most infamous criminal and highest warden. That she could hold both statuses simultaneously was clear evidence that, in the infernal realms, crime paid so long as one avoided conviction.[6] Unlike her peers, she was not overly interested in affairs beyond the Hells, keeping her focus on the political developments of her own layer.[12]
Before the Reckoning of Hell, all the dukes of Malbolge were envoys from Maladomini. After the Reckoning, most of the archdevils present either fled Malbolge and returned to the court of Baalzebul or stayed loyal to Moloch and thus were exiled or destroyed. No unique devils rose to duke status during Malagard or Glasya's rule, and the continued turmoil did nothing to convince the previous ones to return.[12][24][26] As a result, Malbolge hosted few figures of note under Glasya's employ.[12]
To compensate, Glasya spared Malagard's most talented minions, absorbing them into her circle after sufficient groveling and sentencing loyalists to innovative torture regiments. Since then she was known to aggressively recruit the servants of other archdukes, particularly those sidelined for excessive ambition, who were happy to conspire against those who held them back. This blatant poaching was authorized by Asmodeus, but did not endear Glasya to her peers and made many of the elite members of Malbolge targets of other archdukes.[24]
Glasya's chief lieutenant and advisor was Tartach, high marshal of Malbolge and chamberlain of her palace. Formerly an agent of Baalzebul sent to serve as legate of the Moloch regime, Tartach joined the Princess of Hell at great personal risk, and his invaluable service allowed the Archduchess to remain unfazed by her lack of dukes.[18][12][24][note 1] There was also Beleth, the Prince of Imps, who was granted a small domain in Malbolge after Asmodeus's rise to power in Hell. He endured on that layer throughout its many changes in leadership, and fortunately for him Glasya, seeking to establish her own power base independent of her father, saw fit to employ him. Through this he maintained his rank of viscount and role as spymaster, and became responsible for gathering information and sabotaging the enemies of Glasya.[27]
Many of the other archdevils found in Malbolge were not under Glasya's authority. Amon, a servant of Geryon, was known to treat Malbolge as a safe haven during his period of attempting to avenge his master, during which Glasya thought to use his vanity to lure him into her personal service.[28] Moloch still lingered on Malbolge, but was reduced to an imp whenever he re-entered the Hells and so lived a dual existence scheming there or on other layers and wandering others planes searching for power, and rumor had it he was attempting to build an army with which to invade the Crushing Lands.[11][29] In the past, the Archduchess Fierna was also known to spend much of her time in Malbolge within the palace of her "best friend" Glasya.[30]
Garrisoned on Malbolge were Glasya's Creeping Cadre, a relatively fledgling army specialized in weapons and magic that left lingering marks. Their potent poisons, festering sicknesses, wands of enervation and scrolls of energy drain were enough to unnerve even their field commander, General Furcas of the Dark Eight.[31]
Devils
An extremely inhospitable layer, Malbolge tended to be avoided even by devils,[2] and across it could be found freaks and castoffs disfigured by Glasya's displeasure and left to dwell in the darkness.[12] Yet despite this and Glasya's seemingly uncaring demeanor, she managed to surround herself with devils (among other servants) that leapt to do her bidding.[18] Devils of all descriptions were in her employ, and she went so far as to add special chambers in Ossiea to cater to every variety, such was its diversity that even an ice devil could find a climate to its liking in Glasya's court.[24] However, the changes Malbolge had undergone made it difficult to determine what remained true regarding the plane's infernal population.[12][32]
Malbolge's population was known to consist of imps, barbed devils, bone devils, and horned devils.[32] Glasya was specifically known to enjoy a special relationship with erinyes (who she once commanded as Queen) and paeliryons; the two devil types made up the nobility of her court and were shown distinct favoritism.[12][24][33] In stark contrast, though lemures (and nupperibos) had been found in her service in the past,[22] not even Glasya could bare to look at the wretched creatures or hear their mewling cries.[12]War devils and brazen devils were reported to watch over the mistress of Malbolge in her palace.[12] Other devils that had served in Malbolge under Glasya's dominion included spinagons,[22]legion devils, cambions, chain devils[18] and pain devils.[22]
Of particular note were the hellwasp devils, whose original population was believed to dwell in Glasya's Garden of Delights. Once demons in service to a wasp-like demon lord defeated by Glasya over the course of the Blood War, the curious creatures flocked to her as their new queen and followed her back to the Nine Hells. They formed a new colony in Malbolge, becoming unquestioning and unwavering agents that lived to serve her whims.[34]
Petitioners and Planars
Glasya was known to address petitioners in the audience chamber of her palace, with various devils, mortal thralls, and damned souls that had caught her eye also in attendance.[12] Several members of her court were reckless mortal courtiers and the damned among nobility or figures of wit, although Glasya was fully willing to kill them upon growing bored of them.[18]
Others
Non-devils were also known to dwell on Malbolge. The largest populations of succubi in the Nine Hells could be found on the layer (as well as the layers of Dis and Stygia.[35] Several night hags were born on Malbolge (as well as hell louses and paeliryons), having developed from tumor-like masses that grew under what were once the Hag Countess's ribs.[25]
Infernal vermin infested Malbolge during its corrupted period, with monstrous insects (including giant spiders, giant centipedes, and giant wasps) being especially common,[24][12] though hellstinger scorpions[18] and hell louses[24] also plagued the layer.[25] The larger and more intelligent specimens learned to avoid the layer's powerful devils.[24]
Rumors of the old places beneath Malbolge spoke of ancient monsters that predated even the baatezu.[3][14] Laughs and cries could be heard from below the mountain ever since Malagard took over.[12] By some reckoning these were the ancient baatorians, a race of infernal natives displaced by the coming of Asmodeus,[3][14] while other legends spoke of at least one ancient citadel in the deepest reaches whose angels remained loyal to He Who Was, Asmodeus's original divine master, and who since had been driven mad and twisted into something wholly different from angels and devils alike.[12]
History
Malbolge had outlasted many overlords,[11] control over the layer changing hands many times over the course of eons. Every Hell adopted the characteristics of its ruling archdevil, and little of its original form remained after millennia of upheaval.[12]
In ages past, Malbolge was said to be a vast and beautiful garden, cherished by whatever deity held dominion over it.[18][19] Then came Asmodeus's rebellion and war, which saw the realm ruined, reshaped[37] and eventually make its way to the control of Lucifer.[38] Malbolge's condition at the time was unclear, but it was taken from Lucifer by Asmodeus for violating the rules of infernal promotion by having a child in secret.[38][36]
After Lucifer's destruction,[36] Asmodeus gifted Malbolge to Baalzebul,[12] a fallen archon turned baatezu who upon his descent quickly rose up the infernal hierarchy and managed to displace a lord who had been with Asmodeus since before the fall of Hell's king, replacing the unknown lord as Archduke of Maladomini.[39][40] Malbolge was granted to Baalzebul as a reward for some despicable service,[12] but also to another, Asmodeus's greatest warrior, Moloch. Moloch had earned his place among the archdevils for his tireless service and hatred of Asmodeus's demon enemies. His reward was to be dominion over Malbolge, but not as an archduke; rather, he was to be a grand duke, a Lord of the Nine under another of his peers,[10][29] a state of affairs deemed acceptable by Baalzebul.[12]
Reign of the Viceroy
Under the regime of Moloch, and by extension Baalzebul, Malbolge was geographically similar to Maladomini in most ways (with the exception that Maladomini was flat).[41][42][43][44][45][note 2] It was a craggy, ashen, lifeless plane[42] of black, broken rock,[12] as if hundreds of miles worth of city-sized building blocks had suddenly tumbled into a gargantuan pile, creating a series of huge passages and twisting, angular locations beneath the surface of the heap.[46] Even then Malbolge was unstable, its steep and shifting surface liable to end any misstep in a pit of sharp obsidian shards.[12]
Malbolge was volcanically active, its fire pits and caverns yielding many rubies, sapphires, and diamonds such that raw, unmined gems could be found along the tortured surface. There was arjale and tantulhor to be found, though in rarer quantities than in Phlegethos.[45] The sky was alight with blood-red steam, and the air was hot, choking and permeated by the stench of burning, for Malbolge floated atop a sea of lava that released deadly clouds of noxious gray-green gas.[12][46][42]
Malbolge during this time was a noisy place populated by tormented lemures, nupperibos, horned devils, and the occasional spined devils, bone devils and styx devils, all of whom suffered under the regime. They endured not only the tortures, and disfigurements of one Lord of the Nine, but two, those of cruel Baalzebul during his visits and the almost equally cruel Moloch. At least two-fifths of the populace were missing limbs or otherwise injured for the amusement of the reigning authority, and at least half of the population (mostly from the above group) hated their masters so much they would revolt if given the chance.[42][45]
Malbolge's torments did not make it a socially orderly place. Nupperibos and spinagons messily and haphazardly mined Malbolge under the command of the cornugons, whose status was measured by their yield of gems and ores, so there was an intense rivalry involving trickery and even outright theft or battle between them for who would bring the largest yield to the authorities. Otherwise the cornugons continually patrolled Malbolge in pairs, bringing any intruders in alive for torment and interrogation lest they suffer in their place, and most such unfortunates were killed in service to Baalzebul's hoarding of information.[42][45]
Valuables and captives alike[42][45] would make their way to the bronze, copper-clad citadels that dotted Malbolge. These were the fortresses of the cornugons in practice, but officially the homes of Moloch, where the Grand Duke would indulge in his every vice, each of the thirteen great strongholds set aside for a different cruelty.[12][46][45] Yet Moloch could not choose to occupy the fortresses on his own, for though technically the lord of Malbolge, he was constantly ordered between his homes on the orders of Baalzebul through his (oft-bribed there) herald Neabaz.[42][45] Baalzebul feared that allowing Moloch to rest for long would somehow enable him to take control of Malbolge, and so repeatedly disturbed him and suffused the duke's court with his own agents.[42]
Baalzebul gifted Moloch the archdevil Lilith as a consort in a transparent attempt to curry his favor, hoping to leverage her talent for distracting others from what was important to his advantage.[26] Tartach was sent to act as deputy and ambassador to vassal dukes and visitors, while Bileth was installed as tribune to act as a vigil against Moloch and others who might try to assume control of Malbolge.[42] Baalzebul's marshal Barbatos also administrated Malbolge's defensive forces, those being the nine companies[note 3] of cornugons under the pit fiend Bethage and the sixteen companies of bone devils under the pit fiend Herobaal.[42][47]
The Reckoning of Hell
Asmodeus had not given Malbolge to Moloch and Baalzebul simply as a reward. Rather, the cleverest of the devils made Moloch Baalzebul's viceroy knowing that the two would keep their eyes on each other rather than his throne. This worked for eons,[10][29] confusing as it might be to an outsider why either of them would want Malbolge in that incarnation.[42] Moloch vied against the other archdevils, keeping them in check, while Baalzebul found it a continual struggle to keep both layers under his control. Even though all under Moloch were regarded as loyal to Baalzebul, every duke of Malbolge, Moloch included hid a few gems to sell on the side, and several among them were not content with the current regime.[42][45] So did Asmodeus's arrangement begin to unravel.[29]
It started when Moloch took the dread night hag Malagard as his advisor and second consort, which was fully acceptable for his station.[29][10] Unbeknownst to him, this would be the catalyst for one of the most monumental betrayals in the Nine Hells. As part of her own schemes to usurp her father, Glasya had played a crucial part in instigating a revolt against him, and as part of the plot traveled to Malbolge to recruit Moloch's mistress to her cause.[12] For her part, treacherous Malagard was already betraying Moloch, for in truth she was cuckolding him in favor of his long-time rival Geryon, who seemed to be of greater status and promised her higher station in turn.[10]
Malagard seduced Moloch and, at Geryon's secret urging, gradually goaded him into greater independence with her poisonous promises.[29][10] She encouraged him to join Baalzebul's alliance, arguing that once his master defeated Mephistopheles and Asmodeus, he would be in the perfect position to take the throne of Hell himself.[8] Foolish, prideful, ambitious and needing little provocation to go to war, Moloch was convinced of Malagard's confident claims, although she did not convince him alone.[8][10]
Beleth, Moloch's spymaster (if only because the Grand Duke figured he had likely already infiltrated his court) was informed by his spies of Malagard's own ambition. He turned to her, and using his information and her influence they got Moloch and even other archdukes and dukes to rise up against Asmodeus.[27] Tartach joined the conspiracy to open the path to his own ascent, manipulating events to cast down Moloch all while plotting to double-cross Malagard and Geryon. Lilith did not actively participate in the conspiracy, but allowed it to succeed through her inaction, having come to resent her masters and lack the sufficient initiative to expose Malagard's lies.[26]
As was anticipated by the conspirators, (at least some of them, including Malagard and Beleth), Asmodeus thwarted the plots of the archdukes to usurp his power.[10][29][27] His agent in the conflict, Geryon, blew his horn, and all the pit fiend commanders of the armies of the archdukes turned against their lords, siding with Asmodeus;[48] it was Malagard who arranged for Moloch's armies to betray him.[8] In the aftermath, Geryon met with Malagard and convinced her to advise Moloch to remain defiant against Asmodeus, convincing him this would make the King of Hell respect his strength. Moloch foolishly stood fast, all but spitting in his lord's face, and his impertinence was rewarded with the stripping of his station by an angered Asmodeus.[8][10]
Exactly what was supposed to become of Moloch was unclear. By some accounts he was sentenced to death, and only escaped through the use of a timely use of a planar portal.[29] By others he was officially exiled, and banished to the Prime Material plane. In some stories Moloch's fate was dealt out by Asmodeus, but in others it was by the new ruler of Malbolge, Malagard, chosen for the role by none other than Asmodeus himself.[8][10][27] Baalzebul was removed from his position as Malbolge's overlord for his part in the Reckoning and cursed several times over, leaving Malagard the indisputable mistress of Malbolge.[6] Many diabolical entities rankled at the decision, considering themselves infinitely more suited to the task than a non-devil, but the choice was Asmodeus's to make.[13] Thus did the reign of the Malagard begin.[8]
Reign of the Countess
When Malagard became ruler of Malbolge, she gained complete control over all its physical aspects, such as the power to start avalanches at will (often under the feet of her foes), and was nearly invincible within the layer.[8] She changed Malbolge into its more mountainous form, causing the lava beneath to cool, crack and still, and the gases that bubbled forth from it to gather overhead into a firmament.[12]
The form Malbolge had taken was not suitable for the creation of cities however,[14] and so instead Malagard continued using the Copper Fortresses of the previous administration. However, the war for the Hells had seen several of the fortress sacked and ruined[12] and they had to be built and redesigned to channel and deflect the frequent rock-flows.[3] Even then, the fortresses struggled to repel the harsher avalanches,[14] and none could withstand the worst of them.[3] The fortresses stood in the plane's more stable areas, usually behind one of the "islands of stone", but even then the boulders constantly careened of the walls,[2] creating ceaseless, terrible clanging.[14][49]
Rather than holding court in the conventional way,[8] Malagard chose to travel between the fortresses of Malbolge as befit her needs.[2][14] Her nobles were scattered throughout the layer's fortresses, and so she visited them periodically.[8] The Hag Countess delighted in surprise appearances,[49] and so usually appeared in an expertly crafted disguise[3] to test the responses of her subjects.[2][14] Commanders always had to be on their best behavior and avoid mindless brutality during Malagard's regime, for she maintained a strict "questions first, torture later" policy.[14][8]
Were Malagard to be knowingly or unknowingly disrespected or outright attacked, she would lay waste to the citadel, razing the fortress and all within it.[2][14] A similar fate could be expected for inhabitants who failed to remain vigilant of the stresses in the bronze, for Malagard would come with her flaming sword to correct their mistakes.[49] Both these things had happened more than once,[49][8] and in truth, whether by her own negligence or misplaced effort, Malagard allowed the remaining strongholds to fall into disrepair.[12]
During her rule, Malbolge's resident devils consisted of spined devils, bearded devils, and ice devils,[2] with the rare pit fiends being the commanders of the copper fortresses.[49][50] Moloch had left behind a vast army of devils and hell hounds that ceaselessly moved across the layer,[23] and there was a fire giant presence during her reign.[51] But in terms of dukes, the Hag Countess's regime was somewhat lacking.[12][39]
Lilith and Bethage both returned to the court of Baalzebul when Moloch fell, the fate of Herobaal was unclear,[12][39] (though he may have gone to tempt individuals on the mortal plane)[32] and anyone loyal to Moloch was banished or destroyed.[26] Reports varied on whether Bileth and Tartach returned to Baalzebul, stayed with Malagard, or did some combination of both, (though in Tartach's case, even if he did remain with the hag he was even less faithful to her than Moloch).[26][12][39][52] Malagard was only too happy to keep the spymaster Beleth on her side, for she was terrified that the other forces of the Hells would team up against her, the only non-devil Lord of the Nine.[27] No unique devils rose to dukedom under her.[24]
Meanwhile, Moloch wasted little time preparing to return, spending centuries amassing an army of devils, monsters, and mortal followers to take back Malbolge. It almost seemed as if he would succeed, but when he was making the final preparations for the invasion, he ventured to a world on the Material Plane in search of an artifact to ensure his success. This would not have been a problem, save for the fact that the Stone of Corbinet, which he needed to re-enter the Nine Hells, was stolen from him, leaving him trapped on the plane he hated even before he was banished. His armies were left leaderless on the eve of his would-be triumph, and quickly crushed by Malagard's superior forces.[10][29]
Death of the Hag
Malagard, having witnessed Asmodeus's power firsthand, always stayed out of infernal politics for the most part, leaving Baalzebul and Mephistopheles to such folly.[8] However, that was not to say she was not ambitious; she craved power in the Nine Hells to the point she became troubling to the other Lords of the Nine.[12] Rather, the Countess simply sought a different path to power than most in Baator: godhood. Malagard knew that archdevils were not truly gods, and invested her time searching for a way to ascend herself, such as by investigating the god corpses of the Astral Plane to try and determine the essence of divinity.[8]
Malagard spent several years amassing souls for a ritual to finally achieve her coveted apotheosis; But before her plot could finally bear fruit, something went wrong.[26][12] Some reports suggested she had lost favor with Asmodeus, who struck her down in a fit of pique.[11] Other versions of events framed Glasya as the murderer of Malagard, and the witch's death as Glasya's victory over her rival.[39][53] It was theorized that exiled Geryon meddled in the process somehow.[12] And in other versions still, the attempt was unwise, foolish, or aborted,[12][26] and the hag simply suffered a bizarre death.[54] No matter the truth, the results would soon become clear.[13]
One morning,[13] around 1353 DR,[55] Malagard had just dodged a boulder and slew a displeasing lemure when she collapsed to the floor in shrieking, spasming pain. Before she rolled off the layer, the land began to convulse itself, the earth quaking and the tunnels turning inside out. Only then did the realm that Malagard had come to command absolutely grip her by her wrists and ankles as she suffered a transformation even more destructive than its own. Malagard swelled and bloated without ceasing, her body haphazardly expanding to unbelievable size as an unknown force used it as the foundation for a new kind of terrain.[13]
The hag's skull ballooned to the size of a citadel, her bones bent and popped free of her flesh, and her body burst to release a torrent of filth upon Malbolge. Her arching ribs became like mountain ranges that encircled and loomed over the entire layer, and her finger bones rose up as white towers. The slopes of Malbolge shifted and her innards became buried beneath them, forming a new maze of twisting tunnels, while her organs burst into lakes of bile and gore. Her gray hairs transformed into greasy trees and her teeth sank into the ground, becoming inexhaustible sources of ivory. Throughout the entire process, Malagard screamed, her tortured wails echoing across the land long after she should have been dead. And as the process concluded, and the survivors gathered to gaze upon this new landscape, another lord entered the picture.[13][12]
It was unclear exactly why Asmodeus decided to give his daughter Malbolge, although many had come to the conclusion he had planned the deed out long ago. Many had come to believe Malagard was never meant to be anything more than a vulnerable placeholder, a figurehead to hold Malbolge until such time that the two resolved their differences and Glasya was ready to claim it herself.[12][33] It would also explain why he cast down loyal Geryon and tolerated the troublemaking of his replacement Levistus, to hide his intent regarding Glasya and to use the power that would have gone to Levistus on her instead.[56][33]
On the other hand, it was possible Malbolge went to Glasya as Asmodeus's own form of punishment. He had long endured her stirring up problems and intentionally undermining him, and she even went so far as to establish Hell's first crime syndicate, made worse by the fact that her fraud was entirely legal.[33][6] It might have been the case that, in lieu of punishing her for lawbreaking, he decided to discipline her by making her an archdevil. By making her warden she ironically became a prisoner, saddled with responsibilities and a layer to rule to keep her ambitions in check; forcing her to collect souls through legal dealings was done perhaps both for the irony and the extra burden. It was entirely possible that Glasya's rise to rule Malbolge was part of one of their masterful schemes or a complete accident on one or both of their parts.[6]
Regardless of who was trying to make it happen, both Glasya and Asmodeus were quick to seize upon the vacuum that had appeared in the hierarchy of the Hells. Glasya gathered her forces and abandoned her scheme to steal Maladomini, inviting Tartach to join her along the way.[26][12] A golden palanquin held aloft by winged devils floated up from the layer below, and Glasya, lounging on its silken pillows, declared herself the new Lord of the Sixth.[12][13][33] Malagard's most loyal lieutenants were crushed or fell to their deaths during Malbolge's metamorphosis, and so only her chancellor, the paeliryon Axacrusis, dared to challenge Glasya's presence.[13][33] Glasya nonchalantly sashayed forth, presented a letter of authority from Asmodeus confirming her title, and demanded Axacrusis disembowel itself; their innards would be devoured for years to come.[13][33]
No other archdevil dared to challenge Glasya's rule despite her newcomer status, even if they hated her. Since the Reckoning their personal legions had been vastly reduced, and none were willing to risk a second Reckoning just to claim Malbolge.[12] Furthermore, any attack against her could be construed as an attack against Asmodeus himself and invoke the full fury of the King of the Nine Hells.[57] Asmodeus's plans were for his daughter remained unclear, but in any event Malbolge was hers. Thus began the reign of Glasya.[33]
Reign of the Princess
Upon Malagard's death, Malbolge became a place of corrupt growth and disturbing decay, the entire layer having been infecting by the essence of the Hag Countess's rotting cadaver. The layer was abundant in bloated, terrible life, while those that died upon its cancerous ground were absorbed for nourishment in the most horrid way.[33][58] Any in contact with its physical elements at the time, including its vegetation, buildings, or water, might be grasped by tendrils that drained flesh and blood and replaced it with Malbolge's own diabolical substance. Unless restored to full health with healing magic, the unfortunates would die while their bodies and souls remained trapped in Malbolge, driven to madness by unspeakable agony.[13]
Glasya did not keep Malbolge in this hideous state, instead deciding to decorate her new home using the best materials at hand: the rotting remains of the Hag Countess herself.[59] She remade Malbolge, turning it into a beautiful garden like it was in the distant past.[19][18] But everything about this alien garden, aligned with Glasya's aesthetic vision, reflected her twisted outlook and corrupt spirit. Just as Glasya was as vile as she was comely, Malbolge was a place of aching beauty juxtaposed by horrific ugliness,[12] a place that inspired one to recoil from corruption and dive into it at the same time.[60]
Malbolge became a realm of illusion and inveiglement,[4] fair at a glance, but unable to truly hide the decay, despair, and danger upon closer inspection.[18][19] Its beauty was purely superficial, and its enchanting atmosphere was betrayed by the faint, permeating smell of rot.[12] The autumnal trees[19] were brown and twisted, their roots grasping, and any fruit they produced liable to explode and shower those below in caustic juices.[18][12] Lovely fields hosted fragrant flowers, but the plants were bloated and oozing, and the aroma brought with it drugged sleep and nightmares.[12][18] The shimmering ponds and rivers of the garden were pools of poisonous water[19][18] and even the rocks were crumbling.[12]
Between the dead forests and meadows was the civilization of Malbolge, which shared the hidden profanity of its nature. Ruined palaces and forsaken pavilions dotted the landscape. The beautiful white cities and towers were charnel houses with corpses impaled upon the battlements.[18][19] Glasya's own capital was lavishly furnished with the finest of Hell's treasures and raised from the skull and bones of the Countess. Most of her minions came to dwell in the innards, hunting damned souls and other devils (including other servants of Glasya) for sport.[12]
Moloch managed to work his way back into the Nine Hells after his previous defeat, having managed to insinuate himself with the outcast nobles of Avernus, and was noted to be working towards taking Baator for himself.[10] His last rumored presence in Malbolge during its corrupted state was imprisonment beneath the fortress Slag, perhaps suffering the fate of his gold-coated victims.[12]
Return to Form
Malbolge's verdant landscape concealed much of what came before, but that's exactly what it did: conceal. Glasya's influence and magic reshaped the surface, but below the environment that was once on top still existed. Beyond the writhing grass and poisonous nettles were monolithic shards and beneath the soft soil and tangled roots were tunnels formed by the jagged boulders.[12]
Also of note in this realm were the kalabons, pieces of Malagard's flesh that retained fragments of her memory. Trapped in a state of torment, they tore themselves free of the landscape and sought out others of their kind to rebuild the Countess, but were denied this by Glasya. As such, they simply awaited in agony the day they could finally restore Malagard to her former self.[61]
Regardless of their failure or success,[12] and despite Glasya taking special efforts to ensure what was left of the hag continued to suffer,[62] Malbolge would not stay on the brink of decay forever.[12] By the late 15th century it returned to its mountainous, boulder-wracked state.[6]
Recent History
One of the traps in the Dungeon of the Ruins transported those who entered a certain room to a barren mountainside in Malbolge.[63]
On Hammer 10 of 1487 DR, Glasya sent forces from Malbolge, led by a pit fiend named Khartach, to help ensure a ritual to divide the gods Asmodeus and Azuth would succeed, if only to maintain her own power. The infernal legions were sent to help the forces of Thymari against a summoned horde of demons and help the Chosen of the gods achieve their mission.[64]
At one point in the late 15th century, the Chosen of the strife god Cyric, Elisande, was trapped in Malbolge by the night hag Tal’Kandelagrag before managing to escape into the Abyss with the help of adventurers.[65]
Maladomini was the seventh layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Ruled by the archdevilBaalzebul, it was the center for all bureaucracy of the Nine Hells, a byzantine labyrinth of information where every document and deed of the infernal plane was eventually archived.[6]The Circle of Ruins,[7] sometimes titled of the Ruins[8] was a testament to the degeneracy of the Lord of the Flies,[1] its crumbling, imperfect structures[9] the legacy of his pursuit of unattainable perfection.[1]
“In Maladomini, one can find miles of long-forgotten ruined cities — all products of the mad archduke's whims...” — Unknown[10]
Description
Maladomini was the seventh layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Ruled by the archdevilBaalzebul, it was the center for all bureaucracy of the Nine Hells, a byzantine labyrinth of information where every document and deed of the infernal plane was eventually archived.[6]The Circle of Ruins,[7] sometimes titled of the Ruins[8] was a testament to the degeneracy of the Lord of the Flies,[1] its crumbling, imperfect structures[9] the legacy of his pursuit of unattainable perfection.[1]
“In Maladomini, one can find miles of long-forgotten ruined cities — all products of the mad archduke's whims...” — Unknown[10]
Description
Like the higher layer of Minauros, Maladomini was a reeking, filth-ridden mire[11] where the corruptive, toxic and pestilent was empowered while forces of health and vigor were weakened.[4] It was a druid's worst nightmare, a world where all things natural were defaced or destroyed;[9] the layer itself was like a wounded animal, constantly shuddering, moaning and oozing a foul, black ichor, clinging hopelessly to life in a state of perpetual dying.[2] A place of abandoned cities and constant construction,[12] pollution and deception permeated every aspect of the environment,[2] for the watchword in the Circle of Ruins was decay, in both the physical and moral sense.[1]
Maladomini was a scarred, urban wasteland dominated by teetering heaps of trash,[9][2] its vast tracts of land depleted to the point of absolute desolation.[13] The scattered ruins of collapsed towers and hollow fortresses formed a desolate cityscape.[9][14][15] Between these dead cities were endless extraction pits and slag heaps that riddled the land like sores.[15][3] The vast quarries and strip mines looked like gaping wounds, belching filth into the air[1][9] as the layer's labor force toiled ceaselessly to find more stone and minerals in their resource-starved working areas.[3]
Further into the mines was a vast, maze-like network of winding tunnels which honeycombed all Maladomini.[9][13] Deep underground could be found the document storehouses, placed there in the event that, should Maladomini ever be met with the kind of devastation that preceded Baalzebul's curse, they would be safely intact. Each document was important in its own way, and heavily protected by various traps, devils and a precise but complex classification system any would-be thieves would be forced to navigate.[6]
Crisscrossing the land from the quarries to the various castles of the horned devils were poorly maintained roads littered with garbage.[14][9] Rivers of lava across the plane had great, arched bridges engraved with devilish faces leading across them and canals and stone-walled aqueducts cutting into them to carry the magma to the cornugon castles so as to form molten moats.[14][16] Even so, the canals were polluted and clogged, spilling effluvium all throughout Maladomini.[1][9]
Geography
In terms of geography, Maladomini was very similar to Malbolge, at least during the period it was under the control of Moloch (and by extension the control of Baalzebul as well). It was hot to the touch,[14] so permeated by heat that infravision was generally useless,[17] and filled with stinking gasses and smoke, earth tremors and underground explosions, huge caves and caverns, and pits of fire.[14] They were also identical in terms of mineral resources (including the presence of those metals unique to the Hells, arjale and tantulhor), with the exception that diamond and obsidian was perhaps slightly more common in Maladomini.[18]
There were several distinguishing elements however. Granite was commonly seen across the surface,[9] and from the earth erupted not only the layer's black ichor,[13] but also lava, the volcanic cascades swelling the magma rivers. These rivers contributed to the great sea of lava that seemingly encircled the entire plane; within that sea was a ring of volcanic mountains, and it was within that ring that the layer's civilization sat.[14]
Most notable of the differences however were Maladomini's despoiled qualities. Under a sky the shade of blue-black blood,[3][19] sentient chunks of polluted matter crawled out from the banks of sludge-ridden streams only to choke on toxic air and quickly expire. Whatever remnants of stunted trees that were still dying as opposed to dead eventually collapsed, succumbed to rot, or spontaneously burst into damp, smoldering flames upon contact with the slag.[2][9] "Natural" sources of light could be found in the dim, sickly radiance emitted by green flames found on the layer, which were either flickering fires fed by the fluids seeping out from the ground along the river banks or drifting, blazing spheres.[4]
Cosmography
By Asmodeus's decree, no planar portals could connect directly to any layer of Hell besides Avernus. This meant that in general, if one wanted to get to Maladomini, they would have to go the layer above it, Malbolge, and find a portal, and likewise would need another to get to Cania below.[20] Portals existed from at least one of the fortresses of Malbolge to Baalzebul's primary city of Malagard, as well as from Malagard to Mephistopheles's city of Mephistar.[21]
Getting to Maladomini at all was generally not easy,[22] but there were portals to several locations of the layer within Sigil,[22][21] and portals to its city of Grenopli within the Outlands.[21] Nearly all known portals were controlled by the baatezu, leaving many trapped there.[22]
World Axis
In the World Axis cosmology model, the Nine Hells were a planet-shaped astral dominion floating in the Astral Sea, no longer of infinite size nor consisting of layers.[23] In this cosmology, Maladomini was one of the largest of the Nine Hells, a subterranean maze of winding tunnels,[13] its dozens of vast, interconnected passages each a long, curving cavern. Every tunnel was hundreds of miles long, about 3 to 5 miles (4,800 to 8,000 meters) wide, and had a ceiling around 1,000 feet (300 meters) or more overhead. Carved into the steep sides of the caverns were the ancient and ruined strongholds, palaces and cities of the layer.[4] Sludge rivers flowed through the centers of the tunnels, some illuminated by green fire and others stewing in foul darkness.[13][4]
The branching tunnels of Maladomini linked the lower Hells of Malbolge, Cania, and even Nessus together. A marble boulevard lined with hideous statues, known as the Road of Perdition, led from Malbolge to Maladomini, and Maladomini's tunnels eventually connected to the cold cavern of Cania. In the World Axis, the River Styx flowed through Maladomini to conclude in Cania's glaciers.[4]
Notable Locations
The Carnival Eternal, a vale whose putrid pavilions were forever doused in filth from the unblockable sluice pipe above.[2] Here Baalzebul provided successful servants unspeakable pleasures of the most diabolical, debaucherous, and degrading kind. Nine souls earned a day's vacation, ninety-nine a century, and nine-hundred ninety-nine two millennia. Among its dark delights was a hall of distorted mirrors which gave intoxicating visions of dominion as a Lord of the Nine (usually over the realms of Baalzebul's rivals Dispater or Mephistopheles and never over his own) or tempted them to walk the road of diabolism.[2][4] Others included magical alcohols like "gughalaki", a sweet, ropy, almost hallucinogenic liquid produced in Maladomini from the scent glands of fiendish centipedes,[24] and access to the Carnival's thriving black market of contraband forbidden even in the Hells, including stolen souls, banned rituals, false documents and treasures hidden even from archdevils.[4]
Grenpoli, the City of Diplomacy. A domed city where weapons and all types of aggression were forbidden, it contained the Political School of the Nine Hells, which offered courses on deceit and treachery to enterprising devils.[3]
Malagard, also called Malagarde, was the greatest city of Maladomini and the home of Baalzebul. As with all the others however, he found it lacking, and its former grandeur was lost.[3][2][4] Malagard thus became the embodiment of his sloth, its drooping, crumbling structures monuments to despair, for even Baalzebul gave up on restoring it. Occasionally a dangerous, neurotic frenzy overtook the inhabitants, prompting them rebuild, but they fell back into fatalism just as quickly. Decay advanced all the same as the buildings deteriorated and rivers of trash grew greater every day, and the atmosphere of defeat pervading it became ever more oppressive. The ennui was often contagious, and those that fell to it risked never mustering the will to leave.[2][4] Baalzebul ruled from the Palace of Filth, his formerly great castle before he was cursed and it collapsed into fecal sludge.[2]
Offalion, a pile of rubble by a blasted hillside used to simulate specific places on the Prime Material plane. The resident devils used scattered stone to craft parodies of places of influence before running through detailed political scenarios. Conferences, synods, market deals, elections, royal courts, and other such events were acted out as exercises to train devils, whose memories were typically erased by conversion into lemures, so they might subvert the societies of mortals. Each simulation had its own rules and conditions; winners were sent to their target planes to put their education into practice while losers were withheld or even demoted. Mortals were sometimes pressed into service to give advice, add authenticity, or even disrupt the scenarios as wild cards. In a sense, Offalion unintentionally served as a demonstration of Baalzebul's latest plans.[2]
Divine Realms
Xibalba, a section of the city-palace of Malagard where the Maztican pantheon came to play the Ball Game. It was filled with a constantly changing array of buildings in the typical Maztican style, the only constant being the great Ball Court itself.[25]
Inhabitants
The primary inhabitant of Maladomini was its ruler Baalzebul. Among his council were the respective First and Second Consorts Baftis and Lilith. Neabaz was the Herald of Lies,[2] tasked with spreading Baalzebul's word[26] and the only devil of his allowed to freely roam the Nine Hells.[14]
Baalzebul also had a host of war-leaders. The generals Abigor, Bileth, and Zepar,[2] led his armies and stood watch against his enemies.[26] Meanwhile Barbatos,[2] the relatively trusted Marshal of Maladomini, was responsible for all Baalzebul's armies, his charge being to arrange the messengers and weapons so that the layer's armies could be quickly gathered for battle.[14]
Garrisoned on Maladomini were Baalzebul's Maladominaar, elite shock troopers easily capable of breaking through demonic formations with their ferocious frontal assaults. General Zimimar of the Dark Eight commanded them on the field where they scattered and divided their Abyssal adversaries.[27]
Devils
The greatest danger of Maladomini was not any feature of the environment, but the devils under Baalzebul's command.[1] Intelligent devils capable of complex politicking often rose through the ranks quickly, amnizus, falxugons, paeliryons, and erinyes being particularly numerous. Barbazus, lemures, and spinagons were also common,[2] as were patrolling hamatulas and storm devil artillery.[28] Other devils that could be found there included imps,[29]nupperibos[18]merregons, and cambions.[30]
The hosts of Maladomini consisted primarily of companies of cornugons (company in this case meaning 111 individual devils rather than the usual 333).[31] There were 60 companies under the command of Abigor and 28 under Zepar, who performed various roles ranging from warriors to messengers to laborers.[14] The spinagons attended to the needs and wants of the cornugon laborers, typically under the oversight of an amnizu or more rarely an osyluth.[14]
Pit fiends were rare on Maladomini[32] and noticeably absent from Baalzebul's service there.[14] The Lord of the Flies suspected all of being spies or puppets of Asmodeus, and so was reluctant to allow any of them on his plane, having tasked his generals with driving them all away.[14] Even so, among the many infernal fiefs of Maladomini were the strongholds of quarrelsome pit fiends and war devils.[4]
Maladomini also hosted various unique types of devils. The bizarre ayperobos, creations of Baalzebul, originated in Maladomini and were rarely encountered beyond it. They prowled the misty reaches or were intentionally placed as traps by other devils for travelers.[2][33] There were also swarm devils, the corrupted souls of angels caught lying to their masters which reformed trapped in a mass of flies that buzzed around Baalzebul. The fiends then moved to one of Maladomini's stagnant pools, starving but never dying, eagerly awaiting a mission and chance to feed.[34]
Petitioners and Planars
Besides lesser devils, petitioners and enslaved prisoners in Maladomini were made to dig without tools to look for more stone for the layer's cities.[14][9] However, many non-devil inhabitants of Maladomini were not under the control of Baalzebul. The abandoned cities of the layer served as shelters for runaways and deserters, petitioners who fled their tormentors, native Baatorian creatures who lost their territories, beasts from other planes who became especially lost, and planewalkers trying not to be found.[9][3][1] The occasional attempts by Baalzebul to oust them simply caused the malcontents to flee to one of the many other cities his quest for perfection gave them the option of.[1]
Among the varied inhabitants of Maladomini were humans, demihumans, orcs, half-orcs, goblinoids, kobolds, giants, gith, manticores, medusae, beholders, rakshasas, yugoloths, hordlings, maelephants, and rogue modrons and baatezu. In at least one case (a population of orcs the baatezu were trying to breed into a species of lawful eviltrolls) their captives did not escape, but were abandoned in an empty city by the baatezu after they didn't shape up to their expectations. In reality the project did succeed, but wasn't given enough generations, and so the enhanced orcs spread throughout the tunnels intent to one day overthrow the masters of Maladomini.[22]
Others
Swarms of hungry flies plagued all who ventured through Maladomini, and acted as the eyes and ears of the Lord of the Flies.[4][15][26] The flowing sludge of the rivers prompted the spontaneous generation of a variety of fiendishoozes, such as black puddings, gelatinous cubes, and ochre jellies.[2] Other creatures known to inhabit the plane were vargouilles and hook spiders.[22]
Beneath the ruins of Maladomini were beings that made even the baatezu uneasy.[35] Petitioners, whether lemures or more intelligent types, avoided these tunnels,[9] but the bravest denizens of the layer fled there rather than to other cities when Baalzebul's forces attempted to drive them out.[1] Lesser devils avoided the location for fear of what was rumored to lurk there, and greater devils did not travel there either, although in their case it was said they knew what was down there and simply were not interested.[9] Even beneath Baalzebul's capital roamed many "weird creatures".[14] These entities were, at least in some cases, the Ancient Baatorians, a race of infernal beings that occupied the Nine Hells long before the rise of the baatezu.[22]
History
In eons past, Maladomini was a beautiful place,[9] a realm of great cities. According to some origins of the Nine Hells, it was like this even before Asmodeus took over the plane.[4] After his regime began, Asmodeus carved up Baator and rewarded those who fought under him with realms and fiefdoms,[36] and also established the infernal bureaucracy, which would be centered in Maladomini.[6][4] Reports described the seventh hell as a bustling kingdom of impressive cities and a fine collection of roads, gardens, and bridges, where every law and order was filed away in an ever-expanding series of fortresses and archives.[6] Maladomini would be ruled by ancient ally of Asmodeus who had been with him since before he ruled Hell[2] and whose name was lost to time, and not by chance.[3]
The archdevil Baalzebul was once an archon of Mount Celestia by the name of Triel.[3] Triel committed many selfish acts in his relentless quest for perfection, resulting in his fall from the Seven Heavens.[37] He awoke in the Nine Hells with the head of a fly, corrupted but empowered greatly by the transformation.[2] Asmodeus, perhaps due to his own familiarity with the long fall into Hell, rose the battered archon up, quickly promoting him to the ranks of nobility.[37]
Triel soon mastered infernal politics,[37] his interminable pursuit of perfection serving him well in scaling Hell's hierarchy, culminating in his overthrow of Maladomini's original lord. He not only became Lord of the Seventh, but expunged any record of his predecessor's identity and deeds, abandoning his former name himself and becoming Baalzebul. By the time he ruled Maladomini, he earned the title "Lord of the Flies", for his web of intrigue was purportedly so tight that not even a fly could escape.[3][37]
Maladomini's Fall
Eons passed as Baalzebul achieved many victories.[2] He managed to take control of the upper layer of Malbolge while retaining his grip on Maladomini, a feat no archdevil save arguably Asmodeus was known to have achieved, and became second only the King of Hell himself.[38] But Baalzebul's greatest weakness had never been his lacking competence, but his inability stop when he was ahead, his irrepressible need for total perfection in all his endeavors and the extreme actions it drove him to.[37]
For millennia Baalzebul longed for a city befitting his greatness. He commanded his subjects to build him city after city, but was never satisfied, declaring each and every one unworthy upon its completion.[1] Baalzebul could see the perfect city in his mind, but could not seem to bring it into fruition, and the problem only got worse with time[37] as he continually built and rebuilt the domains in the layer.[16] Somewhere along the way, fertile Maladomini[39] had become a place of despoiled land and ruined civilization. But its fall was not yet over.[14]
Reports somewhat conflicted on what exactly was the inciting incident for Maladomini's downfall. In some versions, he kicked off the Reckoning of Hell, where the archdevils openly warred to take Asmodeus's throne, and it reached its climatic conclusion in Maladomini.[40][36][41] In a more recent version, Baalzebul conspired to depose Asmodeus in such a way as to truly qualify as a crime: altering records in his ploy to cast his master as incompetent. This plot was foiled when an unexpected surge of the Blood War demanded his participation, and his initial refusal to send soldiers he was saving for his coup prompted an investigation that revealed his misdeeds. Baalzebul refused to submit to punishment, and the other archdevils attacked Maladomini.[6]
Reign of the Slug
Whatever the specifics of the situation, Baalzebul's realm was wracked by war and left in a state of utter devastation. And, whether for his move against Asmodeus, the insurmountable treachery of interfering with Hell's records, or for some other ineffable reason, Baalzebul was to suffer a series of punishments for his sins.[42][6][3]< Asmodeus stripped Baalzebul of control over Malbolge, but left him in charge of maintaining Maladomini and the infernal bureaucracy.[6] Furthermore, Asmodeus recast Baalzebul into a form reflective of his pestilent domain of garbage and filth, transforming him into a massive slug-like creature, and trapping him in that state a year for every lie he had ever told another devil, applied retroactively.[2][6][43]
Baalzebul was left to preside over the rotting cities of Maladomini,[44] his ability to scheme neutralized by his new limitations and his attention thus shifting to gathering souls from the Material Plane.[6] Yet the archduke never stopped his quest for the flawless configuration for his cities,[44] and oozed about Maladomini's cities searching the perfect combination of form and function.[26] But while the ancient cities might have been beacons of glory and triumph long ago, Baalzebul, in his devotion to spreading misery, ultimately beat the capacity to make such structures out of his petitioners.[9]
Oblivious to the decay of his old cities, Baalzebul always sought to improve new ones,[44] and his servants had little choice but to continue stripping bare what little of the land was left. But rather than actually demanding renovations, Baalzebul instead spread word through his pit fiend servants that new cities had to be built from scratch, the old to be left standing as reminders of work already done and rejected.[9] In some cases cities were to be built on new sites and the original structures remained intact if barely used,[22] but at some point it became common practice to cannibalize the old cities for raw materials, hastening their destruction.[1][9] Newer cities would be built upon the backs of the old[3] until they all ended up below the surface, save for one.[39]
Throughout it all, Baalzebul never truly gave up on the incomplete fortress-city of Malagard,[1][9][3] even after, upon being turned into a slug, his grand castle at its center collapsed into fecal sludge,[2] and by order of Asmodeus was to be constantly filled with garbage.[4] Perhaps more surprisingly, despite its capital having been reduced to excrement,[2] Malagard was still universally agreed to be Baalzebul's greatest city yet, even by those who had seen its older incarnations.[1][9]
Malagard was a city of perfectly straight boulevards and countless straightly-extending, black-spired towers connected by many open and covered bridge-spans crisscrossing and slanting in all directions.[3][14] It sprawled for thousands of miles, such were its numberless rooms and passages that not even Baalzebul himself was thought to have seen them all. No devil was thought to know its full dimensions and they seldom delved deep within it, to the point that escapees fled into the dungeons to escape.[14][16] Even as the rest of Maladomini was blighted, green things grew in its walls, a planar plant collection tended to by nupperibos supervised by osyluths, themselves watched by cornugons. Nearly all the layer's wealth made its way there, from tapestries to furniture to precious stones and metals.[14][18]
But just as none doubted Malagard was Baalzebul's greatest city, it was equally undisputed that he would reject it just as he did all others.[3][9] Whole rooms were choked with garbage and entire towers were crammed with stinking refuse even before Asmodeus cursed Baalzebul. Since none of the devils there could be bothered to repair anything, the broken, useless, filthy or dead was carried to neglected and unused areas by servant spinagons.[14] So unkempt was Malagard that many treasures thought lost and forgotten were actually being secretly hoarded by the cornugons in the garbage.[18] And so dire became the workers' dread that they slowed down in the final stages of construction, secretly self-sabotaging much of their work to delay the inevitable.[1]
Recent History
But the denizens of Maladomini could not stall forever, and were eventually forced to present their work to Baalzebul somewhere around the 14th century DR. And, just as all foresaw, Malagard too was ultimately rejected.[1][9][2] The incessant building and rebuilding of the city by the Slug Archduke eventually gave way to despair, and the once majestic city was left to slowly die. Still Baalzebul stayed there, often neglecting his depressing duties maintaining the Palace of Filth with his slime in favor of scheming for dominance, causing entire rooms to collapse and losing many great relics of power in the process.[2]
However, Maladomini's ultimate fate might still be changed. In the late 15th century DR, Baalzebul finally reverted to his previous fly-headed form, the abject humiliation forbidding him from extending the transformation with any further lies.[6][42] Maladomini was still a crumbling realm,[45] but Baalzebul had recently positioned himself as a patron of redemption.[6]
