Pantheon: Demon Lords

Pantheon: Demon Lords

While I am done with the truly divine part of the pantheon, I still have to cover three categories of quasi-divine beings that still can grant spells to their worshipers. Demon lords usually do not have a clear dogma, and their clerics take a generic demonic disadvantage for the Pact limitation or something appropriate to the goals of the demon lord.

Baphomet

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a twisted circular maze awash in blood

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): animal spells, spells that improve physical characteristics, enraging spells, navigation spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: minotaurs, beasts, ferocity

Worshipers: minotaurs, rangers, barbarians

Cruel and bestial Baphomet is the patron demon lord of minotaurs, although his feral nature appeals to evil rangers and barbarians.

A growing number of humanoid cultists have taken to his worship in poor rural areas. Desperate commoners sometimes turn to beast-cults organized by evil rangers who claim to venerate a nature deity who promises vengeance to those who have been wronged by the local government. These rangers call themselves the Temple of Redemption (or simply “Redeemers”). Rituals involving the decapitation of prize bulls are an important part of the Redeemer faith. It is said that those who listen at the mouth of a sacrificed bull can sometimes hear whispers of advice on how best to punish those who oppress the common folk. These whispers are, of course, the doubtful advice of Baphomet himself.

Baphomet regards several other demon lords with particular hatred, especially Graz’zt (who imprisoned Baphomet for some time recently) and Yeenoghu (with whom Baphomet has been at war for eons).

Baphomet’s driving goal is the destruction of his hated foe Yeenoghu. Neither demon lord remembers the genesis of this mutual hatred, but most of Baphomet’s actions on the Material Plane are tied in some way to his war efforts against the Demon Prince of Gnolls, be it the harvesting of fresh souls to fuel his Abyssal holdings to the acquisition of potent magic items to be transported into the hands of his most powerful agents and generals.

Dagon

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a set of six spiraling tentacles arrayed around a fanged mouth

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): water spells, knowledge spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: depths, ancient knowledge

Worshipers: aquatic demons, krakens, chuuls, sea hags, water nagas, kuo-toa

Ancient Dagon is among the oldest demon lords of the Abyss and the patron of those who dwell in the lightless depths of the sea.

Dagon has survived the rise of the tanar’ri in large part due to his isolationist nature. When the Queen of Chaos called upon the obyrith lords to aid her in her battle against the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, Dagon refused her call. Other obyriths did so as well, and the Queen destroyed them for their trouble. Dagon was powerful enough that the Queen dared not raise her tentacles against him. When the obyriths were defeated, Dagon knew his choice had been the right one.

Today, Dagon is held as an oracle and seer among the tanar’ri. They come to this ancient demon with offerings of weapons and sacrifices in return for ancient knowledge of the Abyss and its holdings that predate the rise of the tanar’ri. Dagon has built a mighty empire in his realm on these offerings and today is one of the mightiest demon lords in the Abyss. Dagon’s realm lies directly below Demogorgon’s, and the two have entered a strange sort of alliance.

Dagon is also venerated as a god by certain aquatic races. Kraken are known to worship him, as do some chuuls, sea hags, and water nagas. The most fanatic of Dagon’s Material Plane worshipers are certain ancient tribes of kuo-toa that dwell in the depths of the open sea and have never heard of Blibdoolpoolp.

Demogorgon

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a forked tail

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): animal spells, mind control spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: demons, beasts, corruption

Worshipers: demons, troglodytes, yuan-ti, ixitxachitl

The Prince of Demons holds his title through sheer might alone. His name alone can inspire a primal fear.

Demogorgon’s war with Orcus and Graz’zt has been epic in scope. Their armies have clashed throughout the Abyss since the dawn of the tanar’ri race. For a time, Orcus vanished, as did Graz’zt, yet never has the Abyss known complete peace from this eternal war.

Demogorgon is served by all manner of demons, some of which (such as the retriever) were actually created by him. Many powerful and unique demons serve him as well, and he commands armies of evil lizardfolk, scheming yuan-ti, sadistic troglodytes, vampiric ixitxachitl, and countless shoals of Abyssal aquatic predators. His close alliance with the ancient demon lord Dagon has provided him with access to Abyssal secrets that the other demon lords could only guess about. The methods of creating the powerful undead warlords known as death knights represent the least of these secrets, yet they are horrific and potent nevertheless.

Worshipers of Demogorgon are more likely to be scaly things that hide from the light than humans or members of other civilized races. Despite his statue in the Abyss, the vast majority of the Material Plane is blissfully ignorant of his existence, yet they know his works, if only indirectly. The troglodytes worship him as Ahmon-Ibor, the Sibilant Beast, and use his teachings to bring vile intelligence and fanaticism to the beasts of the wild. Yuan-ti know him as Siosivash and raise great temples to him in sunken caverns. The unknowable ixitxachitl are his chosen minions on the Material Plane, and even they dare not speak his name aloud. While humanoid cults dedicated to Demogorgon might be rare, individual humanoid worshipers of the Prince of Demons are more likely menaces. These followers often control the societies they live in or have much influence over those who do. They keep their faith secret from society, and use their power to spread evil and misery in his unspoken name.

Fraz-Urb’luu

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a jeweled scepter of adamantine cast at the end to resemble five bestial arms that splay outward to grip a horned and fanged humanoid skull

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): illusion spells, mind control spells

Portfolio: trickery, vengeance

Worshipers: illusionists, tricksters, rakshasas

Deceptive Fraz-Urb’luu is the patron demon lord of illusionists and tricksters, a wrathful prince who only recently escaped imprisonment on the Material Plane.

Fraz-Urb’luu counts no other demon lord as an ally, because his ability to deceive them and trick them makes him a particularly hated demon lord. He might be alone, but Fraz-Urb’luu remains one of the more powerful of the Abyssal lords nevertheless.

Fraz-Urb’luu prefers minions that play to his strengths of deception, seduction, and treachery. Succubi are one of his favorite tools, as are the sinister lilitu. He also commands a large number of chaotic evil rakshasas known as the Hollow Rajahs.

Fraz-Urb’luu’s cults are known as the Cults of Deception. A typical cult consists of a dozen of so members. Posing as benign sects of obscure deities, these cultists seduce and trick people into joining their ranks and offering their unknown worship to Fraz-Urb’luu. These poor folk are doomed the moment they join a cult, for eventually they are sacrificed or goaded into sacrificing themselves.

Graz’zt

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a black, six-fingered hand

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): communication and empathy spells, mind control spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: tyranny, temptation

Worshipers: tyrants, despots, tempters, lamias

Of the demon princes, none appears more human than Graz’zt, the Dark Prince, patron of tyrants, despots, and all those who would rule by force.

Graz’zt’s war with the other demon lords of the Abyss is legendary. He controls the largest kingdom - his realm covers three adjacent layers of the Abyss. Unfortunately, control of a larger realm doesn’t exactly translate into an advantage to a demon lord.

Graz’zt’s goal is nothing less than total conquest of the Abyss. He despises the fact that Demogorgon is known as the Prince of Demons - he covets that title more than anything else.

Although a master tactician and accomplished swordfighter, Graz’zt’s true strengths lie in seduction and guile. It is not by force alone, he realizes, that one can win control, but by controlling those who think they are in control. He enjoys the notion that he is the most intelligent, cunning creature in the Abyss; certainly, there are few who can match him in this arena (with the possible exceptions of Malcanthet and Pazuzu).

Unlike many other Demon Princes, Graz’zt pays a great deal of attention (through spies, mostly) to what goes on in the Material Plane. He is fond of trading favors with mortals, giving aid or information now for services to be demanded later.

Graz’zt’s cult is small except among certain monstrous races such as the lamias. Most of his priests, known as the Chosen, are female - a testament to his insatiable libido, although the Dark Prince has been known to take on male priests as well.

Graz’zt enjoys contrasts, oppositions, and mismatches others find jarring or disgusting. Despite his fantastic wealth and love of the grotesque, he lives fairly simply. Wily and cunning, he keeps his mind clear from distractions so he can focus on claiming more land and minions by defeating his enemies, one at a time.

Juiblex

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a pseudopod dripping slime

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-40%): acid spells, slime spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: ooze, slime

Worshipers: deranged cultists, sentient slimes

Juiblex, the wretched Faceless Lord, cares little for cultists or companionship. Yet still, there are those who find reasons to worship the lord of slime.

Of all the demon lords of the Abyss, Juiblex is perhaps the simplest (and therefore easiest to understand) in his goals. Put simply, Juiblex has no goals other than to simply exist, destroying and killing and corroding anything he can get his tendrils around. He hates everything and revels only in destruction.

Juiblex shares the 222nd layer of the Abyss with Zuggtmoy, the Lady of Fungi. The two demons have a long history of conflict and war, with Juiblex’s constant attempts to surge upward into Zuggtmoy’s holdings a constant source of contention between the two. Other demons despise and loathe Juiblex, yet most see him as a faceless menace that poses a threat only to those foolish enough to stand in front of him, and they wisely choose to leave him alone.

There is no organized cult of Juiblex, although a few demented souls do revere the Faceless Lord as a god. It’s doubtful that Juiblex knows of these few, and if he does, he certainly doesn’t encourage them or reward their loyalty. His primary minions are the countless slimes, oozes, and jellies that shudder in the depths of his realm.

Kostchtchie

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a hammer rimed in bloody ice

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): cold spells, spells that improve physical characteristics, demon summoning spells, enraging spells, disfiguring spells

Portfolio: wrath, conquest, winter

Worshipers: frost giants, ogres

The deformed demon-giant Kostchtchie rules the polluted frozen reaches of the Iron Wastes. He is the patron of frost giants and the lord of wrath and rage.

Kostchtchie’s wrath and hate are legendary in the Abyss. He has no allies among the other demon lords, but is allowed to rule his realm with little interference as a result of his ruinous temper. This realm is utterly and completely under his command, yet Kostchtchie remains unsatisfied with its power. His giants conquer and claim a distant mountain in his name, yet from that mountain’s peak the Prince of Wrath can always see one more mountain farther out that remains unclaimed. Worse, he is constantly aware of the simple fact that there exists elsewhere in the multiverse legions of frost giants who do not revere him as their master. The concept that these “lost children” exist enrages Kostchtchie like nothing else, and so he spends much of his time plotting incursions into regions on other planes. If he can avoid it, Kostchtchie prefers to convert new tribes of frost giants without slaughtering them. Kostchtchie has a particular hatred of frost giant tribes who worship other deities and often launches assaults on these tribes simply to discourage such heretical acts.

Most of Kostchtchie’s cultists are frost giants, although it’s not unheard-of for particularly brutal tribes of humanoid or ogre barbarians to venerate him as well.

Malcanthet

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: an iron thorn drawing a drop of blood from the lower edge of a pair of feminine lips

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): body control spells, mind control spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: trickery, temptation, pleasure

Worshipers: courtesans, hedonists, nobles

As seductive as she is dangerous, Malcanthet is the patron of the hedonistic, the lustful, and those who would use their beauty and magic charms to control and ruin those around them.

            Among the demon lords, Malcanthet’s greatest allegiances are with her sometime lovers Pazuzu (with whom she has sired numerous particularly deadly succubi children) and Demogorgon (with whom she has sired things best left unmentioned). She has had trysts with most of the other demon lords, although these were idle affairs engineered by the Queen of the Succubi to gain some favor or prize.

            She has long been in conflict with Yeenoghu, and her only contact with him now is when she sends armies to his realm to assault his kingdom (or vice versa). The exact source of their conflict is unclear, but it seems tied to a powerful family of wizards who dwelt years ago in a massive castle on the Material Plane.

            Only her relationship with Graz’zt is worse. Malcanthet maintains that she spurned Graz’zt for being unworthy of her attentions eons ago when he tried to court her, and that his wounded pride created the legendary rift between the two. Graz’zt, of course, maintains the opposite. In any event, the conflict between these two is less one of open warfare and more one of constant scheming on how best to upset and ruin the other’s realms and plans.

Malcanthet has many cults on the Material Plane – groups of courtesans, hedonists, and bored nobles seeking a dangerous thrill to add to their lives.

Obox-ob

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a scorpion dangling by its tail from a jawless human skull covered with twisted runes

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-20%): animal spells, poison spells, body control spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: demons, vermin

Worshipers: arthropods

Primeval and ruinous, the obyrith prince Obox-ob was once the Prince of Demons in an ancient age. His power is much diminished today, yet his lust for its return grows with every passing second. He is the lord of vermin and patron of those who see divinity in their repugnant frames.

            Obox-ob once held the title Prince of Demons during the Age before Ages, when the Abyss was ruled by the obyriths. He had this title stolen from him by the Queen of Chaos, who killed him and granted his title to Miska the Wolf-Spider. Although Obox-ob was slain, his most powerful aspect survived and went into hiding on a deep layer of the Abyss. For many eons, Obox-ob lurked here, a shadow without a true form. In time, he grew bold and emerged from hiding, only to find the Abyss had moved on in his absence. The tanar’ri now ruled, and Obox-ob had been forgotten.

            Obox-ob is not content to rule his realm and constantly rages across the face of this layer, bringing destruction and ruin to the ekolids who dwell there and worship his fury. Reduced to the Prince of Vermin, Obox-ob wants nothing less than to murder Demogorgon, claim his title, and then cleanse the Abyss of the taint of tanar’ri and return it to obyrith rule. But before he launches this plan, he first seeks to reclaim the true power he held so long ago.

            Obox-ob’s search for power extends to the Material Plane. On some Material Plane worlds, his cult is quite powerful. These cults maintain a low profile, often basing their activities in ruined cities lost in vast deserts, where they can be close to the scorpions so sacred to his faith.

Orcus

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a skul-headed rod

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-40%): necromantic spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: undeath, revenge

Worshipers: demons, necromancers, undead

Orcus is a massive, bloated demon prince - bloated on spite, bile, and contempt. Once complacent, his wars against Demogorgon and Graz’zt waning, he was murdered and deposed. But then Orcus rose from the dead as an undead demon and took the name Tenebrous, hiding in the shadows, waiting to take his revenge. Now he has reinstated himself in his former position and taken up residence in Naratyr, his terrible fortress-city in the Abyss on Thanatos (the layer he rules). Once again, he finds himself in a struggle for dominance with many of the other demon lords. He is no longer content to grow old and fat feeding on larvae in his castle. Orcus lives in the Abyss. While not an actual god quite yet, Orcus is worshiped as a god more often than any of the other demon princes. Although Demogorgon might actually be more powerful, Orcus is closer to ascending to true godhood. The cult of Orcus is widespread among other groups as well, with a more significant following among humanoids than most demon princes. In particular, orcs, half-orcs, ogres, and giants revere Orcus, as well as corrupt and despicable humans.

Orcus is, in many ways, a contradictory figure. He does not delight in his charges, the undead, and has not taken up the self-proclaimed mantle of “Prince of the Undead” out of devotion or allegiance. If anything, the demon lord despises the undead - he has little but contempt for them and uses them without thought or consideration. Of course, Orcus despises the living as well. He hates everything and everyone, often being almost overwhelmed with revulsion and loathing. He craves only personal power and the spread of misery and destruction for all others.

Dogma: Orcus has set his worshipers the task of increasing the level of his own worship across all lands, killing those who resist - including the followers of other evil deities, especially Iloret and M’shesh. Typical quests include attacking a rival Iloret-cultist compound, raiding a church of the Shining One to destroy its sacred items, and building or opening portals or gates from the Abyss to the Material Plane.

Pale Night

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a billowing white sheet draped over a starry field

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): body control spells, knowledge spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: demons, corruption

Worshipers: demons, harpies, lamias

Mysterious and enigmatic, Pale Night claims to be the mother of many demon lords - certainly she is one of the oldest of their ilk.

            Pale Night is an enigma. An obyrith who was ancient even during  that race’s reign on the Abyss, Pale Night dwells in a bone castle located on the 600^th layer of the Abyss since long before Baphomet claimed that layer as his own.

            On the Material Plane, Pale Night’s cult is virtually unknown. Cultists that do exist are few in number, usually consisting of only three or four spellcasters who seek ways of introducing horrific new races of demonic terror on the world by impregnating female creatures of all kinds with raw Abyssal chaos. The issue of these births is always a half-fiend, and often one with unique and distinctive abilities beyond the norm for their kind.

Pazuzu

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a twisted bird talon

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): air spells, mind control spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: temptation, corruption, sky

Worshipers: evil aerial creatures, desperate cultists

Mighty Pazuzu is one of the oldest of the tanar’ri princes. His realm is the skies above the Abyssal layers, and he takes great delight in the corruption of purity.

            Although Pazuzu commands the respect and loyalty of all evil things that fly in the Abyssal skies, he is rarely forced to call upon these creatures. Perhaps alone in the Abyss, Pazuzu has no active enemies. The other demon lords seem to begrudgingly award him the skies above their realms, if only because there seems to be little there to claim.

            Pazuzu lusts for innocence, purity, and honesty. These sweet nectars are his greatest vice, and as he consumes them, he leaves bitterness, cruelty, and wickedness in the shells of those he has corrupted. Since these qualities are so alien in the Abyss, he logically has little interest in what dwells therein and instead turns his attentions to the Material Plane. Pazuzu has tested his ability to manifest on Material Plane worlds without drawing the undue attention of the gods who protect them for some time, and in that time has mastered the art of telling mortals what they think they want to hear.

Pazuzu’s cults start with a single soul who cries out to the demon prince for aid. Pazuzu gives this aid, and those who call on him grow dependent on his aid. They crave the power his touch can bring. Within a year, those who have called upon him invariably join or found a new cult dedicated to his teachings, where they seek to capture and convert new innocents to his vile worship.

Sess’innek

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: clawed green reptilian hand

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-20%): mind control, water, darkness spells

Portfolio: civilization, dominion, lizardfolk

Worshipers: khaastas, lizardfolk, lizard kings

Sess'innek is a tanar'ri demon lord worshiped by the lizardfolk as a deity of civilization and dominion. Sess'innek is revered by both khaasta and half-demonic lizard kings, and thus by extension their tribes. Such tribes generally have only a single lizard king ruler and those who fail to prove worthy of ruling are killed and sacrificed to Sess'innek. The exceptions are those that elected to become priests instead of leaders although most were too prideful to take such a route.

Sess'innek has few priests at this point with the vast majority of them being lizard kings, the descendants of lizardfolk and demons loyal to Sess'innek. Sess'innek requires his priests to be aggressive in spreading his faith, and to slay clerics of Semuanya on sight. Lizardfolk druids are also occasionally incorporated into the hierarchy of Sess'innek.

Turaglas

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: black circle with teeth pointing inwards along the circumference

Home plane: Abyss

Portfolio: destruction, hunger

Domain (-30%): food spells, acid spells

Worshipers: insane cultists

Turaglas is the largest of the demon lords: a fleshy mass of eyes and mouths, not unlike a gigantic gibbering mouther. Its form constantly shifts, rendering precise measurements impossible, but it averages several dozens of feet on a side. Its hide ranges from a sickly green to the pallid gray of a rotting corpse, while its eyes cover all hues of the spectrum. For thousands of years, Turaglas has been bound between worlds, trapped in slumber that, while deep, has not prevented traces of his power and rage. It is a demon lord that seeks to consume everything, be it living or not.

Yeenoghu

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a triple-headed flail

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): animal spells, malign body control spells, enraging spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: gnolls, fury

Worshipers: gnolls

Savage and ruthless, Yeenoghu is the patron of all gnolls. One of Yeenoghu’s great desires is to see to the prosperity of his people, the gnolls. He envisions a Material Plane dominated by his children, where elves and humans and dwarves and halflings are slaves at best and food at worst. Yet he realizes that all the gnolls in the Material Plane could not achieve such a goal - as a result, he actively supports cultists of other races who turn to him for support.

Only Yeenoghu’s eternal war with Baphomet nears the level of his hatred for Malcanthet. The source of the conflict between the Prince of Gnolls and the Prince of Beasts is unclear, likely forgotten even by the two demon lords themselves, yet they show no signs of ceasing their eternal hostilities.

Yeenoghu demands living sacrifices in remote wilderness regions on altars of crude stone. His faithful wear dark brown robes accented by mangy yellow furs. They are not allowed to clean these robes, and in time they grow horrific with clotted blood and foul odors.

Zuggtmoy

Demon lord

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a jawless human skull with a large mushroom growing out from within

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): acid spells, fungus spells, plant spells, demon summoning spells

Portfolio: fungi

Worshipers: fungal creatures, cultists

Zuggtmoy has a dangerous interest in the Material Plane, where her secretive and foul cults are behind far more of the world’s ills than one might guess.

            Zuggtmoy has long struggled with maintaining viable cults on the Material Plane; as it turns out, most humanoids have little interest in worshiping fungi. To combat this, she often establishes cover cults that are subservient to her actual worshipers.

            Zuggtmoy often finds herself at odds with other demon lords who share similar interests in the Material Plane. For some time, Lolth was her greatest competition for dominance of the Underdark, but the Spider Queen’s recent ascension as a deity has effectively elevated her out of contention. Cultists of the two still clash now and then, but these are minor skirmishes rather than a war. Of more immediate concern to Zuggtmoy is Juiblex, who shares her realm. The two demon lords have long warred for dominance over Shedaklah, with Zuggtmoy traditionally holding control over its surface and Juiblex being forced to lurk in the deepest caverns below. With Zuggtmoy’s recent period of imprisonment on the Material Plane, Juiblex was able to greatly expand his hold on Shedaklah.