Devil

Devils were a lawful evil race of fiends who hailed from the Nine Hells of Baator.

Personality
Devils were bullies. They were vicious creatures who were capable of attacking and killing people for essentially no reason.

Combat
Devils often had magical abilities. A large number of devils had an aura of fear, which they used to split enemy groups apart. Most devils had some kind of illusion abilities, which were used to sow confusion among their enemies. A common use of these illusory powers was to create illusory support for themselves. They abused their enemies' inability to distinguish between illusory and real summoned support.

Society
The vast majority of devils were baatezu. They lived in strict caste society. Devils continuously tried to improve their station in life. The measure by which promotion was granted was the number of mortals swayed to corruption.

Economy

 * Souls:The devils' economy primarily worked on souls that provided their world with energy. In order to change a soul's destination from the Fugue Plane to Baator, they corrupted mortals while they were still alive. Once they died, they were collected and tortured. This torture was done to wring out magical energy from the soul and once every single drop was wrung out, the soul was reborn as a lemure, a new member of infernal society.
 * Other Currency:The devil's economy primarily ran on souls, but money, precious metals, other goods were not ignored and used for trade, but devils saw no intrinsic value in these goods. Their value lay in their use to gain souls. For example, devils required money to finance their actions on the Material Plane. Starting with financing cults, they needed currency to pay off officials, pay for services like assassinations, simply to pay for goods. Among the goods they bought were the souls of people who sold theirs for money, information, magic, or other goods. Among the offered goods to the mortals were the devils' service to the mortals. Devils funneled the money they obtained into Baator, so it could be distributed to others or used it for their own projects. The former methods garnered them credits that could eventually lead to promotion.

Hierarchy
The devils had a number of castes. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the least devils. They were treated badly by all others and the numbers of advancement opportunities were very limited. Above the least were the lesser devils. Generally, they were employed in the soul trade, a field where advancement opportunities were numerous. Above the least were the greater devils headed by the pit fiends. They were the ones who held a high degree of authority in the infernal society. However, they were not the top. That position was held by the archdevils who were directly served by unique devils holding the title of duke. Among the Lord of the Nine, Asmodeus, the top of that group, was a class onto himself.

As a general rule, as higher a devil stood as more chances for further advancement existed. However, as higher a devil stood as more oversight a devil had to suffer more oversight at the hands of its superiors and with it were more exposed to the prospect of punishment and demotion. As a result, high-ranking devils were fearful of demotion and vented their fears on their subordinates in a violent manner. This made said subordinates act in a similar maner towards their subordinates and so on until the literal bottom of the hierarchy was met.


 * Promotion:Promotion, meaning transformation from one devil form to a higher one, was done when a devil's superior thought that it merited promotion, the superior's superior could reverse the decision any time. However, the promotion within least devil-status was very rarely intervened for it was considered to low a station to be concerned with. Promotion to any of the lesser devil-status required the promoted devil's greater devil superior to agree with it, while promotion to greater devil-status required the archdevil the promoted devil served to agree. When the devil was somehow not sure which archdevil it was serving, Asmodeus was considered the default lord to report to. Rising to the status of a unique devil required the agreement of an archdevil, to become a normal duke being a pit fiend was enough. To become an archdevil, Asmodeus needed to agree to the promotion.


 * The standards a devil needed to meet to be promoted was to show loyalty to its superior and its performance in its duties. The former was valued higher than the latter. The devils considered someone who was competent enough to do its job but who was at the same time not a danger to its superior's position an ideal subordinate. Due to this reason, high-ranking devils tried to maintain comparatively few subordinates, lest the number would exceed their ability to keep tabs on them to prevent treasonous activities. Combined with the fact that promotion was combined with spending a lot of power harvested from souls, the upper rung of infernal hierarchy was comparatively stable. Normally, promotion was done when there a position became free. This happened when a devil died or was demoted. Some devils tried to facilitate the former, which was punished with death, and therefore carried a lot of risks. Another valid method for devils was to wait until the latter happened. That said, successful devils promoted more frequently and to new positions they created to fill management positions.


 * When a devil managed to corrupt a mortal, his or her soul landed in Baator on death. Such souls had a unique mark that could be attributed to the devil that was then credited with the corruption of the mortal. Another form of accruing credits was to provide Baator with material goods. This form of gaining credits was not held as high as providing Baator with souls but devils who were looking for ways to improve their résumé did this nonetheless.


 * Demotion:Every devil was entitled to demote a devil that was its subordinate. Asmodeus could demote any devil he wanted, an archdevil was allowed to demote an devil that could trace a line of authority back to the archdevil that wanted to demote somebody, and greater and lesser devil were only allowed to demote those that were under its direct command.


 * That said, demotions were generally not done out of a whim. They were usually a form of punishment. Demotion to nupperibo-status was the most dreaded one. However, there was one reason to demote somebody that was not a form of punishment. As mentioned above, promotion required the expenditure of a lot of energy, demotion freed energy to be used for something else. Devils whose operations did not work as intended, tried to collect additional energy for their work by demoting its subordinates. This prospect of demotion for energy-harvest purposes was great motivator for devils to work hard.


 * Lateral Demotion:A unique form of demotion that existed within infernal society was the one called lateral demotion. There were a few forms within the infernal hierarchy that were technically fairly high in the hierarchy but were not very popular among the devils. These forms came with immense physical but negligible mental capabilities making it difficult for them to advance further. As a general rule, devils wanted to gain positions that allowed them to have a keen mind over physical strength with a dull mind. Being advanced to such a form was called lateral demotion.


 * The reason why lateral demotion was done for various reasons. First, from time to time, there was genuine need for physically strong servants. Second, lateral demotion allowed a superior to effectively put a problematic subordinate temporarily out of the game, as one might imagine, it was often a means used against subordinates who were suspected of treason. It allowed the superior to confirm its suspicions and kill the traitor or confirm that they held no water and revert the promotion, thus allowing the superior the excuse that it never treated its subordinates in any unfair manner. It was a generally accepted excuse, albeit grudgingly.

Relationships

 * Deities:Some deities lived on Baator. While fights between infernal forces and that of evil gods' happened from time to time, they generally were not on the level of the battles between Baator and the Abyss. The reason for this was that both Baator and the deities had an additional enemy in the form of the forces of good and resolving this conflict was a matter that was to be done after the forces of good were done away with.

History
There were various stories about the origins of the devils.

Origin Story - Pact Primeval
According to one origin story, the devils were originally angels that were created to fight for the cause of law against demons for the deities for they wanted to do something else than fighting the fiends. The most effective at it was an angel called Asmodeus. Those angels who followed that one were the future devils.

Types of devils
There were many different kinds of devils, including some subcategories.
 * Baatezu :
 * The most common and numerous race of devils.


 * Abishai :
 * Abishai were a subgroup of baatezu created by Tiamat.

Other Devils

 * Imp- small, weak devils with bat-likes wings and a venomous, scorpion-like tail.
 * Hellcat- also called bezekira, hellcats were massive, stealthy feline devils.
 * Hellwasp devil- large, wasp-like devils with a hive mind and alien intelligence.
 * Chain devil
 * Fimbrul devil- icy, humanoid devils that could sap heat from living beings.
 * Seared devil- humanoid devils that appeared horribly burned.
 * Tar devil- humanoid, horned devils that oozed a tar-like substance from their skin.
 * Succubus

Archdevils
Archdevils, also called the Lords of the Nine, were the the rulers of the devils and of Baator (the Nine Hells). They were each powerful, unique devils and were also archfiends.