Dread (demon)

Dreads were demons from the Abyssal layer of Belistor that fed on souls.

Description
In their home on Belistor, dreads looked like bluish-gray, winged, and slightly malformed humanoids with long arms ending in long, gray claws. Their faces were ovoid with round eyes and a thin slit for a mouth. Where lesser dreads were thin and wiry, greater dreads were powerfully muscled and much larger. On the Prime Material plane, dreads looked like featureless, black humanoids, their form oscillating between physical presence and pure emptiness, like living shadows.

Unlike most other demons, dreads fed directly on souls. They had an intense craving for mortal souls, mostly to satisfy the emptiness inside of them rather than from a need for sustenance. Dreads especially favored human souls, which had a sweeter and more complex taste than other souls, and were also more sating. Souls that had been "corrupted" in undeath were considered unpalatable.

Dreads communicated using telepathy.

Abilities
Because their home layer of Belistor was in close proximity to the Negative Energy plane, dreads were suffused with negative energy. Although this granted dreads many of their powers, it also meant they were highly sensitive to positive energy and needed to shield themselves when visiting any plane that wasn't either Belistor or the Negative Energy plane. Apart from that, dreads were completely immune to poison and electricity, and highly resistant to any damage from cold, fire, and acid. They could only be harmed by magical weapons.

The touch of a greater dread could cause a potent effect similar to the spell enervation; those affected would become severely weakened unless the greater dread was slain or if they were immediately moved over away from the demon.

Greater dreads commanded a number of potent spell-like abilities, such as blasphemy, deeper darkness, desecrate, detect good, detect law, fear, fire storm, greater dispelling, implosion, magic missile, pyrotechnics, read magic, suggestion, symbol, telekinesis, teleport without error, tongues, unhallow, unholy aura, unholy blight, and wall of fire. They also continually detected magic in their vicinity.

Additionally, a greater dread could instantly transform living creatures into ghasts. These undead would not be under the dread's complete control, but certainly could be influenced by it. Greater dreads could also open gates to Belistor, through which they could summon one or two lesser dreads every day.

Finally, greater dreads could evoke a wave of pure negative energy around them, causing any living creature struck to suffer effects similar to a potent energy drain spell.

Lesser dreads possessed only some of the the powers of greater dreads; they had no spell-like abilities, could not open gates to Belistor, could not create ghasts, and could not create waves of negative energy.

Personality
Dreads viewed mortals as nothing more than livestock, and had nothing but contempt for them.

Combat
In combat, dreads enjoyed terrifying their opponents. Dreads never used weapons, preferring to attack using their claws to cause the enervation effect in their victims before feasting on their souls.

Society
All dreads resided in Belistor, which was the domain of the demon lord Yrsillar.

History
The first dread known to have been summoned to Toril was Yrsillar himself, when he was summoned by the drow wizard Avarix to kill members of a rival household. The greater dread was in extreme pain from exposure to the Prime Material plane, but ultimately completed the task and won his freedom from Avarix.

Over six hundred years later, in Hammer of, Yrsillar was summoned to the city of Selgaunt in Sembia by Krollir Venasten, a priest of Mask and the leader of the thieves' guild known as the Night Knives. Venasten hoped to use the demon to crush the Zhentarim leadership in the city, allowing his own guild to rise in prominence. Unfortunately, the summoning ritual was disrupted by one of Venasten's lieutenants, Drasek Riven, who was a double agent for the Zhents. Suddenly freed, Yrsillar turned on Venasten and took possession of his body as Riven fled.

Yrsillar was surprised to find that he felt no pain while inhabiting the body of Venasten, and so he resolved to stay on Toril and feast. He summoned a pair of lesser dreads, Araniskeel and Greeve, and took control over the Night Knives through a combination of murdering its members and turning them into ghasts. The dreads terrorized Selgaunt for a short while, but were ultimately defeated by Erevis Cale, a butler who had become the champion of Mask, and Jak Fleet, a Harper thief. Yrsillar was banished back to Belistor.

Notable Dreads

 * Yrsillar, a greater dread and the demon lord of Belistor.
 * Araniskeel and Greeve, lesser dreads in the service of Yrsillar.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Shadow's Witness