List of demon lords

Of the various archfiends, demon lords were without a doubt the most numerous, with no fixed number or known limit to their numbers. They were powerful, unique demons that ruled over their lesser kin and controlled portions of or even entire layers of the Abyss.

This list details many of the lesser-known demon lords, and excludes the more infamous demon princes and obyrith lords written of elsewhere.

Abraxas
Abraxas, called The Unfathomable, was a demon lord associated with magic words, arcane secrets, and talismans. He ruled Death's Reward, the 17 layer of the Abyss.

Adimarchus
Adimarchus, called the Prince of Madness, was a demon lord associated with insanity. He ruled Occipitus, the 507 layer of the Abyss.

Ahazu
Ahazu, called The Seizer, was a demon lord associated with night and abduction.

Ahrimanes
Ahrimanes, called Chief of the Cacodaemons, was a demon lord associated with exiles and wanderers. He ruled Ahriman-abad, the 452 layer of the Abyss. He was known to have a iron fortress in which he kept his body while astrally traveling.

Aldinach
Aldinach, called The Lady of Change, was a demon lord associated with transformation. She dwelled on Pazunia.

Alrunes
Alrunes, called The Soothing Spirit, was a demon lord associated with sisterhood and protection. What layer she ruled or dwelled on was unrecorded.

Alvarez
Alvarez, called The Purging Duke, was a demon lord associated with inquisitions and torture. He ruled Torturous Truth, the 57 layer of the Abyss.

Alzrius
Alzrius, called the Lord of Infernal Light, was a demon lord associated with fire and destruction. It ruled Conflagratum, the 601 layer of the Abyss.

Anarazel
Anarazel, called The Daring Darkness, was a demon lord associated with adventurers. He ruled The Emessu Tunnels, the 79 layer of the Abyss.

Ansitif
Ansitif, called The Befouler or more rarely Ansitif of the Shining Void, was one of the first tanar'ri demon lords to rise after the fall of the obyriths, and he quickly seized control of the Sixth Pyre, the 21 layer of the Abyss. Whereas most demon lords sought divinity for themselves, Ansitif loathed the very existence of deities and, unable to challenge them directly, took out his fury by corrupting and destroying religious sites and sacred relics. It was said that at the height of his power, his layer was littered with broken relics and ruined temples of countless faiths. He was also said to have enjoyed the company of succubi, that he was one of Malcanthet's first lovers, and that the first lilitu were born as a result of their meetings. However, he was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals; in his case, he was imprisoned in the The Wells of Darkness and became a vestige.

Ardat
Ardat, called The Unavowed and the Queen of Harpies, was a demon lord associated with secret or failing marriages and harpies. She resembled a harpy with raven-black feathers and three heads; the head on the left was that of a beautiful woman, the middle head was a normal fanged harpy head, and the head on the right was that of a twisted old crone. Most of her worshipers were harpies, as well as a few sirens and demented humanoids. Her favorite cultists and minions were the Soul Sirens, a cabal of half-fiend harpies; after Baphoment betrayed her and several of the Soul Sirens, she became obsessed with vengeance against him. Sacrifices to Ardat were lashed to thorn trees, flayed, and left to die of exposure; harpies typically sang to keep the victim enthralled during the ritual. In the Abyss, Ardat was a nomadic demon lord, with her favorite haunts being the Grand Abyss, the Plains of Gallenshu, the shores of the Scalding Sea, and Torremor (after Baphomet betrayed her, an act which led many to think she was trying to ally with Pazuzu against the Prince of Beasts).

Arendagrost
Arendagrost, called the Maw of the Abyss and the Tarrasque of the Great Wheel, was the eldest offspring of Malcanthet and Demogorgon. A massive, writhing tangle of tentacles with three heads, a savage, seemingly-mindless being of pure hate, Arendagrost was imprisoned in secret in Abysm for an age, for it was so abominable that even Demogorgon could not bear to look upon it. However, it was later released by Demogorgon's general Lord Kargoth as part of an unholy ritual that lead to Arendagrost cutting a swathe of destruction through a kingdom on Oerth. Its eventual defeat there banished it back to the Gaping Maw for a century, but not before it had proved its worth to the Prince of Demons. He gave it a lair in his realm, under a fortress where it would help guard an approach to his capital, and also used it to dispose of powerful prisoners.

After its first term of banishment ended, Demogorgon began carefully unleashing Arendagrost against enemies: both on other layers of the Abyss- both Graz'zt and Orcus had fought Arendagrost, and Orcus had slain it twice, but always at great cost in servants- and against other planes; legend spoke of a small Material world that was cold and dead after it incurred Demogorgon's wrath and he let Arendagrost loose on it for a century.

Arendagrost could kill with its very gaze, but delighted more in the destruction its three breathe weapons caused; creatures that begged for mercy or shook in terror only amused it. It only ever withdrew from combat on Demogorgon's direct order. Thankfully, Arendagrost did not seem able to produce offspring of its own, and since it tried to destroy all other beings it encountered, that was unlikely to be proven incorrect. It did not need to eat or sleep, but ate fallen enemies anyway. It could only be permanently killed in the Gaping Maw.

Arlgolcheir
Argolcheir was a dead demon lord imprisoned in The Wells of Darkness.

Arzial
Arzial, called the The Blooded Baron, was a demon lord associated with subterfuge who lived in Azzagrat. He was a servant and son of Graz'zt, albeit one of the less ambitious and least accomplished of the Dark Prince's offspring, and ruled the barony of Vulderpayne in a remote part of Pazunia.

Aseroth
Aseroth, called The Winter Warlock, was a demon lord associated with ice and cold. He ruled Soulfreeze, the 566 layer of the Abyss.

Astaroth
Astaroth, called Diabolus, was a long-dead demon lord associated with prophecy.

Azael
Azael, called The Ensnared, was a dead demon lord associated with rebellion and war. He once ruled the Death Dells, which were then called the Savage Searing, a wasteland desert of shifting dunes and ruined cities. A powerful fallen angel and hero of the Upheaval, he was revered by a great cult on the Material plane. However, the godkiller Ma Yuan attacked and slew him, leaving nothing but an oily black stain on the plaza he once ruled from, though his influence in the Death Dells lingered even into Yeenoghu's reign.

Azazel
Azazel, called the Prince of Scapegoats, was a demon lord associated with both blame and absolution. He ruled Outcasts' End, the 137 layer of the Abyss.

Azuvidexus
Azuvidexus, called the Ravenous Maw, was a demon lord of primeval beasts and scaled nightmares. He was once one of Demogorgon's most potent rivals, until the Prince of Demons tricked him into crossing a particularly territorial pantheon of deities who destroyed him and his realm, N'gharl, which was then the 230 layer of the Abyss. However, after the deities cast the compacted N'gharl onto the Astral plane, Demogorgon retrieved it and placed it on the Material plane, where it warped the jungle around it until a crazed tyrannosaurus ate it- and became Azuvidexus reborn, but as a servant of Demogorgon.

Baltazo
Baltazo, called The Seeping Sovereign, was a demon lord associated with diplomacy and strategy. He ruled a fortress on Pazunia.

Barbu
Barbu, called The Unwelcome Guest, was a demon lord associated with discord and ruined peace. What layer she ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded.

Bayemon
Bayemon of the Unhealing Wound was a demon lord associated with the afflicted. What layer he ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded. He was a bat-like demon lord whose still-living head hung from the ceiling of the eighth level of Kostchtchie's citadel. Perhaps even more infamously, he was one of the few entities to have escaped The Wells of Darkness.

Charun
Charun, called The Hammerer, was a demon lord associated with massacres. What layer he ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded.

Cormanda
Cormanda was a plaguechanged demon lord trapped in Mount Cormanda after his lower body fused with the mountain's lava tube.

Cynshyra
Cyndshyra of the Seven Torments was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals.

Eblis
Eblis of the Unbended Knee was a demon lord associated with the refusal to surrender. He lived on Pazunia. He was known to have a iron fortress in which he left his physical body while astrally traveling.

Ebulon
Ebulon was a demon lord who rose to power fighting in the armies of Graz'zt and eventually became a general in the Dark Prince's service before Graz'zt had even conquered Azzagrat. However, Ebulon was defeated during a battle against Demogorgon, who dumped his barely-living body into a pool in the Wells of Darkness with the intention of using Ebulon as a tool against Graz'zt, a plan he soon forgot after stationing a maelephant as the pool's sole guard. Graz'zt, on his part, sought to rescue Ebulon out of a sense best described as loyalty, although Ebulon himself resented the long imprisonment and knew many secrets of Graz'zt's past that could be used against the demon prince.

Eldanoth
Eldanoth, called The Bloodless Scion, was a demon lord associated with crime. He ruled The Arc of Eternity. He was a former slave of Orcus who escaped when the goddess Kiaransalee destroyed that demon prince, after which he fled to the Arc of Eternity. Eldanoth aspired to become a god of crime and hatred, and he had many adherents of the layer of Thanatos amongst the demonic cultists there, to whom he had become something of a folk hero to during Orcus's exile. Of course, Orcus erased all of Eldanoth's following upon his return (although some sacred texts and dark hymnals remained). Eldanoth resembled a cheerful male tiefling with snakes growing from his fingertips, and his symbol was a snake wreathed in blue flame.

Eltab
Eltab, called the Lord of the Hidden Layer, was a demon lord associated with hatred and retribution. He ruled The Hidden Layer.

Felex'ja
Felex'ja the Tiger King was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals.

Gresil
Gresil, called the Custodian of Records, was a demon lord associated with Abyssal lore. What layer he ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded. He possessed millions of books in his great library; one theorized way to destroy the artifact Kuroth's Quill was to use it to transcribe all of Gresil's books.

Haagenti
Haagenti, called the Lord of Alchemy, was a demon lord associated with alchemy. He ruled Garavond. He was an ally of the demon prince Zuggtmoy.

Ilsidahur
Ilsidahur, called The Howling King, was a demon lord associated with barlgura. He ruled The Guttering Grove.

Ixinix
Ixinix the Lord of Blackwater was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals.

J'zzalshrak
J'zzalshrak, called The Errant General, was a demon lord associated with Blood War campaigns. What layer she ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded.

Kardum
Kardum, called the Lord of Balors, was a demon lord associated with balor demons and fire. He was originally the most powerful general of Ansitif the Befouler before betraying him after the defeat of the Malgoth and taking his layer, The Sixth Pyre, as his own.

Kerzit
Kerzit, called the Guardian of the Tome, was a demon lord associated with the Tome of the Black Heart. What layer he ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded.

Lascer
Lascer, the Lord of the Shadow Shoal, was originally a human, the planar explorer who discovered Zionyn. However, on his second visit to the place, he came to the attention of Obox-ob, who captured and experimented on the new creature. Using methods best left unknown, Obox-ob turned Lascer into a tanar'ri and minion, using him as a spy until the truth of Lascer's origins came out when Graz'zt discovered the spy in his palace. Obox-ob then repurposed Lascer as an assassin.

Lascer was a humanoid with a mouth full of needle-like teeth and a sewn-up wound that stretched from gullet to groin, out of which tiny spidery legs sometimes reached. Despite his height, he was emaciated, weighing only. His twin rapiers were wired to his hands and shards of broken glass pierced his feet. Lascer dwelled in a half-living, half-fossilized mobile fortress constructed of deep-sea creatures called Seahold that roamed the Abyssian Ocean. Depending on the rumor, he either fought against or was allied with Dagon.

Lascer was the leader of a small but powerful cult of assassins. Sacrifices to him were first tortured, then forced to walk on broken glass, then had wires pierce their hands, and then finally vivisected and their entrails fed to sea spiders, crabs, and lampreys. Kelvezu demons were also known to serve Lascer.

Lamashtu
Lamashtu, called She Who Erases, was a demon lord associated with deformities and monstrous births. She dwelled in Torremor.

Laraie
Laraie, called The Stalking Terror, was a demon lord associated with pursuit. What layer he ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded.

Lazbral'thull
Lazbral'thull, called The Butcher, was a demon lord associated with torture and bloodletting. He was imprisoned in The Wells of Darkness. Before his imprisonment, he gained infamy on first the Material plane, and then in the Abyss, for his murderous plots; he killed three rival lords (Malgarius and two unrecorded) before the deranged slayer was defeated and imprisoned, though his furious screams continued to echo from his pool.

Lissa'aere
Lissa'aere, called The Noxious, was a demon lord associated with poison gas. She ruled Malignebula. She appeared as a malevolent, swirling funnel of poison mist, and was served by alu-fiends, vrocks, and nabassu. It was said that those who fell too far in her realm were consumed by her.

Lupercio
Lupercio, called The Baron of Sloth, was a demon lord associated with sloth and darkness. He ruled over Slugbed, the 128 layer of the Abyss.

Lynkhab
Lynkhab, called the Lady of Regret, was a demon lord associated with depression and desire. She ruled in The Sighing Cliffs.

Malgarius
Malgarius, called The Demon Tree, was a demon lord associated with evil sylvan creatures. What layer it once ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded. It was defeated by the insane demon lord Lazbral'thull. It took the form of a massive, demonic tree. When Lazbral'thull defeated it, he trapped its essence in a physical container called the Seed of Malgarius, in which it slumbered, trapped, for millennia. In theory, an ambitious mage could use to Seed to establish (questionable) control over a reborn Malgarius.

Mastiphal
Mastiphal, called The Hunting Sovereign, was a demon lord associated with the pursuit of prey. He ruled the fortress of Vanelon on Pazunia, a romantic place with sweeping towers and magnificent facades with rose-colored marble pillars leading to it. The structure guarded a pit-portal to Shendilavri. It was also the home of Malcanthet's Favored Consort, a title that Mastiphal was the most recent holder of. He gained the title after he presented Malcanthet with the head of a huge fiendish smilodon that he killed on the fields of Spirac.

Mastiphal was a handsome humanoid fiend with bright red skin, four arms, and a rack of ibex antlers on his forehead. He was a calculating person but some part of him longed to leave Vanelon and hunt. However, his audiences with Malcanthet had also grown less frequent and he was desparate to regain her attention. Any interlopers were brought by the patrolling glabrezu to his trophy-filled audience chamber, and only tales of invincible wild beasts could dissuade him from simply killing spies.

Munkir
Munkir, called The White Guardian, was a demon lord associated with the afterlife and the back door to paradise. He was one of the two demon lords that ruled over The Gates of Heaven, the 77 layer of the Abyss.

Nekir
Nekir, called The Black Guardian, was a demon lord associated with the afterlife and the back door to paradise. He was one of the two demon lords that ruled over The Gates of Heaven.

Nocticula
Nocticula, called The Undeniable, was a demon lord associated with night. She ruled over Darklight.

Oublivae
Oublivae, called the Queen of Desolation, was a demon lord associated with ruin and history. She ruled The Barrens.

Qij-na
Qij-na the Shattered was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals.

Rhindor'zt
Rhindor'zt the Black Prince was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals.

Rhyxali
Rhyxali, called the Queen of the Shadow Demons, was a demon lord associated with shadow demons and secrets. She ruled over Shaddonon.

Rr'ikin'aka
Rr'ikin'aka, called the King of Scorpions, was a foolish tanar'ri lord challenged both Tharzax and Obox-ob simultaneously for control of scorpions and such. He wound up imprisoned in the Wells of Darkness, the shaft of his prison filled with the husks of countless scorpions. The dead bugs were considered a delicacy by that layer's scavengers.

Sch'theraqpasstt
Sch'theraqpasstt, called The Serpent Reborn, was a demon lord associated with yuan-ti. He ruled over The Mind of Evil.

Sess'innek
Sess'innek, called The Emperor Lizard, was a demon lord associated with lizardfolk and civilization. He ruled The Phantom Plane, the 7 layer of the Abyss.

Shaktari
Shaktari, the Queen of Mariliths, was a demon lord associated with marilith demons. She ruled over Vudra.

Shami-Amourae
Shami-Amourae, called the "Queen of the Succubi" was a demon lord associated with succubi. She was imprisoned in The Wells of Darkness.

Shami-Amourae appeared as a succubus with pale skin and golden hair. Her cult sacrificed handsome male humans, half-elves, or elves to her at midnight on the night of the full moon. She had warred with good goddesses associated with love, such as Hanali Celanil, in the past, when she was powerful enough to be considered a demipower in her own right. Then, she was associated with debased eros and called the Lady of Delights.

Sifkhu
Sifkhu was perhaps the only loumara demon lord. He had been found, still dormant, in the Dreaming Gulf by Malcanthet and subsequently bound and imprisoned by her.

Siragle
Siragle the Ineffable was a demon lord associated with secret oaths. He ruled over The Steeping Isle.

Socothbenoth
Socothbenoth, called The Persuader, was a demon lord associated with perversion. He ruled Goranthis.

Soneillon
Soneillon, called The Youthful Crone, was a demon lord associated with rejuvenation. She lived on the layer of Spirac.

Tharzax
Tharzax, called The Chattering Prince, was a demon lord associated with poisonous vermin. He ruled the second layer of the Abyss, Driller's Hives. Some savage cults worshipped him, holding monstrous centipedes as sacred to him.

Thralhavoc
Thralhavoc, called the Shadowmaster, was a demon lord associated with undead shadows and subterfuge. What layer he ruled or dwelled upon was unrecorded. Some tanar'ri priests were known to pledge themselves to Thralhavoc's service. He had originally ruled the 348 layer of the Abyss, Indifference, but he abandoned it to seek a more appealing realm.

Turaglas
Turaglas (, sometimes spelled Turgalas), called The Ebon Maw, the Hunger Eternal, the Insatiable and the Devourer, was a demon lord associated with hunger and consumption. He ruled over Sholo-Tovoth. He was the largest and among the most primal of the tanar'ri demon lords, motivated by nothing more than endless hunger, uncaring of the affairs of mortals or other demons. In the distant past when he first crawled out of the depths of the Abyss, he took part in the wars amongst the demon lords, but in time he somehow reached the Material plane, where he began to devour everything, from the smallest creatures to the largest, and even plain stone. He was worshiped by a powerful cult called the Feeders of the Ebon Maw that wrecked devastation in his name, and served by a type of tanar'ri called the turagathshnee. But in time, his cult was scattered and he was imprisoned, by two most unlikely allies: Orcus and Demogorgon. The two demon lords set their own cults to destroying the Feeders, their armies against the Devourer himself, until at the last the two demon princes themselves stepped through a gate to fight and imprison the Ebon Maw, greatly weakened, in a place between worlds. And then their cults wiped all mention of Turaglas from the world, so that he might never break free and rise again.

Ungulex
Ungulex was an obscure demon lord, believed to have been the first demon lord imprisoned in the Wells of Darkness after Ahazu. The shaft of his well was marked only by the occasional echoing sigh.

Verin
Verin, called the Voice of Graz'zt, was a demon lord associated with diplomacy. He lived in Azzagrat. He was among the first to bow down and relinquish his realm to Graz'zt.

Volisupula
Volisupula, called The Flensed Marquesse, was a demon lord associated with finery and ostentatious ceremony. He ruled the eighth layer of the Abyss, called The Skin-shedder. On occasion, he was known to have visited Sigil.

Voroxid
Voroxid was a minor demon lord of poisonous bones and teeth. His true name could be found in a copy of the Demonomicon of Iggwilv.

Xinivrae
Xinivrae was a succubus-turned-demon lord who reveled in the seduction of women and was once one of the primary contestants for the title "Queen of the Succubi" before she fell to a horrid wound from Malcanthet's lash and was cast by her into the Dreaming Gulf. It was possible that after Shami-Amourae escaped her imprisonment, she retrieved and allied with Xinivrae in a plot against Malcanthet.

Vucarik
Vucarik, the Consort of Chains, was a demon lord associated with chains and torture. He ruled over Nethuria. He was humanoid in shape but covered by rust-darkened chains that wrapped around him. However, he was known to roam the Abyss at the head of a battalion, always preceded by loud metallic rattlings, inflicting the tintinnabulous word of the Consort of Chains on any who would listen. Occasionally, it was rumored, Vucarik hired those he ran across on his wanderings as heralds, rather than just killing them. A baatezu text called Deceptions and Stratagems linked Vucarik with the kytons, but other sources said he was one of the sons of Pale Night.

Wejindhastala
Wejindhastala the Tempest was one of the seven demon lords who allied to bring down the Malgoth, but who fell in the process as they were killed or imprisoned by opportunistic rivals.

Yibyiru
Yibyiru, called The Rancid Lady of Bitter Bile, was a demon lord associated with poison. She lived in Shedaklah.

Zanassu
Zanassu, called The Spider Demon, was a dead demon lord once associated with spiders and aranea.

Zivorgian
Zivorgian, called the Lady of Ripe Carrion, was said to be one of the daughters of Pale Night. She was a bloated, three-headed horror said to vaguely resemble both a vulture and an angel.

Zuregurex
Zuregurex, called the Lord of the Drowned, was a demon lord associated with storms and the drowned dead. He once desired the waters of the Gaping Maw, Demogorgon's layer, and invaded it while the Prince of Demons was invading Hollow's Heart. He lead and army of undead and demonically-fused air elementals in an attack on Lemoriax, and was just dismantling the gates the palace Ungorth Reddik when a furious Demogorgon returned. So enraged was Demogorgon at being both torn away from a near-sure victory against Fraz-Urb'luu and at having his home defaced that not only slaughtered Zuregurex's army, but also pursued the lesser demon lord all the way back his own layer of Guttlevetch. He invaded the layer, a place of hurricanes and shipwrecks and blood-soaked beaches, and turned the waters against Zuregurex and sunk islands. The Lord of the Drowned was forced to flee to a different layer, The Scalding Sea. Guttlevetch remained in ruins and Zuregurex in hiding, although there were whispers that he had returned to Guttlevetch in secret to begin rebuilding.

Zzyczesiya
Zzyczesiya, called The Ungrasped, was a demon lord associated with confused and malevolent ignorance. He dwelled in The Forgotten Land. He was also one of the few entities to have escaped from the Wells of Darkness.