Baalzebul

Baalzebul, formerly an archon known as Triel, was the lord of Maladomini and most infamous archdevil next to Asmodeus himself. He was known as the Lord of the Flies because his webs of intrigue were so tightly woven that not even flies could escape, but the form he was cursed with by Asmodeus earned him a new title; The Slug Archduke. Eventually he managed to overcome this wretched state and return to his previous glory, and if only to retain it, had never told a lie to his kin since.

"Through sufficient penance and grace, even the lowliest can redeem themselves. Am I not a living testament to that fact?"

- Baalzebul

Description
Triel was once renowned as among one of the most beauteous denizens of Celestia but was physically altered after his corruption. His new form was that of a tall humanoid with shimmering, sable skin and the jittering, compound eyes of a fly. Still angelically stunning even after his fall from grace, Asmodeus put a curse upon him as punishment for a later crime, forcing him into an even more demeaning form.



The former celestial's mutated form was that of a tall slug, a grotesque abomination infamously unpleasant even to other devils. The Lord of the Flies was constantly surrounded by swarms of the buzzing, scuttling creatures that earned him his title. His body glistened with mucus and thanks to his curse, fecal matter and other rancid filth manifested in piles wherever he went, resulting in his notoriously noxious stench. His deformed arms rested at his front and were more comparable to prehensile tails in functionality. Replacing his handsome visage was a gross, human-like face with torpid lips, incapable of properly pronouncing words without a slimy, wet lisp.

However, even when reduced to such an unsightly state, faint glimpses of the Slug Archduke's previously glorious appearance could still be made out. He had recently managed to work off his punishment, partially freeing him from Asmodeus's curse and allowing him to return to his humanoid form.

Personality
Of Baalzebul's numerous flaws, his most crippling was his perfectionist extremism. His unfiltered dedication to achieving physical flawlessness and greater dominion was what caused his initial fall from the Seven Heavens, as such callous ambition was more befitting of a devil. Seemingly incapable of realizing when he had gone too far, his utter arrogance led him to undermine his own plans by overreaching. He might have even been able to defeat his rival Mephistopheles if in his overconfident scheming he didn't also aim to defeat Asmodeus, causing him to fall even further than before.

Baalzebul made an effort to seem calm on the surface, often withholding his true feelings from others. In truth, the Lord of the Lies had viewed his transformation into a slug not simply as an obstacle to be overcome but as a humiliating experience. He had become an abusive taskmaster during his time in Hell, a sadistic torturer that displaced his anger on his subjects and loved disheartening them, but after being cursed he became neglectful and miserable himself. Often times he ignored his depressing duties in favor of plotting revenge and fantasizing about regaining his original, Triel form.

Despite his flaws, Baalzebul was still dangerously cunning and charismatic. If not for the interference of Geryon, he might have not only been able to best Mephistopheles, but even oust Asmodeus himself. Even when trapped in his inarticulate, slug-like form, he was still the Lord of the Lies, whose every deception and false statement was made with ease. He was not to be mistaken as a pathological liar as he told each untruth with a purpose in mind and indeed managed to keep a hold on his layer for several millennia without lying, at least to other devils.

Powers
Various spell-like abilities were at Baalzebul's command, such as the power to manipulate and create light and flames, create powerful undead, enchant and mentally command others, turn invisible and use various types of divination magic. His more powerful abilities let him create symbols of pain and insanity, speak unholy words and even use wish. He could choose to summon barbazus, erinyes, gelugons or pit fiends but particularly cornugons. Normally however, Baalzebul's spells were his fallback plan used when his other supernatural powers, proved unsuccessful at dealing with his enemies.

When in his slug form, Baalzebul's first tactic was normally to belch out gargantuan clouds of flesh-devouring flies, an ability he had to wait a few dozen seconds to reuse. Although the flies normally dispersed after being spewed, he could cause them to swarm and envelop his form if he so desired for about a minute, protecting him from harm as the flies didn't attack his grotesque mass. The flies could be blown away by a strong gust of wind, but even without them shielding him, Baalzebul's stench was so putrid that simply trying to get anywhere close to him was sickening. Despite being more sluggish than he once was, he was able to burrow underground and his adhesive slime-coated form was adept at scaling surfaces.

His arms were so feeble that he normally relied on his servitors to perform tasks like turning pages, opening doors and feeding him, but they served a purpose in combat besides wielding weapons. Blood, muscle and sinew quickly withered away with even the slightest touch from the Slug Archduke's atrophied limbs, although immortals like devils or demons were immune to the effect. Like an actual slug however, limbs and body parts removed from Baalzebul simply grew back, although his regeneration was supernaturally fast, allowing him to regrow body parts in a few minutes and reattach severed limbs. His regenerative powers were less effective when he was harmed with good-aligned spells and holy weapons.

Although many of his powers were a result of his slug form, Baalzebul possessed some before his metamorphosis, such as the ability to fly or shapechange. Another was his direct gaze, which combined the powers of a fear and ray of enfeeblement spell to leave his victims trembling in terror even after he stopped staring at them. His slug form shared his gaze, but couldn't use it properly when surrounded by flies.

After he was restored to his humanoid form, Baalzebul retained his ability to shapechage. He was capable of transforming into a giant fly or a swam of fist-sized flies, similar to those he could previously spew.

Possessions
"Do not shun the evil in your soul. Embrace it."

- Baalzebul, from the Book of Vile Darkness Several magical artifacts of great power could be found within Baalzebul's domain but, presuming one could avoid his cornugon guardians, were practically impossible to find amidst the collapsed structures and random refuse. The Book of Vile Darkness once made its way into his personal library, and of the six full copies known to exist, at least one contained extra pages added by the Lord of the Flies.

Realm
If anything exemplified Baalzebul's legacy of failure and degeneracy in the unending pursuit of unattainable perfection, it was his layer, Maladomini. Once, perhaps, Maladomini was a beautiful landscape filled with grandiose cities, roads, bridges and other symbols of splendor and triumph. No matter their excellence however, Baalzebul was never contented with the cities he was presented with, striving to complete a configuration of form and function worthy of his greatness.

Upon completion, new cities were inevitably deemed unsuitable and either left behind as a symbol of past failure or plundered for materials in upcoming structures, quickening their degradation. As in most of his endeavors, Baalzebul was able to envision his idealized result but unable to bring it into reality. This was partially a result of his endlessly toiling petitioners having had the ability to create such things beaten out of them.

The result of Baalzebul's folly was a druid's worst nightmare, a defiled, suffering world robbed of nature. Where greenery might have forested the land was rotting wood, dead stumps and trees burnt by slag heaps, the only persistent life being the fly swarms said to be Baalzebul's eyes and ears. Below the blood-black sky of Maladomini was a surface spotted with deep quarries and strip mines that scarred the land like gaping wounds and leaked polluted gas into the air. Petitioners and lesser devils alike lacked tools but were nonetheless forced to dig deeper underground for stone and minerals to carve and cut, further contributing to the destruction.

Effluvium and sludge from split canals could be seen all across the plane's surface and anything that might have been living within the polluted rivers normally died on the banks after breathing in the toxic air. Rivers existed even in the center of tunnels, but were so utterly filthy that distilled tar within could light guttering, green flames on the edges.

Maladomini was occasionally wracked with tremors and explosions. Much of the plane was traditionally hellish, consisting mostly of black earth, pits of fire. and an encircling ocean of lava. Within the fiery sea was a ring of volcanoes that fed it through their eruptions, the produced rivers of liquid flame often siphoned off through canals to make molten moats for castles or simply built over with fearsome, arched bridges.

Baalzebul's ceaseless construction projects made Maladomini, while incredibly unpleasant, an excellent hideaway for runaways, deserters, petitioners, defeated baatezu and resilient extraplanar beasts. So many cities existed that trying to run out squatters simply forced them to pick from the wide variety of nearby shelters.

Many structures were aboveground but a great amount of the plane was actually a series of tunnels many miles wide and at least a thousand feet tall, massive curving caverns filled with ancient architecture. The labyrinths below were sometimes lit by orbs of sickly-green floating flames. Even the greater baatezu however, were loathed to tread deep below the cities and mines, as such tunnels housed dangerous entities, possibly the ancient Baatorians from before the reign of the baatezu.

Malagard
The personal residence of Baalzebul was the fortress city of Malagard, one of the few that were actually inhabited where a panoply of the last remaining plants of the plane were tended to. Constructed of innumerable black stone spires that extended into the sky and stretching for miles on end, Malagard was so vast that not even its lord knew all of its millions of miles of passages and rooms. The towers were connected by both open and covered bridges that slanted and crisscrossed crazily in every direction and the dungeons were so deep that many of those who escaped the clutches of their devil tormentors actually fled into them in order to escape. Perfectly straight streets and fragile yet frightening fountains could be seen throughout the infernally magnificent citadel.

Even as it was being constructed however, Baalzebul's servants knew that while it was without doubt his greatest city that he would end up declaring it unsatisfactory and force them to start again, with some even sabotaging their own work to delay the inevitable. Despite its great variety and number of rooms, many of the unused areas were crammed full of garbage, carrion and broken items by spinagons servants, a prime example of the wastefulness of its denizens. Sure enough, Malagard became a symbol of sloth and nihilistic ruin as it slowly crumbled and fell into the surrounding dirt while the poorly kept roads became rivers of trash. Even the occasional repairing spree quickly ended and every day the crushing defeatism weighed more upon the devil denizen, with even the incessant Baalzebul eventually giving up preventing its demise.

In the center of Malagard was the Palace of Filth, Baalzebul's castle that was turned into a building-shaped pile of amorphous dung at the same time that Baalzebul was cursed and ordered by Asmodeus to be filled with even more filth. Baalzebul had to hollow the interior himself to create corridors and rooms and periodically reinforced slumping ones with the ooze from his bloated body, lest they collapse on his servants. The palace was practically indistinguishable from the surrounding city and inhabited by otyughs and ghargatulas, the former of which were ignored as they disposed of the feces and the latter of which were baalzebul's personal guards.

Activities
After his mortifying experience as a slug, Baalzebul limited his open plotting to the Lord of the Eighth and focused his energies on sneaking more spies into Asmodeus's court while also appealing to him, primarily by making his rivals look incompetent by comparison. The curses inflicted on him by his master effectively neutralized his ability to properly forge alliances with his peers, so much of his time was spent completing his actual duties as an archduke and overseeing the soul-driven bureaucracy of his layer. Edicts, policies, treatises and other documents were kept in the underground archival labyrinth that Maladomini had made after his defeat, protected by traps, devils and confounding classification systems.

He jealously guarded all the power and secrets he could from the other archdevils, particularly Asmodeus and Mephistopheles, in order to eventually enact his take over of Hell, and at one point hoarded souls with intent to perform a ritual to escape his sluggish form.

Relationships
Baalzebul had several rivals in the Nine Hells and enough enemies that at some point he was given the insulting corruption of his sobriquet, "Lord of the Lies", although in some cases it was still used as a compliment. His notable foes were Mephistopheles and Dispater, both of which were ancient archdevils whose seniority contrasted Baalzebul's quick upstart and who scorned the one they viewed as an outsider. Both were pleased to hear of his transformation into the Slug Archduke and during his transformed period Baalzebul drove his spy network to discover, or at least plant, evidence of their wrongdoing in the hopes of getting them trapped in even more demeaning forms or, if lucky, completely destroyed.

Although he feigned subservience, Baalzebul's primary target of hatred was Asmodeus for cursing him, yet the Lord of Nessus occasionally favored him for seemingly no reason, possibly viewing him as a worthy opponent. Despite Baalzebul keeping them in his castles and having them as servants and bodyguards, he only begrudgingly allowed pit fiends into Maladomini, suspecting them of being puppets or spies for Asmodeus.

Incapable of admitting his own fault, Baalzebul placed the majority of blame for his curse on Mephistopheles. The Cold Lord was the greater of his rivals and the two could be said to be quite similar, particularly in their insatiable hunger for power and recognition. Both believed that the key to their success was to defeat the other, making them the second greatest archdevil and strong enough to potentially overthrow Asmodeus. Each spent much of their time either machinating against their archenemy or having their forces engage in skirmishes and battles in a constant stalemate, which ironically was part of the reason Asmodeus tolerated them.

A keeper of many secrets, Dispater's hatred for Baalzebul was the most well-known in Baator as the two constantly fought wars of intrigue. Even with the support of Mephistopheles, the forces of Dispater and Baalzebul slowly whittled down each other and protecting himself from such plots appeared to consume much of Dispater's time and distract him from further plans of expansion. Part of the reason behind his utter loathing of the Fallen One was that he viewed him not as a true baatezu but just an exiled celestial undeserving of the respect he showed Mephistopheles More recently however, Dispater sought to politely distance himself from his allies and make peaceful gestures to his foes, however impossible being a truly neutral party in the Nine Hells was.

One of the curses inflicted by Asmodeus upon Baalzebul was that any deal struck with him would inevitably end in catastrophe for the other party, a decree that generally warded off other devils from doing so. Despite this, Baalzebul still had his allies, such as the Lord of the Fourth Belial, who had been with him both before and after the Reckoning. Their relationship was kept private after Baalzebul was demoted but both sides would come to the other's aid if they were in danger, although in Baalzebul's case that was based on the assumption he could find some benefit in doing so.

Originally Baalzebul ruled the sixth layer through his viceroy Moloch but after he was deposed for insolence towards Asmodeus the Hag Countess took over, ironically the one who convinced Moloch to eventually try and defeat Baalzebul. The Hag Countess did make overtures of peace towards Baalzebul, gifting him with a handservant in the form of the male medusa Vashaak. The Lord of the Flies found the iron-masked medusa fascinating, even if Vashaak saw him as disgusting, but ultimately the attempted alliance failed when Glasya took over Malbolge. Ultimately Baalzebul saw Glasya as a threat due to her friendship with Fierna endangering the alliance he already had with Belial, not to mention that one of his servants, Tartach, defected to join the newest Lord of the Sixth.

Servants
Baalzebul had other servants such as his first consort Baftis, a subservient devil that feared his wrath and normally acted only with expressed permission, and the second consort Lilith, a powerful patron of Material Plane witches and his counsel that assisted him in his schemes in the hopes of being returned to personal glory. There was also Neabaz, the Herald of Lies, a polite and somewhat paranoid spreader of Baalzebul's mandates and the only one allowed to move throughout the Nine Hells as he wished. His respect for others was out of fear that anyone could be an archdevil in disguise but he enjoyed and appreciated his role as he realized association with Baalzebul granted him more power than he could access on his own. The authoritarian marshal of Maladomini, Barbatos, was an astute being of unknown ambition, responsible for gathering the weapons and malebranche of the layer. The actual generals were Abigor, a duke that never missed the opportunity to fight, particularly against the weak, and Zepar an arrogant bully that preferred to torment weaker beings with magic or through his servants.

Worshipers
Of all the archdevils, Baalzebul was second only to Asmodeus in terms of infamy and was as popular as any other deity in Faerun, not that his cultists made their worship public knowledge. Even after his transformation, his cult was larger than those of his peers although most mortals were unaware of the curse that doomed those who made deals with him. Whether as the Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Lies or the Fallen One, he was despised as much as he was revered, luring in mortal followers as the dual patron of sly charm supported by brutal power. Being paragons of violent cunning, bugbears were his most common followers, with the heart of Baalzebul's army being a team of sixteen fiendish bugbears called the Nyashk. Each was a sorcereress armed with powerful spells that wore a helmet resembling a fly's head and wielded a harrow rod.

Baalzebul specialized in mass-scale corruption and deception, with his religious orders functioning more as conspiracies against previous establishments. His sects were often comprised of nonconformists, rebels and other malcontents and focused on disrupting through a combination of charismatic guile and terror campaigns involving assassination. He tried to instigated coups against the leaders of lawful empires in order to place imperial dictatorships in their stead, but as a result of his subtle methods it could take his cults generations to actually succeed. When such plots actually did come to fruition, Baalzebul's servitors normally proved more adept at subverting authorities than acting as them. Because of this, Asmodeus, who normally targeted an already existing authority rather than secret societies, occasionally swapped temples with Baalzebul, with Asmodeus taking over Baalzebul's finished projects and Baalzebul being granted access to hidden shrines to Asmodeus in just kingdoms.

After regaining his old form, Baalzebul positioned himself as a savior of failures, preying on individuals believing themselves to be in need of redemption, such as disgraced or destitute nobility. Whether due to disloyalty or incompetence, he and his agents found those that had lost important resources or honor and offered supernatural solutions to their problems. Of course, even without the curse of failure, secret clauses, fine print and inconspicuous specifications were hidden throughout contracts made with the Lord of the Lies, all designed to ensnare the unwary and desperate. Despite harvesting a great number of such individuals, souls able to be lured in such a manner were typically so pathetic or inept in the first place that they were only useful as wretched cannon fodder.

Those formally dedicated to the Fallen One were treacherous and ruthless, willing to use whatever deceitful tactic and betray even their closest friends and family to achieve their aims. They could summon swarms of flies but specialized in using cunning and eloquence to tell bold-faced lies. Allies were rarely kept around along before being backstabbed although his disciples excelled at manipulating them so long as they were required. Even after he set himself up as a patron of redemption, his followers strove to regain respect at the cost of those who caused the initial loss, and did so by tripping up allies in order to improve their relative standing.

Rituals
"Lord of the Flies! Lord of the Lies! Baalzebul, with your sly skill, your dark power—you are the master of my soul!"

- Israkahn the Liar, a disciple of Baalzebul Sacrifices to Baalzebul were done in bloody, nighttime ceremonies in dim candlelight but, to become initiated in the cult one had to perform the rite within the victim's home. Rogues, bards and assassins were among the most likely to devote themselves to Baalzebul, although rangers and clerics sometimes found their way into his service. His clerics normally had bodily piercings, gold adornments, blue and black robes and shaved heads with the exception of bugbears that grew out their hair especially long. Shrines to the Lord of the Flies had limited floor space to the volume of statues within and had a clear insect motif on the lintels, tapestries, altars and other decorations. A malodorous smell permeated such temples because the braziers burned either horrifically created incense or simply offal, to represent his slug-like state.

Aspects
Aspects of the Slug Archduke were shunned by other devils, especially erinyes, and were only heeded on important issues due to their hideous appearance. They mostly used the influence of their progenitor to command respect and normally led other devils, particularly due to their lack of speed. They were rarely seen in Faerun as Baalzebul normally sent his other agents to deal with matters there and found themselves more at home in the toxic wastes of Maladomini.

History
Baalzebul was originally the archon known as Triel, and one of the most powerful and beautiful ones to be found in Celestia. Unfortunately, Triel's selfish acts in the name of achieving his perfection resulted in his corruption and exile from the Seven Heavens. After his fall, Asmodeus, perhaps out of some lingering sense of sympathy, favored and quickly promoted Triel to the ranks of baatezu nobility.

His ruthless lust for power served him well in Hell, and before long Baalzebul,  as he had begun to call himself, mastered diabolical politics. He not only displaced the ancient, original Lord of the Seventh but managed to expunge his identity and accomplishments from infernal history. He had become the only archdevil to rule two layers of the Nine Hells, although he ruled Malbolge through Moloch and even that was a continual struggle, and created his own mosquito-like ayperobo devils from lemures.

However, Baalzebul later attempted to take the Dark Lord's throne, although the manner with which he did so to get him punished was disputed. Some claimed that he was cast down for masterminding the Reckoning of Hell, but more recently it was thought that he altered documents to confuse the bureaucracy of Hell and make Asmodeus seem incompetent, a plan upended by the unpredictable Blood War before his actions were discovered. Maladomini was thought to have become a warzone between Baalzebul, who was attempting to hide his actions, and the other archdukes trying to expose his conspiracy, supposedly resulting in the ruined state of many of Maladomini's cities.

Whatever his crime, a series of bizarre penalties befell Baalzebul; a retroactive curse turning him into a slug for a year per each lie he had told to a devil, his inability to strike deals without disaster befalling his associate, having his castle turned to excrement and filled with filth and having his dominion of Malbolge stripped from him. He recently returned to his old form, as his vanity forbade him from further extending the duration of his punishment.

Even as a slug, Baalzebul still held great influence and managed massive feats of deception, such as supposedly creating the meazels by promising to save a kingdom from dying of an awful, hunger-inducing blight. Whether they knew of his identity was unclear but upon agreeing they found themselves rendered immune to the plague but still suffering from its torturous symptoms and only able to feed upon the flesh of sentient beings, although Baalzebul's creations had a tendency to ally with the cults of his enemies.

Rumors
"Temptation is the best tool to use against the holy. In the back of their pure little minds, those archons always think they are missing something. And they are."

- Rule-of-Three

Some reports claimed that Asmodeus was the one who instigated Baalzebul's transformation into a devil rather than the infernal powers of Baator. In fact, it was rumored that Asmodeus himself personally masterminded Triel's fall by appearing in the form of flower whose beautiful exterior belied its venomous nature. While persistent, the myth had no corroborating evidence.