Dispater

Dispater was the Lord of Dis and an archdevil whose extreme vigilance almost personified caution. The Iron Duke ruled the Iron City from within his Iron Tower, and was legendary for his impregnable layers of defense.

Description
Dispater appeared as a tall, dark-haired humanoid with sable skin as cold and hard as iron. His infernal heritage was revealed in several aspects of figure: his glowing, red eyes, tiny horns, tail, and cloven left hoof. The devilishly handsome archduke dressed in only the finest attire, such as his velvet gloves or red robes, and always wielded his mace-like rod.

Personality
A master strategist and expert in intrigue, Dispater had a well-earned reputation for being the most carefully calculating of the archdevils. His personal safety was always his top priority and to catch him off-guard would be to outwit one of the most clever and resourceful beings in reality. During every step of his dominion he acted with patient cunning and unshakable discretion. Although he, like the other archdevils, schemed to take over the Nine Hells, he avoided taking big risks, not out of cowardice or insecurity but because of his unique view of the system.

Dispater viewed reality from the perspective of a contestant in an enigmatic game governed by unclear rules, and he analyzed the worth of everything by how it might help him glean its true nature. By solving all the mysteries of the multiverse, he would gain the best chances of winning, allowing him to control the Nine Hells and then the rest of reality. The chance to learn a new secret was one of the few things that could compel him to act against the other archdevils.

Despite his analytical approach, Dispater still held diabolical charisma and carried himself with appreciable self-control. He was calm and composed at all times and was undeniably persuasive, delivering reasonable arguments with the courtesy of a true gentleman. His ability to withhold his anger even when it passionately burned not only made him a dangerously suave entity but was a source of personal pride for him.

However, behind Dispater's sophisticated posturing and soft finery was nonetheless a tyrant's iron fist, much to the chagrin of predatory members of his court. He was a malicious manipulator whose gentle words were laced with deceit and his acts of supposed charity were always political in nature. Even when committing acts of unspeakable evil his chivalrous façade never wavered and if someone did manage to break his iron-clad stoicism he'd rather destroy them than leave them alive to potentially expose his folly.

More recently however, a flaw had appeared in Dispater's seemingly invincible defense; his never-ending vigilance had been slowly transitioning into anxiety and paranoia. Unless otherwise forced to, he never left his city or even his tower, fearing a fate like Geryon or Moloch before him. Noone was trusted, surprises were, at best, unpleasant and he went out of his way to make clear who was in charge. The gloomy archdevil's paranoia affected his every action and the ever-cautious Lord of the Nine had at least nine escape routes and back-up plans at any given time.

Powers
The Iron Duke's touch could have two effects, each devastating on their own but when used in concert could easily fell the most dangerous of foes. The first effect allowed him to turn flesh into iron, rendering almost any organic foe an inert statue. The second effect almost instantly corroded metal, rusting up to a cube worth of material into useless pieces in an instant. Only the most capable warrior could retract their weapon after striking him without it turning into dust first, but magical metal could resist his power and nonmetal items were completely immune. Because those he turned into statues were only made of mundane metal, one of his favored tactics was turning someone into metal before rusting them into oblivion.

Fortunately for those who would try to combat him, Dispater always acted defensively, creating scalding gates of steel and walls of deadly chains to hold back his attackers while he summoned aid. Normally he would already have minions to fight in his stead, ranging from merregon grunts, moderately dangerous war devils and even pit fiends, who would keep the enemy busy while he evaluated their strength. Although pit fiends were his first choice of summon and he was also known for his use of erinyes, other devils might be called based on the situation, such as osyluths, barbazus, cornugons or gelugons.

Dispater's very words were powerful and if he could not persuade someone with their contents he'd do so with their magical nature. Suggestion spells were one way he'd make distance, and when fighting he would section off powerful adversaries from their allies in order to dominate them uninterrupted. He could also blast people back with thunderous speech or utter an unholy word.

Dispater had various other abilities such as the power to create a symbol of pain, surround himself with a terrifying aura, or cause a fear or chill with his gaze. It was also said that those who attacked him would be forced to relive their worst memories in excruciating detail, whether it was as simple as losing a brawl or as supremely humiliating as a celestial's fall from grace. If a battle seemed to be turning against him despite his cautious planning and preparation he wasted no time teleporting away.

Possessions
Rumored to have been empowered at the same time as the Iron Tower, Dispater's rod was both a potent magical artifact and his symbol of ultimate authority. It was long, made either of iron and lead or adamantine, and shaped like two intertwined serpents. It acted as both a rod of rulership and a powerful staff of striking, allowed the wielder to smite the forces of good and could spew stinging acid.

Being focused on defense, Dispater also often equipped a magical iron shield and had been developing a suit of adamantine armor. The suit had a plethora of enchantments applied using methods only known to Dispater himself that could thwart magic, allow for survival in even the most hostile environments and achieve a host of other unknown effects.

Realm
Dispater ruled over the narcissistically named layer of Dis, the outskirts of which were interspersed with rolling hills plagued by hellcats, wild erinyes and supposedly, moving pillars of stone. The majority of Dis however was a flat, blasted plain with only occasional rises in the ground, or precipitous mountains filled with iron ore that created a maze of canyons between them. Iron bastions on rocky pinnacles filled with garrisons watched over the canyons and the iron roads paved within them. The cloudless skies were a thick gray-green, sometimes illuminated by flickers of lightning and the faint echoes of thunder, and were plagued by unending winds that fiercely and unpredictably hurled earthbound travelers through the air and made flying an ordeal for those that hadn't spent years learning its patterns.

Dis shared its name both with its master and the city that comprised most of it, the largest and most well-known domain in Hell, otherwise known as the Iron City or the City of Pain. It was speculated that the two were actually one in the same since the Iron City seeming infinite in size from the inside. The path leading to it foreshadowed its spatially anomalous nature, since only after treading a certain slope on a ring of mountains could one make their way inside. The winding path was composed of the broken skulls of the damned, and after a certain amount of time traveling the black iron spurs that jutted towards the sky along the road gradually became so thick that they were simply walls. As the walls grew larger, a traveler would abruptly realize that they had somehow already passed them without noticing, having rounded another iron escarpment only to be surrounded by people and buildings. It was said that if one walked far enough that they could exit the city and return to the ring of mountains it was surrounded by, although simply wandering aimlessly was likely to trap one in it and the vale it unevenly sat in for eternity.

The Iron City
The labyrinthine nature of the Iron City was partially a result of the endless construction work forced upon the petitioners. Work crews of shades that had been returned their memories in order to properly appreciate their agony, lemures, and other forms of petitioners were guided by spinagon foremen and watched over by perched abishai in the extension, contraction, remodeling, reconstruction and repair of the city, much of which was considered to be meaningless busy work. While Bel's alterations to the Bronze Citadel served to fortify it, the changes made to the City of Pain at Dispater's behest seemed wholly illogical. The condemned work gangs would lay down metal plates and erecting buildings one week only for the same team to rip up the streets and tear down the buildings the next, or for the crew a block over to be undoing similar work to theirs that was just freshly completed. While the changes made by the work crews were impressively quick, they paled in comparison to the way the city itself rearranged itself, for no matter how fast a cartographer sketched, the city was always different by the time they were finished.

It was said that the reason the City of Pain changed so quickly, both supernaturally and in the form of work crew orders, was that it reflected the inner workings of Dispater's mind. Despite being theoretically infinite, those inside always felt cramped and trapped, and the more paranoid Dispater became the tighter and more warren-like the city's streets became. With the overwhelming presence of scrying devices recently added, the walls had ears and the red eyes of statues moved. Dispater ruled the city from his Iron Tower, a massive structure with even faster-acting peculiarities than the rest of the city. It always seemed to be a block away despite the fact that moving towards it got one nowhere. The Tower itself could be seen from every point in Dis and from it Dispater could see the tiniest details of his domain, but it always changed form from moment to moment. Even without its oppressive features, moving through Dis was still harrowing since those without proper protection, such as thick leather clothes and padded or iron-shod boots, quickly found that almost every outer surface was glowing hot and horribly burned anyone daring or careless enough to touch the iron portions.

Despite its massive size, filled with iron ramparts, eyrie-filled towers, garbage-choked streets and dilapidated alleys, the City of Pain only had a population of about 400,000, but it was nonetheless an effective hierarchy with clearly and cruelly defined roles. Zombies, rot grubs and the occasional black pudding could be found throughout the streets along with iron gargoyles brooding in the squares and spectres being harvested for divine energy. Dispater employed over a thousand kocrachons within the city, while thousands of merregons and barbazus, as well as spinagons and succubi, protected it. Among the crowds that filled the streets were the parades of infernal nobles; Blood War officers and other important devils had mansions scattered throughout the city that broke its typical appearance.

While thoroughly unpleasant, the focus of Dis was industry rather than military, and it was one of the most accommodating place in the Nine Hells towards outsiders. Most outside dealings were conducted in an area known as the Fetters, so called because the outsiders that found themselves there can no longer seem to leave. Rare information was granted to the highest bidder, decent food and taverns mimicking those the Prime Material Plane formed a 'tourist' economy, and the bazaars and foundries bought and sold arms, armor, artistry, magical items and infernal mercenaries. While thief gangs and crime lords fought over control of the sprawling slums, Dispater was still ultimately controlled it through his spies and informants. Through special provisions added to contracts made in Dis, he appropriated a portion of every shady deal and contraband trade, whether it was made with devils, night hags, rakshasas, succubi or other fiends.

Activities
Dispater rarely left the safety of his Iron Tower, much less his city, only exiting if forced to by Asmodeus and always returning as fast as possible. He governed his realm through intermediaries and aspects and relied on minions to do his bidding, his servants being scattered throughout the Nine Hells all working to some elaborate end. Erinyes served as his messengers and heralds but he also made use of imp envoys with messages sown into vests designed to destroy both the messenger and message if removed by the wrong person.

With every archdevil to fall, Dispater's already healthy paranoia grew and his methods became more extreme. For example, the unpredictable and sudden fall of the Hag Countess to Glasya, seemingly with the support of her father drove Dispater deeper into the depths of his tower. After that he double-checked his exits, quadrupled his guards and increased the layers of intermediaries he communicated through, only directly seeing his most trusted servitors and instructing half of his servants to spy on the other half for treachery. Zariel's triumph over Bel only made matters worse and saw him take up residence deep within his libraries. He left daily governance and negotiation with mortal summoners to his herald Titivilus and a greater number of spies to monitor potential threats.

His primary goal was always to consolidate his current power and his plans could take generations to achieve results. After Glasya's ascension he tried to slowly drive out the voluntary, planar residents from his city through harassment, taxation and surveillance, convinced they were all sources of potential treachery. As for actual objectives, his main mission was the elimination of Baalzebul. The two constantly fought in wars of intrigue and expertly played politics, seemingly preventing the Iron Duke from further expansion.

Relationships
Dispater's sole consort was Lilis, the Iron Maiden. Since her intelligence network covered all of Baator, she supplied Dispater with much necessary information.

Malachlabra, Duchess of Hell, was his daughter. She had three long sinuous barbed tails, an obsidian-hued lush human body, and bat wings coming from her shoulders.

In terms of politics, Dispater was allied with Mephistopheles, the Lord of the Eighth. Together, they schemed against Baalzebul, the Lord of the Seventh.

He tried to distance himself from his allies and seek peace with his enemies to avoid having any enemies, a futile goal.

Dispater, along with Mephistopheles, was once an ally of Mammon, but Mammon betrayed them both.