Pale Night

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Pale Night was an obyrith demon lord of unimaginable age, often referred to as the Mother of Demons, to whom the tanar'ri appeared as mere children. An unknowable enigma shrouded in mystery, to peer beyond her veil was to witness an indescribable horror so great that it was rejected by reality itself.

Description
Pale Night appeared in a shimmer of strange light, as a diaphanous, white sheet that billowed in a non-existent wind, yet never enough to reveal what lurked beneath it. On closer inspection, the contours of the robe suggested an comely, feminine form, like that of a lithe elf or human. The phantasmal figure glided through the air, hazy and terrifying yet seductive in shape. When she spoke, her voice was low and almost inaudible, but her singing was apparently enrapturing and her robe moved fluidly, easily indicating her gestures. Besides the cloak, only white, gossamer hairs concealed her incorporeal visage, preventing onlookers from glimpsing the true, maddening wrongness of her existence.

Personality
Pale Night was no less malevolent and sadistic than the other demons of the Abyss, although luckily for many she was also utterly capricious. Sometimes she decided to murder any trespassers in her domain and put them on display, but at others she gave them tasks or simply allowed them to leave. Her actions and decisions were difficult to decipher since she rarely ever spoke, even to her own servants, and she could barely be deigned to associate with other demon lords. For a mortal to even attempt to speak to her could be considered a grievous offense worthy of death.

Powers
Pale Night was a being beyond that of typical demon lords, able to overcome even divine power in some cases. She was an entity of insanity, spreading madness and confusion in a variety of ways. Viewing her true form was assuredly deadly; the only hope someone that wasn't a demon (or a similar chaotic evil being from another plane, like a demodand) had of survival was if their minds hadn't processed the image by the time it had already gone by, and those that were ressurected had no recollection of what they saw. Pale Night's very touch drained her victim's personality to rejuvenate herself, sapping their self-love and happiness until nothing was left but misery and feelings of worthlessness.

Not even a victim's soul was fully safe from Pale Night since she could contain them in her sheet like a magic jar and possess their bodies, indicated by an invisible shawl that wrapped around their corporeal selves. She could also embrace an individual, wrapping them into part of their veil to put them in a kind of temporal stasis, rendering them phantom projections of their former selves. The victims became faint, intangible, and had their details hidden behind a shroud similar to Pale Night's, with only spells like freedom, miracle or wish able to restore them.

While Pale Night preferred to have others fight on her behalf she would do battle when pressed, and if given notice would possibly find or summon a host to possess, recklessly overusing it to the point of destruction. Otherwise, she revealed her true form before drifting through the battlefield at uncanny speeds, stealing the sense of self from all nearby with her fearsome touch.

Possessions
Pale Night's shroud wasn't exactly her possession, as she seemed to lack true control over it. A new shroud wrapped around her mere moments after it was lifted, and she herself could only suppress it for a few seconds once per day.

Realm
Not all were aware that Pale Night's dwelling was a frightening structure known as the Bone Castle or Bone Citadel, a pale, white keep constructed from thousands of skeletal fingers and hands and protected by hordes of creeping claws and moving bones. Despite its delicate appearance, the brittle bones that composed it seeming ready to disintegrate at any time, it was an incredibly durable structure that has not been lost by its resident even once. The tangled tower resembled a massive, grasping hand, said to be capable of animating in order to slay intruders, and was crawling with various demons. The true purpose of the structure was unknown, possibly to celebrate the wickedness of its resident given the vast galleries of her victims' fractured, flickering shadows, or perhaps to contain it.

The Bone Castle rested under a rust-colored sky in the middle of a vast, roughly circular plateau of bleached bone, and from its ramparts one could just barely see the walls of the Endless Maze. It was possible to stumble across the castle just by wandering through the Endless Maze; the entrance was a wall of smooth stone with thirteen breaches one could pass through. Though neither Baphomet or Pale Night tried to influence things beyond the borders of their realms, and Baphomet was reluctant to even draw close, Pale Night occasionally made her way through the Endless Maze in order to make use of a single gate. The gate led to a different maddening labyrinth carved deep within a mountain inside Pale Night's other domain, the delirious realm of Androlynne.

Despite being a surreal realm of endless war, Androlynne was one of the most pleasant places within the Abyss since it was defined not by the conflict of evil versus itself but by the struggle of evil to fend off the forces of good. Mother's Mountain, Pale Night's occasional, looming residence, was a reminder of Androlynne's original identity that she helped keep intact, a bleak, colorless realm of misery and nightmares. However, the rest of the layer was a beacon of hope for what it represented, the power of good to change a place even as hopelessly corrupt as the depths of the Abyss. As a result of the vast number of benevolent beings residing there, ranging from chaotic eladrins and foo creatures, to the more neutral moon dogs and hollyphants, to lawful ki-rins and couatls, most of Androlynne became a beautiful land of bright pastel colors and rolling hills. The vivid fields were rich with flowers and other alien vegetation and the sky housed light-purple clouds of unimaginable size that sometimes took the shapes of screaming faces and at others resembled animals or random household items.

Activities
Pale Night was almost never seen beyond her Bone Castle, preferring silent isolation much of the time. Sometimes she decided to spawn new demonic abominations, while at others she was in Androlynne tormenting eladrin children, commanding her forces from the peak of Mother's Mountain or scheming against her enemies within its cold chambers.

Relationships
The Mother of Demons was regarded with respect and terror by the other demon lords, none of whom she counted as allies nor particular enemies. Occasionally, she sent mortals to investigate if one of her children was scheming against her, but otherwise she left the other rulers of the Abyss alone. Graz'zt, one of her potential offspring, was one of the few beings she had a cordial relationship with, and he had some understanding of her views despite rarely visiting her.

She was also known to share a bizarre symbiosis that could almost be considered an alliance with Baphomet. The eldritch obyrith had inhabited the 600th layer of the Abyss long before he arrived, although Baphomet himself was relatively ancient in comparison to most tanar'ri. By some mysterious means, she somehow repressed his feral urges long enough to offer a mutually beneficial arrangement where the two would coinhabit the layer.

The pact was still in effect and any attack against one of their holdings in the Endless Maze could prompt the other to come to their aid, although that seemed to be the extent of their cooperation. It was his relationship with Pale Night that brought Baphomet into contact with a being possibly even more primeval than her, Dwiergus, the Chrysalis Prince, which seemed to inspire him to create his Tower of Science and create new demonic abominations in his image.

Cult of Pale Night
Worshipers of Pale Night are rare; most of them are malevolent spellcasters obsessed with creating new breeds of half-fiends to unleash to the world.

History
Long ago, by guile and trickery, she trapped a whole generation of eladrin children on Androlynne with the intent of hunting them down one by one at her leisure. Since then, the layer has become a battlefield between the forces of the demoness and the celestials that have come to protect the children.

Rumors and Legends
Ancient texts claim that Pale Night is the mother of Graz'zt, Lupercio, and Vucarik in Chains. If she is indeed the mother of Graz'zt, she would also be the grandmother of Iuz, and possibly the mother of Rhyxali. Other texts make the bold claim that the entire tanar'ri race is descended from her in some way. However, Pale Night speaks only very rarely and has not confirmed any of this. She also seems to have a mutual defense alliance with Baphomet.