Baatezu

Baatezu were a category of devils inhabiting the Nine Hells of Baator.

Anatomy
Dissecting a baatezu revealed that baatezu bodies had internal organs. These occupied positions that were quite similar to the positioning of corresponding human organs. However, there were a few differences between human and baatezu organs. For example, a baatezu gained heightened attunement towards planar matters through their highly developed pineal glands, increased combat abilities but also an aggressive personality from a big&mdash;up to triple the human's size&mdash;adrenal gland, greater endurance through longer muscles, extremely high short-term strength through an increased transmitting capability of fluids such as blood in the shorter muscles, and an increased ability to withstand and recover from physical blows through scales internal organs. Baatezu blood's coloration changed depending on the atmosphere they were at the moment, its default color was black. One mystery about baatezu anatomy were their bones. These slightly metallic bones gave other people the impression that they were not grown but carved and gave people the idea that a baatezu's body was constructed.

Sex
A baatezu had not necessarily sex organs. Exactly a third of a given species of baatezu had male, another exact third female, and the last exact third no sexual organs and out of the two-third that had such organs, only the male ones were functional in the sense of being capable of producing offspring. There were only three exceptions, the lemures and nupperibos who were universally sexless and the Erinyes who were universally female. The sex of a given baatezu is chosen for it by its superior. The superior's choice depended on the promoted baatezu's performance record. When the superior got the impression that a given baatezu had to learn something about one or the other sex then it was turned into it on promotion. Therefore, it happened that a baatezu changed its sex or became sexless multiple times in its life. The one exception to this rule were the pit fiends who were allowed to make their own choice on being promoted to one and could change it on a whim. However, higher ranking devils lost this ability to change sex.

As mentioned above, only male baatezu were fertile. Because their women were infertile, baatezu offspring were always made with female members of other races. This was done out of two reasons. First, there was simpel lust. Second and the more prevalent one, baatezu society encouraged spreading baatezu influence through increasing the number of people who had a baatezu in their ancestry, baatezu had real zeal to leave many children.

Diet
Baatezu had no need for sustenance. However, that did not mean that they did not eat or drink, it was something of a hobby of theirs and not a necessity.

Regarding food, in order of preference, a baatezu liked meat from a sentient creature, meat from a good sentient creature, and meat from creature for whom goodness was part of its being like it was case with devas or solars. Eating allowed a baatezu to add the life force of the eaten creature to itself. What a baatezu rarely did was eating a soul while the owner was still alive. They did this only, when the soul changed into a physical form after its owner's death, for example, when it turned into a larva. The reason for this was that baatezu viewed souls as a potential resource that would become available to them, if they managed its corruption. Therefore, eating it before the owner's death was viewed as a wasteful thing to do.

When baatezu drank, they did this from rivers and lakes of Baator that held fluids that were basically worthless for mortals. Baatezu could gain the effect of drinking not only through oral means, but also through taking in moisture from the air.

The only group of devil that never ate or drank were the nupperibos.

Sleep
Baatezu needed, if not to sleep, at least to rest. As a tendency, lower-ranking one required more frequent but shorter rests, while higher-ranking ones required fewer but longer rests. Higher-ranking baatezu could push themselves to operate without rest, this waking time could amount to entire centuries, but as more a baatezu pushed itself, as longer the required rest became when it could not hold off the need for rest anymore. As a rule of thumb, lower-ranking baatezu needed to dedicate a tenth of their time to rest.

During these rests, baatezu dreamt. These dreams had the expressed purpose to motivate the baatezu to work hard during its next active cycle. An odd thing about their dreaming was that baatezu could share their dreams with others. They basically upload their individual dreams to a collective baatezu dream and download dreams from said collective. This instilled a sense of order in the dreaming baatezu. Drawing from the collective had the effect on the dreaming baatezu that it experienced a mental change due to the collective dream's influence, but allowed it to influence others with its own dreams.

Death
Baatezu claimed two things about their mortality. First, barring violent death, they could not die. Second, if they died, they were reincarnated back on Baator.

The former claims were considered for all purposes the truth. The latter was not entirely the truth. When a baatezu died on Baator, it was dead. When a baatezu died somewhere else, it depended on whether it had a say in being there or not. For example, a baatezu who was outside of Baator because of a superior's order, was considered to be there out of its free will and if it was killed there, it was dead. When they were somewhere else because of somebody, like another baatezu, summoned them, they reincarnated as a nupperibo on Baator.

Baatezu feared real death, because they had no clue what it meant. A dead mortal received some form of afterlife, but what a dead baatezu received if anything was not clear and that frightened them to no end.

Reincarnation
As mentioned above, a baatezu that died on another plane than Baator while being there not out of its will, was reincarnated on Baator as a nupperibo. "Not being outside of Baator out of its own will" also included being somewhere because it was summoned there and said summoning was instructed to be conducted by the summoned baatezu.

Baatezu, at least in high positions, gave others details-rich descriptions of themselves as nupperibos, so they could be found by their subordinates when they die and turned into nupperibos. On being found, they were turned into lemures and promoted back to their old position from there. However, this method had some problems. First, it was seriously thought that distinguishing one specific nupperibo from others was very hard for the baatezu themselves. Second, the process of re-promotion was not always done and a baatezu did not regain its memories as a high-ranking fiend until it was promoted to its former form and regaining the position without special treatment could take a lot of time. Third, it happened that the subordinates simply did not care about following the order to find their former superiors as nupperibos, leaving them to fend for themselves back to their positions. Despite these problems, baatezu found it more desirable than death.

Personality
Baatezu shared the trait of vindictiveness. While they were holders of a lawful evil outlook, low-ranking baatezu held some shred of chaos inside them. This made them at in unlawful manner like being disobedient.

Baatezu wanted to advance in their own hierarchy. The motivation behind it was the reward, the potential to take part in shaping the multiverse. Those baatezu who followed the lawful evil ideals advanced earlier than those who did not. Said preferred qualities were the capacity for treachery and backstabbing. Baatezu sincerely believed that their race's advancement hinged on these qualities.

According to one theory, the baatezu who exceled at these qualities were also those who suffered the most because they lacked them at some point in the form of betrayal. The observation was that friendships most often developed among lower-ranking baatezu and the circle grew smaller and smaller as they advanced. It also occurred that higher-ranking baatezu acted like mentors to lower-ranking ones by subtly urging the mentored's associates towards betrayal, thus teaching the betrayed the virtue of self-reliance.

Rogue Baatezu
Baatezu who went rogue, meaning who rejected the hierarchy, were not just hated by other baatezu but hunted to death by the same. A subgroup of rogue baatezu were the risen ones, meaning those who joined the forces of good. Those were rare and kept themselves apart from other baatezu for they had severe difficulties to tell a fellow risen baatezu apart from a baatezu assassin who merely pretended to be one.

Memories
Baatezu changed their physical form when they were promoted or demoted. With the physical change came a psychological change too. While people who believed that a baatezu lost its memories on such a change existed, the truth was that a baatezu retained the entirety of its memory of every single stage. With an increase in power came usually also an increase in intelligence and with it the ability to tap into their memories that may be centuries-worth for each station in their lives. It was often the case that the sheer amount of their memories exceeded their capacity to sort through it. Therefore, it often happened that a baatezu needed to take quite a long time to remember particularly unimportant pieces of their memories. This aspect about their ability to remember could be turned against them by remaining out of their mind as to be classified as unimportant information and use the time frame it took the baatezu to remember about oneself to act against it. Naturally, the baatezu's vindictiveness forced the culprit to be always on the lookout against the devil.

Modifications
Baatezu changed their bodies through promotion. There existed two currents inside baatezu society regarding this process, those who wanted to tinker with it for to find out methods for improvement and conservatives who wanted t stick to proven methods. The former was a growing movement by the 14 century DR, while the latter had a lot of high-ranking baatezu. Modifications that caused some changes gave the promoted baatezu new abilities but also slightly modified bodies, the differences were not big enough to be perceived by the untrained.

There were two types of these modifications, those that were species specific and those that could be applied to any species of the baatezu. In the latter category fell:
 * Assassins:This type was developed because baatezu had a big problem with casualties caused by demonic, to be more precise cambion, assassins and the baatezu wanted to wreak the same kind of havoc among their enemies. Prospective assassin-baatezu were any kind of lesser or greater baatezu and they were considered part of the elite. They were promised extra promotion for good performance as assassins, an offer most baatezu found irresistible.
 * Assassin-types gained the ability to turn invisible and the ability to sneak in mundane ways at the cost of one ability their current station would normally give. They were thinner than normal specimen.


 * Blind Fiends:Blind fiends were one of those modifications that were considered failures. The idea was to create fiends that could consistently cast magic missile. The result were fiends who could shoot magic missile from their eyes as long as they kept their eyes open, meaning they had to be blindfolded while out of combat. Furthermore, even when they had their eyes open, they could not see anything. They required somebody as guide to be effective and their guides guided the blind fiends to attack their own forces to settle personal scores. Overall, they were considered such a failure that the project to promote fiends to blind fiends was called off and by the 14 century DR, they were not newly created and existing ones became fewer and fewer due to promoting out of blind fiend or simply dying.
 * Illusionists:Illusionists were fiends who could create powerful illusions that were so believable that they caused physical harm, albeit at the cost of their life force. Illusionist-fiends could do so only a limited time in their lives and on depleting their uses, they died and lost all chances for future promotions. Those who were such fiends' superiors were advised to be physically elusive to evade vengeance at the hands of the illusionists.
 * These fiends looked physically frail and were actually sickly.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Baatezu had two types of strengths and weaknesses, physical and spiritual ones.


 * Physical Strengths and Weaknesses:Baatezu were completely immune to fire and poison. They had also a tolerance against low temperatures and gases. One way to combat them was with silver weaponry, but this was not as effective as fighting with a holy weapon or with electricity. Holy water was also effective against the baatezu.


 * Sometimes, baatezu had regenerative capabilities. One way to circumvent this was to eat the baatezu. This was the normal method by which demons solved this problem of combating them.


 * Spiritual Strengths and Weaknesses:Dealing with a baatezu on mental levels, especially with high-ranking ones, was hard. One way to get the better of them or at least drop these lawful creatures into confusion was to act chaotically on reflexes. However, because reflexes usually were not actually chaotic, intelligent high-ranking baatezu could see the systematics of these supposedly chaotic behavior, rendering this tactic only usable against dumb and/or lo-ranking baatezu.


 * Another method that was very hard to meet a baatezu on mental levels was to somehow convince that its way of life and action was wrong. This was hard for two reasons. First, baatezu were indoctrinated to believe that their way was indeed right. Second, a baatezu was capable of learning. If a person managed to fool it once, the same trick was impossible to use on it including from a different person.

Start of a Baatezu Life
A typical baatezu life started as a soul of a dead lawful evil mortal on Baaator. The dozen or so souls that were deemed the best out of about a hundred thousands, baatezu also bought additional souls from night hags, were turned into lemures. The selection standards were how well the larva could fend for itself. This process was as artificial as it sounded. Leaving a soul alone caused it to become a nupperibo, the natural result.

Nupperibos were gathered and turned into lemures. This was sold as a demotion but in truth, the process was a change into something completely different. The reason for this inclusion into baatezu ranks was that the baatezu were cautious to not leave the nupperibo alone so that they had a chance to evolve into something that may be strong but not one of their own.

The third way in which a baatezu could start its life was to spontatneously arise from the plane of Baator. This was very rare.

Promotion
Baatezu fell in three categories: least, lesser, and greater baatezu. Baatezu had the option to be promoted when they learnt the one lesson that their current form tried to teach them about the nature of lawful evil. Lemures and nupperibos were an exception.

The ways by which a baatezu could be promoted were twofold, first was promotion by chance, this was a method only open to lemures, the second one is intentional promotion. The latter was a bureaucratic process. The baatezu had ministries that observed every single baatezu and kept records about them to be absolutely certain whom to promote and whom not. On individual level baatezu wanted to rise to a position where they would not be pushed around, the motivation of low-raking baatezu, on macro level to improve the lot of their entire race, the motivation of high-ranking baatezu. The baatezu did this, because their survival hinged on it, for example, fighting the Blood War was only possible for the numerically disadvantaged devils because they had competent commanders.

The criteria that the Ministry of Promotion evaluated were time served and performance. Baatezu had a minimum time they had to serve in a particular that could only grow depending on their performance. What baatezu called "good performance" required some explanation, it did not necessarily mean that a baatezu put out a lot of good performances but that a baatezu did not commit any mistakes while the actual result may be mediocre. Bribing officials and otherwise manipulating the records to influence the promotion of a particular fiend was punishable for both a manipulating official and for a fiend that wanted a promotion. However, this did not mean that it did not happen and the possibility for punishment was viewed as an encouragement to be subtle and good at behind-the-scene-activities.

The exact method by which a baatezu was promoted was undergoing torture. Every form of a baatezu had a different form of torture to attain it. However, there were a few commonalities. First, these torture method were immediate and several baatezu worked in concert to modify or torture the body of the promoted baatezu into its new form, which was always that of a full adult version of the species they were promoted to.

Punishment

 * Demotion:In baatezu society, demotion was taken seriously. A baatezu could be demoted for bad performance and for transgressions. How far a given offender was demoted depended on the severity and frequency and could lead t demotion to a lemure.


 * Demotion had also the potential to be dangerous for the demoted. This was especially the case when it ended up among the ranks of its direct subordinates. As mentioned above, baatezu were vindictive and were likely to live this trait theirs out by killing their superior for some wrongs it did while it was their superior. To evade this, some demoted baatezu actually went rogue.


 * Pit of Flame:The punishment that was most dreaded by the baatezu was to be punished by beig put into the Pit of Flame.

Resting
As mentioned above, baatezu required time to rest. Baatezu hated this for it prevented them from working to advance further. Therefore, they tried to keep their resting time at a minimum. Furthermore, as mentioned above, baatezu could hold off their need to rest, high-ranking ones for literal centuries, at the cost of increased time for rest when they could not keep their needs at bay anymore. These extended resting times represented a serious danger for a baatezu for it was at its most vulnerable. Therefore, baatezu kept secret resting places that were not just hidden but also warded. The level of which grew with increased station of a given baatezu.

Travel
Common rumour held that baatezu could not leave Baator on their own for the Prime Material plane or any of the Upper planes. The reason for this was that high-ranking baatezu forged contracts with clauses that make baatezu stay and/or not enter certain areas and the vast majority of baatezu adhered to these pacts and did not trespass to areas they were contractually forbidden to. A group of baatezu that was always kept out of these contracts were the erinyes who were therefore free to go anywhere they wanted to.

Baatezu who broke these rules fell in one of the following categories. Those for whom breaking the rules meant that they could depose the superiors responsible for their punishment, those who were certain that they could deliver such great results with the act that it would absolute their breaking of the rules, those of chaotic and/or good outlook, or idiots.

Summoning Baatezu
Baatezu could be summoned from Baator. There were two ways to summon a baatezu. First, there was a way to summon a certain one. This was done by incorporating the name of the baatezu into the summoning magic. This created a pull for the named baatezu who was than called to the caster. Baatezu did not like being summoned in this way. The reason for this were either or both of the following. Being plucked out from Baator while they were working to fulfill some superior's orders meant they were eligible for punishment for shirking duties and they hated it. Being plucked out from Baator while they were working to fulfill one of their scheme thus preventing it from going to fruition, which was considered the gravest of insults by the baatezu, something they hated too. Baatezu who gave off the impression that they were not angry were lying for whatever reason.

The second way to summon a baatezu was to not incorporate a specific name into the magic. Casting summoning magic to summon a baatezu caused the creation of a so-called spell crystal in Baator. The spots where these crystals most likely appeared were known by the Minister of Mortal Relations. Baatezu were sent to these places to let themselves be plucked out of Baator. They were given jobs of what to do once they arrived at the caster's place. Usually, these jobs included an agenda but the summoned baatezu was left to its own devices when it came to how to pursue said agenda. Baatezu who were summoned in this way were considered to be the public face of Baator. In other words, when they did something that sullied Baator's reputation, they were punished by torture.

Relationships with Mortals
As a general rule, baatezu saw no intrinsic value in mortals. However, they saw a value in exploiting them for their purposes. The one group of mortals that were, at least to some degrees, those with magical power. To keep tabs on every interaction between baatezu and mortals, the baatezu founded the ministry of mortal relations.


 * When summoned:Preventing a summoned baatezu from acting in a physically violent manner was possible with a proper magic circle in a reliable manner. Protecting one from its manipulation was hard. Baatezu tried to further their race's cause and if one summoned one because they wanted something from it, a baatezu always tried to bargain for it to further said cause. When a baatezu made such bargains, they tried to exploit any loopholes. When a given baatezu was one that was summoned multiple times, it put efforts in not exploiting small loopholes, but tried to accrue multiple small ones and went at some point all out to exploit multiple small loopholes against its summoner. One way for a mortal to protect oneself from such bargains was to know that such bargains were not strictly necessary and make simple demands instead. However, when it saw no way to further its cause, a baatezu followed any order to the letter in very frustrating ways.

Gender Politics
Baatezu society was fully egalitarian with no proverbial "glass ceiling" and where an individual's capabilities and willingness to take command were determining factors in one's success.

Baatezu on the Fugue Plane
Some baatezu stayed on the Fugue Plane from the World Tree cosmology, where they tried to convince souls of the newly deceased to join their ranks by becoming lemures. Few took up the offer, but to some the prospect of a chance of advancing in baatezu society was preferable to the fate they expected in afterlife.

Economy
Baatezu economy worked differently from mortal ones. First, the most valued currency was not money. While it was viewed as a useful tool to tempt mortals into acting in evil ways but monetary wealth was not the normal measure by which a baatezu gained respect from its peers. The valued commodities/currency of the baatezu were larvae, magic, knowledge, and favors.

The shops that existed on Baator catered to travelers. Baatezu demand and supply was met in the following way: low-ranking baatezu were provided what they needed from the higher-ranking, while the latter took whatever they wanted from the former.

Culture

 * Architecture:Baatezu architecture was designed to indicate a baatezu's degree of importance. It had spikes, protrusions, and blades as visual elements. Their cities' design was fairly uniform, as more important a building was as more to the city's center, as less important a building was as more it was built at the city's fringe.
 * Art:Baatezu were not among the greatest of artists. This did not mean that they had no understanding of aesthetics or lacked inspiration. Their need to form patterns affected their artwork in detrimental ways. For example, when they composed a piece of music, it might start off as an inspirational piece. However, due to their aforementioned need to build in a pattern, the work of art was predictable, provided the listener could discern the underlying pattern. Few among the lower baatezu were allowed to engage in artistic endeavors.
 * Language:The baatezu spoke a lot of languages and could also communicate via telepathy. When they spoke among themselves, they used their own language, which was very complicated. For example, every station had its own language that was based on the same and the level of complexity of the language, as well as its ability to convey abstract concepts, increased with increased station. A baatezu generally knew its own station's language and those of the stations below it. Knowing the language of higher-ranking ones was a punishable offense.

Stance towards History
Baatezu made token shows of their reverence towards their supposed history but that was it. They generally did not really care about their race's past. What they cared about was their individual and planar past, isofar as how it would affect them, and the future.

Origins
The orgins of the baatezu were not clear. The baatezu themselves claimed that they were born from Baator itself with clear directives about what kind of baatezu should do what. This version claimed also that the baatezu were the oldest fiends. The version was contested by tanar'ri and yugoloths who both claimed the title "oldest kind of fiend" for themselves.

This version was notable for it was the version that was certainly not the truth. Who or whatever lived on Baator at first, they were not the baatezu. Leaving a soul alone on the lawful evil plane caused it to become anupperibo, a member of the race that lived on Baator before the baatezu came from somewhere else replacing these creatures.

Types of Baatezu

 * Lemure :
 * Among the weakest kinds of devils, lemures looked like semi-molten blobs of flesh with a vaguely humanoid form.


 * Nupperibo :
 * Strange, bloated devils that were even weaker than lemures.


 * Advespa :
 * Advespas were large, wasp-like devils.


 * Amnizu :
 * Powerful, corpulent devils that had jagged teeth and leathery wings. They often held positions of authority.


 * Erinyes :
 * Erinyes were powerful devils that looked like beautiful humans with large feathered wings and glowing red eyes. They were sometimes mistaken for celestials.


 * Pit fiend :
 * Among the most powerful devils, pit fiends were generals in diabolical armies. They had wings, tails, red skin, and fangs.


 * Hamatula :
 * Also called barbed devils, hamatulas were large devils covered in sharp barbs that acted as guards.


 * Barbazu :
 * Also called bearded devils, these were the shock troops of Baator. Barbezus were humanoid, with a tentacle 'beard', tail, scaly hide, and aggressive personality.


 * Osyluth :
 * More commonly called bone devils, osyluths looked like skeletal humanoids with a long, barbed tail and insect-like wings. Osyluths served the archdevils as taskmasters and law enforcement officers.


 * Cornugon :
 * Also called horned devils, cornugons had bat-like wings, tails, large horns, and a humanoid body. They typically acted a defensive troops.


 * Gelugon :
 * Commonly called ice devils, these devils appeared as bipedal, insectile devils and were strategists in Hell's armies.


 * Malebranche :
 * Malebranches, or war devils, were the champions in the baatezu armies and led lesser devils into skirmishes.


 * Spinagon :
 * Spined devils were humanoid devils with large wings and spines that covered their backs.


 * Dogai :
 * More commonly called assassin devils.


 * Falxugon :
 * More commonly called Harvester devils.


 * Merregon :
 * More commonly called Legion devils.


 * Excruciarch :
 * More commonly called pain devils.


 * Brachina :
 * More commonly called pleasure devils.


 * Bueroza :
 * More commonly called steel devils.


 * Ayperobos swarm :
 * Brazen devil :
 * Ghargatula :
 * Gulthir :
 * Kocrachon :
 * Logokron :
 * Narzugon :
 * Orthon :
 * Paeliryon :
 * Remmanon :
 * Xerfilstyx :

Connections
Baatezu