Lilith was an archdevil princess[note 1] of the Nine Hells who served as the second consort of the Lord of the Seventh, Baalzebul.[2][3] She was an infamous fiend, so known for the sting of her whip that the welt from a deep lash was commonly known in Hell as "Lilith's Mark". Sometimes she was portrayed as a romantic or wronged female figure (such as a rejected lover), and indeed the Slug Archduke's consort was a woman who felt scorned.[1][3]
Description[]
Lilith appeared to be a beautiful, nubile, 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall woman, so alluring that she was easily the most attractive of Hell's fiends (at least for a time). She had crimson skin, hooves, a serpentine tail, small, curved horns, and eyes that glowed white, including her pupils. She rarely wore clothing, preferring to use clinging shadows when she felt it was necessary.[1][3]
Lilith was known to use her ability to change shape to take on the form of her victims' loved ones.[1][3]
Personality[]
Lilith was an incredibly intelligent devil who exhibited the sadism common to most of her kind. She often toyed with her prey, subjecting them to psychological and physical torture before murdering them.[3]
Powers[]
Among Lilith's various spell-like abilities were fire manipulation, charming, psionics, tongues, teleportation, dispelling magic, darkness, shape changing, necromancy, and lightning.[1][3] She had an aura of desire which baatezu were immune to, and would cloak herself in clinging shadows. She could also summon other baatezu once per day.[3]
In melee, Lilith preferred to fight with her tail, which she used to strike and constrict.[1]
Possessions[]
Although she used them less frequently in order to avoid breaking them, Lilith also fought with a scimitar and a metal-barbed whip called "Lilith's Caress" which sapped the strength of her victims, causing exhaustion.[3]
Activities[]
Lilith mostly used her seductive charms to survive the tumultuous infernal political landscape whilst waiting for the chance to take over as the ruler of Maladomini.[3]
Relationships[]
As a result of her attractiveness, many devils were willing to do small favors for Lilith.[1]
Though once a consort of Moloch, she was more loyal to Baalzebul than the Grand Duke, abandoning Malbolge when he fell from power to return to the side of the Lord of the Flies. However, even when she was under Moloch, her loyalty to Baalzebul was not what it had been in the past. She felt largely powerless and resented being moved around at Baalzebul's whim. Even though she chose to stick by him, she was only staying close in order to find some weakness to use in her own ascent to power.[1][3] Until then, she gave counsel to the Slug Archduke so that he (and more importantly she) could be restored to glory.[5]
During Moloch's reign, Lilith often worked with the like-minded legate Tartach. For a time she worked closely with both him and Glasya, but chose not to work for the latter partially out of resentment for her sudden rise to power.[1][3]
Worshipers[]
Lilith was held in high regard by witches, warlocks, evil druids, and other occultists of the Prime Material plane.[3] She was often particularly regarded as the patron of dark witches, for it was they who held secret the rites for summoning her. She was mostly detached and disinterested in nurturing her already strong following in the Prime Material plane, which might improve her standing with her peers and make her a force to be reckoned within the Nine Hells.[1][3] Once her foes were helpless, she commonly had them renounce their faith and submit to her before killing them and cackling as they turned into larva before her.[3]
History[]
Lilith's residence in Baator could be traced at least as far back as Asmodeus's rule, and throughout that period she had always been a figure near power. The earliest records of her existence were when she was gifted to Moloch by Baalzebul as a blatant attempt to keep him obedient, for Lilith was easily Hell's most alluring denizen, with a way of diverting the attention of those she encountered from important matters. As Moloch's consort, she was also regarded as loyal to Baalzebul, as was the nature of all of Moloch's vassals at the time. She moved with Moloch between the many cornugon-led fortresses of Malbolge at Baalzebul's command, usually brought by his herald Neabaz.[1][3]
Over time, however, Lilith's loyalty wore thin, her patience for being moved here and there weakening.[1][3] Like all who delivered the gemstones formed from Malbolge's volcanic activity to Baalzebul, she kept a few for herself for her own gain, keeping them hidden until she could trade them unbeknownst to the Lord of the Flies for less identifiable coinage.[6] She also came to resent her service to Molcoh, and it got to the point that she might support a strong bid to overthrow Moloch and replace him with someone else.[1][3]
Lilith competed for her place as Moloch's consort with the night hag Malagard. Though she might have been able to expose Malagard's treachery (which would have resulted in a very different version of Hell), she lacked the passion for her duties to do so. With Malagard's scheme a success, she rose to become the Hag Countess and new Lord of Malbolge, at which point Lilith abandoned the 6th layer and returned to Maladomini, yet this change did nothing to alleviate her resentment. While her rival consort Malagard had ascended to the ranks of archdevil, she found herself demoted to Baalzebul's second consort, and her liege cursed with the form of a grotesque slug whose touch she despised.[3][7]
Despite the change of regime, Lilith's feeling of powerlessness under Baalzebul continued all the same.[3] Tartach had remained in Malbolge, serving Malagard only nominally, but became a key ally of Glasya when she ascended.[7] Despite working with them at first, both she and Tartach having once dreamed of supporting a new ruler of Malbolge, she eventually decided against joining Glasya's court, both out of resentment for the daughter of Asmodeus, and to achieve her own goal of some day overtaking the bloated Slug Archduke as the master of Maladomini.[1][3]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
- ↑ In this context, a "Princess of Hell" is the consort of an archduke
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Ed Greenwood (August 1983). “The Nine Hells, Part II”. In Kim Mohan ed. Dragon #76 (TSR, Inc.), p. 23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Robin D. Laws, Robert J. Schwalb (December 2006). Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells. Edited by Chris Thomasson, Gary Sarli, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 65. ISBN 978-0-7869-3940-4.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 Brian R. James (November 2007). “Infernal Aristocracy: The Dukes of Hell, Part II”. In Chris Youngs ed. Dragon #361 (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 34–35.
- ↑ Gary Gygax (August 1983). Monster Manual II 1st edition. (TSR, Inc), p. 44. ISBN 0-88038-031-4.
- ↑ Richard Baker, John Rogers, Robert J. Schwalb, James Wyatt (December 2008). Manual of the Planes 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 104. ISBN 978-0-7869-5002-7.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (November 1984). “Nine Hells revisited”. In Kim Mohan ed. Dragon #91 (TSR, Inc.), pp. 26–27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Robert J. Schwalb (December 2011). “Codex of Betrayal: Glasya, Princess of the Nine Hells”. In Steve Winter ed. Dungeon #197 (Wizards of the Coast) (197)., p. 7.