Glasya is the newest of the
Archdukes of Hell, and rules the Sixth, also known as
Malbolge. Glasya is the precious daughter of the Dark Lord
Asmodeus and is showered with gifts and boons from her father. While Asmodeus is a loving father, in as much as devil can be, Glasya does not reciprocate, instead taking her father and his gifts for granted and idly fantasizing about overthrowing him. She strives to invade
Stygia and slay
Levistus, who is said to have murdered her mother. To this end she keeps a small but powerful cult in Stygia, ceaselessly gathering information and secrets she hopes she can use to persuade her father to back an invasion of the Fifth.
Moloch, the prior lord of Malbolge was banished from his plane after siding with
Baalzebul during his failed coup. Asmodeus took this opportunity to promote Glasya, still young in comparison to the other Archdevils, and placed her upon the throne of Malbolge.
Glasya is the most humanoid of the Archdevils, distinguishable from her tieflings only through her height and large sweeping horns. Her unassuming form stems from her preference for elegance and simplicity.
A Singular Iconoclast
Of all the Lords of the Nine, Glasya is the most unpredictable. She flaunts the rules of tradition and bends the law without breaking it. She delights in shocking others by springing gambits that catch them unaware. Mortals who go up against overwhelming odds with an audacious plan attract her attention and could win her respect and patronage.
The reason behind Glasya’s rise to lordship is the subject of much whispered debate in the Nine Hells. It is generally known that Asmodeus presented Glasya to the Lords of the Nine as his daughter, and she toured the Nine Hells on his behalf. While doing so, she put her own plans into motion, much to the surprise of the other archdevils. Even before Glasya assumed the rulership of Malbolge, she established the Hells’ first organized crime syndicate, using her followers to purchase souls on her behalf while paying for them with what amounted to worthless coin.
Was it Asmodeus’s intent all along that Glasya should strike out on her own, or was Glasya rebellious and clever enough to successfully defy her father? Was Glasya’s rise to power an unforeseen benefit of her machinations, or is it a great embarrassment to Asmodeus? Likely only the two of them know the truth.
Followers
Outside of the constant vying for position that goes on in
The Nine Hells of Baator, Glasya finds time to cultivate followers outside of the hells. Her followers are often the vain and the infatuated. In particular, Glasya values the worship of
Vampires, seeing something in them that the other Archdevils seemingly do not. Her agents are often succubi, entrancing mortal men and sucking them of their life and knowledge before reporting back to their beautiful queen.
To make Glasya’s workload even more onerous (and to serve as an ironic form of punishment), Asmodeus decreed that Glasya could entice souls into the Nine Hells only through delving into matters of contracts, bargains, and legalities. She and her agents offer mortal petitioners advice on how to manipulate or circumvent the law, or to identify escape clauses — all to ensure that whatever they desire can be obtained without violating a legal precedent.
A notable portion of Glasya’s petitioners are souls who have pledged themselves to another Lord of the Nine and want out of the bargain. Her minions scour every contract struck with another devil and approach mortals whose contracts contain loopholes. In return for giving their souls to her instead, such individuals learn how to break the contract and negate whatever price the contract says they must pay.
Coin Legions
Glasya also operates a massive organization known as the coin legions, a collective of thieves, criminals, and cutthroats, that spans many different planes. While they are mainly devils or tieflings born in the Hells, some are mortals that have been recruited to serve the guildmistress, some knowingly and others in ignorance of where a cut of their loot is going.
The members of Glasya’s coin legions operate in the manner of thieves’ guilds on the Material Plane. They have one critical advantage compared to their mortal contemporaries: Glasya’s knowledge of the law. She knew that in many cases, procedures that devils observed and obeyed as laws were merely traditions, and failing to observe a tradition carries no penalty according to the law of the Hells.
Glasya’s scheme involved using counterfeit currency to buy souls in
Minauros, then selling them soon after to turn an incredible profit. When the truth of her dealings became apparent, she defended her actions based on the legal definition of a coin as minted in Minauros.
According to law, the gold composition of a coin was strictly defined at the time of the coin’s creation, but no law governed a coin’s state after it left the mint. As long as it was made in the mint, it was legal currency. Glasya got around the law by transmuting lead to gold, then having coins minted from the substance. After she claimed her currency and her coin legions spent it on her purchases, the magic expired and the gold became lead once more.
Asmodeus, although he couldn’t punish Glasya for breaking the law, decided to discipline her by doing something only he could do: making her an archdevil. He reasoned that, now that she was effectively tied to a single layer of the Hells and saddled with responsibilities in her capacity as prison warden, her ambitions would be kept in check.
Malbolge
Malebolge is a single massive mountain, the shoulders of which are covered in a dense dark forest. All of the land is covered in ash which falls steadily from the darkened skies, disturbed only by the frequent avalanches. Glasya offers little attention to the outer reaches of her plane which now sit in a silence uncharacteristic to the Hells. Within Glasya's realm is the Amaranth Lodge, a lavish palace built by the Archduchess to entertain and accommodate her vampiric guests. It is a vampire's paradise where the blood flows like water and the sun is but a memory.
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