Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine Hells is the devil god of the Nine Hells and represents mastery of tyranny and domination. He relishes in corrupting mortal souls with his honeyed words. He rules his domain with iron rule and punishment he inflicts for crossing him are legendary. Devils and other evil entities pay him tribute, while warlocks are drawn to his power.
Asmodeus, an archdevil, Supreme of the Nine Hells (or Baator), is the god of tyranny and sin.
The undisputed ruler of The Nine Hells and the progenitor of the fiends known as devils, Asmodeus is a sinister being whose duplicitous voice has proven more dangerous than any mortal weapon.
He is stronger than a storm giant and his palace is Nessus in on the bottom of the lowest rift in Hell. An ever ambitious and careful creature, Asmodeus retained his position all through the Reckoning of Hell, unlike many of the other archdevils. Asmodeus is lord of Nessus, the Ninth Layer of Hell, though he is generally recognized as lord of all of his divine dominion of Baator, which lies within the The Astral Sea.
Asmodeus is the undisputed master of the Nine Hells, commanding fear and respect from all those who occupy his realm. Even the gods who dwell in The Nine Hells give Asmodeus his proper due. Though the archdevils might work to usurp him, few had the courage to act openly.
He keeps to himself, letting his minions stew in fear of what he would do next. Of course, few forget that Asmodeus emerged unscathed in the Reckoning, proving to all that he's their better.
God of the Tieflings, Oppression, Power, Damnation, Indulgence, Tyranny and Domination.
Church of Asmodeus
Worshippers
On the Prime Material Plane, Asmodeus has more cultists than all the other archdevils combined. Mortals who worship devils actually draw power from Asmodeus. He influences all levels of society and has followers of nearly every race, even within the strongest bastions for good. His path is the way to great and unattainable power, so his clerics are mighty men and women with influence and personal magnetism that makes them natural leaders among their kind.
Avatars of Asmodeus
An avatar is a projection of the self. An aspect is a unique entity that makes its own decisions and schemes. Asmodeus can create both. Asmodeus can maintain up to ten avatars at once, allowing him to have a piece of himself on every layer of Hell. He can only have one on the prime material plane at a time and he can't maintain any others while doing so.
Nyxthseht, Aspect Of Asmodeus
The most famous aspect of Asmodeus is named Nyxthseht, a being who personifies the persuasive voice and fearful countenance of Asmodeus. He has a lesser version of the ruby rod and can cast spells up to 8th level. At one time, Nxthseht commanded a host of bearded devils in the Blood War. It is believed that he is currently trapped in an iron flask in some mortal realm.
Orders
Temples & Shrines
Realm
Divine Domains
Arcana - Trickery - Order - Death
Holy Books & Codes
Divine Symbol
A crown of spiked onyx and curving horns.
Three triangles in tight formation.
Tenets of Faith
- Assert dominance and power over others. Show your strength of will in the image of the Lord.
- Repay cruelty done unto you with further evil. If others show you kindness, exploit it.
- As you ascend to power, do not pity or show mercy to those you climb over to get there. Compassion is unwarranted for the weak.
Dogma
Divine Goals & Aspirations
Asmodeus’ machinations are long in the making, and they might take centuries, if not millennia, to see resolution. He works on a grand scale, carefully constructing insidious and inexplicable intrigues, maneuvering the forces of wickedness like chess pieces on a board that encompasses all the planes.
His core concerns are simple. First, he wants the power structure currently in place to remain exactly as it stands, with him in charge. He has spies on every layer, planted in every court. No fiend knows for sure which of its minions actually serves Asmodeus, so the climate is one of justified paranoia.
Asmodeus also expands evil. He directly opposes celestials and good-aligned deities. His minions combat the agents of the Celestial Planes, murdering them whenever and wherever they can.
Finally, Asmodeus wages war against the demons. He sees the untold legions as a direct threat to his supremacy. Asmodeus is aware of every plot hatched against him. Older than the oldest archdevil, he watches the rise and fall of other archdevils far craftier than any of Asmodeus’s contemporaries.
Asmodeus holds order by any means necessary as the only worthy goal. Naturally, the fiend views himself as the most necessary component of whatever system of which he is a part, seeking to supplant the authority of others so that he can better run the show. It is Asmodeus’s dream to one day bring the universe to heel, harnessing the combined powers of countless worlds to stamp out chaos once and for all.
The Vallis Crystal
It is said that Asmodeus is very intent on obtaining the vallis crystal, a magic gem that contains an entire world in it. Asmodeus believes he can use the world as a new source of souls and as an opportunity to develop an entire planet full of worshipers. With the power from Vallis, Asmodeus believes he can become one of the most powerful deities in the multiverse and can at last escape the bonds of hell.
Personal History
One possible origin for Asmodeus, identifies him as a former angel in service to a god only known as He Who Was
Asmodeus, as one of the greatest of the angels, was entrusted with leading angelic hosts in battle against the enemies of the gods. Though he served He Who Was loyally, Asmodeus believed that his deific master was far too forgiving and unwilling to use force.
After the conflict, which came to be known as the Dawn War, Asmodeus was assigned to guard the entrance to the prison of the god Tharizdun which was located in the Abyss. The demon lord Pazuzu appeared to Asmodeus, as detailed in Demonomicon, and encouraged the angel to act on his thoughts of rebellion against He Who Was. When Asmodeus was ready to rise up, Pazuzu aided him in obtaining a small piece of the shard of evil at the heart of the Abyss, which Asmodeus used to create his infamous Ruby Rod . Asmodeus returned to Baathion, the realm of He Who Was, gathered those angels who would join his side, and instigated a rebellion that ended with his former master's death. With his last moments of life, He Who Was cursed Asmodeus and all the angels who had followed him. The angels were transformed into the first devils, and the beautiful astral dominion of Baathion was transformed into a prison realm known as the Nine Hells of Baator.
Asmodeus assumed the divine might of the fallen deity and became a god himself, albeit one trapped inside his own dominion.
Legend
Before he was Lord of the Nine, Asmodeus is said to have been a celestial being of tremendous power and great vision. Respected by the forces of order across the multiverse, Asmodeus passionately threw himself against the forces of chaos both in battle and interplanar politics.
He quickly became disillusioned with the powers that be, whom he deemed more interested in serving the status quo than living up to their obligations to abolish chaos. And so, in secret, Asmodeus gathered eight followers who shared his desire to reshape the universe, and he concocted the greatest scheme ever devised. Together they proposed to deities, otherworldly beings, and other champions of order a vision in which the souls of willing mortals would be enlisted into a volunteer force that would serve as a bastion against chaos. All that would be required would be their signatures on an elaborate contract which would reorder the primordial forces of life and death, and a sizable donation of planar space upon which to marshal this army.
To their everlasting shame the forces of order agreed, and Asmodeus and his followers immediately began deceiving mortals into signing their souls away to join his grand army, becoming twisted weapons of war or scheming fiends to expand the scam further. When those he tricked protested and rose against the new archdukes of hell, they laughed and held up their contract, pointing out the humiliating oversight in failing to read the fine print. Whether Asmodeus enacted this scheme for his personal gain or out of high-minded conviction is unknown, but what is clear is that this end cannot possibly justify the means.
Physical Appearance
Once a celestial, Asmodeus is depicted in many tomes and murals as a handsome humanoid of deep, red skin and long, black hair with two curling horns rising from his brow.
Archetypal in his appearance, Asmodeus presents himself as a towering, red-skinned humanoid, clad in silks spun from the darkest pits of hell, and sporting a regal face complete with tightly manicured goatee and a rack of pointed horns. To hear the Lord of the Nine Hells speak is both blessing and curse. His voice effortlessly shifts from terrifying authority to honeyed guile in an instant, with prose, vocabulary, and intonation that is hypnotic to all who hear it. Most unsettling of all are Asmodeus’s eyes. His gaze is like a predator who has sighted easy prey, making one feel vulnerable and exposed with but a glance. Few have stood in the presence of such a being and emerged better for it, with most becoming another pawn in Asmodeus’s grand plans spanning centuries, ready to be sacrificed at a moment’s notice.
