Overview
Torture, anguish, and agony are inevitable in the Black Fortress, but they are methodical, not spiteful or capricious like
The Maw, and serve a deliberate master plan under the watchful eyes of the disciplined ranks of Babylon’s Army. The Black Fortress is famed throughout the Cradlerealms for its innumerable dangers and torments. The skies above range from gloomy and depressing on the best of days to burning red with ash and fire, or, in realms like Erebus, entirely absent. The exact nature of the clouds and illumination varies from each hellish layer to the next, but there is never anything comforting or soothing in the view. The nine layers of the Fortress form a structured labyrinth of calculated evil where torment goes hand in hand with purification. A plane of iron cities, burning wastelands, frozen glaciers, and endless volcanic peaks, this plane is divided into nine nesting layers, each under the malevolent rule of an archdevil. The horrible and hellish layers are as follows.
- Avernus - The first layer is ruled by Barbatos, and is a volcanic wasteland where souls assemble, are judged, and are sent to their appropriate layers for eternal punishment.
- Dis - The second layer is ruled by Dispater, and consists of a large city that provides soldiers to the other layers, as well as traps prisoners of the Fortress in unending shackles.
- Erebus - The third layer is ruled by Mammon. It consists of the sewers of Dis and includes the counting house in which the fortunes of the devils are listed, its supplies cataloged, and its soldiers equipped.
- Phlegethon - The fourth layer is ruled by Belial, and contains the hideous forges of Hell, where unsuitable souls are recast into something more fitting to the infernal eye.
- Stygia - Stygia is the frozen realm of Geryon and the temples and libraries of sin and heresy. It is here that the temptation of devils is practiced as an art form to be mastered.
- Malebolge - The realm of Abraxas is a smouldering forest of false reward and spirited hunts of the damned.
- Maladamoni - This infernal realm, ruled by Baalzebul, is a ruined and decaying city, where all things go to decay and stagnate.
- Caina - Caina is a realm of iron and torture, where steel cages hang suspended over a nearly sentient darkness that spreads in all directions; the archdevil Mephistopheles rules here.
- Nessus - The nearly unknown layer of Nessus is the heart and foundation of the Fortresses and contains the palace of Babylon.
Planar Traits
- Gravity normal
- Time normal
- Realm immeasurable
- Structural lasting
- Essence mixed
- Divinely Morphic: Deities with domains here can alter the plane at will.
- Strongly Law-Aligned and Strongly Evil-Aligned
- Enhanced Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities with the lawful or evil descriptor are enhanced.
- Impeded Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities with the chaotic good descriptor are impeded.
Denizens of the Black Fortress
Daeva Rajas - As certain Daeva complete enough cycles of reincarnation and build upon their atrocities over multiple lives of devotion to cruelty, they are in time incarnated into the most powerful of their kind: demigods known as Rajas. The Daeva Rajas keep mostly to themselves and do not interfere or assist in the schemes of any layer’s archfiend.
Archdevils - Only eight archdevils exist at any one time, each of whom has been granted power sovereignty over one of the first eight layers of the Black Fortress by Babylon himself. While most archdevils are ancient beings who have ruled nearly as long as Babylon has been the King in Black, others are relative newcomers to the realm.
Infernal Demigods - Below the archdevils who rule much of the Black Fortress for Babylon lie two additional ranks of infernal demigods. The first are the queens of the night consisting of four powerful demigods who have achieved the near impossible—establishing their own realms and power in a plane dominated by misogyny. Secondly, the infernal dukes are an elite caste of devilkind from whom the next archdevil may someday rise; one of the most prominent of the dukes is a scheming duke who may well be the best (and most notorious) of the Black Fortress’s record keepers.
Daevas - The outsiders known as daevas are the result of divine accidents—hateful reminders that even divinities are fallible. Unlike most other outsider races, daevas exist in a cycle of reincarnation, wherein a slain daevas returns in a lesser form rather than simply ceasing to exist. On rare occasions, when a slain daevas has excelled in its role, it instead comes back in a more powerful form.
Devils - The most numerous of the Black Fortress’s inhabitants are devils— beings of absolute order and obedience who know nothing of compassion, free will, or morality. Functioning in a rigid caste system and always striving to excel in their roles for a chance at promotion to a more valued position in the Black Fortress’s infernal bureaucracy, devils seek to influence mortals into consigning their souls to eternal damnation in the afterlife, for it is upon the backs of the damned that this realm runs.
Kytons - Serving Xaanke, who in turn serves Babylon, kytons are despicably cruel and equally horrible to gaze upon, they are evil fiends who feed on the fear and suffering of mortals through painful supernatural means. Relatively few kytons remain in the Fortress today, although at one point long ago, they dwelled in this realm in tremendous numbers. Today, the majority of their kind were forced by
Babylon to move to
The Nightmare, and most of those who remain are evangelist kytons (the most common type).
