Glasya

Glasya is the lord of Malbolge and daughter of Asmodeus, therefore making her the Princess of the Nine Hells. One of the most powerful and influential of the female devils, the Dark Prodigy is an unpredictable archdevil known for her subversiveness.

Description

Glasya appeared as a 9 ft (2.7 m) tall, black-haired figure similar in form to a succubus. She was well-built and of unearthly beauty that remained undiminished by the small horns, large, leathery wings, and forked tail that gave away her diabolical origins. Notably, her skin was of a copper hue, itself not an extremely unusual trait for humanoids, but made prominent by its more metallic appearance. She was adorned with jewels, clothes, and various finery of incredible expense.

Glasya was known to wield a short sword that combined the properties of speed and virulency. The blade, similar in effect to a dagger of venom, was coated in strength-sapping devil's blood. Later on, Glasya wielded a scourge that shared her sword's speed but was keen rather than being poisoned. She typically resorted to using it when her touch failed, either by using magic to keep her foes still before whipping them or by flying through the air while flaying them alive.

Glasya wore jewelry and finery worth several thousand gold pieces and mostly carried defensive magic items like a cloak of resistance, ring of protection, and ring of invisibility.

Personality

Glasya is perhaps the least predictable of the archdevils, with a reputation for capriciousness and a history of whimsy and mischief. She takes pride in her nonconformity and openly flouts the norms of Hell at her leisure, breaking tradition while bending the rules. Surprising others with unexpected gambits is a source of delight for her, and even before she became an archdevil she is somewhat rebellious and defiant, moving between courts as the mood strikes her.

Despite her often contrarian moves, Glasya is no less cruel than any other diabolical denizen of Hell. Her style of torment often has a verbal element; she delightfully informs those she lures into Hell of their impending doom and vividly describes the horrors awaiting those who cross her. She is also articulate, combining subtle mockery, verbal games, cruel teasing, and noble snobbishness to toy with those at her mercy before she grows bored and sends them off to be tortured. Her sadism extends to the physical, as she extracts much joy from watching her victims suffer cancerous disease, and the only thing her lordship changes is the increased openness with which she expresses her twisted desires.

Glasya's sense of aesthetics belies her inner corruption, as the Princess of Hell is equal parts lovely and loathsome. She has a disturbing love of beauty, sparing those she finds appealing and refraining from killing captured servants of good those that seem open to her attempts at seduction. Conversely, she can't tolerate the hideous appearance or mewling whimpers of the lemures. She uses the corpse of the Hag Countess to create a domain of achingly pleasant palaces and gardens from a contrasting foundation of ugliness and decay, and makes some of her victims enthrallingly beautiful while turning others into suffering mockeries of life. Like the realm that reflects her, Glasya's enchanting surface level disguises a truly rotten core.
Manipulation

Much like her cruelty, Glasya's propensity for concocting sinister schemes is inherited from her father. Her ambition isn't stemmed by her relation to Asmodeus, and Hell's own criminal mastermind has demonstrated a willingness to cross any line for power. She is an intelligent manipulator, possessing in abundance the conniving guile needed to exist in Hell.

Glasya owes her continued survival to her ability to deflect suspicion and insulate herself from blame, typically by having her allies serve as scapegoats. Despite her uncaring demeanor, her sycophants often willingly sacrifice themselves for her, for Glasya knows how to evoke sympathy even in those fighting her and use seduction, deception, and even honesty to win allies for her cause. She prefers to talk rather than directly confront, make allies rather than more enemies, and is quick to show her attackers the \"error of their ways\".

Divine Realm

Glasya's realm of Malbolge, the smallest and least populated of the Hells, goes through many rulers over several millennia, and changes form several times with each change of office. In its original incarnation, Malbolge is a beautiful garden cherished by its ruler, and by repurposing the remains of the murdered Hag Countess, Glasya remakes the realm into a dying parody of a verdant wilderness.

At a glance, Glasya's realm is a fair place of alien beauty, but despair, the faint stench of rot, and venomous threats can be found upon closer inspection. The water is poison, the oozing plants are bloated, trees are twisted or brown if not dead, the smell of flowers induces nightmares and the fruit bore by flowers sometimes explodes into caustic juice. The entire realm is trapped in a near-death state, teetering on the brink of relief but stuck in cancerous agony, and anyone that dies on its putrid surface has their bodies and souls absorbed into the landscape to experience similar unspeakable torment.

Various devils can be found roaming Malbolge, including barbazus, osyluths, kytons, cambions and twisted castoffs transformed by a displeased Glasya. Massive, fiendish vermin such as wasps, scorpions, centipedes and spiders are also common on Malbolge. For example, giant lice are usually seen in the Forest of Sighs, a densely packed series greasy, black-gray trees thought to be the Countess's hair where Glasya abandons those she is bored with to have their bodies pumped with nutrients while the trees drain their souls. Other \"natural\" features include ivory deposits made from her teeth, stony half-arches that loom over most of Malbolge made from her ribs, lakes of various bilious poisons that form when her organs burst and acid-spewing, labyrinthine tunnels formed from her intestines.
Society

Some white cities exist within Malbolge, but the seat of Glasya's power is Osseia, a dome-like palace fortress of lustrous white walls formed from the ballooned skull of the Hag Countess. The hollowed, five-story cranium is partially constructed from the varnished bones of the Hag Countess and those of other victims that displeased Glasya. It is lavishly furnished with baroque decoration, filled with ominous music throughout its long passages and adorned inside and out with unnerving, provocative statues. Where the hag's eye sockets would be are oval, red glass windows capable of blasting lines of flame, and from which Glasya can be seen entertaining party guests.

Near Osseia's center is the Garden of Delights, an expansive, breath-taking refuge filled with plants from across the multiverse. Unlike the facsimile of beauty found in the rest of Malbolge, the pristine garden is a refuge from horror and pain. No monsters lurk within, succubi soothe broken prisoners and the vivid flowers dispel fears. After guests are brought here and put to ease, they are returned to their regimens of torture, the entire place existing only to cruelly mock the prisoners and tease them with hope.

In a circle around Osseia are ten towers of ivory, the former fingers of the Hag Countess divided into three bone segment stories. The first is hollowed out and called the Tower of Pain, where her most dangerous enemies are tormented for eons. The higher one goes, the more excruciating the torture becomes, the lower levels being kept for minor foes such as adventurers and the top levels for survivors of Malagard's inner circle. The other towers become guard posts and roosts for erinyes devils.

Return

Though Glasya's dying domain covers most of Malbolge, that is what it is―a cover. Along the edges of the realm, Malbolge's former surface peers through, seemingly stable but nonetheless shifting monoliths of jagged obsidian. Boulders and crags still lay below the rotten soil of the Sixth Hell, slicing and dissecting those that fall into such areas. Even the rock of Glasya's terminal realm is crumbling, and it seems Malbolge's decaying state doesn't last forever. In more recent times, Malbolge returns to the state it was in under the Hag Countess, an infinite slope plagued by rocky, deafening avalanches.

Residents of Malbolge not dwelling in crumbling forts have to live in caves carved into the mountainside and travel through tunnels and roofed trenches to avoid being crushed by boulders. Devils found guilty at trial are condemned to Malbolge for years, sometimes trapped in cages lowered down to the level of the adamantine pillars the swaying structures are built on. When the rockslides hit, those above are left unharmed while the prisoners are grievously battered but never killed. Glasya's citadel in this rocky realm is a stronghold supported by cracked pillars and buttresses that seem ready to falter but remain sturdy, underneath which is a labyrinth filled with holding and torture cells for those who displease her.

Activities

Unlike most other archdevils, Glasya has little interest in matters outside the Nine Hells, although her endless machinations to expand her power still extend beyond her own plane. She focuses her efforts as a scheming manipulator, one of the best among the archdevils, on the political developments within Hell. She serves as the warden of Malbolge, the prison system of the Nine Hells, and so part of the sadistic princess's duties is overseeing the punishments of law-breaking devils.

Glasya spends a great amount of her time roaming the more beautiful parts of her plane or indulging in luxury, but given her new responsibilities as archduchess, she can no longer partake in her prior favorite pastime of personally seducing mortals into Hell. Instead, she has to relive such experiences vicariously, instructing her favored erinyes to tempt targets of her choice, with self-righteous paladins and corruptible elder priests being her particular favorites. Captives that aren't powerful enough to be a threat to her are tortured in her palace where she can watch or participate at her whim.

Worshippers

Despite her lacking personal power, the number of cults devoted to Glasya were countless. She had a large following of mortals even before her rise to archdevil, which eventually came to rival the numbers of even the most worshiped Lord of Hell.

Ironically, even though she was the child of an embodiment of law, part of Glasya's appeal came from that she symbolized rebellion against oppression. Glasya was a dissenter within aristocracy, simultaneously an outsider and born into the system, yet despite every obstacle around her, managed to prevail. Her cults emerged and prospered in places of civilization where order and tradition were paramount because she presented a way for the persecuted, exploited, downtrodden, her most ardent supporters, and others that felt trapped by familial, social, or cultural circumstances to escape the rules and even rise above them. Mortals who went up against overwhelming odds with bold plans often drew her attention, and in some cases even her respect and patronage.

Asmodeus had decreed, partially to make her workload heavier, that Glasya had to capture mortal souls through deals and legalities, making sure that fulfilling her cultists' desires didn't break legal precedent. Her followers wanted power, money, or love, but wanted to get it without violating the rules, so Glasya and her agents offered advice on how to manipulate and circumvent the law through technicalities and escape clauses. Glasya was an expert when it came to exploiting the law for her own gain and helped others turn the system against itself to obtain more power. Her followers typically clustered in places of political unrest, nations on the brink of societal conversion to lawful evil. In exchange for devoting their souls to Glasya, her agents would also scour contracts made with other devils for loopholes and ways to void them.

Thieves, as well as criminals in general, were followers of Glasya, but corrupt nobility in particular fell into her sphere of influence. She was the patron of those who wanted power that was both absolute and legitimate, both legally and culturally, such as ambitious royals that rose to power when their parents died in an "accident". Gangs of criminal kenku also made deals with Glasya, as did goblins that planned to rebel against their hobgoblin masters. She gave her followers the power to step though shadows for a short time, steal more efficiently, siphon energy, and teleport to escape danger, although the lattermost power inflicted horrible pain on those who used it.

Other Followers

Glasya had shown interest in societies where traditional gender roles were upheld, and her cults often recruited female figures near men of power―mothers, daughters, and romantic partners―and taught them how to rule from behind the throne. The influence of Asmodeus' daughter was supposed to bolster ties between family, but her interpretation of this promise was liberal at best, and the gifts she offered could be used to sever bonds just as much as they could strengthen them. Many of her followers were young adults, inexperienced and rather naïve souls full of vigor and willing to experiment.

After she transformed Malbolge, Glasya managed to create a small cult following as a minor patron of corruption, growth, and agony. Her cultists could draw power from the quivering corpse of the Hag Countess, infecting themselves with her essence. This allowed cultists to grant themselves horrible mutations to enhance themselves, such as by having throbbing tumors emerge from wounds to seal them, extend their reach, or increase their speed. The cancerous flesh could also spew streams of sickening filth at others several feet away.

Rituals

Cults of the seductive Glasya typically operated brothels as a cover for their temples. Her clerics favored the scourge as a weapon, signature instrument of previous ruler Moloch, and also had access to the bottled acids and poisons derived from the bile lakes of her realm. Her clerics could summon kalabons rather than the disgusting lemures and used them like living weapons to despoil peaceful forests, and could also call on the corrupting paeliryons using greater planar ally spells. Some were known to incorporate dark primal spirits in their rituals.

Relationships

Family

Glasya was believed to be Asmodeus' only child, and the circumstances of her birth were shrouded in mystery. Beings of god-like status rarely shared their power with offspring, divine children being rare at best, and his plans for his daughter were unclear. Glasya wasn't above using her familial relation to Asmodeus as a shield to protect herself from retaliation. Glasya had gone so far as to win the loyalty of some of the Dark Eight, his insidious cabal of pit fiend generals, though who was to say which of them were loyal to her and which would side with her father if the two went to war.

The two had a long, volatile history; Glasya often consorted with his enemies and openly resisted his efforts to control her, and Asmodeus' move to make her serve in his court only made her bored and dissatisfied. He gave his blessing when she took over Malbolge (the role he played in the process debatable), but it was possible that he reasoned that with responsibility over a Hell, her ambitions would be kept in check. Despite not always seeing eye to eye, Glasya still generally supported her father since the two shared a similar outlook and methodology.

Glasya's mother, Bensozia, viewed her daughter as a tool to carry her resentment and spite. Asmodeus had essentially taken his consort as a trophy, and the mastermind of the Hells failed to anticipate the depths of this loathing. Believing that Glasya could do what she couldn't―kill Asmodeus―she nursed her daughter on poisonous hate, taught her seduction and intrigue, and filled her empty heart with murderous intent. The seed of hate Bensozia planted eventually grew until replacing her father became Glasya's dominating desire.

The archduke Mephistopheles, despite loudly announcing his intent to replace Asmodeus, could be said to be a family member of Glasya since he was somewhat of a godfather for her. Archdevils

Most other archdevils despised Glasya for her suspected role in their downfall during a period known as the Reckoning, but feared her at the same time. To challenge her could be construed as a move against Asmodeus, who they theorized could be using her to consolidate his power, and it was difficult to discern who the target of her own ambition would be. They struggled to place spies in her court and she aggressively recruited their powerful servants who had been sidelined for ambition. High-ranking devils that had fallen out of favor with their respective lords would happily scheme against them, and though Asmodeus allowed it, other archdevils hated her even more for it and had to conspire to destroy their former servants because of it.

Baalzebul and Moloch, the former rulers of Malbolge, vehemently detested Glasya. A majority of assassins sent at Glasya were from Baalzebul, for not only had the princess teased him in the past to try and supplant him as ruler of Maladomini, but she was a participant in the conspiracy that lost him the plane she went on to rule. Moloch, though he rejoiced at Malagard's death, was also irritated by Glasya's rule over his former dominion, a clear act of nepotism by Asmodeus. The ever-cautious Dispater was sent into paranoia when Glasya killed the Hag Countess, seemingly with her father in on the scheme, and began taking even more defensive measures in response.

Glasya harbored a special hatred for Levistus, whom she had stated her intent to kill for an ancient crime regarding the death of her mother. She had been described as being obsessed with him, going between pining misery and murderous rage, though since Levistus had his own defenses, her actual claims were considered posturing. After becoming archduchess, she used her intelligence network of paeliryons to gather information on her nemesis, hoping to obtain enough evidence that her father would grant her approval to destroy him for good. Despite this, Levistus still toyed with the idea of making overtures to the rebellious child of Asmodeus.

The only archduke that liked Glasya was Fierna, another archdevil's daughter and a likely ally for when her relatively weaker forces attacked Levistus. Despite rumors that she killed Naome, Fierna's mother, (who had a distaste for Glasya when she was still alive) Fierna held only besotted admiration for Glasya and couldn't stop talking about her when the subject arose. Friends even before Glasya's rise, Fierna was inspired by her example, and encouraged by her to develop a network of devils and cultists separate from her father Belial's forces. Belial was hampered both by Fierna's ambition, a potential liability, and the interruption of plans to invade Malbolge. For a time he schemed to loosen Glasya's influence over Fierna, albeit with the utmost caution as to avoid incurring Asmodeus' wrath.

Glasya used to be Mammon's consort, but their true feelings for each other weren't clear. He was still bitter and wanted payback against her for manipulating him in the Reckoning, and was frightened by her ascension, yet he sought to have her at his feet when he ruled Hell. Glasya hated the squalid slum of Minauros, but yet, after taking Malbolge, had been manipulating some of his dukes to try and take his domain for herself. Asmodeus might have assigned Glasya to Mammon, or she might have went to him, either out of actual passion or just to stir up trouble for the archdevils, though either way Asmodeus put an end to the relationship after the Reckoning. There were rumors since Glasya became archduchess that they'd rekindled their affair, but others claimed that Glasya resented the feckless serpent for not fighting for their love, although given political romance in Hell, both could be true.

The Court and Servants

Glasya had few figures of note serving her since most of Malbolge's original dukes and other archdevils retreated to Maladomini, home of their true master Baalzebul, when Moloch was defeated, and Malagard's death did little to convince them to return. Under the hag's dominion, no one was promoted to duke, and Glasya only accepted the hag's most talented lackeys after sufficient groveling. Some tried to avenge the death of their former master and for their insubordination were confined to the upper reaches of the Tower of Pain and subjected to a wide variety of tortures. One such servant was Bloodcurdle, the hag's favorite nightmare, who pretended to submit to Glasya before tossing her into a lake of bile.

One of the only dukes left was Tartach, former legate of Moloch, who had abandoned Baalzebul to become Glasya's chief lieutenant and high marshal. The sadistic chamberlain was an expert in intrigue and for granting her his wisdom and experience, Glasya granted him great power. Tartach was infamous for disloyalty, doing little to stop coups or advise against bad decisions, but Glasya changed his perspective. He truly believed Glasya had the potential to take over Hell, and had been seduced by her when she visited Baalzebul's court. Glasya saw in him a kindred spirit and inestimably valuable aid, and gave him the recognition he felt he never received. Still, despite showers of gifts and affection, Tartach wanted more and doubted Glasya would reward him as he wanted―by suggesting he replace another archdevil―and so crafted his own plans to do so.

Another noble of Glasya was Beleth, the Prince of Imps, who, after a cursory interrogation, Glasya quickly employed. The Princess of Hell sought to establish her rule without being dependent on her father's authority, and so saw value in Beleth's plane-spanning spy network. Glasya gave tacit permission for him to work for other archdevils despite being her spymaster, and saboteur and it was rumored that Beleth occasionally reported on Glasya's activities to Asmodeus, although not even she could blame him for doing so. Though the Witch's Viscount was to hand over any information relevant to Glasya and her enemies and was to prioritize her orders above others, he didn't feel obliged to share information not immediately important to her or obtained through mortals.

Glasya's fortress of Osseia had special chambers allowing devils of any variety to dwell there comfortably, but she had a preference for certain types. The nobles of her court, of which succubi were also members, were the beautiful erinyes and corrupting paeliryons to whom she showed distinct favoritism. Her palace was filled with elite guards and war devils, and she had various other servants, devils and otherwise, that leaped to do her bidding and were wiling to die to protect her. Out of all her servants, the most belligerent and reluctant were the devils known as kalabons. Believed to have arisen from the carcass of the Hag Countess, each of the putrid creatures harbored an innate hatred towards Glasya, sometimes even attacking her with startling frequency.

History

In her early days, before her rise, the Reckoning, or even the ancient imprisonment of Levistus, the rebellious Glasya flitted between the courts of various archdevils at a whim. This fanciful trouble-making ended, however, when Bensozia died. Though exactly what happened was shrouded in mystery and conspiracy, it ended with Levistus being sealed in his icy tomb and Glasya becoming primarily Mammon's consort. Something about the events that transpired during this time magnified the hatred that Bensozia had fostered in her daughter's heart towards her father, and it was at this point she became dedicated to supplanting him.

Reckoning

Unfortunately, Mammon was a lesser archdevil, a self-indulgent and rather craven lord, and being his consort gave her little opportunities to rise in status outside of manipulating others to do her bidding. The individual archdevils standing in her way were too dangerous to try defeating and would be reluctant to move against Asmodeus themselves, not wanting to risk their own domains or disrupt Hell's delicate, pre-established power balance. Fortunately for Glasya, this uneasy peace was so unstable that only a few pulls would cause the entire thing to become undone.

Glasya appealed to the bitterness of Mammon's seneschal and her own bodyguard Focalor, who resented his foolish and lazy master for leaving him to do all the actual work. Focalor was not only a powerful protector but a reliable source of political information, and at Glasya's urgings, he convinced Mammon that Baalzebul was planning on attacking his ally Mephistopheles. While Mammon wrestled with this information and whether or not to inform Mephistopheles, Glasya went to Moloch's court and recruited his consort Malagard, though she wasn't the only one helping on that front. Malagard was co-conspiring with Geryon, the Lord of Stygia at the time and Moloch's archenemy, while the ambitious devils Beleth and Tartach joined the scheme on their own.

Through Malagard, Glasya convinced Moloch that Mephistopheles was planning to attack him, convincing him to inform Baalzebul of the rumors. Baalzebul started massing his armies in response, thus confirming the misinformation that Mammon had, at that point, given to Mephistopheles. With a bit more subterfuge to get the archdevils to war rather than simply posture, possibly involving the murder of Fierna's level-headed mother, Hell's armies marched and the Reckoning began.

Asmodeus, however, was not unaware of the scheming of his archdukes, and Geryon was acting as his agent during the Reckoning. Just when the two factions led by Baalzebul and Mephistopheles were about to launch into their final confrontation, Geryon blew his horn and signaled their pit fiend leaders against them, thus abruptly ending the conflict. The Reckoning caused dramatic upheaval within Hell's hierarchy, and Glasya was certainly impacted by it. Glasya was forbidden to continue consorting with Mammon and told in clear terms that if she wanted to maintain her prestigious position, she would have to start taking on some responsibilities. After the Reckoning

Asmodeus dubbed Glasya the "Queen of the Erinyes", though Glasya initially threw a fit when this happened; the Dark Eight, which was possibly formed or at least rose to greater power around this time, was responsible for dealing with the erinyes, and as their Queen, she fell under their watchful scrutiny too. Despite this lack of privacy, her new role had many unexpected benefits. She enjoyed her new duties, often spying on her charges while polymorphed to ensure they were doing their jobs, and could personally visit the Material Plane and its many charms at she so chose. The Dark Eight was also incredibly influential, so the other archdevils couldn't attack her without provoking their wrath. Glasya took advantage of her diplomatic skills during this time by recruiting a small army of her own in the event that a chance for a military coup arose.

At one point, Glasya established the first organized crime syndicate in the Hells, her own "coin legions", to help her gain power and wealth. Her followers operated like a thieves' guild on the Material Plane, but unlike their mortal counterparts, had the benefit of Glasya's knowledge of the law. Many of Hell's devils made the mistake of following traditions like laws, despite only the laws having actual penalties for not following them, and Glasya exploited this fact for coin. She had her followers purchase souls in Minauros on her behalf using counterfeit coins she made by transmuting lead into gold, the law on minting coins only specifying the material before processing. The coins would eventually revert to their base metal, but by that point the souls and other resources would already be bought and then quickly sold at a marked-up price.

When this occurred in relation to Malagard's death in 1375 DR was uncertain, but Glasya would arrive to the sixth layer sometime following her criminal activities. Many of the Countess's most loyal servants were crushed or fell to death in the horrific process by which she fused with her domain, and the layer's survivors had to claw their way out of the collapsed earth. Glasya was quick to claim Malbolge as hers; her forces swept the land unchallenged as she rode into her new realm on a luxurious canopy with silken pillows held aloft by winged devils. When her authority was questioned, she presented a letter of authority from her father stating his support and declaring her the Archduchess. Even if the archdevils were willing to risk attacking Asmodeus's daughter, the Dark Eight had been given dominion over much of Hell's military. The archdukes wouldn't risk starting another Reckoning at this point, allowing Glasya to claim her birthright and become a Lord of Hell.

Recent History

On Hammer 10 of 1487 DR, Glasya sent her forces, led by a pit fiend named Khartach, to help ensure a ritual to divide the gods Asmodeus and Azuth would succeed, if only to maintain her own power. The infernal legions were sent to help the forces of Thymari against a summoned horde of demons and help the Chosen of the gods achieve their mission.

Glasya

Lord of the Nine

Basic Information

Titles

Lord of the Sixth
Lord of Malbolge
Queen of the Erinyes
Princess of Hell
Princess of the Night
The Dark Prodigy

Pantheons

Archfiend

Serves

Asmodeus

Attributes

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Symbol

A copper-colored scourge

Realm

Nine Hells of Baator/Malbolge/Osseia

Portfolio

-

Favored Weapon

Scourge

Following

Worshippers

Female figures near men of power

Domains

Charm (-)
Evil (Corruption, Devil)