Asmodeus

Asmodeus

The devil god of the Hells represents mastery of tyranny and domination. His words are honeyed and carefully crafted, soothing and corrupting the mortal heart. The Lord of the Hells holds his domain with an iron rule, and the punishments that await those that cross him are legendary: the basis of nightmare. Evil entities pay him tribute alongside his devils, while warlocks are drawn to his power. A twisted image of the celestial blood that once bore him, the Lord of the Hells is revealed in many tomes and murals as a handsome humanoid of deep, red skin and long, black hair. Two curling horns rise from his brow, and his lips ever bear a knowing grin. The enemies of The Lord of the Hells are numerous, even among the Gods of Chaos, many of whom only follow the archdevil for fear of his immense power. Asmodeus began as a servant of the lawful gods. He was "the bravest, toughest, fiercest and most beautiful of angels." He and the other angels were created to fight the demons of the Abyss, so that the gods could concern themselves with creating worlds and sentient beings. After eons of fighting the creatures from the abyss, Asmodeus and some of his fellows began to change. They grew similar in appearance and methods to the demons which they fought. Afraid of his power and of the changes he had undergone, the gods put Asmodeus on trial and demanded that he be cast out of the Upper Planes. However, he argued effectively that he and his fellows had not violated the law. Asmodeus and his followers successfully sued for access to the Upper Planes and the honors to which they were entitled. Once the gods created worlds and sentient beings, the demons attacked these, too. The gods created mountains, oceans, and wastelands to seal up the gates to the Abyss, but their creations defied their orders and explored their worlds, accidentally unsealing the gates. The gods could not understand why their creations did not follow their instructions, until Asmodeus explained to them that their system did not work because it relied solely upon voluntary compliance. Asmodeus explained that the only way to ensure obedience was to threaten mortals with a disincentive; hence, Asmodeus invented the concept of punishment. Asmodeus convinced the gods to sign a contract called the Pact Primal. This contract allowed Asmodeus and his fellow devils to take up residence in the abandoned realm of Baator, to punish the souls of wicked mortals, and to extract magical energy from the souls under their care in order to fuel their powers. Otherwise, Asmodeus reasoned, they would have to be granted the powers of godhood in order to do their job, which the current gods would surely find unacceptable. In the myth that Asmodeus created Baator it states that Asmodeus tortured souls in a far off section of the upper planes and that when their screams filled heaven the gods once again tried to remove Asmodeus from the upper planes, but by the Pact Primal Asmodeus was allowed to torture the souls in heaven. Asmodeus offered the gods an alternative; give him the power to create his own plane of existence from which to torture the souls that broke heavenly law. The gods agreed and Asmodeus and his devils left and created the Nine Layers of Hell. In both myths, the gods found the arrangement agreeable, at first. However, they eventually realized that fewer and fewer mortal souls were ascending to the Upper Planes, and Asmodeus was deliberately tempting mortals to damnation. When they arrived in Baator, the gods found that Asmodeus had turned it into a nightmarish world of endless suffering, filled with countless new devils. When called to account for his actions, Asmodeus uttered the famous words, "Read the fine print."

Divine Domains

Knowledge, Order, Trickery

Physical Description

Body Features

Asmodeus's true form was that of a wingless scaled serpent hundreds of miles long. His form's sheer size made it impossible for him to meet and enter into conversations with others. Therefore, he created humanoid-looking avatars. The location of his body was kept secret from everyone, including other devils and everyone who learnt of the truth about his body was killed within a day

Special abilities

Asmodeus was a greater deity. However, he was older than the concept of faith and the power of deities like him neither waxed nor waned with the number of worshipers and, beyond himself, he had no ability to grant spells to his followers. However, there was one way for mortals to gain spells from him, by becoming a disciple of darkness. On the mortal side, this agreement meant that the archdevil could take the life of the mortal at any time he wanted if he was not appeased with sacrifices. The mortal generally did not need to meet any strictures like a dogma or the like and could cast divine magic with impunity. The method through which Asmodeus granted spells was not through his own powers but through using himself as a channel for the divine magic of Baator itself to the mortal cleric. After eating Azuth, he could grant spells by himself to his followers and sentient sacrifices stopped being a necessary part of his worship.
However, like any other greater deity, he could create up to ten avatars. He deployed one on each layer of Baator to keep tabs on the layers while keeping one spare avatar. His ability to send avatars to the Prime Material plane was stunted. He could send only one avatar at a time to the Prime and doing this made it impossible for him to maintain all other avatars. This was the reason why Asmodeus's avatar was rarely seen on the Prime and he preferred to work through other people.
Everyone within 120 feet of Asmodeus's avatar was under the effect of an awe effect that made it impossible for people to attack him when they were not attacked first by the avatar.
He could cast animate dead, blasphemy, charm monster, create greater undead, desecrate, detect magic, devil's ego, discern location, dominate monster, fiendish quickening, geas, greater dispelling, hellfire, hellfire storm, magic circle against good, major image, mass charm, project image, restoration, resurrection, suggestion, symbol of hopelessness, symbol of pain, symbol of persuasion, teleport without error, true seeing, unholy aura, unholy blight, unhallow, wall of ice, and wretched blight as often as he wanted, and any power word, any symbol spell, meteor swarm, true resurrection, and wish once per day. He had also the spellcasting ability of a master cleric with the Diabolic and Evil domains. Limited to when he was in Baator, he could cast practically any spell he wanted as an exercise of will. He had absolute control over the Nine Hells and with his mind he could change the landscape of any layer in any way he wanted when he wanted. This control over form extended to the archdevils too, being able to change their forms any way he wanted. For example, he changed Baalzebul's formerly beautiful form into that of a giant slug. People were not sure whether he could kill an archdevil with a mere thought. Some suspected that he could do so and was responsible for Hag Countess's sudden and weird death this way. Those people were correct; Asmodeus could, and did, kill the Hag Countess.
His protective abilities were impressive. It was impossible to harm him with spells below a certain level of complexity, as well as poison, paralysis, petrification, magic dealing with death, illusions, and attempts to influence his mind. Physically, it was impossible to hurt him with even enchanted weapons that were not at least +4. However, even when hurt by such a weapon, if the weapon was not holy or otherwise blessed, the wounds immediately healed.
He mostly fought, which happened rarely, by using the powers of the Ruby Rod instead of his own. He had magical abilities that allowed him to slow people while decreasing their physical combat capability or to instill fear while sapping physical strength by merely looking at somebody. His voice carried an irresistible suggestion that made people subservient to him for ten to a hundred days. He had a preference for using these abilities to make people flee from him or turn subservient rather than outright killing them. In case these abilities did not work, Asmodeus had a strong tendency to retreat and let his minions deal with his enemies. He could summon a pit fiend or two specimens of any kind of devil every hour.
Like any other devil of authority, Asmodeus had the ability to demote any officially subservient devil—that is, any devil in his case—at his whim. He was the only devil with the ability to promote a devil to archdevil status.
Asmodeus was the underlying power of infernal contracts. This was the reason why breaking a contract with the weakest devil still had the power to consign the oathbreaker's soul into the Nine Hells.
Asmodeus's rhetoric and strategic skills were considered a class unto itself.

Current Location

Nine Hells of Baator

Realm

Nine Hells of Baator

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Supreme Master of the Nine Hells Lord of Nessus The Lord of the Ninth The Lord of the Ruby Rod Lord of Lies Prince of Evil The Cloven Old Hoof and Horn The Archfiend The Raging Fiend

Eyes

Solid Black

Hair

Ember red

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Ashen grey

Height

13'3"

Ruled Locations

• Nine Hells of Baator