Abishai (ÆB-i-shy)
Abishai, also known as scaly devils, are Baatezu in service to the Queen of Chromatic Dragons, Tiamat. The draconic devils are, among many other roles, the guards and escorts of the Nine Hells' captives, processing them for torture when not corrupting mortals themselves.
Abishais appear to be a hybrid of dragonborn and devils, being thin, clawed reptilians with large, leathery, bat-like wings. Their tails are prehensile, constantly whipping around their bodies and are tipped with a hidden barb. An abishai's eyes are slanted and from their fanged, snapping jaws comes a rasping voice. Atop their visage is a pair of small horns, snake-like hair, and pointed ears. Strangely, their presence brings with them the smell of vinegar and a perceptible increase in the warmth of the air.
They come in all the colors of chromatic dragons, but the scales that adorn their skin is duller than those of their true, chromatic counterparts. Their size is said to correspond to their station but in general they are 250‒500 lb devils that can reach heights between 4‒8 ft tall.
Personality
Abishais are arrogant devils that view themselves as the purest children of Tiamat and as such view themselves as superior to both her other underlings and other baatezu. They draw both their philosophical stances and demeanor from their queen and swear fealty to her. Their sense of rivalry extends not only to other devils but to different breeds of abishai, and due to their intense sense of classism they only interact with abishais of immediately higher or lower rank, and even then on sufferance. At the same time, they are irritated by their own low status and state of servitude, and so take great pleasure in tormenting the few baatezu lower in the infernal hierarchy than themselves. In addition, they have a practically clinical fascination with discovering the depths of mortal suffering.Abilities
Abishai's are naturally armed with teeth, claws, and stingers strong enough to defend themselves with and, depending on the type of abishai, their tails cause a different effect tied to their chromatic type. By holding onto an opponent, their scales and talons can also dig into flesh, opening wounds. While capable of flight, they are clumsy and poor, making it easier for them to land on the ground when fighting. Like most low-level devils they slowly but surely regenerate from any wounds not caused by holy water or holy weapons, implements that can cause them particular pain. The spells change self, command, produce flame, pyrotechnics, and scare are also at their disposal as well as the ability to call a few abishai or a small force of lemures to aid them.Combat
Before landing, abishais typically attempt to use illusion and charm-based abilities to weaken their foes before fighting them properly. Often this includes the use of scare and suggestion spells to divide large mobs of enemies before swooping down to destroy their foes on the ground.Society
Scaled devils are both the torturers and wardens of the Nine Hells, but particularly of the first two layers, responsible for keeping watch of captives and processing prisoners to the correct layers. Wings, two or three abishais, are the most common grouping of their kind, in charge of hunting down fugitives that escaped from the prisons of Hell. Wails are groups of three to twelve that operate the prison compounds and guard scores of captives. When not acting as prison guards abishais instead serve as low-level grunts in the Blood War, assembling into large legions alongside other devils to fight off demons and any others that would try to invade Hell. Lone abishais often have the task of sending messages or scouting. Individual abishais are also given the task of tempting and corrupting mortals with gold, gems, and magical items, and as such often have access to great resources despite their low station. Mortals that agree to their vile pacts are often deceived as the abishais give magic of such intense power that those inexperienced in magic often lose control of it. Weaker abishai are some of the most commonly summoned devils, giving them ample opportunities to seduce mortals with offers of power, but they also sometimes disguise themselves as more powerful baatezu in order to tempt mortals that willingly come to Baator. Contrary to what one might expect from dragon-like creatures, abashais do not personally care for gemstones and normally invest their wealth into protective magical implements, potions and coins, although rarely they can be found delivering gems to greater devils.Tiamat
Tiamat herself employs the abishai's as her emissaries, having them act as her personal representatives. Less important servants send messages to her worshipers, lead small cults with sensitive missions, or perform other simple duties while those of higher status lead large groups, operate as assassins or serve in her personal legions. Abishais willingly cooperate with the dragonspawn of mortal planes, often taking positions of great influence among them. Where Tiamat's mortal spawn represents her desire to subjugate the Material Plane the abishai represent the impact she made within Hell. Fanatical loyalty is shown by Tiamat's servants, with most willing to die for her despite her complete disinterest in her own creations. In fact, it's because Tiamat showed complete disregard for her spawn that they feel the need to earn her attention through excellent service. The arrogance that the scaled devils show towards others is partially a result of their inferiority complex caused both by the cupidity of Tiamat and the disdain most other devils, and indeed other abishai breeds, show them. Existing outside of the system, abishais ultimately answer only to Tiamat, and by extension her jailor, Asmodeus. While other archdevils can technically command them, they are rarely put to use since it's difficult to be certain whose orders a given abishai was following, and while crossing Tiamat is dangerous, countermanding Asmodeus's directions is fatal. At the same time, Tiamat is never short on abishais and so permanently sells some of her servants out in platoons to other archdevils, even going so far as to sell the secrets of their physiology to other archdevils so that they could produce their own.Advancement
Most abishais were once mortals that, for whatever reason, earned the favor of The Dragon Queen in life and who are rewarded with a fiendish form. Her non-dragon worshipers manifest in her realm as wriggling souls before she judges their worth, with those deemed acceptable being transformed through a horrifying process into white abishais, and all others being sold to buying devils and liches in exchange for gold and gems. Those turned from spinagons into low-ranking abishai are generally viewed as too lazy or incompetent to rise to a higher status, with the only method of rectifying the situation being to diligently apply themselves in order to reach a more respectable station. While some scholars think that abishai have to rise through every rank of abishai, possibly through aging, before they can enter a new form, such savants are mistaken. Each abishai breed is a distinct devil type and while they coan go through every color rank, it is also possible for them to be promoted directly to other forms like the barbazu, kocrachon, kyton or even erinyes if they showed a particular excellency. The abishais are somewhat disconnected from the infernal hierarchy in general, rarely leaving their station even when it's possible to realign themselves with the standard path of advancement.
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