Avernus
Avernus is the first layer of the Nine Hells and the primary battleground of the endless Blood War between devils and demons.
Geography
Though infinite in size and scope, Avernus' geography was overwhelmingly a blasted wasteland filled with rivers of lava, barren hills, and craggy mountains. It is what many mortals imagine when they think of Hell. Traversing these geographic features was dangerous, as obsidian crystals pushed through the landscape, threatening to cut and injure the unperceptive.
Amongst the wasteland were unique geographic features. Bone Bramble forests could be found in certain sections of the plane in addition to fields of ash, quicksand, salt flats, and marshland.
Fireballs and meteors continually fell from the Avernian sky, leaving pockmarks and craters across the plane. Avernus was also prone to earthquakes as the ground itself seemed to pull apart in its infinite expansion, often leaving massive canyons and scars in the landscape.
Flowing through Avernus is the River Styx, which defies the infinite nature of the plane, as it flows from the Abyss and into Dis, the second layer of the Nine Hells.
Localized Phenomena
Like the rest of the Nine Hells, merely being in Avernus fouls food and water, leaving it edible but disgusting. This also applies to magically created food.
Avernus is also the only area in the Nine Hells portals from outside of Hell can lead to. This was instituted by Asmodeus to protect the later Hells. This also means that newly damned souls first wash up on the banks of the Styx in Avernus before being sorted to whichever layer has claim to them.
Climate
The weather of Avernus is always harsh and unforgiving. Normally, most travellers only have to contend with an uncomfortable, dry heat. However, various opprosive weather events move across the Avernian plane, threatening the unprepared. These events can include extreme heat, which can exhaust non-infernal creatures, a choking miasma of noxious fumes, an influx of the supernatural evil of Hell that weighs on any non-evil souls, acid rain, a small meteor storm, and more.
Fauna & Flora
Outside of the devils that call Avernus home, there are numerous species of fauna that have somehow managed to survive the wartorn wasteland. Abyssal chickens, an invasive species from the Abyss, have successfully adapted to Avernus' climate and are raised by many devils for supplies. Hellwasps and other warped versions of Material Plane creatures also call Avernus home. Avernus also contains a native sentient speices, baatorians, that existed before devils moved in, though whether any still survive is a mystery.
Plantlife is harder to come by in Avernus and typically takes the form of lichen or moss underneath boulders or in crevasses, outside of some areas of note, like the Bone Brambles.
Government
The ruler of Avernus is the Archduke of Avernus, also called the Lord of the First. Due to the everpresent demonic invasion, the Archduke of Avernus was expected to act as the frontline general for the Blood War, and their government was treated far more as a military than a civilian organization. Beneath the archduke are the Dark Eight, eight infernal generals that command the eight Blood Legions that keep the abyssal tide at bay.History
Before recorded history, Avernus was once a paradisical plane that existed seperate from all of the others. During the mythological Averniad the forces of the Seven Heavens and Eight Hells fought over Avernus, each seeking to add the plane to their own dominions. At the end of the Averniad, Asmodeus, who was once the Celestial Marshal of the legions of Heaven, betrayed his people and seized Avernus, and then the Eight Hells, for himself. Avernus was thrust down as the final layer of the now Nine Hells.
Shortly after Asmodeus' betrayal was the start of the Blood War, and the paradise of Avernus was slowly turned into a scorched wasteland after eons of demonic invasion. Because of this relenteless assault, the title of Archduke of Avernus has changed hands more than any other infernal archduke, as the demands of the war leave opportunity for disgrace or betrayal from ones infernal peers.
For a time, Tiamat, the mother of dragons, served as archduke from her prison, though she proved to be too divided in loyalties to remain in that position permenately.
After uncountable years, the position eventually found itself in the hands of Gargauth, the former Treasurer of Hell, who held the title until he was betrayed by his underling Bel. Rather than submit to Bel, Gargauth chose to leave Hell entirely.
In 920 CR, a group of crusaders following the solar Zariel invaded Avernus after being tricked by the demon lord Yeenoghu. During the subsequent Charge of the Hellriders, the invading mortals were defeated and Zariel was invited by Asmodeus himself to become an archdevil, which she did willingly.
Later that same century, Gargauth returned to Hell with an alliance of dark gods from Toril, including Bane, Bhaal, Myrkul, Talona, and more, attempting to dethrone Asmodeus. The invasion failed, and Gargauth was sealed inside of the Shield of the Hidden Lord as punishment, to be freed only when he could damn ten cities to hell.
During the 13th century, nearly all of Hell was embroiled in the Reckoning, a massive civil war that began when Bel, archduke of Avernus, was poisoned and Dispater, archduke of Dis, was accused. During the war, Zariel, now a member of the Dark Eight, invaded Dis but was ultimately defeated when Tiamat joined the war on Dispater's side. Zariel was then imprisoned by Tiamat.
From 1411 to 1414 CR, an unexpected army of baatorians, the original inhabitants of Avernus, poured across the planes, throwing the Blood Legions into chaos. Though Hell ultimately beat back the baatorians during the three-year Rift War, Bel was demoted to the Dark Eight and Zariel, whose freedom from Tiamat turned the tide for Hell, was made the new archduke of Avernus.
In 1497, the city of Elturel was teleported into Avernus, beginning the Damnation of Elturel. Though Elturel was ultimately saved through the actions of the Lost Star Detectives, the Damnation radically shifted Avernian politics, as Zariel was redeemed by the adventurers and Gargauth was freed from his imprisonment in the Shield of the Hidden Lord. Following the Battle of Elturel in 1498, the newly released Gargauth was then declared the new archduke of Avernus.
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