Asmodeus

Asmodeus

Asmodeus (pronounced: /æzmoʊˈdeɪʌs/ æz-mo-DAY-us listen or: /æzˈmoʊdiʌs/ æz-MO-dee-us) is the Faerûnian deity of indulgence and ruler of all devils. Asmodeus is a patron of oppression and power, the greatest devil, and the Lord of the Ninth and overlord of the Nine Hells as a whole.

Description

Asmodeus's true form is that of a wingless scaled serpent hundreds of miles long. His form's sheer size makes it impossible for him to meet and enter into conversations with others. Therefore, he has created humanoid-looking avatars. The location of his body is kept secret from everyone, including other devils and everyone who learns of the truth about his body has been killed within a day.
Asmodeus never shows himself except through avatars or project image, both in humanoid forms. Asmodeus's avatars look like a slim, charismatic, red-skinned humanoid over 13 feet (4 meters) tall, with horns on his head and glowing red eyes. Overall, he has charismatic and beautiful looks that captivate people. He always has a perfectly trimmed beard and wears very expensive red and black clothing, which are valuable enough to cover the annual national spending of any nation. However, underneath these expensive garments, the body is wracked with bleeding injuries. While he is in pain, he manages to give the impression of someone unconcerned with the pain the injuries cause him. Each of his ten avatars hold a Ruby Rod of Asmodeus.

Personality

Asmodeus is a lawful evil creature with the goal of becoming the supreme being in the multiverse, even if it requires destroying the current multiverse and creating a new one. While the method he wants to use to achieve this goal is not publicly known, and the only one who has the necessary knowledge to piece the method together hoped that it was not the one Asmodeus wanted to use, that Asmodeus wants to take over the multiverse for himself is a known fact. He genuinely believes that a bright future awaits the multiverse, if he is the one to rule it. As arrogant as this claim sounds, Asmodeus has the competence to back it up.
When faced directly, he presents himself as a confident and eloquent man who is quite reasonable to talk with. In fact, it is quite difficult to see past his manners and realize that he is an evil person best left in Hell. His confidence is real and rooted in his knowledge that he is one of the most powerful creatures in existence. However, he is not above pretending to know more than he does. Thus, he pretends to not just know but also foresee the actions of people who genuinely surprise him.
His threshold for rewarding someone is fairly low, provided that someone is willing to sign away his or her soul. Once the mortal worshiper is dead, what awaits him or her is eternal servitude.

Abilities

Asmodeus is a greater deity. However, he is older than the concept of faith and the power of deities like him neither waxes nor wanes with the number of worshipers and beyond himself. For this reason, he was also unable 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, particularly if he was not appeased with their sacrifices. The mortal generally didn't 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. Since eating Azuth, he has been able to 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 can create up to ten avatars. He deploys 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 is stunted, however. He can send only one avatar at a time to the Prime and doing this makes it impossible for him to maintain all other avatars. This is why Asmodeus's avatar is rarely seen on the Prime and he prefers to work through other people.
Everyone within 120 feet (37 meters) of Asmodeus's avatar is under the effect of an awe effect that makes it impossible for people to attack him when they have not been attacked by the avatar first.
He can an incredibly large range of spells.  Limited to when he is in Baator, he can cast practically any spell he wants as an exercise of will. He has absolute control over the Nine Hells and with his mind he can change the landscape of any layer in any way he wants when he wants. This control over form extended to the archdevils too, being able to change their forms any way desires. For example, he changed Baalzebul's formerly beautiful form into that of a giant slug. Scholars are not sure whether he can kill an archdevil with a mere thought, but some suspect he can do so and was responsible for Hag Countess's sudden and weird death this way.
His protective abilities are impressive. It is 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 is impossible to hurt him with even enchanted weapons that are not at least +4. However, even when hurt by such a weapon, if the weapon is not holy or otherwise blessed, the wounds immediately heal.
He mostly fights, which happens rarely, by using the powers of the Ruby Rod instead of his own. He has magical abilities that allow 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 carries an irresistible suggestion that makes people subservient to him for ten to hundred days. He has a preference for using these abilities to make people flee from him or turn subservient rather than outright killing them. In the rare cases when these abilities don't work, Asmodeus has a strong tendency to retreat and let his minions deal with his enemies. He can summon a pit fiend or two specimens of any kind of devil every hour. Like any other devil of authority, Asmodeus has the ability to demote any officially subservient devil—that is, any devil in his case—at his whim. He is the only devil with the ability to promote a devil to archdevil status.
Asmodeus is the underlying power of infernal contracts. This is the reason why breaking a contract with the weakest devil still has the power to consign the oathbreaker's soul into the Nine Hells. Asmodeus' rhetoric and strategic skills are considered a class onto itself.

Possessions

Each of Asmodeus's avatars hold a Ruby Rod of Asmodeus as a badge of office. It also serves as the avatar's main weapon and allows attacks with elemental forces, forces enemies to cower in fear, or provides the holder with a field of healing and protection. In fact, when facing combat, an avatar of Asmodeus will primarily fight using the powers of his Ruby Rod instead of its innate powers.
Asmodeus has a private army called the Nessian Guard, which is always ready for great battle. This army consists of devils that have been created from Asmodeus's blood and are truly loyal to him. Over the years, their numbers have grown and, if Asmodeus ever manages to heal his wounds and get out of Baator, this army of pit fiends and cornugons will follow.
He owns one of the original copies of the Pact Primeval. Asmodeus's duty was, and still presumably is, to prevent anyone from taking it away from Baator, no matter the cost, as it is the basis on which he and the devils are allowed to damn mortals. To make transportation difficult, Asmodeus actually enclosed the document in a giant ruby weighing over 20 tons (18,000 kilograms).

Divine Realm

Asmodeus rules the entire plane of the Nine Hells of Baator. His seat of power is on Nessus, the ninth layer. His serpentine body lays at the bottom of a rift called the Serpent's Coil. However, the denizens of this plane do not know that. The blood that his wounded body gives off turns into new cornugons and pit fiends, usually the latter. Through this means, he has  built a great army, which is stationed in Malsheem, a giant fortress so large that it is considered unmappable.
Being a man to whom privacy and safety are paramount, he usually remains within his fortress of Malsheem, primarily using other people to make his will clear to others. The other archdevils are annually called to Malsheem. Asmodeus has a huge store of souls in the citadel, and these can be bought from him at an extremely high cost, rumored to be entire kingdoms for one soul. By devil law, only Asmodeus can issue letters of safe passage that do not just cover one layer but travel between layers. However, he has never issued such things for Nessus.

Activities

As mentioned above, Asmodeus is a greater deity for whom mortal worship is not required to maintain his powers, who predates the concept of faith, and who cannot grant spells, while few extant races even remember his godhood. Thus, he poses as a non-divine entity in order to conduct his various plans in a covert and manipulative manner. He is willing to pay attention to the fate of individual mortals and not just the grand scheme of things. That said, Asmodeus is effectively freed from the infernal duty of meeting a quota of damned souls, because every damned soul is damned under his name and, therefore, every soul is also beholden to him. His efforts to corrupt others are concentrated on important people like angels and demigods, with the goal of turning them into unique devils, such as Zariel.
All his plans are made with the goal of destroying the entire construct of the Outer Planes. Asmodeus's fall into the Nine Hells and the ancient struggle with Jazirian caused him severe wounds and basically created the underlying laws of the Great Wheel cosmology, which drained his powers. Restoring his powers requires the healing of his wounds. However, the nourishment needed to heal his wounds is the souls of disbelievers, not agnostics but true atheists. These souls are special. Normally, when a person dies, that person's soul becomes a petitioner on one of the Outer Planes. For example, in Toril's case, the souls become petitioners on the Fugue Plane. However, to become a petitioner, a person needed to have faith in their life, which atheists lacked, and their souls arrived at Nessus regardless of their moral and ethical outlook. This fact is practically unknown to mortals, as the common assumption is that souls of true atheists do not become petitioners, an exception to the rule that souls go where their deities await them. Asmodeus eats these souls to try to heal his wounds. Once healed, he can take back his power from the planes, dissolving the underlying law of the multiverse, creating, for him, the preferable result of reverting everything to the initial state of chaos. He is sure that he alone will survive such an event and remains the only force that can create a new order according to his will. Asmodeus is also the inventor of the Infernal language. When it comes to torturing souls, Asmodeus mostly outsources this work to the city of Jangling Hiter in Minauros.
When demons try to invade Baator, they first must to go through the first layer, Avernus. A substantial part of Asmodeus's military efforts are dedicated to driving these demons away from the layer. 
Phlegethos is where the infernal justice system is situated. Asmodeus made sure that this justice system is not independent, but beholden to Asmodeus.
The Blood War is often described as a kind of philosophical war to determine whether law or chaos should have the ultimate say over evil. But Asmodeus knows the truth, for he has been present since its beginning. The war is simply the result of a violent first contact between devils and demons that, after various acts of retribution, has grown into a wasteful war. However, what makes demons react in such hostile ways towards devils are Asmodeus' own actions: during the Dawn War, he stole a shard of evil from the Abyss to craft the Ruby Rod of Asmodeus from it, and the Abyss want the shard back.
Asmodeus understands how senseless the Blood War is. However, because others commonly ascribe deeper meaning to it, he continues to exploit it as a cloak to shroud his intentions. The Lord of Lies annually summons the Dark Eight to Nessus to issue orders on how to conduct the Blood War in the coming year. The pit fiends honestly believe their lord sees value in the Blood War, which keeps Asmodeus's armies motivated and sharp, his underlings busy, and his enemies looking for meaning in a war without one.
But, all said, for Asmodeus, the Blood War is not a trivial matter. He is well aware of the danger the demons represent for the continued existence of the multiverse. If they are not kept busy with the Blood War, they will eventually take over the multiverse, kill everybody living in it, and finally kill each other into extinction. One of Asmodeus's goals regarding the demons is to get them under his control. He has already stolen one shard of evil - his goal is to steal the entire thing from the bottom of the Abyss. Such an act would give him complete control over the entire demonic race. Asmodeus hates the gods of the upper planes for essentially leaving the devils alone to do the dirty work of keeping them and the multiverse safe from the demons. He intends to take them down after taking down the demons and conquering the planes of law. However, Asmodeus exempts himself from the duty of providing soldiers and other aid to fight the Blood War.
One way he intends to deal with the Blood War is to change its supposed objective from a struggle of law versus chaos struggle to one of good versus evil. Towards that goal, Asmodeus intends to strike a bargain, more precisely, a temporary cease-fire, with the demons. This cease-fire would only need to last long enough for him to organize matters that would eventually turn the Blood War into a good versus evil struggle that would serve his ends in causing destruction on the upper planes. His devils continually damn souls to Baator in order to turn them into new devils and, with it, expand the infernal army.

Infernal Politics

Asmodeus has many underlings, starting with the archdevils. These creatures politic against each other in a lawful evil manner. This once spilled over to affect Asmodeus in the Reckoning of Hell, reinforcing his choice of not being a god. However, it was all a charade concocted by the Lord of Lies. By acting in a lawful evil manner on a lawful evil plane, the devils under Asmodeus follow the rules by which denizens of every other Outer Plane act. Asmodeus does not intend to further this belief, but the lack thereof. His underlings' actions serve as a smokescreen to hide his true intentions from others.
That said, to Asmodeus, infernal politics are important. One of his focuses is maintaining the status quo, meaning keeping himself at the top of Hell's pecking order. Towards that end, he has infiltrated the courts of every archdevil to levels that make them paranoid - for no devil can ever be sure whether an associate is a spy working for Asmodeus or not. As a general rule, Asmodeus is not forthcoming about his plans. In fact, he is by far the most accomplished devil when it comes to intrigue and devils point to the result of the Reckoning when they want proof of their overlord's superiority. 
Asmodeus typically outsources his work to devils below him in the full knowledge that they desire his position.

Spreading Disbelief

Asmodeus wants to turn people away from belief. He maintains working relationships with evil deities, giving infernal aid in return for supplying his followers with spells in his stead, so said followers can increase their numbers through the display of magical aid. These cults are dedicated to either infernal entities or completely made-up ones in order to gain a following in a specific group or people. When Asmodeus wants souls to heal his wounds, he directs his allies to stop granting magic to his own followers when the cult's numbers are at their peak to deliberately cause the decline of the cult. While the majority turn to other religions, some lose faith in religion altogether, becoming disbelievers and food for Asmodeus. Asmodeus considers it a particular success when such despairing cults turn to suicide.
A second tactic to increase the number of disbelievers is to supply the Athar with aid. This is a school of thought (one that came into being without Asmodeus' doing) that posits that gods are not gods, but just another form of powerful creature. Asmodeus aids this faction in a covert manner, and the Athar had no clue that the Lord of Lies is on their side.
A third tactic is disillusioning mortals with the gods. Contrary to common belief, gods are not omnipotent and are as capable of pettiness as mortals are. Asmodeus fans such feelings through his manipulations among the gods. Such manipulations are very subtle and take centuries to bear fruit. The Lord of Lies's goal is not to make the gods kill each other directly, but to make the gods pit their followers against each other, thus showing mortals that the gods are petty and turning them away from worship.

Relationships

Deities

Asmodeus has working relationships with evil deities who supply his followers with spells, for he cannot do it himself, in return for his aid in their endeavors. Baatorian deities are quite respectful around him. 
The lawful deities and Asmodeus have an ancient agreement called the Pact Primeval that, among other things, allows his devils to corrupt mortals and wring divine magic from their souls. From time to time, rumors about various lawful deities allying to take over Baator from Asmodeus have popped up, but have never amounted to anything. Lawful deities are not really capable of changing the status quo and, even if they were, the ability to agree on who was to take control of the Nine Hells is beyond them. Like the gods, Asmodeus does not want an open war either.
Asmodeus keeps Tiamat's influence small. Among other things, he took away control of Avernus from her. In fact, she was contractually imprisoned by Asmodeus.
Among the duergar deities, Asmodeus has a special contract with Laduguer: the Archfiend would provided aid for the duergar so they could free themselves from the mind flayers, while the Taskmaster promised that the freed slaves would be a force antagonistic to Lolth and other forces of the Abyss. According to a duergar legend, when the two made this deal, Asmodeus tried to make Laduguer show emotion with jokes and the like, but the Taskmaster never laughed, even when he got the deal he wanted. The duergar were also victims of impersonation by Asmodeus. He pretended to be one of their gods in order to stir up their desire for vengeance and tyranny.

Devils

Asmodeus was baatezu and the creator of the baatezu. It was from his blood the first of them arose. He is an entity that outranks both common and noble baatezu and falls into a category unto himself, but is still a devil like the others. Among the devils, Asmodeus rules supreme and makes his superiority publicly clear in an event called the Reckoning of Hell. Every single devil serves Asmodeus either directly or via a line of authority back to Asmodeus from its position in the infernal hierarchy. One exception to this rule are the abishai, who ultimately served Tiamat. Asmodeus is only their commander when he personally assigns them tasks. However, abishai know that while disobeying Tiamat's orders can potentially spell their doom, disobeying Asmodeus's orders does so for sure.
Among greater devils, Asmodeus is the default authority to report to. Every time a devil has an opportunity for promotion to greater devilhood, they need the approval of a superior - an archdevil. When a devil is not sure to whom it is supposed to report, Asmodeus is the one they have to choose. Asmodeus is also the source of the divine magic the devils (and archdevils) use.
Asmodeus rules supreme among the archdevils. He annually calls the archdevils (including Levistus) to his court. When the position of an archdevil needs to be filled for some reason, it is Asmodeus's right to choose the new one. His choice is always one of the unique devils who stand above the greater devils but below the archdevils. The archdevils themselves want to topple Asmodeus from his throne and take over his position as ruler of hell. However, since the Reckoning, they have had to admit that Asmodeus is superior to them and cave in. In practice, none of them have the courage to move openly against him. The archdevils of note who directly serve Asmodeus are as follows.

Baalzebul

According to one myth of dubious veracity, Baalzebul, an archon called Triel, was seduced by Asmodeus into entering Baator and became a powerful devil. Baalzebul was originally Asmodeus's favorite archdevil, until he was a leading figure in the Reckoning. After he lost, he was allowed to hold his position, but was turned into a slug-like creature, cursed to remain in this form for one year for every lie he told to a devil, with the lies told before his transformation counted. The two have a strange working relationship regarding their cults. Baalzebul is the choice for the downtrodden and rebels and Asmodeus is the choice for those in a position to grasp for power. So, occasionally, after Baalzebul's cultists destroy a given community's power structure, Baalzebul and Asmodeus exchange temples - for Baalzebul's cultists are good at destroying power structures but bad at maintaining or creating them, whereas Asmodeus's cultists are the opposite. This arrangement gives Asmodeus a place to expand his influence and Baalzebul a place with a power structure to destroy. From time to time, Asmodeus provides Baalzebul with unexplained favors, possibly because he still sees value in this known traitor. That said, Asmodeus also issued a decree that made contract-partners of Baalzebul end up in a bad way as a result of the contract, so other devils avoid making deals with him. Baalzebul tries to prove his usefulness to Asmodeus and hurt his rivals, Dispater and Mephistopheles, by using his spy network to dredge up evidence of them having rebellious intentions.

Bel

When Bel betrayed his master Zariel, Asmodeus struck a bargain with him, where Bel had to dedicate himself to the Blood War to be spared punishment. Bel accepted and Asmodeus gained a lord for Avernus who'd be consumed by his duties in the Blood War with no time to plot treachery. Asmodeus decreed that other archdevils must aid Bel with various resources in the Blood War, but Bel's reputation as a traitor makes it impossible for him to find allies. Thus, Bel is a curiosity who puts Asmodeus and the good of Baator above the good of himself. Bel tries to curry favor with Asmodeus by supplying information about other archdevils provided by his spies in their courts, but this is rarely news for Asmodeus.
After the Reckoning, Belial was forced by Asmodeus to hand over his position to his daughter Fierna. He once had plans to start a civil war within Baator by invading Stygia and Malbolge, but had to abandon these when Asmodeus chose his daughter as Malbolge's archdevil - for invading her turf would bring about Asmodeus's anger.

Dispater

In the Pact Primeval version of Asmodeus's origin myth, Dispater was Asmodeus' companion since before they even went to Baator. He was cowed by Asmodeus after the Reckoning and he cannot be convinced to go against his master again. After the Second Sundering, Dispater garnered himself a reputation of loyalty towards Asmodeus.

Glasya

Glasya is Asmodeus's daughter and he is a caring father towards her - at least for a devil. Moving against her is something to be done in a covert fashion, lest it look like moving against Asmodeus himself. That said, Glasya is quite an impudent daughter. She once tried to avoid working for him, but came to terms with him after the Reckoning and has been rewarded by becoming an archdevil with Malbolge as her personal layer. Asmodeus allows her to hire whomever she wants for her personal staff, even poaching other archdevils. She makes aggressive use of this privilege and became disliked by the other archdevils. However, Asmodeus constrained his daughter by decreeing that Glasya is only allowed to obtain souls by legal means, so she has to find loopholes and the like in contracts, laws, and other legalities.

Graz'zt

Graz'zt is an archdevil employed by Asmodeus as an advisor. However, after conquering three layers of the Abyss, he broke away and became a demon lord. Whether he has severed all ties with Asmodeus's and if he has, whether it will remain such is not known.

Levistus

Levistus was culpable in killing Bensozia, Asmodeus's consort, for which he was imprisoned in ice. After the Reckoning, Asmodeus re-instituted him as the lord of Stygia. According to a theory Levistus believed, this was a ploy by Asmodeus to let his schemes be a distracting element in infernal politics. When he elevated Glasya to archdevil status, Levistus's scheming was a smokescreen to hide this political move and Levistus's predecessor Geryon's power was handed to her, leading to the theory. Believing it, Levistus recognized he put himself at risk of punishment should he not reign his scheming in, but increased his scheming nonetheless. One of his goals was to win Asmodeus's trustees over. He is still subject to Asmodeus, and has the ironic duty of offering desperate people, especially those whose life is in danger, an escape from dangerous situations.

Malagarde

The Malagarde, the Hag Countess, was made lord of Malbolge by Asmodeus after the Reckoning. She knew that Asmodeus's power was too much for her to overcome and did nothing against him. Instead, she tried to become a deity. Installing a night hag as an archdevil was perplexing, if not infuriating, to the other devils. However, Malagarde was merely a placeholder for Glasya once father and daughter could come to terms in the Reckoning. When this happened, the Hag Countess's body bloated and remodeled the layer.

Mammon

Mammon was the first archdevil to surrender to Asmodeus once it was clear the Reckoning was a failure. As well as begging for leniency in a reportedly embarrassing manner, he changed his shape, it was believed, to signify to Asmodeus that he was reborn. He once had a relationship with Glasya, but after the Reckoning, Asmodeus forbade Mammon to continue it.

Mephistopheles

In the Pact Primeval version of Asmodeus's origin myth, Mephistopheles was Asmodeus's companion since before they went to Baator. He was once a subcontractor of Asmodeus as an object of worship, but handed this job to others to create his own cult dedicated to himself as the patron of hellfire. He not only wanted to take over Asmodeus's position - he believed he was fated to do so - but his excessive confidence revealed his intention to Asmodeus. Scholars wonder why no punishment followed and theorize that Asmodeus considered Mephistopheles's claims nothing short of delusions. On one hand, Mephistopheles wasted most of his energy on combating Baalzebul, whom he hated. It is believed that, as long as Mephistopheles was plotting against Baalzebul, Asmodeus was safe from Mephistopheles. He was an adept user of hellfire, a tool so powerful it could play a role in ousting Asmodeus, but while he was worshiped as the god of hellfire by mortals, many could not tell the difference between Asmodeus and Mephistopheles and confused the latter with the former, something that frustrated Mephistopheles. Asmodeus and Mephistopheles were first and second in maintaining bloodlines and pacts of warlocks with mortals. As an advisor to Asmodeus, despite being effectively an enemy, Mephistopheles is trusted and his advice is given weight by Asmodeus. Mephistopheles is Asmodeus's closest serious contender and he knows it, so he waits until Asmodeus makes some catastrophic mistake he could exploit. Despite this, one job Mephistopheles has been assigned by Asmodeus is to guard Nessus from intruders.

Mortals

Asmodeus doesn't need mortal worship to either maintain or enhance his power, but rather wants to lure mortals to atheism to receive their souls and heal his wounds. Nevertheless, Asmodeus has a large following, much larger than the other infernal cults combined, such that his is often the first choice for prospective devil-worshipers. Furthermore, every diabolic cult is viewed as a subdivision of Asmodeus's cult and ultimately swears allegiance to him and not the entity it follows. In fact, what boons the other cults can even provide are not determined by their archdevils but by Asmodeus.
While Asmodeus maintains cults dedicated to fictional entities, these cults in which he is worshiped as himself fall into a category called a revealed cult. Their followers understand that their object of worship is a devil. To members of these cults, signing up means joining a secret mutual-aid society. Members helped each other into positions of influence and affluence. Their prime motivation for joining is greed, and it begins by making a pact with Asmodeus that consigns their soul to the Nine Hells on death. Leaders who prove their worth are given the ability to drain vitality from an ally. The majority of cultists are dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, and humans. Asmodeus has also tried to make inroads with hobgoblins and other peoples with a lawful evil outlook.
Tieflings who have descended from Asmodeus are considered the standard of the race. However, "descended" does not necessarily mean that these tieflings can trace back their ancestry to Asmodeus, as around the time of the Spellplague, a ritual was conducted that gave all tieflings of Toril the so-called mark of Asmodeus, which turned them into effective descendants of his. Asmodeus is also a supplier of pacts for warlocks and a tiefling's or half-fiend's warlock pact is most likely one made with him.

Vassals

The following beings are among the most notable subjects of Asmodeus on Nessus. The forces at their disposal are listed, where appropriate:

• Adramalech: Chancellor of Hell, Keeper of Records
• Alastor the Grim: Pit fiend and Executioner of Nessus
• Baalberith: Pit fiend and major domo of Asmodeus's palace
• Bensozia: Consort of Asmodeus, Queen of Hell (deceased)
• Buer: Commander of fifteen companies of pit fiends
• Bune: Commander of thirty companies of cornugons
• Glasya: Daughter of Asmodeus and Bensozia, former Mistress of the Erinyes, later Lady of the Sixth
• Martinet: Pit fiend and Constable of Nessus
• Morax: Commander of nine companies of pit fiends
• Phongor: Inquisitor of Hell
• Rimmon: Commander of five companies of gelugons
• The Spark Hunters: Lord Asmodeus's personal guard of thirteen hamatula rangers/mortal hunters who captured and/or slew mortals who draw their master's ire
• Zagum: Commander of thirty companies of hamatula

History

The origins of Asmodeus are not very clear. Various stories exist that even disagree on what kind of lifeform Asmodeus even is.

Origin Story: Serpent of Law

This story positions Asmodeus's origins at the very dawn of time. Called Ahriman at the time, he arose from the primordial chaos as the mightiest of the lawful gods, with Jazirian the only one who could rival him. These two were both serpent-form gods and set their minds on ordering the multiverse in a lawful way.
Towards that end, the two serpent gods bit each others' tails, forming a circle that defined the borders of a new plane. Born from the soup of chaos through the interaction of the two most powerful entities of law, one evil and the other good, formed the neutral plane of the Outlands. The other Outer Planes arrayed themselves around its circular border, forming the Great Wheel cosmology, and the concept of the Unity of Rings was created. The next law the two created was the Rule of Three in honor of their three aspects: evil, good, and law. However, when they had to decide a center for the multiverse, they disagreed. The Outlands were the ideal place but lawful good Jazirian wanted Celestia to be the center, while lawful evil Ahriman wanted Baator to be it. They tugged each other and bit each others' tail tips off. Unlike Jazirian, Ahriman was a scaled serpent without wings and therefore fell into the Nine Hells. He crashed into Nessus and created the deep fissure called the Serpent's Coil before his fall halted. There, his serpentine bleeding body lay bleeding, and from the blood arose the first baatezu.
Having failed to choose a center for the multiverse, the two lawful entities had effectively honored chaos by making every plane infinitely big and therefore every place the center. The two serpents had spent so much power in creating rules for the multiverse and in their struggle they were unable to prevent other, newer gods from taking over positions of importance. Ahriman later took the name Asmodeus for himself.

Origin Story: Pact Primeval

This origin story haS Asmodeus fool the gods into signing the Pact Primeval, a contract between Asmodeus and the other gods that effectively allowed devils to legally take mortal souls to Baator by corrupting them and draw energy from them. This story is accepted by sages across the multiverse, but is held to be myth rather than an exact account, while the existence of other stories is acknowledged. This story is mostly told by devils, of course.
In this version too, the multiverse started as a soup of chaos, where demons fought each other. As a reaction to chaos, the concept of law arose to counter it, and, with it, deities of law who fought the demons. Eventually, the deities wearied of fighting infinite demons and wanted to do something else, so they created angels to fight the demons for them. The best specimen of this new species in every regard was Asmodeus.
As far as killing demons is concerned, Asmodeus is the most successful of the angels. But he and his fellows took on some fiendish aspects to increase their effectiveness at fighting demons, and for this they were put on trial. Asmodeus's argument was that war was a dirty business and that they had done the deity's dirty work for them, yet upheld their laws, and that he and his people had done nothing wrong. The gods realized Asmodeus had a better grasp of law than they did and could find no counter to his arguments. Over time, the gods tried to bar Asmodeus and his people from accessing various privileges and rights, but Asmodeus managed to secure them through his legal knowledge by suing the gods and pulling forth arguments they could not counter.
Once the Prime Material Plane was populated and made more-or-less safe from demons, the gods noticed that mortals had a tendency to disregard divine law and overstep boundaries. The gods had a problem with this for it invited chaos and allowed demons access to mortals. They had free will, and could chose not to follow law. To counter this, Asmodeus invented the concept of punishment. The gods accepted it and Asmodeus's and his fellows' (including Mephistopheles and Dispater) duties now included punishing those who transgressed divine law, meaning torturing the souls of transgressors.
While the gods understood the necessity of punishment, they had a problem with souls being punished within their lands. So Asmodeus was again put on trial. He argued again that he simply followed divine law and did his duties, and again, the gods could not counter him, but they couldn't abide souls being punished in a place where they could see the cruelty. Therefore, Asmodeus proposed to shift the site of torture to what would become Baator, so the gods did not need to look at it anymore. However, if Asmodeus and his angels moved their workplace to Baator, they would be unable to draw power from the gods to conduct their duties. Therefore, Asmodeus proposed that he and his fellows be given the right to wring divine energy out of the souls they tortured as a substitute. The gods agreed and the Pact Primeval was signed. Asmodeus and his fellows started work in the Nine Hells as torturers and actively started seducing mortals towards evil so that they would end up in Baator instead of the gods' divine realms on dying. Once the gods found this out, they confronted Asmodeus, who merely pointed them to the contract's fine print. 
This version makes it appear as though Asmodeus's and the lawful gods went different ways by relatively peaceful means. However, the parting was not peaceful—the deities threw Asmodeus out of the Upper Planes and he fell and fell through Baator, either through the nine layers or breaking it into the nine layers. Thereafter, Asmodeus carried serious wounds from his fall.

Origin Story: He Who Was

In this version, Asmodeus was an exarch in the service of an unknown god, but after retrieving a shard of evil, he killed that god. Asmodeus put much effort in wiping out this god's name, so he was known only as He Who Was. According to one legend, this god was a control freak who supervised every single aspect of every single person living in his realm. The all-encompassing supervision and control forced on Asmodeus was the start of his need to rise up against his god. He was again the greatest warrior and general of that god's army in the Dawn War, but applied brutal methods that at one point caused innocent casualties. As Asmodeus did not want to see the errors of his ways, the lawful good god condemned and fired Asmodeus.
Afterward, Asmodeus worked as a watchman over Tharizdun's prison. During this time, Pazuzu, a demon lord of the obyrith, came to him and they had a conversation. The demon's flattery caused Asmodeus to develop a sense of pride that became arrogance and the desire to rise up against He Who Was. Asmodeus maintained a stable secret alliance with Pazuzu, who served as his general and was vital in eventually killing He Who Was. A side effect of Asmodeus's corruption was that he began to hear the location of the shards of evil. He retrieved one by going down to the bottom of the Abyss through the Blood Rift, created his Ruby Rod with the shard, and killed his god with it when it looked bad for the deities during the Dawn War. The corrupting influence of the shard turned Asmodeus and the members of his army into the first devils. He Who Was had cursed Asmodeus and since then Asmodeus cannot leave Baator. He Who Was's curse also affected Asmodeus's angelic army, which was stationed in Phlegethos, the site of which later became known as the Lake of Fire. Afterward, Asmodeus managed to lay the groundwork for emerging stronger from the Dawn War, while all other participants were weakened.
Publicly, the other gods condemned Asmodeus's actions, but privately some started making deals with the future lord of devils, because He Who Was had been infamous for his incompetence, which would have caused the gods' defeat in the Dawn War and with it their end. Asmodeus made deals with both the gods and covertly the primordials, but in the end decided to take the divine side. One of these bargains gave him the eternal right to use souls to maintain Baator.
With this right, Baator became a divine realm of material affluence, while all other realms had a poverty problem. This was due to Asmodeus' great management skills, and a very dark touch. Among others, this was done by turning Baator into a giant torture chamber where magical energy was tortured out of souls. He modified the Nine Hells so that as many souls as possible could enter the astral dominion. For example, because of the damage done by the Dawn War, the system of souls being transferred to the realms of their deities did not properly function. Souls that appeared outside of the proper divine realm could not enter any realm except the Nine Hells and a lot of souls made use of this unique aspect of the Nine Hells.

After the Fall

Asmodeus is acknowledged as the oldest devil in existence, but not everyone believes him to be the first ruler of Baator, and they are correct. Contrary to how the Pact Primeval legend presents Baator, it had not always been an empty wasteland, but had been inhabited by another race. The nupperibo, the result of leaving a soul in Baator alone to evolve without the torturous process of the baatezu to turn it into a lemure, is assumed to be members of this race. They were the baatorians and their ruler was Zargon. When Asmodeus came to Hell, he and his devils purged the baatorians, enslaving them and slaying their lords, with Asmodeus killing many himself. However, when fighting Zargon, Asmodeus could not kill him because the creature constantly regenerated around his indestructible horn. Thus, Asmodeus ripped off the horn and threw it into the Prime Material plane, falling onto some world, to the spot where eventually the city of Cynidicea arose.
However, over the centuries Zargon regenerated around the horn and terrorized the people of Cynidicea, who worshiped him and appeased him by sacrificing sentient beings. Depopulating their own people, they began to take their victims from other lands. This attracted the rage of a barbarian nation who attacked them, but Zargon killed their hero, and then a few of their gods. Asmodeus stepped in and defeated Zargon once more, not because he cared for the dead gods, but because he did not want the original ruler of Baator free. To ensure that Zargon stayed sealed away, Asmodeus encased the elder evil in stone and buried Zargon's worshipers alive.

The Trial of Asmodeus

According to the The Trial of Asmodeus, a play based on real events according to its author, disgusted angels condemned Asmodeus for tempting mortals to evil and harvesting their souls. The Archfiend protested and the angels agreed to have a hearing with Asmodeus after accepting his proposal to ask Primus of the modrons to be an impartial judge.
Asmodeus argued that he'd never done anything wrong for he consistently acted as a lawful creature in accordance with infernal tradition in service to the cause of law and the continued existence of the multiverse. According to him, mortals always have the choice to accept an infernal bargain, devils always hold up their end of a bargain, and a mortal who nullifies a contract by finding a loophole is respected. Furthermore, souls condemned to Baator are conscripted into the infernal army against the Abyss's forces of chaos, thereby protecting the cause of law and good from the forces of chaos and evil, which means the souls are also used to further and protect the cause of law.
The angels presented their cases one by one, but with so many and for so long that Primus's patience ran out. The judge declared he would only listen to a limited number of angels, not all of them. After this pronouncement, Zariel, at that time still an angel, started a brawl to get to the front row to get her case heard. This degenerated into a massive punch-up among the angels. Primus scolded the angels for their lack of restraint and refused to give a final verdict, and Asmodeus suffered no punishment. However, two matters were decided. First, Asmodeus was effectively given the right to sway mortals to evil and harvest their souls. Second, a decree was made that Asmodeus must always carry his Ruby Rod of Asmodeus, both as a symbol of the devils' right and as a punishment device against devils who do not uphold their end of a bargain made with mortals.

In Hell

His position secured, Asmodeus ruled as overlord of Baator, with the goal of healing his wounds from his fall by receiving atheists' souls. He created a bureaucratic system based in Grenpoli on Maladomini. It was believed that Asmodeus, at some point, financed a project to create the yugoloths. He paid night hags to create them so he would have an army not tied to Baator. This plan, if true, ultimately failed, because the tool to control the yugoloths, the four Books of Keeping, were lost over time.
His intra-Baator politics revolved around keeping his position. He was successful at it and over the years observed the coming and going of many archdevils. He also recruited new ones. For example, he allegedly steered Baalzebul, while still an archon called Triel, onto the path of corruption by appearing to him as a beautiful venomous flower. Baalzebul later became a powerful devil and one of Asmodeus's favorites.
According to one theory, Stygia was not one of the original layers of Baator but a world whose denizens handed over their souls to Asmodeus to save themselves. The alleged method by which Asmodeus saved them was to transport the doomed world to Baator as its newest layer.
At some point, Asmodeus took Bensozia as his consort and had a daughter with her called Glasya. Levistus ambushed Bensozia and tried to get her help in deposing Asmodeus, but she refused, so in a rage Levistus tried to rape Bensozia and when she wouldn't submit he murdered her. After Levistus succeeded in taking over Stygia from Geryon, an angry Asmodeus encased Levistus in an ice block where he lay unconscious. Geryon took over the position of archdevil of Stygia. Asmodeus's relationship with his daughter is a weird one. On one hand, Asmodeus is acknowledged as a caring father - at least by devil standards - and on the other, Glasya was most easily described as a ne'er-do-well and troublemaker towards her father and other archdevils.
Another archdevil who either fled or left Baator was Gargauth. The exact circumstances are not known, but Asmodeus played a crucial role. Gargauth left either because he tried and failed to oust Asmodeus and had to flee or because Asmodeus killed Beherit, Gargauth's closest ally, which prompted the Outcast to leave.
Graz'zt was once an archdevil under the employ of Asmodeus. He was charged with fighting the Blood War, invading the Abyss, and getting the shard of evil for him. However, after conquering three Abyssal layers, he could not advance further because of the resistance he faced from Demogorgon and Orcus. Instead, he broke away and became a demon lord himself. Whether he'd truly severed all ties with Asmodeus' and whether he would remain a demon lord was unknown.
Another was Malkizid, an exiled former solar under the employment of Corellon. He was cast out for siding with Lolth and fell into Baator, where he gained influence. At some point in history, he angered Asmodeus and was banished.
Zariel started off as an observer of the Blood War under celestial orders. But she wanted to fight in it too and eventually ran off to do that. Her beaten body was found by Asmodeus's people, she was brought to Nessus, nursed back to health, and installed as the archdevil of Avernus.

The Reckoning of Hell

The Reckoning was an event in which the archdevils revolted against Asmodeus, and he survived without harm. The key catalyst was Baalzebul's ambitions increasingly clashing with Asmodeus's. He tried to smear Asmodeus's reputation as a competent leader and to circumvent the infernal bureaucracy. To save his amassed military strength, he even withheld his armies in the face of an abyssal invasion until he had to admit that not entering the fray would cause Baator to be ruined.
At the time, the archdevils acted in a fairly obvious manner to achieve their goals and, at the culmination of their scheming, two factions crystallized: that of Baalzebul with Belial, Moloch, and Zariel under him; and that of Mephistopheles with Dispater, Geryon, and Mammon under him. After Baalzebul's machinations were uncovered in an investigation, their armies clashed in Maladomini to determine who should inherit Asmodeus's crown. But it was all for naught, as Asmodeus had secured the loyalty of Geryon and infiltrated the eight armies up to the highest levels. On Geryon's signal, the pit fiend commanders turned on their archdevils and their armies were destroyed while Asmodeus escaped unscathed. According to another recounting of the events, the battle was an everyone-against-Baalzebul-battle, which Baalzebul lost.
Afterward, Asmodeus instituted the Dark Eight, giving an effective promotion to the pit fiends loyal to him. He generally left the archdevils with their realms: Zariel, Dispater, and Mephistopheles were allowed to keep their layers; Mammon embarrassed himself begging Asmodeus for forgiveness, who did by allowing him to keep his layer but forbade him to keep his relationship with his daughter; and Belial went into the background to evade responsibility and managed to hold power by accepting Asmodeus's condition that he hold power jointly with his daughter, Fierna. However, Geryon was deposed despite his loyalty and Levistus was restored to consciousness and elevated to archdevil of Stygia. Moloch was convinced by Malagarde (who worked for Geryon and therefore Asmodeus) that if he showed defiance, Asmodeus would respect him and absolve him of all crimes; instead, he was deposed and Malagarde, who'd convinced him to join the fray to begin with, became the archdevil of Malbolge. Baalzebul was allowed to keep his position but his body was transformed into a giant slug. In summary, all archdevils were forced to accept Asmodeus as their superior and he became sure of potential usurpers' capabilities while also dramatically reminding them of their position.
Why Asmodeus deposed Geryon is a mystery. At least three possible explanations are accepted by scholars. The first was that it spurred increased loyalty in Geryon and he would work even harder for Asmodeus in the hope of being restored to power. The second was that it was a kind of reward by Asmodeus, even if Geryon did not think of it that way. The third was Asmodeus's hunger for faithless people: at least for a moment, Geryon believed life was pointless and became food for Asmodeus.

Actions on Toril

On Toril in the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, a warlock coven known as the Toril Thirteen performed a ritual that cursed most tiefling lineages - those of demons, devils, hags, and rakshasas, among others - with the "blood of Asmodeus", changing their original lineage to that of the archdevil himself. This was done in an attempt to make Asmodeus a "racial god", ensuring him enough followers to attain godly powers.

After the Reckoning in Hell

Even after the Reckoning, the archdevils continued to experience upheavals. Bel gained the trust of Zariel and abused it to depose her, rising to the rank of archdevil. Asmodeus approved this under the condition that Bel would concentrate on the Blood War with the Dark Eight. Bel agreed and so much of his time was consumed by the Blood War that he didn't have sufficient time to plot against his superiors.
The second was caused by the sudden bloating and death of Malagarde around 1372 DR. Malbolge was reformed and Glasya became an archdevil. Asmodeus managed to reign in his unruly daughter by scolding her and instilling in her that she had to take on some responsibility in order to retain her privileges. After throwing a fit, Glasya agreed and was tasked with organizing the erinyes' work. He also gave her Geryon's powers as an archdevil to make her strong enough to fill the position, and made it clear that Malagarde had just been a placeholder for his daughter. Third, to provide her with a good staff, he allowed her to recruit competent devils even to the detriment of her fellow archdevils - a privilege Glasya made full use of, much to the chagrin of her fellows. However, Glasya also ran a criminal organization that created false money, by turning lead temporarily into gold, minting it into coins and using them before they turned back. She escaped punishment through the legal loophole that no law in existence regulates the state of coins after leaving the mint, only the composition of the raw material out of which the coins are minted. One reason for Asmodeus to elevate Glasya was to tie her to one layer with a lot of responsibility, thereby preventing her ambitions from going too far.

Post-Spellplague Era

When Dweomerheart collapsed in the wake of the Spellplague of 1385 DR, Azuth fell into the Hells where Asmodeus, sensing his opportunity, devoured the lesser deity and became a god himself. He then ended the Blood War by forcing the Abyss underneath the Elemental Chaos. But he knew the war could restart at any time and with a united demonic front, if he did anything like invading the Abyss. Therefore, he organized his strength so that when the war restarted it would do so under circumstances favorable to him.
It turned out that Asmodeus had had some divine influence on Toril that had waned, but his ascension restored it and his cult was on the rise in the 15th century DR. It began to be practiced overtly when Asmodeus's worshipers presented their god as someone from whom absolution from all kinds of sins could be gained, as mortals had thought of the Blue Fire of the Spellplague as some form of divine punishment.
Although many believe Asmodeus killed Azuth when he consumed his divine essence, in fact Asmodeus had fused with Azuth, and both gods coexist in the same body. Most of the time, Asmodeus overpowers Azuth, using his divine powers while the God of Wizards is in a dormant state. But on a few rare occasions, Azuth has been able to gain control of their shared body, and because of his strange behavior many denizens of the Nine Hells believe Asmodeus has grown mad.
Also after the Spellplague, Asmodeus re-instituted Belial as an archdevil, which presumably meant that he'd demoted Fierna from that position. When Asmodeus became a god, the magic of the ritual performed by the Toril thirteen took effect across Toril. Afterwards, most tieflings living in the 15th century DR were of the Asmodean lineage, all having a similar devilish appearance.

Post-Second Sundering

In 1486 DR, Azuth regained most of his strength and was able to choose Ilstan Nyaril as his Chosen. Asmodeus and Azuth began to struggle for control of their shared body and, as a result, the hierarchy of the Nine Hells was jeopardized. Ilstan and Farideh, one of the Chosen of Asmodeus, devised a plan to separate both gods and avoid a potential devil invasion of all the multiverse. They contacted the god Enlil through his Chosen, Kepeshkmolik Dumuzi, and Asmodeus agreed to release Azuth from his body and resurrect the Untherite god Nanna-Sin as a non-god immortal and in exchange Enlil allowed Asmodeus to consume Nanna-Sin's divine spark to become a god unto himself. In a ritual performed in Djerad Thymar amid the First Tymanther-Unther War, on Hammer 10 of 1487 DR, Ilstan sacrificed his life to allow Azuth to become an individual god once more.
At some point after the Second Sundering, Asmodeus demoted Bel and re-elevated Zariel to the position of archdevil of Avernus. Another archdevil he restored to the position was Fierna. This was a unique ruling that made Belial and Fierna equals in a system that otherwise mandated that every layer-ruling post had to be filled with only one person.
On Toril, Asmodeus's worshipers are comprised of two groups: those who want to have some form of independence from gods, and those who have no intention of dealing with devils, only wanting fun and/or clemency from Asmodeus. On dying in Toril, a mortal's soul is shunted to the Fugue Plane, where it waits until whatever god they worshiped in life cares to take the soul to itself, for a length of time depending on how well the soul adhered to the deity's tenets. In that time, it can be approached by devils offering a new life as a devil. The first group hoped they would be specifically approached by a devil on dying. The second group would be offered a reprieve from the wait. Asmodeus also supplied pacts for warlocks.

Chosen of Asmodeus

• Farideh
• Havilar
• Bryseis Kakistos
• Valraun, a blue dragon