Glasya

Malbolge is the prison of the Nine Hells, and on this layer dwells its most infamous criminal. Glasya, the rebellious daughter of Asmodeus, rules the place and oversees the punishments doled out to devils that stray from their assigned tasks. These lawbreakers are put on trial in Phlegethos, and if they are found guilty they are dispatched to Malbolge to endure years of torment. That Glasya is both prison warden and the Nine Hells’ most notorious criminal is evidence that in the infernal realms, crime pays as long as you avoid being convicted.

Prison and Torture Chamber

Malbolge comprises one infinitely large, steep-sloped mountain. Boulders and other debris rain down from its heights in frequent avalanches. Some of the structures here are erected atop pillars of adamantine embedded in the mountain that can withstand the constant battering, though the platforms they support sway under the force of the onslaught. Condemned devils are typically trapped in cages, which are lowered on chains to hang beneath the platforms. From such a vantage, the prisoners are continually battered by Malbolge’s avalanches, causing injuries that are agonizing but never fatal.
Some locations on the mountain are shielded from the rockfall by structures that have projections pointing upslope so that avalanches wash around the protected areas beneath. Roofed trenches and tunnels make travel between locations possible, if perilous.

A Singular Iconoclast

Of all the Lords of the Nine, Glasya is the most unpredictable. She flaunts the rules of tradition and bends the law without breaking it. She delights in shocking others by springing gambits that catch them unaware. Mortals who go up against overwhelming odds with an audacious plan attract her attention and could win her respect and patronage.
The reason behind Glasya’s rise to lordship is the subject of much whispered debate in the Nine Hells. It is generally known that Asmodeus presented Glasya to the Lords of the Nine as his daughter, and she toured the Nine Hells on his behalf. While doing so, she put her own plans into motion, much to the surprise of the other archdevils. Even before Glasya assumed the rulership of Malbolge, she established the Hells’ first organized crime syndicate, using her followers to purchase souls on her behalf while paying for them with what amounted to worthless coin.
Was it Asmodeus’s intent all along that Glasya should strike out on her own, or was Glasya rebellious and clever enough to successfully defy her father? Was Glasya’s rise to power an unforeseen benefit of her machinations, or is it a great embarrassment to Asmodeus? Likely only the two of them know the truth.

Coin Legions

Taking a cue from the sword, shield, and dreg legions into which the devils’ armies are grouped, Glasya established a new category of “legion” to realize her plans for profit and power: the coin legions.
The members of Glasya’s coin legions operate in the manner of thieves’ guilds on the Material Plane. They have one critical advantage compared to their mortal contemporaries: Glasya’s knowledge of the law. She knew that in many cases, procedures that devils observed and obeyed as laws were merely traditions, and failing to observe a tradition carries no penalty according to the law of the Hells.
Glasya’s scheme involved using counterfeit currency to buy souls in Minauros, then selling them soon after to turn an incredible profit. When the truth of her dealings became apparent, she defended her actions based on the legal definition of a coin as minted in Minauros.
According to law, the gold composition of a coin was strictly defined at the time of the coin’s creation, but no law governed a coin’s state after it left the mint. As long as it was made in the mint, it was legal currency.
Glasya got around the law by transmuting lead to gold, then having coins minted from the substance. After she claimed her currency and her coin legions spent it on her purchases, the magic expired and the gold became lead once more.
Asmodeus, although he couldn’t punish Glasya for breaking the law, decided to discipline her by doing something only he could do: making her an archdevil. He reasoned that, now that she was effectively tied to a single layer of the Hells and saddled with responsibilities in her capacity as prison warden, her ambitions would be kept in check.

An Ironic Sphere of Influence

To make Glasya’s workload even more onerous (and to serve as an ironic form of punishment), Asmodeus decreed that Glasya could entice souls into the Nine Hells only through delving into matters of contracts, bargains, and legalities. She and her agents offer mortal petitioners advice on how to manipulate or circumvent the law, or to identify escape clauses — all to ensure that whatever they desire can be obtained without violating a legal precedent.
Her petitioners want power, money, and love, but they want to come by it within the bounds of the law. An ambitious prince who is entitled by law to inherit his parents’ wealth but doesn’t want to murder them might ask for help, and Glasya’s agents provide it by arranging for them to die in an accident.
A notable portion of Glasya’s petitioners are souls who have pledged themselves to another Lord of the Nine and want out of the bargain. Her minions scour every contract struck with another devil and approach mortals whose contracts contain loopholes. In return for giving their souls to her instead, such individuals learn how to break the contract and negate whatever price the contract says they must pay.

Of course I love my father. Without him, whom would I have to strive against?

— Glasya

Ruler of the 6th Layer of hell - Malbolge

Aligned Organization

Lord's of the Nine

DEVILS AND GENDER
To a devil, gender is insignificant. Devils can’t create new life through physical means; a new devil comes into being only when a soul is corrupted or claimed in a bargain, and the gender of the mortal that provided the soul is immaterial. Devils that represent themselves to mortals are likely to adopt an appearance (including an apparent gender) that conforms with what those mortals believe to be true. Gender (and the assumptions that mortals make about it) is just another tool for devils to use to get what they want.
Devils that are known to and named by mortals often accept the gender assigned to them, but they aren’t bound by that label. Stories of the Lords of the Nine told by mortals might speak of Glasya as Asmodeus’s daughter and Belial as Fierna’s consort, but such expressions can’t encompass the complexities of the strange relationships formed by beings of immortal evil.