Asmodeus

The Faerûnian deity of indulgence and a patron of oppression and power. The greatest devil and ruler of all devilkind, the Lord of the Ninth was overlord of all the Nine Hells. From his throne at the bottom of Baator the Lord of Lies reigned over his kingdom of unyielding tyranny, ceaseless warfare and political intrigue and enacted his diabolical plans to become not only the Supreme Master of the Nine Hells, but of all existence. Asmodeus's true form was that of a scaled serpent hundreds of miles long, his acid-black blood, a substance beyond foul, exuding from eons-old wounds. His form's sheer size made it impossible for him to meet and enter into conversations with others, and so he created humanoid-looking avatars. He never showed himself except through avatars or highly advanced project image spells, both in humanoid forms. 
Asmodeus was a primal embodiment of lawful evil and a supreme strategist of unparalleled skill. His sinister machinations could take centuries, if not millennia, to come to fruition, and his master plans extended across the entire multiverse. His labyrinthine, insidious intrigues could seem inexplicable to most outside observers, for Asmodeus let even his own servants stew in fear of his next move. With all the planes as his board, the Lord of Lies maneuvered the forces of evil like chess pieces in his grand designs, slowly and subtly manipulating everyone from deities to, when needed, lowly mortals. Just as Asmodeus was an unmatched schemer, he was an unrivaled orator, a legendary political master of unquestionable prowess. He was the most well-mannered of the archdevils, soft-spoken and eloquent as he lured others into serving his ends. Even when wracked by constant pain, he managed to appear blithely unbothered, and seemed almost chillingly reasonable. However, though he could seem generous, the quickly offered rewards of the archdevil were given to those willing to sign away their souls, after which they would suffer as a pawn in his dark designs. Despite his charisma, Asmodeus was nonetheless a representative of ultimate evil, revealing his true nature at his will. In truth, Asmodeus was a tyrant, an authoritarian overlord who sought complete control over as many subjects as he could obtain and nothing less than absolute dominion over all reality to satiate his need for power. Torture was his tool to break the wills of others and impose his own, and knowledge of secrets and dealings his desired instrument to claim others as his. The Prince of Evil was confident in his position as one of the multiverse's strongest beings, and genuinely believed his rule was for the best. Under his rule, and only his rule, the multiverse would be pristine and perfect, with everyone in it having a place and a purpose to fulfill.
In Asmodeus's mind, only he had the strength, insight, and charisma needed to guide all to an ideal utopia, or at least the infernal hierarchy that the Archfiend interpreted as such. His rivals were inferior minds lacking the skill to see his vision through. The forces of the Abyss were loathsome opposition, their very existence a threat to his mastery of evil and their armies a direct threat to his supremacy. The forces of good were foolish, sentimental beings too soft and weak to do what had to be done. This arrogance would have led to his destruction if he lacked the competence to back it up, yet Asmodeus had managed to thwart all conspiracies against him and survive Heaven with nothing but his wit.
According to legend, Asmodeus attributed his wicked deeds to necessity and the mandates of law, alluding to the rules of Hell in his defense and arguing that his contracts were never broken. He made the case that the souls he harvested served the ultimately noble end of protecting the cosmos, and noted the sanctity of law as what separated him from the demons of the Abyss. Without him and his devils to defend it, he argued, the multiverse would be overrun by demonkind and ultimately destroyed, and in this, Asmodeus might technically be correct. Although one of the ultimate powers of law, Asmodeus did not uphold the rules out of respect. Despite arguing that his actions were necessary to prevent the rise of chaos and preserve the forces of good, this was mere camouflage to disguise his true intentions. In reality, Asmodeus saw the Abyss as a useful distraction, and when prepared he planned to destroy the Upper Planes and perhaps even use demonkind to accomplish this dark goal. Ironically, in the most extreme scenario, Asmodeus's plan would ultimately be to embrace chaos, to withhold the power of law from the world and let it collapse. With the multiverse broken down and him having survived its fall, he would remake reality as he desired.
To the mind of Asmodeus, the law was merely a tool by which others could be bent to his will. Civilization, as he understood it, was a means of gaining power, the structures and technology created by society instruments to crush his enemies. Chaos made for easy conquest, and to conquer was to bring others under control. Asmodeus would use tradition as his protection and wording as his weapon, appeal to the letter of the law, and frame his deeds as upholding the natural laws of the cosmos. Even his masterfully crafted plans would obey universal laws, such as the Rule of Threes, and he believed himself the multiverse's chosen protector. More than any of these however, Asmodeus was dedicated to obtaining absolute authority for himself, and if necessary, was willing to break every law in existence to do it. Despite his cunning and charisma, Asmodeus was not intellectually invincible. Though he was not above pretending otherwise, he was capable of being surprised, feigning foreknowledge and acting as if all was going according to plan either way. Despite his confidence, Asmodeus could feel threatened. Even among mortals, there were figures whose powers and influence gave him pause. And despite his manners, Asmodeus was capable of fury. If he forgot himself he could end up bursting into a rage, his mask of civility slipping to unveil the evil that lurked below.
Asmodeus was technically a deity, but was exempt from many of the rules regarding divine beings, his actual status a matter of debate that had changed over time. At the very least the strongest archdevil, weaker interpretations cast him as not even a full-fledged god or possessed only of the powers of a lesser god. In others, (particularly more recently) he was believed to be a greater god, and the most dangerous portrayals cast him as a primal embodiment of evil, aspect of some sort of metaphysical serpent concept, or even an overgod similar in nature to the Lady of Pain. Asmodeus's strength neither waxed nor waned with the number of his worshipers and he had no ability to grant spells to his followers. While this limitation could be circumvented if the worshiper became a disciple of darkness, spells granted by this method were not done so through his own powers, but by acting as a conduit to channel the divine magic of Baator itself to the mortal cleric.
There were no strictures on how granted power could be used for a disciple, but the mortal's soul was forfeit if his patron was not appeased with sentient sacrifices. This changed after Asmodeus consumed Azuth and thus obtained true godhood, allowing him to grant spells to his followers and remove the vile rituals previously required to access such power.
Another ability Asmodeus shared with greater deities even before his ascension was that he could create up to ten avatars, although his ability to do this was stunted. He could send only one avatar at a time to the Prime Material Plane, and doing this made it impossible for him to maintain any other avatar.
Asmodeus had absolute control over the Nine Hells and with his mind he could change not only the landscape of any layer but the forms of his archdevils in any way he wanted whenever he wanted. For example, he changed Baalzebul's formerly (mostly) beautiful form into that of a giant slug. It was unclear if he could kill archdevils with a thought; some suspected that he could and did in the case of the Hag Countess's sudden death, and while seemingly involved, it was unclear how much of a part he played and to what degree one could say she had "died". Like any other devil of authority, Asmodeus had the ability to demote any officially subservient devil— any devil in his case—at his whim, and was the only devil with the ability to promote a devil to archdevil status. He was also the underlying power of infernal contracts, hence why breaking a contract with even the weakest devil could still consign the oathbreaker's soul to the Nine Hells.
Asmodeus's avatar could cast a wide plethora of spells, including: 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 spell, 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. This was assuming that the avatar wasn't in Hell, in which case he could cast essentially any spell he wanted by sheer will. Asmodeus was impossible to harm with spells below a certain level of power, 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 anything less than +4 enchanted weapons, and even if injured the wounds immediately heal unless it was holy or otherwise blessed.
Asmodeus's avatar radiated an 120 feet (37 meters) diameter awe effect that made it incredibly difficult to bring one's self to attack him unless attacked by him first. His mere gaze (within a short range) acted as a combination slow and fear effect that sapped physical strength and reduced combat ability. His voice carried an irresistible suggestion that could make those without incredible willpower subservient to him for ten to a hundred days. Rather than kill his opponents, he preferred using these abilities to force would-be-foes to submit to him, or failing that flee for their lives. Should this not work, he would simply leave and allow his minions to deal with his enemies, as he could summon a pit fiend or two specimens of any kind of devil every hour.
Each of Asmodeus's avatars held a Ruby Rod of Asmodeus as a badge of office. It also served as the avatar's main weapon and allowed attacks with elemental forces, forced enemies to cower in fear, or provided the holder with a field of healing and protection. In fact, in the rare events when he was faced with combat, an avatar of Asmodeus primarily relied on the powers of his Ruby Rod instead of his innate powers. If the word of Shemeska the Marauder was to be believed, only Asmodeus was currently capable of controlling the darkness of the Ruby Rod. Asmodeus owned one of the original copies of the Pact Primeval. His utmost concern was to prevent anyone from taking it away from Baator, no matter the cost, as it was the basis on which he and the devils were allowed to damn mortals. To make transportation difficult, Asmodeus actually enclosed the document in a giant ruby weighing over 20 tons (18,000 kilograms).
Asmodeus had a huge store of souls in his personal citadel, and these could be bought from him at an extremely high cost, rumored to be entire kingdoms for one soul.
Asmodeus ruled the entire plane of the Nine Hells of Baator, but his seat of power was Nessus, the ninth layer. His serpentine body lay at the bottom of a rift called the Serpent's Coil, but not even the denizens knew this. By devil law, only Asmodeus could issue letters of safe passage that covered travel not only within, but also between layers, though he never issued such things for Nessus. His personal palace was Malsheem, a giant fortress so large that it was considered unmappable. Given the priority he placed on his own security and privacy, he usually remained within his fortress of Malsheem, using others to make his will clear, though the other archdevils were annually called to there.
First and foremost, Asmodeus sought to preserve the status quo of Baator, that being his station as supreme ruler of Hell. Beyond this he sought to expand the power of lawful evil in the multiverse, tipping the cosmic scales in its favor. All this went towards Asmodeus's ultimate goal, to heal the wounds he suffered from his ancient fall from grace (from whatever position he held), regain his full power, and instigate Armageddon. This apocalpytic conflict would, at the very least, be the end of the Great Wheel cosmology, and he could very well be ahead of his ancient schedule. This all raised the question of how Asmodeus could recover from his eons-old injuries, and the answer laid in souls. Baator ran on a divine energy derived from the souls of the damned, a magical force that could be extracted through the merciless torture, destruction of identity, and overall breakdown of corrupt souls. Much of this work was outsourced, including by Asmodeus himself, to the city of Jangling Hiter in Minauros for later distribution, and Asmodeus used what divine power he could spare to heal from his wounds. As horrifying and diabolical as it was, Asmodeus had been toiling on his grand design in the depths of Hell since time immemorial and still was not done. He pursued his malevolent agenda on three primary fronts, his true motivations in each obscured to all and glimpsed by a very small few.
Asmodeus had been varyingly described as having no need for worship and desperately craving true divinity. He simultaneously desired the souls of mortals and maintained a following among them, yet rarely tempted them himself, knowing they would come to him. Indeed, Asmodeus was unquestionably the dominant figure in regards to those who knowingly worshiped devils. He was often the first choice of all civilized, prospective devil worshipers, with those known as such almost always being his followers, and had by far more cultists on the Material Plane than any other archdevil, arguably even combined. Furthermore his cult subsumed all others, for technically every diabolic cult was simply a subdivision of his own and every leader of such a group was mandated to acknowledge his power and pledge allegiance to him. Mortals who drew their power from infernal sources ultimately drew power from him, and he was the final authority on what benefits an archduke was allowed and even mandated to provide.
Asmodeus had followers of practically every race and influenced all levels of society even within the greatest bastions of good. Most sects were based in the settlements of humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, and gnomes, although the cult did claim some monstrous adherents. He courted influence among organized races of lawful evil humanoids, such as hobgoblins,with many creatures of evil revering him as the patron of might and tyranny.
Following this aspect, all Asmodeus's clerics aspired to wealth, prestige, and most of all, power, and most cultists used his organization as a stepping stone to these goals. In following him they saw their way to great power, a path providing access to the otherwise unattainable. They were imperious figures whose great personal magnetism made them natural leaders and who already possessed much political power, such as merchants and wealthy nobles. The cult functioned as a secret and sinister mutual-aid society whose members used their pre-existing influence and affluence to raise each other into higher positions of prominence. In societies devoted to him, all advancement whether political, social, or economic was tied to membership of the cult.
In predominantly lawful evil societies, Asmodeus's temples dominated the landscape and typically operated openly. If allowed in societies predominantly of other alignments they openly followed him but kept their true natures and activities secret. In areas hostile to lawful evil, temples were hidden in subterranean complexes and the nature of their god hidden to unproven initiates. All temples were full of his symbols; his ruby-tipped rod emblem was used for subtlety while his skull-gripping clawed fist was used in devil-dominated societies, but sometimes an inverted pentagram would suffice. All were well-appointed and protected through the financially empowering favor of Asmodeus.
Having no soul quota of his own, Asmodeus was no stranger to subcontracting cults to other figures and inventing fictional figures for devotion (such as in his schemes to inspire faithlessness) and had an interesting relationship with the cults of his two most powerful rivals. In an arrangement that frustrated the narcissistic Mephistopheles to no end, he traditionally operated cults for Asmodeus. Often confused for his master, he did not exert much influence on the Material Plane (though his relatively recent discovery of hellfire helped him escape this somewhat). Meanwhile, members of Baalzebul's cults (the third most popular infernal cult) were often better insurgents than governors, and so occasionally he and Asmodeus swapped temples. A victorious church of Baalzebul would be taken over by Asmodeus and Baalzebul would gain a secret shrine to Asmodeus within an area in need of subversion.
Asmodeus also maintained several unconventional mortal casters. In fact, the most common origin of warlocks in the Realms was infernal, and of all the archdevils, it was Asmodeus who maintained the most of such pacts, at least among those with fiendish blood. The great effort he spent in this endeavor served to grant him influence on different planes and solidify his supremacy, and only Mephistopheles rivaled his rate of creation and control. There were also his domineering disciples of darkness, callous in their quest for unlimited power, ruthlessly striving for nothing less than world domination. The best were often already spellcasters, and the most powerful could draw some of Asmodeus's power into themselves. The most worthy cult leaders, whether directly in his cult or not, were granted the power to drain the vitality of their allies, even doing so automatically when unconscious.



"I have heard it said evil is nothing more than good’s absence, as if evil was the darkness to good's light. A comforting thought, I imagine, for those seeking redemption, but, I tell you, put such thoughts from your mind. You need only peer into a demon’s eyes to know evil is not some vacuum waiting for virtue to come and fill its emptiness. Evil is a force. It is an influence in the cosmos, an agency equal to or perhaps even greater than its antithesis. There are two sides in this eternal struggle, one light and the other dark. You might find evil’s works reprehensible, yet to those whose hearts belong to corruption, good deeds are equally deplorable. Understand, there is no redemption, only treason against the side you were born to serve." - Asmodeus
"I am known by many names. The Lord of Nessus. The Raging Fiend. But you know me as―" — Asmodeus
"Sometimes we forget the power we wield." - Asmodeus
"Please, child. You stand before the master of the Nine Hells. What a night hag can give you is like the light a star gives compared to the midday sun. Name your terms, I'll name my price." - Asmodeus
"It’s a glorious blasphemy, a condemnation of all that is good and pure. Gods and demons have obliterated it many times, but like evil itself, the book always returns to enslave, corrupt, and destroy. It’s utterly marvelous." - Asmodeus on the book of vile darkness