Asmodeus

The Lord of the Nine Hells

Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine Hells is the devil god of the Nine Hells and represents mastery of tyranny and domination. He relishes in corrupting mortal souls with his honeyed words. He rules his domain with iron rule and punishment he inflicts for crossing him are legendary. Devils and other evil entities pay him tribute, while warlocks are drawn to his power.

"I am known by many names. The Lord of Nessus. The Raging Fiend. But you know me as― Asmodeus"

Divine Domains

Asmodeus holds domain over Blood, Order, War, Trickery, Tyranny, & Domination.

Artifacts

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, forcing enemies to cower in fear, or provided the holder with a field of healing and protection. In fact, when facing combat, an avatar of Asmodeus primarily fights using the powers of his Ruby Rod instead of its innate powers. Asmodeus has a private army called the Nessian Guard, which is kept ready for a great battle. This army consisted of devils that were created from Asmodeus's blood and are truly loyal to him. Over the years, their numbers grow and if Asmodeus manages to heal his wounds and get out of Baator, this army of pit fiends and cornugons will follow.

Holy Books & Codes

The Asmodean Disciplines Asmodeus' doctrines and the practices of his faithful can be found within this document. It is accompanied by various additions and supplemental documents.
The Asmodean Monograph This text records a simplified version of the doctrine of the Prince of Darkness, although it relies on many supplemental volumes and appendices.
Pact Primeval He owns one of the original copies of the Pact Primeval. Asmodeus's duty 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.
The Archfiend’s doctrine is recorded in the Asmodean Monograph, though that work is greatly simplified and relies on numerous appendices and supplementary volumes. The common version of the Monograph is a mere 1,000 pages, and covers history, writing contracts, interpreting contracts, exploiting contracts, summoning devils, making bribes, seduction, using magic, creating magic, worship, secrecy, dealing with inferiors, showing respect to superiors, manipulating equals, prayer, dealing with devils, building temples, reconsecrating rival temples, confronting demons, eliminating rivals, dealing with enemies, power, the natural order, law, the fallacy of evil, temptation, sacrifice, literature, diplomacy, subtleties of speech, the hierarchy of Hell, relations to other religions, and dozens of other topics, all within the context of the faith. Its supplemental texts number in the hundreds, each one focusing on, interpreting, explaining, and giving extensive details about a particular topic or subtopic. To those unfamiliar with the complete library associated with the Monograph, a religious discussion between two zealots may appear to be a battle of who can produce the most obscure reference that supports his point; this works because the church is all about law and rules, and knowing which rules trump others and which ones need to be bent or broken to advance a greater cause is crucial. A worshiper could commit an egregious crime against the church but still be forgiven or even rewarded if he found a way to justify it with a brilliant citation of some forgotten bit of scripture, so long as he could prove the act was beneficial to Asmodeus.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

The Prince of Darkness's unholy symbol is a red pentagram known by his faithful as the Archstar, after Asmodeus's mace.

Tenets of Faith

Asmodeus believes that the strong should rightfully govern the weak, who in turn owe their masters unwavering obedience. He loves negotiations and contracts, especially those that give one of the parties a distinct, hidden advantage over the other. He expects and appreciates flattery, but its never fooled by it, seeing it as a negotiation tactic, as well as a duty those in inferior positions owe their betters.[

Divine Goals & Aspirations

His goals include retaining his position of power, defeating demons and celestials, and, it is said, seeking godhood, though by other accounts he has either already achieved this or was always a deity to begin with. His true goal is known to practically no-one, but by undermining faith in the gods and absorbing the souls of non-believers, he plans to regain enough strength to escape the Hells and recover the power scattered across the Great Wheel when he fell, which could ultimately bring the destruction of the entire cosmology.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

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 created humanoid-looking avatars. The location of his body is kept secret from everyone, including other devils and everyone who learnt of the truth about his body is 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 captivated 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. He can manifest ten avatars at once if needed, allowing him to station one on each layer of Hell if he needed to, with a tenth leftover for managing extraplanar duties. Each of his avatars hold a Ruby Rod of Asmodeus.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

During the Founding, when demons of the Abyss spilled forth to feast on the mortal victims of the Primordials, many celestials who had battled the demons turned to tyranny and forged new hells under the leadership of Asmodeus, himself a fallen angel; he corrupted these celestials into the first devils.
During the Age of Arcanum, Archmage Vespin Chloras released the Betrayer Gods from their prisons. From their new capital of Ghor Dranas in Wildemount, the Betrayer Gods spread their influence and eventually made an assault on the bastion of Vasselheim. The battle lasted twenty days and nights but, with the divine aid of the Prime Deities, Vasselheim and its inhabitants stood triumphant, if battered, at the end. The gods prepared for war. The Betrayer Gods each forged a sentient weapon with the life force of a greater fiend: the Arms of the Betrayers. Asmodeus, for his part, forged the Mace of the Black Crown from the life force of an erinyes named Xartaza, who attempts to recruit more souls for Asmodeus by manipulating the wielder. During a brief period of unified interests, Asmodeus and Lolth exalted an immortal assassin, Jourrael, the Inevitable End, who could not be completely destroyed as long as their contract remained intact; several centuries later, Jourrael remained immortal.
One theory on the origin of tieflings is that they were created in Ghor Dranas as a result of some of the city's inhabitants tying their bloodlines to Asmodeus in exchange for magical knowledge.
During the Calamity, Asmodeus deceived and betrayed Sarenrae, and killed most or all of her worshipers, in one stroke. The original Cerberus Assembly tore Desirat, phoenix mount of Asmodeus, from her master and bound her beneath Mount Mentiri for study.
Avandra defeated Asmodeus during the Calamity by tricking his armies into attacking one another.

Reign

Asmodeus rules the entire plane of the Nine Hells of Baator. His seat of power is 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 about it. The blood that his wounded body gave off turned into new cornugons and pit fiends, usually the latter. Through this means, he built a great army, which was stationed in Malsheem, a giant fortress so large that it was considered unmappable. Being a man to whom his privacy and safety were important, 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 could 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 for travel between layers. However, he never issues such things for Nessus.

Divine Classification

Greater deity

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Realm

The Nine Hells

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Supreme Master of the Nine Hells, Lord of Nessus, The Lord of the Ninth, The Lord of the Ruby Rod, Lord of Lies, Prince of Evil, The Cloven, Old Hoof and Horn, The Archfiend, The Raging Fiend