| Fiend | |
|---|---|
 A group of fiends | |
|
Habitat |
Primarily in the Red Caves, though are present in almost all other planes. |
|
Average height and weight |
Varied |
|
Lifespan |
Varied |
Fiends are the most widespread race of evil beings known. They are usually, with the exception of some, chaotic evil by nature, and are native to Nergal, born from the subterranean Red Caves. Fiends have no true rulers, though powerful fiends are able to gain enough power and influence to gain control over sizable armies of fiendish creatures. They are also the sworn enemies of mortals, and mortal heroes are often hunted relentlessly to either be killed or corrupted.
Personality[]
Fiends are living engines of destruction. They are beings wreathed in flesh and fire; true nightmares to behold. They slay any living creatures and mortals alike with impunity, desiring nothing more than to destroy anything and everything they see with wanton abandon. In the rare instances when fiends amass an army, powerful fiend lords act as the generals of their hordes.
Even the gods fear the sheer amount of destruction they can inflict. Many of the more powerful fiends have been sealed away in divinely crafted prisons far below the surface of the world or hidden in alternate planes.
Occasionally, a new fiend or group of them will erupt from the Red Caves when a great number of mortals are slain all at once. Few are willing to truly slay a host of fiends, for the deed may cost a hero their own life. When a fiend dies, particularly a powerful one, its body erupts with chaotic energy, destroying everything around it with explosive fury.
List of known Fiends[]
(Anyone can add to this list)
- Enslaved: Enslaved are the lowest of the low, nothing but cannon fodder for other fiends to step over in order to win the battle. They lack all but the most rudimentary intelligence, and are capable of doing nothing except be ordered into combat by their superiors. Although it is not unheard of for a particularly destructive and resourceful enslaved to be transformed into a higher order of fiend, most end up dying a horrible death.
- Shades: Essentially living shadows, shades are fiends who have the power to become intangible at will. Used as spies and scouts for fiendish armies or lords, many shades are often information brokers to the highest bidder. Shades often avoid a fight because, while intangible, they cannot hurt other beings until they make themselves tangible. Shades made tangible are very easy to destroy and/or capture.
- Hulks: Hulks are strong fiends created during the Hellish Wars by the fiend lords as weapons. Devious and bloodthirsty killers, hulks have served since the Hellish Wars primarily as bounty hunters and assassins, though often they hunt simply for the sake of the challenge in cornering a dangerous prey. Originally, hulks were created by the fiend lords in order to fight the demons and their servants. Since the Hellish Wars, the hulks have fallen away from their old allegiances, becoming independent from their creators. Hulks often gather in small tribes, led by the most skilled hunter within the group.
- Echthroi: Known almost universally as Felsouls or Darkfain, Echthroi are fiends formed from a very rare ritual that only powerful fiends can perform. With a drop of a mortal's blood, a drop of a fiend's blood, a small vial of life energy, and the right incantations, the mixture then becomes a fiendish, corrupted version of the mortal whose blood were used. Echthroi can also be formed naturally if the mortal they are based on is extremely powerful and almost blindly good, in which case they will be formed to balance out the mortal's impact on fate. Echthroi and their human counterparts are almost always destined to be bitter rivals and hated enemies. Because Echthroi have free will as much as any demon, they can become good. There is even one distant legend where an Echthroi stopped his mortal counterpart when they became too powerful and wild. However, this is extremely rare and that legend is the only known account of it happening. Echthroi can become powerful in their own right, and in some cases even rival fiend lords in power or even surpass them in some cases. There are even a few that say Dagorlatt himself is a Echthroi of some god, though whether there is any truth to their theory no one knows for sure. In any case, Echthroi are powerful fiends and very hard to destroy, as they can only truly die when their mortal counterpart dies.
Fiend Lords[]
Fiend Lords also known as Abyssal lords, were arch-fiends who gained great power and established a position of preeminence among fiend-kind. Each fiend lord had a unique appearance and set of abilities. Most controlled at least one part of the Red Caves or some other plane. A fiend lord, when slain in a plane other than the Red Caves, was banished to the Red Caves for a thousand years thanks to a curse the gods placed on the fiend lords long ago. Fiend lords were self-proclaimed titles; unlike the the rulers of the demons, the chaotic evil fiend lords did not have a rigid hierarchy or really any structure at all.
List of Fiend Lords[]
- Dagorlatt: Not exactly a deity but simply the most powerful and the most ancient of the fiends in existence, Dagorlatt is the lord of the Red Caves and god among the fiends. While Sanhedrin claims the title of the Prince of Fiends, he is merely a pet taken care by this massive master. He is powerful enough to claim the title of an minor deity, but he prefers not to do so because he is simply not interested, something that other fiends would be jealous if this fact is discovered. He has been lurking in the darkest part of the Red Caves, just watching as the multiverse folds and unfolds itself. His goal is not known, even by his most reliable and closest servants.
- Sanhedrin: Also known as the Prince of Fiends, Sanhedrin is a powerful fiend lord. The self-proclaimed title is one that is held by virtue of power and influence and is acknowledged by both mortals and his fellow fiends. It is, in his mind, his destiny to rule the Red Caves and thus the fiends.
- The Triumvirate: The Triumvirate are three powerful fiends created by the gods, one of the only fiends known that were formed this way. The Triumvirate is made up of three fiends who act like one being. It is said each head can see the past, present, and future respectively. The Triumvirate's goal, tasked by the gods, is to watch fate and make sure the fiends never truly die, as they are needed to balance good. However, they can also be seen as oracles and mortals have gone to the Triumvirate for their futures. The Triumvirate has often tried to stop or hinder Dagorlatt's plans, as they feel Dagorlatt is trying to break the balance between good and evil that is sorely needed.
- Morpheus and Janus: Called the "Dream-Eaters" and known only by that title by many mortals, Morpheus and Janus are two fiend lord "brothers" that are connected by being formed exactly at the same time. They were formed as the first nightmares of the god Ouroboros, who were banished to the Red Caves when they repeatedly kept coming back to haunt the god's dreams. They can be summoned should someone write the correct glyphs on a papyrus scroll, but the glyphs are long gone and only those who want the Fiend Lords to cause a country to go insane with nightmares would summon them.
- Eidoneus: Eidoneus is indisputably a force of pure destruction, a most terrible creature known to inhabit and protect the Red Caves. It was created by the Moroitos as a weapon of destruction during the Demon-Moroitos War, with the purpose of undoing the stability instilled in the world by the gods so that the Moroitos could conquer it for their own. Fortunately, the Moroitos created only Eidoneus and no others like it, and it now slumbers within the core of the Red Caves. No one can predict when it will next awake.
- Conquer-Lord Alruin: Alruin was one of the first fiends, besides Sanhedrin, that named himself a Fiend Lord. An extremely powerful warrior, Alruin relishes war and conquest. Titles bestowed upon by this obsession of his include Boneduster, Breaker of Armies, Fell-General, and the Knight of Endless Blood are only a few among hundreds. His followers also share in this lust for battle, and will do anything to cause violence and bloodshed. Alruin's ultimate goal is to cause the greatest battle ever known, an eternal conflict known as the Ragnarok, and battle with infinite amounts of armies and warriors forever.
- Erebus: Known as the Longest Shadow, Erebus was the first shadow ever formed and the first servant to the god Jormun. For many millennium he was the greatest connection to the god and his servants, and in respect they called him the Prophet of the Night. However, when Verneitigen rebelled Erebus thought Jormun would die and so fled to hide. Once Vern was defeated, Jormun was furious at Erebus' lack of faith, and stripped him of his title and of his connection. As an exile, Erebus traveled to the Red Caves and made a bargain with Dagorlatt. In return for his loyalty, Dagorlatt gave Erebus the power of a Fiend Lord so that Erebus may have his revenge with Jormun, a vengeance that drives him to this very day.
- Draecryst: Draecryst was the most powerful Fey to exist, formed by the Great Shard as its first herald in ancient times. It proceeded to rampage across the world in its goal of enslaving mortalkind with its powers of corruption. It was stopped by an alliance of elysian adventurers who were able to trick it into entering the Red Caves and trapping it there. It became a fiend and later a fiend lord after millennium after millennium of absorbing fiendish power. Now it seeks an entirely different plan: To kill Maj and become the new god of magic, though what malevolent goal he hopes to achieve with this is unknown.
- Umbralunos: There is little known about this fiend lord. All that is known is that he is possibly from the Moon, and that he is completely insane. His origins have been a subject of innumerable guesses and theories, but so far none can be proven true. It seems, for his insanity, Umbralunos is waiting for something....
