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To: Malfeaz, Lord of Seven Darks, Master of Mungoth.

From: Herab Serap, Master of Ravens, Disperser of the Young.

Being an updated and expanded treatise on the secrets and weaknesses of Baator's DARK EIGHT, revised from the original document written by the Togarini in ages past.


BAALZEPHON, the Minister of Supply, is one of the two most ancient surviving members of the Eight, and the one who remains most free of entanglements with Baator's nobility. Baalzephon believes she most purely serves the purpose for which the Dark Eight were created, reducing the power of the Lords of the Nine.

Weaknesses: Baalzephon's arrogance has no equal in the rest of the Eight. She treats her ministry as if it were a feudal state and she its unquestioned lord. At the bottom of the Ministry of upply's ranks this is literally true, with spinagon peasants grimly tending herds of stench kine and petitioners, their situation as desperate as that of their mortal counterparts. In higher ranks are the ambassadors, knights, and merchant-princes who visit the courts of powerful entities throughout the planes to garner trade deals and contracts. Baalzephon herself wears the regalia of a mighty emperor, the solar orb and crown of Aerdy (a nation of the material plane that worships Baalzephon as Baalzi, god of wealth) her frequent symbol. Baalzephon is the only member of the Dark Eight that can afford to treat the Lords of the Nine (save the Deepest) with contempt. She does have an alliance with Hextor, a power of Acheron, who helped her create her army of undead animuses. In exchange, she razed a rakshasa city, something that does not endear her to that race (although they must trade with her representatives nonetheless). This, too, can be exploited.

If Baalzephon fuels the Blood War's physical needs, then ZIMIMAR fuels its will. Her ministry weaves epic stories of victories won and traitors suppressed, of conspiracies unraveled and foes outwitted. If you belive Zimimar's propaganda machine (and you will, one way or another), Baator is on the very brink of victory, always and continually. History is flux, perpetuatally rewritten to create an image across the planes of a Baator slowl, steadily progressing toward inevitable multiversal domination.

The present Minister of Morale is not the original Zimimar. The original was a duke in the service of Count Minauros. This original Zimimar, a male pit fiend, won fame in Minauros' court as head of the Count's osylut secret police, eclipsing even the terrible Duke Bael in esteem. As a result, he was easily able to win the right to command Minauros' armies during the Siege of Dis. What no one at the time knew was that Zimimar had been drawn into the fold of Cantrum of Nessus, as all the great generals were.

Exactly when Zimimar was assassinated and replaced, and indeed how many times, is unclear, for the present Zimimar has rewritten all records. She is now the original - she has made herself so by controlling Baator's belief. She has been Zimimar since the dawn of time. In the names of the Lords of the Nine, the Dark Eight have always ruled, Zimimar among them.

Zimimar's appearance changes continually, but official press releases assure us that it has always been the same. To better inspire the troops, she is usually a pit fiend of perfect symmetry, a paragon of strength and scaly beauty, but the details vary radically. Her human guises are always neatly attired and attractive, but still strong and forminable in their way. In any shape, she is always seen with a fixed, manic smile that she sees as reassuring, but which inspires terror in all who witness it.

Weaknesses: Perhaps Zimimar is mad. Perhaps the stress of manipulating the beliefs of the entire baatezu race has unhinged her brain, making it as twisted and contrary as her propaganda. Alone of the baatezu, she must remember all past narratives, keeping them straight in her mind in case they are needed again, or in case previous stories reemerge to become a threat. Perhaps the zealotry with which she urges the baatezu to battle and hunts down thought-criminals is fueled by the terror within her that someday she will forget, and become a prisoner of her own lies, created rather than creatrix. Such a fate, slave to her fictions like everyone else, is perhaps too much for her to bear.

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Originally posted by D-brane

I'll probably cover Pearza next. He's the Minister of Research for the arch-devils of the Nine Hells.

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Originally posted by DDH_101

Speaking of Nessus, I read that the gate that leads to Nessus from Cania is guarded by 9999 devils. Is this the only way to get into Asmodeus's domain?

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Originally posted by DDH_101

PART of your theory was in the Book of Vile Darkness. It was said taht when Asmodeus fell to the Nine Hells, he suffered severe injuries, injuries that still aren't healed even today. The cause of this fall is unknown but it was probably a major battle with some celestia or deity.

However, the part about his fall creating the Nine Hells, I am not so sure about.

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Originally posted by The Sage

Actually, can you fall further than the ninth layer...?

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Originally posted by Sachiel

Does anyone have any detailed information on Nessus itself, preferrably Malsheem?

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• Fiendish Codex: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
• http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Nine_Hells

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Originally posted by Shadowlord

I was wondering if some of the scribes could provide me with some information not given in the Book of Vile Darkness about the rulers of the Nine Hells, preferably the Archdevil Mephistopheles. Player's Guide to Faerūn briefly touches on the fact that different Archdevils rule the different layers. I'd like to know more about the coup that Mephistopheles incited to cull betrayers, as well as more about Cania, the layer he rules. It interests me that a layer of intense cold exists in the Nine Hells...

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