Originally posted by Factol Rhys
Just wait here. As soon as Shemeska checks the boards, you'll hear more than you ever wanted to know... :D (sorry about the smiley, I just read your signature).
Yeah, you're right. I figured she might check here and give me a . . . detailed . . . explanation. I was partially hoping. *grin*
(Don't worry about the smilies . . . I just try not to use them. I've come to accept it that other people will, and it doen't bother me much. I even slip up sometimes. ;) Hey! Get back i your cage, damn smilie!)
Originally posted by Factol Rhys
Wow, you posted only a few minutes after I responded. And here I go a few minutes after you posted. I've now remembered. Faces of Evil: The Fiends is an awesome book which I have. It's got loads of information on everyone, so if you have specific questions I might be able to look something up for you. Or, as people often point out on the PS boards, there's always svgames.
And here I go . . . a half hour later. *grin*
I don't really have any specific questions, sorry . . . I'm working on my homebrew's Lower Planes now and am trying to work out a history of the yugoloths and their lords. So I'm trying to find some old PS stuff to modify to fit my cosmology (which only possesses one Outer Plane for each alignment, so a few adjustments would have to be made for the General and the Oinoloth, I'd assume.)
:D
Very very loose history here. According at least to the Yugoloths themselves, their own legends (backed up by proof in a number of cases) state that after the creation of the lower planes, out of the misty hinterlands of the Gray Waste came their own creators and progenitors, the Baernaloths.
The Baern spoke to one another and desiring to further the concept of evil across the multiverse decided amongst one another to create their own race of children to take the role of agents and champions. They drew out of the essence of the plane the first of those they would call the Yugoloths.
The first Yugoloths had yet in them a dim spark of what would later be called Law and Chaos. The Baern, possessed of no such impurities, desired their children to be rid of this taint. And so they created a great ebony gem called The Heart of Darkness and gave it to He, the first Ultraloth they had created, who would later be known as The General of Gehenna.
This gem, in the hands of The General, under the control of the Baern purged the taints of law and chaos from the Yugoloths as a race. This taint the Baern channeled into the first of the larvae that came to the Waste from the prime. These law and chaos tainted larvae they then drove from the Waste into the planes of Baator and the Abyss where they festered and grew and matured to become the first of the Baatezu and the Tanar'ri.
One of the Baern, named Apomps desired to create his own children, in imitation of the Yugoloths created by his brothers and sisters. In hiding he created the race that would become known as the Gehreleth, or the Demodands. His creations when seen by the others of the Baernaloth were viewed with revulsion since Apomps had created his own children flawed and infused with chaos and evil, not simply pure evil.
The Baern rose to destroy Apomps and his creations and he fled with the first of the Gehreleth race to Carceri into self imposed exile, harboring within himself and his creations a hatred of his brethren and their own creations the Yugoloths. Apomps, now known as Apomps the Fallen, the Betrayed, the Betrayer, and the Three Faced, had however become something greater it seems, a true power. Or perhaps the Baern themselves all posessed such might. The Yugoloths however have never destroyed the Gehreleths, despite the 'leths lesser numbers, and the 'loths seem either wary, or even afraid of the apparent divine backing given to the Gehreleths by their god and creator Apomps.
In the meantime, the Yugoloths had erected the Wasting Tower of Khin-Oin upon the planes of Oinos within the Gray Waste. None know for certainly except the 'loths themselves perhaps, but the tower is said to have been carved from the spinal column of a true deity, ripped from the power's corpse after the 'loths themselves killed it utterly.
On a related note, the Yugoloths have been known as the 'Godless Yugoloths' and harbor a disdain bordering on loathing for the powers in general. Perhaps simply because the powers have such an association with mortals and mortal petitioners which the 'loths themselves don't use to create more of their own kind like the Tanar'ri and Baatezu do. But none truly know.
The Yugoloths are said to have instigated the Blood War between Tanar'ri and Baatezu, and supply both sides with their own armies as mercenaries, never allowing one side to gain a lasting advantage over the other. The entire conflict may simply be one gigantic distraction for the upper planes to ignore them, or a singular experiment into the nature of evil. Regardless, the 'loths profit off of the conflict greatly, though they play innocent on charges of manipulating the conflict to keep and prolong it all and maintain a balanced status quo.
The Yugoloths arise spontaneously from the essence of the Gray Waste, as well as the essence of Gehenna, and perhaps from the essence of Carceri. There's debate on how often, or if at all, this last plane belches forth a 'loth. The 'loths don't arise from mortal petitioners, and at best use them as food, fuel for spells, or within Gehenna especially they use them as living contracts. Stretching them flat upon iron frames and branding them with the details of individual contracts within the Blood War.
At some point in their early history, the 'loths migrated en masse from the Waste to Gehenna, though they still arise from the Waste and while their presence there is not as obvious as that of the Hags or the armies of the Abyss and Baator, they very likely outnumber both or all in numbers or power there in the cradle of their birth.
Within Gehenna, the 'loths erected the massive Tower of the Arcanaloths, modeled after the bladed architectural style of the Sigils own buildings. The first keeper of the tower, Larsdana Ap'Nuet bound the tower and the Arcanaloths as a whole to the essence of the plane itself to empower their magics and increase the power and prominance of themselves as a subrace of the Yugoloths. She vanished (and is presumed dead) after the tower was finished.
The tower and the Arcanaloths themselves serve as scribes and record holders for their race and for the history and contracts of the Blood War. Cavernous libraries beneath the Tower run for uncounted miles with petitioners strung like beads and branded with contracts and histories. The knowledge is said to be immense, and even the Baatezu admit to its remarkable clarity and unbiased attention to the details of the war.
Additionally, the 'loths may be attempting to do the same with Carceri that they did with Gehenna, and are building a third great Yugoloth tower on the first layer of that plane as well. Called the Tower of Incarnate Pain, and built from the squirming, screaming, still living peitioners of the plane, it would apparently link with the other two 'loth towers and then do... something. None know what the effects of linking the three planes under the control of the 'loths would be, but the possibility has been enough to goad Apomps and the Gehreleths to raze the 3rd Tower to its foundation stones twice, with apparent direct backing by Apomps himself.
The 'loths, without divine backing of their own, and not wishing to let the Tanar'ri or Baatezu be aware of the Tower of Incarnate Pain, have not protected the tower by massing an army permenantly at its base larger than any army the 'leths could ever muster, and so the tower's completion has been an utterly slow process. But the 'loths are patient.
The eventual completion of the Tower of Incarnate Pain would also call for the incorporation of the flayed and tanned hide of true deity into the upper walls of the tower. Several powers have been mentioned as prospects. Aoskar the self proclaimed lord of Portals, killed by The Lady of Pain Herself, has been named explicitely as one possibility.
The General of Gehenna is still said to exist as the ultimate leader of the entire 'loth race. Within the Crawling Citadel that wanders the slopes of Gehenna, he watches and coordinates the actions of the 'loths within the Blood War and is said to be continually advised by a council of Baernaloths known as The Demented. This particular group of the Baern is said to have not shunned law and chaos but embraced both extremes of evil at the same time. Seeking to foster both tyranny and blind destruction at once within a greater framework of true evil.
The Oinoloth of the Wasting Tower of Khin-Oin is said to act as the mouthpiece of The General. Some say The General is simply a legend created to legitimize the rule of the Oinoloth. Others know better.
The current Oinoloth is an advanced Ultraloth prince known as Mydianchlarus. He is said to have whispered a dark of such potency into the ear of the former holder of the position, the altraloth known as Anthraxus the Decayed, that the former Oinoloth stepped down from the position and left the Wasting Tower of his own accord.
Anthraxus has been wandering the lower planes since then, possessed of nearly the power of a demigod by himself, even without the title and position he abdicated. His goals are, for the moment, dark.
There are other unique Yugoloth lords, many of them known as Altraloths. They are the result of greater yugoloths entering into pacts with powerful covens of night hags. In exchance for temporary servitude to the hags, the 'loths gain greatly enchanced personal power.
Among those Yugoloth lords known as Altraloths are:
Anthraxus
Taba - a perfect shapeshifter and Yugoloth infiltrator
Cerlic / Charon (overlord of the Marraenoloths)
Xengara the Fallen - appears as an ash skinned Solar
Typhus - leader of a 'loth mercenary army, The Infernal Front
Bubonix - self titled overlord of Carceri, and lord of the Tower of Incarnate Pain
Cholerix - aide and leutenant to Bubonix
There are other powerful Yugoloth lords that are not of the Altraloth subtype. Notably The General of Gehenna himself. Mydianchalus the current Oinoloth. Helekanalaith the Keeper of the Tower of the Arcanaloths. Larsdana Ap'Neut (Architect and designer of the Tower of the Arcanaloths, first Keeper of the tower, and former 'companion' to Helekanaloth before her abrupt 'disappearance' after which he ascended to the position)
And then there's myself. A power within Sigil if not exactly ruling over a tower in the planes of conflict myself, or seated upon the throne of Khin-Oin. I'm patient. But with the unique nature of Sigil, I find my position here within the City of Doors to be more advantageous than what I might achieve back within Hades or Gehenna.
Now there's tons more I could say. Really I just can't stop talking about myself and my species. So many good things to say about myself... and Yugoloths in general as well.
Hmm... 'loths and me. Me me me.
(and there's some fiction written about the Tower of Incarnate Pain and the intrigues within; the building of the Tower of the Arcanaloths and the relationship between the first and second Keepers of the tower; and some other material related to the 'loths such as overviews of Gehenna, Hades, and Carceri including short fic pieces for each that have been written for Planewalker.com.
They'll be released eventually, though the first two bits of fiction aren't likely at this point to be there as official material. It is floating around on the web however, and I'll likely post it up on either some webspace of my own, or a LJ. Something like that, or I'll email to folks if they're curious.
As well, the guide to Sigil for planewalker has some info about 'loths as well. And being written IC by the editor of the Factol's Manifesto, its got a closer connection to the 'loths than some might expect. If you know who wrote the FM in character, you may now grin, because its written from his POV. And I had far too much fun doing so)
If there's any other specific questions, ask away and I'll provide the dark of it if I can. No harm in knowledge is there? *the exits seem conveniently blocked...*
Hm . . . Well, since I'm here, think I could have some more information on the various other yugoloth lords besides the Oinoloth and the General? (Typhus, Cholerix, etc.) If you don't mind.
Thanks a TON, Shemeska! Happy gaming for a hundred years!
Most of them got detailed in the Dragon Annual #2, and havn't been mentioned really since then.
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100969&highlight=altraloth
the second post there I detailed some of them a bit more than I did above, as well as some other unique outsiders.
Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it above, but the Baernaloth all retreated into self imposed solitude in the fringes of the Gray Waste shortly after the creation of the Yugoloth. Most of them still living wait and observe the happenings of the multiverse (primarily the events on the lower planes, like parents watching young children grow and develop, and also coldly like a scientist watching an interesting experiment run to completion). Others have fallen into madness, and others still occasionally, but always in careful and intricately planned ways, pull the strings of the Yugoloths, and perhaps the other fiends as well, which seem to be possessed of a fear and respect bordering upon the true divine for the Baern.
Originally posted by Shemeska the Marauder
Somewhere here on the boards I at one point wrote up some descriptions of a number of the unique Yugoloth lords. So I don't repeat myself I'm going to try and track down that thread and just post a link to it here. If you don't mind that is.
Most of them got detailed in the Dragon Annual #2, and havn't been mentioned really since then.
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100969&highlight=altraloth
the second post there I detailed some of them a bit more than I did above, as well as some other unique outsiders.
Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it above, but the Baernaloth all retreated into self imposed solitude in the fringes of the Gray Waste shortly after the creation of the Yugoloth. Most of them still living wait and observe the happenings of the multiverse (primarily the events on the lower planes, like parents watching young children grow and develop, and also coldly like a scientist watching an interesting experiment run to completion). Others have fallen into madness, and others still occasionally, but always in careful and intricately planned ways, pull the strings of the Yugoloths, and perhaps the other fiends as well, which seem to be possessed of a fear and respect bordering upon the true divine for the Baern.
Cool, thanks Shem. I'll start to work on my stuff . . . maybe eventually post it on Homebrew.
Thanks again. You've been lots o' help!
*flicks at a stray bit of fur and adjusts gown ever so slightly*
"And you can ignore all those unfounded accusations about myself and certain 'other' Arcanaloths in Sigil that other ill founded and likely accident prone berks around here are spouting like so much screed."
*leans forwards and grins* "Good luck on your homebrew stuff."
Though on that note, there was a homebrew yugoloth from my campaign that was translated into one of the primary NE fiends in Paizo's Golarion/Pathfinder campaign setting. The astradaemon should (pending edits) appear in The Great Beyond: A Guide to the Multiverse to be released here in a few months.
Update: yes, it's in there. And here's the artwork for it.
se ya! Salazark94210 the Leonal
