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LEGEND OF THE HELLRIDERS

Now that we’ve established the definitive truth of these events, let’s take a moment to look at how the story has been passed down to the modern day. How are the Hellriders remembered in Elturel and on the Sword Coast?

This material will be useful if any of the PCs are playing Hellriders (or, really, any Elturian characters). Or when they hear the legend at some point in the pre-Avernus  part of the campaign (e.g., when speaking with Reya Mantlemorn or another Hellrider). I’ve included some additional notes in square brackets that can be used to expand the basic version of the legend if the PCs decide to do some detailed research into the legend (in Candlekeep, for example).

THE FIRST HIGH RIDER: Before humans came to Elturel, the site was ruled by an Ogre Lord in a crude stone bastion atop the tor where now stands the High Hall. The Ogre Lord captured the son of Lady Shiarra, a local noblewoman. Lady Shiarra, seeking vengeance against the Ogre Lord, drove him out of the bastion. [Other versions of the story claim that the Ogre had stolen Lady Shiarra’s sword or horse. One version says the Ogre was her son. If you asked a sufficiently erudite ogre about the matter, they’d probably have different opinions about the legitimacy of Lady Shiarra’s actions in general.]

After the Ogre Lord was defeated, Lady Shiarra called a concord of local lordlings to the site where Shiarra’s Market now stands (see Part 5C). These lordlings pledged fealty to each other and formed the Riders of Elturel, with Lady Shiarra as the first High Rider.

OTHER TALES OF THE RIDERS OF ELTUREL: There are a variety of chivalric stories featuring the early Riders of Elturel. The most common themes include:

• A lone Rider heads out from the city and faces evil. (Pick any monster from the Monster Manual.) Sometimes they are seeking that evil. Other times they stumble upon it in unexpectedly idyllic places.
• Romantic tourneys in which Riders (often with a mixture of foreign knights) face each other in various games of martial skill while sexual tension kindles between rivals. These tales usually feature a shapeshifter posing as a knight or otherwise confusing identities.
• Minor crusades, in which troops of Riders sally forth to save an entire community (usually in response to a plea for help). [These tales are generally told and have been shaped to support Elturel’s role as “protector” of the surrounding lands.]

THE CHARGE OF THE HELLRIDERS:

• Olanthius, the High Rider of Elturel, was often away from the High Hall, for the frontiers in those days were sore-pressed by warbands passing over the Sunset Mountains from the Goblin Marches. Fields were despoiled, livestock slaughtered, homes razed, and people dragged off to terrible fates. [When, exactly, Olanthius ruled Elturel is uncertain, but generally agreed to be the 9^th or 10^th century, although some claim it’s as far back as the 8^th. Some of the early chronicles say that the trouble actually originated from the Trollclaws and not the Goblin Marches, although some loremasters argue that both might be true.]
• While Olanthius was away, a Prince of Devils came to Elturel. Cloaked in a handsome form, he insinuated himself into the High Hall as Nothius, a Lord of Iriaebor. Over time, he enslaved the soul of Olanthius’ love, the Lady Yael. [The early-14^th century poet Aternicus wrote “The Lay of the Lady Yael,” a now-classic masterpiece which weaves this story into a romantic seduction.]
• As winter fell upon another year, Olanthius returned from campaign over fresh-fallen snow to discover that his lady love had been stolen away. Alack! If only he had returned a few hours earlier, Lady Yael might have been saved! [In some versions of the story, Olanthius is now visited by a nameless angel who guides the Riders to where Yael is being held prisoner.]
• Olanthius led the Riders of Elturel in a frenzied chase. [Maatal’s Chronicle instead describes a search of eighteen months – in some versions, eighteen years – in which the Riders of Elturel scatter across Toril, seeking the hiding place where Prince Nothius has concealed Lady Yael. Various tales have accumulated to individual knights, some of whom journeyed to distant Zakhara and even Maztica.]
• When the Riders caught up with Lord Nothius, the devil revealed his true form. A great battle then commenced, which ended when Nothius opened a gateway to Hell itself and, with a cackling laugh, carried Lady Yael through it! [Several chronicles also ascribe the goblin or troll invasions as being part of Nothius’ schemes; these usually feature a ferocious battle as Olanthius and the Riders try to fight their way through to Nothius. In other versions, Nothius has carried Lady Yael to a citadel in the Sunset Mountains – sometimes identified as Darkhold – and the Riders must lay siege to it.]
• The Riders of Elturel did not hesitate! They plunged through the gate, pursuing the devil into Hell itself! [Some versions of the story have the Riders pursue the devil Nothius through all nine of the Hells. In these, Nothius is often revealed to be Asmodeus himself. These are generally agreed by serious historians to be exaggerations.]
• The pursuit of Nothius now continued across the blasted plains of Avernus itself. At last, the Riders of Elturel met the armies of Hell! The Riders defeated one of the fabled blood legions and Yael was reunited with Olanthius, but as they rode back towards the portal home a second and even larger legion threatened to cut them off.
• Olanthius knew the only hope of escape was if this legion was delayed. He asked for volunteers to accompany him… and all the Riders did so. Therefore lots were drawn to determine the lucky few who would ride one last time at the side of their lord. Olanthius begged Yael to fly to safety, but she, too, chose to ride into battle at his side.
• In the face of the Riders’ charge, the legion of Avernus trembled and buckled… but did not break. Olanthius and Yael perished on the Avernian plains. It is said that where they fell in a final, martial embrace, a spring of holy water sprung up that was poison to the devils of that land.
• Their sacrifice, however, bought the time the other Riders needed to escape from Hell. Overcome with grief at the loss of their glorious leader and his love, they returned to the city. Their valor was never forgotten, and from that day forward the Riders of Elturel were known as the Hellriders.

As you can see here, much of the true history has been lost. Or, rather, distorted through a storied tradition — a golden age of Elturian chivalry which has been artificially extended back to the founding of the city to culminate triumphantly in the great tale of the Charge of the Hellriders. Thus the earliest Lords of Elturel (including Lady Shiarra) have become retroactively identified as High Riders.

Design Note: This sort of thing isn’t without precedent in the real world. See, for example, how the “Roman Emperors” would have been contemporaneously identified as Imperator, Augustus, and/or Caesar. Or the Arthurian tradition, in which history becomes encrusted with literary invention.

If the PCs decide to do some deep investigation along these lines, you could certainly hint at the uncertainty of the historical record here. Although even these hints wouldn’t necessarily be accurate: For example, you might discuss how the loremaster Alice Messier of Iriaebor has recently done a study of “Jander Sunstar.” Supposedly the High Rider who led the Riders of Elturel out of Hell, Messier has found references to another “Jander Sunstar” as a folk hero in the Dalelands whose stories were later merged with a set of vampiric myths arising from the infestation of vampires that led to Merrydale becoming Daggerdale. The obvious conclusion, of course, is that “Jander Sunstar” never actually existed, and the Dalelands folk hero was simply incorporated into the chivalric cycle of Elturel.

If you want to get ambitious, you could develop some lore books along these lines and perhaps distribute them in likely places in Elturel and/or Candlekeep.

LORE OF ZARIEL

Once the PCs become aware that they’re dealing with Zarielite cultists in Baldur’s Gate, they may want to do some research into who Zariel is. This might also be true in Candlekeep after Lulu’s revelation that Zariel was involved in the Charge of the Hellriders. So it’s worthwhile to briefly consider what they’ll find in the history books.

You can also use this information to inform Intelligence (History) and Intelligence (Religion) checks.

Design Note: The general theory of my approach here is that (a) Hell exists, but (b) it is very, very far away from the Material Plane. Thus the loremaster’s understanding of Hell is akin to a scholar of Medieval Europe’s understanding of the fine details of Japanese history (i.e., incredibly poor bordering on the mythical). The history of Hell also stretches back across aeons unimaginable to human history. Plus the entire place is inhabited entirely with gifted liars whose interactions with humans are usually based entirely around deceiving them.

AVERNIAD & THE TRIAL OF ASMODEUS: These early events in planar history are known to mortal scholars, but are mostly obscured through a haze of confusing legendry. Zariel’s name is not associated with them, although the incident in which a nameless angel started a deific brawl during the Trial of Asmodeus might crop up.

It’s up to you how much chaff you want to throw up around the “true history of Asmodeus and/or Hell” if the PCs start looking into it. We’re greatly aided in this, however, because D&D itself has published a bunch of contradictory versions of this continuity:

• Serpents of Law: Asmodeus, then known as Ahriman, and Jazirian arose from the primal chaos as powerful serpent gods. The two serpents bit each others’ tails and formed a great circle whose turning transformed chaos into the order of the Great Wheel. The two serpents quarreled, stripping each other of god-stuff. The diminished Asmodeus, a wingless serpent, crashed into Nessus, the First Hell, while the winged Jazirian rose to Mount Celestia.
• Angelic Fall: When the first gods grew weary of fighting demons, they created angels to continue the battle for them. The first of these angels was Asmodeus. Over time, Asmodeus assumed more and more control of the war, with the gods formalizing more and more of his authority in the form of pacts. There came a time when the gods realized that Asmodeus had created a vast and horrific infrastructure for torturing mortal souls (i.e., Hell) and transforming them into foot soldiers (i.e., devils) – call it the military-infernal complex. Asmodeus was put on trial, but he simply pointed to the tangled web of pacts and declared that the gods had authorized all of it. Primus of the Modrons, who acted as the trial’s judge, ruled in Asmodeus’ favor, and the collection of pacts became known as the Pact Primeval. It remains the bedrock of celestial law.
• He Who Was: Asmodeus was once an exarch serving He Who Was. (Asmodeus would later go to considerable lengths to wipe out all record of the god’s name, leaving only the enigmatic title.) He Who Was was the ultimate god of law. To preserve a perfect order, He Who Was controlled every single aspect of reality, down to the smallest details. In his demesne, the mortal races did not yet have free will – they were automatons going through the motions of civilization. Asmodeus was no different, until he was corrupted by the demon lord Pazuzu. With the scales fallen from his eyes, Asmodeus saw clearly the tyranny of the Law according to He Who Was. After a quiet resistance (that may have lasted for centuries and also ties into the Dawn War waged against Tharizdun), Asmodeus journeyed to the bottom of the Abyss and found there the shard of freedom (which some “fools” have named the shard of evil) and crafted from it his Ruby Rod. The rod’s existence shattered the control of He Who Was (and, in some heretical texts, is claimed to be the basis for all mortal consciousness). Asmodeus slew He Who Was.

Note: Some gnostic cults claim that the breaking of the Perfect Order is much more recent than one would suspect: Some claim it only happened a few short years ago. Others cite the Spellplague or the Sundering. For esoteric reasons, the date of 1358 DR is frequently given – the Year of Shadows in which mortals ceased to be mere shadows and became fully realized and autonomous spirits. In any case, according to the gnostics, all recorded history before that point was merely acted out according to the whim of He Who Was; the historical personages not truly possessed of what modern mortals understand as consciousness.

CHARGE OF THE HELLRIDERS: Zariel’s name is also not associated with the Charge of the Hellriders in any way (see above).

ZARIEL – WHAT IS KNOWN:

• Zariel was one of the Dark Eight, the council of generals who lead Hell’s legions in the Blood War.
• She is believed to be a fallen angel, likely one of those who first followed Asmodeus to Hell, making her one of the oldest and probably most powerful devils.
• During the Reckoning – the War in Hell that turned Lords of Hell against each in the 13^th century – Zariel initiated hostilities by forming an alliance with Tiamat and leading an army to besiege Dis, the second layer of the Nine Hells.
• Near the end of the Reckoning, Tiamat betrayed Zariel and the siege on Dis was broken. Zariel was imprisoned in Tiamat’s citadel.
• At the beginning of the 15^th century, Avernus – the first layer of Hell – was in a state of tumult. The Blood War was going poorly. Zariel escaped from Tiamat’s prison, raised an army, and turned the tide. To reward her, Asmodeus deposed Bel – who had been the Archduke of Avernus – and raised Zariel in his place.
• Zariel has been the Archduchess of Avernus ever since. A cruel and brutally effective military leader.

Note: It’s possible that the inner mysteries of some Zarielite cults would preserve the knowledge that Zariel led the Charge of the Hellriders. From a practical standpoint, however, the PCs should not be able to learn this from the cultists in Baldur’s Gate. (The knowledge should drop in Candlekeep, as described in Part 4C.) If you want to add this sort of deep lore to the Zarielites, I’d recommend confining it to the revelation that she was a fallen angel and perhaps very early events pertaining to the Averniad and the Trial of Asmodeus.

WHAT DOES GARGAUTH KNOW? If the PCs get the Shield of Hidden Truth and question Gargauth, he can provide a lot more detail. (These same general guidelines can probably be used for other denizens of Hell, other than those with personal first-hand knowledge.)

• Gargauth is not familiar with Zariel’s role in the Charge of the Hellriders, but he knows that she was an angel who fell comparatively recently (within the last few centuries).
• Having been active in Elturel for decades, he’s familiar with the Legend of the Hellriders (and can probably provide an account of many of its variations and details).
• He can provide detailed accounts of the Averniad and the Trial of Asmodeus. (He even knows that Zariel sparked a brawl during the trial.) However, it might amuse him to muddle things up with false tales (like those described above).
• He knows the Reckoning and the Rift War in detail.

Go to Part 6D-E: Lulu’s Memory Mystery

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THE FALL OF ZARIEL

• When the battle at last came to an end, Baalzephon was astonished to see Asmodeus himself arrive.
• They found Zariel beneath a mound of devils she had slain. She was badly injured, but still lived. As she awoke, Asmodeus knelt beside her in the dust of Avernus. He spoke to her in a soft voice.

I look at you and I see that you are in despair. You thought you could make a difference. That you could end the Blood War. But here you are on a field of dead friends.

You look at me and I know you see malevolence. You see Evil. You see an antithesis. You see betrayal. But I did make a difference. And I will end the Blood War.

All those aeons ago, at my trial, when I looked you in the eye and laughed. Do you think I mocked you? No. I laughed because I saw you standing where I had stood before. I knew we walked the same road and you were just a few steps behind me.

Look around you. Look at the dead. Piled high. Do you really think this to be Good? Do you think this butchery to be worthwhile because it was done in a noble cause? You know as well as I do that as long as this continues, as long as the dead are nothing but tallies in the ledgers of complacent gods, Good is derelict. It is meaningless. It is feathery cupids cavorting on a celestial isle while suffering boils forth across the multiverse.

I know you came here to kill demons. You think you have failed. I think you have barely begun.

Which of us do you think sees more clearly?

What I offer you is simple: A chance to continue our fight. You have killed Terza’reg. I offer you his place on the Dark Eight and command of a Blood Legion. Serve me and your Crusade can still boil across the Abyss and turn the Great Wheel into a new epoch.

• In truth, the two conversed on many different planes of thought. And, in the end, Zariel accepted Asmodeus’ offer, swearing fealty to him and accepting his commission as one of Bel’s generals. Perhaps Asmodeus was right. Or perhaps she had been right to fear her weakness. Or perhaps in her pride, she convinced herself that, once she had dealt with the Abyss, she would be able to turn on Asmodeus and save Hell from itself.
• But Zariel had fallen.
• Haruman willingly followed Zariel in swearing allegiance to Asmodeus. Olanthius chose to commit suicide instead, but even in death discovered that he was bound by his oath to “crush the evil of the Abyss under the guidance of Zariel” and was raised as a death knight in her thrall.

Note: Once again, kids, examine the fine print of your oaths.

LULU: HIDING THE SWORD

• Yael and Lulu did not have any method for immediately fleeing the Outer Planes. In fact, they were essentially lost: Lulu had never been to Avernus before and the Zarielites had been preparing for an invasion of the Abyss, not the Nine Hells. However, part of those preparations had included learning the location of a number of pan-dimensional bolt-holes in the Abyss.
• Their plan, therefore, was to reach the Styx and use the river to travel into the Abyss and – if they got extremely lucky – find a way out. (If the plan failed, then perhaps they could throw the Sword of Zariel into the Styx to keep it out of Hell’s hands.)
• Lulu knew there would be Avernian watchposts along the length of the Styx. Penetrating that defensive line would be difficult. But Yeenoghu’s army must have crossed it somewhere and somehow, so they decided to backtrack his army and hope to duplicate his success.
• The plan worked: They discovered that Yeenoghu’s army had taken out three of the Styxian watchposts, leaving a gaping hole in the defensive line. They managed to cross the Styx and then commandeer an infernal ferry from a charonadaemon.

Note: At this time during the Blood War, the demons of the Abyss had successfully captured the far shore of the Styx. Their war palaces were bastions of war and the heavily fortified banks of the Styx were a muddy mire of endless, bloody war that extended into astral trenches.

• What they didn’t know was that Yeenoghu was tracking the Sword of Zariel. A war party waylaid them. With their ferry sinking, Yael and Lulu were forced back into Avernus.
• Pursued by Yeenoghu and with the forces of Hell closing in as well, Yael and Lulu realized that there was no escape. Yael plunged the Sword of Zariel into a rock and called for divine intervention. Lulu poured her own celestial essence into the call, the sympathetic resonance of her trumpet echoing across the Avernian plains as she drove Yael’s plea across the planes. Even so, the gods could wield little power in Avernus, but Lathander gave them an opportunity. Yael sacrificed herself, pouring her life force into what Lathander offered, raising an alabaster fortress around the Sword to protect it.
• The skein of Avernus itself rebelled at this holy touch, however, and a bloody cyst engulfed the fortress, Yael’s corpse, and Lulu.

ZARIEL IN HELL

Zariel became one of the Dark Eight, a general serving Archduke Bel. She frequently rebelled against Bel’s commands, however, pursuing far more aggressive strategies. Her Blood Legion was preternaturally successful, sacking numerous daemonic war palaces and establishing a beachhead on the far side of the Styx.

THE RECKONING (13^th Century DR): The Reckoning was a tri-partite conspiracy masterminded by Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus. She managed to convince half the Lords of Hell that the other half were planning a rebellion and vice versa. The third conspiracy consisted of Glasya, Zariel, and Malagard the Hag Countess (who was a councilor to Moloch, Lord of the Sixth), who believed they could seize considerable power for themselves as the Lords warred against each other. (Glasya even had aspirations of overthrowing her father and claiming Hell for herself.)

• The trigger point for the Reckoning came when Bel was targeted by a demonic assassin. The attack failed, leaving Bel in a magical coma. Evidence pointed to Dispater, Archduke of Dis, the second level of Hell. (In reality, the “assassination” was actually arranged by Glasya and had exactly the intended effect.)
• Zariel, having forged an alliance with Tiamat, laid siege to Dis. (Tiamat not only gave Zariel safe passage to the second level of Hell, but also threw her own draconic legions into the fray.)
• The full details of the Reckoning are beyond the scope of this project. Zariel spent almost the entire war engaged in the siege of Dis.
• Near the end of the Reckoning, Tiamat betrayed Zariel. The siege of Dis was broken and Zariel ended up being held a prisoner in Tiamat’s dungeons.
• Glasya and Malagard had convinced Moloch, Lord of Malbolge, to pursue a scheme to use the chaos of the Reckoning to dethrone Asmodeus. It failed, but Glasya was able to use this as a framework to frame Moloch as the “mastermind” behind many of her own schemes. Moloch was deposed by Asmodeus and Malagard raised in his place. (Malagard herself was recently killed by Glasya, who has become Archduchess of Malbolge herself.)

Design Note: Placing the Reckoning in the 13^th century and ending it with Zariel as Tiamat’s prisoner allows us to preserve a lot of pre-DIA continuity that DIA’s retcons had wiped out. For example, all of Bel’s pre-DIA continuity remains intact (except that he now supplants Gargauth, not Zariel, to become Lord of Avernus). Zariel still gets to besiege Dis to begin the Reckoning. And the imprisonment of Zariel by Tiamat (as described in Rise of Tiamat) is also slotted into place.

THE RIFT WAR (15^th Century DR): The surface of Avernus is periodically rent with massive rifts. Similar to rift valleys of the Material Plane, they are formed by the surface of Avernus pulling itself apart. But while some proceed with a glacial pace, others can appear with terrifying, convulsive speed.

There are many metaphysical theories about the nature of these rifts: Perhaps Avernus is like a “cap” which Asmodeus placed upon the Nine Hells, but Hell keeps trying to expand, trying to push its way through the planar substrate. Or Avernus itself is constantly expanding like a cancerous tumor, with the rifts either being where that new growth pushes out new planar material and/or where Avernus is trying to break apart, “budding” off new planes. Or they’re manifestations of demi-planes, either attaching themselves like parasites to Avernus or being forcibly scooped up by Hell’s vortex. Some even postulate they could be the spirits of evil living demi-planes that have died and are manifesting, lemure-like, in Hell. Or perhaps they are simply another hellish expression of Avernus’ corrupt landscape.

Whatever the case, in the early 15^th century a rift of unprecedented size rapidly opened on the contested side of the Styx.

And it was seething with baatorians.

Baatorians were the original inhabitants of Hell. They had a unique life cycle: Their larval state (known as nupperibo) were spontaneously generated out of the substance of Hell itself as a sort of tubercular reaction to the arrival of an evil soul. As Hell expanded, this strange property seemed to extend to each new level. Over time, the nupperibo could ascend into higher forms (in a process referred to as “molting”). For untold aeons, they were the factious rulers of Hell.

The ultimate fate of the baatorians has been lost to legends older than mortal civilization: Some claim that the entire species ultimately ascended into forms of pure energy – stories speak of “strange lights” and “malevolent shadows” – leaving Hell uninhabited when Ahriman arrived. Others claim that Ahriman conquered the baatorians and wiped them out in a genocide of colossal proportions.

Whatever the case may be, it seems fairly certain that Ahriman fundamentally reworked the cosmology of Hell, somehow adapting the baatorian ecology to instead generate lemures, the larval state of the baatezu devils. (It’s possible this is somehow connected to the rerouting or creation of the River Styx, a transport mechanism for mortal souls from which many lemure emerge.) Nupperibo are still known to manifest from the firmament of Hell, but they are usually ruthlessly hunted down and destroyed by the devils before they can molt into the more advanced forms of their species.

Now, however, an entire army of baatorians boiled out of the rift – some strange redoubt or primeval throwback of the ancient race – and invaded Avernus.

• Bel blew it. He had left most of the war palaces Zariel had conquered vacant and the baatorians were able to seize them for their own use. The defensive lines of the blood legions, having been thoroughly disrupted, collapsed and were routed. Watchtowers along the Styx were overrun and destroyed. For the first time in centuries, the Avernian frontiers were in utter disarray. Although no alliance was formed between the baatorians and demons, armies of both races freely crossed the Styx.
• With the “Avernian situation” rapidly deteriorating, Glasya saw an opportunity. She journeyed to Tiamat’s citadel and arranged for Zariel’s release. (There are several stories of how she accomplished this: A secret deal with Tiamat. Delivery of an edict from Asmodeus himself. A daring jailbreak heist.)
• Zariel’s Second Avernian March: For a second time, Zariel began a march across Avernus. This time, rather than fleeing, Zariel was gathering the scattered, routed units of the blood legions. As Bel retreated, Zariel attacked. She forded the Styx, re-sacked the war palaces she had first claimed two centuries earlier, and broke the baatorian supply lines. Then she turned around, marched back to the Styx, and intercepted the baatorians’ main army as it was attempting to cross the river. In the bloody, muddy Battle of Lost Memories, the baatorians’ strength was broken.
• The Rift Siege: After the Battle of Lost Memories, Zariel was able to link up with Dagos and Furcas, two of the Dark Eight whose armies had been cut off, and re-established the defensive watchposts along the Styx. While Dagos and Furcas held the river, effectively dividing the remaining baatorian forces in half, Zariel led her army to lay siege to the Rift. Once the Rift fell, the war was essentially over.
• The Archduchess: Asmodeus punished Bel for his failure by demoting him back to the ranks of the Dark Eight. In Bel’s place, he elevated Zariel as the new Archduchess of Hell.

Note: This history covers the broad strokes of Zariel’s life after her fall. For additional events directly relevant to Descent Into Avernus, refer to the “Lore of Gargauth” in Part 3B and “The History of Elturel’s Fall” in Part 4B.

LULU LEAVES HELL

• Although Lulu had been caught inside the bloody cyst, over the intervening centuries she had been slowly getting pushed out – like a sliver from your foot. She awoke – dazed and confused – upon the scabrous surface of the cyst and wandered away. (This was most likely during the time that Zariel was imprisoned in Tiamat’s dungeons.)
• During her wanderings, she visited Fort Knucklebones. [You could potentially insert other memories of Avernian landmarks here.]
• Lulu encountered the Wandering Emporium. There she was tricked by a rakshasa named Mahadi, who splashed her with water from the river Styx. Keeping her thus in a constant stupor, he kept her imprisoned. (A hollyphant’s tusks can be ground into a magical powder that transforms water or wine into an elixir of health. Mahadi kept her essentially drugged and senseless so that he could repeatedly grind down her tusks.)
• When Zariel became the new Archduchess of Avernus, Mahadi brought Lulu to her court and presented her as a gift. Zariel was disappointed to discover that Lulu was suffering from Styxian memory loss, for she wanted to recover her Sword, but had fond memories of her old friend. She gave orders that Lulu should be returned to Mount Celestia and dispatched a small party of devils to see it done.
• While crossing Avernus to an appropriate gate, Lulu’s devil escorts were ambushed by the warlord L’zeth (DIA, p. 90). Lulu, still in a Styxian befuddlement, wandered away from the scene of the ambush.
• Some time later, the effects of the water of the Styx finally wore off. (This is the beginning of Lulu’s memories.) She came to the River Styx shortly thereafter and followed it out of Avernus, journeying through the Outer Planes and having many adventures along the way.
• She eventually ended up in the Nexus (see Book of Eldritch Might III) and passed through a portal which took her to the city of Neverwinter in 1488 DR. From there she made her way south, returning to the area around Elturel. There she either becomes a PC (as described in Part 2) or met Sylvira (as described in Part 4C).

Go to Part 6D-D: The Legend of the Hellriders

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ZARIEL’S CRUSADE

• Zariel’s experiences at Idyllglen refocused her. Although she had served in Heaven’s armies, the conflict had always been somewhat abstract to her; or, at least, an affair of the Outer Planes where the conflict had long been relegated in most realms to a Cold War where the borders between realms had been long-settled. Now she had seen firsthand how the evils of the Abyss seeped out into the wider planes, inflicting untold horrors upon the multiverse.
• Zariel began advocating for a more belligerent military policy. Some called her a warmonger, but Zariel disagreed: The war already existed, whether the angelic legions chose to fight in it or not.
• Others said that it should be left to the Blood War: Let Evil annihilate itself. There was no need for Heaven to spend itself in the conflict. But this, Zariel argued, made Heaven complicit in the system that corrupted mortal souls to fight in that war; and turned a blind eye to the demonic miseries suffered by untold millions. The stalemate of the Blood War did not keep Evil in check; it perpetuated it. And it was Heaven’s duty to end it.

THE SECOND VISIT TO IDYLLGLEN

• Following Zariel’s intercession against Yeenoghu, Idyllglen had erected a shrine honoring the angel who had saved their village. In the early 10^th century DR, Idyllglen’s existence was once again threatened, this time by a marauding band of ogres led by a warlord named Irontusk.
• Zariel answered the prayers of the villagers, journeying to the Material Plane with Lulu to aid them.
• When they arrived, they met a young woman named Yael who had managed to organize the younger villagers into a defensive militia of sorts. Yael gladly yielded command of the militia to Zariel, who taught them much of the arts of war and forged them into a band of steadfast companions. The three of them – Zariel, Lulu, and Yael – became fast friends. With each new challenge they faced, Yael would smile and say, “We just need to dream a little bigger.” Soon Zariel and Lulu were saying it, too.
• In a campaign that lasted for several months – during which the ranks of the militia swelled as it attracted recruits from other nearby settlements south of the Winding Water – Zariel defeated Irontusk’s warbands. Yael herself killed Irontusk in the climactic battle, and the remnants of the warband fled back across the Sunset Mountains and into the Goblin Marches to the east.

DAWN OF THE HELLRIDERS

• Zariel returned to Mount Celestia, but the lust of battle still smoldered in her blood. Having tasted the fleeting, fast-paced passion of the mortals, she became even more frustrated with the glacial pace of change in the celestial realms. Her thoughts turned again and again to Yael and her other comrades in arms. Dream a little bigger.
• One night on the silver, starlit beaches of Mercuria, Zariel and Lulu hatched their plan: They would return to the Material Plane and raise a mortal army. The army would invade the Abyss, creating a second front in the Blood War. Zariel believed that, if she could establish a flanking beachhead, other disaffected angelic warriors from Mount Celestia would rally to their cause. They didn’t have to win. They just had to upset the balance of the Blood War so that it would no longer be a stalemate.
• Yael’s Zarielites: When they returned to the Material Plane, Zariel and Lulu discovered that Yael had turned their militia into a regional peacekeeping force. (The ogres had not returned, but there’d been a spot of trouble with trolls out of the Trollclaws. Mostly they secured travel between the Winding Water settlements.) Known as the Zarielites, they wore a badge with twin suns, representing Zariel and Lulu as their angelic saviors.

Note: This informal heraldry would be forgotten by the later Hellriders, but not by Zariel, who took a grim satisfaction in the irony of having her followers revive it as the heraldry of the Order of the Companion centuries later.

• Yael’s response when she heard Zariel’s plan? Let’s dream a little bigger.
• Olanthius, Lord of Elturel: Word of Zariel’s return spread and recruitment swelled. Yael became an ambassador of sorts, spreading the good word of Zariel’s Crusade. Lulu often accompanied her on these journeys, including arguably the most important of them all, when Yael went south to Elturel. Olanthius was impressed with Yael’s courage and righteousness, and pledged his service to the Crusade. (Olanthius and Yael would later fall in love.)
• The Elturian Crusade: With Olanthius joining the cause, Zariel moved the headquarters of the Crusade south to Elturel.
• Haruman, Lord Knight of the Far Hills: Another major recruit to the Crusade was the Lord Knight of the Far Hills. Haruman had once been known as the Boy Warlord, rising from obscurity as a slave in the Goblin Marches to conquer Farkeep (the citadel which would later become known as Darkhold) at the age of thirteen. Hearing of Zariel’s holy cause, he rode down to Elturel from the Sunset Mountains and pledged all of his knights to her service.
• The Three Generals: Yael, Olanthius, and Haruman became known as the Three Generals, swearing fealty to the holy cause of the Crusade — to crush the evil of the Abyss under the guidance of Zariel.

Note: Jander Sunstar was a knight-banneret in Haruman’s service. He was the one who first learned of the Crusade and converted Haruman to the cause. If you’re looking to place these events in Jander’s personal timeline – as related in Christie Golden’s Vampire of the Mists and various short stories – they occur between the time that Jander leaves the Dalelands and arrives in Waterdeep.

THE CHARGE OF THE HELLRIDERS

While preparations continued to be made for their invasion of the Abyss, the crusaders were not quiescent. They secured the lands around Elturel and undertook a number of goodwill actions. They also went on a number of quests to secure the supplies necessary for waging war against demonic hordes.

YEENOGHU’S GAMBIT

• Yeenoghu learned that Zariel was raising a huge mortal army and planned to invade the Abyss with it.
• In response, Yeenoghu returned to the Material Plane at the head of a small demonic force. Once again recruiting an army of gnolls, he began razing the Winding Water settlements. Zariel responded, as Yeenoghu had known she would, by leading the Three Armies north.

THE THIRD VISIT TO IDYLLGLEN

• The two forces met at Idyllglen. It seemed fated to the crusaders, but was actually according to Yeenoghu’s design: He wanted to manipulate the emotional connection Yael and Zariel had to the village.
• During the battle, Yeenoghu detached a portion of his force and personally led a raid towards the village. General Yael responded almost immediately, moving her army out of position in pursuit.
• While Zariel, Olanthius, and Haruman sought to rearrange their own lines of battle to account for the chaos that ensued, Yeenoghu’s force abruptly shifted direction. Casting off the illusions that had made them appear to be ordinary gnolls, the demons sliced their way through Yael’s command.
• Neither Yael nor her knights were to be underestimated, however. This was, after all, the fight they had been preparing for. She stymied Yeenoghu’s counterattack.
• Meanwhile, the bulk of the gnoll army – having lost their demonic commanders when Yeenoghu peeled them off – were routed by Zariel, Olanthius, and Haruman.
• As the rest of the crusader army rounded on his flank, Yeenoghu abruptly abandoned pretense and led an assault directly on General Yael’s position. Slicing through her troops and cutting down her banner, Yeenoghu seized Yael, opened a portal, and leapt through it.

THE AVERNIAN AMBUSH

• Zariel, leading her own charge atop Lulu, was only a couple dozen feet away as Yeenoghu vanished. “The demon lord flees before our wrath!” she cried. “And he has taken one of our own! To rescue and to salvation! Charge!”
• The Three Armies plunged through the portal. But rather than emerging in the Abyss as they had expected, the portal led to the fire-blasted plains of Avernus. Worse yet, Yeenoghu had a small demonic army — which had crossed the Styx and penetrated deep into Hell itself — waiting on the other side.
• Zariel arrayed her crusaders for battle, but her rear echelons were still passing through the portal when Yeenoghu’s army moved rapidly to engage.

THE BATTLE OF AVERNUS

• There were a number of glorious deeds that day, among them Yael freeing herself from captivity and fighting her way to Olanthius’ side. Yeenoghu’s army had made retreat impossible, but the crusaders had withstood the initial assault and now the second and third armies had passed through the portal and were marshalling their strength. They vastly outnumbered Yeenoghu’s force, and there was a real chance that the demon lord would be destroyed, dealing the crusade’s first blow against the Abyss.
• That’s when an army of devils, under the command of Terza’reg of the Dark Eight and lured to the area by Yeenoghu’s army, marched over the horizon.
• Jander Sunstar panicked. (“We can’t fight both Hell and the Abyss!”) Under his leadership, a large chunk of the army routed back through the portal… which then slammed shut. (The crusaders who remained in Avernus believed the deserters had sealed it behind them. It’s possible Yeenoghu seized the moment to shut down the portal he had opened. Or perhaps arcanists in the advancing devil army were responsible for closing it.)

Note: Jander’s fate is somewhat beyond the scope of this reference, but worth establishing. He was the highest ranking officer among the crusaders who fled Avernus. The deserters became known as the Hellriders, their acts of infamy instead being told as deeds of glory, and Jander became the first High Rider of Elturel. He changed the Riders’ heraldry from the twin stars of the Zarielite Crusade to a horse rampant in flames. Eventually, sickened by his betrayal of both Zariel and Haruman, he left Elturel and headed to Waterdeep.

BATTLE’S END

• The three-way battle that ensued was pure chaos. The best we can do here is to highlight a few moments.
• Olanthius and Haruman were able to pincer the remnants of Yeenoghu’s army and finish them off, while Zariel and Yael wheeled her command about to meet Terza’reg’s army.
• Yeenoghu escaped triumphant, having tricked Zariel into spending her glorious army fighting devils instead of demons and turning what could have been a disaster for the Abyss into a huge advantage instead.
• Zariel led the flying cavalry squadron (featuring primarily pegasi) into the air to meet the flying devils that swarmed over the battlefield.
• Zariel and Lulu engaged in an aerial duel with Terza’reg, which ended when Terza’reg cut off Zariel’s right hand (still clutching her sword). Zariel leapt off of Lulu and dove after sword and hand, with Terza’reg in hot pursuit. At the last possible moment, Zariel snatched her sword from the air, reversed her flight, and plunged it through Terza’reg’s breast. A huge explosion rocked the battlefield as the devil general died, clouding the affair in a haze of red dust.
• Despite her dreadful injury and the ensuing chaos, after Terza’reg’s death it was possible that Zariel and her generals might have been able to rally. But then a second army under the command of Baalzephon arrived.
• To their credit, the remaining crusaders fought to the last warrior. (Although some, including Olanthius and Haruman, were captured after being struck down in battle.)
• Yael had joined Zariel and Lulu. As Baalzephon tightened the noose around their necks, the three old friends fought side by side. As the devils closed in, Zariel knew what would come and feared her own weakness. She took a shard of her angelic essence – a spark of goodness – and placed it within her sword. She asked Yael to take the sword and make certain it was not captured by the forces of Hell. Yael refused. Zariel smiled sadly. “Look beyond this forsaken day. One last time, I need you to dream a little bigger.”
• With tears in her eyes, Yael accepted.
• Zariel then turned to Lulu, said goodbye to her old friend, and asked her to go with Yael and keep her safe.
• The devils’ aerial forces had been decimated, and so Yael – having concealed the sword within her cloak – was able to escape through their depleted ranks upon Lulu’s back.

Go to Part 6D-C: Lulu’s Memories (Zariel in Hell)

Go to Table of Contents

We’ve previously discussed:

• The continuity errors in Lulu’s backstory.
• The continuity errors in Zariel’s backstory (including seeking vengeance against a Demon Lord of the Abyss by attacking the Nine Hells).
• The failure to pay off the rediscovery of Lulu’s memories after positioning them as THE central mystery of the second half of the campaign.
• That many of the tools given to the DM for managing Lulu’s memories are conceptually great (like a list of memory triggers and a definitive reference for her backstory), but unfortunately flawed and incomplete (i.e., giving a “definitive” reference that has both continuity errors and glaring omissions).

I’ve also briefly talked about my dissatisfaction with placing the Charge of the Hellriders in 1354 DR despite the fact that it was already legendary and of uncertain truth in 1358 DR. (This is definitely a non-essential fix. But, yes, I’ll be fixing it.)

In this installment of the Remix, we’re also going to be looking at Lulu’s dream quest and the other “memory dives” in the campaign.

One of the potential problems with Descent Into Avernus is that the PCs lack any sort of personal relationship with Zariel. She is, at best, a distant antagonist. Despite this, at the end of the campaign, the PCs are assumed to come face-to-face with her for the first time and immediately help her redeem her soul. This makes it really difficult to get the players emotionally invested in Zariel’s ultimate fate.

This is what makes the idea of Lulu’s dream quest so awesome! The PCs can actually experience the Charge of the Hellriders, the fall of Zariel, and all this other cool history the campaign is built around. They may not actually meet Zariel, but they’ll nonetheless get a chance to know her and, therefore, care about her.

… except the dream quest doesn’t actually do that. The dive into Lulu’s “memories” are structured around five “dreams”:

• Dream 1: Explicitly something that didn’t actually happen.
• Dream 2: Didn’t happen and isn’t a memory.
• Dream 3: Actually just part of Dream 2.
• Dream 4: Not a memory.
• Dream 5: Lulu looks through a telescope and sees where the Sword is (except she doesn’t, actually).

This is a huge missed opportunity!

Dream sequences often all flat because they aren’t real and don’t mean anything. But they can be really amazing if they ARE meaningful and have real stakes. Which is absolutely the case with Lulu’s dream quest: Her memories are the central mystery of the campaign, right? And at stake is the location of the Sword of Zariel, which is the key to saving an entire city. Insofar as the players give a crap about this campaign, they will give a crap about what is revealed here.

Which is why it’s so frustrating that literally nothing is revealed.

So we’ll also be looking at how to structure these memory dives to provide a compelling “memory mystery” that delivers meaning and memorable pay-offs (pun intended). In fact, we’ll be adding a couple new memory dives to further enhance this portion of the campaign.

DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF ZARIEL & LULU

This is designed to be a broad, authoritative overview of the back story for Zariel and Lulu. You can assume that any place this reference contradicts the book-as-published that the change is deliberate.

THE AVERNIAD

• Aeons ago, when the cosmos was still young and the Great Wheel had not been fully turned from the primordial planar chaos, Zariel fought in the Legions of Heaven. She served under the command of Ashmedai, a Celestial Marshal who rode a golden, winged lion.
• Ashmedai and his legions were sent to Avernus. At this time, Avernus was a paradisical plane. Elysium and the Seven Heavens both desired to add it to their realms, and so their armies clashed upon its emerald plains.
• The full tale of the Averniad is beyond the scope of our discussion today. (There are some who claim the full complexities of the celestial epic cannot be told in the course of a single mortal lifetime.) The important bit comes at the end: In the Great Betrayal, Ashmedai wrenched Avernus from the grasp of both Mt. Celestia and Elysium, instead claiming it for himself and aligning it with the Eight Hells. Thus Avernus became the Ninth Hell.
• Ashmedai’s legions schismed between those who remained loyal to him and those who remained loyal to Mount Celestia. Ashmedai himself became Asmodeus, and his legion of fallen angels, using Avernus as a staging base, conquered Hell, wresting its crown from the brow of the dark lord Ahriman.
• Zariel’s Long March: During the Fall of Avernus, Zariel’s commander – an angel named Chazaqiel – followed Asmodeus. Zariel and a small band of angels loyal to Heaven broke away and began a long march across Avernus before finally escaping down the River Styx (which in those days followed a very different course).

MEETING LULU: Her experiences during the Fall of Avernus had tainted Zariel’s mind with bitterness and anger. While recuperating within the starry groves of Lunia, Zariel met and befriended Lulu, a hollyphant who called the silvered forests of that plane home. When Zariel’s soul found peace and returned to Heaven’s legions, Lulu accompanied her as both friend and warmount.

THE TRIAL OF ASMODEUS

• Long after the events related in the Averniad, a heavenly strike force penetrated Hell and captured Asmodeus, bringing him back to Mount Celestia to answer for his crimes. (There are some who believe that Asmodeus allowed himself to be captured, knowing what would happen next.)
• Asmodeus claimed rights under the Pact Primeval. Also known as the First Law and quite possibly the first legal code to ever exist, it had been a founding agreement among the first Planes of Law that had emerged out of primordial chaos (and later became the Seven Heavens and Mechanus). Other pacts, such as those between Celestia, Elysium, and Olympus, had been based upon the authority of the Pact Primeval. By the time Asmodeus made his appeal, the Pact had been supplanted by other codes, but most of those codes ultimately still derived their legal standing from the Pact itself. Therefore, Asmodeus’ appeal to the Pact could not be ignored.
• Thus began the Trial of Asmodeus. Primus of the modrons was appointed as a neutral arbiter and judge.
• The alleged crimes of Asmodeus, spanning aeons, were limitless. Even the testimony to their effect was seemingly without end, as an angelic horde bore witness, one after another. At last Primus, having grown weary of the proceedings, called a halt to the testimony: The scope of Asmodeus’ illimitable acts had been well-established and their sheer quantity was irrelevant.
• Zariel, who had not yet had the opportunity to testify to the atrocities she had personally witnessed, was outraged. She violently demanded that she be allowed to speak, and when Primus ordered her to be silenced, the altercation sprawled into a brawl which completely disrupted the proceedings. (Was this the moment that Zariel first came to Asmodeus’ attention? Or had he had his eye upon her from the beginning?)
• Asmodeus’ defense was simple: Although his former comrades interpreted his actions as a betrayal, they had not actually violated the principle of the Law. Indeed, they had upheld the Law by preventing an alliance between Hell and the Abyss which might have swept away all other planar powers. The Blood War fought by his devils now safeguarded Law from the Chaos of the Abyss.
• In the end, Asmodeus prevailed. His acts may have been Evil, but Primus ruled that they were ultimately in accord with the Law, and were thus in accord with the Pact Primeval. The law which had once been the bedrock of Heaven now became Asmodeus’ holy right to test the merit of mortal souls (i.e., tempt them to evil) and claim those souls which were Hell’s due. (However, as part of Primus’ ruling, Asmodeus was also bound to always carry the Ruby Rod of Asmodeus, an artifact that both signified Asmodeus’ divine rights, but also bound him – and, through him, the other devils of Hell – to uphold the bargains they made with mortals.)

THE PURSUIT OF YEENOGHU

An almost incalculable amount of time then passed, during which Zariel and Lulu were living an eternal, angelic existence. Zariel remained of a martial temperament, waging war upon the forces of evil.

THE FIRST VISIT TO IDYLLGLEN

• Several centuries ago (we could perhaps say the 8^th or 9^th century in Dale Reckoning, during the internecine conflicts which resulted in the Fields of the Dead becoming the Fields of the Dead), Zariel became aware that the demonic lord Yeenoghu had invaded the Material Plane and was personally leading a gnoll army that was sacking settlements north of the River Chionthar.
• Zariel and a band of angels journeyed to the Material Plane to put an end to Yeenoghu’s depredations. They caught up with the demon lord in the village of Idyllglen.

THE DAUGHTER OF ASMODEUS

• Zariel’s task force weren’t the only ones hunting Yeenoghu, however. A strike team from Avernus lead by Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, had also been tracking Yeenoghu. They arrived during the battle and helped rout the demon lord.
• Yeenoghu escaped, but his army was decimated and scattered to the winds. After the battle, there was tension between the celestial and infernal hosts, but Zariel and Glasya spoke for a short while and – having briefly been strange allies in the Blood War against the Abyss – agreed to go their separate ways.

Go to Part 6D-B: Lulu’s Memories (Zariel’s Crusade)

Go to Part 1

Now that we’ve looked at what vaguely passes for continuity in Descent Into Avernus, let’s look at what preceded it.

The first thing to note is that Zariel was not previously involved in the famous Charge of the Hellriders. Variants in that continuity are covered in more depth as part of the Textual History of Elturel, but the short version is that:

• The Charge was originally an almost legendary event in 1358 DR (which makes it unlikely that it happened in 1354 DR).
• The original explanation for the Charge was that the knights were riding to rescue a companion.
• This was later changed to “long ago warriors of Elturel literally rode through a gate into the Nine Hells to pursue and destroy devils that had been plaguing the people.”

You can see how, in Descent Into Avernus, this was changed again to something between “holy crusade that was the whole reason they had signed up in the first place” and “pursuing and destroying DEMONS that had been plaguing their people.”

TIAMAT, THE LORD OF AVERNUS (1977)

Way back in 1977, the original Monster Manual said that “Tiamat rules the first plane of the Nine Hells where she spawns all evil dragonkind.”

In the Manual of the Planes (1987), we are told that, “The watchdog of the Hells’ front parlor is Tiamat.”

In Monster Mythology (1992), Tiamat “infests the uppermost of the Nine Hells with her consorts, each a Great Wyrm of a different color — one red, one white, one green, one blue, and one black.” (These consorts are an evolution of Tiamat’s “guard” in Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), when she was merely the Dragon Queen and her “major abode is in a stupendous cavern far beneath the earth.”)

We’re also told in Monster Mythology that Tiamat’s “relations with the baatezu [devils] that populate the Hells and stray into her realm at times is the subject of considerable speculation by sages.” (Which is basically the author, the esteemed Carl Sargent, saying, “I’m really trying to figure out why the evil Dragon Queen is in charge of Avernus.”) These “sages” have traditionally said that she’s been at war with the devils, but now it seems that the devils may be seeking to make some sort of pact with her to aid them in the Blood War.

PLANESCAPE: PLANES OF LAW (1995)

In Planescape: Planes of Law we are told that there are giant fireballs that just randomly appear around Avernus for no apparent reason. “Some sages say the fireballs represent the will of the nameless archduke of the level.” (emphasis added)

“Speaking of the archduke: Bel, the pit-fiend commander of the armies of this layer, leads immense legions across the plane, scouring every inch of it for invaders and searching for honors from the archduke.” Bel has “been appointed by the Dark Eight” and is the senior general of Avernus (with other generals “bowing to Bel’s experience and political muscle.”)

This is the first reference to an Archduke of Avernus. But if they’re nameless, what happened to Tiamat?

“Tiamat, the Lady of Dragonkind, guards the only known entrance to the next layer. It’s only through her lair that one can arrive in the verdigrised plains near the Iron City of Dis.”

Note: I’m pretty confident that “watchdog of the Hells’ front parlor” in the Manual of the Planes was just a poetic rephrasing of “Tiamat rules the first plane of the Nine Hells” from the original Monster Manual. Here, however, the meaning has glided towards guarding a literal “front parlor;” i.e., the path to Dis.

DRAGON #223 – THE LORDS OF THE NINE (1995)

Planes of Law came out in February 1995. As noted, it included Bel as a general and left all but three of the Lords of the Nine mysterious and unknown. This, it should be noted, was a diegetic mystery — it’s not just that TSR wasn’t telling you; it was that their identities were a mystery to the characters in the game world itself.

But in the November 1995 issue of Dragon Magazine (#223, which would have been released in August 1995), Colin McComb writes “The Lords of the Nine”: “The Lords of the Nine Layers of Baator have been revealed at last! Do you dare to read about them?”

And, indeed, McComb provides identities for all nine archdukes. And this is done diegetically. A character named Willgan the Dogged has discovered their identities and is ready to tell all!

Note: I belabor this mostly because I’m fascinated by the decision process to drop this entire aspect of the Planescape setting almost immediately after publishing the boxed set.

Regarding Bel, we are told, that “the original Lord of Avernus (not Tiamat, contrary to popular belief) found herself imprisoned and entrapped by her warlord, the pit fiend Bel, thousands of years ago.” Bel is siphoning more of the Lord’s power for himself, but is still beholden to the Dark Eight.

GUIDE TO HELL (1999)

Chris Pramas’ Guide to Hell is Zariel’s first named appearance. She is described as the “original Lord of Avernus.”

Pramas also described the Reckoning: A great war in Hell which started when Zariel laid siege to Dis. Her allies – Moloch and Belial – simultaneously launched an assault on Stygia. Mephistopheles eventually broke the siege on Dis, forcing Zariel back to Avernus. The final battle was to be fought in Maladomini (the seventh layer of Hell), but Asmodeus pulled a coup: Geryon, Lord of Stygia, had suborned the generals of the other Lords’ armies. On the day of the ultimate battle, the generals mutinied, declared their loyalty to Asmodeus, and ended the war. Bizarrely, only Geryon – the only Lord to remain loyal to Asmodeus – was subsequently ousted from his position of power.

The generals, however, were empowered as the newly created Dark Eight. This council runs the Blood War from Nessus, the lowest level of Hell.

The pit fiend Bel, after running successful covert ops missions during the Blood War under the command of the Dark Eight, became Zariel’s right-hand man in Avernus. He then betrayed and imprisoned her, rendering her powerless.

Note: Describing Zariel as the “original Lord of Avernus” might seem in direct contradiction to Tiamat having held that position before. This is most likely intended as a straight-up retcon, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so: My head canon is that Zariel, the original Lord of Avernus, has been intermittently deposed from time to time over the course of long eons, including stints by both Tiamat and Bel.

MANUAL OF THE PLANES (3rd EDITION, 2001)

The references to Avernus in the Manual of the Planes are largely a very short summary of the material from Guide to Hell, but there’s one addition to the mythology: “Bel still keeps Zariel prisoner somewhere deep in the Bronze Citadel so that he can siphon her hellish power to himself, increasing his own abilities while slowly reducing her to just another soul shell.”

This is repeated in the Book of Vile Darkness (2002), where Zariel is kept in the Bronze Citadel where Bel “draws off her power to extend his own.”

FIENDISH CODEX II (2006)

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells largely reiterates the continuity from Guide to Hell (in a more complete form than that necessarily found in the Manual of the Planes).

The Dark Eight, however, are now based out of Avernus where they “eschew the title of duke, preferring the rank of general.”

Zariel remains “imprisoned in the bowels of the Bronze Citadel,” where she “languishes under the cruel knives of the abishai torturers that carve bits off of her flesh to feed to their master.”

Note: The context here is somewhat confusing and could be interpreted as meaning that Zariel’s flesh is being fed to Tiamat, who is traditionally the master of the abishai. A closer reading, however, makes it clear that the “master” here is referring to Bel, and the abishai are those who are serving him due to a pact he has forged with Tiamat. (Remember Sargent’s sages who rumored that a pact was being negotiated with Tiamat?) This continuity is consistent with Bel “drawing off her power,” with the method now being defined as some sort of devilish cannibalism.

MANUAL OF THE PLANES (4th EDITION, 2008)

The 4^th Edition of D&D really features a completely different planar cosmology, but there is some continuity here that makes it potentially worthwhile to take a peek.

Zariel is not referenced, but “a circle of pit fiends known as the Dark Eight serve as Bel’s vassals and councilors. Bel governs only at their pleasure, and he must constantly consider whether his actions will meet with the approval of the Dark Eight.”

Note: They are both his vassals AND he serves only at their pleasure? Go home, 4^th Edition, you’re drunk.

What we’re seeing rather bluntly manifest in this text, however, is an uncertainty and confusion which has crept into who and what the Dark Eight are: They were originally established as being based out of Nessus (i.e., Asmodeus’ court) and could be seen as a parallel power to the Lords of the Nine: In other words, there were eight archdukes who ruled the layers of Hell (plus Asmodeus, the ninth) and there were the Dark Eight who served as military generals.

But somewhere along the way they had slid from Nessus to Avernus and ended up in the power structure of the Archduke of Avernus.

Having the Dark Eight be the generals of Avernus became my head canon more or less by accident, as I had not fully delved into their history yet when I started thinking about them in relation to the history of Gargauth and Bel.

DUNGEON #197 – CODEX OF BETRAYAL: GLASYA, PRINCESS OF THE NINE HELLS (2011)

This article by Robert J. Schwalb seems to be the only reference to Zariel in 4^th Edition. She remains the original Lord of Avernus and she “ruled thus for many eons.”

We are also given a new continuity for the end of Zariel’s rule, revolving around an alternative version of the Reckoning.

This Reckoning was an incredibly convoluted soap opera involving Asmodeus’ daughter Glasya. Long story short, she single-handedly convinced all the Lords to go to war with each other. In this version of reality, the Dark Eight already existed but were also the pit fiend generals in command of the Archdukes’ armies. At Asmodeus’ command, the Dark Eight betrayed their masters and ended the conflict.

Note: The Reckoning reputedly lasted for an “eon,” but this doesn’t really track with the very specific series of events described in the text.

The Dark Eight then took all the legions of Baator to Avernus. Once there, they hunted Zariel down and imprisoned her. Bel was then raised up as “a puppet ruler over her realm.”

Why this happened is really unclear, because Zariel had actually been part of the faction loyal to Asmodeus. The article even says, “Strangely, though, Asmodeus’ allies suffered the worst,” but doesn’t have even the slightest hint of an explanation.

RISE OF TIAMAT (2014)

“Asmodeus recently reinstated the fallen angel Zariel as the Archduchess of Avernus, reversing an earlier decision that allowed a pit fiend named Bel to take the throne.”

Note: I’m fairly certain that this is the first reference to Zariel being a fallen angel.

“While in exile from her seat of power, Zariel was at the mercy of Tiamat — a fate that rankles her still.”

Note: Remember when I mentioned that the reference in Fiendish Codex II to Zariel being tortured by abishai on behalf of their master could erroneously lead one to believe that she was being fed to Tiamat? I’m fairly certain that’s exactly what happened here.

MORDENKAINEN’S TOME OF FOES (2018)

I’d be curious to know if Descent Into Avernus was already in development at the time this book was published. (And, if so, how much influence it had on the text.) In any case, this is the book that retcons the entire history of Zariel being the original Lord of Avernus.

Long, long ago, during the Trial of Asmodeus, Zariel got into a brawl with her fellow angels, demanding to give testimony to Asmodeus’ crimes.

We are also told that Zariel is Asmodeus’ “most recent recruit.” Zariel grew obsessed with the Blood War and believed that the hosts of Mount Celestia could descend upon Avernus and wipe out both the devils and the demons of the Blood War.

“Accompanied by a mob of mortal followers, she cut a swath through a legion of devils before their numbers overwhelmed her. A delegation of bone devils dispatched to the site by Asmodeus recovered her unconscious form beneath a small mountain of her slaughtered enemies. After allowing her to recover in the depths of Nessus, Asmodeus installed her on Avernus as his champion and new lord of that layer.”

Note: This probably explains where the random dream image of Zariel being unconscious on the battlefield – which is not consistent with any other continuity from Descent Into Avernus – came from.

This transition from Bel to Zariel is described as marking a new chapter in the Blood War, with Zariel preferring aggressive offensive tactics instead of simply sustaining a passive defense of the Avernian frontiers. Her obsession with fighting on the frontlines, however, has distracted her from the courts of Hell and made her a political pariah without alliances with the other Lords of the Nine.

Note: Oddly, this just takes the previous description of Bel from Guide to Hell – freshly aggressive, politically isolated (he was often referred to in Hell as Bel the Pretender) – and applies it to Zariel instead.

Go to the Avernus Remix