Baator

The Sovereigns created the planes, and the names of many of them are known to every student of the arcane. Yet there is more to reality than the wellknown planes. Other islands are in the Sea of Siberys, and Baator is one of them. Angels fear to tread within this prison for rebellious immortals.

The angels of the Astral Sea say that at one time the gods of the Sovereign Host walked among them and perfected the work of the Progenitors. In Daanvi, minions of Aureon tend the Infinite Archive, while the angels of Boldrei keep the First Hearth burning. They are cogs in the vast machine of creation. Most of these divine servants are dedicated to their Sovereigns and their sacred duties. Yet there are always exceptions. Pride, passion, hunger for power, or simple doubt in the divine order—any of these things can cause an angel to fall. Angels are truly immortal and eventually re-form after physical death, so there needed to be a way to contain malevolent spirits.

According to records in the Infinite Archives, in the days before their final ascension, the Sovereigns worked together to build a prison from the raw stuff of the Sea of Siberys. Aureon wove binding spells to prevent any escape, while Onatar and Dol Dorn built mighty automatons that could crush any uprising. Each Sovereign created a personal domain within the prison as a place of punishment for those who rose up against them—nine hells for rebellious spirits. For a hundred thousand years, angels have been cast into Baator. The immortals of the outer planes are more ideas given form than they are creatures of flesh and blood, and as that fundamental idea changes, they physically change to reflect it. And so these former angels became devils as the seeds of pride and hate flourished over eons of torment

Asmodeus was the first pillar of Daanvi, created by Siberys in the dawn of time. He was a mighty force for order, and he claims to have taught Aureon the ways of both magic and politics. He laid the cornerstone of the Infinite Archive, and his treatises on leadership are some of the finest in existence. For eons he governed Daanvi in Aureon’s name. As human civilization thrived and worship of the Sovereign Host spread across Eberron, Asmodeus grew jealous of the distant deities. Siberys had fallen. The Sovereigns had ascended to an unknown place, if they still existed at all. And who offered prayers to Asmodeus? Where were his temples?

He gathered a host of followers, and as the Sundering shattered the established order in Sarlona, Asmodeus fought a war in the Astral Sea. Had it remained a battle of angel against angel, he might have changed the divine order. But those faithful to the Sovereigns brought in additional champions. The Chamber of Argonnessen had foreseen these troubles in the Draconic Prophecy, and the combined might of the angels and the dragons broke the rebel army and cast the traitors into Baator. Asmodeus was flung into the Ninth Circle, the prison built by Aureon.

Aureon’s wards trapped Asmodeus in Baator, but they couldn’t strip the archfiend of his cunning or his charisma. Asmodeus swiftly worked his way into the cabals and intrigues afoot in the hells. He retained the support of many devils that were banished with him in the Daanvi uprising, and he turned the greatest powers of the other layers against one another. Though he couldn’t escape Baator or destroy Onatar’s guardians, Asmodeus soon became the most influential devil in Baator. His power grew when he found a crack in Aureon’s walls. Many mortals on Eberron sought arcane power, and Asmodeus whispered to these mortals and formed the first infernal pacts. Other fiends quickly followed in his footsteps, and pacts became the most valuable currency in the divine prison. Every archfiend has its followers, but none have as many as Asmodeus.

The devastation of the Mourning had repercussions across the planes. Perhaps the grievous wound to Eberron was felt across her creations. Whatever the truth, on the Day of Mourning the power sustaining Baator faltered, and Asmodeus made his move. Pit fiends led squads of lesser devils to shatter the weakened guardians, while Asmodeus and the mightiest of the fiends pounded at Aureon’s wards. By the time the fluctuation passed, the guardians were destroyed and Baator was in the hands of the devils. They couldn’t entirely break the wards surrounding Baator, and as a result the devils cannot leave en masse. But with the assistance of an archfiend or a mortal’s summoning ritual, it is possible for a devil to reach Eberron.

Asmodeus is consolidating his strength, and he has neither the power nor the desire to challenge the Chamber, the Lords of Dust, or any of the other ancient forces afoot in Eberron. Rather than investing heavily in one grand scheme that could draw the eye of powerful foes, he is making pacts across the world. Here, fear is his ally. In western Breland, he promises witches the power to defend themselves against the monsters of Droaam. In Q’barra, he plays on settlers’ fears of the Poison Dusk. The Mourning, Khyber, the Ashbound, Darguun, Valenar, the next war . . . there are many things to fear in Eberron, and an infernal pact can give you the power to defend yourself. All it costs is your soul, and perhaps a favor or two. When fear doesn’t work, greed often will. Many in the Aurum are willing to bargain with fiends to gain an edge on a dragonmarked competitor.

Although different covens might share an infernal patron, this doesn’t imply any sort of communication or loyalty between them. A bargain with a fiend is a personal path to power, not a religion. Beyond this, the fiends receive their payment (the warlock’s soul) regardless of whether the schemes of the coven succeed or fail. This allows adventurers to face powerful infernal forces without being caught up in massive schemes or drawing the anger of mighty enemies. When heroes kill an infernal warlock, Asmodeus collects her soul; far from spoiling Asmodeus’s plans, the adventurers have added to his wealth.

Baator is a mystery even to the sages of Eberron. Until recently it was known only to those angels devoted to the Sovereign Host, and the Inspired and the Lords of Dust know little about it. A worshiper of the Sovereign Host who makes a hard Religion check knows that Baator is some sort of inescapable astral prison. A hard Arcana check provides simple details about the archdevils, primarily those that fell from grace and vanished.

An infernal pact is the common way that Baator influences Eberron. A fiend provides mystical power to a mortal, who uses it as he or she sees fit. Although infernal pacts have been around for centuries, they have become vastly more common since the Mourning, and devils can be involved in many ways aside from pacts. Consider the following.

• A dragonmarked heir carves out a tiny nation in one of the wilder regions of Khorvaire, supported by infernal legions and a diabolic power behind this makeshift throne.
• A businessman has remarkable success and somehow knows all his rival’s secrets; this is the work of his fiendish advisor.
• A village once troubled by bandits is now shunned by these outlaws. Bandits avoid the place because a group of devils is protecting the town, but the villagers must sacrifice one of their own to the fiends every few months as payment for this protection.
• The Church of the Silver Flame has discovered the spread of infernal pacts and believes that this activity must be suppressed. A true witch hunt is about to begin. Do the adventurers help, or do they oppose it?
• A cleric of the Sovereign Host is asked to investigate the theft of a number of ancient artifacts connected to Aureon, which leads to Sovereign temple ruins in Sarlona and Xen’drik. Asmodeus is gathering relics connected to the time before his fall, but why?
• A cult of assassins is using a variation of the Keeper’s Fang blades—weapons that capture the souls of their victims and send them to Baator. Can the adventurers get to Baator to recover the soul of a victim?
• A handful of devils slipped out of Baator during the Mourning. They have allied with a criminal guild in one of the major cities of the Five Nations and are clashing with Daask and other established forces.
• The forces of Daanvi rarely act on Eberron and have little curiosity about Baator. However, one angelic sage in Aureon’s Vault wants to know more and asks a paladin of Aureon to serve as its personal agent in these investigations.