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Yugoloths (also often called daemons or nicknamed loths) are neutral evil demonic natives of the Blood Rift who are neutral to the affairs of the other fiendish races, interfering only when they see a situation that may be profitable or a potential for the advancement of their own schemes. The yugoloths are manipulative, secretive, and mercenary by nature, often acting as soldiers for deities in their own private wars, or even at times aiding both sides of the Blood War.
Ecology[]
Description[]
The yugoloths present themselves as simply greedy mercenaries, willing to sell their services to both sides, while behind that public face, the members of their highest castes view the entire course of the conflict as their own thing to control and manipulate until they decide to end it, unify the Fiendish Planes, and turn their attention to the planes of Good.
Like the tanar'ri and baatezu, the yugoloths have their rulers: the baernoloths, who are their progenitors. Below the baernoloths is the ruler of Khin-Oin, who is given the title of Oinoloth.
Yugoloths craving more power sometimes make a pact with the night hags who transform them into unique and powerful creatures, the altraloths. Non-transformed yugoloths find this to be a treachery against the perfection of their kind, but must bow nonetheless before the might of these fiends. The most prominent is the former Oinoloth Anthraxus. Another major altraloth is Charon, the boatman of the River of Blood, who ferries souls down the river for a steep price.
Background[]
The Weeping War[]
In -1200 DR, a group of Netherese arcanists summoned a trio of nycaloths (Aulmpiter, Gaulguth, and Malimshaer) to test the defenses of the elven realm of Cormanthyr. The nycaloths, who served Malkizid and became known as the Khovanilessa (meaning "Trio Nefarious"), caused a great deal of damage before Cormanthyr's high mages succeeded in imprisoning them with epic magic.
Unfortunately for Cormanthyr, the prison did not hold forever. In 708 DR, the flight of the elven-raised red dragon Garnetallisar over the realm inadvertently fulfilled one of the conditions of their release, weakening the magical barrier enough that a gnoll shaman could summon them. The Trio quickly moved to exact vengeance on the elves, raising the Army of Darkness and invading northern Cormanthyr in 711 DR, sparking the Weeping War. The next year, the Army of Darkness crushed a force of Harpers at Twilight. Garnetallisar struck back, causing some damage but vanishing in the midst of the fight.
The war raged on. In 713 DR, Cormanthyran forces killed Gaulguth and Malimshaer, but the Army continued to advance on Myth Drannor; its citizens began to evacuate. Taking advantage of the war, drow forces attacked and recaptured the Twisted Tower.
The war ended in disaster for the elves in 714 DR, when Myth Drannor fell. The only good to come out of this came when Captain Fflar Starbrow Melruth slew Aulumpiter, the final member of the Trio Nefarious. The seat of power in Cormanthyr returned to the Elven Court, and the nation was barred to non-elves.
War and the Spider Queen[]
The ultroloth Inthracis mustered the majority of his army at the behest of Vhaeraun to kill Lolth's Yor'thae, thus preventing her elevation to greater power. He and his army failed in their task. Inthracis himself was killed by Pharaun Mizzrym but was resurrected using one of his Stasis clones that he kept on the Blood Rift.
Hierarchy[]
Lesser yugoloths[]
- Mezzoloth: Mezzoloths make up the vast bulk of yugoloth armies and represent the baseline of their race's hierarchy. Mezzoloths form directly from the raw essence of the Gray Waste and Gehenna, either naturally or artificially drawn up from the plane by the engines and spawned pools beneath the Wasting Tower of Khin-Oin, the Tower Arcane, and eventually from the Reflective Chasm in Carceri's Tower of Incarnate Pain. These bipedal, beetle-like fiends wield huge tridents, stand seven feet tall and have four insect-like arms.
- Dergholoth: Promoted Mezzoloths may attain this status.
- Piscoloth: Above dergholoths, these lobster-like yugoloths are cruel, hateful bullies who "keep order in the armies, a task well suited to their petty and tyrannical demeanor."
- Hydroloth: Hydroloths inhabit the River Styx.
- Yagnoloth: These petty rulers are given political authority by the ultroloths.
- Marraenoloth: The boatmen of the River Styx, promoted yagnoloths are situated upon the cusp of becoming Greater Yugoloths.
Greater yugoloths[]
- Nycaloth: These arrogant commanders of the yugoloth armies have green skin, four muscular arms, a doglike head and a pair of large bat-like wings.
- Arcanaloth: These jackal or dog-headed fiends dress in fine robes and resemble individual manifestations of a gestalt of the concept of twisted sorcerery. Some of the greatest wielders of arcane magic in the multiverse, they mass within Gehenna's Tower Arcane under the leadership of Helekanalaith, the "Keeper of the Tower," where they record the progress of the Blood War, craft contracts with mortals and fiends alike, and endlessly study the intricacies of abstract evil.
- Ultroloth: The highest, most pure of the greater yugoloths and the undisputed rulers of the yugoloth race, the ultroloths, look like gray skinned humanoids, with enlarged, glowing eyes flickering with malignant color. Their blank faces are devoid of emotion, and their attitude is one of cold, sterile, distant evil. They constantly backstab and betray one another, and are renowned throughout the multiverse for their unbridled cruelty and malice.
Battleoths[]
A subgroup of yugoloths are known as battleloths. These creatures take the shapes of various weapons.
- Arrow Battleloth: The weakest of the battleloths; often serve as spies.
- Axe Battleloth: Recklessly brave combatants.
- Crossbow Battleloth: The most sought-after battleloths due to their versatility.
- Pick Battleloth: Vicious, predatory yugoloths that feed on the blood of living creatures.
- Spiked Chain Battleloth: Aggressive hunters that hunt down other battleloths for sport.
- Sword Battleloth: Independent and wily, and hard bargainers, they demand conquests, glory, and loot.
Other creatures[]
- Altraloth: An altraloth is a yugoloth of any type that has been transformed into a unique being by a ritual known only to the night hags.
- Baernoloth: Sometimes classified as greater yugoloths, baernoloths are actually the primal champions of evil who created the yugoloth and demodand races.
- Canoloth: When a yugoloth angers its superiors, whether through acts of betrayal or desertion, it is punished in a way so terrifying that prospect of such a fate keeps most yugoloths in line. Criminals are transformed into canoloths, the blind war hounds of the yugoloth armies. Forever wracked with pain, the canoloths sense their surroundings by means of a long, thorny tongue. They hate all things and relish the chance to maim and destroy.
- Corruptor of Fate: Stealthy and cunning manipulators of luck, they often become assassins.
- Echinoloth: Rear echelons of the yugoloth armies, these fiends combine features of a starfish and squid into an unlovely whole.
- Gelugon: Also known as ice devils, gelugons are actually yugoloths enslaved to Mephistopheles long ago
- Guardian daemons: These creatures were created by the yugoloths as lesser servants for their mortal allies, and to serve in their stead when powerful wizards call upon them for favors. They are found in least, lesser, and greater varieties.
- Gacholoth: Ebony-skinned, four-legged infiltrators and saboteurs.
- Hellwasp devil: Akin to mezzoloths, hellwasp devils now serve Glasya.
- Rakshasa: Beast-headed humanoids descended from arcanaloths, now dwelling primarily on the Prime Material Plane.
- Raavasta: Fox-headed planar humanoids descended from arcanaloths, now scattered throughout the planes.
- Skeroloth: Skeroloths are formed from demoted mezzoloths, who make up the chaff and fodder for yugoloth armies, acting as spies, thieves, and interlopers. They serve because they must, fawning over the nearest powerful yugoloth and betraying former masters whenever given a glimpse of richer rewards.
- Voor: Tentacled, hulking brutes used as guardians, protectors, bodyguards, and enforcers. Greater versions are known as dreadful lashers.
Trivia[]
(TBA)