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Originally posted by Shadowlord

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

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• There is an ongoing conflict between the nativist faction (Mephistopholes and Dispater, most prominently) and the immigrant faction (Baalzebul and Belial, most prominently). Those four are the focal point of a major ideological battle in the Nine Hells.
• The one important thing to remember about Baator and it's history is that it is constantly being revised by the Ministry of Morale.
• Caina was named by Dante for the first traitor, Cain. (The misspelling "Cania" has been perpetuated in "Planescape"). It is the spiritual home of all those who in choosing hate betrayed those closest to them through natural or social law. That this is the deepest level of Lawful Evil is most fitting -- the final rejection of love itself, clearly reasoned and coldly thought-out. According to Christian lore, the first evil being betrayed supreme Goodness and is to be found at the center of this realm. Contrary to rumor, the routes to this place are clearly-marked and easy to follow. Leaving will probably be more difficult. It is a realm of heartless cold and darksome beauty. Huge glaciers, avalanches, and eternal ice storms dominate the region. The locals -- living and dead -- are egomaniacs, and they talk incessantly about how they have made the "right choice", and that ideas of "kindness", "humility", and "forgiveness" are degrading stupidity. They will remind the player characters of all their misdeeds, trying to prove that they are really lawful-evil aligned and should drop the pretense of goodness and love. Here the legions of Baator embrace the darkest spirituality. This is a common location for the headquarters of sects devoted to vanity and "the quest for excellence". All roads lead to the center, Malsheem, Palace of Supreme Excellence (satanic pride), where the full glamor of evil is displayed, and the glittering decorations are the dead who betrayed their lords and benefactors. The floor and walls smoke if they are even touched by a being not of Lawful Evil alignment. At the bottom level of Malsheem is a branch of the River Jordan, offering travel directly to Mount Celestia. This stream arises from melting ice, and utterly destroys any evil creature which touches it. Escape from this layer may also be possible by passing a test of loyalty to goodness, and willingness to put kindness and love before vanity and achievement.
  

• Cania, the eighth layer of the Nine Hells is a realm of pure cold. But, Cania's cold is so bitterly penetrating that it is like a living entity. Gigantic glaciers move as fast as a running prime, grinding and crashing against each other in an unholy dance of destruction. These crashes send avalanches of snow crushing down upon any creature that is unfortunate enough to have found it's way to this horrid layer. The moving glaciers will sometimes reveal thousand-year-old corpses - past victims of the chilling ice, and the unfortunate barmies who'd attempted to cross the path of the layer's lord, Mephistopheles
• The frigid cold of this plane penetrates even the warmest clothing. PCs take 3d10 points of cold damage every round they are in an unsheltered are of Cania.

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Originally posted by Shadowlord

Indeed, thank you, both Lady Kazandra and Arravis, for your astounding collection of facts. I am still looking for any and all information I can find about Cania (or Caina, thanks for clarifying ) and it's ruler, Mephistopheles.

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Originally posted by Lady Kazandra

The Sage is putting together some special information on Mephistopheles as I type this Shadowlord. I'm not sure whether he plans to visit Candlekeep today, but the next few posts on information on both the layer and it's lord will most likely be from him.

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ZARIEL

True Lord of the First Hell (imprisoned)
The Destroyer, Angel of the Pit, Mother of Spiders
Alliases: Zuriel, Zavebe
AoC: Punishment, Imprisonment, Holy Crusades
Superior: none
Allies: Tiamat, Heironeous, Lilith, Baalphegor
Rivals: Hextor, Bel, Dispater, Mephistopheles, Mammon, Geryon, Lolth

After the great defections of Belial, Triel, and Iblis, there were some on Mount Glory who were not willing to let the traitors get away with mere exile. One of these was Zariel, an astral deva in the service of Heironeous, god of Justice. With the blessings of her patron, she followed the cross-traders to the Pit with the intention of destroying them.

Quickly, she discovered that this would be harder than she had thought. The Fallen Ones had dispersed and, as far as Zariel could tell, been consigned to lemure status by the Lords of the Hells. Convinced that a frontal assault would not work, Zariel decided to try subtlety, and so sealed her doom. She volunteered her services to the baatezu, saying she wished to join her fellows in Evil's embrace. They took her at her word, melted her down into a lemure-thing, and allowed her to prove herself in their hierarchy.

By the time she advanced to gelugon status, the good in her was long since burned away. Still she burned to punish her fellows, and this hate stood her in good stead. The Lord of Nessus noticed it and made her chief punisher of the first circle, telling her to hunt down and torment the exiled nobles who wandered the Avernian desolation. This she did with cold efficiency, making herself a parody of a court, with prisoners as courtiers. She expanded her wrath, organizing armies to make bolder assaults on the Blood War front. She also drove away the strongholds that Hextor and the goblin gods had made in her domain. Hextor, the so-called Herald of Hell, swore vengence. The only allies that Zariel made in that time was with Tiamat, whose abishai troops she made good use of, and with Baalphegor, who helped her create the elite keres, spider-legged baatezu that earned her the hatred of Lolth during their multiple raids on the Demonweb Pits.

Eventually, the Angel of the Pit got the opportunity she had been waiting patiently for over the millennia. The other Lords began to trust her enough to let her in on their schemes. The layers of Baator were split between those who had once been celestials and those who were united in their hatred of them. Baalzebul (formally Triel) and Belial offered their allegience in exchange for her help in conspiring against their rivals. She accepted, inwardly chuckling with sinister delight, and began plans to turn her colleagues schemes into open war, a war all the lords would lose.

Inflaming the others with progressively more fiery rhetoric, it was not too long as immortals reckon time before Zariel believed she was ready. With brazen hubris, she invaded the Iron City of Dis. Mephistopheles, Geryon, and Mammon swept down to stop her, and soon all of Baator was consumed in war. Though they were eventually all chastised, most - even Zariel - were given back their original positions, with some concessions. Fuming with anger, she began to plan an even bigger disaster. Before her plans could come to fruition, however, she was betrayed by her own generals.

Bel, the pit fiend who had previously betrayed Dispater to serve the Mother of Spiders, led the other warlords of Zariel in an unexpected coup. With his subordinates orchestrating a siege, Bel broke in and battled the weakened Angel of the Pit, ultimately binding her in her own webs. With dark sorcery he warped her body, creating from it the first of his scarecrowlike hellwardens. Bel then locked her away until he could fully drain her of her power and gain full control of the layer.

The Destroyer is imprisoned in a subterranean chamber deep beneath Bel's throne in his Bronze Citadel. Zariel has a long, serpentine body, eight spider legs, and a humanoid upper torso. Her fanged face has dozens of eyes. From her back grows dragon wings. Her hair is bound tightly back with hooks and chains. She has been horribly crucified, her limbs broken, twisted around her bonds, and allowed to heal, sealing her in a prison of her own flesh. Kocrachons attend her, increasing her agony and "milking" her power. Her blood leaks into a vessel from which Bel periodically drinks. One of the Pit Angel's tormentors has dared to drink some of the blood for herself, and is becoming increasingly changed. The once-kocrachon fears she may soon have to flee the Hells.

Lilith, the so-called Hag Countess of Malbolge, has expressed sympathy for the Destroyer. She remembers her own period of bondage to Malbolge's previous ruler Lord Moloch. Still, she realizes that it might be more to her advantage to form a firm alliance with Bel, who like herself and Levistus is mistrusted by most of the other lords.

Heironeous believes Zariel's punishment was unjust and that she can still be redeemed. He hopes to break her out and bring her to the Hospital of the Plane-Scarred in Celestia for rehabilitation.

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