Exploring Nessus

[Music] this is an explorer's video and I am a che and I welcome you come with me my friends and I consider you to be friends at this point and what is often expressed as the ultimate act of friendship hiding the body yes maybe giving a kidney certainly of course following them to the very gates of Hell we return to the nine hells today and the plane the planet of Bartok the orb of punishment the realm of lawful evil the home of the devils and the dukes of hell the damned the indentured the armies and agents and the God Asmodeus first let's talk a little bit about city of doors because we're starting our journey from here and a conversation overheard at a venue without it seems any sort of purpose just some stark rock walls that look a bit like someone tore our section from a fabulous Cathedral and took away all the furniture but this place is not about what it holds but who goes there standing next to each other deep in conversation is an angel and a devil and no they're not trying to kill each other in fact the conversation could best be described as painfully polite but with whole worlds of words left unspoken angels and devils are if not destroyed immortal beings many of which have been around for thousands tenths of thousands even hundreds of thousands of years so this is not a rushed conversation there's not a glib conversation that is not one without a great import and consequence the language they're speaking is audible they're not using telepathy which it with each other and the words are very old they sound like they're so many other languages and a lot like divine spellcasters sound when they are saying those words that split the air with beams of intense light will cause flesh to knit back together at times the words do make a mortal flesh crawl or inspire confidence and hope even if they're not understood what are these two ancient beings talking about the fate of the soul of a mortal champion the fall of an empire the location of an artifact of great power the sharing of information on suspected opens master nations the discovery of a new prime material plane the negotiations between group to greater beings who cannot step foot in the cage or be in the prison's of each other so these to speak on their behalf something more basic something incomprehensible whatever it is they came to this place because they built it and none would dare move a grain of stone from it there is even a respectable lack of building crowding around it then over it and the darboux ensure that no signs are posted on it no vines grow on it nobody lingers here or messes around in this place the two figures part the angels not to you and fades from view like dawn lights slipping behind a silver cloud there is a smell of frankincense in the air the devil glances over at you deep in thought locks its eyes on yours and you are unsure if it is thinking about you at all we're just a wallpaper to it then its eyes flicker to look at a dagger you should recently picked up at an ancient tomb it once belonged to a paladin of a God youth you don't follow the devil locks eyes on you again slowly walks past you there is a smell like gunpowder and rusty metal you hear a soft chuckle then attends a quorum is gone you look down at the knife maybe it would be best to return it to where it belongs and stop using its enchantments so selfishly you step out of the building and the street is strangely quiet and empty you look around and notice that the fog has lifted someone you can always see all the way up to the spire then you notice a shadow in front of you and something inside you prompts you to step back as if it were lava you turn and look at the tall silent figure of the lady of pain the passive mask seems to be looking right into you and you quickly avert your gaze this is the first and perhaps only time you'll see her out in the open and just hovering there like that her attention on the meeting room and the two who just talked in there slowly who deadly shadow moving with her the lady of pain moves off and down the very middle of the street to who knows where and for what purpose no conversation between angels and devils isn't significant the nine hells are about law and evil they are the religion of merciless bureaucracy they are the former elite armies of the celestial realm of law and order that broke away from goodness they represent an alternate view on how laws should be applied throughout the cosmos Nice's as the home of the generals and royalty of the nine hells it is the home dimension of Asmodeus and is incredibly huge fortress mal xin it was once an earlier fear of blasted rock with countless deep fissures and chasms inside of which were millions of Citadel's and keeps there's and volts this is where the leaders of the armies of Hell meant to form strategies and plot over increasing power of the fiends previously this was achieved solely through the acquisition of souls and packs in powerful artifacts and the gaining of souls was achieved where an arrangement with the celestial court whereby those who broke divine laws were sent for punishment to the nine hells these souls are not just random bad people or those who are lawful evil in life and pass on to the 90s and death these are those who either made a deal with the devil broke divine laws not necessarily the laws of mortal society or something that is essentially punished by the gods punishment is not something that is done in Silesia or other divine realms it is something that is done in the infernal rumps the nine hells has all sorts of evil types here but in the end it may be in and of itself the pain is actually very structured very methodical very calculating very much about the enforcement of law it may be of interest that the Devils have no issues visiting the planet mechanis the intrinsic lawful nature of the plane is actually fairly comfortable to them but at their core devils and not heavy beams they are profoundly broken beings that feel they have suffered the greatest injustice ever inflicted in the entire history of the universe and in some ways they're right that before such concerns as good and evil was so important there was the ultimate and cataclysmic struggle between law and chaos the universe of D&D was a place of creation in order it was invaded by outsiders and everything was going terribly terribly wrong nearly every level Celestials came into existence to fix things to restore what order they could and salvage whatever they could from the universe to be used elsewhere however in fighting the chaos that threatened to render everything into pointless madness Silesia itself divided into different lines of thought in different philosophies on how order should be restored and maintained the devil's obviously think the best way to do this is control oppression fear pain and bureaucracy for this they were cast out of Silesia and made a new round for themselves harvesting the power of souls to give them the ability of belief to shape the universe as they willed it to be define more divine morphisms this is the power that makes souls so very valuable and sought after that ability to shape reality and the dramatic informative conflict of the dawn war there were primordial x' there were gods in the astral sea there were Pantheon's which were called in from other prime material world such as the gods of wrath the setting of fourth edition dandy which would explain why so many people think that edition hit my soul law there were the alien Oberyn there were the newly formed demons of the era the abyss there were the Yuga loss there were many many others the Giants the Dragons the mortal races it was very chaotic and many times the universe was nearly unmade but each time put back together sometimes in a different order than it was before so the nature of reality itself has been in flux in the DNA universe throughout the various editions of the game this is occasionally quite hard to get around smouldering at the heart of all this drama though finding advantage wherever they could from all of this disruption hammering and pressuring things back together sneering disrupted primordial and tightens and webs of manipulation and eternal prisons the Devils have fought against chaos just as much as the Celestials have from the very dawn of the realms before the world of Tyrell even existed at the apex of the hierarchy of the hell's Asmodeus is now a bonafide god but things were not always like this things were not always like this way back and dragon number 28 Asmodeus we are told is just the latest in the line of rulers of the nine hells he was overthrown he overthrew Beelzebul who in turn overthrew Satan he elder evils names the original ruler of Hellas argon the creature originally described in Dungeon module B for the lost city the book of wild darkness states that well Asmodeus is not the original rule of the nine hells he is the oldest of the devil's fiendish Tradex to tyrants of the nine hells says that as many as began as a servant of the lawful gods created the fight the demons of the abyss so that the gods could concern themselves with creating worlds with sentient beings on them Asmodeus was assigned to guard the entrance of the prisoner of the god there's-- dune which was located in the Epis the demon god lord Pazuzu appeared to Asmodeus as detailed in demon on of common and encouraged him to act on his thoughts of rebellion obtaining a small piece of the shard of evil at the heart of the abyss that created the abyss handing it over to his matthias who used it create his infamous Ruby rhod however whatever world's the gods created the demons inevitably were unleashed into it by the actions of the very mortal creatures the gods had made Asmodeus who was the one who said hey the model society of control because you gave them curiosity but there are no consequences for them if they go against your command so hand them over to me and I will sort them out so the gods did and they created the pact primeval and Asmodeus created bath barthian with his new soul power and gathered as many souls to him as he could turning many of them into new and forces however things went from bad to worst angels were transformed transformed into the first Devils and the beautiful astral dominion our bath ian was transformed into the prison realm known as the nine hells of battle Asmodeus became a god himself albe at one trapped inside his own dominion the Codex itself admits that this is part of the whole truth part of the whole truth Asmodeus did not depart from the upper Plains and amicable circumstances he was cast out and literally literally fell to the low plain sustaining serious wounds which have never healed part of Asmodeus as long-term plans includes using the manageable energy harvested from souls in order to heal his wounds and ultimately the complete destruction of the upper Plains as well as one day achieving godhood which he has since achieved the many of the plan suggests as maurices true form is that of a giant serpent which he he was cast out the upper plains before the creation of the current chords and has four created the eighth and ninth planes of hell he is currently still recovering from his wounds in the pits of the ninth Hill and his devil form is just an avatar of the of the real Asmodeus no one who tells the story of the true form of Asmodeus survives more than 24 hours of the telling whoops I actually covered this version in the introduction to nine hells videos but yes it's just one of many conflicting myths these I might add also conflicting faiths Asmodeus is frequently the focus of cult activities by mortals and to explain why there are so many cultists in such and EMD before you ask where people can see clerics heal folks and know that there are divine powers considering all the people I mean considerate right all the people who are basically selfish evil self-serving lazy mean and greedy evil people right divine powers denied to them but they live in a world where they can see the power and protection at Grant's if divine power is so denied to them why would they not seek out other means of attaining the same power so they turn to other sources they turn to the fiends they open themselves to an alternate force of law in the chaos in the cosmos without the petty restrictions of goodness without the confines of following divine and restrictions on how they live their lives this easy access to power as why cults are so popular and they spring up all the time all over the place because people a week they they look for power without consequences they don't realize what's the trapars that they're putting themselves in Asmodeus is devoted to oppression and might through might through subversive action he imposes strict rules and harsh punishments on his followers the cult of Asmodeus urges adherents to seek power over others to repay evil and further with further evil so an eye for an eye to exploit kindness for personal gain and to show no compassion for the weak and downtrodden this is done subtly subtly usually legally and never overtly typical Redeker rhetoric from worshipers of Asmodeus will discuss promoting personal excellence and independence taking care of one's own affairs and running oneself of weakness sometimes when will he'll hear of ascending to godhood going up the ladder of no God's no masters when harming innocence these action is discussed is providing motivation to succeed most often ritual is that deeply circuit of and not publicly discussed most followers will not publicly admit their worship of Asmodeus nor will they compromise their potential bargaining position of greater power over non-believers and also those cult headquarters are usually underground or in rich mansions out of sight out of mind secretive covens you say anyway through all five editions of Dungeons and Dragons Asmodeus has as depicted as the strongest most cunning and most handsome of all Gables he has typically described as appearing as a giant human over 13 feet tall with dark skin and here red eyes handsome features and small horns on his forehead he dresses in regal finery of unimaginable expense a single article of clothing worn by Asmodeus is worth more money that an average nation will spend on food a year beneath his clothing as maurices body though is covered in bloody wounds which he sustained when he fell from the upper Plains his wounds whose blood daily in any drop of blood which touches the ground grows into a powerful devil he is described in the book of wild darkness as a calm chillingly reasonable being with a modest appearance that hides his true power Mises is populated with many vessels and underlings averse motives they are numerous and the roster has changed a lot over the many additions of the nine house so in the history of the nine house so I'm not going to great detail on who these forces are or where the unholy wither all were I might yeah I might actually go over a few of the names of them at the end of this video so stay tuned the unholy symbol of Asmodeus is three inverted triangles here as arranged in a long triangle his domains are knowledge and trickery and also he is known as in many places of the god of indulgence the Lord of the ninth the cloven and old hoof and horn if you permit me I'll read you a passage from the salt Coast adventurers guide because this is the most up-to-date info on Asmodeus that I have so here's the current state of affairs open worship obeys Maties began roughly a century ago when small cults of charismatic leaders sprang up in the aftermath of the spell plague that canister hit us the cat health cat hopin that disaster leave many asking why the gods were angry or had abandoned them to those questioners the faithful advice Modi has provided answers and a God who would forgive all their faults still for the next few decades the cultivars Modi has struggled for acceptance and the beliefs of the people of the north which coincided with many tales told by dwarves elves and others as motifs as the Lord of the night the leader of all peoples of the nine hells people know Devils to be iron minded and silver tongue purveyors of temptation whose price for their boons can be dear as one soul that said that when soul waits on a few planes for a deity to take it to an appropriate afterlife Devils approached the soul in an offer at a chance at power and immortal pleasures all the soul needs to do is make one step out of the dust and the melon crowd and put a foot on the first rung of the infernal letter that represents the hierarchy the nine hells and the godom the faithful of those mattias acknowledge that devils offer the worship worshipers a path that is not for everyone just as eternally basking the light of Lysander or endlessly swinging a hammer in the minds of Mardan may not be for everyone else those who serve Asmodeus in life hope to be summoned out of the moaning masses of the few plain after death they yearn for the chance to master their own fates but all of eternity to achieve their goals to those not so dedicated priests of Asmodeus offer the prot prospect of reprieve reprieve in the afterlife all souls bite on the few plain for a date is pleasure which determines where a soul will spend the rest of eternity those who live their lives most in keeping with the DOJ's outlook are taken first others who have transgressed in the eyes of their favored God who have not followed any particular ethos might wait for centuries before kalampore judges where they go people who fear such a fate can pray to Asmodeus as priests say and in return a devil will grant the mob waiting souls and comfort today shrines of Asmodeus are still rare and temples are almost unheard of but many folk have adopted the habit of asking Asmodeus for reprieve from their sins after transgressing against a god in some way a person price of Asmodeus for something to provide respite during the long wait Asmodeus has known to grant people what they wish and thus people pray for all the delights and distractions they desire most in life those who drank rests and weighs often ask Asmodeus to hide their sins from the gods and priests say that he will do so but with the price after you die Nessus these days hmm as a hollow Coralville of the world of battle well there's a molten Inferno at its heart but surrounding that is a spherical Kevin of mind-boggling proportions which is the lair of nieces a spherical Kevin surrounding the core of battle The Devil's of the ninth dwell and iron Citadel's that protrude from the crevices and stalactites were formed by aneesa's as floor mal shame itself protrudes directly from a massive volcanic crater and nieces and is inhabited by the brazen Devils the guards of calcium the fire browned fibroid hellhounds as Medusa's pits storm Devils Li Legion Devil's pit fiends Lea stockers is aristocracy of the hells and war devils these iron Citadel's house every manner and kind of freaky stuff some of which is just world or probably game breaking such as a half fiendish Trask the counterpart of the shadow of evil in the rod of seven parts the orb of total neutrality spell which details how to create a world sized eme plane permanently other parts of Vecna a fusion warheads a wand of an eye elation spheres a codex of the doors of sigil the list of names of all the you Goths and so on scattered around hidden deep there are trapped and imprisoned primordial 's here along with galleries of collected samples of multiple races from every prime material world that Asmodeus is dealt with including many of which that over the last of their kind from worlds that are now layers of the abyss people trapped like bugs and amber preserved in terrible solitude for all time as for mel shame it is described as being very very very big like New York big a fortress Palace full of exotic wonders in terrible Horrors as Midas is said to have a Dark Fae aesthetic to those rez with a corrupted nature theme both beautiful and also quite disturbing the more you look at it information is the currency of nieces and influence as the currency of machine those who play the cards right who shows sufficient promise may find themselves as servants directly under trance Asmodeus himself which means they in turn heavily influence over whole world's entire infernal armies treasures and indulgences beyond mortal recomment influence and mouth shimmers worth any price to the many tables that operate in and from nieces more common in this plain as I said the brazen Devils end fibroin hellhound storm devil's Legion Devils war Devils assess and dippel's and of course the pit fence the era of leases is frequented by many pet fiends flying from one place to another busy with the complex administration of the forces of the nine hells aside from the chasms and Citadel's now shame itself Oh fun fact when a non lawful evil creature walks on the stones of mal xin smoke rises from the places where the feet touch just a little there is a lake called casitas which lies far from mouth shame high upon a bowl of rocks surrounded by crags it's known as the lake of fear the surfaces are smooth frozen sheet and the ice is tens of feet thick and full of the frozen bodies of those who would have crossed the lake as it always rises up like jaws and snaps shut around travelers so quick thinking and swift action can avoid entrapment however once locked in the ice it takes a strength equal to a storm giant to break free that's the strength of twenty nine folks winding around the crags and seemingly randomly appearing here and there is the river Lethe a river of forgetfulness I don't know where it comes from or where it ends that when ends up or do I do what I do remember is that all creatures who touch the green water forget if they save versus poison the effect wears off otherwise they suffer the effects of a feeble mine spell that's page 239 of The Player's Handbook permanently unless cured by a wish alter reality or limited wish or they are taken to the higher realms of beyond Silesia even so the victim will lose memory of the events that occurred before they touch the river Lethe so best avoid those waters and this forgetting the passages that do what the character needs some say that the river is an alternate route a back door into the prime material plane and that from there to the deepest layer of Hell but no no living testimony from anyone is around so it's not confirmed with that's true or not further out surrounding the crags and the river is a huge forest where the leaves of all the trees are on fire permanently a branch can be removed from the flat air from the trees and the flame will continue to burn nothing short of a wish belt will put about while in hell on an outside plane they can be doused with a spell magic or protection from evil but are not normal fire and can't be influenced by spells that affect flames the trees bleed a Bluegreen accor this stuff is crazy valuable for use in magic potion spells and Scrolls I mean it's or it's just like the magic magic fluid that you can use for all sorts of different stuff there's also a region of called the fire winds we're sweeping roaming walls of fire roof around the place scorching whatever where it gets in the way much like getting hit by a fireball I like to think that these are like convergences of flammable gas and heat waves from the mass of spherical Inferno that blazes above from the perspective of those walking around inside the great Kevin of beef nieces would be like solar flares that tear across the landscape swirling around Craig's rocks and funding through ravines like flash floods of fire some sages say that at the heart of the super fortress of mal Shane is a cosmic gate that will lead anywhere and is not only it was it wasn't actually built by the Devils but and they can't destroy it or interfere with its operation or use it themselves any creature of lawful evil alignment is vaporized if they try there are many legends and folk tales to support this and many say that to escape the nine hells one must reach the very heart of it to attain freedom although honestly what a daunting prospect one theory is that the gate was created by a greater God is a kind of applause and the pact primeval the many armies of the ninth house tend to move around a lot but fortress and thousands of towers of mal shing are surrounded by the armies of health both on the ground and in the air at all times there's a force our theory that the fortress of mal Shem was built around the gate to conceal it and basically block it off to protect it so that people can't escape as for the creatures that call this plane home that are not dibbles well there they are nightmares literally nightmares these nightmares there as well as a few evil flame and huth elementals fussing around and trying to figure out ways to get the some of the primordial spree there are honored servants of the nine hells who camped out waiting Flynn an audience with Asmodeus all manner of beings from all sorts of places different species different philosophies and motives and all of them are lawful evil and find themselves and nieces soaking up the heat rays and the frequent invigorating blastings when there's a flame or getting into a furious debate with another petitioner arguing the finer points of something or other as lawful evil people attend to do they there are tyrants overlords black guards evil wizards dragons lots of dragons oh so many dragons and some of them are titanic like you're not aware that why the ground was leathery until you realized the bridge this is what the spines was the back of the dragon that you're walking across big very powerful monsters who don't mind fire don't need to eat or drink in our lawful evil find nieces to be a lovely place to call home and they usually find someplace and they're totally totalitarian hierarchy of the hell's oh and infernal war machines there lots and lots of internal war machines so right okay so we reached the end of the video so I'll just go over some of the frequent or former members of the the royalty of Nice's so we've got Ben Scioscia the Queen of Hell consort of Asmodeus a dremmel ik count Chancellor of Hell a cruel and malicious Chancellor of hell AIDS is Modi's greatly from his tower in the overlords palace keeper of Records answers only to Asmodeus himself there's there's lots there is let's see Fong war Inquisitor hell dreaded inquisitor responsible directly for the provision of complete and accurate news on the other Harold's and other planes and to do this he subverted lots of spies and also unless wisest of his own and has perfected the art of torture on Devil's so he imagined he's got a lot to do with chained Devils Bureau Duke of Hell as he's in company in command of fifteen companies that put fence and Clyde to be a rather melancholy person although always polite in speech appears to delight in practical jokes should be remembered though that he's evil as anything boon Duke of Hell as he is kind of greedy very fond of material wealth and Joy's manipulating lesser beings of all sorts including his own warriors and although he's loyal to his motives he's actually quite cheeky to those who he considers to be superiors to themselves but as many as tolerates his presence because he's the quickest and most careful in the execution of orders so he's very reliable more acts as a Duke of hell and silver service Marius leading nine companies of pet fiends he's are being a few words exalts in a good fight consummate Priscilla likes wrestling pet fiends and hurling about in roaring he's quite respected in the pet for his fairness and his loyalty and despises weakness and has angered by creatures who Bluff or presume to have strength or stationed at that that they don't possess or preserve or deserve Ramon there's another Duke of hell he's appears as a nice devil with a handsome human-like diabolically horned head nasty and sadistic little liked but quite loyal to Asmodeus yeah he fights with the Trident B yeah it's kind of weird he's an ice table with a human head zag oom is a ambitious cold-blooded considers its cruelty beat its cruelty to be a self-indulgent waste of time whereas humor laughing with the fellow devil pays dividends in terms of comradeship mutual aid respect and companionship therefore he's got a sense of humor and is constantly inventing new jokes and stunts to amuse others so zag room is quite an interesting character his appears as a gigantic barbed devil with a long 15-foot tail in a jagged row of barbed spines running up his back commenting in a bony pair of each spines and back and sides of his head and his scaled skin is crimson as hue his eyes were yellow with black people's so here also of note just as we can kind of come to the combination of the nine hell's series I may even visit various bits in piece of it spells don't operate entirely reliably in the nine hells on the various layers and things particularly an older edition of the game not so much in the new edition of the game but it's so things like clerical spells of command would be ineffective at the integrated devil's detect evil is so overwhelmed in this place that it just basically reacts negatively light and continual lights are half as effective protection from evil just doesn't work protection for good effects I have double normal strength yeah holy symbols are ineffective messenger doesn't work dust devil doesn't work prayers don't work really and divinations really work as well the entire plane is pretty much protected against divination spells that's just you know you can't look into the night house so yeah a nice long video to end the explorers are the the series on the nine hells there'll be if you're looking for more information there we've just been following the explore series I mostly cover these and they are there monster ecology series where I'm talking about the various types of devil and I'll be furs and I visit the various planes of existence that the Devils live on in the nine hells so go and check those videos out if you haven't already thanks for listening everybody I'll be back again shortly with a monster monster ecology video hopefully I'll get it out this weekend and thank you once again everybody who rest my thanks for the 5,000 subscribers it's great and yeah the channel just continues to grow and power forward and I thank you all for that very much thanks for listening everybody i'll catch against

Channel: AJ Pickett

Views: 72,644

Rating: 4.9412689 out of 5

Keywords: AJ Pickett, The Mighty Gluestick, TMG, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, RPG's, D&D 5E, Role Playing Game, Dungeon Mastery, Tabletop, Monster Ecology, asmodeus, hell, Baator, Nine Hells, Devil, Devils, Angels, Celestia, Malsheem, Zagum, Rimmon, Morax, Bune, Buer, Phongor, Adramalech, Bensozia, Fire Winds, Lethe, Cocytus, Dawn War, Obrynth, Infernal, Fiend, Evil, Lawful, Mechanus

Id: b5hpVslGEKE

Length: 31min 42sec (1902 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2017