Yugoloth
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Yugoloths are neutral evil 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.
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[edit] 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 as well in the baernoloths who are their progenitors. Below the baernoloths, the leader 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 Styx, who ferries souls down the river for a steep price. An altraloth fits a given theme among Death, Pestilence, War, and Famine.
[edit] Hierarchy
[edit] 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 tritons, 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.
[edit] Greater Yugoloths
- Nycaloth: These arrogant, humungous 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 underneath 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.
[edit] Battleloths
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.
[edit] Other Creatures
- 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.
- Gacholoth: Ebony-skinned, four-legged infiltrators and saboteurs.
- Voor: Tentacles, hulking brutes used as guardians, protectors, bodyguards, and enforcers. Greater versions are known as dreadful lashers.
- Skeroloth: Skerooths 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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