Letters from Baator 1: The Death of the Soul of Law.

Department of Humanities

Psychology/Sociology Section

For: Chief Engineer

Subject: Overview of Baator's mental state.

Baator is concerned mainly with politics. They debate not to the heart of a law, but to the cold interpretation of the context. There is no doubt that the Baatezu are masters of context. They will find any loopholes in a contract or law and exploit them. They will twist the context of all laws and contracts if they are not written concisely, and no possible interpretation may be read into them.

I must say, I'm very pleased to be part of this project, but because of my gender it is somewhat hard to deal with this place when it comes to my counterparts. However, since Xaosologists are seen as conquerors of chaos, there are a few here, who ask to remain anonymous, have assured my protection as long as I report true in full what I see here. I'm leery of the reasoning behind it, but nevertheless, it is my job and an honor to further our goals with the Limbo Project.

The Baatezu fight nearly as precisely as the Acheronian militaries do. However, they rely on psychological ploys and diplomacy to draw their enemies off guard. After all, if the power of law can make someone believe what they want, then by all means, let them be exploited. Or so the Baatezu reasoning goes. Since Baator is more concerned about twisting laws to suit one's own need without breaking them or changing the wording of the law, they are too occupied with laws and politics to be able to concentrate on the battle plans the Acheronians draw up.

Because of these reasons, it does stand to reason that there are Baatezu squads on Acheron. Perhaps they see that those forgotten heroes and downtrodden soldiers do know, after all, how to fight a good war. If this is the case, they are definitely putting in a good effort to find new tricks and ploys to use against the Tanar'ri. The Baatezu do not have cavalry troops. In fact, the main mass of their army is composed of lemures.  Now, lemures make terrible soldiers unless they are lorded-over constantly. This would explain why the higher ranks torment them so much.

Since lemures cannot clearly think for themselves, it makes sense to use them as frontline troops just for their sheer ferocity. Against weaker-minded foes, they are a terror and therefore make excellent shock troops. Baator is too concerned about politics and psychological terrors to fully appreciate the tactics used by the Acheronians. However, the ploys and feints they use in combat are masterful in their own right. Many have been the times that the Tanar'ri and mercenary units of the Blood War have fallen into the hands of awaiting Baatezu. Chiefly, these traps are filled with thousands of lemures who driven on by their commanders through pain, tear into their doomed foes with a ferocity of the runt of the litter that's been picked on all its life. This is their only time to inflict pain until they can get promoted.

Since the Baatezu use fear and pain to drive their forces on, they make poor troops, yet they stay in line since it's the only way to possibly get noticed by their superiors. The Baatezu spend too much time on manipulation and politics to truly use precision tactics, but they make up for it in psychological warfare and raw strength. I myself would not want to face them in battle. And based upon the messages Calix has been writing, I can assure you, the Acheronian militaries would be hard pressed against the mental attacks of the Baatezu.

Xavierra Tempeste, Shaper 2.