The Great Lord

Since a few years Sigil-time, more and more talk about a new Abyssal lord comes from chant-mongers in the Cage and elsewhere. Most just call him "The Great Lord", and the darks told usually contradict each other heavily - yet it's possible they are all true. Rumours have it The Great Lord is not a "normal" Abyssal Lord - if you can consider any Abyssal Lord "normal" - but the combined belief of a whole bunch of Abyssal Princes, rulers of palaces and fortresses in the Abyss' first layer. It's told these princes made a plan to work together on acquiring Lordhood. Each of them gives a part of his essence and power into the newly created creature, and with all their power combined, The Great Lord is mighty enough to compete with any of the "real" Lords. As more and more stories of The Great Lord come up, some even speaking of an avatar walking the Abyss, it seems there's some truth about the rumours. The existence of such a creature could have strong effects on the entire Outer Planes: The princes are residents of the first layer, and so The Great Lord is assumed to reside there, too. If so, it's entirely possible he succeeds in making the entire first layer his realm - and with that, he'd probably be the most powerful blood in the whole Abyss, controlling most of the portals into and out of this plane. It's also unclear whether the princes truly work together, or, far more probable, scheme against one another, each of them trying to gain the entire control over The Great Lord. He himself, on the other side, might be out to break free of ANY control, becoming a free creature of its own - or maybe even swallowing the souls and essences of all the princes that created him. The other Lords seem to be confused about the new presence. Few darks are spilled, but the bloods among the chant-mongers tell that The Great Lord is somehow "uncatchable" - a creature that is real and unreal at the same time, existing yet not part of this existence (yet). Some even say that a few Lords try to support him, either to gain something from an alliance, or to fully anchor him in the Abyssal reality, and afterwards being able to attack him like any other Lord. So far, though, The Great Lord's presence is felt by few mortals and only slightly more tanar'ri. Most who tell about him say they've met his Avatar personally, or a servant of one of the princes that created the Lord. The Avatar is described as being a giant, beautiful bird engulfed in golden fire. Its behaviour and speech as well as his eyes seem to change constantly, though - most probably these things adapt to the prince who is currently in control, or it flips constantly as the princes are all constantly in control. One of the bigger darks told about The Great Lord is that he's currently on a mission: Some residents tell they've observed him looking for the soul of a specific creature, a tanar'ri called Ju-Shair-Muth. They tell Ju' has been an Abyssal Lord millennia ago, but failed in keeping control of his realm. But as the layer tried to swallow his soul, he escaped, and sleeps since then, recovering his strength. What The Great Lord might want from Ju-Shair-Muth is hard to guess, and since these stories are all told by tanar'ri, it's actually a big question if there's any truth about it at all.

The Princes: The chant about the ambitious fiends residing on the Abyss' first layer is true. Six self-proclaimed "princes" have created The Great Lord in an attempt to gain control over the Plain of Infinite Portals.

The first prince, who gave birth to the idea of The Great Lord, is Achukka, an arch-fiend who turned from Balor into a unique, spider-like monster about a millennium ago. He has no fortress, but instead resides in an infinite cave filled with more cobwebs than Lloth herself would find comfortable.Rather than attempting to become the Lord of Spiders, Achukka wants to turn into the Spider Spirit, a spark of his essence found in every spider throughout the multiverse. His dream has already become true in his own fledgling realm, but now he wants more. By controlling the portals of the Abyss' first layer, Achukka hopes he can send his spiders into every corner of the multiverse, making them - and thus himself - spread everywhere, so in a way, the entire multiverse becomes his realm.

The second and third fiendish rulers are brother and sister, Ajia and Eor. The succubus and the incubus have been no more than useful tools for their powerful mother, a succubus that was about to turn into a marilith. The two seduction fiends turned stag on their mother, killed her, and consumed her, gaining her power for themselves.The two fiends have been working perfectly well together since then, and although the power of any single one of them is no greater than that of any marilith, they actually care for each other and protect and support each other.

When Achukka approached them, offering an alliance of power, they agreed right away, understanding Achukka's plan held the key to ultimate power for the two.Their real plan, though, is to use The Great Lord as an instrument to channel the energy of their allies, consuming them and granting brother and sister the power of the other princes.

Oruth might be the most unusual fiend in the alliance. He is an arcanaloth who turned stag on his race. He fled to the Abyss, trying his best to keep away from any Yugoloth assassins for countless millennia. After all that time, he has begun to change, slowly turning into a real tanar'ri. With that change comes the desire for personal power, and while he's not yet used to this desire and doesn't fully understand it, he's very good in tactical and strategical planning.He's expecting any of his allies to turn stag on him, and he's got a few hundred plans for any situation he predicted. Whether he's prepared for the plan of Ajia and Eor, only Oruth himself knows...

The only mortal - or rather, half-mortal - in the group is Lorou, a drow tiefling. She came to power when she faced Gorrogthiz, a balor mistress that attempted to destroy her home city on the Prime. In a gigantic battle, she killed Gorrogthiz, and following her intuition, drank the dead fiend's blood - all of it.

She became ill afterwards, and almost died from it; but she managed to handle the pain, and take the fiendish power for herself. Now, she's an immortal drow with a balor's power, but no older than five hundred years. The main reason why she entered the alliance was that she felt she wouldn't survive long in the Abyss without allies.

The last ally in the group is an unnamed mystery even to the rest of the alliance. He simply approached Achukka one day, offering an army of a hundred thousand vrocks for the alliance, along with a hoard of magical artifacts.

It's possible that Achukka knows more about the mysterious fiend, but all he has told the other allies is that this dark ally is definitely no tanar'ri.